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/7/ Strawberries & Cream
This week, it was like all the signs pointed to this one baking endeavor. All the stars aligned and I knew it had to be done.
1. See this insane picture on Pinterest and feel the magnetism suck me in. It’s gorgeous.
2. WFM has ridiculous 1-day organic strawberry sale for $1.99/lb on Friday. FOR ORGANIC. Many people who buy organic know about the Dirty Dozen. The top 12 types of produce that contain the MOST contaminants by way of pesticides or any other unnatural chemical. Among that list, strawberries are very high. Something else surprising about this list - potatoes. Keep this list in mind the next time you’re shopping produce! Your 10-toed, 2-legged, 2-armed offspring with thank you for it. Also, as a funny aside, WFM had a 1-pkg limit per transaction. So my hairbrained self made multiple transactions to make my hike up to the store worthwhile. Meanwhile, my father-in-law scored 4 packages at once. Sometimes old Asians don’t get questioned or stopped just cause it’s easier.
3. Took a look at this easy-peasy recipe from SheSimmers.com and doth birthed mine very own Strawberry Mascarpone Cream Cake in mine own kitchen. Cute site with some great Thai recipes I will be trying out!
I don’t think it came out as beautiful as the photo I was inspired by, but the results were pretty nice and it tasted delicious! Not bad for my first try. We’ll keep this one in regular rotation! Watch out for my next dinner party.
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/6/ I Am My Own Pâtisserie
Over the holidays, I attempted the impossible: making my own French Macarons. For some reason French Macarons in America are as elusive as elusive gets. A trip to France helped to burgeon this obsession, and ever since, I have been on a quest to get them stateside.
The closest I came to spotting them in recent months was on a trip to LA - and a quick Yelp search yielded the highly-rated Paulette Macarons in Beverly Hills. I was instantly on the hunt, except we showed up on a Sunday when the shop was closed. Wahhhh! I’m pretty sure I quickly consoled myself with some Kalbi Burger, but it’s just been a temporary attempt to keep my longing at bay.
These adorable cookies are cute, delicious, whimsical, and come in every color. A few weeks ago, I pulled out my copy of Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook to attempt to conquer this culinary beast. And it was a bitch.
First things first are the ingredients. Macarons are made with almond flour which are basically ground almonds. Almonds are expensive, thus almond flour is expensive. I already am beginning to understand why these damned cookies are hard to find and so pricey. Then you need some egg whites. Turns out, these cookies are chewy and light because it’s a meringue (which is just dried out beaten egg whites) with almond flour folded in. It’s pretty dang hard to keep all the air in your whipped eggs while you try to fold in a dense ingredient. No air means your batter is flat. A flat batter means your cookies aren’t chewy.
I somehow assemble this batter and try to pipe out uniform circles of my mixture onto my Silpats and encounter the next inevitable challenge. How the hell do you get these things smooth on top? Secrets, secrets, that’s what this cookie is!
There is, however, an upside to this cookie. The strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream filling is spreadable crack. It’s made with egg whites, sugar, strawberry preserves, and a ton-o-butter. You make it just like a cake frosting, except the egg whites are gently heated over a double-boiler as they are beaten. You get a much fluffier spread and once you fold in some Santa Cruz strawberry fruit spread, you’ve struck it RICH.
Method:
You know, I’m not even gonna bother posting this recipe. Odds are, you aren’t going to make it. But if you decide you want to attempt this Everest, holla at me and you can borrow my book.
How ‘bout you look at my pics instead?
The moral of my macaron story is this: macarons are deservedly hard to find and overpriced because it takes a damn magician to make these babies perfect. I tried. I would probably give myself a 75%. But in this house a 75% is good enough for CH.
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