Getting Closer To Macaron Perfection

In spite of my crazy schedule the past few months, macarons have been made because #priorities. It's been an interesting journey with them thus far, but it has lead to the most perfect looking and tasting macarons I've ever achieved. But let me back up!

Back in August I made 2 batches for a baby shower hosted by my sister (something I have already sworn to never agree to again). The baking process was frought with frustration (usually involving egg separating with eggs from my sister's chickens) but the cookies themselves turned out well. I made purple colored macarons with pink Swiss buttercream filling along with teal colored pistachio macarons with white chocolate ganache filling - both were colored to go with her theme of "mermaid".

Here they are at the party (next to the delicious lime cake ... mmm ...). With this batch I mainly learned how frustrating it is to give up 2 entire nights of your very limited free time to make a bunch of delicious macarons that you won't get to eat #realtalk. But they baked up well except for the ganache being too warm when I piped it out (causing it to ooze off the sides of the cookies unattractively, ugh). I took a break for a while after that experience, but let's be real you can never stay away from making these for very long once you know how.

This past week I made some much anticipated macarons to thank some of the people who helped with my estate sale. I had some people give several days of the ir time to help me, and what better way to show gratitude than with an intricate dessert :) I've been pinning a lot of macaron flavor ideas lately, and my sister specifically requested one that I pinned - mango white chocolate flavor - and I decided to try out rose for the other batch. I was skeptical about the mango ones, I will confess. The cookies themselves are just regular almond flavor and the mango flavor was achieved by adding mango purée to the white chocolate ganache. This makes the ganache even more runny than normal, so letting it set up in the fridge was a must after the last time working with white chocolate. It all worked out well though and the flavor was much better once the ganache had cooled (when it was slightly warm it made the mix taste like a super ripe cantaloupe - so weird. For the rose batch I added rose water to both the cookie batter and to the Swiss buttercream, thinking this would bring a good amount of flavor ... only to taste the finished product and not detect even the slightest hint of rose, lol. Oh well, they still taste good. Just normal. I'll have to get some actual rose petals to grind up and put in future versions. Both of these batches were the best baking ever. I had fewer of them touch on the pan (so their edges are perfectly rounded over) and not a single one cracked in either batch! That's pretty remarkable. They also didn't crack under their "foot" (the flat part) which sometimes happens - I've now realized that happens when they are removed from the parchment while they are too warm. Lessons! The rose batch in particular have the most perfect texture I've made - the perfect amount of chewy and crispy. Oh man, so good :) I'm glad that my "Thank You" batch turned out so well for the people who deserve so much more than cookies for their help.

So that's how things have been going with my macaron addiction. It's certainly an interesting experience to make these in a small condo kitchen, but I've made it happen both times now :) I've already told my family that macarons will probably be put on hold for a while as I really want to try making some of the cakes from my latest Craftsy class, Classic European Tortes (affiliate link). So tasty looking! I think I'll start with a Sacher torte :) Anyway, if you're at all interested in trying macarons, I always recommend this class since it's how I learned and I've never had them turn out badly. I warn you - they are addictive! I have it on authority from other friends who make them now too (Hi, Brenna! lol).

Have a delicious day!

WIP Wednesday: Start-itis Is Dangerous

It's been quite a while since I did a work in progress post, and given my recent spat of start-itis, I have quite a few things I'm working on but no finished products yet. Also, I seem to have completely lost my desire to sew lately. With my current situation, my sewing room became filled with random things and I just can't muster any motivation to work in that room right now. I even have a skirt that just needs buttons and buttonholes, lol. It'll happen soon. I'm not going to guilt myself about it. Bare with me on the photos - my good camera is not at my house right now, so I've had to make due with just my phone :) So, what have I been working on?

The big project I've really been trying to steam through is my Ginny Cardigan. I started this last September, but only managed to make the bottom ribbing before I set it aside to do the math on the body shaping. Then Christmas gifts happened, and this just sat in a bag. I really want to have it finished, so I've devoted most of my knitting time to this project. Sadly, knitting time has been scarce, but it's enough to see progress. I love the yarn I'm using (Wisdom Limerick) as it's so airy and soft and much lighter than it looks like it would be. I still don't enjoy bottom-up construction though. I keep looking at new designs to line up for when I get this finished, then I notice that they are bottom-up and I cringe and look some more, lol. I'm just so worried that it won't fit like I want it to, and there is no way to know until you've got it finished. I much prefer top-down. I'm sticking with it though, and I certainly won't let it keep me from designs I love if they are bottom-up. Maybe I'll get better at measuring after I make more this way.

