BLACK SESAME MACARONS

black sesame macarons with black sesame buttercream filling

Now that my battle with the various macaron recipes is over, I can relax and enjoy experimenting with the different flavour combinations one can achieve with these little sandwich cookies. I've got the "macaron bug" and I'm trying different flavours with my trusty basic macaron recipe. I'm starting to get the feel of making these cookies and it's getting easier with every batch I make. This is heartening because initially, they can seem quite aggravating and temperamental if you do not have a solid recipe from which to work. macarons waiting for the oven to heat up

I purchased a sesame seed grinder at Daiso for $2 (what else? everything's $2!) and used it to grind the black sesame seeds. It was a cinch. The recipe went together smoothly and quickly and I didn't even have to wait hours for a skin to form. In fact, I threw caution to the wind and I put the macarons in with a tacky skin! Daredevil, eh?

macarons, straight from the oven

After dickering with a whole bunch of different techniques, I was able to finally arrive at a combination of techniques which allowed me to make macarons at ease and as quickly as possible. This was so great because I didn't have to "age" my egg whites, I used commercially ground almonds, I didn't use a sugar syrup, and I didn't wait for skins to form on the macarons. I'm now able to get macarons, with "feet", smooth tops with no cracks and a delicate shell exterior and tender and every-so-slightly chewy interior. They taste fantastic and I'm getting consistent results. I mean, why wait hours for egg whites to age? I used them at room temperature, but that's the only concession I made. I even cheated a bit by heating the whites over a bowl of warm water. The egg-whites couldn't tell that I didn't take them out hours ahead of time. Geesh!

the macarons created feet! (without even having to wait hours for a skin to form: bonus!)

I would say that the macarons, complete with the buttercream, were a tad too sweet for my liking. I generally don't like things as sweet as this. That being said, they were still addictive and I couldn't stop myself from wanting to pop more of them in my mouth. They kind of just melt in your mouth so quickly. Next time, I will doctor the buttercream by reducing the sugar. The shells themselves were not too sweet. They were just right.

My next experiment will be raspberry and white chocolate macarons

please see here for my recipe

BAKED FRESH OYSTERS WITH TARO

my new favourite recipe book for chinese food focusses on the use of the oven

I purchased an interesting recipe book the other day and have been very happy with the first few dishes that I've tried out of it. The recipes are not complicated and they usually call for only a few ingredients. More importantly, they have been tailored for oven use and this makes me happy. It allows me to set a timer and forget about it while I tend to the kids.

I was particularly impressed with a delicious and creative Baked Oyster Dish. Instead of oysters in the shell (which I hate to pry open), I opted for oysters in a little plastic bucket from the local fish market. I used a gratin dish and did everything else that the recipe called for and must exclaim that it was quite fast to prepare.

the trusty taro root

deep-fried taro cubes. nothing wrong with that!
add the sauted minced ginger, onion, green onion and garlic to the fried taro

The only tricky part of the recipe was deep-frying the taro. Since the taro was cut in little cubes, it cooked relatively quickly. It didn't spatter because taro tends to be dry. I used a little saucepan with oil in it just to cover the taro cubes and it worked out fine. The taro doesn't absorb much oil at all.

You mix the taro and onion mixture with salt and pepper. In another bowl, you mix a couple tablespoons of mayonnaise with a small pat of butter. You combine both mixtures together and then spread it on the oysters. Pop in a 400F oven for 10 minutes. Then broil for another 3-5 minutes, until golden brown. Yum!

CHOCOLATE MACARONS: A TRUCE

I call for a truce. Hey, I'm not waiving no white flag in this macaron war! To be honest, I'm not liking the eating part of the macaron battle. Initially, they're delicious...but after the third tray, I'm kind of sick of them. I love chocolate, but the chocolate macarons I made just don't ring my bell. I much prefer the pistachio macarons or even the matcha macarons I made previously in other battles.

I used the Chocolate Macaron recipe from Veronica's Test Kitchen. I thought everything looked a bit "runny" compared to the sugar syrup method I used in the matcha macarons previously and even runnier than the pistachio macaron recipe too. I had followed the recipe exactly and even left my egg whites to age as recommended. Despite the ominous texture of the batter, I just plugged along and piped the macarons and waited the allotted 2 to 4 hours...after which they still seemed too tacky. The weather wasn't even humid that day, so we couldn't blame the usual rainy Vancouver weather. The macarons did have a skin but I was skeptical that they would hold up in the oven.

