2018 For The Win! A Year in Review

So It's now 2018 and before looking forward to future bakes I wanted to look back on some of my favorite bakes. I'm not going to say that this was easy I counted 56 different bakes posted. That is a ton but not at all everything that I baked in 2017. There were some days that I just did not want to post or edit pictures. I didn't want to type post or upload the content. I just really wanted to get to 52 posts so it would average like I baked once a week. I'm happy with everything on the blog, I may even introduce some video in the future. I loved the direction the blog post went in during the month of October, with sticking to a theme for the bakes that month. I will continue that going forward. January shall be Matcha Month. All things Matcha, so look forward to that.

Ok I'm going to just post pictures of my favorite things I baked. My Top 10. Then I will post the Top 5 most viewed bakes.

My Top 10 Bakes (they aren't in any specific order)

Mango Curd Tart

I just really thought that this tart was beautiful and it really tasted delicious and was fun to make. I think this was my first time making a fruit curd other than Lemon. I remember toasting the coconut with cinnamon to give it an extra punch. The toasted meringue on top added just enough sweetness to offset the nuttiness of the crust and the tartness of the mango. Everyone gobbled these up. I really loved the colors, so summery.

Lemon Tart

I will and forever love a good lemon curd. After making so many macarons I always have egg yolks, and if I have fruit and egg yolks I'm going to make a curd. Lemon happens to be my favorite, so I made a lemon tart. I think this was my first time making a sweet pastry tart shell. I was brushing the line between burnt crust. This was really yummy and tart. I added the blackberries for a visual contrast and we all know berries and lemons go well together. Pistachios added a nice textural difference. Oh and I loved the way the crescent design of the berries came out.

Dulce De Leche Macarons

These have got to be my favorite macarons that I have ever made. I've baked a ton of macarons and this is my absolute favorite flavor combination. The shell was coffee flavored, I dusted coffee on top of each shell before it baked. I made my own dulce de leche filling by boiling condensed milk slowly for 3+ hours and I topped each dollop of filling with some flakes of coarse sea salt. These weren't everyone's favorite because of the strong coffee flavor but I adored these. They were filled with bitter notes, chocolatey notes, salty and sweet. I loved them.... I need to bake these again.

Lemon Poppyseed Macarons

I also enjoyed these. I didn't eat as many as I would have liked of these because I made these for my brother. Everyone in our family loves lemon and these are what he requested. I remember making these and thinking to myself that I wanted these to be so lemony. I filled each macaron with a lemon poppyseed buttercream and I filled that with some homemade lemon curd. They were delicious. I mean I loved the way the poppy seeds popped on the shell and they gave a different texture to the buttercream, very sprinklesque.

Croissants...Butter, Almond, and Pan Au Chocolat

I always wondered what it would take to make my own croissants, and now I know. It takes three days and some patience. Obviously these are delicious and I've made them a couple of times since posting the recipe on the blog. Everyone has a favorite, so It's nice that you can split the dough and make a couple of different flavors. I personally like the almond croissants, filled with a homemade almond paste, dusted with powdered sugar. A little messy but still delicious. You just have to remember 3 days and some good butter.

Coconut Mousse Cake with a Marble Mirror Glaze

This cake was beautiful and my first attempt at making and using a mirror glaze. It was time consuming and a bit scary but it turned out well. It was jammed pack with coconut flavor, from the spongy cake layer to the coconut mousse, and the hidden coconut water jelly inside. I loved pouring the marbled glaze over the cake and I'll probably be making more entremets and large mousse cakes in the future.

Lemon Poppyseed Baked Doughnut

Again one of my favorite flavor profiles. I love Lemon and I love Poppyseed. I love how the slate blue poppy seeds look on the glaze of this doughnut. I think I made these for my mom's birthday breakfast. This was also my first time making, and baking doughnuts. They were wonderful and they don't take that much time. These were a breakfast success and were gobbled up.

Orange Blossom Macarons with a Saffron+ Cardamom Buttercream and Orange Marmalade Center

This was a new flavor combination I was working on. They came out great. I was just playing around with flavors I had at home. I was actually thinking about some of my great friends who came from India. I was thinking of tea, then I thought of gulab jamun, and toast and jam. This concoction was born. I'm glad it was because it smells amazing and taste amazing. These were popular too.

