Ladurée

While visiting New York City I finally had the opportunity to try the famous Ladurée macarons. After reading and hearing so much about these delicate treats the expectations were quite high. However, I was not disappointed.

Located on Madison Ave in the Upper East Side, the retails shop is adorably delightful. Macaron towers adorn the windows and the shelves, and of course, the trays upon trays of macarons are proudly on display behind the counter. I learned from the staff that these macarons are prepared daily in Paris and shipped across the ocean 3-4 times per week; these French pastries are authentically French.

The packaging for these treats is just as lovely as they are themselves so I ordered an Arabesque box of 8 macarons and headed to the Pond in Central Park to enjoy a couple (i.e. I ate all of them within 2o minutes). 

From top left: cassis-violet, salted butter caramel, rose, lime-basil, strawberry candy, lemon, chocolate and blood orange-ginger. 

The texture was unreal. Why can't I get my shells that thin?! Each macaron had the same consistent texture which was pretty remarkable considering the fillings ranged from creams to ganaches to marshmallows to gelees. 

Not a single air pocket, not a single crack, and beautiful, perfect feet. The chefs at Ladurée definitely know what they're doing. If I had to choose a favourite though, it would be the cassis-violet. The filling was perfectly tart and sweet. Salted butter caramel is a close second, and rose takes third place.

I enjoyed these treats so much I went back to Ladurée the next day. And the one after that. I spent an embarrasingly huge amount of money on macarons, but they were worth it. They were certainly one of the highlights of my trip to NYC.

And maybe next time I'll taste them in Paris.

-Danielle

sweet and sour

The summer season is winding down and while I'm anticipating all the delicious fall flavours that are going to popularize every treat menu (i.e. pumpkin), I want to hold on to sunshine and flip flops for as long as possible. Citrus epitomizes summer fresh and makes the perfect, refreshing flavour for any treat.

This was also a great opportunity to showcase some new macaron fillings; typically, macarons are filled with ganache, buttercream or a jam; I found a great recipe for lemon curd that can be adapted for any citrus fruit. Thus, a trifecta of lemon, lime and grapefruit citrus curd macarons was born.

Citrus curd filling:

recipe yields 1 cup

Ingredients:  

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup citrus juice

2 eggs

2 egg whites

5 tbsp butter

1/4 cup zest

2 tbsp corn starch

Directions:

In a double boiler, combine sugar, citrus juice, egg whites and eggs and whisk together until mixture thickens (10 minutes). Remove from heat, stir in butter, zest and corn starch. Cover and refrigerate until set (4 hours). 

The corn starch is added in this recipe in order to make a thicker, more stable filling; there's nothing worse than anticipating the most delicious bite of a macaron, only to have its guts spill everywhere as you chomp down. 

I prepared the shells according to this recipe. After letting the macarons set overnight I sampled one: the juxtaposition of sweetness from the shells and tartness from filling is probably the best thing I've ever tasted. These macs are definitely my new favourite, and will  help with the summer withdrawal (along with my nail polish). 

Happy baking!

-Danielle

bubblegum macarons

It's been a while since I've made macarons. Well, not really a while - a few weeks - but it was enough of a break to get me excited about making them again. I even got to have fun with the flavours this time around. 

I prepared them according to the French recipe and they came out beautifully. I used powdered food colouring in the shells and saved the flavour extract for the filling. Care to guess what it was?

I'll save you the suspense - it was bubble gum! Delicious, delicious bubble gum. Each bite tasted like a trip back to childhood where I would personally challenge myself to chewing as much gum in one mouthful as possible. Turns out I could chew a lot of gum.

Packaged and ready to serve!

-Danielle

ganache

Last week I attended a chocolate making workshop to better grasp how the experts craft such wonderful treats that I eat too much of. We made truffles and chocolate pieces and even a lava cake. I also discovered that different spices can add a world of flavour to classic ganache.

To put my new lessons to use I made some chocolate macarons with a cinnamon-ginger ganache filling made from bittersweet Belgian chocolate. They were heaven. 

