Macarons

The French Macaron

 I really don't know why, but one day I just thought, "Wouldn't it be cool to make some macarons like the one from that Tasty video? It will be easy and since I have time it should be fun as well!". WELL, I was wrong about 80% of that. Sure, it was fun, for the first 5 times, but after that it turned into a gruesome battle between me and my family being sick of so many macarons. Almost every weekend was spent making a batch of these delicate cookies and every time I would say, "No, mom, this time I am SURE they will work. I have this gut feeling!". It got to a point where I had to ask a friend of mine who has made them before to come over and help me out. Thanks to her, I am now able to finally make one of these darn cookies!

FYI: There are three recipes as you go down. 1. Matcha Chewies, 2. Chinese Egg Cake, and 3. French Macaron.

Where the journey begins...

Recipe: 1/3 of this and I used 70 grams of almond flour, on accident. https://tasty.co/recipe/macarons

Did not have actual almond flour nor spatula.

Finally, but the feet were too small.

Matcha Chewies!!! :D

Matcha Chewies!

This recipe was made by mistake, but they were actually really good and tasty.

Yield 16

Ingredients

1 egg white

17 grams granulated sugar

70 grams powdered sugar

2/3 cup plus 1 tbsp almond flour

5 g matcha powder

2 pinches of Salt

5 drops of water

Directions

Sift powdered sugar. Add almond flour, pinch of salt, and matcha powder and give a few stirs. Beat egg white and salt together until soft peaks and add sugar slowly to stiff peaks. Put almond/sugar into meringue and do a folding motion until fully combined and pretty darn thick. Add water drops and fold a few times. Mixture should be thick and grainy. Pipe onto parchment paper and bake at 280 f for 15-20 minutes or until you can pull them off of the paper with ease.

 Ahem, up until now I had not actually realized that the reason majority of these "macarons" were not turning out because of one thing. The recipe I converted to grams was incorrect. Apparently 1/3 cup almond flour DOES NOT EQUAL 70 GRAMS cough* cough*. :,)

Attempt #13~ With friend.

 Attempt #14 Alone and successful!

The-I-Had-Extra-Eggs-Because-I-Broke-An-Egg-Yolk-Into-The-Egg-Whites-And-Didn't-Want-To-Waste-Food

Chinese Egg Cakes!

Original Recipe: https://casaveneracion.com/chinese-egg-cakes/

Ingredients

2 eggs + 2 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 tbsp oil

splash of vanilla

Directions

Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl with a mixer (unlike me who thought "Oh, by hand is good enough!") until some doubled in size and almost stays on top of its self (think ribbons) . Slowly fold in flour and combine well. Add oil and vanilla, fold it into the batter. Line cupcake pan with paper liners and bake for about 20 minutes at 380 f or just BS it and turn them into pancakes on a non-stick pan using medium heat, (about 4-5 minutes each side).

Baked version, but I didn't feel like lining another pan so I just tossed the leftover batter into a bread mold and gave up.

This is the pancake version, but I over baked (or fried) them, as you can see.

If you also are on this crazy journey to create a macaron, please save yourself this trouble and use these very helpful tips!

French Macaron Recipe

Anything in red is very important and you need to do it no matter what.

Yield: 25 cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup almond flour

1 cup powdered sugar

2 egg whites and room temperature(ROOM.TEMP.IMPORTANT.)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

Optional: Food coloring 1 knife tip

Directions

Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar in a medium sieve. Not a tea sieve. Whip eggs until foamy and add sugar/food coloring in very slowly (I did it in about 4-5 batches and mixed with electric mixer for about 30-60 secs each time). Mix until glossy and stiff enough that you can hold over your head and it won't fall. Dump almond/powdered sugar into egg whites and do a folding around the edges of the bowl and then through the middle motion. Once you can lift the spatula and make a figure 8 with the batter, wait 30 sec and the batter starts to slowly seep back into itself, and the mixture falls off of the spatula in triangles, your done. Pipe onto a parchment lined tray and wait 30-60 minutes until there is a skin that you can run your finger on top of the macarons. Then bake at 300 f on top rack for 16 minutes. You know they are done when you can peel one off and almost/nothing sticks to the parchment. You can fill it with whatever you like or just eat it plain like me. :P

I used this website A LOT and would like to thank the author for their very helpful information!~

https://www.indulgewithmimi.com/macaron-troubleshooting-guide/

Yogurt Biscuits

Super easy and clean(less washing) recipe that you can make anytime. They taste great!

Recipe : https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/zero-fat-biscuits/

Ingredients    Yield : 6 big, or 8 medium

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups non-fat yogurt 

Directions

In a medium bowl mix in all the ingredients and stir/ knead until everything is incorporated, took about 4-5 minutes to get everything combined fully. Line a pan with parchment paper and either cut out or tear pieces of the dough onto it. (Tearing it is less messy). Cook at 400 f until slightly golden on top. About 15-20 minutes depending on your oven.

Chocolate Cornets

Original recipe is here.

Ingredients

250g All-Purpose Flour

3g Salt 6g Instant Dry Yeast 50g Sugar 120ml Milk 1 egg 40g Room Temperature Unsalted Butter

1 egg + water

2 Egg Yolks 60g Sugar 20g Cocoa Powder 40g Cake Flour 175ml Milk 33g Milk Chocolate Chips

Directions

On a kneading surface, gently combine the flour, salt, dry yeast, and sugar. Make a well and pour milk and egg into the middle. With your fingers, combine until it forms a sticky dough. Knead until smooth, about 10-15 minutes. If dough is still sticky, add little sprinkles of flour until ready. Slam dough onto your work surface several times, then stretch a bit of the dough (window-pane method) to check if it is somewhat stretchy/translucent. Once the dough is smooth, add room temp butter and keep kneading until it has formed a smooth ball. Slam dough again then place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it proof in a warm place until it has doubled in size.

~If you do not have any cone molds, simply shape some out of aluminum foil.~

Once dough has risen, divide into 10 pieces, molding each one into a ball. Place each ball under some plastic wrap as they are made so they do not dry out. Once done, take one ball and flatten out to release air bubbles, then take the top and roll it down a little, while sealing the edge each time. Next roll into a thin rope, and wrap around the cone, ending one fingernail from the tip. Repeat, and place each cone onto a parchment paper lined pan, covering them all with plastic wrap along the way. Let rise for about 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Brush with egg wash and cook at 375 for 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the chocolate pastry cream.

Place milk in a saucepan and start heating it up. Combine egg yolks with sugar until there are no granules left. (Best done with a mixer). Then pour cocoa powder and cake flour into the eggs. Once the milk is 40 c or 105 f, pour slowly into the eggs, mixing constantly. Once incorporated, place eggs/milk mixture into saucepan and keep cooking it until it thickens and is slightly boiling, 5-10 minutes. If your mixture is still too liquidy, add small amounts of flour until it reaches the right consistency. Transfer cream to separate bowl, and pat plastic wrap on the surface of it so that a skin does not form.

Once the cornets have been baked and cooled, place cream into piping bag and pipe into each cornet.

~Optional- If the cornets will not be consumed immediately, place small square cuts of parchment paper so the cream doesn't leak out.~

They taste really good, so enjoy!

I made the rope of dough too thick when I wrapped my buns so the bottom (or top) did not close. >.<