THE LAVENDER MACARON CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL

As the fabulous French foodie Beatrice Peltre once said, “dessert is to a meal what a dress is to a woman.”

In the past few years, macarons have become a popular bonne bouche for Instagrammers and pastry-enthusiasts alike. While they’re attributed to Paris, France, their humble beginnings actually came from an Italian chef in the mid-1500’s. This chef prepared these delicious treats for Italian noblewoman Catherine de’ Medici. After marrying King Henry II (at the age of 14) she became the Queen of France and brought these delectables with her to this new country. Now at the time, macarons were simply the top (or bottom) part of what they are today.

Flash forward to the 1830’s when Parisian Pierre Desfontaines had the revolutionary idea to double-decker these bad boys and add a ganache filling in the middle. Now, Pierre was quite a master brand strategist of his time without even knowing it. He recognized that the women of the time didn’t have many places to gather (they weren’t allowed to go to cafes or clubs during this era as it would be unladylike) and these colourful treats would be a perfect dessert to gather around.

As the grandson of Louis-Ernest Ladurée, Pierre opened up Ladurée tearooms + pastry shops catered towards women. Today, Ladurée sells fifteen thousand macarons a day.

North America began to see the rise in macaron popularity in the early 2010’s. With French Pâtisseries creating their own unique flavours of this dessert, I was particularly impressed with the ones that incorporated lavender into them and simply had to make a cocktail version of this.

With this in mind, I present to you the Lavender Macaron Champagne Cocktail. This decadent cocktail incorporates floral and nutty elements into an effervescent cotton-candy induced finish. But be warned, this bubbly bevy is not for the faint of heart. Packed with a healthy dose of whiskey, amaretto and champagne, a few of them will definitely go straight to your head.

INGREDIENTS

1 oz Toasted Almond Canadian Club Small Batch Classic 12* (or cognac)
1/2 oz Sons of Vancouver Amaretto
1/8 oz Violet Syrup
1/2 oz Egg White
3 oz Champagne
1 puff Lavender Cotton Candy**

INSTRUCTIONS

Place cotton candy into coupe glass. Fill a cocktail shaker with infused rye, amaretto, violet syrup and egg whites. If you have a Hawthorn strainer coil or protein shake shaker ball, add into cocktail shaker as this will help to aerate the egg whites and make them frothy. Shake mixture for 30 seconds. Add ice and shake for another 15 seconds to chill. Strain into coupe glass over cotton candy. Top with champagne and garnish with your favourite macaron!

ADDITIONAL NOTES

*Lightly toast 1 cup of almonds and place in a small mason jar. Fill with rye or cognac and seal. Shake daily and leave for 48-96 hours.

**Don’t have cotton candy? No problem, just substitute it for a sugar cube or ounce of simple syrup. If this is the case, muddle the sugar and bitters with a dash of water in the old fashioned glass until dissolved. Then add ice and strain mixture in.