The spices were subtle but definitely detected. I only wish I had tried this sooner... 


The macaron recipe I used can be found here. 


Chocolate Ganache:
Ingredients:
1 cup whipping cream (35%)
1 cup semisweet (or bittersweet) chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup butter
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger


Combine chocolate, cinnamon and ginger in a metal or heat safe bowl. In a pan, bring cream and butter to a boil over medium heat. Once boiled, remove from heat and pour into bowl with chopped chocolate and spices and let rest for a moment, then whisk together to combine. Whisk until everything is incorporated then set aside to set. If placed in refrigerator ganache will take approximately 2 hours to set up; at room temperature it will take longer. 

Enjoy!


-Danielle

winter warm-up

With winter weather in full swing I'm always seeking a delicious way to warm up. Hot chocolate seems like a natural choice. Chili hot chocolate is even better. The best choice to me, however, is a chili hot-chocolate macaron. These treats are sweet and splendid...

...and spicy. Almond macaron shells were sprinkled and baked with cayenne pepper and hot chocolate buttercream (buttercream with Nestle hot cocoa powder) was spiked with ancho chili pepper. This is a treat that will warm the body and the senses. 

Best to enjoy these with a glass of cold milk.

-Danielle

gingerbread everything

Now that we've entered the official countdown to the holidays it's time to start some festive baking projects. This week I took the opportunity to use my favourite holiday flavour in many different recipes: gingerbread.

Even though I used half of the recipe that I usually use, I still ended up with almost 200 of these little gingerbread men. The next thought was to use the extras as cupcake toppers which gave me the excuse to make some gingerbread cupcakes. 

Cupcakes were baked with molasses, ground ginger, allspice and cinnamon - just like the cookies - and covered with a generous swirl of cinnamon buttercream. I think the smiles on the gingerbread men cookies just got bigger.

The last baking endeavour involved my favourite confections: macarons. I simply added the ground spices (ginger, cinnamon and allspice) to the dry ingredients before folding. Once cooled they were filled with a fragrant ginger-orange buttercream. 

As much as I enjoy the Christmas season for all it represents: time spent with family and good friends, gift-giving, a much-needed break from studying/research, I'm pretty certain the best aspect is the food. Let the holiday baking begin!

-Danielle

no tricks, just treats.

Now that I'm too big to get dressed up and try to swindle the neighbours of their candy, it's up to me to create my own treats. 

 

Plain almond macaron shells were sandwiched with a yummy whipped chocolate ganache (pretty much mousse) filling. Macarons are probably my favourite treat, but when they turn out badly...

 

Absolutely terrifying. Nothing is scarier to this baker than a dreaded macawrong. This one was baked at the back corner of the baking sheet and probably received a bit too much heat from the oven. I'm still trying to figure out how to diffuse the new oven's hotspots in addition to using the convection setting.

Next up: going all-out pumpkin and trying these with a pumpkin buttercream. Or eating these ones all to myself the way they are. Probably both. 


Happy Halloween everyone :)

-Danielle

neapolita[macaro]ns

I had wanted to try this out for quite some time and with another afternoon spent indoors due to inclement weather, I decided to give it a whirl. Neapolitan ice cream has been my favourite flavour (because there's three!) since I was a kid and I figured a macaron cookie would be a delightful way to capture the vanilla, chocolate and strawberry flavours. The two shells are each vanilla and chocolate with a strawberry buttercream filling.

I used the same macaron recipe I always use except I added 10g cocoa powder to the dry ingredients for the chocolate shells. The buttercream was also my standard swiss meringue buttercream recipe with 1/4 cup pureed strawberries and 0.5mL strawberry extract added.

While this certainly aren't the most well-executed batch I've made (I think I overmixed the batter for the shells), I love the three colour combination and the flavour reminds me of ice cream. I'd conclude that it was a success and I encourage you to try it as well!


