Cranberry Shortbread for the Win

I saw this book in Williams Sonoma a while back, but managed to resist the temptation to take it home with me.

A few weeks ago it showed up in Marshalls and my resolve crumbled. (See what i did there?) With Christmas just days away, I had to have this book with its delicately frosted stars and beautiful candy cane pirouettes.  I finally got a chance to bake up a few recipes from it this weekend and I'm pretty happy with the results. I have yet to reproduce some of the more precisely decorated cookies, but the  simple shortbread has been quite a tasty success.
 
The original recipe called for dried cherries, but I substituted cranberries to Christmas it up. The results were surprising - it's been the sleeper hit in our house. Who knew shortbread could be so alluring? I bet the shortbread results to my jeans will be less so.

Dried Cranberry Shortbread
Adapted from Dried Cherry Shortbread from The Art of the Cookie by Shelly Kaldunski

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Have a 10 inch tart pan with a removable bottom ready
2.  Whisk the flour and salt together in a bowl.  Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and 1 1/4 C of the sugar until light and fluffy. (about 2-3 minutes) Beating on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture, beating until almost incorporated. Add the vanilla and dried cranberries and beat on low speed, just until the dough forms large clumps and pulls away from the side of the bowl. Press the dough evenly into the tart pan with your hands. Prick the entire surface of the tart with a fork at 1 inch intervals.

It looks like a lot of pricks, if you ask me

3.  Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake until the the center is lightly golden-brown - about 30-35 minutes. Immediately sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar over the shortbread (I used vanilla sugar which was really tasty) and use a sharp chef's knife to cute the shortbread into squares. Let cool in the pan, about 30 minutes.
4.  Remove the cookies from the pan and store in an airtight container. Keeps up to 4 days.

This is the kind of picture you get after a long day of baking. Sorry. It's delicious, I promise.

- Jenn

Ze best Sugar Cookies.....Evah.

Every year it seems like the same old grind for Christmas doesn't it?  Pickle, can, bake, re-bake, give-away....at least for me that's what it's like.  And each and every year I try a NEW sugar cookie recipe because the previous one was only so-so.  Well folks, I can proudly say that this year I finally have a go-to Sugar Cookie recipe, they are crunchy, buttery and amazing- not your average sugar cookie, behold:

Sugar Cookies
3 sticks of butter- you heard me
3 cups of white sugar- again, you heard me
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp. vanilla exact, preferably homemade- that's right, I'm THAT girl
4 oz cream cheese-or half a package
4 1/2 cups sifted flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder

Crapload of sprinkles in various colors.  This year I went with gold, silver, clear and azure.

Cream sugar and butter together in Kitchen Aid mixer (or whatever you got), add each egg, one at a time, totally incorporating the mixture, add the extracts and then add the cream cheese, again totally incorporating the mixture.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together and slowly start adding to the creamed mixture- on the lowest speed- trust me.  After a while, your mixer might start making funny noises and seem really full, but don't fear- your mixer wants to get this done for you, but also wants you to know you should have used a bigger bowl.  Shut up mixer,  it can still be done.

Once everything is incorporated, but the dough in the fridge for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.

Roll them out, cut them in cute shapes, sprinkle with sugar-whatever.  Bake them at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes- yep, there is a lot of butter in them they need to bake, when they are slightly brown get 'em out of the oven, they are done!

Only sprinkles this year, baby!

Editor's note:  If you want NORMAL, regular, run-of-the-mill sugar cookies just follow the recipe exactly except reduce butter and sugar to 1 1/2 cups each and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

-Jenny

Barbie Cake

   Another niece’s birthday, another cake challenge.  When I made my niece an owl cake for her 8^th birthday, it seemed to go over pretty well.  I certainly learned a lot about making a character cake and also about patience. Let’s just say it’s easier to crumb coat a cake that hasn’t been sliced into multiple pieces. There may have been some cursing involved. 

The owl

   Last month, my other niece requested that I make her a birthday cake with the following words, “Auntie Jenni, you are making my birthday cake!” 

