Sunday Macaron, take 2!

What to do on a lazy Sunday with a bowl full of icing and an itch to bake?  Whip up some french macarons, of course!  I put together some almond flavored cookies with a touch of lemon, stuffed them with almond flavored icing and voi la, pretty!

If you're looking for the recipe, check out my initial post here.  Don't be intimidated; they're easy!  Here's a step by step.

Step 1: Whip up some old (I mean it!) egg whites and some superfine sugar.

Step 2:  Go to town sifting up almond flour and confectioner's sugar

Step 3:  Take eggs, sift flour on top one more time, add some food color and flavoring, and stir 'til shiny.

Step 4:  Pipe circles onto some parchment paper (or silpat mats if you're fancy like that.)

Step 5:  Bake for about 10 minutes, let cool for 10 more, pipe on your filling of choice, smush together, and enjoy some pretty french cookies!

Sunday Macaroon

What is a better way to celebrate a beautiful Sunday than with a beautiful batch of French Macaroons?  I've been admiring these pretty little cookies for quite some time now; looking up recipes, collecting pictures and wondering if I had what it takes to make a batch.  With a bit of lavender buttercream leftover from last week's cupcakes, today was the day to find out.  I must say, I'm quite pleased with the result!  I introduce my lemon-lavender french macaroons:

These delicate cookies are quite an investment of time and money.  The small bag of almond flour cost $9.99 at my local food store, you might be able to save a few dollars if you make your own.  The egg whites have to sit out of the fridge for quite some time to come to room temperature, and the recipe I followed (from Martha Stewart) requires a TRIPLE sift of the flour & sugar misture.  My sifter is 2" in diameter so that took for-ev-er but the end result made up for it!

In my months of macaroon-marvelling, I've gathered a few tips that I think contributed to the success of this batch today.  First and most importantly - get everything set up before starting, especially the flour-sugar mixture.  You have to get it nice and fine. 

Separate your egg whites while they are cold, and then let them sit out (covered, with the plastic wrap touching the top of the eggs) for at least 2 hours to come to room temperature.  Follow time requests in recipes closely.  My egg whites looked whisked enough to me after about 4 minutes, but Martha said to beat them for 8 minutes and I'm glad I did.  Lastly, before you put your cookies in the oven, gently tap the cookie sheet on your counter or table to release any air-bubbles. 

When you pipe your macaroons, don't worry about the immediate piping lines you'll see, after a minute or two they should smooth out like the ones above.  Carefully watch and adjust your oven temperatures as the recipe says, and after 10 painless minutes you should (fingers crossed) see something like this:

Nice smooth, crispy tops and fluffy, chewy bottoms with pretty, crinkly "feet."  Almost right away you'll be able to pipe some filling on the bottom of one, sandwich it with another, and voila!  Enjoy!

The recipe below is very slightly tweaked from Martha Stewart's recipe, here.  I'd highly suggest checking out her link for additional flavor ideas.  Have you ever made french macaroons?  I'd love to hear what flavors you make (or would love to eat!)

Need:

1 cup confectioners' sugar

3/4 cup almond flour

2 large egg whites, room temperature

Pinch of meringue powder

1/4 cup superfine sugar

3/4 cup lavender-infused buttercream (see my old post here for the recipe)

1/2 tsp. pure lemon extract

6 drops yellow food coloring

Do:

• Mix confectioners' sugar and almond flour in a food processor until combined. Sift mixture 2 times.  Be meticulous about this part!! 
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk whites with a mixer in a spotlessly clean bowl on medium speed until foamy. Add meringue powder, and whisk until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to low, then add superfine sugar. Bump the speed back up to high, and continue whisking until stiff peaks form, about 8 minutes.  Sift flour mixture over whites (this is the THIRD sift...do it meticulously!) and fold until mixture is smooth and shiny.
• Fill up a pastry bag with a plain round tip with the batter.  Pipe 3/4-inch rounds 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.  Try your best to not make any hershey-kiss style points on your circles.  You can soften up the tops by running the top along the top of the circle and off, rather than just pulling it up and off.   
• Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees, tap your baking sheet against the table or counter to release air bubbles, and then bake 1 sheet at a time, until macaroons are crisp and firm, about 10 minutes.
• After each batch, increase oven temperature to 375 degrees, heat for 5 minutes, then reduce to 325 degrees.
• Let macaroons cool on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, then move to a wire rack. (If macaroons stick, spray water underneath parchment on hot sheet. The steam will help release macaroons.)
• Sandwich 2 same-size macaroons with 1 teaspoon jam. Serve immediately, or stack between layers of parchment, wrap in plastic, and freeze for up to 3 months.

