8 posts tagged “baking”
Macarons, the oh so cute cookies from France! My obsession started (i think) in December 2007 when macarons began to pop up on all the baking blogs. Every blog I visited, someone was making them. And, how could I not fall in love with them as well? They are tiny, have hundred of variations, and most of all, look like little hamburgers! Anything mini, I love. Only... I had never tasted a macaron! I was only in love with them visually.
A website I discovered, paris breakfasts, featured these little cookies occasionaly through adorable watercolor paintings. And my obsession could only grow!
I was determined to make them as well. But I had never tasted one! And as I read the recipes and guides online, I was petrified as I discovered that they are very very finicky cookies and have lots of problems! They don't like to rise, they crumble, they don't have feet, the temperature must be exact, there can't be too much humidity, you must set out your egg whites... so many complications! ...I decided I would wait until I had a lot of time before I tried.
Then, in March I went to New York and visited a French chocolate shop, La Maison du Chocolat - which, I knew had chocolate, but I was ecstatic when I glimpsed some macarons stacked very nicely on the side: I could finally taste a real macaron from France! And taste I did, I bought one of each flavor, 6 total, and happily munched on them for the next few days. Yum yum!
Of course... then I went to la France in July and tasted many many more macarons there - but that is another story! Today's story is how I finally made my own macarons, thanks to Christophe Felder!
I purchased his book, Les macarons de Christophe, which has wonderful explanations and step by step photos. Of course, it is entirely in French, but it only means more practice for me! (Shopping for books in France, that is an entirely different story as well!)
And so began my attempt at making these finicky macarons, 8 long months after the start of my obsession! There are 2 main methods of making macarons: The Italian style of boiling the sugar and bringing it to room temperature, and the French style of just mixing it all together. The Italian style is more effort, but more stable. The French style is picky as everything must be just right, no room for errors! I tried both, and both worked out well for me :D
And that's all for now, until next time!
A small charlotte! What is a charlotte, one asks? It's a french cake with ladyfingers soaked in a syrup that then surrounds a delicious fruit cream base, topped and filled with fruit, then drizzled with a clafoutis sauce! For mine, I used blueberries and bananas. Yum!
My roommates made a red velvet cake, and I stole just a teeny bit of batter to make a cupcake...
The right 2 are from Sprinkle Sprinkle and the Chinese New Year ones on the left are from here.
It's amazing what you can dig up using google image. Just some random images I found that I really like :)
Today I went to Sur la Table for the first time, and I loved it! Though, with a title like Sur la Table, I thought it would be a notch above Williams-Sonoma, but I found it to be more casual and less uppity. Not that I dislike Williams-Sonoma, but they are very high end - everything is extremely organized and uncommon. For example, Sur la Table carried products by Wilton, a mass market brand that Wal-Mart and Michaels also carries, but Williams-Sonoma never has. I was also surprised by how messy the store was. A ton of the displays were sloppy and seemed to be just piled up (unlike Sonoma which is always neatly stacked). And the clearance section, oh my! A pigsty. I don't mind at all, but it's just my observations of the store. (and I guess surprise too, because it was in such a high end area. but i think mainly the name threw me off - Sur la Table! Doesn't that sound expensive?). I bought a pack of 7 butterfly cookie cutters, it won't be until the summer when I use them, but at least they don't go bad! I found some dolphin/shark/turtle/fish sprinkles and fell in love. But I'm going to wait until May to buy them because I want them to be as fresh as possible (even though I know i'll more than likely be buying the same ones I saw today. Too cute. I already have a billion ideas of what I will do with them.) And speaking of ideas, I visited their website today and fell in love with their cookie examples for the cookie cutters they sell. Gorgeous. I'll let them speak for themselves.
Also, I ended up purchasing these from Amazon, can't wait to get them in:
I've also been eyeing these by Ateco, but I can't bare to fork up 25 dollars for them... yet. And I noticed they also have a 11 and 12 piece set - I'm so going for the 12! Why get 11 when I can get 12? I haven't figured out why they are so expensive either :(
I'm going to cave and purchase this book... too gorgeous...!
What's been inspiring me lately..
Swan lake for metals:
Really cool rings:
And Lucy Liu's terrible "shawl" thingy - i'm attracted to the cupcake-like quality of it!