   

   I like her style. She wanted a Barbie cake, so you all know what that means--the classic rounded skirt doll cake. After intimidating myself with all a bunch of amazing Barbie cake photos on the Internet, I went to Michaels and scoped out the available tools. I couldn’t bring myself to spring for the $20 Wilton “Teen Doll” skirt pan, but the thought of it haunted me later during the baking process.  (The Wilton pan has a metal core that sticks up in the middle of the dome to help ensure even baking for this odd-shaped cake.) I did grab the “Teen Doll” torso pick. I think because I was getting nervous and felt like I had to buy something. Once I got home, I realized that I couldn’t possibly use this imposter doll. I remember being a little girl and knowing when someone was trying to pass off a fake. Needless to say, I bought a Barbie.

Teen Doll, you aren’t fooling anyone.

   So here’s how it went down. I made one Funfetti cake mix (I know…) in a domed ceramic bowl. It had to cook it for 55 minutes before the wooden satay stick came out clean. The edges were a little brown, but I trimmed the darkest bits off and they tasted fine. (This is when I started wondering if I should have bought the damn Wilton pan.) Next, I baked a Devil’s Food cake mix (sigh) using the Cake Mix Doctor’s recipe, but I baked half the batter in a 9 inch round pan, made one oversized cupcake, and then used the rest to make 10 regular cupcakes. 

   Once the cakes were baked, I assembled the cake in the following manner: 9 inch round, icing, bowl cake, icing, large cupcake upside-down. Next, I wrapped Barbie, cut an X through the cake and then pushed Barbie all the way down and gave the whole thing a crumb coat using classic buttercream icing with a touch of shortening to make sure the icing would be firm. 

Is it just me or is this picture almost offensive?

The architect assists

After some time in the refrigerator, I was able to apply the fondant bodice and then do the final base coat of buttercream. The hard part was over. Piping on the decorative touches is the most fun, if you ask me. I find that using repeating patterns and simple designs is best with limited decorating skills. Also, I try to avoid the temptation to over-decorate. The final touch that really made this cake sparkle was the silver luster dust I brushed on Barbie’s fondant bodice.  All in all, it was a pretty good cake for a 5^th birthday. 

Extra cupcakes for the party

   Let’s not make one of these cakes again anytime soon.

- Jenn

Salted Caramel Sauce Dreams

Do you ever go to sleep at night and dream of salted caramel sauce?  I did 3 nights ago and ever since then I have been trying different techniques to get the best salted caramel sauce on earth.  The first technique involved heating sugar in a sauce pan until it melted- no water.  Tell you what, this recipe was for the birds.  Have you ever watched sugar turn into a liquid while staying rock hard in certain places?  One word-frustratingly stupid.  Two words.

Hate this method.  I had to strain the sauce at the end as not all the sugar fully dissolved.

The other method involves adding a small bit of water to your sugar to help turn it into a syrup quicker- and smoother.  This will be the recipe I'm sharing with you below, not the first recipe I tried.  Oh no, I save that only for my masochist cooking friends....you know who you are.  You are the ones who try recipes even though you are fairly certain they will fail, you are the ones who put things in your mouth even though the temperature just said 240 degrees on your candy thermometer, and you are the ones who poke sleeping bears.

Salted Caramel Sauce
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup heavy cream- warmed
3 T unsalted butter - Don't ask why it's unsalted or I will sic the bear on you
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
1- 1 1/2 t sea salt- all based on how salty you like it

Add the sugar and water in a heavy sauce pan and turn the heat on medium.  I like to swirl the water/sugar mixture every minute or so to help it dissolve evenly.  Once dissolved, you will let this bubble for about 10-12 minutes, until the sugar syrup turns a dark amber.  Once it is this color, turn off the heat.

Add the warmed cream(either warm it on the stove until it barely simmers, or stick it in the microwave for 60 seconds- you're the one who has to do the dishes afterward.)  It will bubble up furiously at this point- that's what it is supposed to do- start whisking.  Once the bubbling subsides, add the butter and vanilla, whisking again until everything is incorporated.  Then add the salt, start with the minimum amount, wait for it to cool slightly and then add more if your palate desires.

Pour the caramel into 4 oz or 8 oz mason jars and give away for gifts.  Or don't.  Sit in the corner of your kitchen in the dark and eat the whole jar with a spoon.  I won't judge you, but you are the one who has to fit in your cute New Years Eve party dress, not me.

