You think this is hot!?!?

Summer is officially here in Texas, although the temps made it feel that way a month ago! It's not even July yet. Ugh.  I hate Texas in the summer.

Yesterday I woke up with a pounding headache.  I did get up when the alarm went off and turned the shower on, but I immediately turned it off and went back to bed.  It wasn't a migraine, but it sure was evil.  I went back to bed after emailing Pops that I was going to sleep in.  I remember waking up a few times and thinking, "I should get out of bed.........." Finally at 9:30 I got up. (I knew I was feeling bad then.  There are days that I have really really tried to sleep in until 9:30 and try as I may, I fail)

So I got out of bed, did some laundry and decided I would (gasp) make some cookies.  Even though the headache was winning the battle here, it was nice to do this in the kitchen with no TV on or radio blaring or toddler lurking. For me cutting out the shapes from dough and then fondant is kind of like arts and crafts to a kid.  These cookies are not hard to do, but they DO take a ton of time. From the time I starting rolling out the dough to the time I was cleaning up the fondant and sugar crystals, it was 3.5 hours. (and I'm not wasting much time here people).  I have to apologize for the craptastic photography here. By the time I was done, the headache had taken it's toll and pictures were not my primary concern!

So my sweet almost-nephew's 1 year birthday party is coming up and his Momma is doing a surf theme. I thought I might practice for that occasion with my new crab, sunglasses, and palm tree cookie cutters!
Since I had the sugar cookie dough out, I made a few Linzer's as well just because I like them.

I have been trying to figure out the recipe for the Morning Buns from Starbucks.  I love them.  I know I can put them together reasonably easy if I just bought some Pillsbury Croissant Rolls and figured out a good mixture of cinnamon and brown sugar, but that is kind of cheating isn't it.  We'll see what I come up with......

Linzer Cookies

La Madeline does these big beautiful heart shaped Linzer cookies.  They were my inspiration for this attempt.

I used my usual sugar cookies recipe but rather than vanilla extract I used butter extract (just to try something different).  When I baked them the entire kitchen  smelled like warm butter, which is nice, but the taste is just the same.

So I chose two cookies cutters that were the same shape but different sizes.

I rolled out the dough and cut out my shapes.  

Baked them up. Defended them from the little one.

 Are those cookies I see? I was just walking by and happened to notice...

Once I had them baked up I tried to pair them up as best as possible for 'fit', but come to find out after I put jam on them, that doesn't really make a difference. So don't worry about that. 

I placed the lids on parchment paper and sprinkled them with powdered sugar. 

Then I just spread some jam on the bottom and made a sandwich!  For these I used Raspberry Jam and Wild Maine Blueberry Jam. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Memorial Monday Macaron Madness

Success!

It was Memorial Day and everyone in the world was off work except Allen (poor guy) so Alex and I had the day to ourselves to be lazy. I decided today was the day to try again. I had not tried my first macaron until a year ago, and loved it. Seems they are becoming increasingly popular with stores just for macarons opening up all over the place.  It seems macarons are the new cupcake.

The recipe I used this time was from another blog called Sprinkle Bakes. She made hers Cayenne Pepper flavored macarons with chocolate ganache.  Since I am certainly not at the point where I am trying to impress with creativity, I went with something a little simpler:  Lime flavored macrons with chocolate ganache. I will include her recipe along with any notes I would make.

Shells:
3/4 cups almond flour
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp any powdered flavoring
2 large egg whites, room temp
1 pinch cream of tartar
1/2 cup extra fine (caster) sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Most macaron recipes that I have read say to use a convection oven.  it's important to note NOT TO do it with this recipe. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Sift almond flour 2 to 3 times.  Set aside.

Whisk eggs whites with a hand mixer until just foamy. They will still be yellowy, just a little foamy.  Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form.

Reduce speed and gradually add fine sugar.  Increase speed until stiff peaks form.  (I worked on this forever and never got really stiff peaks.  I got peaks, but not good ones. In the end I decided this was OK because I was scared I would actually beat the air back out of the eggs.)

Sift the flour mixture one more time over the egg whites. Discard any lumps or coarse bits that remain.

Sift in powdered flavoring (if you choose to use it). This is also where you would add a drop or two of GEL food coloring (not liquid). 

Fold with a rubber spatula using short strokes at first.  This step takes forever, but is very important to do slowly. I literally had hand cramps after this! The batter will be very stiff.  Use bigger folds once batter loosens.  When batter is ready, it should fall from the spatula in a thick ribbon.

Transfer mixture to a piping bag.  Pipe 1 or 1 1/2" rounds on the parchment lined baking sheets. Let piped macarons stand uncovered for 15 minutes to form a crust.

Decrease temperature to 325 just before placing the baking sheet in the oven.  Bake pans one at a time for 10 minutes, turning halfway through

After first batch has baked, oven temp should be increased to 375 then decreased to 325 just before the 2nd baking sheet goes in.

  

Filling:

I used a chocolate ganache to fill mine. This is simply heating up some heavy cream until just before it is boiling and pouring it over some finely chopped chocolate until it melts.  You have to give it some time to thicken up as well.

You can basically use anything you want to fill macarons: jam or jelly, your favorite icing, peanut butter, nutella, etc.

I put my ganache is a plastic squeeze bottle to make my life a little easier.

