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.

I've adapted the recipe by Noreen's Kitchen to make only half the recipe.  Here it is.

Ingredients:
3 1/4 - 4 cups  all-purpose flour
1/3 cup  mashed potato flakes
1/3 cup sugar
1 packet instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1 large egg (2 medium ones)
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
1.  Heat butter and milk until melted

2. Place 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, salt, potato flakes, milk mixture, water, pineapple juice and vanilla in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer

3. Blend with dough hook until well incorporated

4. Add eggs - one at a time, blending with each addition

5. Add in enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough.  Resist the urge to add more flour or your end result will be a tough bread

6. Knead for 7-15 minutes until the dough forms a film in  The Windowpane Test  by pulling off a golf-ball-sized piece of dough and stretch it into a thin sheet between your fingers. If the gluten is well-developed, the dough will stretch into a paper-thin film without breaking. If quickly breaks...you guessed it, keep kneading).

7.  Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a soft cloth.  Allow to rise in a warm spot until doubled, approximately 1 hour.




8.  Once the dough finishes rising, remove dough from the bowl and gently press air out.  Cut the dough into 2-4 oz. pieces and roll until smooth.

9.  Place dough balls into 2 oiled baking pans.  The size of the pan will determine the number of rolls you fit into them

10.  Preheat the oven to 350°F - cover and allow dough to rise until doubles, approximately 30 minutes.

11. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown

12. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter.  Allow bread to cool before serving.

Ingredients:

Directions:

It's been a while since I baked apple pie.  And the other day, I went to McDonald's and got their apple pie on a rainy day -- Ummmm... I forgot how I miss the cinnamon & nutmeg aroma and the gooey juice of the apple.  So I decided to make one today, since it was cold out and thus perfect weather to bake a pie :D


After lots of trial on recipes, I settle for this one -- which is going to to be my go-to recipe from now on.
The recipe makes two 9" pie crusts, or one 9" covered pie crust.

INGREDIENTS

For the crust 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter,  cubed
1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon iced water (add 1 tablespoon at a time as needed)

Directions

• Using a rubber spatula, thoroughly mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
• Cut the butter into small cubes, then add to the flour mixture and cut vigorously with a pastry blender or two knives. Work as fast as you can so the butter doesn't melt.  As you work, periodically stir dry flour up from the bottom of the bowl and scrape clinging fat off the pastry blender or knives until the butter become pea-sized pieces; the rest of the flour should be reduced to the consistency of coarse crumbs or corn-meal.  The mixture should seem dry and powdery and not pasty or greasy.

• Drizzle over the flour and fat mixture the ice water.

• Using the rubber spatula, cut with the blade side until the mixture looks evenly moistened and begins to form small balls.  Press down on the dough with the flat side of the spatula.  If the balls of dough stick together, you have added enough water; if they do not, drizzle over the top 1-2 tablespoons ice water.

• Cut in the water, again using the blade of the spatula, then press with your hands until the dough coheres.  The dough should look rough, not smooth.  Divide the dough in half, press each half into a round flat disk, and wrap tightly in plastic.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and preferably for several hours, or for up to 2 days before rolling.  (The dough can also be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 6 months; thaw completely before rolling. - If you need help with rolling out the dough, click here).

• While preparing the filling and rolling out the dough, preheat the oven to 350°F

This year, we didn't have so many apples from our tree and I was busy baking other things and haven't had a chance to bake any pies or galettes.  Maybe the fact that it hasn't got cold till now is another reason.

So today, I'm craving some and started looking in my blogs for the recipe but found that I didn't write it down, so here it is -- so next time I can find it more easily :D -- This photo was the galette I baked a few years ago.  The recipe came from Too Much Food with the original recipe from Smitten Kitchen that I got from Rachel Chew's video below.

