Brandy Poached Pear and Ginger Macarons

Man they were a lot of work, and I am kind of over macarons but this was a great flavor combo.

"They were perfect." Black Swan Rose Water Black Sesame Macarons

A couple posts ago I mentioned how excited I was for the Oscars, not to gawk at the fashion on the red carpet or even to see how awkward James Franco and Anne Hathaway would be at hosting, but to THEME things. Yes, yes I love to theme! So I came up with an award winning dessert for the Best Original Macaron category: (Black Swan) Rose Water and Black Sesame Macarons.

Let me explain the themage... Ok, so the macaron shells were white and delicately flavored with rose water to represent Nina's (Natalie Portman's character) innocence and daintiness. 

And, if you have seen the film, you know throughout it Nina is both fighting against and fighting for her inner dark side, which I represented by putting the black sesame buttercream between the 2 white shells. The dark color and slight bitterness of the sesame echo Nina's emotions and edge when the Black Swan shines forth.

I know, I may have thought to deeply about it. I told you, I like to theme! 

And the Oscar goes too...?

The Great Pumpkin Macarons

If you've seen It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, you know that if your pumpkin patch is 'sincere' enough, then The Great Pumpkin will visit you and bring you lots of presents. So putting two and two together, I figured if I made sincere enough macarons out of sincere pumpkins that came from a sincere enough pumpkin patch, The Great Pumpkin might visit Josh and I's humble apartment. 


I am sorry to say, The Great Pumpkin has not yet graced me with his presence, but I am still waiting. Like Linus, I am standing in my pumpkin patch of a kitchen with my sign, still semi-hopeful.

However, I think I have figured out why The Great Pumpkin has remained so elusive. My pumpkin macarons are too good. At some point, during the multiplication of all that sincerity, my macarons turned into the equivalent of a young actress who recently left her small town, hit it big in Hollywood, and now thinks she is the -ish. Dang it macarons! You ruin everything. It's your fault The Great Pumpkin hasn't come! Now I am going to devours you! Hahaha! And give you away unexpectedly to friends and family! A true Halloween horror story. The end. Actually, not quite, the recipe is below.

Macaron Ingredients

• 3 oz Almond Meal
• 5.25 oz Powdered Sugar
• Pinch of Cream of Tartar
• 99 grams of Egg Whites, aged 1-2 days
• 65 grams Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
• Powdered Orange Food Coloring

Pumkin Ganache Ingredients

• 8 ounces White Chocolate Chips
• 3 tablespoons Heavy Cream
• 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup canned Pumpkin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice

Macaron Directions

1. Place one oven rack directly in the center of your oven, place the other rack on the notch right above the first rack and place a large cookie sheet on the top rack. (This is to prevent the macaron color from browning.) Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare two cookie sheets with silicon mats or parchment. Prepare a pastry bag fitted with a large tip and stand it up in a large glass.

2. Sift the almond meal, powdered sugar and pumpkin pie spice together into a medium bowl, set aside.

3. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on med-hi until soft peaks form. Then slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until very stiff peaks form, then remove the bowl from the mixer.

4. Fold in the vanilla, 1/3 of the almond meal mixture and your food coloring until almost incorporated. Then add the next 1/3, and more food coloring if necessary, and fold until almost incorporated. Then add the last 1/3 and fold against the side of the bowl until just fully incorporated. It should be the consistency of thick magma like paste.

5. Transfer the batter to the prepared pastry bag and pipe large circles about an inch and a half in diameter onto your prepared pans. Rap the pans a couple of times to release air bubbles. Let the macarons set for 20 minutes on the counter.

6. On the center rack, bake the macarons for 13 minutes. Then transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat with the second sheet.

Pumpkin Ganache Directions

1. Melt the white chocolate over a double boiler. Set aside.

2. Place the cream, brown sugar, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until it just comes to a simmer. Add the cream to the ganache and fold until fully incorporated. If there are still chunks in the ganache, return to the heat and stir until smooth. Pour the ganache into a shallow bowl and place plastic wrap directly on the ganache. Place in the refrigerator until thickened, about an hour.

3. Take the ganache out of the fridge and whip it with the whisk attachment of a stand mixer or hand beaters until it gets lighter in color and a little fluffier. 

4. Spread a moderate amount of the buttercream between two macarons. Store the completed macarons in a sealed container in the fridge for a day before eating them to set the texture. (If thats not possible, it's not a big deal.) Remove them from the fridge 10 minutes before serving them to bring them back to room temp.

5. Package them and give some away as gifts! I got these cute autumn take out boxes at Michael's.

Macaron Mission: Stage 4 (Matcha Macarons)

Finally, the last installment of my macaron mission. Why? Because the mission is complete! I got the macaron down. I even fixed the coloration problem by placing a cookie sheet on the rack right over the baking macarons. What follows is my own recipe, tried and true through many failures and small victories. I hope you enjoy and muster up the gumption to try them for yourself.

