Sweet Black Sesame Macaron with Black Sesame and White Chocolate Ganache:

Directions

1. SHELLS: If home-grinding your black sesame seeds, toast lightly in a dry pan until fragrant. A few minutes. Be sure to keep an eye out on it to avoid burning the seeds. Take off the heat to let it cool before grinding them into a fine powder. Mortar pestle works well here.
2. In a food processor, blitz the first three ingredients. Sift into a bowl breaking up any large clumps or pieces. Discard any larger bits (about a teaspoon-1 tablespoon).
3. Place aged egg whites in a clean bowl. Using a standing mixer or hand mixer, whisk at medium speed until foamy. Add all the sugar (TIP: YES YOU CAN ADD ALL THE SUGAR AT ONCE) and continue to beat until glossy stick peaks form. Add the purple food coloring about half way. You know they're done when peaks are stiff on the beater and you can hold the bowl upside down*.
4. **NOTE: You can add gray or black gel food coloring when you fold in the batter, if you would like. I liked the grey/black specs in my shells so I did not add the coloring for this batch.
5. Pour half the almond-meal mixture into the egg whites. Fold into the egg whites gently. Add the food coloring, if using and at about 20 turns add the rest of the almond-meal mixture and continue folding for an additional 20 turns. Total of about 40-45 folds. **DO NOT OVER FOLD** The batter should look like molten lava and gently start to slide away.
6. Silpats work extremely well for macarons but parchment paper will also work. Add a dot of better all 4 corners of the parchment paper so it does not move when piping the batter. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). Pipe ~1" sized (3 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets 1" apart. They will slightly spread.
7. Tap the trays onto a flat surface about 10 times to release any air bubbles. Let the macarons sit on the counter for 30 minutes. While they sit, preheat the oven to 300F. Tops will be dry to the touch; that's when you know you're ready to bake.
8. Top with black sesame seeds (they will toast when you bake the shells in the oven)
9. Bake total of 12 minutes, rotating 1/2 way through. They will form their "feet" at the 1/2 way mark. I turned down the oven to about 280F for the second half as my oven is on the hotter side.
10. Take it out of the oven to cool. DO NOT REMOVE MACARONS STRAIGHT OUT OF THE OVEN. Wait until cool to the touch to gently remove off the tray and onto a rack to finish cooling.
11. GANACHE: Bring heavy cream to a boil in a small pot. Pour over the white chocolate and continue to whisk until all melted. Then stir in the ground black sesame. Leave to chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours to set.
12. Place into a pastry bag (or ziploc with the corner cut). Gently pipe a generous dallop on 1 macaron shell. Top with the second shell and carefully press to adhere.