My next most frequently worked on project is a pair of plain socks. I LOVE this yarn - it's from the first Arne & Carlos line (the Summer Night colorway) and it's a jacquard printed yarn so you just knit and it looks like you've done fancy colorwork. Isn't that great?! I love this color combo, and I knew I wanted to make a completely plain pair of socks to really show off the yarn. I searched all through my Ravelry library for a plain sock pattern that I already have, but never found one that quite met my preferred criteria. I ended up just using the pattern from my recently finished (but not blogged yet) Smocked Guernsey Socks. If you've seen those sock, this may seem strange since that sock has a fancy stitch pattern. Basically I just used the numbers off that pattern and instead of the smocking stitch, I just knitted. When I reached the point that I needed to start the heel, I decided to use an afterthought heel so I wouldn't break up the pattern in the yarn (it fell on one of my favorite color sections, of course). Once I finished the toe, I unpicked the scrap yarn and knitted the heel. At first, I just decreased the same as the pattern tells you for the toe and I thought it was good ... until I tried it on. The heel was way too short, so the sock slipped down off my heel within seconds of putting it on. I knew I needed to unpick the heel, but I just never felt like doing that so this project sat for several weeks. This past weekend I was finally in a fixing mood, so I re-knit the heel. This time I followed the decreases from the only other sock pattern I'd used - the Lace Knee Socks pattern from the Knit Sock Workshop class on Craftsy. This wasn't earth shattering, but it was just the info I needed since I knew that heel would fit. All you do is decrease, then knit a row, repeat until you have 12 stitches, then kitchener. Super easy! Now the finished sock fits great :) I was so inspired that I immediately cast on the second sock and spent my Sunday knitting time working on getting these done. These are my current "take along" project since they are easy to throw in my bag and go. I'm hoping to finish them soon.

Back at the end of January, I was really in the mood to have several projects to choose from. I blame suddenly having my sewing room in disarray. I really loved the Antarktis shawl by Janina Kallio, and I thought it would be a great pattern to show off a yarn I've been wanting to use. I cast on with Araucania Lonco yarn in this purple teal green variegated colorway. This was a sweet ebay score from last year and I've really wanted to work it up. I love the color combo. I'm hoping that since this is a cotton yarn that I will be able to wear it more than my other wool shawls. I actually did have much more of this knitted, but I decided I didn't like how loose the gauge was turning out so I pulled out the whole thing, lol. It's sat as this sad little triangle ever since. I think once I finish my Arne & Carlos socks this project will get more attention.

Another sad little project is my second pair of socks for Craftsy's Free Sock Knit Along Class. I really enjoyed the first pair of socks, so I quickly chose a yarn for the second pattern and cast on (the class is 3 months long and includes a new pattern each month). The yarn is a deep stash dive of Deborah Norville Serenity Sock in the most inappropriately named colorway ever, lol. I know it seems ridiculous, but I was so put off by the fact that this yarn is called "Aquamarine" that I just couldn't ever use it. Isn't that silly? That's what happens when you work in gemstones, I guess. For the record, aquamarines are light to medium blue - a color which is not present at all in this skein of yarn, lol. Anyway, the yarn is really soft and I think it will show off the Serpentine Sock detail. I've only made the toe so far, but I hope to buckle down (again) when I finish my Arne & Carlos socks. It was really fun talking with the other KAL participants with my first pair, so I definitely want to still be in that conversation.

In other news, I've been bit by the fancy baking bug lately. Making my Valentine macarons made me really in the mood for more fancy baking (and more macarons I can eat myself, lol). I made another batch of pistachio macarons last Thursday (with milk chocolate ganache this time) as well as these lovely lemon glazed madeleines. I'm telling you,this Craftsy class is dangerous, lol. I now completely want to make a lemon tart as well as zillions of different flavors of macarons. Wouldn't hazlenut ones be amazing? It helps that they are actually fun to make too when you know what you're doing so you take away that ever present element of "what if this fails miserably". Anyway, much fancy baking has taken place of late.

