I’ve been nervous to make anything with lavender because so often the lavender just overwhelms whatever I’m eating. No one wants to feel like they’re eating a candle or a bar of soap. Lucky for me, these honey lavender macarons turned out perfectly! The sweetness of the honey perfectly balances out the floral lavender.
No candles or bars of soap here, thank you very much!
Recently I’ve been making half batches of my macarons so I can make two different macarons every other weekend. This recipe has the ingredient amounts for the half batch, which will give you 30-36 macarons, depending on the size you pipe them.
Other than the half amounts, we’re making the shells exactly the same way we normally do. Aged egg whites, sugar, almond flour, and powdered sugar. I added some purple food colouring for a little lavender vibe, but you totally don’t have to.
The filling is so easy to make and so delicious. Make sure the lavender you are using is food-safe. We aren’t actually eating the dried lavender, but we are infusing our cream with it.
I did two tablespoons of heavy cream and two tsp. of the dried lavender. This was enough to be able to get the lavender flavour without that candle or soap taste. This was honestly the most nerve-wracking part of this whole process. I let out a big sigh of relief when I tasted the buttercream!
Being honey lavender macarons, the buttercream also had some honey. I added a generous tablespoon – probably about 4 tsp.
So for the buttercream we just beat the butter, add some vanilla, honey, and a pinch of salt and get that nice and combined. Then, add the powdered sugar and lavender infused cream. If you need to add more liquid to loosen the buttercream, just add heavy cream – don’t worry about making any more lavender cream. Too loose? More powdered sugar is the answer!
And that’s it! These macarons are such a great treat for the transition between spring and summer. Happy baking!
Honey Lavender Macarons
Ingredients
- Macaron Shells:
- 137.5g almond flour
- 125g powdered sugar
- 105g sugar
- 105g egg whites
- Purple gel food colouring (optional)
- Honey Lavender Buttercream
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 generous tbsp. honey
- Pinch of salt
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp. heavy cream, steeped with 2 tsp. lavender
Directions
- Step 1 Macaron Shells:
- Step 2 To start, put the almond flour and powdered sugar in a food processor and blend thoroughly. Sift into a bowl to ensure there are no lumps.
- Step 3 In the bowl of a stand mixer (make sure it’s clean and dry), beat the egg whites until foamy. Slowly add the sugar, about 2 tbsp at a time, beating on a medium speed. Once the sugar has dissolved, increase speed to medium high and beat until a thick glossy meringue forms (if adding food colouring, add it now). The mixture should form stiff peaks and you should be able to tip the bowl over your head with none of the mixture coming out.
- Step 4 With a large, flat rubber spatula, gently fold 1/3 of almond flour/powdered sugar mixture into egg whites until combined. Repeat until all of the almond mixture has been added. Fold to combine until you see no streaks of almond flour in the batter. The batter should be pretty fluid, a lot of people describe as a lava-like consistency. It should run smoothly off the spatula when you pull it out. This part comes with practice. Once you know the consistency, you’ll just be able to feel when it’s ready.
- Step 5 Pipe the batter into circles onto parchment or silicone lined baking sheets. Bang the tray a few times on a table to remove air bubbles and allow to sit for about 30 minutes before baking. To see if they’re ready for baking, touch your finger to them. If you get batter on your finger, they need to rest longer.
- Step 6 While resting, preheat your oven to 300°F with a rack placed in the lower third of the oven. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 15-18 minutes (this depends on your oven, my old one was fine at 15 minutes, this one needs 17-18). The shells should cool completely before you remove them from the parchment/silicone.
- Step 7 Honey Lavender Macarons:
- Step 8 To make the lavender infused cream, heat the cream & lavender until just boiling. Remove from the heat and allow to sit for 7-10 minutes, then strain out the lavender.
- Step 9 Beat the butter for 1-2 minutes, until light and fluffy.
- Step 10 Add the vanilla extract, honey, and salt. Beat to combine.
- Step 11 Slowly add in the powdered sugar and lavender cream, beating until it reaches the desired consistency. If it needs to be thicker, add a little powdered sugar. To make it thinner, add additional heavy cream.
- Step 12 Assembly:
- Step 13 Pipe a dollop of buttercream on one half of each macaron pair and sandwich together.
- Step 14 Macarons should be refrigerated until ready to eat. They will have the best consistency if they are taken out of the fridge 30 minutes before eating.
