There's No Place Like Home

Where is 2011 going?!

When we were growing up, my dad would always tell my sister and me that "as you get older, time will fly by faster and faster." He wasn't kidding.

I think it's pretty accurate to say that I have been wishing for October to arrive since late July. I don't think I ever mentioned it here, but July was when I found out that my mom and I were going to be visiting our family in Japan for 3 magical weeks. Well, those 3 weeks finally came and went (hence the reason for my lack of updates) and now I'm back home, armed with tart pans, melon flavor extracts, and ALL KINDS OF POWDERS for delicious macarons!

Seriously, this is just a fraction of what I brought home.

I just came back from the land of the rising sun on Monday, and I didn't waste a second of baking time. I jumped into the kitchen headfirst and attempted a batch of Matcha macarons, but I guess 3 weeks was long enough for me to lose my touch. Maybe I thought the matcha was bad luck, but today I decided to use my egg custard powder, in hopes of avoiding macawrongs.

creme brûlée macarons

Hooray! Feet! When paired with my mom's top secret vanilla custard (I'm SO glad she finally shared her recipe), it tasted just like heavenly creme brûlée, one of my ALL TIME favorite desserts. It was so good that I had to eat two. Then I remembered that they'll taste better tomorrow after they've rested, and I miraculously found the will power to put them away. Sigh.

I'm hoping to put together a little post of all the delicious treats I ate while I was in Japan. I was ECSTATIC to run into a Lauderée while in Fukuoka, and that really deserves a post on it's own. Stay tuned, and happy baking!

<3<3<3

An Early Mactweets Challenge? GO ME!

Seriously, I can't remember the last time I submitted an entry for a Mactweets challenge early, let alone a few days after it's been posted.

Anyway, I'd like to start off by saying that I absolutely loved my years as an undergrad. I met and made friends that I know I'll have for life, I learned how to cook in my sorry excuse for a dorm kitchen, and I learned A LOT (both musically and personally speaking). The one thing college failed to teach me, however, was how to hold my liquor.

Sadly, I take after my mother's drinking genes.

Many people would think that being half Mexican and half Japanese would yield superhuman drinking powers (you would understand if you've ever been to a birthday party for a child hosted by Mexicans, or if you've ever been to a karaoke bar after work hours and seen Japanese business men...I know I'm being stereotypical, but it's TRUE)...but I am truly a cheap date. It doesn't take more than a neck of a Smirnoff® bottle to get me red purple. Thank you mom, for the Asian glow gene.

Rest assured, I will never be an alcoholic. As happy as I get with a drink, I don't like the feeling of my warm purple face and pulsating teeth (really).

As for liquor infused desserts?...now THAT is something that I can agree with.

This month's Mactweets challenge called for us to bake a macaron with some liquor! While I don't drink enough to have a "drink of choice", I do enjoy a (tiny) glass of Baileys® On the Rocks every once in a great while. This sweet and refreshing drink became my inspiration for this month!

Here it is...my Chocolate-Kona Coffee Macarons with Baileys® Buttercream!

I <3 Macarons :)

My mom and I did sneak a taste of these sinfully delicious treats and we both enjoyed them, though a tablespoon of Baileys® might have been too much for the buttercream ("It's getting warm in here!" "Don't eat these and drive!")...or perhaps my mom really is that much of a lightweight. Either way, the rest of these babies are off-limits and are resting in the fridge, waiting to be enjoyed by my dear friends and me at the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow! Rodrigo y Gabriela AND macarons? I can't wait!

<3<3<3

Horchata Macarons

*WARNING: Reading this entry may make you crave Mexican food. :)

Have you ever wanted to try something seemingly radical in the kitchen, only to stop yourself and think, "Nahhh, that couldn't POSSIBLY taste good"? I must admit, I am completely guilty of having this mentality ALL THE TIME. Thanks to the lovely ladies over at Mactweets and this month's Macaron Challenge, my idea of combining ice cream with macarons has become a reality!

But first, a trip down memory lane.