-Jenny

Macaron Class From An "Expert"

In September I took a macaron class at a certain upscale kitchen store that shall not be named. The class was a generous and lovely birthday gift from my generous and lovely friend Linda. I was so excited about the class that I told Jenny about it and she too wanted to attend. She even brought her mother-in-law along.

The class description promised to teach “fail safe” methods for making perfect macarons every time.  Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? It is.

When we arrived to the class, we all took a seat and received a crisp white apron and an info packet containing an overview of mac making, the class recipes and some traceable macaron patterns. In order to make all of the macarons that had been promised in the class description (Lavender with white chocolate ganache! Chocolate with chocolate ganache! Lemon! Coconut!), we broke up into five groups of four and then…basically read how to make macarons off a sheet and then did it ourselves with the occasional help from one of the assistants.  In other words, we read a recipe and then made it. In more smug terms, if Jenny and I didn’t already know how to make macarons, we would have been lost. There were no little tips and tricks offered, just the basic details--definitely not fail-safe information.

This is the only picture I took. It's too bad I didn't document the final results.

We chose to make the lavender macarons with the white chocolate ganache, which sounded like a possibly nice, subtle combination. We had our shells piped and ready before any other group and so our macs were the first into the oven. Thank goodness because there were only two small ovens going and most of the other groups macarons set out too long before making it into the oven.  This seems like something they could have managed better, especially considering that this is one of their more popular classes.

Every group also made a different filling and it seems that there was not enough time allowed for the ganaches to set up before it came time to sandwich up our selection of misfit macaron shells. Again, something a popular class should have figured out by now.

Our shells were not bad in terms of the form, but they tasted like nasty, bitter soap. Maybe the instructor was washing out our mouths in advance because he knew we would have some dirty, dirty things to say following this expensive class. Whatever the reason, the recommended amount of lavender was way too high to make an edible cookie. And for the record, I actually enjoy lavender-flavored sweets. Many of the other groups’ cookies were cracked, under baked, or over baked, but we were given cheap little paper plates to take around so that we could make some little Frankenstein cookie samples to take home. Have you ever tried to fill a sandwich cookie with runny ganache? It’s not pretty. 

And the greediest part of all? After extorting a large fee for this class that would given me a macaron-baking phobia had I not already known what I was doing, the assistants made us turn in our aprons at the end of class. Really, Overpriced Cooking Store? You couldn’t spare the aprons?

On the bright side, it wasn’t a total loss because it was still a fun way to spend the morning with friends, and I guess that’s what I will remember most about it.

- Jenn

Cherry Bombs- they just scream Christmas, don't they?

So yesterday, I made one of my annual Christmas give-aways: Cherry Bombs.  What makes them especially Christmassy you ask?  Well, they are red and they will get you wasted.  Sounds Christmassy enough for me.

Cherry Bombs
Makes 12- 8 ounces jars
3- 36 ounce jars of maraschino cherries(the only place I can get these is Costco- 2 jars for $6.99!  Let the Christmas cheer begin!)
Reserved cherry juice from 2 of the jars
1 1/2 cups of vanilla simple syrup (recipe below)
Bacardi 151- about 2 cups, but you can adjust the cherry juice and rum to your liking.  Me?  After 2 cups of rum, my nose hairs start to burn off.

Mix the cherry juice, simple syrup and rum.  Clean and sterilize the jars and fill each one to the top with cherries.  Add the cherry juice/napalm mixture 1/4" to the top.  Screw the lids on and wait 2 weeks.  You need sufficient time for the cherries to soak up the rum mixture- otherwise what's the point?

When ready, you can eat straight from the jar or use as a sundae topping!
Enjoy!

Vanilla simple syrup
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 vanilla beans- cut in half and scraped of the seeds

Slowly dissolve water and sugar over a low flame.  Once sugar is dissolved, add vanilla beans and seeds and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Slowly strain the bigger pieces of the bean out, but you definitely want to leave the seeds in- so pretty!  You can use this for a number of recipes, so don't be shy, it will keep in the fridge for almost ever.


