Cooking for Seven

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Macarons are French cookies made with egg whites, almond flour, and sugar and sandwiched with a delicious filling.

For this challenge, we were encouraged to create whatever flavor of macarons we wished. I decided to make chocolate flavored cookies filled with coffee meringue buttercream. It was certainly a winning combination.

“You never make enough of those things,” my sister chided.

I suspect that I did not make my macarons properly. There was no almond flour in the house, so I attempted to grind the almonds with the powdered sugar. It worked fairly well, but I just couldn’t get the almonds ground fine enough. Also, almond flour is dryer than ground almonds, so the cookies were a bit dense. However, the flavor was wonderful.

These cookies were surprisingly easy to create. Next time I will either grind the almonds more or break down and buy some almond flour. I also think I could make these healthier by using raw sugar that has been processed in a blender or food processor.

Here is a very nice video showing how French Macarons are made.

French Macarons

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Ingredients

For the Macarons:

• 2 ¼ cups Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar (225 g, 8 oz.)
• 2 cups Almond flour (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
• 2 tablespoons Granulated sugar (25 g , .88 oz.)
• 5 Egg whites at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder, optional for chocolate macarons

For the Meringue Buttercream:

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup demerara or white sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 2 teaspoons of coffee extract, espresso, or flavoring of choice

Directions:

For the Macarons:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder (if using), and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t over fold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip. You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or until lightly colored.
7.  Remove from oven and cool on a rack before filling. When the macarons are completely cool, spread with filling of choice and serve.

For the Meringue Buttercream:

1. Place the egg whites, sugar, and salt in a medium heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water and whisk gently and constantly until the egg whites are hot (approximately 140° F) and the sugar is dissolved, 3-4 minutes.

2. Remove from heat and whip with a hand mixer until thick and cooled, approximately 5 minutes. Beat in the butter and flavoring and continue beating until smooth and spreadable. Use immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Return buttercream to room temperature and beat with a hand mixer before using.

Yield: 10 dozen.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus:  Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

I have wanted to make a many-layered cake ever since I saw a picture in a DK Geography book a few years ago. I searched the internet for a recipe, but couldn’t find one to my satisfaction.

I don’t believe that I am completely satisfied with this recipe (or my execution of it). The components were delicious. Vanilla sponge cake and deep dark chocolate buttercream frosting. How could I go wrong?

I totally ruined the caramel topping.

I didn’t cook the caramel nearly enough, so it seeped into the spongy cake and the topping was a soggy (yes, SOGGY) layer of lemon-flavored cake. Ah well, better luck next time. We just picked off the top layer and enjoyed the rest of the cake (with ice cream).

Now I’m dreaming of making a crepe cake. My sister Amanda (whom I thank for all of her help with making this challenge and whose feet you see in the above photo) has agreed to help me with that project. She informed me that she would go crazy if she took it on solo.

If you would like to try this recipe for Dobos Torte yourself, here is a link to the pdf file. Good luck!

This is my very first Daring Bakers Challenge! I am very excited.

The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

The host gave us the option of choosing only one of the two to make. I was feeling a little daunted at the thought of homemade marshmallows, so I decided to just make the Milans.

They were absolutely delicious. And so cute! I decided to only make half a recipe, so every one disappeared the same day.

The original recipe called for 2 tablespoons of lemon extract. This seemed like an awful lot to me, so I downsized to just 1 teaspoon. This was a mistake as the cookies were not quite “lemony” enough. Also, the recipe called for orange zest in the chocolate filling. Since I didn’t have any on hand, I substituted orange extract. I thought it gave it wonderful flavor.

I’ll definitely keep this recipe…it would be perfect for a Girls-only Party or an Afternoon Tea.

Milan Cookies
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Ingredients:

• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 orange, zested

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a cookies sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto the prepared cookie sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.
5. Bake in a preheated oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies