Macaron, Not Macaroni!

Recently I have had an obsession with macarons, which is very odd since I don't believe I've actually ever had one. I am not French pro, but according to research I have done, there are macarons and macaroons. Macaroons could be the same thing with the English translation, or they can be a hard coconut or coarse almond paste cookie. Macaron is the sandwich cookie made with egg whites. Here is a picture of each:





I have had an odd obsession with the colorful ones. I just think they're so pretty. Every picture of them I see only makes me want it more! It started a while back when I saw something on TV about Ludaree in Paris. From what I hear, these are the Chanel of macarons. In fact, they even teamed up with Christian Louboutin for designer cookies. They have multiple flavors, which are represented by the different colors. They're a work of art. Being a home baker, I have decided to give these a whirl. I found this website which gave great detailed instructions on how to go about it: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/10/how-to-make-macarons-recipe.html . (This recipe took a long time.)

I had some mishaps in my baking. First, I decided Saturday morning that I wanted to make these, and being impatient, I did not let my egg whites sit overnight. I would definitely NOT do the again. Second, I was unable to find ground almonds, so I had to improvise. I bought diced almonds, measured the grams and placed them in a Ziploc bag. I then took all my aggression out and hammered them until they were as close to ground as I could get them. I would recommend this ONLY if you can't find the ground almonds. There were still small chunks I didn't get, and it gave my cookies a speckled look. Also, I think I made the mistake of mixing the batter too much. After pouring in the sugar/almond dry mixture, I think I folded the batter a few times too many. This was probably because I wanted pretty colors, so then divided the batter into 4 bowls and then mixed some gel food coloring in. Next time I will have to remember to take that into account while mixing the entire batch. And lastly, when I was removing the cookies from the parchment paper a lot of them stuck. The bottoms of most of them were not very hard. It made removing them very difficult and caused me to throw out a bunch of cookies.

All in all, my cookies tasted great, but I feel they could have looked better. Have a look for yourself.
Finished product:




Right after they came out of the oven:


Before the oven:

Fondant Fun!

Last winter I took a basic cake decorating class and LOVED it. Since then, I've used every opportunity I can to show off my skills. Also, the more I do it, the better I get. Last month, I felt the need to step my game up. So I moved into the big leagues and started playing with fondant. I did not venture into making my own yet, but I did add some vanilla extract into the Wilton rolled white fondant to add some flavor. I then used gel food coloring to dye it the colors I wanted. Getting a true red was very hard. I used A LOT of food coloring and still wasn't truly happy with the results. Plus, my hands were red for the rest of the day. I needed black fondant for a Groom's cake I was asked to create, so I also bought a large tub of black, vanilla fondant. I seriously doubt if I would've been able to dye the white fondant black using food coloring.

I had worked with fondant one other time (the open book cake I made for a bridal shower), so I had a little experience. I did the rest from watching so many baking shows and reading up on tips people posted online. I had a hard time at the end polishing the cake to give that WOW factor, but I think I did a pretty good job. Here are the two cakes I made. The Windows logo cake was for a Windows 7 Launch Party that Doug and I hosted and the other was the Groom's cake I mentioned earlier. The heart and skull is the symbol of the band Alkaline Trio and I filled the cake with homemade cannoli filling*. He was very surprised and loved it, which made me and his beautiful bride very happy.







*The homemade cannoli filling, was so easy and delicious I would recommend giving it a whirl. Here's the recipe I used:

3 c. very dry ricotta
1 c. granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
Chocolate chips

Drain ricotta in a colander until very dry, overnight or longer if necessary. Mix with sugar and vanilla. Beat with electric mixer at high speed for 8-10 minutes. Fold in some chocolate chips and use to fill cannoli or between cake layers. Fills about 15-18 cannoli.

Also, make sure to let the filling sit in the fridge to settle. It will be firmer and the flavors will really blend. I also saw this idea online that sounds like a great idea: http://www.bigredkitchen.com/2009/10/cannoli-bites.html. I didn't get a chance to try that, but I am thinking I may try it for Thanksgiving.

Mmm Mmm Marinade

The past few times Doug and I made some steaks at home, we used the easy-breezy Jack Daniels Honey Teriayki marinade bags. And they came out delicious. However, I was bored the other night and decided we should try our hand at our own marinade. I've created my own for chicken before (mixing EVOO, white wine, garlic, rosemary, thyme, S&P) and it worked well, so how hard could steak be? I'm a big fan of trying new things and changing recipes when I get them, but Doug likes to follow the book. He looks up recipes and the best ways to cook things, which does pay off, but I'd rather experiment! Why am I telling you this? Because Doug brought home the ESPN Game Day Gourmet cookbook (we <3 football) and that is where I got the idea for my steak marinade. And in true 24 year old fashion, I didn't quite have my pantry stocked, so I got to substitute some ingredients. So here's my version of the marinade (apologies if some things aren't exact):

Few tablespoons of EVOO
Juice of freshly squeezed limes (about 1 and 1/2 limes - what we had in our fridge)
1 Tbsp. honey
1/2 cup red wine (ESPN notes you can sub in JD, brandy, or dark beer)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 onion, chopped (we technically only used 3/4 of an onion - again, what we had left)
1 tsp. cinnamon
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper

Simply combine all the ingredients. Place the steak in a Ziploc bag with the marinade and let sit for a day before cooking. Also, we slice the top of the steak a little bit so it's absorbed more. This marinade is enough for 2 lbs. of steak. And feel free to experiment on your own - one example is using lemons instead of limes, that's what ESPN's version calls for!

I should also mention, we live in NYC and do not have a grill to throw this bad boy on. We simply put our oven on broil and cook each side for 6 minutes and then let it rest out of the oven. Also, wrap your pan in tin foil to make clean up A LOT easier.

Throw some veggies and mashed potatoes on the side and you got yourself a great meal!

*Apologies for not taking pictures.