A French Icon

With its new found popularity, the French macaron is considered the new cupcake. In my opinion though, the two never could compare. Cupcakes are all good and well, but what do you get in a cupcake that you can't get in cake? The answer is nothing, except maybe portion control if your lucky. The macaron however, is something that compares to nothing else. The outside consists of a crispy, melt-in-your-mouth outer shell, while the middle contains the creamy filling, whatever it may be. Somehow, these two ingredients manage to become one, unlike cupcakes, which are clearly frosting plus cake. The macaron's outer meringue shell works together with the filling sandwiched within. I have made these cookies three times now, and feel pretty confident with my abilities, although I would prefer my outer shell to me firmer. For my recipe, I used a multitude of sources and did a lot of research prior. Essentially, all the methods are the same, but the techniques and quirks surrounding this petite cookie, vary just about as much as the flavors they can possess. I for one, am a huge advocate of aging my egg whites. I chose to age mine for forty-eight hours and leave them at room temperature for a good six hours before using them to bake. I also swear by weighing the ingredients. Some people insist on almond flour for the cookie, while others say to grind your own almonds. Although it is a lot more work, I have had better luck with grinding my own. Nonetheless, the process of making a macaron is not easy, and requires a lot of attention. This is not something that you can just pop in the oven and leave, you have to constantly plan for your next step, and prepare all of the ingredients before you even start. The put-together is time consuming, but worth it for the product. All the sifting of the powdered sugar and almond meal is a tedious job, and trying to decipher whether or not your sugar/almond mixture is folded enough, too little, or too much into the whipped egg whites can be difficult as well. It is truly all about studying and experience though, and I have certainly just begun my journey. Aside from this though, I absolutely adore making them, and I also love how much of a blank canvas they are for flavors. It also doesn't hurt that they are absolutely scrumptious!

I made macaron's for my mother's dear friend, and they came out lovely. Here are a couple of pictures and the flavor description of them...

Flavor #1: Pistachio Cookie with Pistachio Butter Cream

Flavor #2: Maple Cookie with Biscoff Spread Filling(The best flavor)

Flavor #3: Almond Cookie with Raspberry Butter Cream

Flavor #4: Chocolate Cookie with Chocolate Ganache

The macaron is so finicky, and takes a lot of practice. As you can see in my photo, some of the cookies appear cracked, while others are smooth and look fine. This is due to the cooking time. A matter of seconds, can take your macarons from undercooked, to perfectly cooked, to overcooked. You can even watch them overcook before your eyes, but it is often times, too late. I am proud of my progress so far, but rest assured, there will definitely be round 2, and 3, and 4. 

About time...

Well, after a long hiatus from the blogosphere, I am back with a whole slew of new desserts. I would like to begin by saying, that the past few weeks of not writing have aggravated me immensely, so this evening I have finally felt compelled enough to document one of the recipes that I have created during the absence.

A short time ago, my family and I hosted a birthday party for a dear friend. It was just a small crowd, but knowing my mother and I, the food was carefully thought out and in abundance to say the least. As usual, I was put in charge of desserts, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing being, is I absolutely love to bake. The bad thing, is that I am such an indecisive person, that all the magazines, websites, ideas, television shows, cookbooks, and menus make my decision making process a resolute nightmare. For this particular occasion, I thought that I would bypass this step, and the recipe choosing process would be a breeze. Although it started out that way, it certainly didn't end in the same fashion. Starting at the very beginning...

A week or so prior to the celebration, I was given a list of likes and dislikes by the birthday girl. Absolutely NO CHOCOLATE, and Carrot and Red Velvet weren't favorites either. With so little left to choose from, this was going to be a piece of cake right? Wrong. My initial plan, was to do Strawberry Cake with the lovely local strawberries we were getting, next I moved on to White Cake with Raspberry Filling and Vanilla Buttercream, following that it was an Almond Génoise with Raspberry Buttercream, moving onto complete and utter brain fry. Yes, my brain was shot. I had decided and re-decided so many times that I could honestly decide no more. My mother was sick of my endless debates regarding the pro's and con's of each cake, and I was in agony (epicurean agony, that is...totally self-inflicted). I decided to step away and devote my thoughts to other things.

