Recipe: Chocolate Ganache French Macaroons!
On my recent trip to NYC, I had stopped by this lovely french patisserie for some french macaroons. These decadent little meringue-like cookies are such a wonderful treat, but honestly, at $2.50 each, it’s hard to stomach more than one or two. When we returned from NYC, I happened to mention this to my baking-goddess friend of mine (who has shared some recipes on my blog in the past), and she just mentioned that she’s made them before! What? You can make french macaroons at home? And they actually turn out well? That’s crazy! So she proposed that we make them together. I was all over that!
(I’ve posted a recipe below that we used, and I’ve got a lot of pictures for each of the steps, which makes this post particularly long. I’m apologizing in advance, since I know we’re all busy, BUT these macaroons came out so professionally that I just had to share 
So now that that’s out…on with the post!)
After doing a bit of research on the making of french macaroons, I realized that they’re not exactly difficult to make. There are a few somewhat annoying steps (like the sifting) but otherwise, it didn’t seem too technically difficult to do. There are few things to keep in mind, however.
1) People say never make macaroons on a humid day. I’m not really sure that’s true, given the day we made them was pretty darn humid and they came out perfectly!
2) Only bake one layer of macaroons at a time. We tried two layers, and the top layer baked perfectly, while the bottom layer appeared slightly overcooked.
3) Weigh the ingredients you are using for your french macaroon recipe. The quantity of ingredients used have to be near perfect. So cup measurements won’t do.
4) Sift the heck out of the powdered sugar and almond flour mix. We sifted it three times, which took a while, but it’s worth the effort. Several recipes call for sifting, four, five, or even six times! I may try four times the next time I do it, but the three times we sifted this time was just fine.
We used this recipe from Tartellete (with a few modifications of course) and the chocolate ganache from David Lebovitz. The end result was astonishing! These french macaroons were perfect! I just couldn’t believe it. With a little bit of patience, french macaroons are certainly doable at home. And I really think I’ll probably never pay for another macaroon again!
Here’s the recipe:
Preheat oven at 280F
For the cookie:
90g of egg white (approximately 3 egg whites. Also note that we only took the eggs out of the fridge that morning, as opposed to most macaroon recipes that call for the egg whites to be left on the counter for up to five days!)
25g granulated sugar
200g powdered sugar
110g almond flour (We used fine ground Red Mill Almond Flour)
Approximately 5 drops of food coloring of your choice (we used red, which ended up making the cookies pink).
For the chocolate ganache filling:
½ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
Method for the macaroons:
In a standmixer with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites until it froths. Gradually add the granulated sugar to the egg whites and whisk until it forms peaks, just shy of stiff peaks. Add the food coloring at this point and whisk a little further until slightly stiff peaks form (See images below). Set the egg whites aside when done.
In the mean time, measure out the powdered sugar and the almond flour. Blend the powdered sugar and almond flour together in a food processor. Once combined, start to sift the mixture. Once you’ve sifted the mixture at least three times (more like four or five, if you have the patience), fold it into the egg whites. According to Tartelette, you shouldn’t fold it more than 50 times. I counted about 35 times and it was well incorporated. Spoon a tiny amount of the mixture onto a plate. If the mixture flattens on its own, the batter is ready. If a small peak is seen on the top, the mixture needs a few more folds.
Our mixture flattened quite easily, so it was on to the next step. Using a spatula, we spooned the mixture into a ziplock bag (because we didn’t have a piping bag).
Once you seal the ziplock bag, cut the tip off the bag and pipe a quarter-sized circle onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. The mixture will spread, so make sure you pipe a smaller circle than what you’d like the final size to be.
Once the macaroons have been piped, allow it to sit for 30 minutes for it to harden slightly before placing it in the oven. Place them in the middle rack of a preheated oven (at 280F) and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. The macaroons should rise and form “feet”, which are the spongy bases of the macaroons. Once removed from the oven, allow them to cool completely (DON’T be tempted to eat them right away If you aren’t using them right away, the cooled macaroons can be stored in an airtight container (not in the fridge) or placed in the freezer.
For the ganache:
Heat the cream, butter and syrup in a saucepan until bubbles form on the sides. Remove from heat. Pour the cream mixture over the chopped chocolate and stir until the ganache is formed. Place it in the fridge for 30 minutes for it to harden slightly and thus make it more spreadable.
Once the macaroons have completely cooled, spread a little of the ganache between two macaroons. There you have it ! Absolutely sinful
Tone-on-tone using versamark
I thought I’d try using Versamark ink in a way that creates a bit of a tone-on-tone effect for my cards. I saw this technique used several times over at Kristina Werner’s blog. Typically, Versamark ink is used in heat-embossing techniques, as you can see from some prior tutorials on my blog.
