Lavender Chocolate Macarons

Now that I'm getting the hang of macaron making, I can't stop thinking of all the tasty combination possibilities.  At Christmas my niece brought us some lovely dark chocolate from the Sunshine Coast that had lavender in it which I thoroughly enjoyed.  So I tried making the macaron shells with ground lavender, and a dark chocolate ganache as the filling.  Yum, perfection.

Even my husband, who doesn't really like macarons, and doesn't like lavender (sheesh) thought these were excellent.  Macarons are incredibly sweet, and the bittersweet chocolate ganache was a perfect compliment.

Lavender Chocolate Macarons

Basic macaron recipe from Brave Tart 

I used her recipe for the shells, grinding up 1 tablespoon of lavender with the almonds.  I found the scent quite strong so I didn't add any additional lavender gel paste.  I did add a few drops of food coloring to get a bit of a purple color

Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache
from Hisako Ogita

3.4 ounces whipping cream
3/5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (or whatever type of chocolate makes you happy, just use high quality), finely chopped

Place chocolate in a medium mixing bowl.  Put whipping cream in a small sauce pan and bring to just a boil.  Pour the heated cream over the chocolate and whisk slowly until completely smooth.  Let it cool completely and harden up a little bit before spreading between macaron shells.

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Sweet Indulgences Sunday