Lavender Lemon French Macarons

So I spent a few weeks trying to conquer the French Macaron. It wasn't easy. There were lots of failures, both epic and not-so-epic. But the end result was worth it!

What do you think? Not perfect, but not too shabby. Lavender Macarons with lemon curd filling. Quite tasty. 

A while back we drove up to a little lavender farm just outside Cleveland. We bought some culinary lavender and I'd been holding onto it, just sort of waiting for the opportunity to use it. 

Then a friend from church asked me to make cookies for her wedding (!). Then I found out her colors were purple and white (!). My lavender suddenly had purpose!!

The only problem was, I had never made a macaron in my life. And I had heard they were difficult, to say the least. So I set out on my macaron journey. I pinned pins, I watched YouTube videos, and I made batch upon batch of macaron batter.

Some turned out ok. (These were filled with mint chocolate buttercream.)

Some, not so much.

The one bright spot was that no matter how ugly they were, they always tasted good. :-)

So now I can say I know how to make macarons. I probably won't make them too frequently, but I definitely will make them again. (Mostly because my co-workers have been asking for more of the ugly cookies...I had to do something with the experiments.)

Well, that's all for now.

Enjoy!