My boyfriend and I are pretty big fans of a TV show called Man Vs. Food. We recently took a little trip to San Diego and tried the famous Lucha Libre Taco Shop, and ordered the Surfin' California...honestly, whoever thought of putting french fries in a burrito needs to be made a saint! It was amazing, but the best part of the meal was washing everything down with a nice big cup of Horchata.

Look at the size of this thing! Picture courtesy of my boyfriend and his beloved iPhone.

If you've never heard of horchata before, keep reading. Trust me, I'm doing you a favor.

Horchata is a cinnamon-rice milk drink, and it's easily found at most Mexican or "Mexican" restaurants here in Los Angeles. I've never been a fan of jamaica (hibiscus juice), but horchata...that's a different story. It's the subtle combination of flavors that really makes this drink delicious. In my opinion, the most refreshing glass of horchata isn't too sweet or cinnamony (I'm surprised spell check didn't flag me on this one). To be honest, any meal from King Taco - or any restaurant that serves horchata for that matter - is not complete without this refreshing drink.

So where am I going with this? Oh yes. I've always wanted to try making macaron ice cream sandwiches, but I've always felt that combining ice cream with a dainty macaron shell might ruin the texture, but this was heaven.

This...meaning THIS.

TADA!!!

That, my friends, is homemade horchata ice cream sandwiched between cinnamon macaron shells. AMAZING.

Cinnamon shells...they came out horchata-colored!

I've never made ice cream before, but making this was easy, definitely a friendly introduction to making your own ice cream. This recipe is worthy of it's own blog entry. It's a lovely, creamy homage to horchata! I made sure to reduce the sugar, as many of you know that I'm not a fan of super sugary treats. I also cut back on the cinnamon, since there was PLENTY going in the macaron shells. After sandwiching the two, I was blessed with a match made in heaven.

The only bad thing about these is that they need to be eaten quickly (which is really NOT a problem. :) ). I was generous with the amount of filling I added, and the shells got softer...but at least it lasted for the picture!

Thank you, Jamie and Deeba! This month's challenge has allowed me to create a delicious ice cream flavor...and now I will never doubt the wonder of ice cream between two macaron shells ever again. :)

<333

Good Mistakes

I have ALWAYS wanted to make blue macarons.

My color bias is probably attributed to the fact that blue is my favorite color, and it's not everyday that I get to make blue desserts, or blue food for that matter. Blue food isn't exactly that common, and I actually remember reading somewhere that humans stay away from eating blue food. Blue usually means that something is uncooked or rotten, and it is within our vary nature to reject food with a blue hue.

But I don't care. I will never deny a macaron, especially if it's blue.

When Mactweets posted their June fruit challenge, I knew exactly what to do. BLUEBERRY MACARONS!!! I made my way to Whole Foods and bought this:

Courtesy of Eden Foods

Silly me. Just because the package says that they're Dried Blueberries, doesn't mean they're FREEZE-DRIED blueberries. My whole plan to add pulverized blueberries to get a beautiful blue macaron shell pretty much went down the drain. Nevertheless, this brand of dried blueberries would be wonderful in a bowl of yogurt or cornflakes!

Despite my mistake, I wasn't too depressed. Mactweets did say, afterall, that this month's challenge was a celebration of fruit. I don't know about you, but during these hot Southern California summer months, sometimes the only thing that I'll have an appetite for is a nice refreshing fruit salad. While cramming an array of fruit flavors into one macaron seemed a little much, a simple strawberry/blueberry combination was easy.

After rummaging through my pantry, I found an unopened bag of freeze-dried strawberries from Trader Joes. I threw the strawberry powder into the batter, which (*sigh*) gave me a pink tint. After they came out of the oven (with feet!), I sandwiched them together with a simple vanilla buttercream with whole dried blueberries.

No, these macarons aren't blue. While pink is my least favorite color, I must say that this mixed berry macaron turned out to be pretty delicious. And of course, it's a reminder to me that sometimes things happen for a reason, and mistakes aren't always so horrible. We might get something good and delicious out of it in the end :)

Mixed Berry Macaron

Try, try, try, try...and try again.

