Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Macarons October 27, 2009

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.  I love macarons.  They don’t take long to make, but it takes patients and knowledge about the process to get the perfect macaron.  I have made them a few times, but I haven’t taken the time to perfect them yet.  I have been lucky enough to get little feet on them every time, but I think I have over worked the batter because they are more flat than the traditional almost boxy look.

Since Halloween is on Saturday, I decided to make them a little festive.  I made the macaron chocolate and dyed it black with black powdered color, and then I made a white chocolate ganache filling that I dyed orange.  They turned about pretty good, but I think next time I will use a higher quality white chocolate.  To get the pretty swirl design set aside a small amount of the batter before you add the cocoa powder and dye to it.  Once you have the macarons piped out take a toothpick and swirl the white into the piped macarons.

Macarons

Source: Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern

Ingredients

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)

Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)

Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)

Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

1 tbsp Black Cocoa Powder

1 tbsp powdered Black food coloring

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.

2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.

3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.

4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.

5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).

6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.

7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Split Level Pudding October 6, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Garrett of Flavor of Vanilla.  He chose Dorie’s Split Level Pudding which is located on pages 384-385. This recipe is actually a chocolate ganache and vanilla pudding combination.  With Dorie’s suggestions in “Playing Around,” I decided to make the top pudding cinnamon pudding instead of vanilla.  As luck would have it I actually had extra ganache from the previous weeks recipe and a tiny bit more of heavy cream left so I thinned out the leftover ganache.

I only made 2/3 of the recipe, and because I didn’t want to dirty another dish, I didn’t use my food processor.  I mixed the egg yolks, a little milk, cornstarch, and rest of the sugar in a bowl.  When the milk came to a boil I tempered the egg yolk mixture and then placed it back on the heat to thicken up.  Once it started to pop bubbles at me, I took it off the heat and then added the butter and vanilla extract.  They turned out great and I didn’t have any problems with the pudding not setting.

Wow, these little babies are fantastic.  The chocolate and the cinnamon were perfect together.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart September 29, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Carla of Chocolate Moosey.  She picked Dorie’s Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart which is located on pages 355-357 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  Once you see the picture to these in Dorie’s book, you are going to want to make these.  On top of that there is caramel, honey roasted peanuts, AND chocolate.  You have to be crazy not to want to try these.

I haven’t had honey roasted peanuts in FOREVER.  I love them.  I remember when I was a kid and I would visit my grandparents there would always be a can of honey roasted peanuts.  I always had to be careful not to eat them all because they were also my grandpa’s favorites

WOW!!!!

I love these.  The combination of the dark chocolate ganache and the caramel and peanuts is AWESOME.   I made 1/2 a recipe and ended up making 5 mini tarts.  I used all the caramel, but I did have some left over ganache.  I would definitely make these again and they actually didn’t take very long too make.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise June 23, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Andrea of Andrea In The Kitchen. She chose Dorie’s Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise which is located on pages 293-295 in Baking: From My Home to Yours. Every time I saw the picture for this recipe it was always struck me as interesting.  I have no idea why I dreaded making this   I saw the picture, and I even thought that I might not like it.  The only long thing about making this recipe is that the dacquoise has to bake in the oven for 3 hours and then once every thing is put together it has to chill for 4-6 hours.  But all the skills used in this recipe are basic and not complicated at all.

The Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Chocolate Valentino and Vanilla Ice Cream February 28, 2009

This months challenge was chosen by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.  They chose a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan and then we had the option of making any type of ice cream to accompany the cake.  For the ice cream I decided to go with David Lebovitz’s Vanilla Ice Cream.

Buche de Noel aka Yule Log December 31, 2008

After making the French Yule Log for the Daring Bakers’ December Challenge, I decided that I needed to make last Decembers Challenge too.  Which is the non frozen type of Yule Log.  I got all of my tools together and came up with a game plan.  I knew that this recipe was going to make a BIG log.  I decided to divide the log in half and ice one with Chocolate Buttercream and the other with the Coffee Buttercream that was recommended.  I filled both logs with a Chocolate Ganache that I lightened with Whipped Cream.

The Daring Bakers’ Challenge: French Yule Log December 28, 2008

This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand

Challenging myself to an Opera July 28, 2008

….Opera Cake that is.

You are probably asking yourself, “Why on Earth would you do that?”

I am glad you asked.

My parent’s 29th anniversary is today and they are actually going to be in my neck of the woods. Well about 3 hours away, but it is still close. For the past 8 years, I have lived about 1,200 miles away from my parents. We randomly see each other if I happen to drag my butt down there or if someone has a business meeting in the area, meaning 4-5 hours away, they will drive by to see me. Well I hope it is me and not just my cute little monsters. Sometimes they stop by for holidays it just matters what is going on.

I got little feet… July 15, 2008

I got little fee eet. I got little fee eet, yeah. :to the music of Jungle Fever:

HOLY CRAP!!!!!

I really can’t believe it.

My first try, first freaking try and my macarons have little feet (the little bubblies at the bottom of the cookie). I am extremely happy about this.

From all of the posts I have read about people trying to make French Macarons and all of the trouble they have gone through. I am completely surprised. I thought something was going to have to go wrong. But all three batches turned out perfectly with little feet. I need to work on my piping skills but man, that is awesome.