After a few minutes of baking, I noticed the tops starting to crack open (the skin was indeed too thin) and this first batch failed to grow the frilly "feet" properly. It was late in the evening and I decided to give up for the night. I left the two remaining sheets of piped macarons on the kitchen counter uncovered and thought that I had nothing to lose if I just left them overnight and baked them the next morning. If they didn't have a thick skin by morning, then I'd be surprised!

The next morning, the macarons had dry skins that I could touch without any tackiness. They looked adequately strong and I popped them in the oven and voila! Smooth flat tops, frilly feet and slightly chewy interior. Perfect. It figures.

I still find leaving raw egg whites out kind of icky, regardless of what they say about the antibacterial quality of egg whites...but it worked. I guess for this recipe that's what you have to do. This is why I'm apt to go with the sugar syrup method or the pistachio macaron recipe. There isn't this huge amount of time you have to invest in making these suckers. When it comes to baking, I'm kind of a last minute kind of, spur-of-the-moment kind of gal.

My advice to anyone attempting macarons is this: there's only one thing you have to check before popping macarons in the oven and that is that their skins have to be thick and strong enough to withstand the heat. If you deem the skins too thin when you touch them, or if your first sheet of macarons didn't create feet, don't despair. You have a chance to salvage the other macarons. If the skins are too thin, the macaron batter will heat up, and bubble up through the top and crack the surface, resulting in a flat cookie without feet and instead with cracks on the top.

Some options to wasting hours of time waiting for macarons to dry:

1. (my preference--find a good recipe) Use a recipe that doesn't require one to wait around for hours before baking your macarons. That way you don't have to invest a huge amount of time waiting for them. I am loathe to leave egg whites out and even more adamant that one shouldn't have to waste hours of one's time waiting around for things to dry. In the case that you have a troublesome recipe, you can still make your macarons do what you want them to do. Take action by using your oven to dry the macarons (all the trays in the oven) with the oven door open. I usually heat up the oven a bit and then turn the oven off. You must leave the oven door open; not allowing moisture to be trapped inside. You don't want to bake them, you just want the tops to dry out. Then check the skins to ensure they are strong enough to bake.

2.Another option for some people is what I accidentally did which is make the macarons in the evening and let them sit out to dry on the counter overnight. Then bake them in the morning. When you do this intentionally it just seems smarter, doesn't it?

Macaron tips:

-bake them one sheet at a time

-watch the first sheet like a hawk so you can adjust things for your subsequent sheets

-stated oven temperatures are a guide. they're not set in stone. adjust the temperature (usually lowering it) to ensure that your macarons don't brown too quickly. in fact, they're not supposed to brown at all

-eat the failures (or give them away and call them "cookies") because they taste good too

Macarons aren't that tough to make after all. Just use your noodle.

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH CHOCOLATE GANACHE BUTTERCREAM

chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream & home-made royal icing violet

We were craving some chocolate here and seeing as I had leftover ganache in the freezer from the Macaron War, I thought I'd throw together some chocolate cupcakes to go with a chocolate buttercream.

chocolate cupcakes, eagerly awaiting decorations

The cupcake recipe I used has vegetable oil instead of butter in it and this makes for a moist cupcake that keeps well in the fridge. It stays moist for a few days and upon taking it out of the fridge to warm to room temperature for serving, it still tastes fresh and not dry and hard like a butter cupcake.

silky smooth chocolate ganache buttercream

The buttercream I made was kind of spur of the moment and I didn't measure too accurately. It turned out fabulous. The chocolate flavour pronounced was not too rich (like the ganache was) and the buttercream was smooth, silky and not cloyingly sweet.

the moist, tender chocolate cupcake's innards...perfect ratio of buttercream to cupcake

CAKEBRAIN'S CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

100 grams all purpose flour

225 grams granulated sugar

45 grams good quality cocoa powder

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t pink himalayan salt

1 egg

1/4 cup (60 ml) vegetable oil

1/2 cup (118 ml) buttermilk

1 t pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup (118 ml) hot coffee

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Prepare cupcake pans by lining with large paper liners. For this recipe you will need 18.
• Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.
• In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.
• With the mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour batter into cupcake liners only half-way full.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.
• Cool for 10 minutes and removes to cool completely on a rack.

