Lavender Macarons with Lavender White Chocolate Ganache

Dainty, floral, and deeply delicious, my Lavender Macarons with Lavender White Chocolate Ganache are my favorite new iteration of the famous French cookie. With a crisp exterior and a lovely chewy texture, these naturally gluten-free treats are worth every moment of effort to make.

⭐ Why You’ll Love This Recipe 

As promised, April showers have brought out all the May flowers, and I couldn’t be happier. These lavender french macarons are my homage to all the gorgeous buds and blooms that are punctuating our Southern California landscape!

If you’ve yet to try your hand at making French macarons, this is a great time to start. My instructional guide will walk you through all the painstaking processes needed to make perfectly smooth and shiny cookies that would look right at home in a patisserie window - the perfect treat!

Make sure you give yourself ample time to make these lavender macarons — as with most good things, they’re not something you can rush. That said, the shells can be made up to a month in advance, and the lavender white chocolate ganache will keep in the fridge for upwards of 10 days.

While I usually opt to use a plain, unflavored meringue shell and let my macaron fillings do all the heavy flavor lifting, I couldn’t help but go all-in with these lavender-scented beauties. I added dried lavender buds to both the macaron shells AND the white chocolate ganache! This resulted in a flavor that is akin to a garden party for your tastebuds.

Make these gorgeous treats for your next weekend baking project. You can stock the freezer with some seriously impressive treats for any upcoming spring events like Mother’s Day or a ladies brunch. 

If you’re loving all things floral, try my Violet & Elderflower Spritz, Lavender Lemon Sandwich Cookies, or this Lemon Lavender Gin Sour!

🍴Ingredients

You don’t need many ingredients to make lavender macarons or white chocolate ganache, but it is important that you get the right ones. Here are some notes to keep in mind:

Lavender Macarons

• Granulated Sugar - Don’t try swapping in brown sugar here; the moisture content is too high and can result in macaron shells that don’t have a foot.
• Room Temperature Egg Whites -  It’s best if your eggs are at room temperature in order to fully whip to stiff peaks. Also, be sure that you don’t let any egg yolks get into the whites - the added fat will prevent them from achieving stiff peaks.
• Almond Flour -  It may seem fussy, but I usually reach for blanched almond flour; this means the skins of the almonds have been removed prior to processing, which results in a smoother, even colored macaron.
• Powdered Sugar - While some French macaron recipes call for a stabilizer known as cream of tartar, I find that using powdered sugar does just as well because of the addition of cornstarch. Powdered sugar is just granulated sugar plus cornstarch, so if you need to, you can make your own at home.
• Dried Lavender Buds - For this lavender macaron recipe, we’ll be adding dried lavender to both the macaron shells AND the white chocolate ganache to really double down on the gorgeously botanic flavor. Be sure to get food-grade flowers or purchase some plain lavender tea to ensure they’re ready for consumption.
• Gel Food Coloring - If you want to add some flair to your macaron shells, I recommend using gel food coloring instead of regular liquid food coloring. Gel has greater pigmentation and will add less moisture to the mix, meaning you’re more likely to have macaron-making success!

Lavender White Chocolate Ganache

• Heavy Cream - Using full-fat cream will result in a much more luscious consistency for your ganache. I strongly suggest using a minimum of 36% milkfat here.
• Whole Milk - After steeping the cream, you may need to add a splash of milk to get the proper weight. 
• Honey - While you can certainly swap in glucose syrup or corn syrup here, I find the flavor of honey is a magnificent pairing for floral lavender and creamy white chocolate.
• White Chocolate - Make sure to get good quality white chocolate here, not “white baking morsels.” The first ingredient should be cocoa butter! When in doubt, I suggest looking through the bar chocolate in the candy aisle rather than the bagged chips in the baking aisle.
• Unsalted Butter - Look for organic, grass-fed, and/or cultured butter for the best flavor.

⚒️ Equipment

French macarons are somewhat fussy, but they’re totally worth the effort. Here are the tools you’ll need to gather:

• Electric mixer with whisk attachment - If you have one, I highly recommend going the stand mixer route here; getting those elusive stiff peaks takes some time. In a pinch, a hand mixer will work, but you won’t be able to multitask as efficiently. 
• Food processor - Ensuring that your ingredients are finely processed means you have a much better chance of having perfectly smooth, perfect macarons.
• Mesh strainer  - Sifting is another step you don’t want to miss when you’re making these lavender macarons; any large chunks that were missed in the food processor will not make it through the strainer, meaning you don’t have to worry about any unsightly blemishes.
• Piping bags and tips - Part of the allure of French macarons is their appearance, and a pastry bag and piping tips ensure that they are flawless. In a pinch, use a zip top plastic bag with the corner cut off or make a piping bag out of parchment paper! 
• Mixing bowls - Having a sturdy set of mixing bowls (with tiny ones for your mise en place!) is a godsend in a baker’s kitchen. Opt for metal or pyrex; plastic is porous and can hold onto grease that will kill your meringues.
• Immersion blender - While you don’t technically need an immersion blender to make ganache, I find that using one means I always have a perfectly silky mixture at the end. When I’ve used a whisk in the past, there have been times when a few shards of chocolate end up not fully emulsifying into the mixture.

