Macarons

Macarons

The gift giving season is coming. You want to bake something impressive, but everyone is on a diet after Thanksgiving. What to do? How about macarons? Macarons are almond meringue cookie sandwiches. These cookies are dairy and gluten free. They are not the easiest thing to make, but they leave a lasting impression if made correctly. I made them for some special, so should you. Here is the original recipe :http://www.sweet-sundays.com/home-main/lemon-macarons-with-chocolate-ganache-filling

1. First separate 4 eggs and age the egg whites for a few days in the fridge. I used the remaining egg yolks for creme brulee. 

2. Combine 165 grams of both almond flour and confectioners sugar, and a little bit of salt in a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine. You do not want to make almond butter... unless you want almond butter.

3. Sift the contents of the food processor with a sieve. This is an annoying step, but very necessary. If you are left with a lot of large almond particles like I did, you will need to add the leftover into the food processor and repeat this step. You could do this step ahead of time to break up the cooking process.

 I had to repeat quite a few times.

 4. In the bowl of your stand mixture, add the 4 aged egg whites, 150 grams of granulated white sugar, and 0.5 a teaspoon of cream of tarter. The cream of tarter helps stabilize the egg whites as you whip them. Whisk the contents by hand to dissolve the sugar.

5. Whip the egg whites with the whisk attachment on medium speed for about 11 minutes until stiff peaks form.

Stiff peaks... Don't you wish you could make your hair do that?

 

6. Once you have stiff peaks, gently combine the almond flour in by using long strokes going from one end of the bowl to the other. Don't just mix in circles. This will knock out the air that you worked so hard to get in the batter. When 90% of the almond flour has been incorporated into the batter, add in your flavoring and food coloring. I chose this particular recipe because the VIP I was making the macarons for loves citrus and how could I let him down. I added 1 teaspoon of lemon extract and 5 drops of yellow food coloring. I think I should of used 6 or 7 drops.

90%

100%

 

7. Put the batter into a pastry bag and carefully pipe out your batter into circles slightly larger than half dollars onto a silicone pad or parchment paper lined baking pan. I got a macaron silicone pad that made it much easier. It had grooves to pipe the batter in.

8. Drop the pan from a few inches onto a hard surface. This will help take out any larger air bubbles from the batter.

9. Let your piped batter dry out for about 30-40 minutes. This is essential to getting feet on on your macarons. Feet is the ruffle around the macaron. Your oven will need to be at 200 degrees Fahrenheit, so time preheating accordingly. 

Notice how much less shiny and dull the batter is after you let it sit.

10. Place your macarons in the oven one sheet at a time for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 9 minutes.

11. Once the macaron shells are done cooking, let them cool at room temperature for about an hour.

12. Take one macaron shell and spoon on some filling. I used cookie butter, but looking back I would of used something else less strong. Maybe some peanut butter cream.

13. Sandwich the filling with another macaron shell that is about the same size.

I put them in a fancy box to up the wow factor.

This was the second time I made macarons and I still messed up most of them from poor piping. I was still able to yield some passable one. Don't be discouraged if they don't come out like you hoped. Try try again!

Crème Brûlée

Crème Brûlée

Sugar... fire... there is nothing better. I recently got a kitchen torch and was planning on making a dessert that needed egg whites (next week's blog post). I hate to waste perfectly good egg yolks so I decided to make crème brûlée. It was surprisingly easy. Did I also mention that crème brûlée by nature is gluten free?  See the original recipe here: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/classic-creme-brulee.aspx. 

Some tips were found here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKEFiMnITXM

1. Move your oven rack to the middle position and preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. 

1. First separate 4 eggs. We've done it a ton of times on my blog, so hopefully you've gotten enough practice.

3. This recipes says you can use either vanilla extract or real vanilla. See the below picture for an indication of which I used.

Go big or go home. If you thought vanilla extract was expensive, wait until you use real vanilla. Each pod is about $1.33 at Costco. There is a reason people use vanilla seeds. It tastes so much better. To extract the vanilla seeds, simply cut the vanilla pod in half lengthwise with a knife. With the dull side of the knife, scrap out the seeds.Use the dull side since it prevents you from tearing the outer part of the pod.

4. It a sauce pan, combine the seeds, vanilla pod, and 1.75 cups of heavy cream. Whisk to combine, but do not over whisk. You want to minimize the amount of air that gets into the mixture. This is custard, not whipped cream.

Bring the vanilla cream up to a simmer. You'll know it is simmering when you see a few gentle bubbles, which will bring the seeds to the surface. Also start boiling a bunch of water (preferably in a tea kettle) which you will you later.

Once the cream is simmering, turn off the heat, cover, and let it cool for 10 minutes.

5. While the cream is cooling, whisk 4 cold egg yolks, 0.25 of a cup of granulated sugar, and a pinch of salt. Whisk just to break apart the yolks and combine them with the sugar, do not over whisk.

6. Check to see if the cream mixture is at or below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, if not, let is sit some more. If it has cooled (do not let it cool too much), whisk for 30 second 0.5 cups of the cream into the egg mixture to temper the eggs. This will gently bring the temperature of the egg yolks up without scrambling them.

