Wednesday, April 10, 2013

French Macaron - Fleur d'Oranger

"Springtime in Paris" Collection 2013


Our next French Macaron, of our "Springtime in Paris" collection, is the Macaron Fleur d'Oranger.

This inside of this French Macaron is made with a ganache using Valhrona chocolate, which is delicately flavored with orange blossom water, giving it a lovely floral tone.

When you bite into this French Macaron, you feel like you are eating springtime!

Visit our shop at Etsy to purchase these by clicking on the "Shop" button on the home page.







Thank you for stopping by!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake


Perfection....



The inside is layered with Meyer Lemon slices that actually become almost candied and add an interesting texture to this coffee cake




FOR THE STREUSEL:
Adapted by Martha Stewart


    1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
      • 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
      • 1 teaspoon coarse salt
      • 6 ounces ( 3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter
    • FOR THE CAKE:


      • 5 Meyer lemons, cut into paper-thin slices, ends discarded
      • 2 cups all-purpose flour
      • 1 teaspoon baking powder
      • 1 teaspoon baking soda
      • 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
      • 4 ounces (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
      • 1 cup granulated sugar
      • 3 tablespoons finely grated Meyer lemon zest (from 4 to 5 lemons)
      • 2 large eggs
        • 1 cup sour cream
        • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
      • FOR THE GLAZE:
          • 3 to 4 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice
          • 1 cup confectioners' sugar
      • Procedure:
      • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch angel food cake pan.  
    • Make the streusel: Mix together flour, brown sugar, and salt. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut butter into the flour mixture until small to medium clumps form. Cover, and refrigerate until ready to use (up to 3 days).
    1. Streusel ingredients

    • Make the cake: Cook lemon slices in a medium saucepan of simmering water for 1 minute. Drain, and repeat. Arrange lemon slices in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
    Blanching/Boiling of Meyer Lemons

    Meyer Lemons after being blanced/boiled.  During the blanching process of the Meyer Lemons, I did lose some off the pulp and was left with just rind as you can see; however, that is what gave the cake a chewy and interesting texture

    • Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat butter, granulated sugar, and lemon zest with a mixer on medium speed in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. With the mixer running, add eggs, 1 at a time, then the vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream.
    • Spoon 1/2 of the batter evenly into cake pan. Arrange 1/2 of the lemon slices in a single layer over the batter. Spread remaining batter evenly over the top. Cover with the remaining lemon slices in a single layer. Sprinkle the chilled streusel evenly over the batter.


    First layer of Meyer Lemons.  Before adding the streusel you add the final layer of the cake batter over the lemons

    The streusel topping and final layer

    • Bake until cake is golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. 
    • Transfer pan to a wire rack set over a baking sheet and let cool in pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan, and remove outer ring. Let cool on rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the center tube. Slide 2 wide spatulas between the bottom of the cake and the pan, and lift cake to remove from the center tube. Let cool completely on rack.
    • Make the glaze: Just before serving, stir together confectioners' sugar and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Drizzle over cooled cake, letting excess drip down the sides.  Let glaze set before slicing, about 5 minutes.
    Sidebar:  Meyer lemons are available from late fall through early spring.  Martha Stewart recommends slicing the lemons to near-transparent thinness in order for the rind to soften and sweeten sufficiently.   Martha recommends using a mandoline, , handheld slicer or a knife.  I used a used a sharpened chef's knife and was able to slice the lemons thin enough to obtain the desired results.

    Enjoy!

    Monday, April 1, 2013

    Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake - Overbaked


    Sorry for not posting any goodies over the last few days, especially for Easter, I am highly ashamed of myself, but I have a perfectly logical reason for not doing so.

    I was feeling extremely tired and ironically, was just telling my family and friends that I was immune to Starbucks coffee because I could fall asleep while drinking a cup of it.  Literally, it no longer did anything for me, in terms of waking me up, or providing me with any energy from the caffeine.  I decided I needed to go to WholeFoods where there is an entire wall of lovely blends of coffee from all around the world and purchase different blends to mix things up a bit. I came to the conclusion, that maybe the caffeine in their coffee, would keep me awake.  I was feeling sluggish and needed some energy, as I had just completed several large orders for French Macarons (which came out beautifully, if I may say so myself). It was a crazy week and I was running low on fuel.

    Sad to say, I never made it to WholeFoods; however, I did make it to Starbucks for my usual biweekly drive-by, for my 1 lb. bag of Sumatra whole bean.  When I went to pay, the very friendly employee asked if I ever tried their new limited blend called "Tribute."  I responded, "no, but what type of coffee beans are in it and is it strong?  I was advised that the Tribute blend consisted of Ethiopian, Sumatra, Papua New Guinea and Colombian beans and that is was considered a "bold" coffee, just like the Sumatra.  I had my doubts that  the "Tribute" blend being strong, but decided to take the plunge and purchased it.

    In case you are interested in this coffee, below is a picture of the coffee, or should I say culprit.



    You must be asking yourself where this story is going, well here it is.  I arrived home Friday evening around 10:00 p.m. and decided to make myself a cup of the Tribute blend to taste it.  One cup was all it took, but it was so delicious that I had myself a second cup. Needless to say, it surely was a tribute, a tribute to me running around the kitchen with so much energy from caffeine, I think I would have run someone over, if they even got remotely in my way.  I looked like a mad scientist in the kitchen.  I couldn't sit at this point, so at 12:00 a.m., I put on my apron and began to pull out all my mixing bowls and ingredients to make the Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake to burn up some of this energy, because sleep was definitely not an option.

    The cake itself is not difficult to make, but does require a few time consuming steps.  At 5:30 a.m., I put the cake in the oven.  At this point, I was starting to crash from the caffeine and was extremely tired.  The last thing I remember was sitting down in the living room to relax for an hour, until I had to take the cake out.  The cake was only supposed to bake for 1 hour.  

    This is what I looked like at 5:30 a.m...




    At 9:30 a.m., four and half hours later, I woke up and screamed....Oh Sh*! as I was running into the kitchen knowing I wasted hours of hard work and over baked my cake.  Nobody's perfect right?  This is what the cake looked liked when I took it out of  the oven....


    Let's not forget about the bottom, shall we.... What a beautiful charcoal color.





    I'll be posting the non-burnt version of the Meyer Lemon Cake later tonight.


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