-Jenny

Pumpkin crack-um, I mean, cookies

Well, it seems I am off to a bit of a roll doesn't it?  Two in a row.  Like I said yesterday, we didn't stop baking, we just stopped writing about it and I feel like I have so many recipes and pictures to share that I need to start getting them out of my head and onto something more permanent like cyberspace.

When I was growing up, a sure sign of fall was the smell of pumpkin anything in the house.  My mom's specialty was the coveted puffy pumpkin cookies, you know the kind that are like a cake/scone without being too sweet?  I was in heaven whenever those were around and this year I knew I had to make them.

Pumpkin cookies
½ Cup butter
1 Cup sugar
½ Cup brown sugar
2 eggs- room temperature
1 small can pumpkin
2 ½ Cups flour
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cream butter and sugars in a stand or electric mixer until creamy. Slowly add eggs and pumpkin, mixing until well combined.

Place flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Slowly add to wet mixture on low speed until just combined. With a cookie scoop, drop onto parchment or silpat lined baking sheet.

Bake for 11-13 minutes. Let cool completely.

To frost or not frost
I am obsesses with cream cheese frosting and this is how you make it, although, they are just as good unfrosted.

8oz package cream cheese, softened
3 Tablespoons butter, softened
2 ¼ Cups powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean scraped of its' seeds
Whisk cream cheese and butters in a Kitchen Aid mixer. Slowly stir in powdered sugar(with the mixer off people!) until smooth. Add in vanilla bean, mix for an additional 30 seconds.

Frost cooled cookies and sprinkle with candied lemon or orange peel or candy pumpkins- both are adorable.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

-Jenny

It's ok everyone, we are not dead

Well hello there!  It has been approximately 8 months since we have blogged and I wanted to assure everyone that we are ok.  We have not dropped off the face of the earth, we have not been in an accident where we have developed amnesia and started a new existence- say as rodeo clowns in Houston.  No, we simply became very lazy, a symptom of both getting jobs at the same time.  All of a sudden all of our normal, everyday activities, including blogging- became very difficult to accomplish after working an 8 hour day as we were incredibly tired.  Women with kids, our hats are off to you!

But we never stopped baking.  Oh no, in fact, I would say we have started baking more.  Between Barbie cakes, cake pops, macarons and brownies, we have using more sugar than ever, although I still haven't topped my personal best of going through 10 pounds of sugar in 1 week. 

So what is my new favorite thing to bake you ask?  Meringues.  I am obsessed with these little, lighter than air confections.  Fat free and full of sugar, yes please!

Meringues
3 egg whites- room temperature
1/3 c granulated sugar
1/2 c powdered sugar-sifted
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp flavoring- peppermint or vanilla extract
food coloring- if using

Place your 3 egg whites and salt in a Kitchen Aid mixer bowl and start whipping on a very high speed.  Once foamy, gradually add the granulated sugar, when the mixture starts to rise and look thicker gradually add the powdered sugar (You might want to do this with the mixer not running- trust me).  This is also the point you can add in any flavorings.  Once the meringue is set enough (about 10 minutes) so that when you tip the bowl over your head nothing moves you are good to go.

Add the meringue to a piping bag with a 1/4" or 1/2" tip (this is also the time I like to add food coloring, if you want your meringues to be cool and tie-dyed) and pipe 1 inch meringues- taller the better if you ask me.

Vanilla meringues

Red swirled peppermint meringues

Bake at 200 degrees for 2 1/2 hours.  After 2 1/2 hours turn the oven off and leave the meringues in the oven for another few hours.  Once completely cooled you can dip in chocolate, which is my new favorite thing to do.  Voila!

-Jenny

Favorite Banana Bread

Ahhh, bananas. They are said to be a super food and I always buy a bunch with the best of intentions. The problem is I only like bananas when they are slightly under ripe.  Since most of the bananas we get seem to go from completely green to speckled in brown in record time, it’s inevitable that I end up with a bunch of browning bananas staring at me. And we all know what to do with bananas that are giving us the stink-eye: bake banana bread. 

I found this recipe online at Sophistimom a few years ago when I was making some mini loaves for Christmas gifts. I think it turns out a very moist and just-sweet-enough result. I’ve been dividing the batter in half to make two medium loaves lately because a mini loaf just isn’t enough around my house. (If you do two loaves, you will have to bake them at least 15 minutes longer than indicated below. Use the trusty toothpick test to be sure they are done) If you like nuts, you can always throw some chopped ones into the batter. I prefer to just sprinkle any nuts on top before baking so that the nut-averse can easily avoid them.

