Lavender Macarons

March 20: World Macaron Day

Lately, lavender and light purple have been a popular color palette at weddings we have attended. Brides have also incorporated lavender in their bouquets. The color purple is regal and romantic, magical and mysterious. The flower lavender symbolizes devotion and its fragrance can calm those “nuptial nerves.”

Lavender is a lovely hue as well as an interesting herb to sweetly spice up our macarons. We also filled them with a floral-fruity dark chocolate ganache made from the Dagoba brand organic chocolate bar flavored with lavender and blueberries. This macaron mix matches the MacAttack Challenge #17 with the theme for “Sugar and Spice and Everything Fruity.”

Make lavender macarons with lavender-blueberry dark chocolate ganache as favors for bridal showers and weddings or for World Macaron Day celebrations.

Recipe

For the lavender macarons (Italian meringue method)

• 1 cup almond flour/meal
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3 egg whites (fresh, unpasteurized and aged overnight at room temperature)
• 1 cup sugar, granulated white (we used C&H brand)
• ½ cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (we used Hawaiian Vanilla Company brand)
• purple food coloring (we used Wilton brand’s violet concentrated gel icing color)
• dried lavender (we used AKL Maui brand culinary lavender)

Directions

Sift the almond flour/meal with the powdered sugar. Grind in a food processor in batches to remove any lumps (optional). Whip the egg whites until peaks form. Make a simple syrup to stabilize the egg whites by boiling the sugar and water together until it reaches a temperature of 245 degrees F on a candy thermometer (or until it reaches a soft ball stage).

Pour into the egg whites and whip again until stiff and glossy. Mix in the vanilla. Fold in the almond flour/meal-sugar until the consistency “flows like magma.”

Tint the macaronage with purple to make a lavender shade. Pipe one-inch discs on a parchment paper on top of an insulated baking sheet.

Sprinkle a few dried lavender on top. Let the discs air dry to develop a thin skin for at least 30 minutes. Bake in a preheated oven at 300 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes. Watch the “feet” develop, but be careful not to brown or burn the macarons. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Peel off the macarons from the parchment paper. Sort by size and match pairs. Make the filling.

For the lavender-blueberry chocolate ganache filling

• 2 bars (2 ounces each = 4 ounces) Dagoba brand dark chocolate lavender-blueberry flavor
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

Break the chocolate bar into small pieces to melt. Heat the whipping cream and add to the melted chocolate. Stir until smooth. Let cool to thicken.

Whip the ganache to a spreadable consistency. Fill a pastry bag with a large round tip. Pipe in the filling and sandwich the macarons together. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the filling set. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Notes

• Learn more about the meaning of lavender and other colors from About.com’s Desktop Publishing topic.
• Learn more about the symbolism of lavender and other flowers from Wedding Themes and More.
• Mahalo (thank you) to Lisa L. for the vanilla extract from the Big Island of Hawaii.
• Search our site for more macaron recipes. Or click on our MacAttack page to see our macaron entries. Happy World Macaron Day!