Mad about Macarons!

These last few weeks have flown by, remember those red and green macarons I was supposed to make for a cookie exchange?  I never got to them... 

But, I got some great gifts this year!  

I had my five year anniversary at work and was gifted a digital scale (yes, I picked this).

I also was gifted the Mad about Macarons book for Christmas.  This has been on my wishlist for months! 

http://madaboutmacarons.com/

I used Jill's recipe and technique and the macarons came out great!  I used the basic recipe, and added a little red food coloring.  It does not really show in the image but the macarons are a light pink.

For the filling I made a Strawberry Swiss Meringue Butter cream.  Here is the recipe I used, adapted from this site.

2 large egg whites, at room temperature for 30 minutes

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup of strawberry puree*

*I used a bit more because I wanted the filling to be more tart.

Make buttercream:
Vigorously whisk together whites, sugar, and salt in cleaned mixer bowl (I use my KitchenAid bowl) set over a 4-quart pot of barely simmering water until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm.

Using my KitchenAid mixer, put bowl in mixer and beat with cleaned whisk attachment at medium-high speed until whites hold stiff, glossy peaks. Continue to beat, scraping down side of bowl with a rubber spatula, until meringue is completely cool to the touch, about 5 minutes.

Switch to the paddle attachment, and with mixer at medium speed, gradually add butter 1 piece at a time, beating well after each addition until incorporated. (If buttercream looks soupy after some butter is added, meringue is still too warm. If so, briefly chill bottom of bowl in a large bowl filled with ice water for a few seconds before beating in remaining butter.)  Add the strawberry puree, and keep blending until smooth.  If it starts to separate and look like cottage cheese, keep beating!  It will smooth out.

Jill says to wait 24 hours before eating the macaron, so the filling can infuse into the shell, since I just made these, I can't wait to try them tomorrow!

Snowmen :)

Peppermint Oreo Pops!

I can't believe Christmas is just a few weeks away.  I've been thinking about the different kind of cake pops I wanted to make for Christmas since October, so when when I was at my local Trader Joe's and spotted Candy Cane Joe-Joe's I bought them right away!

Oreo pops are my favorite to make because it doesn't take up as much time as regular cake pops.  

I used my magic bullet to crush the candy canes, for the topping.  I wanted them a bit chunkier but I love how they look.

The candy canes I bought were from the Dollar Tree and they were more pink than red.

These are my new favorite pops in looks.

I may be biased but I prefer my Candy Cane Oreo pops over the Starbucks version :D

Red Macarons

I have been trying to make the perfect red macaron for a while now.  I have a Christmas cookie exchange coming up in a few weeks and I want to make red and green macarons.   Getting the perfect red has been a pain in the @$$!

I have used regular food coloring, gel and powder food coloring.  I was hoping to have better luck with the powder, using 1 1/2 tsp of red powder... but I think I added a bit too much and it turned burgundy.

I wanted them to be as red as my nail polish.  I was hoping once it baked it would turn a bit more red.  Fail. It was still burgundy. 

I made a white chocolate ganache because I was going for the burgundy and white Christmas.  White chocolate ganache was way too sweet and overpowered the taste of the cookie.  I'm just happy I did not make too much.  

Though the macaron was not as red as I wanted, it was still a very tasty cookie.  Back to the drawing board!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  More pumpkin, please!

Happy 1st Birthday!

Hello-Ween!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!  My nephew, nieces and I worked on this pumpkin last night.  If you didn't know already, we love Hello Kitty :)

I suffered from extreme sugar rush this past week, indulging in tons and tons of sweets.  My nieces came over and my niece Elaine really wanted to bake.  We devoured most of it before we could get pictures.  She made these caramel apple cupcakes found on Food Snots.

From Food Snots

The cupcakes had a faint apple taste to it which I liked, the apple flavor wasn’t too over powering.  I did not have any caramel candies, so they used my favorite thing from Trader Joe’s, Fleur De Sel Caramel Sauce,  I could eat this by the spoonful, and I have!  I did not have any pecans, so we used diced apples to go over the cupcake.  Delicious!  This is a great dessert for fall!

 

From Picky-Palate

Elaine also wanted to make these Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

You can find the recipe from picky-palate. These are sinfully delicious!  If you are an Oreo and Chocolate Chip Cookie lover, or sweets in general, I highly recommend you have this at least once!

As if I did not have enough sweets already, I’ll be assisting Karolynh from Karolynh’s at Cupcake Camp in Cerritos this weekend! 

I’m really excited and Karolynh makes delicious vegan cupcakes!   If you’re in the area, come by and try one of her cupcakes, you won’t be disappointed!   Check out her website here.  Hope to see you at Cupcake Camp!