Earl Gray and Lavender Macarons

I don't know why I was always so intrigued by making macarons because I never really liked any that I tried. But they're so beautiful! And I had always heard they were hard to make, so I think it just became an obsession of mine to prove that I was skilled enough to make them.

When we were in Paris, we stayed down the street from a cute little dessert shop. I had to try again, especially in Paris! So I got a gigantic chocolate one, and I gotta tell you, I didn't hate it. Ugh, Paris...*insert heart eyes.*

Anyway, ever since then, I've really wanted to make them. So, when we were locked down (yay 2020!) I decided it was as good a time as any to try. Now, I don't want to keep you from the recipe because I know I HATE having to scroll and scroll and scroll to get to the recipe (though I do understand the need for step-by-step instructions for some people...me being one of them) but I would be remiss not to share a few things I learned when making my very first batch of macarons:

1. Macarons and macaroons are two very different things. Most people use the terms interchangably (myself included.) A macaroon is a coconut based cookie but a macaron is meringue based. If you really interested in learning more about the difference, you I found this article to be very helpful.

2. Don't make macarons when it's raining. That might sound silly, but they are SO tempermental and humidity just ruins them. Sometimes they can be saved, like leaving the batter to sit longer, or cooking at a lower temperature for longer, but even then, they might not always turn out (I know from experience.)

3. You will have batter for several batches (a batch being one tray.) Only cook one batch at a time, don't try and speed the process up by cooking two trays in the oven. Don't do it!

4. IMPORTANT: Let the oven preheat for at least 20 minutes. I let mine preheat for about 30. It's important that the oven is TOTALLY preheated.

5. Sift your dry ingredients! You want everything to be as smooth as possible.

6. You want to leave your butter out for at least 2 hours to soften. DON'T put it in the microwave. If you do need to speed up the process, try this nifty trick: put a glass of water in the microwave and warm it up for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Dump the water and put the warm cup over the butter and let it sit.

GET TO IT ALREADY!

So my macarons were made from two different recipes that I kind of tweaked a little and added together. I used Tasty's macaron recipe and then I used this recipe for the buttercream. If you want to make them how I did, you can find my recipe below. So far, I've only used Tasty's macaron recipe as a base for the cookies and it's been good to me.

One last IMPORTANT thing: This recipe calls for lavender sugar. You can make your own by measuring out 1/4 cup granulated sugar into a bowl. Add several sprigs of lavender (I'd say about a 1 1/2 teaspoons dried lavender) and leave covered overnight. The lavender oils will infuse into the sugar to make a lightly-flavoured lavender sugar. Discard the lavender and sift before using to get rid of any left-over lavender. BUT: If you're impatient and don't want to wait, you can crush your dried lavender, mix it with your granulated sugar and just leave it in the mixture. That's what I did and it didn't seem to negatively effect the results. It actually gave it a very nice, subtle hint of lavender that complimented the buttercream well.

I would LOVE to see if you guys make these! And if you have any questions at all (I'm sure I'm not the best teacher just yet considering I'm still a student...haha) please feel free to comment and I'll try and get back to you ASAP. If you do make them, tag me in a photo of your finished product #earlgreyallday. If you change up the recipe, comment what you did so I can give it a try!

Lastly, I am always open and grateful for some constructive criticism. If something doesn't make sense or needs to be explained better, let me know!

Enjoy :)