French Macarons 2

This post is subtitled, “Why yes, I am going to obsessively track my macaron progress.”

I was analyzing my recent macaron progress and realized I was having some issues with hollow shells.  Based on reading online tutorials, I believe that my problem lies with a too-hot oven or being baked too long.  I’ve been using two oven thermometers so unless my oven is possessed (hmmm, possible), I was baking them at the temperature I intended.  It was starting to look like tweaking my baking procedure was in order.

I think you can guess where this is heading.  I did indeed make another macaron batch today.  I decided to stop getting fancy with flavors and really master a basic macaron recipe first.  Today, I opted for a 1:1.2:2.35 ratio of egg whites to almond meal to powdered sugar.  The level of precision to which I have approached this would make Brian proud!  It seems like just yesterday he was wigging out at me for not leveling my cups of flour with a knife.  Ah, so young, so inexperienced.

I’m still continuing on with the French meringue method.  I thought briefly about using an Italian meringue, but then reminded myself to master one thing at a time.  And it’s not that I don’t think my shells as they are currently baking taste unpleasant.  It’s just that I know that they could be SO MUCH better!

So I whipped up a batch again.  No flavoring, just sugar, almond meal, egg whites and my technique.  I suspect I over-folded a bit this time around.

I piped the rounds onto Silpats this time around (yes, I know I said I didn’t like Silpats but I thought I would give them a chance to redeem themselves).  I opted for a “high heat, low heat” method.  I think the theory is the high heat will puff the shells up initially while the lower heat will allow the insides to cook properly and prevent hollow shells.  So I would raise the temperature back up to 350-degrees F, drop it to 300-degrees F, then open the oven door and pop in a tray.

Tray 1: Rest 20 minutes.  Double trayed.  12 minute bake.  Feet projected outwards rather than up so overall height was low.  I immediately removed these from the hot baking tray and let cool on a rack.  The bottoms were sticky (a problem I always have with Silpats), so I stuck them in the freezer before removal.  Many of them actually had concave bottoms.  😦  The ones that were flat on the bottom had slight hollow-ness.

Tray 2: Rest 40 minutes.  Single trayed.  8 minute bake.  These baked the highest.  Same issue as before, sticky bottoms.  The hollow was a bit more pronounced here and the bottom was thicker.  I suspect that the insides collapsed shortly after removing from the oven.  A tip I’ve seen to prevent that is to let them cool upside down, but the sticky bottoms prevent that.  Now that I think about it, I wonder if immediately turning them upside down while still attached to the Silpat would have fixed that.  Ah, perhaps another day.

Tray 3: Rest 55 minutes.  Single trayed.  9 minute bake.  Smaller foot.  Not as tall when baked.

Lessons Learned: Do not double tray Silpats when using your oven!  Melanie, have you seriously not learned that yet?  A medium rest is best.  Also, I think I should have tried double-baking the last tray to compare rest times and number of trays.  Eeek, too many variables.

Next Test: I think I’d like to try just baking them for longer at a lower, constant temperature but I do feel like I should test this same method using parchment.  I think I will probably do that, but pipe out a few macarons per sheet, so I can better examine the results.

Conclusions:  Anyone feel like macarons?  Come on over!  I’ll even brew a pot of tea, to help wash down the sugar.  🙂

Almond Cookies

About a year ago, when I was trying to decide what caterer to pick for our wedding, I came across one who I really liked but who did not do tastings.  I didn’t really consider that to be a problem, until everyone else who had planned a wedding shot little red flags at me.

When I first asked her for a tasting, her solution was for me to go on her website, where she posted the recipes to some of her more popular dishes, and make them myself.  So while I ended up not going with that particular catering company, I did take her advice and followed one of her recipes.  Specifically, I made the almond pound cake she was going to make as our wedding cake.

This whole story is pretty much just a long, roundabout way of me explaining how I first tried something almond and fell in love with the taste and scent of almond.  I just love it, both in soap and on food.

So if you are like me, you will LOVE these cookies.  I am usually a chewy cookie gal, so the fact that they are very fluffy, more cake than cookie, and I still loved them should not be taken lightly.

The dough had almond extract and almond paste in it, but the cookie will not taste overwhelmingly like almond once baked.  But that’s okay, because they’re topped by an almond glaze that really brings it over the top.  These are some damn good cookies.

As a note, I have not actually managed to find almond paste at any traditional grocery store.  I only recently accidentally stumbled across it at the Milk Pail European Market in Mountain View.  I bought it for another almond cookie recipe and thankfully had some leftover for these cookies.  The other almond cookie recipe is kosher?  Or vegan?  It consisted of almond paste, sugar and egg whites.  They were chewy and delicious and I’ll talk about them in another post.

