Okay, so as many of you already know, I am OBSESSED about macarons. I was walking around Broome Street in SOHO, and I noticed a tiny shop selling macarons. Just like that, I was stuck fast to the display window. (Unfortunately, I had to pass this time... Rent is coming up T_T) But more so than eating macarons, I am obsessed about making them. Did I ever mention that it took me 8 failures to finally succeed? Yes, and each time, I was even more determined to get them right.

Now, many say that following the recipe to the exact does not indicate success. It takes skill and intuitiveness, which basically calls for experience. The reason macarons are so difficult to make is because they are a type of meringue cookies. Anything that involves meringue is... capricious, may I say. Meringue is difficult to handle and getting familiar with it takes practice.

In the case of macarons, that difficulty is taken up to another step. It is crucial to know the consistency of the batter. If you "kill" the meringue too much, the macaron hats won't rise and will become flat and brittle. However, if you don't kill the meringue enough, the hats will not have frills and will have a lumpy outer texture; they will also turn out pretty airy inside. This is why I failed 8 times. After all those trial-and-error experiences, I have finally gotten the "feel." However, this "feel" goes away if you don't make macarons for some time - it took me one batter to refresh it.

Anyway, ever since I bounced off the walls and squealed with joy for my first successful batch, I have been making macarons whenever I get bored. They take less than an hour to make, and they are a joy - both to me and to those who take a bite!

So- a couple of days ago, I got bored and decided to make some macarons. I was considering making chocolate macarons again, but remembering that my roommate loves black sesemae macarons better, I decided to go with the latter. And then I thought, why not make a post about this? So I took step-by-step pictures. I hope this helps any of you who are trying to bake successful macarons or are thinking of trying!

I got the recipe from David Lebovitz's blog.

Macaron Batter:

1 cup (100g) powdered sugar

1/2 cup powdered almonds

3 TBS (25g) black sesame powder

2 large egg whites

5 TBS (65g) granulated sugar

You can replace the black sesame powder with cocoa powder or whatever flavor you want to make your macarons in. I bought my black sesame powder at a Japanese super market.

I usually halve the recipe, which makes the perfect amount for me and my roommate. Also, I personally find that having the egg whites cold right from the refrigerator helps raise the meringue better. I've tried both methods, and the macarons turn out fine.

So, on with the process!!

1) Preheat the oven to 375F (180C). Sift the powdered sugar, almond powder, and black sesame powder into one bowl.

2) Mix the powders so that they all get mixed together evenly.

3) Start whipping the egg whites!

4) When the egg whites become foamy, start adding in the granulated sugar, one TBS at a time, as you whip.

5) Keep whipping the meringue until...

it is about 80~90% whipped. I usually stop when the peaks are kinda stiff like this. Make sure you don't overwhip the meringue!

6) Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to keep it nice and tidy.

7) Pour in half of the dry ingredients and carefully fold them into the meringue. This folding technique also takes some time to get used to. Just make sure that you handle the meringue very gently, because you don't want to let the meringue die just yet.

It gets kind of stiff and weird at first, but just keep on folding. To me, it kind of feels like I'm "rolling" the batter around, if that's help explain anything.

See? It does work out after all :)

8) When the first half has been loosely incorporated to the meringue, pour the rest of the other half.

Fold like before until the dry ingredients are mixed well into the meringue. For me personally, at the very end, I use the rubber spatula to "press down" into the batter, like I'm taking the air out of it. I do this just 2-3 times, and this makes the consistency perfect for me. However, this may not apply to all! Everyone has their own little ways of making the perfect macaron batter.

Now, the hard part - the consistency. What does a correct macaron batter look and feel like? Well, many people have described it as magma-like. Whatever the case, when you scoop the batter up with the spatula, the batter should ooze down slowly. If it doesn't ooze down, the meringue has not been killed enough. If it oozes down too fast, you've killed it too much. When the batter runs down to the rest of the bowl, it should kind of keep its shape but also slowly meld in with the rest of the batter. Sorry if I'm a bad explainer - this really is hard to explain. It's something you have to actually feel and look with your own eyes.

9) Scoop the batter into the pastry bag. I use a heavy duty zip-lock bag and cut off one corner.

10) Squeeze out the batter onto a covered pan into whatever size you want your macarons to me. Don't make them too big or too small. Just think - what would a good bite-size be?

As a side note, this part takes practice too. But don't worry - you'll get the feel of it in no time. Just place the tip right above the pan (so that the tip and the pan makes a right angle) and squeeze. The batter should spread into little circles like in the pictures below.