Ingredients:

For the dough:
1 cup (120 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3 oz., or 84 g) unsalted butter, frozen, cut into 1/2″ pieces
3 1/2 tablespoons chilled water

For the filling:
2 pounds apples, peeled, cored and sliced (save the peels and cores)
3 tablespoons sugar
  1 Tablespoon turbinado sugar to sprinkle on top of the crust (optional)

For the glaze:
1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
  Apple peel and cores

Directions:

1. Make the dough first: sift together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the frozen butter cubes with your preferred method of choice; I used a pastry blender, then my fingertips (though a food processor or two knives would work just as well). Make sure that you do this rather quickly, you want to keep the butter as cold as possible to insure a light, flaky pastry dough. No need to blitz the heck out of the butter; just cut it in until the biggest pieces are about the size of large peas.
2. Add the chilled water one tablespoon at a time, stirring with your other hand, just until the dough just holds together (you might not need all the water, depending on your flour and the humidity of your kitchen). Dump the dough out on a mat and pat into a circle about 1.5″ inches thick. Double-wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (or up to 2 days).
3. After the chilling period, take the dough out and let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes; this allows the dough to soften slightly so that when you roll it out, it doesn’t break into a million pieces on you (trust me this has happened to me and it’s not fun nor pretty). Roll out the dough on a lightly floured mat into a 14″ circle, about 1/8″ thick. Using a pastry brush, dust off the excess flour. Carefully transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
4. Preheat the oven to 400 F (205 C).
5. To fill the tart, overlap the sliced apples on top of the dough in a ring 2 inches from the edge and continue towards the center. To complete the tart, fold over the edges of the dough. It doesn’t have to look perfect, the beauty of a galette lies in its rusticity.
6. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over the dough edge and 2 tablespoons of sugar over the apples. Use more or less sugar to your preference.
7. Place the baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake the galette for 45 minutes, or until the apples are soft and have slightly browned edges. Try to rotate the tart every 15 minutes to ensure even browning of the crust.
8. While the tart is baking, you can work on the glaze; place the reserved peels and cores in a large saucepan with the sugar. Pour enough water into the saucepan just so it barely covers the peels and sugar and simmer for 25 minutes. Strain the apple-infused syrup through cheesecloth and set aside. Your kitchen will smell amazing at this point.
9. When the tart is done baking, remove from the oven and slide it (parchment and all) off the baking sheet and onto a cooling rack. Let it cool for at least 20 minutes before brushing glaze over the tart.
10. Slice and serve immediately, alone or alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you’re feeling decadent.

the apple galette from rachelchew on Vimeo

My most vivid memory of the things I learned during the 4 years of French literature has been these "petites madeleines" from Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time or À la recherche du temps perdu.  The most quoted passage is this one.

..No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea...wikipedia

And I'd like to also note the French version -- for old times sake ;)

