The WasteLand Re-Interpreted (Lavender Macarons with Orange Buttercream)

This month’s Mac Attack Challenge reads: “March welcomes the first changes from one season to the next, hinting at warmth and sunshine, the coming of springtime for some of us, the chilly days of winter for others,” which brings to mind the first few lines from T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland:”

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding  Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing  Memory and desire, stirring  Dull roots with spring rain.

From the hundreds of poems I’ve had to read while working on my various academic degrees, this poem, considered by many Lit geeks as one of THE most important poems of the 20th Century, has always posed  a challenge for me. Heavy with symbolism and seemingly unrelated literary, historical, and cultural references, the poem has haunted me not because of its complexity and its somewhat pessimistic and bleak approach to modernist society, but because of the end message – the glimmer of hope and possibility that redemption is within reach, by peace which comes through understanding:

Shantih, Shantih, Shantih.

And on that happy note….

For the macarons:

100 powdered sugar

50 g fine sugar

2 aged egg whites

80 g ground almonds

4 drops purple food coloring

2 TB Culinary lavender

Follow macaron instructions as described here.

Before drying, sprinkle lavender over macaron tops.

For the filling:

1/4 c salted butter (room temp)

2 c powdered sugar

1/8 c cream cheese

2 TB orange essence

1 TB grated orange peel

Cream salted butter with cream cheese until incorporated. Add powdered sugar a half cup at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Add orange essence to taste, then add grated orange peel.

Refrigerate for a half hour, then fill macarons.


2011
03/11
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It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (or, Linus’ Lament)

After doing my own consulting gig for the past two years, I’ve had to exchange the freedom that came with it in exchange for the security afforded by corporate shackles. In this economy, it seemed the wisest thing to do. Thus explains my absence from my blog, and thus explains my longing for the familiar warmth of my kitchen.

This month’s Mactweets Mac Attack Challenge called for all things fall: fall flavors, colors, and memories evoked from falling leaves.

To me, pumpkins are the quintessential symbol of autumn. From the carved jack o’ lanterns of Halloween, to the scrumptious pumpkin pies of Thanksgiving, fall wouldn’t be fall without the great pumpkin.

Great Pumpkin Macarons
For the macarons:
100 powdered sugar
50 g fine sugar
2 aged egg whites
50 g ground almonds
35 g ground pumpkin seeds
Follow macaron instructions as described here


For the filling:
1/4 c salted butter (room temp)
2 c powdered sugar
1/8 c pumpkin butter
Cream salted butter with the pumpkin butter until incorporated. Add powdered sugar a half cup at a time until you reach the desired consistency.
Refrigerate for a half hour, then fill macarons.

2010
11/27
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Vegans Eat Twigs, Branches, and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am a practicing yogini, but I will be the first to admit it: yogis can be sanctimonious pricks.

Perhaps it’s a byproduct of yoga’s commercialization and subsequent patents and trademarks (which essentially, is a violation of traditional yoga), but yogis sure do like to thumb their noses. While I respect the tenets of ahimsa, or non-harming of all living creatures, the whole “meat is murder” thing is a little over the top. I get that eating a nice, juicy steak is anathema to your constitution, but please don’t give me the stink eye just because I’m relishing every bite of my NY Strip.

At its core, yoga is about union. So with this in mind, I propose a cookie recipe to unite vegans and non-vegans alike.  The recipe offers guilt-free enjoyment for both parties. Vegans can rejoice in that there’s zero animal products or by-products used; meat-eaters can rejoice in its delicious low-calorie goodness.

This recipe uses two unique, heart-healthy ingredients: oat flour and walnut butter. To make oat flour, simply grind some rolled oats to a fine powder using your food processor. You can also buy it pre-ground, but it costs much more than doing it yourself.

Ingredients:

4 TB grapeseed oil

2 cups walnuts

1/2 cup dark brown agave syrup

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups oat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups rolled oats

12 ounces bittersweet vegan chocolate chips (if you are not vegan, you can substitute 12 ounces of very good bittersweet chocolate. I usually take 12 ounces of Callebaut and chop it into chunks)

Pre-heat your oven to 350F. Line two baking pans with silicone baking mats and set aside.

