Macaron experimentations

Macarons are all the rage these days, at least in New York City, where I live. But what's most interesting to me is to explore new flavors. No boring chocolate or vanilla here!
Well... I did try my hand at making lemon macarons (lemon is kind of simple, I suppose). And I must say they are the yummiest I've made so far. I used Tartelette's recipe, and they came out beautiful. The cream cheese filling complements the lemon shells very well: the combination is not too sweet (as when using a lemon curd filling) and not too rich (as when using a buttercream filling). It is actually a nice vehicle for the lemon's tang.

In my search for wacky macaron flavors, I came across Christina's wonderful blog "Food, je t'aime", and immediately processed to try three of her recipes.

• Matcha macarons filled with adzuki bean paste - macarons with a Japanese flair!

• Black sesame macarons filled with chocolate ganache (Christina filled her macarons with black sesame paste, but I thought it would be too much sesame per bite - a Taiwanese friend assured me, however, that the chocolate was somewhat overpowering the black sesame shells. I am therefore committing here to remake these macarons "a la Christina")

• Earl grey macarons filled with salted caramel - The caramel can slightly overpower the earl grey taste of the shells. I used four bags of earl grey tea for a stronger flavor.

Earl grey salted caramel macarons are quite addictive. I could eat them all day long. Although I still have quite some experimenting to do...