CAKEBRAIN'S CHOCOLATE GANACHE BUTTERCREAM

6 oz (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups (220 grams) confectioners' sugar
2 t milk
1/2 cup (118 ml) ganache

• In a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until it is smooth and creamy
• Sift the confectioners' sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time over the butter and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy
• Add 2 teaspoons of milk and continue beating to lighten the mixture
• Add the ganache to the buttercream and mix until thoroughly combined and smooth

BASIL CHICKEN

cakebrain's basil chicken

Remember that cool hydroponic garden I have sitting on my kitchen counter? Well, it's yielding quite a crop of basil. I have both Italian and Purple Basil. I was wondering how to use up all the basil and this dish was perfect. This chicken dish is so easy to prepare and was scrumptious! It would make a great dish for parties too. The basil and garlic flavours are nicely married with the chicken wings and it's all finger-licking good. I served my wings with rice as there's a nice little pool of sauce to pour over your rice.


CAKEBRAIN'S BASIL CHICKEN
2 lbs chicken wings
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 T basil, roughly chopped
1 T sugar

• Combine all the ingredients in a covered bowl (or ziploc bag) and marinate overnight.
• Preheat oven to 375F
• Place the chicken wings in a baking dish and place on the middle rack of the oven.
• Turn wings and baste with the marinade halfway through the cooking process.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and glaze is slightly thickened.

COMFORT FOODS: COOL THINGS WITH CHEESE!

broccoli & cheese casserole

When fall is in full swing in Vancouver and it's drippy wet outside I find myself wanting comfort foods. For some reason I associate cheese with comfort foods...especially ooey gooey melted cheese. I personally love an authentic fondue but only Bebe loves cheese. But I digress...I tried out a quick recipe I found in a magazine advertising Campbell's Condensed Mushroom Soup.

BROCCOLI & CHEESE CASSEROLE
1 16 oz bag broccoli florets
1 can Campbell's Condensed Mushroom Soup
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 T butter, melted

Dump the whole bag of broccoli in a baking dish, add the mushroom soup, milk and cheese and stir the whole mixture. Mix the breadcrumbs and melted butter together and sprinkle that on top of the whole thing and bake it in a moderate oven (350F) for 30-35 minutes or until hot and bubbling.

It was a cheesy & yummy way to eat broccoli!

Now, on another cheesy note...

macaroni & cheese with caramelized onions

I made this mac & cheese with a cheese sauce from scratch. I must admit I didn't follow any recipe but just kind of made a bechamel and then tossed in however much cheese looked good to me. I caramelized onions and garlic and mixed that in with the cheese sauce and finally topped the whole casserole with fried onions. I covered it with foil and baked it until it was bubbling hot, about 20-30 minutes.

Here's a rough approximation of the recipe as I recall it:

Cakebrain's Macaroni & Cheese with Caramelized Onions
1 box macaroni, cooked al dente
3 T flour
3 T butter
salt & pepper to taste
3 cups milk
2 cups grated old cheddar cheese
1 small onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
4 T fried onions

• Make a bechamel sauce: in a large saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour, creating a roux. Cook the roux until golden brown and fragrant. Add salt & pepper. Add nutmeg if you like it. Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly to prevent lumps and burning. When the sauce is thickened, add the cheddar cheese and mix thoroughly. Allow the sauce to rest, covered and off the burner.
• In a saute pan, heat the olive oil on med.-high heat and then add the onion. Saute the onions until they are translucent. Then add the garlic and continue cooking until the onions are caramelized. If you like some zing in your macaroni, you can add a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar or hot sauce here. Season with salt & pepper.
• Mix the onion mixture with the cheese sauce.
• In a large casserole dish combine the cooked macaroni and the cheese sauce. Mix thoroughly. The cheese sauce should look slightly runny because as it bakes it will be absorbed in the pasta. If you like your macaroni really moist, you can add more milk to the casserole if it looks too dry for your liking.
• Sprinkle the fried onions over the whole casserole; cover with foil and bake in a moderate oven for 20-30 minutes, or until bubbly

those aren't breadcrumbs, they're fried onions! yum!

