Strawberry Lemonade Macarons

After many trials, I finally made some successful macarons. They're still not perfect, but they're heading in the right direction and they taste great, so I consider that a mini-success. Citrus right now is at its best, so I've been trying to use it as much as possible. When my parents had friends over, I made them meyer lemon ice cream, pistachio crumble, and a blackberry compote. Unfortunately, I didn't get to photograph it, but hopefully I well get to make it again, with some photos. For these macarons, I didn't use meyer lemons, but I'm sure they would do well with this recipe.





A little while ago, I was browsing one of my favorite blogs, Cannelle et Vanille, when I came across a recipe for raspberry macarons that used raspberry powder. I did a little research to find out that it was dehydrated raspberries crushed into a powder. The macarons sounded so good, I knew I had to make them, or at least try to. But raspberry powder is a tricky thing to find anywhere but online. I was a little defeated and kind of gave up on the idea, as I didn't really want to order anything online at that moment.

So, one day I was at Trader Joe's, just getting some groceries, when I noticed they had a selection of dehydrated fruits, like strawberries and bananas. I threw some in the basket and didn't use them for a couple months. But then, the other day, I saw them at the back of the cabinet and decided I would try out my idea. I took the dehydrated strawberries and finely chopped them, then used a bench scraper to pulverize the strawberries and I was left with a fine powder. I proceeded to make the macarons, and they turned out well. They have a nice, subtle strawberry flavor. If you happen to see any other kinds of dehydrated fruits, I suggest you try them out!

Strawberry Macarons
Adapted from Cannelle et Vanille

140 grams egg whites
3 grams egg white powder
80 grams sugar
180 grams almond flour
240 grams powdered sugar
2 grams salt
8 grams dehydrated strawberry powder
2 drops red gel food coloring

Let the egg whites come to room temperature, uncovered, overnight.

Sift together the almond flour, powdered sugar, salt, and strawberry powder.

Whip the egg whites in a stand mixer with the egg white powder until frothy, and almost to stiff peaks. Add the sugar gradually while whipping. Add the red food coloring and continue whipping to stiff peaks.

Add the dry ingredients to the meringue and fold with a spatula until a shiny meringue forms. The batter should make ribbons when the whisk attachment is pulled off the mixer.

Once you have the right consistency, place the batter in a pastry bag with a large, circular tip. Pipe small rounds onto sheetpans lined with parchment or silpat. You can use a cookie cutter or other template to draw perfect circles on the other side of the parchment paper. Let them sit at room temperature for at least 45 minutes to an hour. The top should be shiny and dry before being put in the oven.

Preheat the oven 300 degrees F. Place one sheetpan in the oven at a time and bake for 8 minutes and rotate sheetpan and bake for another 2-3 minutes.

For amazing, very specific directions, I suggest you go to Tartelette's Macaron Tutorial. It is about half way down the main page, on the right side.

Lemon Curd

1 stick butter
5 egg yolks, lightly beaten
3/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a double broiler, melt butter completely, then remove top of double broiler from heat, but leave the water to boil.

Add lemon juice, sugar, lemon zest, and salt to melted butter and stir thoroughly. Put back over heating water, and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Add egg yolks to the mixture, and continue to whisk over medium heat until it is a custard consistency and coats the back of a wooden spoon and leaves a clean trail when a finger is dragged across. Do not let it boil.

Remove from heat and let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes, then cover surface with plastic wrap, pressing down so that a skin does not form on the top. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before using.

You will have a little left over if using this recipe for the buttercream (below).

Lemon Curd Buttercream

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup lemon curd
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar (or more for correct consistency)

Combine ingredients in a stand mixer until smooth. You may need more powdered sugar for a frosting consistency that you can pipe.

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Holidays and Cookies

As Christmas is around the corner, i've been sending out our holiday cookies to family and friends. I decided to make our tags this year with some new software I got. I have a font-downloading addiction.

In our holiday cookie bags/boxes there were: vanilla-chocolate swirls, white chocolate cranberry walnut cookies, vanilla sugar cookies, orange pecan shortbread, & chocolate chip shortbread.

When i did a holiday crafts fair (i sold holiday cookie bags) earlier this month, i also did a lemon shortbread & white chocolate-dipped chocolate peppermint cookies.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, whether you celebrate Christmas, or not.
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Lemon Ginger Sandwich Cookies

I'm not much of a tea drinker. I usually think it smells kind of weird and makes the back of my tongue feel scratchy. But all that is changing. I had a sip of my friend's chai tea the other day (we snuck it into a movie, shh!) and it was tasty. So that night I had some peppermint tea. It was so refreshing and reminded me of the holidays coming up.




I saw a cup of Lemon Ginger tea on the counter, and I tried that. As soon as I tasted it, I knew that whatever I made this weekend was going to have those flavors. The acidity of the lemon goes perfectly with the gentle earthy flavors of ginger. I wasn't loving the idea of a lemon ginger cake at the time, although I'm sure it would be interesting, so I went with cookies.