It seems that during my 5 month hiatus from the kitchen, I forgot how to bake macarons.

Of course, the thought of pulling macawrongs from the oven flashed through my mind as I walked to the kitchen, but I had already baked nearly 20 batches - surely it would be like riding a bike for the first time in years?

All the motions felt right. Sifting the ingredients over and over still felt tedious. My wrist and shoulder still ached as I whipped my egg whites until they defied gravity. I still felt the anticipation as I skillfully succeeded in tried really hard to pipe perfect rounds of batter on my Silpat, followed by the embarrassment and defeat as I actually pulled not one, but four failed macaron batches out of the oven yesterday.

Well, fifth time's a charm...kind of. The trademark frilly feet were there fresh out of the oven, but they kind of disappeared over night. Either way, I had one ugly batch for every month I neglected my macaronage technique.

Unfortunately this semi-pretty batch only yielded 11 macarons, so I'll have to take some chocolate macawrongs to Easter lunch with me.

Strawberry and Chocolate Macarons with Rose Cream Cheese Filling







...hopefully, my family doesn't mind too much :)

Happy Easter, readers :)
<3<3<3

Black Sesame macarons

I kind of hate to admit it, but Gossip Girl is a guilty pleasure of mine. Everything about that show is so trashy, yet pretty at the same time! Anyway, Monday night's episode really highlighted macarons (as they are Blair Waldorf's favorite treat), and it's upped my craving to bake and eat them even more than usual.


Anyway, I took my mom to the grocery store the other day and I happened to see some black sesame seeds for sale. I've seen some delicious looking black sesame macarons on some other blogs, and I know that black sesame can be a great ingredient for desserts.

My mom is from a little city in Japan called Tosu (in Kyushu, the southernmost island). I haven't been back to visit my family in over 5 years, but I've been dying to go back. We always visit in the summer, and it's a MUST to go to a family-owned popsicle shop called "Yaoki Ice." Azuki (red bean) and milk are the two most popular flavors, and the last time we went they came out with a black sesame flavor. It was DELICIOUS. Of course, remembering this only gave me more faith in the tastiness of black sesame macarons.


If you haven't smelled black sesame before, it's a very overwhelming aroma, similar to that of peanut butter. It's only intensified after grinding them. I could even smell it after incorporating it into the batter, which by the way, looked a lot like melted cookies and cream ice cream!

Even though they aren't of the typical eye-catching spectrum of macaron colors, I thought they came out beautifully. And they were delicious too, especially when I sandwiched them with a simple vanilla butter cream <3


Happy baking, everyone :)

Rodriguez 2012

If I ever become President, I think I would host a Macaron Summit. I would invite the leaders of all the countries that we're having issues with (and hey, maybe I'll even invite our allies) for an afternoon of hot tea and macarons.

Oh, right. Didn't I say that I wouldn't talk about politics on my blog? Alright then, I'll just talk about my pumpkin macarons.

The city of Los Angeles has been going through a strange weather pattern recently. We've been experiencing a week of 90°+ weather, followed by a 20-30° drop in temperature and rain...lather, rinse, repeat. November hasn't been an exception to this see-saw pattern. Thanksgiving is a few short weeks away, but with the strange weather it's been difficult to get into the spirit of the holidays. Despite the fact that Costco has had Christmas trees on display since July, the 96° weather and my Southern California upbringing says it's really time to go to the beach and have a bonfire.

But this morning was a little different. Maybe it was the fact that it rained again, or maybe it was the ending of daylight savings. Even though it's still a bit warm, the strong winds and the crisp air outside just makes it FEEL like the holidays are around the corner. And indeed they are.

Anyway, Mactweets has just posted another theme for this month, and this is my second entry for the Mactweets "Falling for Macarons" round-up. What does fall mean to me? PUMPKINS!!! I'm sure you've noticed that it's been the flavor of the month for me. I had some leftover pumpkin in the fridge...so what's a girl to do? Make macarons, of course!

