Lavender Macarons with Mango curd buttercream

There was a family gathering over at my sister's place last weekend. My mum and sis prepared lots of delicious food for everyone. To thank the generous host and hostess, I decided to bake something nice for everyone to enjoy. Since both my sister and her husband loves cheesecakes, I decided to make a simple no-bake light mango cheesecake that day. Since the cheesecake looks kind of plain on it's own, the idea of decorating it with some macarons came to mind. (Plus its AB macaron theme this month, hehe) As I didn't want to bake the usual flavors, I went with something slightly more "exotic"...Lavender Macarons! I bet some of you are going..."Ewww....potpourri flavor?! I know I know, it does sound a little unconventional, but since I did make lavender butter cookies before and they turned out wonderful, so I thought...why not?

To match the flavor with the cheesecake, I filled the macarons with mango curd buttercream. Eh...why not just mango curd, why with buttercream? Well, long story short, the curd was a little runny and it just didn't hold well in the macs. Why? Don't really know...even after I cooked it much longer then suggested. :P However the mango curd's taste was fabulous, a great recipe I got from Smitten Kitchen. Check out her link if you are interested to make the curd.

For the no-bake cheesecake recipe, please kindly refer to my previous post. As for the mac recipe, here it is:

Ingredients for Lavender Macaron Shells: (makes about 20 cookies)

100g almond meal (I ground mine from whole blanched and toasted almonds)
100g icing sugar
1 heaping tbsp lavender (I chopped mine into even finer bits)
38g fresh egg whites (about 2 egg whites)
pinch of salt
some violet food coloring (optional-I used Wilton's violet food coloring gel, a little goes a long way)

80g caster sugar
20ml water

38g aged egg whites (about 2 egg whites)

• In a blender, finely ground the almond powder and confectioner's sugar together till powdery like. Then pour it into a bowl and add in the lavender bits . Then mix in the egg white and salt. Stir and mix well. Mixture will be thick.

• In a saucepan placed over medium fire, heat up the sugar and water. Once the sugar has all melted, place your candy thermometer in and monitor it till it reaches ~108C. Once it reaches 108C, beat the egg white at high speed till it reaches soft peaks, which by then the temperature should be close to 118C.

• Slowly drizzle the sugar syrup into the egg white while the mixer is still at medium speed. Once all the syrup is in, continue to beat till the meringue is glossy.

• Fold in 1/3 of the meringue into the almond meal mixture. Since the almond mixture is thick, you'll need to stir harder to incorporate it well. Repeat the other 2 portions and fold in gently.

• Scoop the batter into a piping bag with an 10mm nozzle. Pipe out on a baking tray lined with baking parchment paper. Let rest for 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 150C with fan off.

• After 10 minutes, bake the cookies in the oven for 14mins.

• After baking, remove from oven and let cool completely before peeling off.

Note: You can dry the mac shells a little by using your oven if that day happens to be a humid/rainy day. Preheat oven to 80C, off oven and place piped mac shells in. When the shells are no longer sticky to your finger's touch, they are good to bake. Else wait for another 5 minutes to let it dry up a little further.

I was really happy my family loved this cake...and the macs. ;) Although most of them have no clue what flavor the mac was, they just happily chomp it down (before I can tell them), lol! I guess the mango flavoring might have been a little overpowering over the lavender, since I did only add 1 tbsp. I have reduce the sugar for this recipe and thank goodness it still turned out fine. *phew!!*  So the macs were not overly sweet, just to my liking. ;) However, the violet color didn't quite show...should add a wee but more coloring next time. :P

  

To my surprise, I actually like the faint flowery scent in the mac. No, not potpourri feel at all...just a sweet scent at the background to compliment the nutty flavor of the almond. :) If I would have filled it with plain vanilla buttercream, it's flowery scent would have stand out even more. But overall, I was really happy I tried something new! Being a little adventurous never hurts ya?

I am happy to submit my post to this month's Aspiring Bakers #17: March Macaron Madness! (Mar 2012) hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies.

Thanks Alan for hosting!

Okay, will end this post here. Thanks for staying with me!