Daring Bakers Challenge: Macaron Disaster

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was macarons. Not American coconut macaroons. Real French macarons made from almond flour and perfectly whipped egg whites. I had visions of flavors and fillings in my head. Honestly, I didn't sleep for two nights thinking about how I was going to make these. My first thought was to make Maple Macarons with Maple Buttercream filling. So, in a burst of enthusiasm I went at it.

Now, one of the things that people recommend is to age your egg whites. I guess this helps some of the water evaporate out of them that way your macarons rise well and aren't sticky. So, I cracked some egg whites and put them in a bowl in the refrigerator for two days. A day before I was going to make them I set the egg whites out on the counter. Unfortunately, my husband bumped the bowl and knocked out some egg white so I had to start all over again.

Anxious to get started, I didn't age the egg whites as long the second time. Maybe just a day. Then I got all my ingredients ready and started beating the egg whites. The problem, this time, was that I had a kitchen full of two kids and a husband so my egg whites quickly went from stiff peaks to over beaten. Plus, I used granulated maple sugar instead of regular white sugar and it just didn't incorporate into the egg whites properly. I should have just pitched the egg whites but I folded my almond flour and powdered sugar into the egg whites. I piped them in perfect circles but the batter was very stiff and did not flow together. When I put them in the oven they didn't puff up, they didn't develop any "feet", and they looked more like flat, colorless communion wafers.

Determined, I tried again. This time I didn't age my egg whites at all. I just let them get to room temperature and started in. I was very careful to not over beat my egg whites and I used granulated white sugar instead of the maple stuff. The batter looked so much more promising. It flowed better and had a sheen to it.

I put them in the oven and watched. No "feet." I tried cooking them with two baking pans stacked together. No "feet." I tried baking them at a higher temperature. No "feet." By this time I was out of macaron batter. This batch wasn't much better than the last but I whipped up a quick ganache and filled them anyway. They were yummy. Kind of like almond cookies filled with chocolate, a homemade Pepperidge Farm Milan cookie.

The good news is that there are a few recipes for macarons out there so I'm not giving up yet. I'm going to try some of the recipes that other Daring Bakers tried and used successfully. Keep an eye out. You may see a post sometime soon labeled "Macaron Success!"

P.S. To see a slide show of some really good macarons check out the Daring Kitchen website.

Martha Monday: Pork and Chive Pot Stickers

I know. I know. It's Wednesday not Monday. But, even though I made these for dinner on Monday, I haven't gotten around to posting it. So, the task for this week was chosen by Martha and Me herself. She gave us a choice. We could make Halloween luminaries from the October issue of Living. Or we could make pot stickers. I was tempted to make the luminaries but I noticed that part of it required using a printer. Well, my printer needs new ink and I knew I wouldn't be able to get around to getting a new ink cartridge. So, pot stickers it was!

This recipe was very easy. I ground my own pork by chopping it in my food processor. I find that the ground pork in the grocery is very fatty so I get the lean stuff and grind it myself. The meat gets spruced up with some chives, ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce, sherry, and cornstarch. Then I mounded a teaspoonful onto each wonton wrapper and sealed them shut using a bit of water. I didn't make any fancy pleats. Now, I didn't follow the directions that said to boil them first then pan fry them. I thought that was too much work. I put them in a hot pan, added a bit of water, covered them, turned the heat down, and steamed them for 5 minutes. That's how I usually do pot stickers and it worked for me again. These were served with a soy-ginger dipping sauce. I thought they were very tasty. My kids loved them and my husband too. I meant to make extra and freeze them but they all disappeared!

I served these with white rice and another Martha Stewart Everyday Food recipe, Orange and Beef Stir-fry, which is also good and easy to make.

Pizza Night

This fall my husband has been tasked with attending ALL the football games for the United States Naval Academy. He's the recipient of an odd job that almost no other football team in the USA has - the team chaplain. The point is that many weekends he is off cheering on the team while I am at home wondering whether to take the kids out to eat or try to cook a meal at home. Often I take the restaurant route. But sometimes we make our own and last night we had a pizza night.

I've tried many many pizza dough recipes and discovered my favorite comes from Cooks Illustrated. Surprise. Surprise. It's the dough for their grilled pizza although I've never actually done it on the grill. It makes a really wet dough and it makes a lot of it. So when I'm ready to put my pizza together I might divide it up to make small pizzas or use the whole thing in one huge pizza. The trick is to smoosh it out on a piece of parchment paper. I get my hands wet and just smear it into a roundish shape. If my hands get too sticky I rinse them and go at it again. It bakes up really nicely on a hot pizza stone and pops right off the paper when it's fully cooked.

Last night I made three pizzas. One big, one medium, one little. Just like the three bears. One for me. One for Jonathan. One for Adam. Mine sported pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms, and cream cheese. What? You've never put cream cheese on your pizza? Little chunks of cream cheese blopped on and smothered in mozzarella. You don't know what you are missing!!!!! Jonathan's had loads of pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers, and olives. I still can't understand why my five-year-old loves olives but hates chocolate. And Adam got straight-up cheese pizza.

After we chowed down it was time for some dancing to the Dixie Chicks. Then off to bed and some peace-filled Mama time!

Martha Monday: Warm Vanilla Cider

This Monday's project was chosen by Teresa from A Homemade Iowa Life. The recipe appears in the current issue of Martha Stewart's Living Magazine and is called Warm Vanilla Cider. The recipe couldn't be simpler. Fresh cider is steeped with nutmeg, vanilla, and brown sugar. Of course, Martha calls for a WHOLE nutmeg rather than the grated stuff everyone already has among their spices. Thankfully I had one so I dutifully plopped it in. Also the recipe recommends using an actual vanilla bean which I didn't have and my local grocery didn't have. I did not feel like running to Whole Foods just for the one item so I used a teaspoon of my fine Madagascar vanilla. Once this mixture was warmed I ladled it into mugs, dolloped freshly whipped cream on it and sprinkled on honey walnuts. Both my husband and I enjoyed this immensely. It is almost like a dessert and would make a great drink to serve during the holidays. I wish my picture had turned out better. In the magazine they photograph it in glass cups but I don't have any glass cups that are heatproof so you'll just have to enjoy the image of whipped cream and nuts.

Black Bean Pork and Zucchini

So, I'm back to my Cooking Light meals and I finally made this recipe that I've been saving for a while. Black Bean Pork and Zucchini. This is not a cheap meal because it uses pork tenderloin but because it is a stir-fry the pork feeds more people than it would otherwise. Thankfully I read the reviews about the dish before I made it so I embellished a little. I stir-fried a clove of minced garlic along with the ginger and zucchini. And I added an extra two tablespoons of black bean sauce to the sauce mixture. It was very easy and pretty tasty. My only criticism was that there was too much sauce. Possibly due to the extra black bean paste but probably not. Plus using zucchini as the only vegetable made it a little one-dimensional. To remedy these problems I might add other veggies. Onions would be great if my husband would eat them. But maybe mushrooms or carrots. I served this dish with steamed rice and broccoli. Will it go in my recipe box? Probably not. But it was a decent and simple dish for one night.