Cardamom Poached Pear Frangipane Tarts

There is a theme. When I like a certain flavor I tend to try to incorporate it into multiple desserts. I remember baking these on a fall day. I wanted to bake something that I never baked and I saw a picture of a beautiful poached pear 9 inch tart. I knew I wanted to make mini versions. This was my first time poaching pears and it was a lot easier than I thought. I also made frangipane for the first time and it was so good. Almond everything is delicious, right?

Churros

I love churros, I don't know why. I mean yes I do, fried dough in cinnamon and sugar. I think the reason I love them so much is because churros are just something you don't eat everyday or even every month. I saw they were super simple to make and it allowed me to learn how to make pate a choux dough. They are so good freshly fried. So crunch on the outside and soft on the inside. Hey dunk them in some dulce de leche for an extra yummy treat.

Top 5 Most Viewed

5. My Mom's Birthday Cake AKA the Loaded Confetti Cake

4.) The Dulce De Leche Macarons

3.) The Apple+Blackberry Hand Pies

2.) The Pumpkin Cheesecake

1.) The Lemon Poppyseed Macarons with Lemon Curd Center

Thai Tea Macarons For The Win!

I purchased a giant bag of Thai tea and I was thinking of different ways of using it and decided on making of course macarons. To be honest these macarons gave me a bit of trouble today. If you read my macaron posts I had been using the Italian method of making my meringue but for some reason when I added in the tea my batter was so runny that when I piped the macarons on my new silpat they just ran and merged together. I know I didn't overmix my batter, but I don't know if the tea was doing anything or the food coloring ( I only use gel) they were just crappy today. I managed to save 7 pair out of the whole batch. I ate dinner and decided to start over and use the french method and they ended up turning out better. I also did not dust the shells with additional thai tea. I just incorporated some in the batter. As far as the filling I made a condensed milk butter cream. I wanted to mimic that sweet cream taste of a thai tea. It's a good contrast from the bitter taste of the tea. When you take a bite all together it does resemble sipping a glass of thai tea. My only regret is that with the second batch I used a little less thai tea ( I should have dusted the shells, but people said it was too bitter). I like the taste of the bitter tea on top of the sweet macaron shell. It reminded me when I placed the espresso powder on top of my dulce de leche macarons. I think the bitterness goes with the sweet. Well the macarons were pretty and they did not take as long to make because I didn't have to make multiple fillings just one this time.

Thai Tea Macarons

So for the macarons above I used the french method so you won't need a candy thermometer, you can do this all with a whisk.

Thai Tea Macaron Shells

• 60g of almond flour
• 120g of powdered sugar
• 60g (or two large eggs) of egg whites (room temperature)
• 35g of granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons of thai tea
• orange gel food coloring
• sprinkles (optional)

Condensed milk buttercream

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) of softened unsalted butter
• 1 cup of powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup of condensed milk

First start by taking your almond flour and powdered sugar and run that through a fine sieve. Whisk to combine.

All mixed together

Next take your egg whites and whisk on a low speed until egg whites are nice and foamy

Add in your granulated sugar and turn your mixer up to medium speed for about 2 minutes

Once you reach soft/medium peaks add in your gel food coloring ( I used a few drops of a warm peach color)

Now mix on high speed and stop when you achieve stiff peaks

nice stiff peak

Take your dry mixture and pour it into your meringue

start folding the mixture together with your spatula and stop when your batter reaches a ribbon stage (when it flows off of your spatula like lava) pay attention to not overmix or undermix your batter because your macarons will be ruined.

This is where I added in a few teaspoons of thai tea (first I put a few spoons in my spice grinder and then sifted that until I got a fine powder) you don't want lumps in your macaron batter

ground thai tea

It smells so good.

Mix that gently just to combine.

Place your batter in a piping bag with a round tip attached. Pipe 1.5 inch circles on to a parchment paper lined sheet pan. ( I normally use parchment paper, but I splurged on a silpat mat so I'm checking the difference here) leave some space in between the cookies so they don't merge together

macarons waiting to bake

Don't forget to tap your tray on the counter a few times to release any trapped air bubbles. I added little white sprinkles on top just for something extra.

Leave your tray of macarons on the table to rest and develop a skin for atleast 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 300F.

You can check if your macarons are ready to bake my gently tapping one and if your finger has no batter on it you can place them in the oven.

after about 30 minutes

Bake these for about 16-20 minutes rotate your pan halfway through the baking process. ( I bake mine for 8 minutes then I rotate the pan and bake another 9 minutes)

Take your macarons out and let them completely cool before peeling them off of the silpat. If you are using parchment paper I like to take the macarons off of the cookie sheet (but still on parchment and place them on the counter to cool) you don't want them to over bake on the cookie sheet.

baked to perfection

When the macarons are done they should slide off the parchment or silpat pretty easy with a smooth bottom.

