Mucho Mocha Macarons

In the last 6 months, I have had a roller coaster love/hate relationship with making Macarons. There is all this taboo around them, and I tend scoff at anything that has unnecessary stigma surrounding it. But I'm going to be real with you, here. French Macarons haven't been easy for me. I don't have schooling when it comes to baking, I learn as I go and use some kind of common sense and follow the recipe to a T. However, I am used to things turning out, usually on the first go. I guess that's why i have stuck with baking/decorating for so long, because it's easy. French Macarons are not easy. Even though I vowed to just follow the recipe, I find myself talking to the cookies, willing them to come out right. Voodoo, hoodoo, knock on wood, I do it, because I don't care what anyone says, these cookies are temperamental and I get very frustrated when they don't come out perfectly.

I went from having a 50% success rate when I first learned how to make them, to having about a 90% success rate. Yowza! Sometimes I have bad days and they just don't turn out. The foot isn't developed, or I over mix my base. It happens. I don't worry to much about it. Trash them, start over. But I have actually started liking the process. I enjoy finding the perfect consistency, and piping the right size, letting them rest just long enough.

Yesterday, or the day before, I can't remember now, all of my days are blending together, I made these mocha macarons. They came out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. Just the perfect bland of espresso and cocoa, with a sweet chocolate buttercream.

I don't have too much of a sweet tooth, and my teeth tend to hurt when I eat a lot of sugar, BUT, I took a itty bitty bite from one and they tasted just like a mocha!

That's all for now. Back to the work table for some Mad Men and making sunglasses. Also, I am interested in doing a lot more dessert recipes on here. Any requests??

xo,

Beca

Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Ganache

I made some little French Macarons {Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Ganache} for my pals at the USPS office by my house. They are so wonderful to me every day when I come in with arm fulls of packages and I appreciate how much they have to put up with. I shipped off something like 20 packages today and still have a bunch more tomorrow! {A tip for all you small biz owners, post office workers LOVE cookies and will probably be more helpful/happy if they know they are appreciated!}

And what better backdrop than a map of the whole wide world where all of our lovely packages get shipped off to.

We're going to take a little movie theater break before a full night of work! A little break always rejuvenates us!

xo,

Beca

Margarita Macaron

Add the zest of one lime, a tsp of top shelf tequila, a few drops of leaf green color, and a few drops of key lime juice, to a classic macaron recipe (I put the zest in with my walnut flour...) and make a lemon buttercream, and you have Maragrita Macarons! Huzzah!

xo,

Beca

French Macarons - Mexican Hot Chocolate

I am happy to say that I have finally, after much unnecessary distress, mastered these really not-so-tricky little monsters. I also realized my folly. I have been using our flat pizza-like oven instead of the confection oven that the kitchen chef uses. I don't know why I didn't realize this sooner, but the pans were getting too much heat exposure with the flat oven and the cookies were - In the simplest terms - melting. Now that I am using my brain, every single batch of macarons I make now are perfect.

These came out especially great. I was really happy with the flavor and the texture. I LOVE Mexican hot chocolate. I used to make cupcakes in that flavor at Epic (my old stomping ground, and my first experience as a bakery manager) years ago and the cayenne and the cinnamon leave such a nice flavor in your mouth mixed with the sharp dark chocolate.

I used Stella's perfect macaron recipe and substitutes 2 oz of confectioners sugar with cocoa powder, and added about a TBSP of cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne. You can add more for more spicy. That's up to you! I also stuck some yummy little marshmallows with chocolate ganache in the middle.

Okay, not going to lie, I totally ate this one up! I love the way the ganache oozed out because it was still warm when I put it on the cookies.

Alright, I'm off to take photos of some really pretty wooden faced brass rings and a new sunglass style for the ladies! Check the shop soon!

xo,

Beca

French Macarons // Mini-Burgers

Yesterday, Etsy tweeted a link to these adorable mini-mac French Macarons. And yes, they are shaped like cheeseburgers! Of course, I had to make them. Unfortunately, my day was incredibly stressful and when I get stressed out, I CAN'T seem to make anything the way I want to. It's kind of like I project my stress into what I make and it can be really frustrating. So, i only got 10 good cookies out of this batch, and they weren't even that good. A lot of them cracked. But, I documented the journey, cracked cookies and all.

I use Stella's recipe for macarons and 95% of the time, they are pretty good. I'm not in the realm of perfect yet, but pretty good is good enough for me. She also has an incredible Macaron Myth post on her blog that takes the scary out of macaron making. After a month of using her recipe, this is what it looks like. (I have it memorized by now, but still keep it just in case.)

I would like to introduce you to my buddy, R2D2, jr...my robot coupe. I dubbed the food processor at my old place R2D2, and this one is the same size, but has to be junior, since it's the second. It's a little beat up, but I love it. I make my own walnut flour for macarons, and this is the where I make it!!

I'm not going to go step by step here, just wanted to show my process.

Walnut flour. Mmm.

And I am not shy to share my mistakes. My first batch was horrible. I was n the phone for half the process and then the health department showed up and almost gave me a heart attack. (Not that I had ANYTHING to worry about, but they always make me so nervous...) Here are some awesome macarons that came out stupid and got eaten by the cooks and thrown in the trash. Boo.

While I waited for the good batch to bake, I got my little hamburger patties ready. I used chocolate cake and then sliced it thinly in half.

I made some fondant cheese slices. I wanted to eat them up!

A few of my cookies were still cracked, but whatever. I don't even care anymore. Raspberry sauce for ketchup!

Green buttercream for lettuce!

And, ta-da. mini-burger cookies.

Pretty cute if I do say so myself.

I'm off to the post office. Goodbye friends.

xo,

Beca