I always get confused on how October should feel like.  Here, in San Francisco Bay Area, it's been sweltering hot since the summer and the severe draught drags on.  Despite an earnest effort by retail stores to lure us into the spirit of the seasons, it just doesn't feel so... yet! I hope.

I found this easy and light recipe from My Little Expat Kitchen -- and it's really yummy.  The coconut whipped cream perfectly compliments the coffee and the mint leaves finishes it off with super refreshing feeling.

Yield: 10 small glasses

Ingredients
500 ml (2 cups) freshly brewed, strong, hot filter coffee (I was out of coffee, so I used instant coffee - 2 packets per cup and that worked out alright).
90 g demerara sugar
20 ml Kahlua or other coffee-flavored liqueur (I skipped this too.)

Special equipment: shallow baking tray or dish 33 x 24 cm in size (approximately), suitable for the freezer, plastic wrap

Preparation
Make the coffee and while still hot, pour it into a large jug and immediately add the sugar. Stir well to dissolve. Give the coffee a taste and add more sugar if needed.  Make it sweeter than you usually drink it.

Pour the mixture into the  baking tray/dish and cover with plastic wrap.

Freeze the coffee granita mixture for about 1 hour or until the liquid starts forming crystals around the tray (Mine took about 2 hours to start freezing). Take it out of the freezer and scrape the granita with a fork, breaking up the ice, and put it again in the freezer. Repeat the same process every hour, until the granita is completely frozen. This will take about 4 hours, depending on how strong your freezer is.  In the end you must have a mixture that resembles icy snow.

You can eat the granita now or keep it covered with the plastic wrap. It keeps well for 4-5 days but it’s at its best during the first two.

Coconut whipped cream

Ingredients
1 can coconut milk (400 ml), full-fat (thoroughly chilled - overnight preferably)
2 Tbsp icing sugar
½ tsp pure vanilla extract (I omitted/forgot this)
pinch of salt to taste

Special equipment: stand or hand-held electric mixer
Preparation
Skim the cream that rises to the top and put in the mixing bowl of the stand mixer (chill the bowl for half an hour before whipping will help speeding the process).  Add other ingredients and beat at high speed for about 3-4 minutes until soft peak is formed.  Serve immediately or the cream can keep in an airtight container for a few days.

Scoop the granita into glasses and spoon a dollop of cream over the granita and top it with sprigs of mint and serve.  Enjoy! :D

In the last blog, I was so happy that my macarons were starting to resemble macarons and not just some weird-shaped almond cookies. Yay! And even though my oven is not behaving that cooperatively on most days (On some cold winter days, it could take up to an hour to get the pilot lit properly -- arghhh), I found ways around it (here).

These macaron shells have no extra flavors just different colors.  I filled them with store-bought dolce de leche that proves to be wayyyy toooo sweet.  I also made some lemon curd filling from the leftover egg yolk -- that turned out to be waaayyyy too runny  The foot was high, but the shells were somewhat hollow.  I did try to bake them on the lower shelves -- That was disastrous.

Two years ago, I embarked on a journey to try to bake French macarons but got so discouraged and humbled that I swore to never go on this hair-pulling, teeth-grinding, suicide-inducing baking experience ever again.  Alas, I should have known better.  You guessed it, never say never, right?  So here I am again, being drawn into the labyrinth of recipes and techniques, and with sugar-stained hair and wayyyy too much coffee in my vein, I'm doing it again.

Somehow, I faintly suspect that I'm more of a masochist than I care to admit. Oy Vey!!!!!

Anyhow, this time, I decided to put a method to my madness by sticking to one recipe and wrestle the little devil down until I somewhat master it before moving on and up.

Much to my satisfaction, I've got some progress!!! Hurray!!! And all the jubilation and elation is owed to the marvelous Not So Humble Pie's Macaron Troubleshooting with tips and tricks from Joy of Baking and shared passion and tenacity for achievement of Yaya Yayai who tirelessly compared baking notes with me -- THANK YOU!!!

The most joyful experience was to watch the long-coveted 'FOOT' all of a sudden materialized out of thin air.  Oh! Joy -- Now, at least, if I don't do anything else in life.  This will be enough -- I can safely say that this is closure for me. LOL.

So here is the recipe.  I make half the recipe for each batch.  It's more manageable for me, so I include the measurement also for easy reference:


Not So Humble Macarons v3.0128 - Full Recipe
yields approximately 50 cookies
(Half recipe measurement below)

    5 g dehydrated egg white powder*
  28 g granulated sugar
225 g confectioners (powdered) sugar
125 g almond meal**
100 g aged egg whites***


Not So Humble Macarons v3.0128 - Half Recipe
yields approximately 50 cookies
(Half recipe measurement below)

    3 g dehydrated egg white powder*
  14 g granulated sugar
113 g confectioners (powdered) sugar
  63 g almond meal**
  50 g aged egg whites***

* I used CK Products as recommended by Not-So-Humble-Pie, but I just checked on amazon and it was not available, so one's got to find another brand.  Just make sure it is dehydrated egg white and not  meringue powder.





** The 5-day aged egg white seemed to work perfectly.

*** I used Honeyville Blanched Almond Flour Super Fine Grind .  I may try Bob's Red Mill next time, if I can't find Honeyville

My First Succesful Macarons - Basic Macarons with Lemon Mousse Filling.  The foot formed but the color of the meringue was not white

- Prep two half sheet pans with parchment or silicone baking mats.

- Pre-heat your oven to somewhere between 290°F.  My oven heat is not the most consistent in the world and tends to overheat drastically.  That oven thermometer really is a life saver.  So I only use this temperature.

- Start by weighing out your sugar and egg white powder into a small bowl. Mix with a fork until uniform and set aside.

- Sift together your almond meal and powdered sugar.

- Weigh out your egg whites and begin beating them on low speed until foamy. Begin slowly sprinkling in the powdered egg white and sugar mixture as you beat. Then increase the speed to medium and beat until a firm meringue forms. (I sneaked and used medium high speed -- about 8 -- on my stand mixer and it turned out okay -- or so I thought -- to speed things up a bit).

- You want firm, glossy peaks in your meringue, you don't want to beat all the way to stiff peaks. So hold yourself back.

Man, I love that peak.  Won't be able to do that with my hand mixer though :P

- Beat in food coloring gel now (I use Buff) and then add 1/3rd of the almond mixture. Folding it in gently. Once combined, add another third of the almond mixture, and so on. For visual reference on how to combine and fold, see this video by Chef Nini. (Note: the batter should be deflated a bit to let the air out).
- Add your batter to a piping bag with a round tip (any size bit under 1cm works fine) and pipe rows of macarons.

I baked on these silicone mats I bought from Costco -- super good-valued compared to the original Silpat - much cheaper and they also have templates for piping newbies like me :)

So, I think I figured it out, but didn't have enough egg white to test this theory. So until the next batch, Bon Appétit.