I wish I could share a picture with you but instead I’ll share the recipe, which I am so glad to have found here.  She takes better pictures than I ever could, anyway.  😉

Mississippi Mud Cookies

Last time, I talked about (one of) Melissa and Mabel’s food contributions to Kjersti’s birthday party.  Well, this time, I am going to talk about my contribution.  Ha!  So generous of me!

I bet you’re wondering why I suddenly am posting so much.  And why I even have pictures with my post.  And I would lose that bet, because I’m sure no one’s noticed at all!  But I will tell you why anyway.  And that is because:  I finally got an iPhone.  The Flickr application is the BEST.  The photo quality isn’t up to food porn levels but then, my photos never really were, were they?  🙂  It’s all about the baby steps … first, start posting regularly.  Then maybe think about improving on the photos.

Right before Kjersti’s birthday, I stumbled on this recipe for Mississippi Mud cookies.  I am pretty sure this came bundled in a packet trying to get me to buy the Southern Living recipe book for that year.  I didn’t buy the book, but I made sure to save the recipe, promising to “try it one day.”  So for Kjersti’s birthday, I picked up some mini marshmallows and went to town.

Here they are, all ready to bake!  The dough comes out quite sticky so it’s important to use some sort of parchment (or Silpat!) to prevent them from sticking to the cookie sheets.  They’re also this weird oblong shape because I decided to practice my quenelle technique which, by the way, needs lots of work.  My goal in life is to one day get this cool, the one-spoon quenelle technique!  The dough was too sticky to try that, so I used the easier (and cheating?) two-spoon technique.

Despite the oblong shape, they still baked up round:

Martin said the spots where the marshmallows melted looked like plastic and they definitely didn’t look like the pretty magazine photo.  But I thought they were yummy despite that!  The cookies had a nice chewiness to them and I am all about mouthfeel when it comes to food.

This recipe called for pecans and I normally don’t add nuts to my food if I know my friend Michelle will be around to eat them (because she has strong allergic reactions to nuts).  But I tasted the batter before adding the nuts and it was very sweet … I think without the nuts to balance it, it wouldn’t have been as good.  Also, I very finely chopped my pecans because I don’t like big pecan chunks but I think next time, I might keep it a bit chunkier.  The pecans were so finely chopped, they practically disappeared into the cookie, though you definitely got a good nutty aftertaste.

Mississippi Mud Cookies
from Southern Living

1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup milk chocolate morsels (accidentally put in semisweet here)
1 cup + 2 tbsp. miniature marshmallows

1.  Preheat oven to 350-degrees and line baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.

2.  Microwave semisweet chocolate in a small, microwave-safe glass bowl at high for 1 minute and stir.  If not completely smooth, microwave at 30 second increments, stirring between each time, until completely smooth.

3.  Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with electric mixer until creamy and smooth.

4.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

5.  Beat in vanilla and melted chocolate.

6.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl and mix together.  Gradually add to the chocolate mixture, beating until well blended.

6.  Stir in chopped pecans and 1/2 cup milk chocolate morsels.

7.  Drop tough in tablespoon-sized heaps and press 3 marshamllows into each portion of dough.  Bake approx. 10 – 12 minutes per batch.  Let cool on cookie sheets minimum 1 minute before transferring to cooling rack.

Yields 3 dozen cookies (which I don’t believe unless you use portion sizes slightly smaller than tablespoon-sized heaps).

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie

Well, you knew it had to happen.  I would stumble across what has been hailed as the most sublimely perfect of all chocolate chip cookies and would feel compelled – no, DRIVEN – to test this recipe out.

First, for some background:  Quest for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Some of you may not know this, but chocolate chip cookies are my very favorite cookie in the world.  It wasn’t always the case.  White chocolate and orange briefly led me astray, but I returned and my love of the humble chocolate chip cookie has definitely reached new heights.  My love for chocolate chip cookies is much like my love for biscuits, macaroni and cheese or roast chicken, which is to say, they are my most preferred of comfort foods.

The basic premise, which most people probably already know, is that the biggest secret to making chocolate chip cookies is to let them refrigerate for 36 hours.  This gives the eggs time to sink into the flour and really get going.  The ideal size is insanely large, giving the cookie distinct crispy / chewy / soft circles.  The result should have strong caramel notes, because of the sugar.  If done right, it should make you weep for joy.

Well, I followed the directions and I did not cry at the end.  Well, maybe I did, but they were tears of sadness.  Perhaps the article did too good a job of hyping them up.  Perhaps I over / under / wrongly mixed.

These cookies looked great and tasted good.  They were just another chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I plan on trying them again, to see if that one time was just a fluke.  I think I might shake it up and add some white chocolate in there too, as I like the contrast of bittersweet chocolate to the sweetness of the white chocolate.