Sometimes you want to eat it right out of the oven.

Banana bread

2 cups (300g) unbleached, all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
3 large, very ripe bananas
1 cup (220g) organic sugar (it has an earthier flavor, but regular is fine)
1/4 cup (60g) low-fat sour cream
2 eggs, beaten
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 110g) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 degrees, Celsius). Spray 4 small (3×5 inch) loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mash bananas until almost smooth, but still chunky. Stir in sugar, butter, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla.
3. Carefully fold flour mixture into banana mixture. Stir until just incorporated. Batter should be lumpy, with no dry spots.
4. Fill each pan half way. Place on a large cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees, until a toothpick, inserted in the center of the loaves, comes out clean. This should take between 35-45 minutes.
5. Let cool in pans for at least 10 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool on a wire rack until ready to serve.

I wrote this whole post without mentioning monkeys. I think that shows a lot of restraint.

- Jenn

The Green Pizza

Ok, I made enough macarons today to make a normal person's head spin, so this blog is decidedly going to be "non sweet."  Friday night here at the Auble household is pizza night, or rather "stay home and make pizza night" and when I say "we", I mean me of course.  We usually have something with red sauce, cheese and homemade pickled jalapenos, but today I was feeling a bit daring....behold:

Pizza Crust

1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar

Put the first 3 ingredients in the bowl of a Kitchen Aid mixer and let stand until frothy- usually about 10 minutes.

Start kneading with the dough hook and slowly, by about 1/2 cups, add about 3 cups of flour and 1 tsp salt.  I say about, because depending on a million different factors (weather, flour, cycle of the moon), you could use more or less.  You want to end up with a soft, almost sticky ball.  You will need about 7-10 minutes total after you have added the flour.  Once the dough ball is ready, I like to scoop it out of the bowl, spray the bowl with cooking spray and put the ball back, covering with plastic wrap.  Let rise about one hour.  After one hour, I like to punch the dough.  Feel free to punch it as hard as you like, it doesn't care, it's dough.  Your main goal here is to deflate it to let it rise again, let it sit, covered, another hour.

Green Pizza

1 recipe pizza dough
Jarred alfredo sauce  You can make homemade, but who are you trying to impress?
1 bunch green onions, sliced thin, green and white parts
1 large bunch spinach- steamed, squeezed of all water and chopped -today I got mine out of the garden and got some bonus earwigs and a big fat red spider.  For the love of god, please wash everything before you put on the pizza
1 bunch asparagus, sliced thin
Pecorino Romano
Black Pepper
Zest of one lemon

Preheat oven to 500 degrees
Stretch pizza dough out on sheet, cover with alfredo, sprinkle on chopped spinach, green onions, black pepper, asparagus and lemon zest.  Sprinkle liberally with Pecorino Romano cheese and drizzle with olive oil.  Bake for about 15-17 minutes, voila!

-Jenny

Pet Pictures Are Better Than Nothing!

We have had some crazy weather in San Diego this week. Not only did it rain so hard that our roof sprang another leak (expletive!), but it actually hailed. Luckily, the hail bits (pieces? drops?) did not get any larger than pea size, so I didn't end up with any dents in my car. However, there were enough little white peas to blanket the neighborhood. Check out the confused plants.

"B-b-b-b-ut, I thought it was spring!"

And the plants weren't the only ones confused; Arigato the cat spent most of the day cowering under the bed. He bravely endured the sound of the rain beating the roof and skylights, but once the hail hit--he was over it. I'm really just telling you this so that I have an excuse to post another picture of my cat. It was a weak transition, but at least I tried!

Looks like somebody is getting a treat!

- Jenn

Cherry Pie and 1982

So an old friend of mine from grade school, sent me a message today saying that her daughter had her first sleep over and that this sleep over proves that if you are a - let's say not so good kid -it will come back to bite you in the ass later in life.  Well, it looks like my friends' time has come.