Macarons with Pumpkin Custard

BEST MACARONS TO DATE. Instead of making a buttercream or cream cheese filling, I decided to go with a pumpkin custard. My mom makes amazing cream puffs (seriously, they're better than Beard Papa's), and so I stole her custard recipe and added pumpkin and spices to it. It could be that I love these macarons because they're reminiscent of my mom's glorious cream puffs - or maybe it's the addition of the pumpkin. Whatever it is, these macarons could bring world peace.

Rodriguez 2012. You heard it here first.

Happy baking, everyone :)

Maturity

A lot of people say that macarons are like women. They're beautiful to look at, but they take a lot of work to look so good. And they definitely have an evil side that is unleashed when they're not treated properly.

But today, I've come to the conclusion that they're more like little boys. Girls in elementary schools around the world usually HATE how they're treated by little boys. The little critters like to pull hair, roll in dirt, pull pranks - and be really annoying in general. These little girls usually don't understand that these boys are just seeking their affection, but who wants a snotty little brat for a boyfriend at that age? NO ONE. That's why girls wait until the boys mature into well-behaved young gentlemen.

Where am I going with this? Well, it's custom to let the macaron sit and "mature" for a day, in order to meld the flavors of the shell and frosting together. In fact, many a pâtisserie sell their macarons only after they have matured for a few days. Selling them right off the baking sheet is a no-no. Unfortunately, I've been committing a crime because I've been eating them fresh out the oven. And you know what? They're delicious. Then I ate one of these right out of the oven yesterday:

Pistachio macarons with chocolate ganache

I spent A LOT of time working on these. My dad and I shelled and skinned what seemed like hundreds of pistachios for a few hours, and then I had to carefully make the batter. After all the work I did, I must have overmixed the batter because my macarons came out hollow and took forever to bake all the way through. Then I added the chocolate. And then...

...meh.

All of my hardwork produced mediocre macarons. They were too crispy. They weren't very soft and chewy in the center. And there was too. much. chocolate. I love chocolate, but the ganache really took away from the exquisite pistachio taste that should have been there.

...but then I grabbed one about a half hour ago, approximately 28 hours after baking. And it was magical.

The texture was PERFECT. Thin and crispy shell, chewy and moist in the center. And the taste? It was to die for.

Maturity, folks. It does wonders. Pierre Hermé doesn't let his macarons sit around for nothing.

Lesson learned.

Happy baking :)
<3<3<3>

Yup, more macarons!!!

I think it's FINALLY safe to say that I've figured out the tricky nature of macarons. A post on my pistachio macarons will follow shortly :)

Anyway, sit tight kids. It's story time again.

During my dramatic, emotional, and macawrong-filled journey, I found an inspiring website that I absolutely adore. It's called Mactweets, and if you haven't been there yet, you need to check out all the great themes and pictures that are submitted on a monthly basis.

As many of you know, October is breast cancer awareness month. I, for one, am tired of the stupid statuses that people have been posting on Facebook (especially the recent one about where we like to put our purses), because does that REALLY raise an awareness for breast cancer? Probably not.

While many of you may argue that macarons and breast cancer awareness aren't really synonymous, I think they're a lot cuter and classier than those Facebook statuses. Run and tell that, homeboy.

So how does breast cancer awareness tie in with Mactweets? Well, they're hosting the month of the pinkarons in honor of October's theme! I hope it's not cheating, but I made my sister these delicious pink macarons at the beginning of October...I hope I still qualify!

Here are my pink macarons with Rose Cream Cheese filling. Simple, but delicious.


And here's hoping that someday, we'll have a cure!

Happy baking :)

My remedy...

I love gloomy weather, because it gives me a good excuse to bake.

My dear sister and bro-in-law got me a Silpat mat. I decided to experiment today, and I made these little rays of sunshine.

Chocolate macarons with (leftover) rose cream cheese filling.

YUM.

