Red Velvet Cheesecake

October 27, 2010February 10, 2011 The Culinary Chronicles2 Comments

So it makes perfect sense that I test out some Red Velvet Cheesecake. 🙂

I took the lead from Southern Living but chose to top the cheesecake with fresh whipped cream as opposed to their additional top layer of cream cheese mixture. For some added fun, I also made them individual sized—no sharing required!

The recipe was easy to follow and did not require a water bath method when baking. However, I did choose to bake the crust for 6 minutes on 325 degrees to ensure crispiness. As for the “cake”, their method gave a nice creamy texture with a slight tangy flavor profile—-I’d assume from the addition of buttermilk.

I don’t think I’ll give up my favorite cheesecake (white chocolate-raspberry cheesecake) for this one but it’s definitely a fun twist. Plus–with Halloween around the corner, the “blood red” hue would be fantastic!

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Red Velvet Cheesecake
From Southern Living

Ingredients:

Crust:
1½ Cups Chocolate Graham Cracker Crumbs or Chocolate Wafters
¼ Cup Unsalted Butter, melted
1 Tablespoon Granulated Sugar

Filling:
24 Ounces Cream Cheese, softened
1½ Cups Granulated Sugar
4 Large Eggs, lightly beaten
3 Tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Cup Sour Cream
½ Cup Buttermilk
2 Ounces Red Food Coloring

Fresh Whipped Cream:
1 Cup Heavy Cream, chilled
1 Tablespoon Granulated Sugar
1 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extra

Stir together graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar; press mixture into bottom of a parchment paper lined pan. Bake crust for 6-7 minutes at 325 degrees. Cool completely.

Beat cream cheese and 1½ cups granulated sugar at medium-low speed with an electric mixer. Add eggs and the rest of the listed ingredients, mixing on low speed just until fully combined. Pour batter into prepared crust.

Bake at 325° for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 300°, and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until center is firm. Run knife along outer edge of cheesecake. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven; cool in pan on a wire rack 30 minutes. Cover and chill 8 hours.

Prepare whipped cream. In a stand mixer, whisk the heavy cream on high until it just holds stiff peaks. Slowly sprinkle in sugar. Add vanilla. Pipe the whipped cream on top of unmolded cheesecake.

ENJOY!

**Since I chose to make individual sized cheesecakes, I only needed to prepare half of the filling amount.

Desserts/Pastries

“Mango-licious” Mango Cupcakes

October 25, 2010May 31, 2012 The Culinary Chronicles25 Comments

Mangoes are my favorite fruit.

And when you get one that’s perfectly ripe, nothing can beat a bite of that fragrant, sweet, juicy, and downright luscious goodness. In fact, I have so many memories of my grandma slicing up ripened mangoes and handing me the seed to gnaw on—my favorite part. We even used to snack on green mangoes dipped in a little salt with chili—mmm!

With that said, I have had some difficulties translating my favorite fruit into cupcake form. Too often the end product came out too “bread-like” with only faint traces of mango flavor. When I came across the Cupcake Project’s Mango Cupcakes post, I found that she too had the same challenges but had good results when using pure mango extract. I took a try at her recipe with a few tweaks and am happy to report that this was my best attempt yet—though I think there’s still room for some improvement. Although the cake itself yielded MUCH more of the mango flavor than I was able to achieve before, it still didn’t have as much as I wanted. (Even though I used fresh mango puree, mango extract, AND mango yogurt in the batter.) So to heighten the flavor, I went for mango overkill by topping the cuppies with a mango buttercream, mango coulis and fresh mango slices.

And that did the trick. “Mango-liciousness” achieved. 🙂

Taking a big bite of the cuppie with all of its components put a smile on this gal’s face. The buttercream offered the fragrant mango profile that I was looking for while the coulis added the concentrated mango flavor. I had originally considered using dried mangoes to top the cuppies but settled on fresh mango slices as it gave a wonderful texture contrast.

Overall, I was pretty happy but if you’re going to give this one a try, you’ve GOT to have mango extract (BIG thanks to my sis who ordered mine for me online). I also suggest using fresh mango puree as opposed to mango nectar as it offers a deeper flavor.

With some minor tweaks, this little number could be a keeper!

Mango Extract was REALLY hard to find. My advise, order it online!

Mango Cupcake platter for my niece Maya’s art class.