Barb, Cherry Pie and Jenny- July 29, 1982

That classy lady in the middle of the picture is my beloved pillow doll- Cherry Pie, and maybe it is to her that I owe my life long obsession with food.  I slept on Cherry Pie for years and could not go anywhere without her.  She flew across the country many times and has lasted over 30 years- she is in my bedroom now (in the closet) as we speak.
-Jenny

An Ode to buttercream

I find myself thinking about frosting and those things covered with frosting more often than I should.  To say I am a sweets addict is an understatement, I don't just have a sweet tooth, I have sweet teeth.  Every square inch of my body craves sweet delicious things, and since Jenn introduced me to Swiss butter cream, I have been a frosting fiend.

I recently made a chocolate cake for my mother in law, Sandra's birthday. 
Recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beattys-chocolate-cake-recipe/index.html
By far, the BEST chocolate cake I have ever made, although I had a ton of issues getting it out of the darn pan- another story for later.

Anyway, this amazing chocolate cake, needed some amazing chocolate frosting:

Chocolate Raspberry Swiss Butter cream

4 ounces egg whites- most of the time this is about 4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Over a double boiler, or what the french refer to as a "bain marie", I say bain in my ass, whisk the sugar, egg whites and cream of tartar until all of the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is fluffy and gorgeous.

Then add this mixture to you mixer, and mix on high until you start getting some glossy volume:

This is where the fun begins.  At this point, I add 1 tsp of raspberry extract and 2 ounces of COOLED, melted bittersweet chocolate.  Making sure it's cooled is very important here, don't get lazy. Then it's time for the last magical step:




It's not called butter cream for nothing.

You want to drop in 2 sticks of room temperature butter, while the mixture is running, by the tablespoon and do it slowly.  Once the butter has been added, continue beating at high speed for about 3 to 5 minutes.  You may start to think that it is never going to get thick enough to be frosting, but as soon as that thought leaves your head, you will see the mixture almost start to look curdled.  Continue beating and voila!

Just remember you made this for a cake, try not to eat the whole batch out of the bowl.

-Jenny

Back in Le Saddle

Jenny did such a great job describing our most recent baking adventure. We were both pretty flummoxed by the whole experience and we knew we had to jump right back in the saddle. The following Saturday found us each baking up another batch of persnickety macarons in our own kitchens. Interestingly enough, we both chose to make them in a vibrant, come-hither shade of pink.

Hot pink bakes into a beautiful rose shade. 

Less garish now, no?

These macs turned out great and I got to share them with my brother and his family who seemed to like them. (Though I think my nieces were much more interested in the fillings.) I know Jenny's macs were also a success, and confidence was restored in the kingdom. So much so, that I finally busted out my grinder and made some pistachio macarons. I think I should have gone a little easier on the green coloring, but they look pretty nice with their golden yellow friends.

Too green?

On second thought, maybe I'll make up another batch for St. Patrick's Day. I promise not to fill them with corned beef or cabbage.

- Jenn

We just made our first $55!

Hello all! Sorry for the non existent blog as of late.  Both Jenn and I have been busy getting sick, recovering from being sick, entertaining guests, oh and making our first macaron sale!  That's right you heard me: we are somewhat semi-official. 

It all started last month when Jenn was having lunch with a friend...long story short, we were asked to provide macarons for an upcoming party.  We said yes.  Actually I think it was, "Hell Yes!"  We were stoked, people wanted to buy stuff we were making, it was kind of surreal.   A fancy party wanted some of our macarons. 

Well, last Wednesday the battle began, and when I say battle, I mean hellacious battle.  The Battle of the Jenns' sanity. It was us versus the macarons and the cookies almost won.

It all started innocently enough with me showing up at Jenn's house to start our baking.  We had each made a batch of Swiss butter cream (I made vanilla bean, Jenn: mandarin orange) that morning at our houses so we could just focus on the shells of the macarons, which are really the most important part of the cookie. We starting with the dreaded circle piping:

Jenn has way more patience for this than I.  If it were up to me, I would free hand EVERYTHING in my life. Luckily I have Jenn to show me that we sometimes need structure.

Then we piped cookies:

So far so good.

Then we took our first batch out of the oven and they were a disaster:

Cookies should have bottoms, as a general rule.