📖 Step by Step Instructions

I’m not going to lie here - this is a moderately difficult and somewhat lengthy recipe. Don’t lose faith, though! Simply follow along with the steps below and you’ll end up with a gorgeous plate of lavender-flavored French macarons.

Make Macaron Shells

As with many baking recipes, you’ll have both wet and dry ingredients to work with. Don’t try to rush or combine any of these steps.

First, prep your materials. Line each baking sheet with your prepared parchment templates and prepare your piping bags along with your piping tips. I like to use a small, round piping tip for piping.

Pro Tip: Use a tall glass to assist you in filling your piping bag.

Prepare Egg Whites and Dry Ingredients

• Pour your egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer and start whisking on medium speed. Once they start to foam, slowly add your sugar and bring up your speed to medium for about three to four minutes. 
• While your meringue is whisking away, grind together your lavender buds, measured powdered sugar and almond flour using a food processor for one minute. Sift these dry ingredients into a large bowl with a fine sieve, discard any big pieces of almond and set aside.
• Your meringue is complete when it holds stiff peaks - add desired food coloring and gently whisk for a few additional seconds to incorporate.

Macronage

• Now it’s time for the ever so important Macaronage! This is the act of mixing your dry ingredients into your French meringue - the trick is to fold it well enough without overmixing. 
• To start, pour your dry mixture onto the meringue and slowly start to fold with a spatula. While rotating the bowl, continue to fold ingredients together. Your mixing is done when the batter flows off your spatula rather slowly and  smoothly while scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl.
• You should see the batter that has dripped back into the bowl rest on top for a moment before slowly sinking back into the mixture. One too many folds and your batter could be over-mixed (which makes it impossible to work with), so be careful not to overmix!

Pipe and Rest

• Pour your macaron batter into the prepared piping bag and pipe in circles onto your templated parchment paper. 
• Tap your baking sheet firmly on a flat surface to remove air bubbles and ensure a smooth top. You can always use a toothpick to gently pop any extra air bubbles that you see hovering on top of your shells.
• Allow the piped macarons to rest for approximately 30 minutes - this is non-negotiable. You want a sort of skin to form on the surface of the macarons; once the top of your shells are dry to the touch they are ready to bake! 

Bake

• Place your macarons in the center of the oven that has been preheated to 310 degrees F. Bake for 9 minutes, then rotate the baking tray and bake for an additional 2 minutes. 
• When you gently touch the upper shell and it barely moves, and the developed foot of the macaron stays set to the parchment paper, the macarons are done. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before removing shells from the parchment paper.
• Make Ahead Tip: Macaron shells that have been baked, fully cooled and filled can be placed in an airtight container and frozen for up to a month with no discernible change in quality! Simply allow them to defrost for 10-15 minutes at room temperature before eating.

Make Lavender White Chocolate Ganache

Step 1: Infuse cream. Add cream and lavender buds to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Immediately remove from heat, cover and allow to infuse for one hour. Strain the infused cream through a cheesecloth, squeezing the leftover lavender in order to extract all the infused cream. Weigh the cream again to make sure you still have a total of 100g. If not, add a touch of milk until you reach 100g.

Step 2: Heat cream. Add infused cream & honey to a saucepan and bring to a slight boil. 

Step 3: Melt chocolate. Remove from heat and pour over the white chocolate. Stir to combine as the warm cream starts to melt the chocolate. 

Step 4: Add butter & mix. Add the butter into your warm chocolate mixture and, using an immersion blender, blend ganache until the butter has fully incorporated and your mixture is smooth. 

Step 5: Cool. Allow the chocolate ganache to cool to room temperature before assembly. 

Assemble

Once cooled, the shells will peel easily off of your parchment paper. Find each shell’s matching half and pipe approximately two teaspoons of lavender white chocolate ganache to the bottom shell before adding a macaron shell on top.

Technically speaking, the filled macarons will taste the best after being allowed to rest in the refrigerator overnight. Macarons should remain refrigerated until ready to eat, and should be consumed within three days of filling.

👩🏻‍🍳 Expert Tips For Perfect Ganache

Any flavor of chocolate ganache is a real delight. (Did you know that’s what truffles are made from??) Here’s how to make sure your ganache comes out silky smooth every time:

• Chop That Chocolate - taking a few moments to roughly chop your chocolate into small pieces will allow for the hot cream to easily melt your chocolate. This leads to a lovely ganache texture and mouthfeel.
• Quality Is Key - Since there are so few ingredients in ganache, I'd highly recommend using quality chocolate as the flavors and textures will shine through!
• Heat The Cream Thoroughly - The cream's temperature needs to be hot enough to gently melt our chocolate. Your cream is ready to pour over chocolate when it comes to a slight boil!
• Soften Your Butter - Ensuring that the butter is at room temperature will help during the immersion process. If your butter has not been softened, it will be quite challenging to incorporate it into the chocolate & cream mixture.

💭 Recipe FAQs

For more tips on making homemade foolproof macarons, check out my complete guide here!

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