-Danielle

butterscotch macarons

In the limbo between post-afternoon sun and pre-evening long weekend festivities, I find myself back in the kitchen trying out new macaron flavours. I had previously made salted caramel macarons and I loved the contrast between the sea salt and saccharine flavours; this time I traded in the refined sugar for good ol' fashioned brown.

A. Macaron shells
recipe yields 1-2 dozen macarons

 

Ingredients:

110g ground almond 

200g powdered sugar

90g egg whites

25g brown sugar

Directions:
The full recipe for french macarons can be found here. Combine ground almond and powdered sugar; set aside. Using a mixer on high speed, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Add brown sugar (this can be temperamental! For more predictable results, substitute with 25g white sugar) and continue to mix until sturdy peaks form and mixture resembles shaving cream. Add dry ingredients to meringue mixture and fold until all ingredients are incorportated. Transfer mixture to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and begin piping 1 inch circles of batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in oven at 300F and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until just before shells begin to brown.


B. Butterscotch

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 whipping cream

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 tsp sea salt

Directions:
Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat; add brown sugar and mix thoroughly. Stir infrequently until mixture resembles magma, then add cream. Turn the heat to high and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Take mixture off stove top and let cool before adding salt and vanilla. 


C. Swiss meringue buttercream
recipe yields 2 cups

Ingredients: 

2/3 cup egg whites

1 cup white sugar

2 cups butter (4 sticks)

Directions:
Heat egg whites in a double boiler stirring frequently so that egg whites do not become cooked. Slowly add sugar and mix thoroughly for about 5 minutes or until mixture reaches 55F. Transfer mixture to mixing bowl and whip on high until stiff peaks form. Switch mixer attachment to paddle and slowly incorporate butter. Turn the speed up until mixture becomes uniform. Add butterscotch and continue to mix until incorporated and mixture is creamy. 


Now you can add the buttercream to the macaron shells, and voila! Delicious.

Give it a try! Any leftover butterscotch can be used as topping for ice cream or other desserts.

-Danielle 

macarons 102: Italian meringue

I've been making (I use the term loosely; ruining and massacring also frequently apply) macarons for nearly a year and I've been a firm adherent of the French meringue method (recipe here). I've gotten the hang of it and have even learned to troubleshoot some bad outcomes but it's still an incredibly temperamental process and the results are hardly guaranteed even when the steps are followed to the letter. I've decided to finally give the Italian meringue method a go. It may seem daunting and certainly requires more utensils, but it's worth it. The main difference between this method and the French meringue method is the added step of "cooking" the meringue mixture.

Ingredients: 

60g + 60g egg whites

35g + 150g sugar

150g icing sugar

150g ground almonds

50ml water

Directions:
Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Use a food processor to grind icing sugar and almonds until fine (this is not 100% required, but you'll have much smoother shells if you take the time to complete this step) and set aside in large mixing bowl.  Using a stand mixer, whip 60g egg whites until soft peaks form and then add 35g sugar. Keep beating until mixture reaches firm peaks and has a consistency like shaving cream.  At the same time, bring water and 150g sugar to a rolling boil; heat syrup mixture until it registers 118C on a candy thermometer. 

Once the syrup reaches desired temperature, remove from heat and slowly add to the whipped meringue by dripping it down the side of the mixing bowl. Continue to whip this mixture at medium speed until a shiny Italian meringue forms. 

Back to the dry ingredients: add the remaining 60g of egg whites to the dry mixture and fold until it's incorporated; this will moisten the dry ingredients so that the Italian meringue will fold into it easier. Add the Italian meringue to the not-so-dry ingredients and begin folding. Unlike the French meringue method, you can fold this batter a little more aggressively as the cooked meringue is stable and more resistant to over-mixing. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a coupler and large circular tip with the batter and pipe small discs about 1 inch in diameter and 2 inches apart on baking sheet. 