Blend the walnuts with the grapeseed oil in your food processor until you get the consistency of walnut butter. This should take about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and add agave syrup and vanilla. Whisk in oat flour, baking soda, salt. Fold in oats and chocolate chips.

Shape the cookie dough into 2-inch balls (or however big you may like them) , placing them an inch and a half apart on silicon mat-lined pans. Flatten the cookies. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until the cookies begin to brown. Cool on baking sheets.

2010
07/12
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No One I Think Is In My Tree; I Mean, It Must Be High or Low

Here we go – my first Mac Attack challenge!

This month’s challenge was to take your favorite tune and to turn it into a mac. Strawberry Fields Forever isn’t necessarily my Favorite.Beatles.Song.Of. All.Time, but it certainly does evoke delicious, beautiful images of juicy strawberries; fragrant fields of green basil; sharp, pungent notes of….vinegar??  Before you say “eew…naaast-eh,”  give it a try! Balsamic vinegar, surprisingly, brings out the flavor of strawberries.

For the strawberry balsamic basil filling, I first made an egg custard, using up the 3 egg yolks I would have otherwise wasted. (Zero waste! Woo-hoo!!) After the egg custard cooled, I stirred in the strawberries, basil, and balsamic.  To make the custard a tad thicker, I beat in 4 ounces of cream cheese. This yielded more filling than I needed, so I saved it and later used it to make some cream puffs.

For the Strawberry Basil Balsamic Custard:

1 tsp vanilla bean

3 egg yolks

50 g sugar

15 grams pastry flour

1 cup milk

6 strawberries, either fresh or thawed, pureed

8 basil leaves, chopped fine

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

4 oz cream cheese

Whisk vanilla, egg yolk, and sugar together. Add pastry flour and mix. Warm milk over the stove. Don’t let it get too hot. Pour milk over egg mixture and stir. Afterwards, pour the mixture back into the pot. Heat on medium and stir constantly with a spatula. The mixture will start to bubble and get thick. Turn off the heat and let it cool. Add cream cheese and beat on medium until incorporated. Mix in strawberry puree, chopped basil, and balsamic. Refrigerate until ready to use.

The macaron recipe is adapted from Hisako Ogita’s book I Heart Macarons. I made a few adjustments, as I don’t like my macarons to be too sweet.

For the Macaron:

100 grams almond flour

120 grams powdered sugar

60 grams extra fine sugar

3 egg whites, aged overnight

1 tsp vanilla

4 drops green food coloring

Place a non-stick silicone mat on a baking pan and set aside. If you don’t have a silicone mat, line baking pan with parchment paper. Prepare your pastry bag and fit over a tall vase or over a blender pitcher. Sift the almond flour, along with the powdered sugar, through a sieve. Do this twice. Set aside in the refrigerator.

Take your aged egg whites and slowly start beating with a hand mixer on medium. After about a minute or two, beat on high until you get soft peaks. Gradually add the granulated sugar to the egg whites, while beating on high speed. Add vanilla and 2-3 drops of red food coloring and stir lightly. Continue beating until you have a stiff, firm, glossy meringue. Add half of the sifted nut flour mixture. Stir quickly with spatula until incorporated. Add rest of the flour and continue mixing. Press and spread out batter against bowl’s side and scoop batter from the bottom up. Repeat this 15 times or until the batter is nicely firm and fluid. Almost everyone compares the consistency to magma, but dudes. Really?? Unless you’ve experienced a real life Joe Vs The Volcano, I highly doubt any of us would know what the consistency of magma would look/feel like. OK. Moving right along. The take-away message when you macaronnage is that you don’t need to treat your batter with kid gloves, but at the same time, be careful not to overmix.

Attach a 1 centimeter tip to a pastry bag. Pour batter inside bag. Squeeze small circles, the size of quarters, on prepared baking pan, spacing about half an inch apart. Once completed, smack the living crap out of that pan against the counter. The OCD in me always does it 17 times. Why 17? Why not? I’ll tell you this much: the process helps the air bubbles escape from the batter and is essential to getting a foot. Pre-heat oven to 320 degrees F. Dry the batter at room temperature for 45 minutes, or until the batter feels dry to the touch, but not hard. On hot, humid days, it helps to have a fan blowing to improve  drying process. Place the baking pan in the center of the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove baking sheet from the oven and let cool. Once completely cooled, remove macarons from the baking sheet. Spread custard in between two shells. It’s best to store overnight in the fridge before eating, but if you can’t wait, go ahead and indulge!