Il y avait déjà bien des années que, de Combray, tout ce qui n’était pas le théâtre et le drame de mon coucher n’existait plus pour moi, quand un jour d’hiver, comme je rentrais à la maison, ma mère, voyant que j’avais froid, me proposa de me faire prendre, contre mon habitude, un peu de thé. Je refusai d’abord et, je ne sais pourquoi, je me ravisai. Elle envoya chercher un de ces gâteaux courts et dodus appelés Petites Madeleines qui semblaient avoir été moulés dans la valve rainurée d’une coquille de Saint-Jacques. Et bientôt, machinalement, accablé par la morne journée et la perspective d’un triste lendemain, je portai à mes lèvres une cuillerée du thé où j’avais laissé s’amollir un morceau de madeleine. Mais à l’instant même où la gorgée mêlée des miettes du gâteau toucha mon palais, je tressaillis, attentif à ce qui se passait d’extraordinaire en moi. Un plaisir délicieux m’avait envahi, isolé, sans la notion de sa cause. Il m’avait aussitôt rendu les vicissitudes de la vie indifférentes, ses désastres inoffensifs, sa brièveté illusoire, de la même façon qu’opère l’amour, en me remplissant d’une essence précieuse : ou plutôt cette essence n’était pas en moi, elle était moi. J’avais cessé de me sentir médiocre, contingent, mortel. D’où avait pu me venir cette puissante joie ? Je sentais qu’elle était liée au goût du thé et du gâteau, mais qu’elle le dépassait infiniment, ne devait pas être de même nature. D’où venait-elle ? Que signifiait-elle ? Où l’appréhender ? Je bois une seconde gorgée où je ne trouve rien de plus que dans la première, une troisième qui m’apporte un peu moins que la seconde. Il est temps que je m’arrête, la vertu du breuvage semble diminuer. Il est clair que la vérité que je cherche n’est pas en lui, mais en moi. Il l’y a éveillée, mais ne la connaît pas, et ne peut que répéter indéfiniment, avec de moins en moins de force, ce même témoignage que je ne sais pas interpréter et que je veux au moins pouvoir lui redemander et retrouver intact à ma disposition, tout à l’heure, pour un éclaircissement décisif. Je pose la tasse et me tourne vers mon esprit. C’est à lui de trouver la vérité. Mais comment ? Grave incertitude, toutes les fois que l’esprit se sent dépassé par lui-même ; quand lui, le chercheur, est tout ensemble le pays obscur où il doit chercher et où tout son bagage ne lui sera de rien. Chercher ? pas seulement : créer. Il est en face de quelque chose qui n’est pas encore et que seul il peut réaliser, puis faire entrer dans sa lumière. Du côté de chez Swann

 Anyway, I digress.

So, since the first time I tasted these heavenly scalloped-shaped cakes, I fell absolutely in love and they have been my favorite throughout the years.  Only until recently, that I mustered enough courage to even attempt to make them and I've been trying out several recipes (How to Make Classic French Madeleines by The Kitchn; Joyofcooking.com; and A Real Madeleine by Annemarie Conte), and finally came up with my adjustment that I like best.  So here goes...

My Classic Madeleines

(Makes about 24 - 28 Madeleines)

Ingredients:

160 g. of unsalted butter (1 stick and 3 Tbsp) melted and kept warm
2 large eggs at room temperature
2/3 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour +1 Tbsp, divided
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp lemon zest

Instructions:

1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and then keep it warm.

2. In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugars with the paddle attachment at high speed until the mixture is thick and pale in color (about 5-8 minutes).


Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest (if using).

Then sift about one-third of the flour mixture over the whipped eggs and gently fold in, using a rubber spatula or whisk. Sift and fold in half of the remaining flour, and then sift and fold in the rest. (Do not over mix or the batter will deflate).



4. Then take about 1 cup (240 ml) of the batter and fold it into the warm melted butter. (This lightens the butter making it easier to fold into the batter.)



Then, with a spatula, gently fold the butter mixture completely into the egg batter.



Cover and refrigerate the batter overnight (can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three days).



5. Prep the pans using a pastry brush, generously grease the molds of two - 12 - 3 1/2 inch (8.5 cm) Madeleine pans (preferably non stick) with very soft or melted butter. (Make sure the pans are well greased or the Madeleines will stick and be hard to remove.)



Then dust the molds with flour.


 Tap out the excess flour.


Freeze the pans overnight.

6. When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Drop a generous tablespoonful (can use an ice cream scoop) of the batter into the center of each prepared mold, leaving the batter mounded in the center. (This will result in the classic "humped or domed" appearance of the Madeleines.) - Do not over-fill the mold or madeleines will become flat.



7. Bake the Madeleines for about 8 - to 11 minutes. Check after 6-8 minutes and rotate pans (left to right, front to back).


Bake until the edges are golden brown and the centers spring back when lightly touched. (Do not overbake these cookies or they will be dry.)



8. Remove the pans from the oven and immediately tap each pan against the counter to release the Madeleines.



Place Madeleines on a wire rack to cool.



Best served immediately but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple of days or frozen for up to 1 month. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.