Almond-Lemon-Lavender Cupcakes

It feels like Christmas Eve...except its Cupcake Camp Eve!! I just finished up my cupcakes for tomorrow and I am psyched!

My friend Christina of All's Fare Food Blog & I will be joining the ranks of amateur bakers for tomorrow night's cupcake fiesta.  She put together some super cute Red Velvet Baseball cupcakes (hopefully they'll be good luck to our Sox) and I just finished up my Almond-Lemon-Lavender cupcakes.  They are a heavy white almond cake, with lemon curd filling and topped with some homemade lavender buttercream.  Perfect for spring, right?

I have to say, this is one of the messiest cake recipes I've followed yet!  To be fair I was kind of rushing the fun part so I could make it to my girls night dinner on time, but sheesh, next time I will be sure to use my splatter guard on the KitchenAid and stir slowly with a nice big spatula!

The batter comes together very thick, and bakes into a fairly dense, but still moist cake.  I was initially concerned that the eggs whites were too prominent in the cake, based off of my miniscule toothpick test to make sure they were done. 

So I went to town with my new cupcake corer and tried a "tastie" as my hubs and I are calling them, which made me confident that the over-eggy-ness was just my paranoid imagination.  This cupcake corer is amazing...and affordable.  Only $5.00 at Williams-Sonoma!  Highly recommend if you like to fill your cupcakes.

To make sure I'd be brining something worth sharing, I topped some tasties with a dollop of lemon curd and a dot of lavender buttercream.  So good, and a great way to keep me from "testing" a whole cupcake at 11PM!

I definitely had a blast making these for tomorrow night and my husband can't get enough of the lavender buttercream.  You know it's good when your sweetie goes back for seconds, thirds, fourths... Do you have a recipe that is a super hit? 

Also- for anyone who made it this far, were you at Cupcake Camp too? Let's trade notes!

White Almond Cake (adapted from Martha Stewart's white cupcake recipe)

Need:

• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon pure almond extract
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 7 large egg whites

Do:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake or muffin tins with papers; set aside.
• Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
• Mix milk & almond extract together (Martha suggests a glass measuring cup...I used a plastic measuring cup and it was fine.)  Once mixed, set aside. 
• Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat until pale and creamy. With the mixer on medium speed, gradually add sugar in a steady stream; continue beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low.
• Add flour mixture to butter and sugar bowl in three batches, alternating with the milk/almond liquid, and starting and ending with the flour. Do not overbeat. **This is serious!  Mine got TOO thick...I highly suggest stopping beating as soon as your final batch of flour is completely mixed in.**
• Wash out your electric mixing bowl really well- make sure there is NO butter left anywhere!  Put on your whisk attachment, and beat egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.
• Take one third of the egg whites and fold into the batter.  This should help lighten it up a little bit. Fold in the remaining egg whites in two batches, and be gentle!  This is where it can get messy, and you also don't want to flatten your eggs.
• Pour batter into prepared tins, filling cups to about 1/2 inch from the tops. Bake until a cake tester inserted near the centers comes out clean and the tops spring back when pressed lightly in the center, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool completely before removing the cores.
• Once cooled and cored pipe in lemon curd filling.  You can make your own, but I used Dickinson's brand from Stop & Shop.

Lavender infused buttercream:

Need:

• 1/4 c. water
• 2 tbsp. dried lavendar
• 2 sticks of room-temp butter
• 1/2 c. vegetable shortening
• 2 tbsp. milk (i used skim)
• appx. 5-6 cups confectioner's sugar
• food coloring

Do:

• In a small saucepan or microwaveable bowl, heat water to boiling.  Add in dried lavender and let simmer for a good 15-20 min or so. 
• Strain lavender water into another bowl, removing the lavender and leaving just the hot infused water.  Put the water in the fridge for another 20 minutes+ to cool.
• Beat the butter and shortening together until nice and light.  
• Beat in milk then add confectioner's sugar 1 cup at a time until it comes together into a nice buttercream.  You may need to add a splash of milk or more sugar to reach your desired consistency.  I always eyeball my buttercreams and never keep track of how much sugar I actually end up using.  The key is to watch the consistency and TASTE! 
• Once you like how it's looking, add in your cooled lavender water and food coloring.  To make the pretty purple color in mine, I used probably 16 drops of blue, 8 drops of red...and then 1/4 teaspoon of violet gel color too.  The drops were just creating a not-so-pretty greyish color, and then when I added the violet gel it finally turned the pretty purple I was hoping for.   Mix your buttercream until all of the infused water and color is combined.  Give it a taste, make sure it feels right to decorate with (not too smooth, not too stiff) and either use immediately or save in an air-tight container for up to one week.