I then sandwiched them together and voila! I did have to let them sit out for a bit so the ganache would set and you could touch them without getting chocolate all over you. BUT! I am super excited about them because this was a tiny challenge I gave myself. (You can stop shaking your head about how silly I am)

We are headed out of town this weekend to stay with some friends for "The Bob Macnab Invitational" and I think I might try to make some coffee flavored ones to take as a gift for their hospitality. 

I already have a few more recipes stacked up that I want to try so stay tuned!

Baby Sprinkle

This past weekend my best friend Alynn and I threw a Baby Sprinkle for our good friend Christine.  A sprinkle since  sprinkle is not quite a shower and this is her second baby. Since I like to pretend I am the hostess with the mostess I naturally volunteered to make all things sweet. There was success........and there was failure.  Um, I shall focus on the success thankyouverymuch.

I had on the agenda: vanilla peppermint cupcakes, mini donuts, mini tiramisu shots, and sugar cookies.

I made the donuts per usual but I either had too much going on in my kitchen and missed something, OR the humidity got to my icing once again because the donuts tasted just fine, but the icing looked like I had dipped each one and then dropped each one on the floor. SO, scratch those. Besides, the morning after I made them, Alex went to get one and actually did drop them all on the floor so.........

I made the tiramisu shots and forgot to take pictures. I took pictures of all the food before everyone got here, which meant that the tiramisu was still in the fridge.  Woops.  I don't drink coffee so I wasn't sure if they were good or not. Everyone that tried one said they were yummy, but not too many were tried so, not sure what that means. Should a baker only bake what she likes to eat?!?!?!?

Next, cupcakes.  I eventually decided mini cupcakes are better than regular cupcakes because people tend to eat them more. More = better. Obviously. I made my regular mini vanilla cakes and then made and incredibly thick icing with a delicate hint of peppermint. She's having a girl so I tinted them pale pink instead of pale green.

Sugar cookies. I love making sugar cookies. My cookie cutter collection is not only growing out of control, I have a strange feeling it is nowhere near done. With sugar cookies I am again of the mind that smaller is better. Popping a bite size cookie in your mouth is quicker, cleaner, and easier than holding on to one and dropping crumbs and sugar crystals everywhere. So I made small and medium pink hearts. I literally made over 100 cookies and there was maybe 12 left when all was said and done. 

Finally, I saw on a craft blog somewhere how to make these, and I thought Christine's shower was as good a reason as any to try to make some. Turned out very cute! They are made using, you guessed it, cupcake liners. Lord knows I have plenty of those laying around!

 Thanks for stopping in. I still have Macarons on the brain and will attempt those again soon. Wish me luck, I'll need it.

Macaron Massacre

SO I tried Macaroons today. THAT was a failure. I have 3 different recipes/ways to try this. I have one that is for humid areas (such as the lovely Irving, TX is), and I did not use that one today.  I have done a lot of reading about macarons and I am fairly sure that there are 2 things that killed them: the humidity and me not using the recipe adapted for that and I over mixed the batter.

Attempt 2 coming soon.  Stay tuned.

(Hanging her head in defeat, she heads off to clean up her kitchen mess)

Chewy Chocolate Chips Bars

I have been making a LOT of cookies lately, so I decided to do a bar. As soon as I saw how much gooey chocolate was in this one was, I knew it was the one. The recipe calls for 3 cups of chocolate chips. They did turn out yummy, but next time I might 1 1/2 cups each of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. 



Dad is a chocoholic and I took some to him.  He said, "They're really rich.  I mean, they are good!" 


These looked and smelled so good coming out of the oven that I was half tempted to try a piece right then, even though I knew that chocolate would burn my tongue. I have had two pieces: one that was still very warm and one that wasn't.  Both were enjoyed with a large glass of ice cold whole milk (in my house, there is no other type of milk. It's whole milk or NO milk!). Both pieces were delicious!

Recipe:

•          2/3 cup (10 2/3 tablespoons) butter
•          2 cups + 2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
•          3/4 teaspoon salt*
•          1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•          1/4 teaspoon butterscotch flavor or vanilla-butternut flavor, optional
•          3 large eggs
•          2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
•          1/2 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
•          2 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
•          3 cups chocolate chips; or a combination of different flavored chips, or chips and nuts
•          *Use 1 teaspoon salt if you use unsalted butter.

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.

2) Melt the butter, and stir in the brown sugar. Add the salt, vanilla, and flavor, stirring until well combined.

3) Allow the mixture to cool slightly (if it's very hot to the touch), then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl midway through this process.

4) Add the baking powder, espresso powder, and flour, stirring to combine.

5) Stir in the chips or other additions of your choice.

6) Scoop the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it to the edges with a wet spatula (or your wet fingers). Smooth the top as best you can.

7) Bake the bars for 30 to 32 minutes, until they've risen, and their top is shiny and golden. A cake tester inserted into the center won't come out clean; in fact, the center of the very middle of the pan may look quite molten when you dig into it. But so long as no wet batter is showing farther out towards the edges, the bars are done. As they cool, the center will solidify.

8) Remove the bars from the oven, and use a heatproof spatula to press down the risen edges; this will make bars with flat, rather than humped tops. Let the bars cool completely before cutting; overnight is best. Once bars are cool, wrap airtight. Store wrapped bars at room temperature for a couple of days.

Yield: 2 dozen I am actually thinking of tackling macarons. I hear they can be very difficult and extremely frustrating.  I can't find Almond Flour at the local grocery, so I have ordered some.  Now I know why macarons are so frustrating.  That stuff is expensive! If they don't come out right, that is just $$ down the drain! Thanks for stopping by!