Now you need to pair them off and get them ready to be filled

matching shells is always fun

matching shells

look at those cute sprinkles

ready to fill

For the filling

Take your stick of room temperature butter and beat with a hand mixer for about 5 minutes. The butter will turn a pale yellow color and become light and fluffy.

beat the butter till it's light and airy

Next add in your powdered sugar and continue to mix.

you should probably turn the speed down at this point

whisk in your condensed milk

I just eyeballed the condensed milk part, you should probably go a tablespoon at a time

then with your hand mixer blend on high until everything is combined ( your filling shouldn't be loose, it should be pretty stiff and able to pipe, yet smooth and silky)

this buttercream is so silky and delicious

Place in a piping bag and get ready to fill your macarons

so beautiful

Now place a dollop of your filling in the center of one half of your macarons

the perfect amount of buttercream ya'll

just sandwich them together

so fluffy

Ready for the fridge

There you have it the thai tea macarons

Pretty Thai Tea Macarons

Place these in an airtight container in the fridge to mature for about 24 hours and then bring them to room temperature when you are ready to eat them. Also macarons do great in the freezer for some other time up to 3 months.

you can see the thai tea peaking through the orange shell

so yummy

Here are some of the disaster batch but I saved a few

These were made using the Italian method and they have the tea dusted on top

These were actually still pretty yummy, I'm glad I was able to save them

some people don't like the dusting of thai tea on top but I loved it. These were huge

They were still pretty tasty.

S'mores Macarons For The Win!

S'mores, S'mores, S'mores. When you think of summer,  you think of S'mores. I've always had fond memories of eating s'mores surrounded by a campfire. I mean I've actually only went camping once and that was my freshman year of college (black people do not go camping). I just remember all of my friends laughing and having a great time while eating S'mores. I am still amazed at how something on the cusp of being burnt can taste so amazing. Yummy marshmallows that are crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside are so perfect. I want to know whose idea it was to put a marshmallow on a stick and place it in an open fire. Then taking that same toasty marshmallow and sandwich that between a piece of chocolate and two graham cracker halves was definitely before their time. Ok, yeah my mind was wondering for a minute, I've had so many wonderful s'mores flavored things that I decided to make a s'mores flavored macaron (I made my sister make a list of all the weird macaron flavors that she could think of and this was one of them). I ended up making a graham cracker flavored macaron shell, chocolate ganache filling, a marshmallow filling (that I ended up toasting with a kitchen torch) and then I melted a little chocolate for a drizzle on top. I mean they taste like the yummiest bite sized s'more.

S'mores Macarons

I feel like my macarons have been more time consuming because it've been making dual fillings. These took from start to finish about 3 hours (prep, fillings, actual macarons, shells resting, baking, cooling, filling, and then cleaning). The great thing is you can make the fillings a day or two ahead and thats one less thing you have to do.

Here's what you are going to need. If you've followed my previous macaron posts this is the same macaron recipe using the Italian meringue method so you will need a stand mixer. Also if you want to toast the marshmallow filling you will need a kitchen torch ( I bought mine a while ago on Amazon for about 15 bucks and I have a can of butane from Home Depot to refill for about 4 dollars). Also since we are using the Italian meringue method and making macarons need to be precise to bake well I would suggest using a food scale for accuracy.

S'mores Macarons

• 150g of powdered sugar
• 145g of almond flour/meal
• 5g of graham cracker crumbs
• 150g of granulated sugar
• 50g of water
• 120 g of room temperature egg whites separated into two bowls (60g each)
• 35 g of granulated sugar
• Crushed graham crackers (for garnish)

Chocolate Ganache

• 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate
• 2 cups heavy cream

Marshmallow cream

• 50g of water
• 150g of granulated sugar
• 60g of egg whites (thats basically the whites from two large eggs)
• 35 g of granulated sugar

First take your powdered sugar, almond meal and 5g of graham cracker crumbs and run that through a fine mesh sieve. Then take a whisk and mix all the ingredients after they have been sifted, then just set aside.

Take 60g of your room temperature egg whites and fold it into your dry ingredients. This is going to form a thick almond paste, after folding just set the almond mixture aside.

This is a also a great place to add in any food coloring, I added a few drops of warm brown gel food coloring to mimic the color of graham crackers (remember that when you add in the meringue the color will lighten a lot). 

