I made these for last week's craft swap, along with a few other goodies. The lavender is subtle enough to keep the treats from tasting like lotion (a common problem with floral ingredients, don't you think? Or is that just me?), and is mellowed by the earl grey in the filling. This recipe makes me think of tea parties.
For the filling, you'll need:
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
- 2 bags of Earl Grey tea
- Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Steep the teabags in the cream, pressing them with a fork to release the tea. It's okay if the fork pierces the teabags.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently and continuing to press the teabags for about five minutes.
- Pour the tea/cream mixture over the chocolate chips. Stir to combine. If necessary, you can microwave the chocolate ten seconds at a time, stirring in between, to complete the melting process. Store in the refrigerator or on the counter until it's cooled completely and you're ready to use the filling.
For the cookies, you'll need:
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup + 2 Tbsp almond flour
- 2 tsp ground lavender (try a mortar and pestle)
- 3 egg whites
- 1/2 cup sugar
- Blue and red gel food coloring
- Optional: Edible shimmer dust (I used silver)
- Preheat oven to 325ยบ F.
- Prepare a piping bag and a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat.
- In a medium bowl, sift together almond flour, powdered sugar, and ground lavender. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high until they form soft peaks. Lower the mixer's speed to medium and slowly add the sugar. Increase the mixer's speed back to high, and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Take the bowl off the mixer and add almond flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, aggressively fold in dry ingredients until the batter starts to loosen and becomes a little runny. Add the blue and red food coloring at this point and mix until the desired color is achieved.
- To test if the batter is ready, lift a small amount of batter from the bowl and drop it back into the batter. If it does nothing, keep mixing. If it slowly melts back into the batter after 20-30 seconds, it's ready.
- Put the batter into the prepared piping bag and pipe 1 1/2" circles on prepared baking sheet. Firmly rap the bottom of the tray to flatten the batter and get any air bubbles out.
- Let the macarons rest for 30-45 minutes, until they form a skin.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the macarons are set. Let cool completely.
- Transfer ganache to a piping bag. Pipe ganache on the underside of one cookie and sandwich it with another cookie of similar size and shape.
- Apply decorative shimmer dust as desired.
