Pierre Herme's Jasmine Macarons

As promised, here is the recipe for PH's jasmine macarons. In my opinion, the delicate flavor of the jasmine ganache compliments sweet macaron cookie. In any case, one or two more than satisfies my pallet.

The jasmine ganache was simple. It required infusing/steeping the jasmine in hot cream prior to mixing with white chocolate to make the ganache.

I only allowed the tea to steep for a few minutes, to prevent the ganache from being too bitter or fragrant. A few minutes was more than enough time to adequately infuse the cream.

Once infused, the cream is strained over the white chocolate and incorporated until smooth. I then left the ganache to cool until firm.

The macaron dough is your standard macaron. PH's recipe calls for titanium dioxide powder, to make the dough even more white, but seeing as I didn't have that in my arsenal, I just omitted it.

Once the cookies are are baked and cooled, pipe the cooled jasmine ganache into the center. I imagine you could flavor the ganache with any other sort of tea or tisane. I would be curious to try chamomile and lavender, or maybe some other herbal mix!

Pierre Herme Jasmine Macaron

Macaron cookie:
300g almond powder
300g powdered sugar
110g egg whites
15g titanium dioxide powder
10g tepid mineral water (to dilute the above powder)
+
300g granulated sugar
75g water
100g egg whites

Jasmine ganache:
360g heavy cream
320g white chocolate
25g jasmine tea 
Prepare the jasmine ganache. Heat the cream to 85 degrees C. Remove from heat and add the tea. Allow to infuse for 3 minutes, not more. Filter the cream. Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie/double boiler. Add the infused cream, a third at a time. Cool in the refrigerator until set and creamy.

Prepare the macaron dough. In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, almond powder, (titanium dioxide diluted in water if using) and  first amount of egg whites. Boil the granulated sugar and water to 118 degrees C. When the sugar reaches 115 degrees, start whipping the second amount of egg whites. When the whites reach soft peaks and the sugar is at 118 degrees, pour the melted sugar into the egg whites. Whip until the mixture cools to 50 degrees. When cooled, mixed into the almond mixture. Pipe onto baking sheets and bake at 180 degrees for about 12 min. Assemble cookies: Pipe some jasmine ganache onto one cookie, top with another cookie.