Anyway, I took my mom to the grocery store the other day and I happened to see some black sesame seeds for sale. I've seen some delicious looking black sesame macarons on some other blogs, and I know that black sesame can be a great ingredient for desserts.
My mom is from a little city in Japan called Tosu (in Kyushu, the southernmost island). I haven't been back to visit my family in over 5 years, but I've been dying to go back. We always visit in the summer, and it's a MUST to go to a family-owned popsicle shop called "Yaoki Ice." Azuki (red bean) and milk are the two most popular flavors, and the last time we went they came out with a black sesame flavor. It was DELICIOUS. Of course, remembering this only gave me more faith in the tastiness of black sesame macarons.
If you haven't smelled black sesame before, it's a very overwhelming aroma, similar to that of peanut butter. It's only intensified after grinding them. I could even smell it after incorporating it into the batter, which by the way, looked a lot like melted cookies and cream ice cream!
Even though they aren't of the typical eye-catching spectrum of macaron colors, I thought they came out beautifully. And they were delicious too, especially when I sandwiched them with a simple vanilla butter cream <3
Happy baking, everyone :)