We were perplexed. Not once had Jenn nor I had so many issues when making these fussy little French cookies, but every problem known to man was happening to us, batch after batch.  We were starting to panic.  Then we finally had a perfect batch:

After this, it was hit or miss.  It basically took us 6 hours to make 55 cookies and by the end, since they are French, we decided we needed to start being rude to them before they went into the oven.  "F-you cookies", we would both yell as we closed the oven door.  This seemed to do the trick.  By the end of the day we had all the cookies we needed--barely.

Sanity restored.

It feels strange, we still haven't cashed our check, but I am thinking now that maybe we should have it bronzed.

-Jenny

Candied orange peel- thoughts of home

When I was growing up in Escanaba, MI, my all time favorite treat was chocolate covered candied orange peels and I would get them here: http://saykllys.com/ And since I just checked out their website, I am sad to report they are no longer being offered, but hopefully this is just an on line situation and all the people of Upper Michigan can still get them in their local store, and we won't have some sort of candied orange peels riots.

In case you don't live in Michigan next to a Sayklly's store, here is a recipe to make them yourself:

Candied Orange Peel
4-5 oranges, lemons, limes or grapefruits, but don't mix them, do each batch separately please
1 cup water
1 cup sugar plus more for sugaring the peels later

Take a vegetable peeler and carefully peel all the yummy rind off the fruit being careful not to go too deep and start taking off the pith as well.  Once the fruit is peeled, julienne into small strips and place into a small pan of boiling water, simmer for 10 minutes.

Julienned orange rind in first water bath

After 10 minutes in the simmered water, drain the peels and repeat for another 10 minutes in more simmering water.  The purpose of this blanching is to take the bitterness out of the peel.  Some recipes I have read can have you doing this up to 4 times, it's all up to personal taste.

Once you have finished boiling the peels a second time, combine the sugar and water in a small pan and simmer until all the sugar is dissolved, once dissolved, add the blanched peels.

You want to simmer the peels in the sugar syrup until the peel start to look translucent.  Once translucent, turn the heat off and let the peels sit in the sugar syrup for 4-6 hours.  When you are ready to take them out of the pan, simply turn the heat on low until the mixture is syrupy again and not one big clump.  Drain and roll in sugar, let dry on wax paper overnight.  Enjoy!

As for the choclate part of this recipe, dip 'em, don't dip 'em they are amazing either way.

-Jenny

Sweet Sunday!

That's what my family used to exclaim when we landed on the Sweet Sunday spot while playing the board game Pay Day. It was our attempt to make that boring spot more fun. The first person to say it won bragging rights, but not much else. Somehow, it worked.

I tried to turn our crazy weekend weather into a Sweet Sunday of my own.

Hail...in San Diego!

Sweet Sunday:

Orange-flavored macarons

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

- Jenn

It's a rainy day in San Diego

So what's a girl to do?  Well, if said girl also had, say 12 egg yolks sitting in the fridge, she would make lemon curd!  Now why on earth does this girl have so many egg yolks you ask?  Well, she just happened to make about 4 batches of macarons this weekend and couldn't bear to throw all the yolks out.  OK, I am now done talking about myself in the third person. 

One of my favorite things in the world in lemon curd and all curds in general really.  It sounds daunting to make, but it is really the easiest thing in the world.

Lemon Curd - borrowed from Ina Garten

• 3 lemons
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 extra-large eggs  -I used 6 egg yolks instead of the 4 whole eggs
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Using a carrot peeler, remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.

Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined.

Turning on the heat

Pour the mixture into a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees F, or just below simmer. Remove from the heat and cool or refrigerate

Now eat with a spoon or save for later

-Jenny

Conversation Hearts

In anticipation of Valentine's Day, I baked some cut-out conversation heart cookies this week. I made them for my cousin who just had her first baby, so I used messages suitable for the new little family. I figure these are a less smoky alternative to the traditional "It's a girl!" cigars.

I tried to mimic the Sweethearts' color scheme

I did keep a few samples for me and my husband (for quality control!) , so I mixed up the decor a bit. It's fun to have a few of these around on this pink and red holiday. It totally eliminates the need for chocolates. (Speaking for myself, of course!)

I really need to work on my photo skills.

Happy Valentine's Day!

- Jenn