Preheat oven to 300F. While oven preheats, let the macarons rest for about 15 minutes. This lets a skin form on the shells which helps maintain the shape while cooking. Bake macarons for about 12-16 minutes, or longer if necessary. 

These macarons are much more uniform than what I usually get from the French method and the feet are much higher. The batter is also a little firmer so the macarons come out exactly the same size they're piped which makes uniformity much easier to achieve. Best of all: no dreaded air pocket!

 I sandwiched these macarons with some grape buttercream. I'm really happy with how these turned out and will probably stick with this recipe from now on. Give it a try! I wish you ruffly feet and happy macaronage. 


-Danielle

i love macarons

It's been a while since I've made macarons, mostly due to the fact that the last few batches had really inconsistent results and I've been discouraged from trying again. One batch had shells that wouldn't even lift off the baking paper, another batch completely deflated after being taken out of the oven, and some cracked beyond recognition. But, I so much enjoy the challenge of baking these delightful sandwich cookies and the feeling of accomplishment that comes with an edible product that I decided to attempt them yet again. Waiting patiently for the feet to appear generates a suspense I've yet to experience from anything else. I know, I'm lame. I decided to go beyond chocolate and experiment with some different flavours this time. I used the French meringue method described here.

Mocha macarons (coffee shells with dark chocolate ganache)

 
You can't go wrong with coffee and chocolate, and macarons are no different. Yum.

Strawberry macarons (almond shells with strawberry buttercream)

While the shells weren't as smooth as I would have liked, the texture on their insides was great and the flavour was really bold. I could probably ease up on the vanilla in the buttercream and just focus on the berry next time.

Tangerine macarons (tangerine shells with vanilla-tangerine buttercream)

This might be the best looking batch I've made so far. The shells are as smooth as I've ever seen them and there are no air pockets between the outer shell and inner feet. It takes a lot of playing around with oven temperatures and timing to get these cookies right. 

Pistachio macarons with chocolate ganache

These were hands down the trickiest macarons I've ever attempted. I used a food processor to grind the pistachios into powder, but I was left with small chunks; I then thought to use a coffee grinder to make the mixture finer... and ended up with pistachio paste. I didn't even think about the oil content. So my pistachio powder ended up like guacamole and had to be chucked. I used what little powder was created and mixed it into the dry ingredients, then sprinkled the coarse bits on top of the shells after piping.

Pina colada macarons (coconut shells with pineapple-coconut buttercream)

I love cocktail-inspired desserts (see: daiquiri cookies and margarita cupcakes) and macarons are no exception. I ground up some dessicated sweetened coconut (30g) and added it to the dry ingredients. I also sprinkled some coconut on top of the shells after they were piped so that it'd toast in the oven. And because of love coconut so much, I added it to some pineapple-flavoured buttercream. Om nom nom.


Salted caramel macarons (almond shells with salted caramel buttercream)

Macarons can be intensely sweet, so I found a recipe that would cut through the sweetness by adding sea salt, and it was gooood. These macarons reminded me of caramel corn. I added some gold luster dust to the shells shortly after they were piped and before the batter had hardened to create a nice finish.

Pink almond macarons (with chocolate ganache)

I went back to an easy favourite with just plain almond shells and a rich dark chocolate ganache filling, but I dolled them up with hot pink food gel.

With the sense of encouragement that comes from a job well done, I can't wait to experiment with some more ingredients (matcha, lavender, lemon-mascarpone). What flavour combinations are you curious to try?

-Danielle

dessert for 30

Tonight I am hosting a get-together/party and I got the opportunity to create my first desert table. My favourite colour palette of the moment is brown and green; so simple, yet so elegant, so I decided to prepare a bunch of different treats all adhering to this theme. I also got to mix and match some of my favourite flavours too! 

These are some simple sugar cookies (with whole wheat flour) decorated with lime green royal icing and finished with a milk chocolate wafer centre. 

Margarita cake: margarita lime cake filled with tequila-lime buttercream, covered in brown fondant and finished with macaron shells and a gum paste anemone. This cake was so much fun to make, but I found myself eating more of the leftovers than I should have...