Strawberry Fields Forever

No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low.
That is you can’t you know tune in but it’s all right.
That is I think it’s not too bad.

Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out.
It doesn’t matter much to me.

Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Always know sometimes think it’s me, but you know I know and it’s a dream.
I think I know of thee, ah yes, but it’s all wrong.
That is I think I disagree.

Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.
Strawberry Fields forever.
Strawberry Fields forever.

2010
07/10
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I’m Down with OCD (Yeah you know me)

For weeks—months, even—I’ve been lurking the web, reading post after post after post on macaron techniques.

More shameful than my stalking: Syrup & Tang, David Lebovitz, Tartelette, and, of course, MacTweets,was the number one recessionista rule I broke in attempting to make these pernicious little buggers: Thou shalt not waste.

I shudder when I think about the egg-ocide I commited upon many organic eggs in order to whip up a perfect meringue. Let’s not even talk about the thousands of grams of almond flour I wasted—all because I could not get a proper foot.  Considering how expensive macarons run in NYC, however, I have made peace with myself because not only are these much cheaper once you master the art of macaronnage, these make such yummy presents for friends and loved ones. Also? It’s a great way to show off your mad baking skills without stating the fact.

My first taste of success brought out the OCD in me. It’s hard not to become obsessed when you are able to finally get that magic “foot.”

Funny enough, the instructions I found most helpful came not from a personne Française, but from a Japanese pâtissier. Of course, I am referring to Hisako Ogita. Admittedly, I was a little afraid to use her recipe and her methods —particularly, as some reviewers have pointed out, Ogita’s eggwhite-tant pour tant is counter to traditional ratios. Additionally, some illustrations in the book are out of order. Thus, you have to either have a mind that can put puzzle pieces together quickly and easily, or you will need to read the short book at least twice or thrice to get the technique down.

I am now comfortable enough to take on the Mac Attack challenge. Next up: Strawberry Balsamic Basil Macarons. Or, per Mac Attack 9′s Sing a Song challenge, Strawberry Fields Forever.

2010
07/10
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Calories Don’t Count if the Ingredients Used Were on Sale and If You’re Snowbound

In preparation for Snowpocalypse! 2010! Part Two!, I went to the store to stock up on necessary household items. To my delight, our local grocery store was running a special on a few of my favorite “splurge” items: local organic butter, dark chocolate Callebaut, and white chocolate Callebaut slabs. Granted, these shouldn’t be first on your list of items to purchase when facing a potentially debilitating snowstorm, but really, when you think about it, why shouldn’t they be? If  the Mayans were really on point regarding 2012 and we were facing the end of the world, chocolate and butter would totes be on my list of necessary goods. That and bottled water, or, even better, a water purifier pitcher.  Incidentally, the grocery store did have PUR water filters on sale, so I was able to at least stock up on one “storm” item. So yeah. As far as I was concerned, I was like, Snowmageddon? Bring it.

Chocolate Shorties with Cranberry and White Chocolate Chunks

1 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder; I use Bensdorp. You should too.

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

8 ounces salted organic butter, room temp

3/4 cup sugar

8 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3 teaspoons instant coffee granules

1 cup dried cranberries

Sift together flour, coffee granules,cocoa powder, and baking powder.

Blend sugar, salt, and cream on medium speed for about 2 minutes until pale and smooth. Switch speed to low and slowly add sifted cocoa mixture until incorporated. Add chopped white chocolate, vanilla, and cranberries.

Go ahead and eat a teaspoonful of dough. I know you want to. Yum, right?  Moving right along.

Separate dough into two balls. Roll each ball into a log about 1 inch in diameter. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for an hour or until the dough is firm.

Preheat oven to 325. Line a baking sheet with either parchment paper or, if you’re a true recessionista, a silicone baking mat. Not only do they look profesh, they are completely nonstick and are relatively inexpensive. Slice dough into 1/4 inch rounds. Spread out rounds on lined sheet at least 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on a rack. The cookies will firm up as they cool.