Now take your other 60g of egg whites and place them in your stand mixer on medium until they start to get foamy.

When your egg whites get foamy add in the 35g of granulated sugar slowly and mix on medium to high speed until soft peaks form.

when you achieve soft peaks turn down the speed of your mixer and keep your egg whites beating on low speed (like 1-2 speed)

Now take your 150g of granulated sugar and 50g of water  and place it in a saucepan on your stove on medium heat.

Let this boil until the temperature on your thermometer hits 240F (soft ball on candy thermometer)

Carefully take your sugar syrup and pour it down the side of your stand mixer ( in a slow steady stream) while the egg whites are whipping.

Continue whipping this mixture on high speed until your bowl cools down and stiff peaks form so about 10-15 minutes you should have a very glossy, shiny merengue, flip the bowl over and it shouldn't move.

Now take 1/3rd of the egg whites and fold it into your almond paste

Now once your 1/3 meringue  and almond paste combine you can add all of the meringue and continue folding.

Keep folding until it runs off of spatula in a ribbon

Take your macaron batter and place in a large piping bag with a round tip attached.

On a parchment lined tray pipe out 1.5 inch circles, tap your tray on the counter top once finished piping. I then sprinkled crushed graham cracker crumbs on the top of each shell for garnish so they would let you know what flavor macaron you are eating.

waiting to bake

Graham cracker goodness

Preheat your oven to 300F

Let them sit on your counter to create a skin (I like to let them rest at least 30 minutes, normally an hour as I clean up the kitchen) You will know they are ready when you touch the macaron shell and nothing sticks to your finger. The macaron will also turn a flat matte finish.

Place your macarons in the 300F oven for 14-18 minutes (I rotate the tray at the 7 minute mark), you can check doneness by lightly tapping the top of a macaron if there is no wiggle take them out of the oven.

While they are baking you can make the chocolate ganache & marshmallow filling.

First take one cup of semi sweet chocolate and place in a medium bowl.

Take two cups of heavy cream and place in a small/medium sauce pan. Place the saucepan on the stovetop over medium/high heat

When the cream starts to bubble around the edges take the cream off the heat and pour over chocolate. ( don't let cream boil rapidly or scorch the cream). Only pour enough to just cover the chocolate (about 1 cup of hot cream)

the steam fogged up the camara

Let the hot cream sit on chocolate for about a minute and then whisk to combine.

Add just enough hot cream to cover the chocolate

It will look really runny at first, like chocolate milk,  just keep whisking.

Keep whisking until it looks like this.

smooth chocolate ganache

Place the ganache in a piping bag, and place in the fridge to firm up.

You will have leftover ganache, it keeps well in the freezer

If you are filling the macarons the same day, I like to put my piping bag in the freezer to set up faster and then bring the ganache to room temperature by placing on the countertop right before piping.

For the marshmallow filling you follow the same steps as making the Italian Meringue above. If you don't want to do that just buy that marshmallow fluff stuff. I just don't want to repost the same pictures. So just scroll up and do the same thing with the 60g of egg whites (whites from two eggs) and place in a stand mixer and follow the steps above. When you are finished place the marshmallow cream in a piping bag.

Ok now your macarons should be done baking

I then take the macarons out of the oven and off of the baking tray and place them on the counter top still on the parchment paper to cool 

cooling on the counter

look at those macaron feet

After a few minutes I like to match up the macaron shells of similar size and get them ready to be filled.

match up those macarons

ready to be filled

First I piped a ring of marshmallow cream around each macaron

Pipe a nice ring of marshmallow cream

I then took my kitchen torch and carefully torched each marshmallow ring until it was nice and toasty

nice and toasted

After that in the center of each toasted marshmallow ring I piped some of the chocolate ganache

add a dollop of chocolate ganache

I then sprinkled more graham cracker crumbs on top of the chocolate ganache for even more graham cracker flavor.

A yummy sprinkle of graham cracker crumbs to finish the filling

Now just sandwich them together by placing a macaron shell on top.

For a little added something I melted a little milk chocolate and drizzled that on top of the finished macarons.

They are kind of tall because I didn't want to smash them

so yummy

There you have it, the S'mores Macaron. I placed these in an airtight container to mature in the fridge for at least 24 hours. 

These make you want to go camping

I tried one and they are super yummy, and will now be a summer staple for me in the future. I think they look cute and everyone who has tried them says they really taste like a S'more.

I took a bite to show the inside, crunch exterior, chewy interior, and marshmallow + chocolate filling