Some people use parchment paper, but I highly recommend the silicone pads, because the macaron hats peel off pretty easily on those. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SQUEEZE THE BATTER ONTO AN UNCOVERED PAN OR YOU WILL SUFFER.

If you have little peaks standing out, press them down with your finger.

And you will have nice, smooth macaron hats!

This batter made 1 and 1/2 pans - 18 hats = 9 macarons.

11) Rap the baking pans lightly a few times, and pop them into the oven! It depends on your oven, but it takes about 13-15 minutes. At around 10 minutes, I covered the pans with aluminum foil to keep them from browning too much.

And voila!! Beautiful, beautiful macaron hats with pretty frills :)

12) Fill with whatever filling you want. I personally like chocolate ganache filling.

Boil 1/4 cup of heavy cream and add 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips. Stir until the chocolate has melted and let it cool. Pop it in the refrigerator to let it harden a bit. Make sure to let the ganache soften a bit before you fill the macarons.

13) Piece similar-sized hats together!

14) Enjoy. Yummmmmmmmmm-

I highly recommend that you put your macarons in an airtight container and let it sit in the refrigerator for a day to let the macaron hats and filling meld in together. It's better to eat them ASAP, but I believe you can keep them up to 1 week in the refrigerator or 2 weeks in the fridge (in an airtight container, of course!).

I am no professional, but I hope this helped some of you who are struggling to make the perfect macarons someday! Remember, you WILL succeed. For those who prefer to buy them instead, hope you enjoyed too!!

Tuesday. It was my day off from internship, and also a cloudy, gloomy day. My roommate was also out of town, so I decided to bake. I don't know why, but I seem to bake a lot when my roommate's not at home. 

Anyway, I first started off with some chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon (sorry, no pics). After a short nap and dinner, I decided to make some chocolate macarons. I halved the recipe to make less batter, because last time I had too much. (Also, I heard macarons should be eaten within a few days, so I thought it'd be better to make less.) 

I mixed in cocoa powder for the hats and made chocolate ganache for the filling. I used the Ghirardelli brand of semisweet chocolate chips, which was WAY better than the Nestle brand. The Nestle brand is too sweet, and its sweetness is the type that makes the inside of your mouth feel blah. 

I personally think that chocolate macarons are the best to make at home. Chocolate ganache is easy to make, and it obviously makes the chocolate macarons taste chocolatey. I can't quite explain, but with other flavors, I feel like it's hard to make a good filling that will appropriately express the flavors. Maybe if I had the right recipe and also the needed ingredients, it'll be easier... 

Anyhow, I definitely do want to make pistachio macarons some day!

Now, for some pics!

The macarons that were left after I ate like 3 or 4 LOL 

The hats and frills came out very very nice :)

I wish the filling showed more, but that would have made the macarons VERY sweet. 

After a bite! The crunchy outer shell, and the gooey insides :) 

Yum yum yum.

About a week or two ago, I went to Panhandlers down by school and thought I was in heaven. All those baking utilities made my heart beat like crazy, and of course I wanted to buy them all, but being a poor grad student and all... Well... I had to limit myself to the very few that I needed. I settled to buy a 7-inch circular cake pan, parchment baking paper, something I can't quite recall its name, and food coloring in rose. I decided to try out my food coloring and make some "strawberry" macarons.

The reason for it being "strawberry" is because I didn't have strawberry powder or anything of the sort. Thus, the macaron hats may look pink, but they don't taste like strawberry. Instead, I opted to use strawberry jam as filling. 

Now, I made three pans of macaron hats, and I placed the pans in the oven all at the same time.

Here's one pan, on which I used a silicone mat. 

They turned out very brown, giving off very little of the pink color. (I had placed foil over the hats for the last few minutes of baking time, but I guess I had done that too late.) 

Here's the second pan, also on a silicone mat. 

The colors turned out better on these, except the frills didn't come out quite satisfactory. 

Here's the third pan, and I used parchment paper on it, because I only had two silicone mats (duh). 

The colors came out very nice, but most of the hats turned out like so - all cracked and with no frills. 

I'm still trying to figure out what went wrong. Perhaps the browning was because I had put in three pans at once. (Or, maybe, if I had covered the pans with foil earlier, the color would've been saved.) Perhaps it's because I added 3 tablespoon of sugar to the meringue instead of 5 (to make them less sweet). Maybe it's the parchment paper. Or maybe it's because the batter had become too runny after squeezing out two pans. I don't know. When you fail with macarons, there are SO many aspects that could've gone wrong... I guess that's what makes macarons special. (And frustrating at times LOL) 

Although the outside became browned, the insides were still pink!

An assortment of macarons, from success to failure. But the failed ones still tasted great!

How cute are they!