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“Mango-licious” Mango Cupcakes
Adapted from Cupcake Project
Makes approximately 16 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Mango Cupcakes
2 Cups Cake Flour
2½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ Teaspoon Salt
¾ Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
2/3 Cup Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2/3 Cups Mango Yogurt
2 Teaspoons Pure Mango Extract
1 Cup Fresh Mango Puree

Mango Buttercream Frosting
2 to 3 Cups Confectioners Sugar, sifted
1½ Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
1/3 Cup Fresh Mango Puree
1 Teaspoon Pure Mango Extract
1-2 Tablespoons Sour Cream (can substitute with milk)

Mango Coulis
1½ Cups Fresh Mango, cubed
1 Teaspoon Fresh Lemon Juice
¼ Cup Water
½ Cup Sugar

Mango Coulis: In a saucepot, combine the chopped mango, lemon juice, water and sugar together. Bring the mixture up to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes or until the fruit is very tender. Pour the mixture into a food processor and puree until smooth. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Mango Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tin with paper liners. Into a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each, then beat in yogurt and mango extract. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with mango puree and beginning and ending with flour. Be careful to not over mix. Pour batter into cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. While cupcakes are cooling, prepare frosting.

Mango Buttercream: In a large mixer bowl, whip the butter for several minutes until very light and fluffy. Add mango puree and mango extract. Whip until combined. Slowly add the confectioners sugar until the frosting becomes thicker and stiff. Add sour cream and whip until desired piping consistency.

Fill piping bag with the frosting and pipe large swirls on top of cooled cupcakes. Drizzle mango coulis over the cupcakes and top with fresh slices of mangoes.

Desserts/Pastries

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Rice-Cereal Treats

September 29, 2010February 10, 2011 The Culinary Chronicles6 Comments

When nostalgia knocks, I answer—with open arms 🙂

So when I was in need of goodies for some wonderful neighbors, I appealed to everyone’s inner child and whipped up some Rice-Cereal Treats. Of course, I needed to up the ante a bit and added creamy peanut butter to the melted marshmallow and drizzled the tops with chocolate. Why Not, right? Because let’s be honest–what’s better than PB and Chocolate!?

Needless to say, they were DEE-LISH! And although I wish I could take full credit for them, a recipe can be found on the side of any box of rice cereal. But hey–no one seems to mind when they are taking a big ol’ bite of a rice cereal treat. 🙂

So here’s to having great neighbors and nostalgic-yummy treats!

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Peanut Butter & Chocolate Rice-Cereal Treats
Adapted from Any “Rice Cereal” Box 🙂

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
½ Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
10 Ounces Packaged Marshmallows
7 Cups Rice Cereal
¾ Cup Milk Chocolate Chips

Grease 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray.

In large saucepan slowly melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter until melted and smooth. Add rice cereal and stir until well coated. Quickly transfer rice cereal mixture into pan and pat down evenly. Cool for one hour.

Place chocolate chips in a microwaveable bowl. Melt chips in the microwave using 20 second intervals—be sure to stir in between each heating. When chocolate is melted and glossy, drizzle melted chocolate over the rice cereal treats. Cool for a minimum of 30 minutes and cut into large squares.

ENJOY!

Desserts/Pastries

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting

September 20, 2010September 22, 2010 The Culinary Chronicles6 Comments

Alas dear Friends, life has had its way with me. And as much as I’ve wanted to, I haven’t had much time for many “foodventures”–let alone write about them. But I’ve missed “this space” and like all great relationships, we’ve got to make the time 🙂

So allow me to share my last cupcake adventure that happened just a few week’s ago when the bf’s family made a spontaneous and fun-filled visit. It also happened to be right around his mom’s birthday—so sweet treats were a must! (Happy Bday, Mrs. M!)

I knew I wanted to use a Nutella Cream Cheese frosting that I had played around with earlier this year but couldn’t decide what the cake base should be. With “decadence” in mind, I came across “My Baking Addiction’s” version of the Chocolate Chip Cupcake—BINGO!

Fairly simple to make, I pulled together the cuppies, put a quick swirl of frosting on top, and sprinkled them with crushed hazelnuts.

How did they turn out? SUPER RICH! Borderline, too rich (if that’s possible!). The cuppies were quite yummy—moist and full of chocolate flavor. The frosting was rich with accents of hazelnut. Great on their own but it may have been a tad too much combined. My suggestion if you do make these cuppies—pair them with a tall glass of cold milk. 🙂

And although the photos I snapped, weren’t my fav (BOO on lighting and exposure issues!), I was quite happy to have made them. You never know unless you try, right? After all, experimenting is half the fun!

