French Crackers!

Is it possible to fall in love with a cracker in Paris? What if that cracker was made in Germany/fabrique en Allemagne? No matter. I experienced a coup de foudre/instant love my 1st day in Paris. These crackers are thick, crunchy, heavily seeded, bio, about 3" x 4" and deeply satisfying. I ran out to Carrefour and bought 4 packs to bring home. Unfortunately at time of departure, the Macarons kicked out the seeded crackers and that was that.

While watching The Good Wife on Sunday it hit me. A crunchy cracker is essential. The macarons were gone but wouldn't have done the job. I retrieved a remaining cracker and chomped.

Careful inspection of the ingredients (farine complète d’épeautre (55%), graines de tournesol (17%), graines de sésame (8%), farine d’épeautre (5%), flocons d’avoine, graines de lin (3%), sel de mer, levure, extrait de malt d’orge). led me to think, 'I can make these myself!'

After an internet research I clobbered together a makeshift recipe, using Pascale Weeks, who referenced LA Times Peter Reinhart + NYTimes Tiny Kitchen (there's a video here) for Spelt seeded crackers.

No one else seems to toast the seeds (sunflower, sesame, flax, oatmeal) but you get a richer, nuttier cracker. I combined 1/2 cup of the toasted seeds with a 1/2 cup of the spelt flour in the blender.

Plus no one else adds the seeds directly to the flour. Nevermind. I wanted seeds inside and on top.

 Dump your seeded flour mixture into the water and play (kneed into a kind of messy ball for about half a minute). If you ever made paste from flour and water as a kid you can do this.

Finally the fancy 'macaron' trays are coming in handy. Use the BACK side of the tray to roll out your ball of dough. Don't forget to throw flour on the tray and your rolling pin! All recipes say to poke holes in the rolled out dough. I forgot with the first batch and it didn't make any difference.

I used milk to spray on top of the crackers for so-called sheen and to get the seeds to stick but you could use water. I also 'rolled' on top of the seeds - they seem to wander. Cut into squares and into your 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes.

Did I make a tremendous mess? YES. Was this dead easy? YES!

Don't forget to turn the tray after 10 minutes.

A comparative analysis of the Carrefour Bio crackers (1.78 euros) and my creations based on looks alone shows I need practice. But the taste was close considering I didn't use malt extract or leavening. I didn't use any sugar or fat some recipes call for and they taste fine. If you're in France it may be less messy to just go to Carrefour or Naturalia.

Does Bear give his 'Seal of Approval' on this baking venture? He does bien sur. Should Dr.Kracker be worried? Probably not.

BONJOUR BAKING CRACKERS!

Footless in Astoria

They say you should never attempt French macarons (part trois) when it's damp and pouring cats and dogs outside.
They say (well the recipe says) use SUPERFINE granulated sugar not just plain old granulated sugar with your egg whites. It was raining cats and dogs out.
They say you should age your egg whites 1-3 days (while others say you can nuke them for 10-15 seconds and get the same effect). Everyone agrees the measurements must be correct and to use a scale, but if you're semi-dyslexic and read the numbers wrong... Photo by Bill Cunningham/NYTimes
Bill Cunningham was saying YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW Lemon YELLOW macarons were ringing in my ears c/o Jill's Mad About Macarons. 

Jill says she likes to take shortcuts. Me too. Course it would help if I knew what shortcuts to take.

I didn't shortcut incorporating the whipped eggwhites into the almond-sugar mixture. The lemon zester was supplied by ZestN'est and works very well. If only other elements had worked.

 I did refer to Jill's demo video

The famous 'molten-lava-ribbon' stage of the macaronage.

But something was wrong. Overbeaten, wrong sugar, too loose.

I should have noticed the cookies spread too much when batter spritzed on the floor. Warning bells were ringing loud. 

'Footless' lemon sugar cookies are not the desired result.

Nevermind- I ate too many and tossed the rest.

Neither a lender, borrower or a baker be?

Or should I just make plain old macarOOns the old-fashioned way. I have pounds of almond flour sitting in the fridge. You tell me what to do next!

BONJOUR FOOTLESS!

DIY Chocolate

Part 2 of Quel désastre Granted they look right. They taste GREAT! But...

This time I got the measuring and mixing of the almond batter right (sort of).

The Macaronage I screwed up first go-round reached the 'MAGMA' (Tartelette's description) stage nicely I thought... First time macaronage was too liquidy...

I used M. Mercotte's trick (Also Jill's) of using a clothes pin to close off the pastry bag tip to prevent leakage when filling with the 'magma'. (Watch her video in French - the Eng. one doesn't work - you'll get it anyway). And I found my lovely Parisian special scraper - it was stuck to the bottom of the almond flour bag in the fridge.

