How to bake key lime macarons

Set aside the first 5 ingredients EXCEPT for the egg yolks

For the filling, preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix the 3 eggs and 2 egg yolks (from the separated eggs) with 100g sugar for 2 minutes

Add the sweetened condensed milk, juice, and half the zest and mix

Put the custard in an oven proof container and then in a water bath. Bake in over for 30-40 minutes

In a DRY, CLEAN bowl, beat egg whites till foamy. Then add cream of tartar

Add sugar and beat on high speed until it looks like this. (2 minutes)

Add food dye and whip until stiff peaks form (2 minutes on high) (sorry these are a little over whipped)

Sift powdered sugar and almond meal into egg whites then add zest

Fill batter in a pastry bag or a lekué macaron bag fitted with a 1/2 tip

Put the finished filling in another bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Cool completely before using

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

Pipe onto a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Use a stencil drawn on the WRONG side of paper or freehand the cookies. Bang trays against table to get the air bubbles out and let sit for 15-20

Turn temperature down to 325 and bake cookies for 10 minutes, flipping in between. When each batch is done, preheat to 375 again for 5 minutes then reduce it to 325 when putting the cookies back in

When they come out of the oven, let cool. Then flip half of them over

Put filling in a pastry bag

Pipe filling on top of the flipped cookies

And sandwich!!