Matcha (Green Tea) Macarons

Macaron Ingrediants

• 3 oz Almond Meal
• 5.25 oz Powdered Sugar
• Pinch of Cream of Tartar
• 99 grams of Egg Whites, aged 1-2 days
• 65 grams Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Matcha (Green Tea Powder, you can find this at most asian markets)
• Powdered Green Food Coloring

Buttercream Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Sticks of Butter, softened
• 1 3/4 cups Powdered Sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons of Matcha

Matcha Macaron Directions

1. Place one oven rack directly in the center of your oven, place the other rack on the notch right above the first rack and place a large cookie sheet on the top rack. (This is to prevent the macaron color from browning.) Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare two cookie sheets with silicon mats or parchment. Prepare a pastry bag fitted with a large tip and stand it up in a large glass.

2. Sift the almond meal and powdered sugar together into a medium bowl, set aside.

3. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on med-hi until soft peaks form. Then slowly add the granulated sugar and the food coloring (until the desired shade of green is achieved) and beat until stiff peaks form, then remove the bowl from the mixer.

4. Fold in the vanilla and 1/3 of the almond meal mixture until almost incorporated. Then add the next 1/3 and fold until almost incorporated. Then add the last 1/3 and fold against the side of the bowl until just fully incorporated. It should be the consistency of thick magma like paste.

5. Transfer the batter to the prepared pastry bag and pipe large circles about an inch and a half in diameter onto your prepared pans. Rap the pans a couple of times to release air bubbles. Let the macarons set for 20 minutes on the counter.

6. On the center rack, bake the macarons for 11 and a half minutes. Then transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat with the second sheet.

Matcha Buttercream Directions

1. Cream the butter, powdered sugar and matcha together using the paddle attachment of a stand mixture until a thick buttercream forms. Place the buttercream in the refrigerator until it is firm enough to spread without a mess.

2. Spread a moderate amount of the buttercream between two macarons. Store the completed macarons in a sealed container in the fridge for a day before eating them to set the texture. (If thats not possible, it's not a big deal.) Remove them from the fridge 20 minutes before serving them to bring them back to room temp.

The Sweet Scent of Spring: Lavender and Orange Honey Macarons

Did you know that the sense of smell is the strongest sense tied to our memories? Of course you did, it's one of those random facts everyone has in their repertoire of things to impress people with at a party. Nonetheless, it is so true! 

When I smell apple-cinnamon Glade Plug-Ins and freshly sharpened pencil, I literally have to bat away the thick cloud of nostalgia that descends upon me as I recall the joy of school holiday parties and the dread of spelling tests.

When I smell pine trees, I am immediately transported back to early Christmases when I used to camp out behind our Christmas tree to read Goosebumps on top of the heater (I know, a tree next to a heater. Not smart.)

When I smell the ocean, memories of summer vacations spent in San Diego come flooding over me as I remember giggling mindlessly while riding the Giant Dipper at Balboa Park and waking up at 6am to surf with my Dad. 

Finally, when I smell the fresh scent of lavender and the refreshing aroma of oranges coupled with their sweet smelling blossoms which produce the best sort of honey I think... what an amazing combination for my next macaron endeavor! And I was right! The combination of the fragrant lavender, citrusy orange and warm honey was so perfect, so spring. 

Macaron Mission: Stage 3 (Lemon Blueberry Macarons)

Stage three of my perfect macaron mission has come and gone and I must say I am pretty pleased. You might be wondering what happened to stage two since I never posted it; truth is I was so pissed I couldn’t bear to blog about the disaster. I used the recipe for standard macrons from Tartlette, the so called guru of online macaron making, and was sorely disappointed since the tops cooked to quickly and the middle didn’t cook at all. I blame myself, not her.

Nonetheless, I decided to try another recipe and since my chocolate macarons (David Lebovitz recipe from stage one of my macaron mission) turned out so well, I thought I would just omit the cocoa powder and hope the chemistry and proportions of the ingredients would hold up to produce a great regular macaron as well. My hope’s were realized when out of the oven popped perfectly shaped and cooked macarons that were oh so tasty. Lebovitz is the man! 

My Macaron Mission: Stage One

I don't often check Bakarella's Blog . Don't get me wrong she has cute stuff, but I'm afraid it ends there; it's just cute and it's never to inventive or challenging taste wise. However I did check her blog last week and was disappointed that she beat me to the punch on my next blog, rather, my next blog series. I was waiting for my San Francisco series to be done, which it now is btw, to begin a series of posts on my mission to make great tasting French Macarons. But you know what... I'm not Bakarella so I won't let her get me down. I'm an amateur baker and blogger with a lot of Sass, so I hope that my series can be more accessible and real.

As usual, we begin with a little history... Although predominately a French confection, there has been much debate about its origins. It has been cited that the macaron was first introduced in Venice during the Renaissance. Some have traced its French debut back to the arrival of Catherine de Medici's Italian pastry chefs whom she brought with her in 1533 upon marrying Henry II. Pierre Desfontaines of Laduree is credited for the modern interpretation of the macaron as a sandwich cookie, whereby two biscuits enclose either a buttercream, jam, or ganache filling.

Thanks Catherine!

My personal love affair with macarons began about 5 years ago when I went to visit my friend Allyse in Paris who was studying abroad there. The first place she took me the night I arrived was Laduree where I had my first macaron, well first 4 or 5, and ever since then I have been obsessed, as any sane person should be... they are magnificent! Lets take a look at their resume... They have great flavor and texture: almondy and light with limitless flavor possibilities for the buttercream or ganache filling. They come in many different fun colors and they are beautiful to look at! I'd hire them for any job! Especially the job of pleasing my senses.