Recipe: House Tryell Lemon Macarons (Game of Thrones)

Hey, guys! I’m sorry for not posting last week; in addition to having a lot to do in general, I was out of a laptop for most of the week. Thankfully it’s all fixed up now and I’m ready to get blogging again!

I made these macarons in anticipation of last night’s Game of Thrones season finale. It’s funny that I chose to make a Tyrell dessert, considering they were far from being the focus of the final episode’s screen time… but I had to rep my favorite house somehow! Feminine, beautiful, and with a bite, these are definitely Tyrell macarons. I like to imagine Olenna and Margaery eating these and skewering the surrounding King’s Landing nobles, though Olenna may find them quite boring.

“Another golden rose, how original. I eat from plates stamped with roses, I sleep in sheets embroidered with roses, I have a golden rose painted on my chamber pot… as if that makes it smell any better. Roses are boring, dear.”
Lady Olenna Tyrell

House Tyrell Lemon Macarons

Yields: 12 cookie sandwiches.

Timing Notes: Macarons taste better after being filled and aging for a day in an air-tight container.

INGREDIENTS/RECIPES

1 batch lemon curd, recipe follows
1 batch macarons, recipe follows
1 batch royal icing, recipe follows
Fondant or marzipan
Gold powder color
Ivory or sunflower yellow gel color
Everclear or other liquor over 90 proof, for painting
2 sizes of five-petal flower cutters
1 very small leaf tip of choice

Lemon Curd
50g (about 3) egg yolks
Juice of 3 lemons
60g (1/4 cup) butter
65g (1/3 cup) sugar
3g (1 tsp) cornstarch

1. Combine all your ingredients except for the butter thoroughly in a saucepan. Heat on low heat, whisking and scraping the bottom constantly, until thickened and bubbling. Cook for 30 more seconds, then remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool. Cover the top with saran wrap, touching the plastic wrap to the top of the curd to prevent a skin from forming.
Macarons
120g (4.4 oz)almond flour
190g (6.4 oz) powdered sugar
100g 3.5 oz egg whites
30g (1 oz) granulated sugar
Green food coloring, preferably powdered

1. Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C). Start by placing a large round tip (I use Ateco 806) into your piping bag and lining 2 cookie sheets in parchment (you may also use a silicone mat, but I have had much better results with parchment). If you need a guide for cookie size, now is the time to draw it on the underside of the parchment. Stand a piping bag in a tall glass with the edges rolled outward like a sleeve; this makes filling the bag much easier later. In a food processor, pulse together your almond flour and powdered sugar until well combined. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add the granulated sugar as you beat the whites. Once the whites have formed a medium-peak meringue, add in the food coloring until you achieve a relatively vivid green and beat the meringue to stiff peaks.
2. Sift about a third of your almond flour mixture onto the egg whites, and carefully fold them together until just incorporated. Sift in the remaining flour and fold it until just incorporated. Now you need to fold to get the batter to the correct stage. Fold slowly and rotate your bowl often. You want your batter to be thick and lava-like. I typically judge the batter by how long it takes for the fold mark to begin to disappear. If the batter does not begin to smooth out at all, it has not been folded enough. If it looks shiny and takes about 10 seconds for things to look smoother (but not entirely smooth), you’ve folded it enough. Remember it’s much better to undermix than overmix macarons, especially since piping them continues to liquify the batter.
3. Fill the batter into your piping bag. Pipe your macarons to about 1 1/2″ in diameter, at least 1″ apart. Once you’ve piped your rounds, sharply tap the cookie sheet on your counter to get rid of air bubbles. If you see any bubbles the tapping didn’t take care of, pop them with a toothpick. If your macarons have pointed tops, dip your finger in a bit of water and gently pat it down. Allow your macarons to rest for 20-60 minutes, or until the tops are no longer tacky and have become matte. This may take longer if your kitchen is humid.
4. Bake your macarons for around 15 minutes or until very slightly browned on the bottom. You should be able to carefully pull one of the macarons off of the sheet without the bottom sticking. Since macarons rarely turn out 100% beautiful, feel free to sacrifice one of the ugly ones to test if the macarons are done. Allow the macarons to cool completely.

Royal Icing
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
30g (about 1) egg white
Pinch cream of tartar

1. Combine all your ingredients in a mixer and whip until light in color, very fluffy and stiff enough to pipe. Keep covered tightly if you’re not working on it; royal icing dries and crusts extremely quickly.

ASSEMBLY

1. Take a fist-sized lump of fondant and dye it with an ivory food coloring. If you don’t want to buy the ivory coloring it’s okay to omit it, but it will make the gold color look a bit better. Roll out your fondant to 1/8-1/16″ thickness. If you have fondant that doesn’t dry quickly, you can do multiple flowers at once, but if your fondant is one that dries fast you should work one flower at a time. Cut out two flowers, one smaller than the other. Using your fingers, pinch and flatten the edges of the petals to make them pointed.

2. Curl the edges of each petal inward at the ends, then secure the smaller flower to the center of the larger one using a tiny dab of royal icing. Now roll a small fondant ball and press it into the center, adhering it with a tiny dab of royal icing as well. Use a chopstick or thin skewer to poke a hole in the center of the hole. Complete a flower for each cookie in this manner, setting them aside on a piece of parchment once finished.

3. Using your small grass tip and a piping bag, pipe a tiny leaf between each flower petal. It’s okay if they aren’t all uniform; it makes the flower look more natural. Allow the flowers to dry for a minimum of 2 hours.

4. Using a powdered gold color mixed with a few drops of the liquor, paint each flower. If they are not dry enough to paint without disturbing, let them dry longer. Once painted, allow them to dry for 15-20 minutes.
5. Pair up your cookies based on size. Fill your lemon curd into an icing bag and pipe a quarter-sized dot of it onto one half of each of your cookie pairs, then sandwich them together carefully. Using an additional dab of lemon curd, secure the flowers to the top of each sandwich cookie. Store in fridge until ready to serve.

We enjoyed these with some “Fire and Blood” cocktails my friend brought over, and despite the show doing its best to crush our souls (as per usual) we very much enjoyed the night.

So, what did you think of the finale? Feel free to let me know in comments, just be sure to mark your spoilers!