Here’s a card I worked on last night for the virtual summer card class I’m attending. You can see the lovely watermark like effect in the background. No embossing required!
Hope you like it!
Card Tutorial 16 – Background Stamps
As I do these cards each week, I realize that there are my go-to stamps, which I tend to love using over and over again (such as my elephant stamps). For this week’s card, I decided to use a stamp I’d never used before. I found this striped background stamp from Impress Rubber Stamps that I had purchased over three years ago and thought I’d give it a try. I love the idea of a background stamp – it gives the card some depth and texture without having to go as bold as using patterned paper. Hope you like it!
Here are the supplies I used:
1) One folded cardstock in kraft measuring 5.5in x 5.5in.
2) One piece of cardstock in eco-white measuring 5in x 5in
4) Striped Background rubber stamp
5) Color Box Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan from Paper-Source
6) Color Box Chalk Ink in Robin’s Egg from Paper-Source.
7) “Thank you” rubber stamp from Impress Rubber Stamps (Although the actual stamp doesn’t appear to be on their website at the moment).
8) Blue ribbon with brown edging from Martha Stewart.
9) 2 patterned papers from Stampin Up!
10) Circle Cutter from Martha Stewart.
Here we go!
Step1: Here’s what we started with.
Step2: There are several ways to use a background stamp. The standard way would be to stamp the image onto cardstock, as you would any rubber stamp. I find that sometimes it’s easier to press the cardstock onto the background stamp, so you can see exactly where the image is going, and therefore, you can place the cardstock exactly where you want the image to be pressed onto. You could press down with your hands, like I did. Or you could use a brayer, for a more even impression. The ink used for the background stamp is Color Box ink’s Robin’s Egg.
Step3: Here’s what the striped image looks like on the cardstock. The fact that the rubber stamp impression didn’t cover the entire cardstock doesn’t really affect my card, since it adds a sort of distressed look to it.
Step4: I stamped the sentiment I wanted to use onto some patterned cardstock. I decided to go with a light pattern, and a dark ink, such as Chestnut Roan because the rest of the card is somewhat plain and subtle. A busier patterned paper would not have worked as you’d probably not be able to see the sentiment as well.
Step5: Using Martha Stewart’s circle cutter, I cut a circle around the sentiment, as seen in Step6. In addition, on some brown patterned paper, I also cut out a circle followed by a larger circle. This produced a circle (which I didn’t use) as well as a ring, which was used in the card. The ring can also be seen in Step6.
Step6: After cutting out the sentiment and the ring, I also cut out a piece of ribbon to wrap the eco-white cardstock across the middle.
Step7: I assembled the pieces to the eco-white cardstock and attached that to the larger kraft folded card.
Here’s what the final card looked liked. Hope you enjoyed it!
Recipe: The quest for Craftbar’s Pain Perdu
For father’s day, we decided to treat ourselves to brunch at Tom Colicchio’s Craftbar in NYC. We’d heard about their “pain perdu”, in that it was probably THE BEST french toast out there. I mean I love a good french toast, but given that practically every review of the restaurant mentioned the mouth-watering pain perdu, I was intrigued.
So naturally, at brunch we ordered the pain perdu, amongst other things. After sipping on some really good coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice, the french toast arrived. The plating was simple – 3 slices of brioche with a light dusting of powdered sugar. I believe that was it. The maple syrup and strawberry compote arrived on a separate tray. The pain perdu was actually for my son, so we waited eagerly for him to declare he was done. Thankfully, he stopped after one toast (although he DID eat it rather quickly, for him).
So my husband and I each took a bite out of the remaining two toasts. I was nearly speechless (that’s a bit hard to do for me). The pain perdu was literally to die for. There was something about the combination of crunch and softness of the brioche. It was very rich, so I threw my diet out the door that day, but it was certainly worth every pound I put on with each bite. I’ve never had french toast so light, yet crisp, and that just melted in your mouth.
As soon as we got home, I obsessed online looking for the recipe and just couldn’t find their official recipe for the dish. I then came across this blog, about one woman’s quest to find the recipe for Craftbar’s pain perdu! I couldn’t believe. I wasn’t the only one out there looking for it.
Well, it turned out that after almost a year of testing and retesting recipes, the blogger at Culinary Musings had finally figured it out! And boy was I thrilled! She said there were 3 important elemtents to the dish 1) if you didn’t have stale bread, you had to simulate it by toasting the sliced bread first 2) instead of the usual egg and milk mixture, you had to create a custard using egg yolks only and 3) the bread, the essential part of the dish had to be brioche (which we all knew from the menu) but not just any brioche, but brioche from Balthazar!