Until next Friends!

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Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes approximately 14 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (From My Baking Addiction)
¾ Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
¾ Cup All-Purpose Flour
½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ Teaspoon Salt
¾ Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
1 Cup Sugar
3 Large Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
½ Cup Sour Cream
¾ Cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting
3 to 4 Cups Confectioners Sugar, sifted
½ Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
¾ Cups Cream Cheese, room temperature
½ Nutella
1-2 Tablespoons Sour Cream (can substitute with milk)
½ Cup Crushed Hazelnuts to top
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners.

Into a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each, then beat in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with sour cream and beginning and ending with flour. Gently fold in chocolate chips.

Pour batter into cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

While cupcakes are cooling, prepare frosting. In a large mixer bowl, whip the butter and cream cheese for several minutes until very light and fluffy. Add Nutella and whip until combined. Slowly add the confectioners sugar until the frosting becomes thicker and stiff. Add sour cream and whip until desired piping consistency.

Fill piping bag with the frosting and pipe large swirls on top of cupcakes. Sprinkle crushed hazelnuts on top. Enjoy!

Desserts/Pastries

Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies

August 30, 2010February 1, 2012 The Culinary Chronicles40 Comments

One of my staff members L-O-V-E-S cupcakes…Red Velvet, in particular. And for the past two years, I have made her Red Velvet cuppies to celebrate her birthday. But this year had to be fabulous for “P” so I was on the hunt to take a different spin on the old favorite.

Inspired by the recent swarm of postings featuring Red Velvet Cake Pops, Red Velvet Cookies, and Red Velvet Ice Cream, I decided to try out Better Homes and Gardens’ “Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies”. I liked the idea of a small cookie that “P” could enjoy that wasn’t too sweet but paid homage to her beloved favorite cuppie.

The BHG recipe was pretty easy to make but I found that it wasn’t exactly accurate.

They said to use a 1½ inch round cutter but I found that it was too small–especially compared to the photo of the cookie that they displayed . A 2½ inch round cutter was much more accurate for the quoted 2 dozen cookies
3 ounces of white chocolate is definitely not enough to dip the cookies in—double it!

The recipe I included below is directly from BHG. A few of my suggestions to enhance the recipe would be:

Use an additional 3 tablespoons of butter.
Up the granulated sugar to ½ cup.
Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
I like my red velvets REALLY red and used an additional ½ tablespoon of red food coloring

Overall, these cookies were pretty fun and “P” enjoyed them. I think with the listed modifications, they would be awesome! I also liked how the white chocolate was reminiscent of the cream cheese frosting found on traditional red velvet cupcakes. Will it replace the beloved Red Velvet Cuppie? Maybe not. But it does offer a fun alternative–and who couldn’t use a new makeover every once in awhile? 🙂

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Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies
From Better Homes and Garden

Ingredients:

1¼ Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/3 Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
¼ Teaspoon Salt
½ Cup Unsalted Butter, cut up
1 Tablespoon Red Food Coloring
3 Ounces White Chocolate, coarsely chopped
1½ Teaspoons Shortening
Finely Chopped Pistachios or Rainbow Nonpareils (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Cover and process with on/off turns until combined. Add butter and red food coloring. Process with on/off turns until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Process until mixture just forms a ball.*

On a lightly floured surface, knead dough lightly until nearly smooth. Roll or pat dough to a 1/2-inch thickness. Using a floured 1-1/2-inch round cutter, cut out dough. Place cutouts 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press scraps together and reroll.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until centers are set. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.

In a heavy small saucepan, melt white chocolate and shortening over low heat, stirring constantly. Dip half of each cookie into melted chocolate. If desired, sprinkle with pistachios or nonpareils. Let stand on waxed paper until set. Makes about 24 cookies.

UPDATE: If the dough is too soft to roll out, chill it in the fridge for a 5-10 minutes. Also, if you taste them directly after baking, they will be really crumbly and almost flavorless. These shortbread cookies need to be “aged” a bit and will improve in flavor/texture the next day after they’re baked.

Breakfast/Brunch · Desserts/Pastries

Fresh Apple Cake

August 27, 2010February 10, 2011 The Culinary Chronicles14 Comments

Last weekend, my sister and her family came up from Southern California for a visit. And what do the Nguyen’s do when we are on vacation? We Eat….and we Eat a lot. And when we are not eating (or shopping), we like to have Foodventures. So it’s not too surprising that after spending a few indulgent hours at the SF Street Food Fest, we were hitting the road to Sebastopol to Twin Hill Ranch for some good old apple picking. We filled our baskets with delicious apples (Gravenstein varietal) and also picked up a few jugs of fresh pressed apple cider—absolutely delicious!