Snickerdoodles

I’d recently written this post and lost it when Firefox crashed.  I was eight kinds of mad, mostly because I’ve noticed FF3 likes to shut down for no reason at all on my Windows machine (but not my iBook, amazingly enough!).

It took me awhile to work up the enthusiasm to re-write this post.  So … this post might not be enthusiastic at all.  🙂

I decided to make these after a co-worker gave me a Snickerdoodle and I remembered how much I loved its softness and cinnamon-ness.  I had all the ingredients on hand already so why shouldn’t I make some Snickerdoodles?

Well, these were good.  But I realized they were also very sweet.  Something that tasted great when only one unit is eaten tasted significantly less good when five … six … twelve are consumed.  They were soft the way cookies should be, looked amazing and had a great buttery taste.  But just too much.

I wonder how much of this can also be attributed to the fact that I made them before going down to Santa Barbara with Martin.  I loaded up a big bag with these and proceeded to eat them all weekend because there was nothing else to snack on.  After sitting around in a plastic bag, these didn’t taste too great, I can tell you right now.

So the lesson in today’s entry is that cloying sweetness does NOT mix well with plastic mcplastic-ness.  And now you know.  But here’s some visual eye candy anyway:

Side Note:  Firefox totally crashed four times while I was writing this.  I literally screamed “DIE FIREFOX I HATE YOU!” because I was so mad.  But it somehow found my original post.  So I guess I don’t hate it.  I just don’t really like it right now.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I decided to make these, I wanted something that would taste just like a Reese’s cup. The cookies I made are indeed very peanut buttery and very soft, but not as chocolatey as I would have liked. Everyone knows the best iteration of Reese’s cups are the mini ones, because they have the ideal chocolate-to-peanut-butter ratio. And if they don’t know, well … trust me, everyone knows.

I didn’t preserve the ratio in these cookies. I used a lot of peanut butter but not a lot of chocolate chips. For the peanut butter, I used White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter by Peanut Butter and Co. I bought some (in bulk) through Amazon and now have four containers of the stuff. It’s tasty, but not as good as their Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter, which is like eating semi-solid Reese’s cups. Mmmm. So good.

I am taking the time to explain this because at the end, when I went to add the chips, I couldn’t decide what kind to add. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to add white, to compliment the peanut butter I used, or dark, to make it like a Reese’s cup. In the end, I compromised both and pleased none. Isn’t that what they say about compromises? They slightly satisfy, but mostly dissatisfy, both. In this case, do not compromise! Pick white or dark, but not both!

So these were more peanut buttery and less chocolatey than I was hoping for, but they stay very soft and are pretty tasty. I just dropped them onto the cookie sheet, rather than making the signature criss-cross. What I am wondering is – who decided peanut butter cookies should be all criss-cross to begin with? What’s wrong with good ol’ rounded dome cookie shapes?

Anyway, here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1 stick butter, softened
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp. heavy whipping cream or whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1-¼ cup AP flour
¾ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate chips

1- Preheat oven to 350-degrees and line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2- Beat together peanut butter, butter and sugar until fluffy.

3- Add egg, heavy cream and vanilla, beating until combined.

4- Mix flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to butter mixture and beat until smooth.

5- Add chocolate chips and stir to combine. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto cookie sheet.

6- Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until cookies just start to turn golden brown at edges. Remove from oven and leave on cookie sheet until cool.

Servings: 24 medium cookies

Triple Chocolate Cookies

I found this recipe online and was immediately sold on its description, which had words like ooey, gooey, chewy and brownie-like. As anyone knows, I am a HUGE fan of brownies.

The recipe itself came from a recipe book called Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Conner. I ask you, how can you fail with a name like that?!

You can if you do what I did and fail to add in one cup of sugar. After I’d mixed up and baked all the results, I eagerly tried one and was disappointed that it wasn’t asgooey and chewy as my beloved brownie. It was, however, a very nice, soft and extra-chocolately chocolate cookie and it had that lovely shiny crust that brownies typically acquire. I would make it again, with hopes that were not so high. And as I was transcribing the recipe, for my “next time,” I realized I’d left out brown sugar. A cup of it to be exact.

I am no scientific baking expert but I was kind of appalled that I’d left out a whole (and very important!) ingredient. Perhaps that is why they weren’t as brownie-like as promised.

I made half the batch one night and half the batch the next night, both under different circumstances. The first night, the batter was slightly chilled and produced cookies that spread more. The second time, the batter was more chilled and the batter did not spread too much. However, too chilled and the batter retained its lumpy texture. It was better to let it defrost a little and allow it to develop a smooth surface (and a pretty brownie sheen!).

Also, the original recipe called for microwaving the chocolate and butter together and immediately mixing. I let mine sit for a few seconds after coming out of the microwave and I think that step is crucial to making sure everything melts after the first heating.

So without further ado:

Triple Chocolate Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1-¼ cups all purpose flour
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1-½ milk chocolate chunks
1-½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.