HALLOWE'EN CUPCAKES: FONDANT PUMPKINS

fondant pumpkin on a white chocolate cupcake

Bebe wanted cupcakes (Bebe always wants cupcakes) and she always ends up eating all the frosting first; leaving the cupcake behind. The other day I was making FIMO food with Bebe to stock her empty larder in her dollhouse's kitchen. We made carrots, hotdogs, hamburgers, apples, pears and bananas out of the polymer clay. I didn't realize how easy it was and all you need are toothpicks and a little knife. Afterwards you bake them, following the instructions, and you have sturdy hardened little pieces of food with which to play "house." I was thinking I could transfer my food-modelling skills to real food in the form of fondant or marzipan.

I went to open my huge tub of fondant which I keep in a plastic-lidded popcorn container. To my dismay the entire piece of fondant was rock hard. I chucked it out and consulted my Wilton manual for a recipe and decided I only needed to make little pumpkins and leaves--not cover a whole cake. I quartered the recipe with good success. The recipe for rolled fondant from Wilton was easy but required a lot of kneading. I didn't have orange food colouring in my stash of gel pastes so I just mixed in some red and yellow gel paste food colouring until it looked pumpkin-coloured enough for me. After a ton of kneading, the fondant finally looked evenly coloured and ready for modelling. The pumpkins are just little rolled balls etched with a knife. I used a toothpick to poke a hole down the centre where the stem would be. Then I inserted the tiny stem and a little leaf, using the toothpick to manoeuvre the fondant and attach it.

I made the White Chocolate Cupcakes and frosted with a simple buttercream. My white chocolate mousseline buttercream would have been especially delicious on this cupcake. We decorated with some sugar crystals and popped the little pumpkins on top and they looked so cute! Bebe said the pumpkins were the best part and proceeded to eat all the frosting afterwards. As usual, after licking off all of the frosting, she was too full to eat the cupcake part!

Bebe's philosophy of cupcake decorating is that you can't have enough stars and you can't have enough sprinkles.

a star-studded, sprinkle-laden cupcake being decorated by Bebe

MALGIERI & ZUCKERMAN MACARONS VS. TARTELETTE MACARONS

Sigh. Macarons.

I had the good fortune of having a trusty comrade fighting by my side in my macaron battle today. J brought along a macaron recipe from Nick Malgieri and another from Kate Zuckerman's The Sweet Life. She too had been testing out recipes in preparatory anticipation of our ensuing battle. At home, she noticed some inconsistencies from batch to batch: first batch, no feet; second batch nice feet! Knowing J, and her exacting ways, I trust that she followed the recipe exactly. I mean, she didn't even want to play around with the batter and add any flavourings! The Zuckerman recipe was promising and so we tried it in my kitchen today; trying to tweak it to work for us. The only problem was that it called for one to leave the piped macarons out from 1 to 2 hours to dry and allow a "skin" to form! She had abandoned the Malgieri recipe because they all turned out too cookie-like.

Here's how the Zuckerman recipe went:
J brought Kate Zuckerman's macaron recipe into the ring for battle...

zuckerman's sugar/ground almond mixture, after sifting

zuckerman indicates to whip eggwhites to the soft peak stage

here's J gently folding the whites into the ground almond mixture

our little zuckerman macaron soldiers lined up waiting for oven time

While we were waiting for the skin to form, I suggested we make another batch with an interesting Pistachio Macaron recipe I had noticed on Tartelette's blog. I turned on my computer, grabbed 3 eggs straight from the fridge and cheated time by warming them up in a bowl of hot water to bring them to room temperature.

Upon looking at the baking Zuckerman macarons (which by the way had already been sitting for 2 hours on the counter waiting for skins to form), J noticed they weren't producing feet and some of the cookies were cracking. They were looking like plain ol' ordinary cookies. After dickering with the temperature--an initial blast of heat and then lowering it; reducing the temperature to the same as the pistachio recipe's, etc., we still couldn't get them to behave properly. So disappointing! She whipped the trays out of the oven, exclaiming they were unworthy of further time in the oven and the ganache filling! She's pretty strict, eh? I'm glad she's on my side in this battle.

zuckerman macarons with no feet, no smooth tops and cracked surfaces. yummy though

Here's how Tartelette's Pistachio Macaron recipe fared:

After grinding whole almonds and pistachios with confectioner's sugar, I folded in the stiffly beaten egg whites. The mixture was way stiffer at this point than Zuckerman's recipe.

the pistachio macaron batter, ready for piping

tartelette's macaron soldiers, ready and waiting (for only 20 minutes! not 2 hours like kate's!)