Go figure :)

Rick asked, "Where is BEAR?"

BEAR was busy testing out the 'skin' of the piped macs after 30 minutes.

Voila! Tout va bien.

Inside the oven after 10 minutes = I got Feettttttttttt!

Yay

*A neat trick I found in the comments of the recipe I followed in the Huffington Post for these chocolate macarons - put them onto a rack and stick inside the freezer for 5-10 minutes. They practically pop off the parchment paper! Yahoo.

And look!

Beautiful flat bottoms and shiny tops!

I forgot to taste though...uh oh

Regarding the ganache filling. This I found the easiest step. I looked at a lot of recipes and then improvised.

Basic proportions: 1/3 cup boiled heavy cream to 1 bar of 3.50 gr of dark chocolate is standard, plus throw in 1 tbsp of softened UNsalted butter at the end for a glossy look. I used SALTED butter to cut the sweetness and extra lashings of salt + 1 lash of Ceylon cinnamon to give some mystery. I planned on using McCormick's Extract of Raspberry but when I saw the Red Dye #40 I got their Almond Extract instead. Also I used a bar of Perugina dark chocolate w/ almonds bar for more almondy hints. Once it's chopped up fine in the Cuisineart you won't bite on any chunks of almond - so not to worry. I would love to try an infusion next time... Looks good no? Tasted even better. By the way I softened the chopped up chocolate bar in the microwave at 20 second on low heat 5-6 x. Worked like a dream and less pots to clean. The ganache will easily resoften after taken out of the fridge and left at room temperature for a bit. Can I freeze it though? So much leftovers...

Still looking very good and they taste yummy. I had 4 for breakfast, but...

I baked my meringue cookies TOO LONG!

25 minutes in MY oven is just too long and I forgot to taste them once they were cool :(

So in the end I made a really nice HARD cookie, but not a merinque.

Was it from overbaking?

Was it from overbeating?

Was it from NOT 'aging' the egg whites as some will tell you?

The mystery continues until I get back from Maine.

Will I solve this conundrum?
I must!

Remember there's still 5 pounds of almond flour in my fridge.

By the way I used Valrhona cocoa in with the almond flour and lashings of salt to cut the cookies sweetness. Je le deteste the overly sweet macarons I find here.

Just my 2 cents.

Stay tuned dear PBers and I LOVE all your helpful hints!

BONJOUR CHOCOLAT MACARONS!

quelle désastre Macarons!

SOS! EMI...911?

Calling Dr. Jill (of Mad About Macarons)

OK So I DID IT!

Yes, I tried to make macarons this morning enfin. After consulting an insane number of books in THREE languages and being up till 1 AM checking again every internet recipe bla bla bla

And I have an insane amount of equipment some of which I kept losing in the process.

Like I lost this special scaper I bought with Dr. Jill in Paris at Mora. Go figure?

Somehow I managed to measure out the 90 grams of egg whites on my new metric scale (which I haven't figured out yet - never mind). I even had a few squiggles of yolk mixed in - it didn't seem to hurt a bit. Who knew?

PS - I did NOT age my egg whites for 16 days on the kitchen counter but instead nuked em for 20 seconds - I think it worked fine - qui sait?

I got the almond flour from Amazon - 5 POUNDS of it! So this is an ongoing process till I figure these %$#@ macarons out.

Dr. Jill says to beat the Hell out of the egg whites...hmmm
Practice makes perfect - not there yet.

The 'Macaronage' - the dreaded infernal mixing of the egg whites and almond flour etc. was a bitch. Getting the stuff into the pastry bag was an even bigger bitch.
Sorry PBers. This post is 'R' rated.

My little babies did not come out so nice - c'est la vie

But they did form the appropriate skin on them to the touch after 30 minutes.

The Doc said it's all about knowing YOUR oven and to get an oven thermometer - I did as I was told.

LOOK! I got 'FEET'! ...kind of

Malheureusement I did not cook them long enough.

And I used 'Superfine' sugar instead of the required GRANULATED.I don't want to think about the mess I made of the macaronage :(

MAD MAC meets Sad Sack.

Still I am NOT discouraged dear PBers.

Ever onward into the breach!I will be tackling chocolate macarons as soon as I post this.

Pray that there is some improvement dear friends.

Besides I have FIVE POUNDS of Almond Flour to get through

My ganache mess. They say you must be organized to make macarons...hmmm

Even though I failed with flying colors it was A LOT OF FUN!

BONJOUR QUELLE desastre MACARONS!