Not Your Average Cookie: French Macarons

I love to bake when I have some spare time... or when I need to stop writing an essay and take a breather. I'm a bit of a perfectionist at times so I usually like to master recipes that are the staples - a good chocolate chip cookie here, a vanilla pound cake there. But a few weeks ago I decided to dive into the unknown land of French pastries and tackle the world famous macarons. Yes, those beautiful little sandwich cookies that you can find on everyone's Instagram feed and that look almost too cute to eat - almost! I looked online to find a recipe that would explain how to make them, as I'd heard that these cuties are quite temperamental. Thankfully, I stumbled upon Entertaining With Beth's Foolproof Macaron Recipe which basically made the process 10 times easier than it would be otherwise. She gives you the crucial tricks to combat any disasters - and hopefully you'll end up with the perfect little treats!

I went to the grocery store and rallied up all of the ingredients and made my way back to the kitchen to see if these French delights would get the best of me or not! Long story short.... my first attempt went pretty catastrophic. NTS: when they say use parchment paper, USE PARCHMENT PAPER. They got stuck to the cookie sheet and burned on the bottom - whoops! I was determined to get these right no matter what, so I tried the recipe again. What I learned was to make sure you get a feel for your oven's temperature stability. My oven is a lot hotter so even at 350 F I had to be careful not to burn my macarons. I took them out early because they were about the get too brown and it caused for a hollow inside in some of them so keep that in mind. Also, if you can, use another cookie sheet under the one you're using to prevent the cookies from browning on the bottom too quickly. 

Other than that, my macarons turned out pretty cute and delicious! Maybe not to Laduree standards but close enough haha! If you try out the recipe let me know, that way we can share in the struggle that is French baking techniques. 

Silky Amaretti Cheesecake

When learning to bake there's always that recipe that seems too hard for an amateur. You may only be following instructions but the anxiety of messing up a classic dish is still there. That for me was cheesecake. I'd heard so many horror stories about how difficult it was to perfect and get it right that I never even attempted it -- until I found the perfect recipe with a good enough twist to it that I couldn't resist taking the plunge and trying my hand at it. I followed Laura Vitale's recipe and made a few little alterations.

Serves 8 to 10

Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:For the Base:
2 cups of Amaretti Cookie Crumbs (about 8oz of cookies)
2 Tbsp of Sugar
1/4 cup of Melted Butter

Filling:
2 8oz Packages of Cream Cheese
2 8oz Containers of Mascarpone
1 cup of Granulated Sugar
1 tsp of Vanilla Paste or Vanilla extract
1/4 cup of Amaretto Liqueur
4 Eggs
3 Tbsp of Flour
1/2 tsp of Salt

For the Topping:
1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
2 Tbsp of Powdered Sugar
¼ tsp of Almond Extract
¼ cup of Toasted Almonds

 I didn't have Amaretto Liqueur or almond extract so I omitted them but I found that the almond flavour was subtly still there because of the almond cookies used for the crust. I have to say that this recipe make for a delicious, silky smooth cheesecake. Sometimes I find that cheesecake can be a little too rich but the incorporation of mascarpone with the cream cheese made for a light texture that made all the difference. I'm definitely guilty of having eaten far too many slices of this (who could blame me?) and everyone who tried it said that it was great. 
Next time though I'll definitely have to look up tricks to avoid having my cheesecake crack at the top while cooling down. That is probably the biggest sign of a good cheesecake but overall I think I did a pretty good job for my first try. Plus the whipped cream definitely hid any evidence of mistakes I made!
Give this recipe a try and tell me what you think? Are there any recipes that you're scared of trying?

Christmas Cookies All Year Round

Being the mini Martha Stewart that I am, I baked a lot during the holidays and tried quite a few new recipes. One of my favourites I attempted was the Chewy Molasses Spice Cookie by Martha Stewart.One word: DELICIOUS! This recipe was uber simple to make and takes no time at all. Although the recipe says it takes 1 hour and 30 minutes, that includes the time to let the cookies cool.... but of course I shortened that time significantly. I realize that it's a seasonal recipe but these are so good that I'll probably make them all the time. It's the epitome of all things Christmas and deliciousness and who doesn't need that in their life 24/7?!  Here's how they turned out! (is it obvious I'm not over Christmas yet?)

Fun & Festive Recipes

One of my favourite things about Christmas is getting to try out new recipes once I finally have some down time. I've loved baking for such a long time and last year I seriously went all out. I'm talking sugar cookies, gingerbread men, pies galore and delicious cakes. Yes, it was hectic but I baked until my heart was content, so this year I'd like to share with you some recipes I've been saving up to try this holiday season. As soon as my last exam is done, it's time to head to the kitchen and bake up a storm!

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These are just a few recipes that I've found that I definitely want to attempt in the next couple of weeks. Praise the Lord, Monday I'll finally be done this semester so you can expect to see some posts very soon of my recipe attempts and some sweets that I've come up with! 
What are your favourite Christmas recipes?
Verse of the day: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" - John 3:17

Release your inner granny

How fun is this little notebook for recipes?

I seriously love to bake and whenever I get the chance to snatch some recipes from more experienced bakers, I take it. Last year during Thanksgiving/Christmas I went a little nuts with the cooking and baking so I had tons of leftover cookies and treats. One day I decided to go across the street and share some with an elderly woman across the street. She always sent over cookies so I thought I'd return the favour. She was super sweet and sat down for a while so we could chat about different recipes. It was such a cool experience and I thought I'd share two recipes she shared with me.

I'm not like most people who love pumpkin anything during the fall season but her pumpkin cookies were absolutely delicious. They were just sweet enough and the few chocolate chips in them were a perfect balance! These are great cookies to make for non-pumpkin lovers and you never know, this may be what converts them. I think next weekend I'll have to make these cookies again because they are ideal for this weather!

The second recipe is very much inspired by my neighbours Italian background! Anyone who knows me knows that I love cannolis A LOT. These cookies have the same feel because they have the same ricotta taste but they have the nicest burst of freshness from the lemon accents found in the dough and the glaze. They aren't too heavy and are great cookies to make for other people as a gift. You could either bake them and put them in a decorative jar or you could roll the dough into balls and freeze them that way the person receiving the gift can bake them whenever they fancy. 

Give these recipes a try and let me know how they turn out! Have fun being a granny and baking! Happy Saturday :)

Glorious Peonies.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Whenever I get a little overwhelmed with school work and need to de stress, I love to bake! It's so gratifying to work on new recipes and share them with other people -- especially when they turn out delicious! Saturday night I decided to make an easy recipe since I didn't have time to go out and buy specific ingredients so I made vanilla cupcakes. I looked around for a recipe that was fairly simple and found this one. They turned out yummy and my family and friends approved! The cupcake itself wasn't dry and it had a fine crumb just like the recipe advertised. The buttercream was great especially since I didn't have 4 cups of icing sugar in the house to make a traditional buttercream.  I was a little skeptical at first since the recipe said to whisk egg whites and sugar over a pot of simmering water but it made the frosting have a meringue taste but with a creamy butter texture mmm mmm good! I was feeling a bit lazy so I decided to opt out of the fancy icing techniques and just used a knife to frost them and put some leftover snowflake sprinkles on top. Not the most seasonal sprinkles but they looked cute ;) Hope you try out this recipe!