Macarons - an attempt (not very good one)

I've been seeing these delicately perfectly little French pastries in many places these days.  So, I attempted to produce my own.  No wonder these little discs of perfection can be quite pricey.  As you can see from my results, their appearance does not reflect the description of delicate and perfect.  If you search on the internet for "macaron", you will see its true appearance.  Macarons are supposed be smooth discs, not round bumpy crater like cookies.  I suspect my error is in the coarse results of my ground almonds and the too stiff whipped egg whites.  Nonetheless, our taste buds have no eyes, so it's flavour is just the same.  Although I have not had the pleasure of indulging in a professionally made macaron, I have spied a package of 6 at Thuet Bakery on King St. W.  I couldn't bring myself to shell out >$12 for said item but maybe next time I pass by I just might have to (for research sake). ;)

The recipe is quite basic.  Through my research, I have come up with this recipe.  It's an adaption of a few different recipes.

Ingredients:

• 3 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup of ground almonds (might have to source of almond powder/flour next time)
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar (will use less next time - a little too sweet for my liking)
• 5 tblspn granulated sugar (will probably reduce this next time)

my ganache recipe:

• 4 ounces bittersweet/semi-sweet chocolate
• 1/2 whipping cream

In a mixer, whip egg whites to until peaks are medium (so that when piped, they will be loose enough to disperse on it's own to perfectly round smooth topped discs).  Combine confectioner sugar and ground almonds together.  Mix sugar/almonds with meringue.  Pipe into 1 1/2 inch discs.  Bake at 300F degree for 20 - 25 minutes.

Prepare ganache my combining ingredients in a double boiler.  When melted, set aside to cool.

- sliced almonds -

- almonds in food processor -

- ground almonds -

(see how the ground almonds are not fine enough)

- just out of the oven -

- chocolate ganache spread - 

- assembly line -

Molten Chocolate Cake

Another one from Martha. This Molten Chocolate Cake recipe it fast and easy and the portion is perfect for us.  It makes two cakes in no time.  If you love chocolate, this just hits the spot.  It's not too rich the size is just right to not over-indulge.

The raspberry sauce I added.  I enjoy my sweets with fruit.  It cuts the balances out the sweetness with a little tart and raspberry flavour marry so well with chocolate.  It's easy to make raspberry sauce.  Just put a 1/2 pint of raspberries in a small sauce pan with some water and sugar.  Bring to a boil and simmer until the raspberries are soft and broken down.  Then pour sauce through a strainer to remove seeds.  As a garnish, I had some blackberries.  The blackberries contrast so well against the red of the sauce.

- simmering raspberry sauce -

- cakes just out of the oven -

(rice bowls were used, I didn't have any ramekins)

- cake unmolded -

- another view of unmolded cake -

- finished presentation -

- mmmm so good -

Chocolate Cranberry Blondies

Not really a cake and not really a cookie, that's what's so rustic about bar bake goods.  I find the subtle taste of a blondie much more satisfying than a brownie.  To me, brownies are always much too dense for my liking.  Plus, you can insert other flavours into and blondie and not have it get drowned out by the heavy buttery chocolate flavour.  Not that I don't love chocolate, I do but the intenseness of the butter and eggs just makes me want to put down a brownie after just one bite.

It is an easy one bowl recipe, fast and easy.  The original recipe came from the baking bites web site.  I tend to like my sweets much less sweet than prescribed in most recipes and I try to use whole wheat pastry flour wherever possible as well as substituting in some oil for butter.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup grape seed oil
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup each semi-sweet choc chips, white choc chips, cranberries

Mix sugar and butter/oils.  Add eggs one at a time and vanilla.  Stir in half of the flour.  Stir in remainder of the flour with the chocolate chips and cranberries.

Bake in 350F oven for 30 minutes in a 9x9 pan.  Let cool in pan and cut into desired portions.

Whole Wheat Bagels

Lately we've been having toast once in awhile with Philadelphia Strawberry cream cheese (the light version).  It's a nice alternative to an overly sweet and fat ladened dessert.  Instead of the store bought breads, I thought I'd try and make my own type of bread - much healthier, without the unknown ingredients.  I saw this bagel recipe/article on Chow's website weeks ago.  Before I could start, I was in search of malt syrup - found it at whole foods.  A little expensive but I didn't want to wait any longer.  Don't have the time.  There's something satisfying about creating your own baked good - especially bread.

The process was actually pretty simple.  I would definitely do this again.  Plus, bagels freeze very well.  I did modify the recipe with some whole wheat flour and with less salt as some of the comments suggest.  A pastry whole wheat flour must be used - the plain old whole wheat flour would just make it too heavy and dry.  Pastry whole wheat flour is great for a lot of other baked goods.  I like the one that Whole Foods sells under their brand - again, a bit pricey so I'll have to research some more on where I can get some cheaper pastry wwf.

Birthday Cookies

A birthday was celebrated in our family this past week. I decided to bake cookies as a surprise. Patriarch requested some cookies earlier in the month, so I thought I would oblige. As you can see, I produced a small variety - 4 to be exact. The cookie recipes came from Martha Stewart's and Baking Bites websites (with some small modifications). Only one cookie was adapted form Martha's site and it was adapted from two different recipes. All the other cookies came from Baking Bites. I had to half all the recipes because there are just the two of us adults eating the cookies. The babies are too young to consume unnecessary sugars, so we do not feed them cookies.

List of cookies:

1. Jam Thumprints - I used blueberry jam (cookie dough was from the iced thumbprint recipe)


2. Banana Oatmeal - added chocolate chips


3. Peanut Butter - added chocolate chips


4. Cocoa Fudge - used white chocolate chips

1 2

3 4

My homemade packaging.