7. Pour the rest of the cream in and mix for 15 seconds.

8. Filter the mixture with a sieve into a liquid measuring cup to catch any egg that cooked, the vanilla pods, and any other debris. You do however, want the seeds to end up in the mixture.

9. In a baking or roasting pan that is at least as tall as your ramekins, place 4 5 or 6 ounce ramekins. I've read that the shallower ones are better for crème brûlée since you have a larger surface area for the caramelized sugar. I don't have that type, but it still worked pretty well.

10. Equally divide the mixture amount the 4 ramekins. Open your oven, pull out the middle rack, and gently place pan onto the rack. Pour the boiling water into the corner of the pan to avoid splatter so that water come up to about 0.66 the height of the ramekins. The water helps the crème brûlée cook evenly and prevents cracking. The sugar should be what cracks, not the custard You do the same thing for cheesecake.

11.  Cook for 40 to 55 minutes. At 45 minutes the mixture was still liquid for me, but after 55 minutes, it was jello like and done.

12. Slide the oven rack partly out. With tongs, take out each of the ramekins onto a cooling rack.

Do not try to take them out the whole pan with hot water!!! You can take it out of the oven when the ramekins are out and the water has cooled.

Let the ramekins cool for about 30 minutes to room temperature, then place them in the fridge to let them cool even more. Once they have cooled down to fridge temperature, wrap them in plastic wrap and place them back in the fridge for 3 hours - 2 days. That is right, you can make them ahead of time.

13. Bring the crème brûlée to room temperature for serving. Carefully distribute brown sugar on top of the crème brûlée making sure there are no large chunks. You'll need more than you think to get that nice crunchy top layer.

14. Flame on!

15. Eat right away because the moisture from the custard will make the sugar layer mushy. You'll know you cooked the sugar correctly if you hear a crack when break the top layer.

Stay tuned for next week's post which will use the egg whites from same eggs as the crème brûlée.

Healthy Pasta? (Korean Stir Fry)

Healthy Pasta? (Korean Stir Fry)

Is it possible? A gluten free pasta that is packed with protein and fiber? I mean really protein packed. It is! Check out Explore Asian Organic Black Bean Spaghetti.

Each 2 ounce (56 grams) serving has 2 grams of fat (1 of which is saturated), 17 grams of carbs (15 of which is dietary fiber), and 25 grams of protein!

Korean Inspired Stir Fry

I want to thank my sister from another mister and mother for letting me cook this dish at her place.  Thanks NJL!!

 1. First get your ingredients (besides the sauce and the pasta) chopped and prepped. For me, this includes skinless chicken breasts and fresh veggies.

For stir fries, I like to use fresh veggies, not frozen or canned. Fresh veggies = crunchy veggies. Buy some in advance or use what you have. I happened to use a combo. My friend had some broccoli, I had some left over cabbage and spinach. I also bought some chopped stir fry veggies from Trader Joes. It includes: red and green cabbages, carrots, broccoli, jicama, bell peppers, radishes and celery.

If you have a whole broccoli, don't throw away the stem. Trim the rough part of the steam with a knife or a peeler. Chop the rest of the stem into bite size chunks and the resulting pieces will be crunchy, but tender when cooked.

2. Heat the pan, add some high smoking point oil like canola oil, then the chicken. Cook until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle.  This should take 10-15 minutes. The cooking time is shortened if the chicken is thawed ahead of time and  in bite size chunks. Constantly stir around the chicken to make sure it cooks evenly. At this point start boiling the water for the black bean pasta.

3. Place the chicken aside on a plate. Cook the veggies (except the spinach) in the leftover chicken juice. I also added a little bit of sesame oil to give the dish extra Koreaness. Yes that is a word. If the water is boiling, throw your pasta in. It needs 7-8 minutes. The only downside with the pasta is that it is extremely brittle right out of the package. It might get a little messy before you get the pasta into the boiling water, but trust me, it is worth it.

4. While the veggies are cooking, it is time to prepare the sauce. My sauce was 2 parts gochujang paste, 2 parts miso paste, 1 part honey, minced garlic to taste, and a dash of sesame oil. You will want to add a combination of rice vinegar and water to taste to loosen up the ingredients with a whisk. I like to whisk the sauce to a consistency resembling Pepto-Bismol .

Miso is available at some health foods stores, and both ingredients are available at Asian grocery stores. Miso is fermented soybean paste that comes in many varieties. It is salty and umami tasting, and contains many beneficial nutrients. Gochujang is sweet and spicy. Honestly, I would recommend you trying a little bit of both plain because it is hard to describe their taste besides being delicious.

5. Once the pasta is done cooking, empty the pasta into a colander. If the veggies are done, throw the pasta, chicken, sauce, and spinach in with the veggies and combine until the sauce is dispersed and the spinach has wilted.

I was going to write about using the black bean pasta to make spaghetti and meatballs, but the pictures I took were lost forever when my new phone crashed. Oh well. The tips I was going to give you all are:

•  add dark leafy greens like kale or spinach into the spaghetti sauce when you are cooking the meatballs in the sauce. Dark leafy greens add nice flavor and a health factor.
•  add some wine in the sauce if you have an open bottle on hand. This gives the sauce an extra x factor
• if too much liquid evaporates from your sauce, add some chicken or vegetable stock.