1st batch of pistachio macarons rising to the occasion (creating feet) in my Wolf oven

and then collapsing after I brought them out! drat!

some of these collapsed macarons had hollow bottoms. odd.

At this point, I decided the oven must be too hot (it was set at 315degrees F throughout for 12-14 minutes) for the full amount of time that the macarons had to be in there to bake. For the next batch, I watched them "rise/create feet" first (at 315 degrees) and as soon as the feet were at their height, I then turned the oven down to 300degrees F to finish baking. The results were much better looking and they looked very promising indeed!

2nd tray of pistachio macarons using the reduction of heat method

we quickly whipped up a simple ganache to sandwich the macarons

So the Tartelette recipe looked good and smelled good. It had a smooth top, it had even, frilly feet and the exterior was thin and yielded to gentle pressure. It was very delicate and when you bit into it, it was mostly hollow; its texture was slightly chewy and the flavour was delicate pistachio with a hint of almond. The ganache filling, when piped too thickly, was too overpowering and you couldn't taste the pistachio...so I would say a buttercream would be a better match. We later opted to make the filling just a smear to hold the two cookies together, though the cookie looks prettier with a thicker amount sandwiched in between.

Having tasted professionally made macarons, I was still not wholly satisfied however. I'm a texture person. I hate nuts, raisins and anything seed-like or grainy in my baked goods. Yuck. Though these macarons didn't have chunks (we sifted well), I didn't really appreciate the fact that the ground nuts were not as fine as the failed batch I had made previously with almond paste or with the Matcha macaron batter using the sugar syrup based on Tartelette's recipe. I wanted the macaron to dissolve into nothingness, but instead I was left with a few grainy bits of the ground nuts rattling around in my mouth. Also, it did not have the slight crunch of the matcha macaron recipe; nor its stronger flavour profile. I felt the Matcha macarons were much closer in texture to the macarons I like.

With both these recipes, we started off with whole almonds and whole pistachios. I personally like the more consistent and finer texture achieved by starting with almond paste (ideally) and after that, commercially ground almonds. Whole almonds have so far to go before they're fine enough for me.

I declare the Tartelette Pistachio Macaron recipe the winner today and have to say that the foolproof method of using the sugar syrup is superior in texture.

My next batch will be CHOCOLATE MACARONS! I hear they're the toughest flavour to make...

T ROOM BAKERY & KITCHENWARE

t-room: bakery & kitchenware store

Ahh. Fall in Vancouver is my favourite time of the year...

Today is Gymboree music class for Bib. She's in Music I and is lovin' it (sorta). Well, she only cries when another baby starts crying. I think it's sympathetic crying on her part. Stomach and Bib stayed for the class and Bebe and I went for a stroll along 10th Avenue since it was a great sunny day. On the way back I noticed a bakery that I had read about in the Georgia Straight. It's T Room: Bakery & Kitchenware, located in Point Grey Village.

the kitchenware side of t room

The word "kitchenware" on the sign beckoned me because I'm a sucker for kitchen gadgets.

I spotted a funky blue and brown apron (which I purchased) and salivated over all the goodies. Bebe wanted the Princess Cake (of course) and I wanted the Chocolate Mousse, although the Sacher looked enticing as did the Meringue Sandwiches.

are those matcha cookies i see in that cookie jar?

chocolate mousse

princess cake

yeah, i know it's green, but bebe wanted it!

The friendly staff gave me a tour of the store and allowed me to take some pictures. They do not yet have a website set up and just recently opened this past July.

t room's sweet offerings

T Room's great because it's got it all. They have one side of the store dedicated to really cool kitchenware. The other side is the "tea/dining" area and further to the back of the store you have a private room you can book for special functions. This room overlooks the backyard garden and you can overlook the kitchen area where all the delicious sweets are made.

a private room in the back of the store for special functions

The highlight of T Room on a beautiful sunny Vancouver day is the backyard garden. It is absolutely gorgeous. I was told that you could have little parties back here and they recently hosted a preschooler's birthday party. They also offer a selection of great teas and I was told they do High Tea as well.

garden courtyard at the back of t room

I had to leave but I'll have to visit again and try their teas.

It looks like the perfect place for me to hang out with a cup of tea, a dainty sweet and a huge stack of essays to mark!

T Room Bakery &Kitchenware

4445 10th Ave. W

Vancouver, B.C. V6R 2H8

Canada

(604) 677-BKRY (2579)

TRoomBakery@yahoo.com

google map