Nutella Macarons

It's World Nutella Day!

Who doesn't love Nutella?

I thought I'd put up a picture of my Nutella macarons.

I simply made chocolate macarons and filled them with a Nutella ganache. If you're too lazy to make a ganache, just sandwiching the macarons together with pure Nutella would be delicious too!

I wish I had a few to munch on right now...

Chocolate Macarons with Nutella

recipe adapted from David Lebovitz

Macaron Batter
1 cup (100 gr) powdered sugar
½ cup powdered almonds (about 2 ounces, 50 gr, sliced almonds, pulverized)
3 tablespoons (25 gr) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 tablespoons (65 gr) granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350º F (180º C).

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about 1/2-inch, 2 cm) ready.

Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond powder and cocoa so there are no lumps; use a blender or food processor since almond meal that you buy isn't quite fine enough.

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes.

Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you're alone).

Pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch (3 cm) circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.

Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten themacarons, then bake them for 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet.

To make the filling, I made a dark chocolate ganache with heavy cream and then mixed in a generous amount of Nutella. These macarons are like little bites of Nutella chocolate heaven!

p.s. If you would like some more detailed instructions and my tips on making perfect little macarons, please look at my Black Sesame Macaron post. I spent much more time on that. I just wanted to get a little something up to honor World Nutella Day before it ended! Thanks to readers for pointing this out ;)

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

The pursuit of the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe is something that many bakers undergo at one point in time. I am lucky in that I did not have to search very long or hard for my perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. First, I tried one of Alton Brown's chocolate chip cookie recipes--"The Chewy." It wasn't bad, but it wasn't mind-blowing either. The recipe called for melting the butter instead of creaming it. This was supposed to make the cookie chewy. I wasn't very impressed by the result.

A few weeks ago, I came across a chocolate chip recipe on the New York Times website by Jacque Torres, a renowned chocolatier. The man is French. He makes his own chocolate from raw cocoa at his shop in New York. I didn't need to read the recipe twice to know that I had to try it.

The most interesting thing about this recipe is its use of cake flour (a low gluten flour) AND bread flour (a high gluten flour). Why not just use all-purpose flour whose gluten level is in between the two? Don't use all-purpose flour. I believe the ingenious use of cake and bread flour made all the difference in this recipe. It made for a chewy, not-overly-cakey, thick cookie.

Also, this recipe called for the sprinkling of coarse sea salt on the cookies before baking in addition to a significant amount of salt in the dough itself. Again, ingenious! The saltiness made the flavor chocolate even more intense. I couldn't stop myself from taking bite after bite even while consciously thinking about the amount of butter in the recipe and my growing waistline. It's that good.

Lastly, the recipe called for chocolate "disks" or Valrhona feves instead of simple chocolate chips. This allowed the cookies to have layers of chocolate instead of random chunks of chocolate here and there. I found milk chocolate Valrhona feves at Whole Foods but they were pretty expensive and I had actually wanted to use bittersweet chocolate. I bought 1/3 of a pound. Valrhona is my favorite brand of chocolate. For the rest of the chocolate, I used Ghirardelli chocolate bars in semisweet and 60% bittersweet--roughly chopped. When forming the balls of cookie dough, I took my time to arrange the chocolate pieces so that they not only came out pleasant looking, but also had those layers of chocolate.

with Valrhona feves

I made 2 ounce balls of dough which resulted in a 3-inch cookie rather than the huge cookies proposed in this recipe. I followed all the weighted measurements. I no longer trust cup measure. Measuring by weight ensures a consistent product.

with Ghirardelli chunks

Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from Jacque Torres

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons

(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour

1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)

Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

I baked off some of the dough after 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours. The 72 hour batch tasted the best by far. For some reason, the dough develops an almost toffee-like flavor after sitting in the fridge for a long period of time. It makes for a cookie with more depth and complex flavor.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

My 2 ounce mounds of dough needed about 15 minutes to bake in the oven.

Try these now!

Rose Macarons

Rose-Infused White Chocolate Ganache Macarons

adapted from a recipe found on Cannelle et Vanille

I am macaron-obessed. I realize more and more people are starting to get into the macaron craze. I've aspired to create perfect macarons since the day I recieved my first hand-held mixer as a gift. Since then, I've been pursing the perfect macaron. They're tricky little things to make. I've got the technique down enough so that mine always develop the little "foot" now but I'm still not satisfied. I won't be satisfied until they taste as good as the Laduree macarons I had in Paris!

These turned out okay. I wanted to tint them a light pink and use some rose flavored syrup in the white chocolate filling. I found some sprinkles and decided to add them on before baking. They were little snowflakes. It's almost Christmas-time so it works! I will be trying them again soon and experimenting with different flavors.

Pumpkin Patch, Pumpkin Spice

What is the best thing to carve on a pumpkin?

A pumpkin of course!

Visiting the pumpkin patch, picking out the "perfect pumpkin" and carving it in the backyard while breathing in the crisp fall air inspired me to bake some fall goodies. I have dreamed of sitting in weather cool enough for a light jacket while sipping hot apple cider and enjoying a moist spiced muffin for weeks now. I searched the internet for pumpkin recipes and in the end, I decided upon pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I tweaked the recipes I found and ended up with the following recipe for delicious pumpkin muffins...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

makes about 18 regular-sized muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons plain yogurt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

* 1 cup walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2. In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt

3. In a separate bowl--the bowl of the stand mixer if using--mix together the eggs, pumpkin, applesauce, vegetable oil, and plain yogurt

4. Combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients--with the mixer on low--until just incorporated

5. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts (*if using)

6. Fill muffin tins with batter and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes

These muffins not only tasted like fall, but also filled the entire house with a lovely, warm, spiced aroma as they baked. I was very pleased with the results. They came out incredibly moist--probably as a result of the substitution of applesauce AND yogurt for oil--and they only got better the next day! I had to restrain myself from grabbing one muffin after another. They're so tasty and perfect for fall!