Vanilla Infiniment macarons using recipe from Herme's macaron book. For the filling, I used Valrhona Ivoire with both Tahitian and Madagascan vanilla beans. I did not use any Mexican vanilla beans. The Ivoire is very pricey, but really is a superior white chocolate. The ganache had to be cooled quite a bit to firm up. I cooled it in an ice bath to about 50F before it reached a firm consistency. The shells are flavored with a bit of vanilla powder. The whites were aged in the fridge for 7 days, as called for in the recipe. Taste and texture are perfect, but the shells are not as smooth on top as they should be. I may have slightly over-beaten the Italian meringue, but it did seem to be at bird-beak stage. Also, the first batch, baked at 350F, resulted in unwanted browning. The second batch, pictured, were baked at 325F for 2 minutes longer with better results. In any event, I can't claim to be to unhappy with the result.