2- Combine 12 oz. semisweet chocolate, 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate and butter in microwave safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 1 minute. Remove and let sit for a few seconds longer. Stir until chocolate is completely melted andsmooth.
3- In a large mixing bowl, beat together eggs, sugars and vanilla until fluffy.

4- Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in melted chocolate.

5- Add flour, baking powder and salt. Stir until just combined.

6- Stir in chocolate chips.

7- Drop batter onto baking sheets at least 3″ apart to give room to spread. Bake one sheet at a time until cookies are firm and have a glossy, crackled exterior (like a brownie!), approx. 12 – 15 minutes.

8- Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheets.

Servings: 18 – 24 cookies

Wow, that’s a lot of melted chocolate.

Thank you, cookie scoop!

Watching me post this made Martin want cookies again.

White Chocolate Orange cookies

I’d fallen so hard in love with my new chocolate chip cookie recipe, my other drop cookies fell by the wayside. That’s why, when Martin asked for my white chocolate orange cookies, I didn’t have the heart to say no.

I’d almost say these were my signature cookies. Not that I made up the recipe, but more these were always the cookies I’d make if I wanted cookies. They have a higher butter-to-sugar ratio. I don’t know what this does, precisely, but these cookies are very buttery and soft. I think the original recipe called for smaller amounts of orange flavor but I always wanted it to pack a punch so I kept amping it up. I think currently, I am quite content with the ratios here. I put a little more than 1 tbsp. of dried orange zest in and noticed that the zest came out as almost hard-chewy, so I think I might keep it at an even 1 tbsp. next time.

Also, each time, the dough-to-chips ratio change, mostly because I shake a bag of white chocolate chips a few times until I think a good number has been added. I think this usually amounts to about half the bag, but I estimate around 2 cups. And I’m very careful to make sure that they’re baked until they have just acquired golden-brown edges.

Other than those notes, this is a great cookie recipe. People always come up to me, saying that they loved them. I think it might have to do with the expectations – people are expecting a regular cookie and instead its packed with a citrus-y bang. Either way, I love their compliments and I love these cookies. 🙂

White Chocolate Orange Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp. orange zest
1 tbsp. orange extract
2-¼ cups AP flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 cups white chocolate chips

1- Preheat oven to 350-degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2- Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3- Add egg, orange zest and orange extract while beating.

4- Sift flour, baking soda and salt together. Slowly add while beating.

5- Add white chocolate chips and mix.

6- Drop onto cookie sheets by rounded teaspoon.

7- Bake. Remove from oven and let cool before eating.

Servings: 36 cookies

Results a la scoop

The cookie scoop: it does good work.

Chewy Cocoa Cookies

When I first read about these cookies, I was really excited to try it. Cookies that got a lot of its moistness from yogurt rather than butter? That seemed fairly tame in the calorie-department? That were chewy and soft and chocolatey? Win-win, easily.

The first night I baked these, they looked great until they cooled down and quickly flattened. I checked my baking soda by pouring some vinegar into it but it fizzed appropriately. The thermometer in my oven registered at precisely 350-degrees while baking. I used parchment and cooled down my cookie sheets between batches. Amy suggested chilling the dough before popping them in the oven.

Biting into them, they were soft on the inside, with a chewy exterior, a sort of crispness to the teeth right before getting to the heart of the cookie … not exactly what I was expecting. These go great with milk because the large quantity of cocoa in them makes them very rich. I liked them, but they also made me very thirsty for some reason.

So … I baked them again the second night. This is a relatively easy recipe and makes a small number of cookies, so it was no hard feat. I carefully prepared each part and chilled the batter in the fridge for half an hour, until it was almost hard. And … same result. Flattened cookies.

I’m still a little disappointed but it’s hard to hate these cocoa discs of happiness. I put them in a Tupperware container with a paper towel and the next day, they were soft and moist. I definitely liked them more the next day than fresh out of the oven (which I thought was odd for a cookie). Either way, I’ll probably keep this in my recipe book and keep experimenting, as they’re so easy to make and register low on the “bad for you!” treats scale.

Chewy Cocoa Cookies

1 cup unbleached AP flour
¼ tsp. baking soda
⅛ tsp. salt
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
⅔ cup sugar
⅓ cup light brown sugar
7 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
⅓ cup plain yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350-degrees and line baking sheets with parchment.

1/ In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and salt together.

2/ Microwave butter until just melted. Add sugar and cocoa powder and stir to blend.

3/ Add yogurt and vanilla and stir to mix thoroughly.

4/ Add dry flour mixture and stir to combine.

5/ Add chocolate chips and stir to incorporate.

6/ Drop by rounded tablespoon onto baking sheets. Bake until tops look crackly and have set.

Servings: 20 cookies

First night results

Second night results