Father’s Day is coming up on Sunday, and I told Josh that instead of making him a cake, I would make him jasmine macarons, which he has been wanting me to make for a while! These macarons were a little bit trickier than I was expecting though! Having learned my lesson with my double chocolate macarons, I stayed with my usual recipe.
Since the flavoring for these macarons came in the form of jasmine syrup, I had to figure out the proportions for the hot sugar syrup as best I could. I think I came close, but the texture and rise of the macaron shells was a little bit off.
For my Italian meringue stage, I used 1/3 cup of jasmine syrup and 180 g of granulated sugar in the hot sugar syrup.
When I piped out my 1½ inch rounds, they spread out a little more as well. Fortunately, they did still form that crucial crust after sitting for about half an hour.
The feet disappeared after the halfway through rotation of the baking sheet. They are still there, just not as visible as usual.
For the filling, I just made a standard vanilla buttercream. I didn’t want to make anything with so much flavor that it would overwhelm the jasmine flavor. Josh is a huge fan of buttercream and he asked me to make more than I needed for the macarons.
Confession: I seriously did not think I would like these macarons. While I was making them, the smell of the jasmine syrup was making me feel quite nauseous. Josh told me it smelled like jasmine, but the scent to me smelled like lilies (the scent of lilies gives me a headache and actually makes me feel sick) instead of jasmine! I’m not sure why this was the case, but being in the kitchen while working with the syrup was not a pleasant experience for me.
These jasmine macarons did end up looking pretty. When I tried one the next day, I could not taste the jasmine anymore, though the macarons do have a “floral” flavor to them. I am not sure if someone who was eating them would be able to tell that they were a floral-flavored macaron though. All my kids like them and Josh likes them, so that is what counts!
-Lynn