Ingredients

For the clementine cream:

2 clementines, juice and zest
70g (1/3 cup) refined caster sugar
70g (1/3 cup) unsalted butter, chilled and diced
3 free-range eggs
1 free-range egg yolk

For the macaron shells:

75g/2 free-range egg whites
200g (1½ cups) icing sugar
200g (1¾ cups) ground almonds
200g (1 cup) refined caster sugar
75g/2 free-range egg whites
Tangerine food colouring paste

Equipment:

Piping bag and 1 cm plain nozzle
Electric thermometer
3 cm plain cutter
A pencil

Method

To make the clementine cream:

1. Put the clementine zest, juice, sugar, eggs and egg yolk into a heatproof bowl. Sit the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, ensuring that the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl. Continuously stir the mixture until it begins to gently simmer.
2. Remove the bowl of clementine cream from the saucepan and slowly add the cubes of chilled butter, stirring until they have all melted. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve. Set aside to cool, covering directly with cling film to avoid a skin forming. Once chilled, keep in the fridge until required.

To make the macaron shells:

1. Take a sheet of baking paper and cut it to the size of your baking tray. Using a pencil draw around a 3 cm plain cutter, leaving enough room between each round for the macarons to spread. Now place the paper upside down on to the baking tray as your stencil. Leave to one side.
2. Place the first 75g of egg whites, the sieved icing sugar and the ground almonds into a bowl and beat until a paste has formed.
3. Take the second 75g of egg whites and the caster sugar and whisk over a warm bain marie until the mix reaches 65°C/150°F, ensuring that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water within the saucepan. Once 65°C has been reached, remove the egg whites from the bain marie and either continue whisking by hand or using an electric mixer. Once you have formed a stiff meringue and the mix has returned to room temperature you are ready for the next step.
4. Carefully add the tangerine food colour paste to the meringue, drop by drop until you reach the required colour. Combine the coloured meringue into the almond paste, folding and stirring at the same time. The macaron paste should appear glossy and resemble a slightly runny cake mix.
5. Taking your prepared tray, place the macaron mixture into a piping bag with a plain nozzle and, using the stencil as your guide, pipe the shells on to the paper. Once piped, leave for 30 minutes to form a skin. Preheat the oven to 150ºC (300ºF, gas mark 2). Bake for 20–25 minutes (depending upon your oven).

To assemble the clementine macarons:

1. Turn half of the macaron shells upside down. Take the piping nozzle that you used previously along with a clean piping bag, and place the clementine cream into the bag. Pipe the cream carefully and consistently onto each of the upturned macarons before gently placing a remaining macaron on top.
2. Ideally eat immediately!