I love making roll-out cookies because you can get those nice crisp shapes. Again, I don't usually love roll-out cookies, but I tasted a little of this cookie and it is good all by itself. If you like that kind of cookie better, then just don't frost them. You will be pleasantly surprised. You will see a lot of cookies soon because I'm going to be running a booth at a holiday crafts fair with my cookies. I'll try and take pictures when I make the bags, but no guarantees because I will probably be covered in flour and entirely frantic by the time I will be ready to photograph them. Have a nice weekend!

Ginger Cookies

2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup mild molasses

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl, then set aside. In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then, add the molasses. Once smooth, add dry ingredients and mix well. Transfer the dough onto some plastic wrap, and pack tightly. Put the dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

After chilling, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll the dough out on a floured piece of parchment paper until 1/4" thick. Using a cutter of your choice, cut out shape and transfer to parchment lined sheet pans. Bake for around 12 minutes, until only slightly darker around the edges. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 2 hours before frosting.

Lemon Buttercream

1.5 sticks butter
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon lemon oil
Zest of one medium lemon

Combine ingredients in a stand mixer. Transfer to a piping bag with a small, plain, tip.

Assembly
Ice a circle slightly inside the border of the cookie and fill the circle. Place another cookie on top and press lightly. These store well in the fridge up to a week.

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Bake Sale

I'm sorry! I baked 6 kinds of cookies for a bake sale I held on Wednesday for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation, but it was too dark to photograph. I just didn't have time to do it in the morning, so instead, I post a photo-less entry. Makes me so sad. I made chocolate sandwich cookies, vanilla-lemon sandwich cookies, chocolate caramel shortbread, chocolate chip cookies (got help with these as I was about to fall asleep and cry from exhaustion at 10:00 pm), lemon bars, & vanilla raspberry sandwich cookies. I made some money for the foundation, which was great, but I still wish I'd been able to show how nice they looked all together. I hope I can make something soon, but these next couple weeks are my finals, so I'll be going crazy as is. Hope you're enjoying summer so far.
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S'mores Cookies

I've been trying to make these for a long time. For some reason, I just could not get the marshmallows to work. I realized it was that I couldn't get the temperature of the sugar/water/corn syrup to the soft-ball stage. I was using this small thermometer that involved holding it over the burner for long periods of time. I'd end up burned and frustrated. It hurt so badly, I'd just call it done. But this is a very important step, so buy yourself a good candy thermometer if you ever want to make marshmallows. As summer starts to make its appearance in Seattle, I start thinking about camping and being outdoors. I'm leaving for a school trip involving camping next week, which also inspired me to make these. While best served warm, these s'mores are a good cookie interpretation. Next time, I would make the marshmallow much thinner. These were sort of unmanageably large. But they worked, so I thought I'd post them.



Marshmallows
From Martha Stewart

2 envelopes (each 1 scant tablespoon) unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Vegetable-oil cooking spray

Coat a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray; line with parchment paper. Spray parchment; set aside. Pour 1/3 cup cold water into the bowl of an electric mixer. Sprinkle with gelatin; let mixture soften, about 5 minutes.
Place sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/3 cup water in a medium saucepan. Cover; bring to a boil. Remove lid; cook, swirling pan occasionally, until syrup reaches 238 degrees (soft-ball stage) on a candy thermometer, about 5 minutes.
With mixer on low speed, whisk gelatin mixture, and slowly pour the syrup in a steady stream down the side of the bowl (to avoid splattering). Gradually raise speed to high; beat until mixture is thick, white, and has almost tripled in volume, about 12 minutes. Add vanilla, and beat 30 seconds to combine.
Pour mixture onto prepared baking sheet; smooth with an offset spatula. Let stand at room temperature, uncovered, until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight.
Coat cookie cutter with cooking spray to prevent it from sticking. Cut out as many individual marshmallows as possible; coat cutter with more spray as needed. Use marshmallows immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.



Graham Crackers
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup honey
5 tablespoons whole milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Combine ingredients in food processor in order of the ingredients listed above. Once combined, remove dough from food processor and shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 4 hours. Once chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out to 1/4" thickness on a floured surface. Using same cutters used for marshmallows, cut out the dough and place on a sheet pan lined with parchment. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 1 hour.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 oz dark chocolate
4 teaspoons vegetable oil

Melt chocolate over a double broiler. Once melted, add vegetable oil until combined completely.



Assembly:

Dab a little chocolate on the inside of 2 graham crackers. Stick one cut-out marshmallow in between and place on sheet pan. Do this for all your graham crackers/marshmallows. Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes, so the chocolate can stiffen a little. After 20 minutes, take out your sheet pans, and dip the graham crackers/marshmallows into the chocolate glaze (dip however much of the cookie into the chocolate as you like, I did about half the cookie). Make sure your sheet pans have parchment or wax paper on them, and place the dipped cookies on the sheet pan. Place bake into refrigerator until glaze has hardened.

I didn't try heating them back up to serve, but I got that suggestion from a couple people, and thought that was a great idea.
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