We kind of went nuts with apple picking which did leave a slight challenge. What does one do with over 15+ pounds of apples?! I knew we would need to put our hand picked apples to use. My sister (aka. “Head Foodie” of the family) suggested that I make the Fresh Apple Cake that our mom used to enjoy so much. Perfect!

The recipe is from Feasts of Eden and is incredibly easy and quick. Pretty much a dump and stir method–which is great for baking with kids. The glaze that is poured over the warm cake isn’t like the type that I used on the Blueberry-Meyer Lemon Cake. This glaze soaks into the Apple Cake producing a moist and sweet product. A few other things to note:

The batter is incredibly thick. But don’t worry! The 3 cups of fresh apples has a lot of moisture and it all works out–I promise!
Next time, I will use only 1 cup of granulated white sugar and add 1 cup of light brown sugar.
Add 1/4 Cup Molasses – really rounds out the flavors of the spices.
The glaze may get lumpy from the confectioner sugar. If it does, strain it before pouring over the warm cake.
Leave the cake on a rack when you pour the glaze on it and then transfer to the serving platter. Since the glaze is somewhat thin, it will definitely run over the sides of your plate/cake stand and will leave you a HOT MESS!

Overall, I was pretty pleased with it and my co-workers seemed to enjoy it as well (they often act as my “guinea pigs”, too). The cake really works well as a breakfast pastry—wonderful with a steaming cup of coffee.

And perhaps it’s just me, but knowing that we handpicked the apples ourselves made it taste even better! 🙂

Until next time friends!

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Fresh Apple Cake
From Feast of Eden

Ingredients:

Cake Batter
2 Cups Granulated Sugar
3 Cups All Purpose Flour
1½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Salt
½ Teaspoon Ground Cloves
½ Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Vegetable Oil
3 Large Eggs
3 Cups Chopped Apple

Glaze
½ Cup Unsalted Butter
¼ Cup Water
1 Cup Confectioner Sugar
2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly grease a large bundt pan.

Sift dry ingredients together. Add liquid ingredients, stirring well to combine. Add the chopped apples and transfer mixture to bundt pan. Be sure to spread the mixture evenly. Bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes before inverting on to a plate.

While cake is cooling, prepare glaze. Melt butter and slowly add confectioner sugar and cinnamon. Stir well to ensure there are no lumps. Add water and mix until combined. Slowly pour over the cake while its still warm.

Desserts/Pastries

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

August 18, 2010August 18, 2010 The Culinary Chronicles9 Comments

Not too long ago, I had stumbled upon a post by Sugar Cooking for Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies. Oh yes, you read correctly….Nutella and Chocolate Chips in a Cookie!

Now I was intrigued. Sure, at first I was a little skeptical of the cookie’s flavor. Would it be true to the Nutella flavor or would it taste like a regular chocolate cookie??? Oh dear friends, I am happy to report that it does do justice to the luscious hazelnut-chocolate spread. Had I added additional hazelnuts to the dough, it may have tasted even more like Nutella. However, I am a sans-nut kind of gal for my cookies and brownies. My exception is of course, White Chocolate Mac Nut Cookies—delish!

I made very little adjustments to Sugar Cooking’s interpretation of the cookie. I also chose to make the cookie a little smaller than my usual preferred cookie size–about a 1 tablespoon round versus a 2 tablespoon. I wanted to go for a smaller cookie that would only require a bite or two so that you could pop one in your mouth whenever your sweet tooth was calling.

I do have to caution you though, these chewy-chocolatey-nutella honoring cookies are darn addictive. You simply can’t just have one. 🙂

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Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
Slightly Adapted from Sugar Cooking
Makes Approximately 30 Cookies

Ingredients:

1⅓ Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Tablespoon Unsweetened Cocoa
¼ Teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Salt
8 Tablespoon Unsalted Butter, room temperature
⅔ Cup Granulated Sugar
⅓ Cup Light Brown Sugar
⅔ Cup Nutella
½ Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Large Egg
½ Cup Chocolate Chips

Mix together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside dry ingredients.

Cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in Nutella and vanilla extract. Mix in egg. Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Add chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for approximately an hour.

Drop approximately one tablespoon of dough 2 inches apart onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350 for about 11 minutes until the edges look set. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then carefully remove to cooling racks.

