So... these turned out way better than we expected. I made these with my friend Rose and they turned out great! I did the shells while Rose did the buttercream filling. We used a recipe that called for waiting 6 hours, but we used another trick to infuse the lavender into the milk. I'll write a little bit about our experience and some tips (if you want to listen to us, lol).
I actually took a macaron making class with my mom a few years ago at Sur La Table; it was a great experience and helped me understand how to really make macarons. I think that was one of my first cooking classes that happened outside of our home kitchen.
I've gotten pretty good at making egg white "stiff peaks", so that was mostly my job. I've done it a bunch of times for other pastries and it's actually really satisfying when the egg whites and sugar finally firm up.
We made two batches of macaron shells; the first batch actually went pretty badly (the shells deflated) because we think the oven wasn't hot enough and we took the macarons out too soon. Don't forget to set that alarm! So... know your oven, and set your alarms!
We also "hit"(banged the tray against a flat surface) the air bubbles out of the macaron shell circles 1-2 times before letting them set. DO NOT HIT MORE THAN 3 TIMES! I've done this before and the macaron shape did not hold up well in the oven. Also, if you folded the batter in correctly, there should be few air bubbles.
When piping the macaron shells, I'd also recommend just choosing a spot and squeezing until the circle spreads out and forms itself. Pipe your macaron shells like this!
Earl Grey infused Macaron shell recipe by Kitchen 335 Co. *
3 large (100 grams) egg whites
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1 2/3 cup (200 grams) powdered sugar
1 cup (110 grams) almond flour
4 Earl Grey tea satchets
*We didn't have a good processor, so we sifted all ingredients.
Lavender Buttercream recipe by The Tasty Bite Blog. *
2 tbsps milk or heavy cream
1 tbsp dried lavender buds
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp honey
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
*For the Lavender Buttercream, we did NOT want to wait 6 hours, so Rose had the great idea to actually heat up the milk in a pan and put in some culinary-grade lavender buds to infuse the flavour and smell into the milk.
Put it on low heat and let it simmer until you think it's appropriately infused (can't really help you there, just smell/taste and see if it tastes good!) Then we left it in the fridge for maybe 30 minutes before use.
Rose had a reusable piping bag with cute tips; she found piping buttercream from outside to inside easier. We ended up plating the macarons like so and I added some lavender stalks!
They actually tasted amazing and I'm so proud of us. We'll definitely be making more flavours in the future!