My heart sank a bit when I read that. I’m wasn’t about to trek over to Manhattan just to pick up a loaf of Balthazar Brioche for this recipe, which at this point, I could only hope it would be similar to Craftbar’s. So instead, I headed over to Whole Foods in the next town over, looking for some local artisan brioche bread. Lo and behold, right there staring at me was a loaf of Balthazar Brioche!! I couldn’t believe it! I inquired about the bread and was told that every morning, just two loaves of this spectacular bread comes in. Since it was only Tuesday and I wanted to make the french toast on Sunday, I was told to come back. I guess there’s a fine line between stale and moldy!
So I returned on Saturday morning thrilled to pick up the brioche and everything else I needed to make this. But the brioche loaves were nowhere to be found! It turns out that two other people had beaten me to it! I was crushed! We were having guests over and I was determined to make it, and make it right ! But alas, some challah bread was all I could find, so that’s what we had.
I still followed the recipe exactly as Culinary Musings had suggested, and the end result was a pretty fantastic french toast. But I was determined to get it right. A week later, I returned for the bread, this time practically stalking the store, hoping to get my hands on the Balthazar Brioche. It was my lucky day! And the bread was 3 days old! Even better!
As soon as I got home, I got to work! Even though I made a few modifications to the recipe (which you’ll see below), it was EXACTLY like Craftbar’s Pain Perdu. Something I could probably only eat once a year, due to the richness of the dish, but having tasted this, there’s just no going back. So thanks to Culinary Musings for doing the hard work! I’ve now tasted THE BEST french toast ever, and it’s going to be pretty hard to beat.
Here’s how I made it (using Culinary Musings’ recipe with some minor modifications):
Ingredients::
1 loaf of Balthazar Brioche, cut into 12 slices
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 egg yolks
1 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
butter as needed for frying each slice of french toast.
Yields: 12 slices
(Note: This recipe is easy to do ahead. Complete all steps a day ahead except the final oven-heating step. Place the cooked slices in the fridge, and on the day of the event, return them to room temperate and place in the oven for 10 minutes as directed.)
Method:
Preheat oven to 350F
Slice the loaf of brioche into 12 pieces. Arrange on a baking tray and toast in oven at 350F for 7 minutes. The slices should just be starting to get crunchy when you take them out. They shouldn’t be brown like toast.
In a pot, heat 2 cups of cream along with the vanilla extract. Allow the cream mixture to simmer on very low heat. In the meantime, whisk 2 egg yolks along with the sugar until the egg appears pale yellow. This took me approximately 4-5 minutes to achieve using a stand mixer (Setting no. 6).
Reduce the speed and gently add a ladle of the cream at a time to the egg. Continue until all the cream has been incorporated into the egg. Pour the cream mixture into a flat dish. You’ll notice quite a bit of froth, but if you wait about 10 minutes before proceeding, most of the froth will be gone.
Take a toasted piece of brioche and dip each side into the cream mixture for NO MORE THAN 7 seconds. Pan fry the bread in butter, cooking each side for approximately 2 minutes each, on medium flame. Once each slice is done, place it back onto the baking tray. When all 12 pieces are cooked, place them into the oven at 350F for 10 minutes. And there you have it! The best french toast you’ve ever tasted! I served the french toast with a bit of powdered sugar dusted on top, as well as a mixed berry sauce and some maple syrup.
For the mixed berry sauce, I just emptied a bag of organic frozen berries into a pot, and added about 1/4 cup of sugar. I added a splash of water to help the ingredients break down and simmered the mixture for about 20 minutes, until the liquid reduced.
Hope you decide to try this recipe! Do you have a french toast recipe you just love?
Starburst Lace Card (again!)
Yes yes…. perhaps I should move on to a different rubber stamp, but I still just LOVE this Starburst Lace stamp from Paper Source. I made this card last night for a virtual card making class I’m attending and I thought I’d use both a detailed rubber stamp and some patterned paper. I hope it works!
I used the following supplies:
1. One folded cardstock in persimmon measuring 5.5in x 5.5in.
2. Four types of pattern paper from Stampin Up.
3. Black embossing powder for the sentiment (stamped with Versamark ink and black heat-embossed).
4. Orange and Moss colorbox inks for the starburst lace rubber stamp.
5. “Starburst Lace” rubber stamp from Paper-Source.
6. Thank You rubber stamp from Impress Rubber Stamps.
7. 1/8 in ribbon in chocolate from Paper Source.