Desserts/Pastries · Ice Cream

Toasted Coconut Gelato

August 13, 2010July 2, 2015 The Culinary Chronicles22 Comments

Second Coconut recipe in one week?! Yes, I admit it…..I have a Coconut addiction.

In an attempt to keep up my goal of utilizing my ice cream maker throughout summer, I dabbled with a recipe to bring one of my favorite flavors into gelato form. Loosely basing it off my Mint Chip Gelato adventure, I took toasted coconut, coconut milk, and coconut extract to make this easy and delish gelato. And because of the three forms of coconut that I employed, the end result was truly packed full of coconut flavor.

For a little experiment, I took half of the gelato from the ice cream maker and swirled it with caramel and left the other half as is. I had hoped that the caramel would provide a luscious surprise in each bite but unfortunately the flavor was not able to hold its own. My sister later told me that Ben & Jerry’s had said on an episode of Unwrapped that Caramel Ice Cream was challenging because if you don’t make the caramel thick enough, it blends too much into the rest of the ice cream. Not going to lie—that made me feel better 🙂

Even though the caramel spin wasn’t as successful, the Toasted Coconut Gelato by itself was delicious and I’ll definitely make it again. Perhaps next time with the addition of fresh young coconut strips? Delish!

Until next time Friends, “Coconut Addict” signing off!

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Toasted Coconut Gelato

Ingredients:

2 Cups plus 3 Tablespoons Whole Milk
1¾ Cups Coconut Milk (I prefer this brand)
1 Cup loosely packed Toasted Unsweetened Coconut Flakes, plus additional for garnish
½ Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon Coconut Extract
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Tablespoons Cornstarch
Pinch salt

In a heavy sauce pot, add 2 cups of milk, coconut milk, sugar, and salt. Bring to a low boil on medium low heat. Be careful not to scorch. With the remaining milk, add corn starch to make a slurry. When milk and coconut milk come to a boil, add the slurry and extracts. Cook on low and whisk often so that clumps do not form. The mixture is cooked when you can run a line on the back of a spoon without the mixture coming back together. Cool the mixture to room temperature and then chill in the refrigerator for a minimum of 12 hours.

Add the mixture to your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s directions. When half the time has elapsed, slowly add the toasted coconut allowing it to be thoroughly incorporated in the mixture.

Transfer to a storage container and freeze until desired firmness. Before serving, allow the gelato to sit on your counter for a few minutes for a better texture and because its easier to scoop. Serve with a sprinkle of toasted coconut flakes.

ENJOY!

Desserts/Pastries

Put the “Lime in the Coconut” Cookies

August 11, 2010 The Culinary Chronicles6 Comments

It’s a well known fact that I love Citrus and Coconut. So when you put them together…WOWZAH!!!

I stumbled upon this recipe on one of my many “research” nights and was instantly drawn in because of its two main ingredients. Sounds like a winner to me! And the icing on the cake? Simple, easy steps. Combine those factors and this gal was a HAPPY CAMPER!

And friends, it really was delish! Imagine a fabulous sugar cookie….light, chewy, slightly crisp from the rolled sugar. And then add the rich flavors of coconut with the bright flavors of lime. Sound amazing? Well it sure was!

Shame on me as I only made a half batch of these goodies–which I often do when testing out recipes. After all, butter isn’t cheap! But after one bite, I totally regretted it. <Sigh>….I guess I’ll have to make it again.

Feel like the Islands are calling you? Why not try these cookies? They are simply delightful….all that’s missing is a pina colada 🙂

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Coconut Lime Chewy Sugar Cookies
From Rock Recipe

Ingredients:

2¾ Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
½ Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
1½ Cups Granulated Sugar
1 Large Egg
½ Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Zest of one Large Lime
3 Tablespoons Fresh Lime Juice
½ Cup Unsweetened Toasted Coconut
½ Cup Sugar for Rolling Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and very fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla extract, lime juice and lime zest. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients and toasted coconut.

Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on lined cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned.

Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Desserts/Pastries

French Macarons…..The Holy Grail of Pastries

August 6, 2010February 10, 2011 The Culinary Chronicles25 Comments

I finally did it. Or more accurately, WE finally did it.

I, along with thousands of other aspiring bakers, have been meaning to try my hand at the elusive French Macarons. But for some reason or another, I always found myself pushing it off. “Why?”– you ask. Well, as the song goes….

“At first I was afraid, I was petrified……….”

