Lavender macarons

Pierre Hermé's "Macaron" book in English finally arrived a couple of weeks ago.  It was a looonnng wait!  I eagerly sat down the minute I had time to flip through the pages, admiring not just the innovative (& sometimes legendary, if I may say) pairing of flavours but also the many beautiful photographs of macarons presented in the book.

I have a handful of macaron books at home and none of them has the sort of facinating recipes presented by this talented chef.  I'm truly in awe! 

A few months ago I purchased a bag of lavender buds and the idea of lavender flavored macarons have been swirling in my head ever since.  I was hoping to find a lavender related macaron recipe in Pierre Hermé's book, but unfortunately none of the 57 macaron recipes in the book used lavender. : ( 

Not one to give up so easily, I decided to reference PH's macaron recipes to put together a lavender flavoured macaron.  I followed one of his instructions for basic macaron shells, but used purple food colouring instead of the colour that was stated in the original recipe.  For the filling I thought of lavender infused white chocolate ganache and thankfully PH had an earl grey tea ganache that I could use as a close reference.

I'm pretty happy with my humble PH inspired Lavender macarons, if I could call them that.  The taste of lavender is distinct but not overpowering.  In the book PH shares that he finds white chocolate has "splendid flavour-carrying properties" and "has the advantage of receding into the background and bringing out the taste of ingredients that are added to it".  A great tip!!  PH has clearly illustrated that a macaron is a french cookie with endless possibilities.  As I often see written in articles about macarons: "Ladureé reintroduced macarons and made them world famous, Pierre Hermé reinvented them"...  I bought some passionfruit on my way home today - I can't wait to try out PH's famous Mogador macaron next!