Brownie cupcakes with lime green vanilla buttercream. I especially love how the colour palette turned out on these!

Although my kitchen is a disaster and every cake pan/spatula/utensil is waiting patiently in the sink to be cleaned, I am really pleased with how everything turned out. Hopefully my guests agree! 

-Danielle

macarons 101

Now, I'm not a French pastry chef by any standards (and I've certainly produced an ugly batch or two), but I've had luck on my side the last few times I've made macarons so I'm sharing my tips for success with you. First off, make sure you have all the necessary ingredients and tools prepared beforehand. The last thing you want is overbeaten meringue because you're too busy pouring almond powder or fiddling with piping bags. This recipe is for chocolate macarons, but if you are looking for plain almond macarons then simply omit the cocoa powder and make up the difference in powdered sugar. A stand mixer is ideal although you can use a hand mixer or *gasp* elbow grease and a whisk. 

A food scale is also quite helpful. Many macaron recipes measure ingredients with standard cup sizes, but I find the accuracy of a scale makes a huge difference in getting the proportions just right.

Ingredients:

90g egg whites
25g granulated sugar
190g powdered sugar
110g ground almonds
10g cocoa powder

Directions:

In a stand mixer with whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a light foam and begin gradually adding the granulated sugar until a meringue forms. You don't want to beat the meringue into stiff peaks, but rather until it reaches the consistency of shaving cream. If you want to add colouring or extract to your macarons, do it at this stage.

This is what your meringue should look like
before you fold in the dry ingredients!

While meringue is mixing, add powdered sugar (icing sugar is a decent substitute), ground almonds, and cocoa powder in separate bowl. Sift your ingredients to remove any lumps. Grind the almonds and powdered sugar together in a food processor until coarse clumps of almond are removed.  Add the dry ingredients to the meringue and fold the mixture using a spatula until everything is incorporated. *This is the tricky part!* You don't want to over-mix the batter or your macarons won't rise, won't have feet, will crack, and will generally be maca-wrong. Fold the mixture carefully until the batter falls back on itself or forms a thick flowing ribbon when dripped from the spatula.. A good rule of thumb is not to exceed 50 strokes (thanks, Tartelette!). Fill a pastry bag fitted with a coupler and plain circular tip with the batter and pipe small discs about 1 inch in diameter and 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (I've cheated with wax paper and it sometimes works, but parchment is a better bet). The batter should just barely drip out the pastry bag tip, but not be so runny as to cause a mess. If it's not mixed enough then fold it some more. If you get perfect macarons your first try, then you have found your calling in life.

Once piped onto the baking sheet let the macarons sit for about 15 minutes before popping them in the oven. This allows the shells to form a skin that keeps them from cracking in the oven or sinking into themselves when they come out. It also helps the formation of feet. While the macarons rest, preheat the oven to 300F. Once oven is at temperature bake macarons for 14-18mins. 

Let the macarons cool completely before attempting to remove them from the baking sheet. Most of this batch came out well, and some of my macaron shells came out near perfect, like this one above.

A couple of them, however, came out as cracked almond discs. Which is fine with me because I get to eat the rejects. I suspect this happened because my oven burns hotter towards one side. Alternatively, this may be the result of a portion of batter being overmixed. No clue. You can also use the less-than-perfect shells as bottoms to the macaron sandwiches.

Macarons were at one point in history fused together while warm without any filling... but that's no fun. I filled this batch with some leftover Bailey's swiss meringue buttercream. Pipe about 1 tablespoon of buttercream onto a macaron cookie. Then find the other half that's about the same size (which they all should be but never are). Smoosh them together. Then eat them all.


*macarons can be stored in an air tight container in the refridgerator for up to a week or in the freezer up to a month; however, I am unable to resist eating mine and have thus never had any for storage, so I can't guarantee this is true.

Good luck, I wish smooth shells and beautiful feet for your macarons!

-Danielle