The feet didn't rise as much as I would have liked, and I'm wondering if the Silpat absorbed too much of the heat? Maybe I don't need to stack baking sheets anymore. I will do my research and keep experimenting.

Happy baking, all :)

I'm a horrible person.

Shhh.

Don't tell cupcakes, but I've found a new love. Reader, in case you haven't met yet, I'd love to formally introduce you to the French Macaron.

Photo courtesy: http://papergoddess.typepad.com

Look at them...so cute. Colorful. Adorably ruffled. DELICIOUS.

First things first, I know you're thinking...macaron? Isn't it macaroon? To which I'll say, NO. French macarons have a wonderful eggshell-like crispness, and a cakey (yet airy) center, whereas American macaroons are ugly, dense coconut concoctions. French macarons are beautiful, and it's rumored that even Marie Antoinette loved them.

Disclaimer: I really don't like Kirsten Dunst. So let's pretend that this is actually Marie Antoinette enjoying macarons.

Secondly, you're probably wondering why I'm posting about another dessert on a blog dedicated to cupcakes. Well, let's put it this way. I've baked maybe 3 batches of cupcakes since the beginning of 2010. How many batches of macarons have I baked this year?...as of yesterday, I think I've baked 13 batches. In a 2 month span. Yes, I'm obsessed.

See, macarons are adorably cute and delicious, but they are truly the divas of the pastry world. There are two methods to baking these little treats, the Italian method, and the French method (which I will explain in just a bit). There are only six ingredients for macarons, which makes it deceptively easy to master. Take a bowl of aged egg whites, add a pinch of salt, and whisk to soft peaks. Slowly beat in granulated sugar until medium soft peaks. Add your food coloring, and slowly add sifted almond flour and confectioners sugar.

Next comes a technique that the French call "macronage," which is the process of carefully incorporating the dry ingredients with the meringue, until it flows like magma*. This stage determines whether you'll have macarons or macawrongs. One turn too little, and you'll end up with lumpy cookies. One turn too much, and you'll be eating deflated, porous almond cookies.

This is where I would post pictures of 10 of my failed batches, except I'm too embarassed to admit to my failures. And yes, you read that correctly, 10 failed batches. Out of 13.

If I have learned anything about baking macarons, it's that it's not only the macronage that counts. The meringue has to be JUST right. It can't be humid outside, because meringues don't like humidity. The temperature in your oven also has to be perfect, and the heat needs to be equally distributed. Not too hot, or else the macaron shells will crack. Not too cold, or else they won't get those beautiful feet. They also need to sit on the counter until they develop a skin before going into the oven. It also helps if Jupiter is aligned with Venus, and if there's a herd of unicorns flying over a volcano outside of your home (*because really, how many people actually know what flowing magma looks like?).

Anyway. My first batch of macarons was actually a success. I got my coveted feet, and of course I wore it as a badge of honor.

Banana Cream Macarons

...aaaand, I became a little too confident. Clearly, anyone that can successfully bake a batch of macarons on their first try is a prodigy. Well, those stupid cookies put me in my place, because the batches that followed were MACAWRONGS. 6 batches later, I succesfully made Matcha macaron shells, and used Azuki bean paste as a filling.


After a string of more failures, I succeeded in making Rose cream cheese flavored macarons for my sister's birthday.


OKAY. So clearly, I have a problem. I think I'm okay with admitting that now. However, I'm not finished with macarons yet. I think that I'm JUST barely starting to understand their finicky nature, and I still have dozens of flavor combinations that I would like to try.

...but I haven't completely forgotten about cupcakes. In fact, exploring different macaron flavors have inspired me to come up with different cupcake recipes, too.

So to sum it up, I love macarons, and you should too. I'm also thinking about turning my blog into a general baking blog, because you know what? I like baking all kinds of things. Cookies, cakes, souffles, you name it. It's time for a change!

But if you happen to see a cupcake before I do, please let it know that we're far from over. They will always be my first love.

Happy baking :)
<3<3<3