This was the first time that I had ever used strawberry jam as filling, but it was actually pretty good!

I brought these macarons to the studio that I'm interning at, and they were very very popular :) 

Weeeeeeee~

With dalkicandy's wonderful assistance, 
we made our first batch of macarons in our new kitchen!

Black sesame macarons with chocolate ganache filling :D

 I didn't kill(?) the meringue enough, which made the batter a bit thick -
- resulting in bumpy macaron hats.

I think I'll get the batter right the next time...
It had been a while since I had made macarons,
so I kind of lost the "feel."

 But they tasted really good!!! 

Oh, and new discovery :

Macarons actually taste better when they are stored
in the fridge for one day in an air tight container. 

I want to try making pistachio or strawberry macarons next time :) 

#1 Birthday Pancake

It was my friend's birthday on the 12th, and I decided to make her a cake. This was the first time that I've attempted to make a birthday cake. Well, it's not really a "cake", because I made it out of pancakes instead of sponge cakes.

Preparation:

1) Bake 3 pancakes (I used Trader Joe's brand of buttermilk pancake mix)

2) Slice fruits of your choice (I used strawberries and bananas)

3) Whip up fresh cream (Add sugar if it isn't in there already)

Process:

1) Place one pancake as a base layer.

2) Evenly lather up with whipped fresh cream.

3) Place the sliced fruits.

4) Cover the fruits with whipped fresh cream.

5) Place another layer of pancake, and repeat steps 1-4.

6) When finished, evenly lather the entire cake.

7) Decorate as desired.

And VOILA

I used blackberries too! And I used a cookie cutter to cut out a heart-shaped pancake out of the layer that I had messsed up. I wanted to put my friend's name on there, using Betty Crocker's icing pen, but... The icing would not come out!! I do NOT recommend those. So I had to opt to putting a piece of sliced strawberries on it :(

The taste? Yummy!!! My friends really liked it :D

"It's like breakfast and dessert combined!"

When I tasted the pancakes, I was worried because they tasted pretty salty. However, the sweetness of the fruits and the fresh cream made a wonderful balance with the saltiness.

A success!!

#2 Breakfast - Greek yogurt with fruits

This has been my recent boom. When looking to buy some plain yogurt at the grocery, I discovered Greek yogurt. I remembered that when I bought some breakfast at Grand Central a few months back, it was Greek yogurt with strawberries, which I really enjoyed. So, I decided to give this a try.

I sprinkled some sugar over sliced strawberries and blackberries (because the strawberries were pretty sour...), scooped some Greek yogurt, and put some honey on top. (The carton I bought was pretty big, so I could probably eat about 3-4 servings from it.)

The result? I LOVE the texture and taste of Greek yogurt, and its combination with fruits and honey is amazing!

#3 Nattou Pasta

I am a HUGE fan of nattou. Give me a bowl of hot, white rice and a box of nattou, and I'll be happy. However, not many people are fond of nattou - first of all, they smell. Second of all, they taste unique (I think they're DELICIOUS). Third of all, the texture is kinda weird. Lastly, it doesn't look that great... Whatever the case, I love nattou. PERIOD.

Awhile back, I read an article in a magazine that interviewed one of my favorite Japanese singers. He stated that his recent boom was "nattou pasta." I got to thinking, "Hmm... Do people really make nattou pasta? I wonder how it tastes?"

I totally forgot about this until today, when I decided I want some nattou for dinner. I didn't feel like eating rice though, so I decided to use up what little spaghetti noodles I had left. Here's what I did.

INGREDIENTS:

Olive oil, garlic, egg, baby spinach, spaghetti noodles, some gnocchi, some butter, black pepper, NATTOU!!

PROCEDURE:

1) Boil water. Crack in an egg and let it broil? Poach? Just enough so that the yolk is soft and runny.

2) Boil up the spaghetti noodles and gnocchi. Drain it when finished and leave it to the side. (You can rub in some olive oil to keep it from bloating or sticky, but I didn't. Ha.)

3) Over light to medium fire, pour some olive oil into a pan and parch(?) sliced up garlic. Yum- The garlic smell!

4) Throw in the baby spinach and let it wither while you parch it with the garlic.

5) Pour in the spaghetti noodles and gnocchi.

6) Throw in a small piece of butter and let it melt all over the noodles.

7) Sprinkle some black pepper and mix it in well.

8) Whip up the nattou with the mustard and sauce that comes with it.

9) Pour the spaghetti onto a plate, pour the nattou over it, and then place the egg on top.

The result? I would definitely make these again!! They were yummy yummy yummy. But if I want to make them again, I have to go out and buy another box of spaghetti noodles... :(