Spring has come: Lavender macarons filled with Jasmine buttercream.
Course
Dessert
Cuisine
French
Prep Time1hour20minutes
Cook Time20minutes
Total Time1hour40minutes
Servings20
AuthorManuela Zangara
Ingredients
Shells
63gms– 2.2 oz. ground almonds or almond mealsifted
50gms– 1.76 oz. egg whitesaged and brought back at room temperature
103gms– 3.63 oz. pure icing sugarsifted
30gms– 1.05 oz. sugar
Purple food coloringpowder or paste
Lavender
Flling:
125gms– 4.4 oz. butter
225gms– 8 oz. icing sugar
Jasmine essenceto taste
Lavender
Instructions
Shells
The first thing to do is to “age” your egg whites. You can either leave them in the fridge for 4 days or keep them out on your kitchen’s bench top for a couple of days. I covered mine with a sieve, to prevent small particles to get into it. Remember to take bring them back at room temperature BEFORE whisking them. You can use your egg yolks in many other recipes... you could make a yummy Carbonara or some Genovesi Ericine for example.
On the day you want to bake your macarons, make sure you have everything ready, BEFORE you start making your shells. Prepare the piping bag with the right nozzle (a normal circular nozzle of about 1 cm in diameter) and line your oven trays with baking paper or with a silicone cookie mat.
Now you are all set to start making your macarons. Sift the almond meal and the pure icing sugar and mix them together in a large bowl.
The next step is to make the meringue. Put the egg whites in a bowl and start whisking them with an electric mixer. Add the sugar and the food colouring little by little and keep whisking until you get very stiff peaks. The meringue has to look translucent and pear like.
Add the meringue to the almond meal and icing sugar mix and stir well using a spatula. When all the meringue has been incorporated, you need to do what is known as the “macaronnage”. Using a pastry scraper (or the same spatula that you were using to mix), scrape the batter back and forth against the bowl to remove air bubbles, until your batter ribbons off the scraper (or “flows like magma”).
Now you are ready to pipe it! Fill your piping bag and pipe out circles of batter on the lined baking tray/cookie sheet by squeezing the bag while keeping it in one spot.
Sprinkle some lavender on each of the shells.
Let the macarons rest between 30 to 60 minutes or until they harden a bit.
Depending on your oven, you can bake them either at 160°C – 320°F for about 12 minutes, or at 150°C – 302°F for 15-17 minutes… it is all about experimenting and getting to know your oven. I also suggest that you buy a small oven thermometer if you have problems, to check the actual temperature of your oven (mine for example heats up to 20°C – 68°F more than what I set it to)!
When ready, take the shells out of the oven and let them cool down BEFORE attempting to detach them from the baking paper/silicone mat… if you try to detach them before, they may break and you will ruin those nice feet on the macaron! So be patient. If you still cannot detach them easily, you can also put them in the freezer for a couple of minutes… they will come off easily then.
Once cool, put them in an air tight container and keep them in the fridge till you are ready to assemble them.
Jasmine buttercream
Beat the softened butter with an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for a few minutes and then incorporate the icing sugar and jasmine essence. Mix well.
Assembling
Put the Jasmine buttercream in a piping bag, pipe it on half of the shells, sprinkle a little lavender and put the remaining shells on the top, like a sandwich.
Store the assembled macarons in an air tight container in the fridge for 24 hours and remove them 2 hours before serving them.
Recipe Notes
These shells are very fragile, due to the lavender on the top, be careful when you store them. It would be best to store them in a single layer.