4 Days Before the Party: I return to the cake matters with a much better attitude and an idea in my head. At the beginning of my search, I had fallen in love with a cake that required a copious amount of orange flower honey. Living in a not very food oriented town, I figured this find to be completely out of reach, so I abandoned the idea. Well, on a trip to the health food store a few days later, I stumbled upon orange flower honey with great excitement. Of course, I had to have it, but not at that time did I fully realize how I could utilize the honey. Once I arrived home, I was immediately brought back to this cake. Still cake-less, I took the discovery of the honey as a good omen, and forced myself into deciding right then and there, that I would make the cake that required the honey.

The cake was from Bon Appetit Desserts, and was titled "Apricot-Pistachio Torte with Honey Buttercream". Now, not exactly your typical birthday cake, but this was an adult party, so I figured that a grown-up birthday cake was appropriate. Also, this multiple step, challenge hadn't been documented in picture or reviews yet, so I was really taking my chances. I got the bee in my bonnet though, and begun the preparations. that began three days ahead of time.

On the first day, I made the Glazed Apricots. This required combining dried apricots, the honey, some sugar, and water in a small saucepan, and cooking them until they became syrupy and glossy. My first try was a failure, because I let them get too syrupy (way to syrupy, actually), so they caramelized and became adhered to my pan. On the second try, I came out with something much more like the recipe entailed; glossy, plump apricots still surrounding in the liquid they had cooked in. It technically didn't say to, but I opted to reserve this shimmery gold liquid, seeing that it tasted so wonderful, and possibly use it for who knows what.

Day two came, and it was time to make apricot preserves. The instruction for this step were essentially the same as making the glazed apricots, but instead of leaving them whole, I obviously pureed them with an immersion blender. The finished product was delicious, and the remains are still being used to glaze pork tenderloin.

Day three, or party day, was a hectic one. I had my SAT's on this day, and the weight of this cake was really pressing on my shoulders. With the uncertainty of the whole thing, I bought a boxed cake mix, just to be on the safe side.

After finishing my testing, I raced home to begin my preparation. I started with the cake. It was your classic génoise cake, and used ground pistachios in place of some of the flour. I folded egg whites into batters, melted butter into more batter, measured, calculated and made sure I followed the directions exactly. When finished preparing the parchment paper lined baking sheet, the complicated batter, and making sure everything else was in line, I poured the lovely green pistachio mixture into the prepared baking sheet and popped her into the oven. With that, I crossed my fingers and set the timer for five minutes less than advised. When the timer was up, I went to check the cake and to my surprise, it didn't need anymore time. Thank goodness, I didn't let it go longer!!!

While the cake cooled, I whipped together the most amazing buttercream that I had ever tasted it. Hinted with honey, this eighteen-tablespoons-of-butter-masterpiece, was enough to serve on its own. Next came the assemblage though, and my nerves resurfaced once again.

All in all, I was happy with the appearance of the naked cake, except for one side that seemed funny due to some crumpling in the parchment. It ended up being no bid deal, and was covered nicely with the frosting. The assembly process went,

Cake
Preserves
Buttercream

Cake
Preserves
Buttercream

and lastly...

Cake
Preserves
Buttercream

After frosting the entire cake, I sliced the glazed apricots in half and aligned them in rows on top of the rectangular shaped cake. Between the apricots, I piped more buttercream, and covered the sides in chopped pistachios. The cake was finished, and the most important part was still yet to come. All that work better taste good, I said to myself as I sat down to digest all that had happened that day.

Not too long after, the birthday girl arrived and we sat down to dinner. Before I knew it, the moment of truth had arrived, and I paraded the cake in for the traditional birthday song. Afterwards, I brought my baby back to the kitchen to cut. As I sliced into the cake, impressed with the look of the layers, I remembered the reserved apricot juice from the glazed apricots. If the cake was dry, this might just save it, I said optimistically. I plated the cake and brought it into the dining room. My mother, sitting next to me, had been very skeptical of this adventurous endeavor, and was not at all thrilled with my decision. She, would be the deal breaker. My mother took her first bite, and too my surprise responded with "Oh my gosh. This is actually really good." Yes! When my often-finicky father, asked for more, I knew I had triumphed.

The cake was a hit, and my mother casually forgot to send it home with the guests. She was all about it the next day.

P.S. The cake freezes like a dream.