Category: Food

Finally Nailed the French Macaron

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  • What a painful experience when after all that careful sifting of the almond flour and powdered sugar coupled with the oh so careful macaronage you still end up with a footless macaron cookie. Doh! What went wrong? Was it the aging of the egg white (or lack thereof), was it over whipped meringue? Or perhaps I should have added a pinch of salt in addition to the cream of tartar to help stabilize the egg whites? It was a mystery. So, I started modifying one thing at a time and here’s what I discovered.
      • Aging the egg whites didn’t really matter.. but having them at room temperature makes all the difference.
      A pinch of salt in the egg whites along with the cream of tartar definitely helped to stabilize my egg whites and give them more shape. About 1/8 – 1/4 tsp will do.
      Triple sifting my almond flour and powdered sugar then running through a finer mesh sieve made all the difference in getting that smooth shell I was looking for.

    Like with all things – practice makes perfect. I’m pretty happy with my French macarons but I’m always looking to improve. What are your tips and tricks to make the perfect macaron cookies?

    Fun Food Quiz

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    Here’s another fun quiz from Buzz Feed. Build your cheesecake and learn which high school Clique you are from.

    I got Floaters: There isn’t really one clique that suits you! You’re a social chameleon who has the ability to get along with everyone, and can insert yourself pretty much in any friend group and feel at home.

    Funny how true this is. In high school I didn’t really identify with one social group over another but really did sort of float around and made friends with everyone and usually bonded over, you guessed it – food!

    Twist on the Classic Quaker Vanishing Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

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    Growing up I was our family baker and every Christmas I was designated to bring the cookies. I would make a variety of family favorites including the oatmeal raisin cookies using the Quaker Oatmeal Vanishing Cookie recipe. For eons my cousins would rave about these cookies in particular and ask me what my secret was. I swore to them I followed the Quaker Oatmeal recipe that you find on the underside of the lid to a Tee! After years of them challenging my truth I finally gave the recipe a closer look. It turns out I had changed it long ago due to misreading the recipe. How funny is that?!?! To find out my version of the recipe visit My Recipes page and let me know your thoughts. Do you have any twists on old classics?