You’re welcome.

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2010
02/27
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Bürli. Coz That’s How We Roll.

I‘ve been shuffling between Austria and New York the past two years, so yeah – it never fails that when I’m in one city, I start craving things that can only be bought 3,978 miles away.

Bürli (pronounced “bear – leh”) are large twin rolls originally from St Gallen – a town in Switzerland that is close to Vorarlberg. I love using them for sandwiches because they have a crumbly, yet chewy crust. I found two recipes online. The first recipe I tried was an exercise in FAIL. For serious. The recipe required  (for 18 rolls) 4 grams of yeast for the starter, 40 grams of yeast for the dough. I knew I shouldn’t have even bothered trying the recipe for a few reasons, my main one being that if you are making/using a starter (which essentially is making sourdough bread), it would be overkill – nay, almost wrong – to use more yeast. But, the recipe came from a Swiss page, and hey, since I’m not Swiss, I figured my right to question the recipe was overridden. The rolls tasted like baked Play-Doh. After having spent such a considerable amount of time and effort making these pieces of eeew, I was so pissed that I vowed to beat the living crap out of whoever posted the recipe. One day, the Internets will reveal the author of that recipe and justice will be mine. Trust.

The second recipe came from Nick Malgieri’s A Bakers Tour. It was a good leaping point, but it was missing the smug satisfaction you get from baking bread Pain L’Ancienne style. The following recipe is my pastiche interpretation of Bürli.

Starter:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 TB wheat flour

1 packet yeast

1 1/2 cup warm water

In a large, non-reactive bowl (glass works best), mix the yeast and water together. Allow this to proof for 10 minutes. If the yeast doesn’t bubble, that means it’s dead. Dump it out and start over with fresh yeast. Add the flour into the yeast mixture and beat into a thick batter. It’ll look similar to pancake batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm (80-85 F or 25-30 C) place for at least 3 hours or until it is nice and frothy. For this recipe, we are only going to use half.

As for the remainder of the starter, you can store it in the fridge to use for Bürli or for other sourdough recipes. Make sure to feed the starter every week by mixing equal parts of water and flour (say, a cup of water per cup of flour). Let the starter age in a warm place for 6 to 24 hours then use or return to the fridge.

Bürli Dough:

3/4 cup starter

1 cup very cold water

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup wheat flour

1 TB sugar

1 generous teaspoon salt

2 TB caraway seeds

Mix all dry ingredients together. Add starter and water. Stir until ingredients are incorporated. Cover and let rest for 5 minutes to let the flour hydrate. Mix again until the dough is smooth and elastic – this shouldn’t take very long. The dough should be slightly wet, but not too sloppy. If it’s too wet, sprinkle some flour, a little at a time, until it’s soft and sticky. Let this rest for another 10 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface. With wet or oiled hands, take both ends and fold towards the center. Do the same for the opposite sides, then flip the dough over and tuck into a ball. At this point, the dough should be noticeably firmer, but should still also be sticky and wet. Place the dough in a nicely oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. Repeat this process 3 more times. The process should take place within 40 minutes. After the final stretch and fold, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. Form each piece into a rough ball and place in a glass baking pan. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Take out your dough the next day. Take a few tablespoons of flour and sprinkle evenly on a baking pan. Carefully take out each roll and dust with flour. Place the rolls in groups of 2. Cover with a damp cloth and let the rolls rise at room temperature for an hour and a half.

Forty five minutes prior to baking, arrange your racks in a top third, bottom third configuration. Place a metal pan on the bottom rack; your baking sheet with the Bürli should be placed on the top third rack. Pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F, or to its highest setting.

Boil 2 cups of water. After the rolls have doubled in size, place the sheet in the oven. Pour the boiling water in the reserved metal pan and shut the oven door quickly. Whistle for 30 seconds. Open the oven. Using a spray bottle, spray the oven walls to make more steam, then shut the door quickly again. Repeat this process 5 times. Bake for 20 minutes, then switch the water pan and baking sheet. Lower temperature to 400 degrees and bake for another 5-10 minutes, or until they are nice and brown. Let cool for at least 10 minutes.

2010
02/27
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