Macaroons re-visited

We all remember my last macaroon attempt, right? Or should I say my pink cookie making... yikes. Ever since I attempted my last batch, I have been wanting to try these little buggers again. A twitter friend of mine, Michelle @kissedbysweets, suggested we try them together and hopefully get positive results. However, when she attempted hers, the humidity here in MN was ridiculously high so I had to wait to do mine. After seeing how great hers looked, I was even more nervous to try them again. Although, I did feel like I figured out what went wrong last time.

Since macaroons are pretty fussy little things, you have to make sure everything in the kitchen is grease free (that you are going to use). I knew that, but for some reason I completely spaced the first time I made these.

Vinegar! Yes, vinegar is what you will need to de-grease your utensils. I just wet a paper towel with it and rubbed down everything that was going to come into contact with my macaroons.
Everything else I did completely the same as last time...but this time instead of getting flatness, I got...

See, identical to the other ones right before they went into the oven.

But this time I got FEET!!!!

I was ecstatic when I pulled them out of the oven! half of them had feet and half of them didn't (feet are like the little rims around the bottom) but the half that didn't were still very puffed up. So I am thanking vinegar for the success of this batch!

Since these turned out, I got to fill them and it was the perfect opportunity to use my food grade lavender my mom had gotten me.

I brought the milk and the lavender to a boil and then let seep for 15 minutes.

After the 15 minutes were up, it was strained and put into the other ingredients.

The buttercream recipe I found was not very exciting, however, the lavender flavor came out great. I just feel it was too sugary for me. Next time I will try our the Swiss-meringue buttercream that most everyone else uses to fill the shells.

The recipe that I used for my macaroons can be found here from The Brave Tart. I knew as soon as I found her version that is what the one I wanted to use. She cuts out a lot of the "fussy" steps that she says are not necessary, and hers turn out beautifully!

Definitely glad I gave these a try again! Now I just need to find someone to eat them all before I do =]

Have a great rest of the weekend everyone.