It’s true. These finicky “Cookie Sandwiches” had me extremely intimidated. Simple in the number of ingredients—yet so much room for possible error. The amount of precision required to create them was simply daunting. But ever since I had my first bite of a Macaron from the famed Bouchon Bakery, I’ve been dreaming about them….Macarons—The Holy Grail of Pastries.

I cannot recount how many posts and articles I have read about Macarons to prepare myself for the day that I could muster up the courage to make them. But reading can only do so much—as I highly doubt I could fly a plane by just reading instructions alone! If I wanted to make Macarons, I’d just have to do it! Time to put on my big girl panties (or apron, in this case) and face my fears!

I entered this daunting experiment with my friend Carol and her sister Christine. Both ladies are quite the bakers and I figured it may be better to attack in numbers. In fact, the few days leading before our big baking day were filled with emails back and forth with various recipes and grocery lists. Heck, we were prepared!

I will not bore you all with the nitty gritty details of all 4+ hours we had in the kitchen but I will simply fast forward to the results (and some pointers). After all the stress and the worry, we were pretty darn successful!! We ended up making two types of Macarons that day. The first, a Chocolate Macaron with Chocolate Espresso Ganache (care of Annie Eat’s) and the second, a Lemon Macaron with Lemon Buttercream (care of Tartlette). Our Chocolate Macarons were the highlight of our day, warranting in my opinion a B+. Unfortunately, our Lemon Macarons were not so successful—-actually kind of a hot mess! The shells (or cookie) were suprisingly quite flavorful but just looked terrible….C- . Strangely enough, we did better with our first Macaron (chocolate) then our second batch (lemon)! We’re hoping it’s not beginners luck!

Here are some notes from our Chocolate Macaron with Chocolate Espresso Ganache:

We used Almond Meal that was ground with their skins intact (figured it was going to be chocolate so the speckles should be ok). Next time, I’ll try the Almond Meal without skins as the shells were a tad bumpy;
We had VERY good success using silpat mats but did not try parchment paper. Hey, why mess with a good thing?;
Getting a stiff peak with the egg whites is quite important before incorporating dry ingredients;
We tried both piping methods—piping “straight with a point” and as “commas”. The straight point yielded better tops – don’t worry about the points as they flattened anyhow;
We piped our shells on the slightly larger side–almost 2.5 inches. I’d recommend a little bit smaller…perhaps 1.5 inches;
Cookies were left for about 30-40 minutes to get the “hard shell” before baking
We baked each sheet for 9 minutes but it could have gone another 1-2 minutes (unfortunately there is no way to tell if they’re done than taking a bite into it). Also, the Macarons appeared to taste better the next day. “Aging” may possibly assist in texture/consistency;
If filling with Ganache, a thicker consistency is much easier to handle;
Using a scale to weigh things (as opposed to measuring) makes a difference.

Allowing the batter to rest after piping is imperative to achieve the macaron “crust”

Hallelujah!!! We have FEET!

Chocolate Macaron with Chocolate Espresso Ganache…..these little guys make me smile.

Here are some notes about our Lemon Macaron with Lemon Buttercream:

We didn’t weigh out everything but measured with cups, spoons, etc. to see if it made a difference. Turns out, it does.;
Egg Whites may not have been the precise measurement (see above);
We ground Almond Slivers instead of using Almond Meal and could not get a fine enough grind that resulted in grainy batter;
By using Almond Slivers, there potentially could have been more natural oils in the mixture thus causing inconsistency in the batter;
The meringue we added was very stiff….perhaps too stiff;
We could have used more confectioner sugar in the buttercream.

At this point, they still looked like they had potential…..

AGGGHH!! These aren’t French Macarons—they look like shiny cookies!

Ladies and Gentlemen…..this is what you call a HOT MESS! EEEeekk! (Photo by Carol Le)

I do have to reiterate that although our Lemon Macarons looked a bit crazy, it tasted REALLY yummy! The freshly ground almonds gave a wonderful, “true” almond flavor to the shells. We even considered just calling them a cookie versus a macaron. That way, we’d feel better about it 🙂

Our Little Babies (Photo by Carol Le)

Now, with the first attempt out of the way, I’m happy to report that it wasn’t as ridiculous as I had expected. Tedious, yes…but not impossible. It did help TREMENDOUSLY to have two great gals to work with (a little sparkling wine didn’t hurt either!) to whom we could each bounce back ideas and suggestions to. Thanks Carol and Christine–I’d bake with you two anytime!

The Moral of the Story? I’ll have to quote Julia Child on this one:

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”

I’m am sure that other attempts are in my near future 🙂