ok, after getting nagged for the last few weeks from everyone, i've finally found a bit of time to start up my blog again after the summer. so, let's catch up on my life, and my random cooking shenanigans!
my summer started with a lovely 2 months of summer school. oh joy. i took 2 courses: introductory archaeology, and indian religions. kind of random. anyways, the kitchen in residence was kind of crap/scary/dirty all the time, so not too much exciting stuff went on there. starbucks + baguette + brie + wine pretty much sums up that part of the summer.
theeen i went back to montreal and ottawa to visit my famjam, where the real food happened. yemista, moussaka, pastitsio, steak x7, ribs, bagels, eggplant dip, la botega sandwiches from god, brown butter pasta, poutine, menazzaleh, cupcakes x4, bacon x923898230, the works, scary fish with teeth, beaver tails, brie and baguette and BACON FAT EVERYTHING. oh lord. now i know why i'm fat...
anyways. yes. i ate a alot. i also tried my hand at macarons. now, as you may have noticed, i don't really bake things that often. cooking is easy cause you just throw things together and somehow you come up with something. but with baking, everything has to be exact. it's scary. aaand queen of the exactness are macarons. why did i do this to myself? oh yeah, cause you can't get them like, anywhere in victoria. and when you can, they're super expensive. so, why not make a massive batch at home and save some money? yep, that's just what i did.
so, i will ring in the new year of blogging by starting with these delicious pistachio macarons! note: they weren't 100% perfect, but for a first attempt i think i did pretty well! the only thing was that they weren't very tall, but i'll let you know where i think i messed up. also, i was originally going to make pistachio filling but i ran out of icing sugar. i substituted nutella instead. who doesn't like nutella? it was still awesome.
what you need:
160 g of pistachios, unsalted
120 g egg whites (room temp)
200 g icing sugar
35 g granulated sugar
green food colouring
lots of nutella
an extra pair of hands? (thanks dad!)
step 1:
peel the skin off your pistachios. this was soo time consuming, so if you can find them already skinned, or even in powdered form, then do it! if you can't, blanch them in hot water first. it will make it a lot easier to get the skins off. let them dry.
step 2:
when you're waiting for them to dry, preheat oven to 350 and line your baking trays with parchment paper. sift through your icing sugar to get out any lumps. then add to your food processor, along with the dried, skinned pistachios and process until you get a fine powder. sift and set aside. (mistake #1: didn't process them long enough and still had some small-but-not-small-enough bits of pistachio in there).
step 3:
add in egg whites to your mixer and beat on medium until soft peaks start to form. then gradually beat in your granulated sugar, while increasing the speed, until thicker peaks form. i added in about 5 drops of food green food colouring, but if you want a bit more then go for it. once mixed in, add your pistachio/icing sugar powder and gently fold with the egg whites.
step 4:
spoon mixture into a piping bag with a round tip (mistake #2: we didn't have the right shape, and ended up squeezing the mix out of a smaller tip, which probably made the mix deflate a bit). try and pipe even, 1" circles onto the baking tray. as you can see, i basically used up all the baking trays in my house.... 3 were in the oven when i took this pic. yep.
step 5:
let sit for an hour to let the shells form. if you wanted to make a filling, now would be the time! if just sticking with nutella, bake for ~10 minutes. let cool before removing from parchment. try and slowly peel them off. if they start to stick, put them back in the oven for a few more minutes. pair similar sized ones together, and slather on the nutella!
that's it! considering it was my first attempt, they were super good. crunchy on the outside, chewy goodness all around! this recipe probably made ~50 macarons, but i don't know for sure as my entire family was nibbling on them before i could put them all together!
my summer started with a lovely 2 months of summer school. oh joy. i took 2 courses: introductory archaeology, and indian religions. kind of random. anyways, the kitchen in residence was kind of crap/scary/dirty all the time, so not too much exciting stuff went on there. starbucks + baguette + brie + wine pretty much sums up that part of the summer.
theeen i went back to montreal and ottawa to visit my famjam, where the real food happened. yemista, moussaka, pastitsio, steak x7, ribs, bagels, eggplant dip, la botega sandwiches from god, brown butter pasta, poutine, menazzaleh, cupcakes x4, bacon x923898230, the works, scary fish with teeth, beaver tails, brie and baguette and BACON FAT EVERYTHING. oh lord. now i know why i'm fat...
anyways. yes. i ate a alot. i also tried my hand at macarons. now, as you may have noticed, i don't really bake things that often. cooking is easy cause you just throw things together and somehow you come up with something. but with baking, everything has to be exact. it's scary. aaand queen of the exactness are macarons. why did i do this to myself? oh yeah, cause you can't get them like, anywhere in victoria. and when you can, they're super expensive. so, why not make a massive batch at home and save some money? yep, that's just what i did.
 |
| mmmm macarons! : ) |
what you need:
160 g of pistachios, unsalted
120 g egg whites (room temp)
200 g icing sugar
35 g granulated sugar
green food colouring
lots of nutella
an extra pair of hands? (thanks dad!)
step 1:
peel the skin off your pistachios. this was soo time consuming, so if you can find them already skinned, or even in powdered form, then do it! if you can't, blanch them in hot water first. it will make it a lot easier to get the skins off. let them dry.
step 2:
when you're waiting for them to dry, preheat oven to 350 and line your baking trays with parchment paper. sift through your icing sugar to get out any lumps. then add to your food processor, along with the dried, skinned pistachios and process until you get a fine powder. sift and set aside. (mistake #1: didn't process them long enough and still had some small-but-not-small-enough bits of pistachio in there).
step 3:
add in egg whites to your mixer and beat on medium until soft peaks start to form. then gradually beat in your granulated sugar, while increasing the speed, until thicker peaks form. i added in about 5 drops of food green food colouring, but if you want a bit more then go for it. once mixed in, add your pistachio/icing sugar powder and gently fold with the egg whites.
step 4:
spoon mixture into a piping bag with a round tip (mistake #2: we didn't have the right shape, and ended up squeezing the mix out of a smaller tip, which probably made the mix deflate a bit). try and pipe even, 1" circles onto the baking tray. as you can see, i basically used up all the baking trays in my house.... 3 were in the oven when i took this pic. yep.
 |
| my army of macarons! |
let sit for an hour to let the shells form. if you wanted to make a filling, now would be the time! if just sticking with nutella, bake for ~10 minutes. let cool before removing from parchment. try and slowly peel them off. if they start to stick, put them back in the oven for a few more minutes. pair similar sized ones together, and slather on the nutella!
 |
| om nom nom! |
Nom nom nom I'm sad you didn't bring me any! Now make a post dedicated to bacon fat goodness :)
ReplyDelete