Lavender macarons have been a favorite with friends and family. There is something about the color, smell, and taste of lavender that is pleasing to the senses. I made two variations of lavender macarons in the past year, a lavender honey and a lavender lemon. Despite many saying that they loved them, I was not satisfied with the results of either combination. The initial lavender macaron had ground dried lavender flowers added to the shells and a filling of French buttercream flavored with honey. I did not grind the lavender fine enough so the shell had a gritty taste and the French buttercreams richness overpowered the honey. In the next version, I used lavender extract to flavor the macaron shells to avoid the grainy texture and a filling of lemon cream. It was good but lacked something. So, I knew I wanted to make changes to my recipe when a close friend requested that I make the lavender honey macarons.
Lavender Honey haiku
lavender honey
so pleasing to the senses
taste so refreshing
I use the basic macaron and buttercream recipes in the Bouchon Bakery cookbook. To enhance the flavor of the macaron shell I decided to use a combination of powdered dried lavender flowers and lavender extract. For each 200 grams of almond flour, I added one tablespoon of ground dried lavender flowers and one teaspoon of lavender extract to the macaronage. I used the dried lavender along with the extract to increase the flavor without adding too much liquid. My youngest son had given us the spice grinder, shown above, that he found at the Viking cooking school in Greenwood, MS several years ago. It did a great job of grinding the lavender flowers into a fine powder.
The macaronage was colored with two drops of lavender and one drop of sky blue food gel.
Cooking the milk, sugar, and egg yolks for the French buttercream.
French buttercream has a richer taste than the Italian buttercream that I typically use. Last year I did not compensate for this difference and the honey flavor was not intense enough to shine through. So, this time I doubled the amount of honey adding three tablespoons along with three-fourths tablespoon of vanilla paste. The resulting honey buttercream flavor was just right.
Macaronage piped with dried lavender flowers sprinkled on the top ready to place in the oven.
Lavender macaron shell baked and ready to be paired then filled with the honey French buttercream.
This lavender honey macaron has the ideal intensity and balance of flavors. The perfect macaron for a Cookie Monster!