I also won a sweet prize from Stitch Diva Studios. Jennifer Hansen hosted some great giveaways on their Facebook page last week and I WON! I won this deliciously soft skein of Feza Harvest yarn in the Citrus colorway. It's 100% merino wool that is organically dyed. The yellow color is awesome. I can't wait to make something yummy with it :)

And finally, I only just discovered Neko Atsume and I am in love :) A game where you just look at cutesy kitties occasionally on your phone? I'll take it. Sometimes a cute kitty is all you need to brighten your day. I recommend you look in to this app if you haven't yet.

So that's what's going on in my crafting world :) There have been lots of audio books as well as lots of home improvements and cleaning and getting rid of junk. I'm glad to have my little creative outlets when those life necessities get a little overwhelming.

What are you making?

*Craftsy links are affiliate links, but all opinions are completely my own and I highly recommend them - plus the knitting class is completely free!

Adventurous Baking: My First Macaraons (and a Craftsy Class Review)

The night before Valentine's day, I was suddenly in the mood to try some fancy baking. With my budget what it is, I couldn't afford to buy gifts for all the people who I want to show some love to - but I CAN make things for people. It's not feasible to knit or crochet something for everyone, but baking is a great way to include a lot of people in your efforts :) I've had the Miniature French Desserts class on Craftsy for a while now, but I had not watched it at all (a sin, I know). At first I thought I'd make madeleines, so I watched the video for them - after watching though, I decided that wasn't fancy enough, lol. I've made madeleines before, so that's nothing new. Macarons though - now THAT would be fancy. You can buy macarons locally, but they seriously cost like $4 per cookie (again, not do-able for me), so I decided to dive in. I watched the class, readied my materials, and got to work.

Before I began the actual making of macarons, I had to get my materials in order. I'm not a big fan of buying almond meal or almond flour - it's expensive and I don't use it particularly often. One of my favorite recipe books, Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts by Alice Medrich, tells you basically how to make your own, so I've done it many times just making the small amount I needed for my favorite cake from that book. So I knew I had to blanch the almonds and pulverize them into meal with the food processor. This time though, instead of just making a tiny amount, I decided to make meal with all the almonds I had on hand. The blanching takes the same amount of time regardless of how many you throw into the pot, it's just a bit more time consuming to get the skins off. If you're at all curious and don't know what blanching means, it helps separate the skins from the nut so they slip off easily. You just boil a pot of water, throw in your nuts for 1 minute, drain them, then squeeze each nut and the nut will just pop right out of the skin - it's super easy, just time consuming to do. I bet kids would love it though. Anyway, so I made almond meal first, and then I thought how delicious pistachio macarons would be. I had a bag of pistachios on hand, so I looked online to see if there are any tricks to shelling them - sadly there seems to be no trick. You just have to crack each one open by hand. Ever diligent, that's what I did - I cracked each nut open by hand, blanched them, laid them on a towel and rubbed them to help release the skins, peeled the skins off all the way, laid them out on a pan in the oven to dry out for 5 minutes, then ground them up in the food processor. This seriously felt like it took forever, but i was on a mission at that point and would not be deterred.

So, once my nuts were prepped, I started making the actual macarons. The class is seriously so helpful with this - I had never tried actual macarons before, but I have never been good at making anything with a meringue. I always tend to over-whip my egg whites and then my baked good won't rise. With the very specific signs of what to look for in the class, I had no such troubles. Colette Christian tells you what your mixture should look like at each stage and it really was very accurate. Piping them was not hard, but again needs to be done in a specific way to get the right result. My first batch I piped a bit too tall, so a lot of them cracked :( But they still tasted amazing, so it was a good learning experience. My second batch came out much better. The class tells you techniques for everything from stirring to whacking out additional air at the end, and letting them sit so that they rise and how to tell if they've sat long enough. Really useful stuff, honestly. All this wonderful instruction came together to give me a wonderful result on my first ever time making these, so I call that a good class.

So here are my macarons :) The pink batch came first - they are just the almond recipe in the class, and they are much more cracked - not terribly so, but just less perfect looking. Size wise they did come out more like they are supposed too. The green batch was the second and for that I just used half almond meal and half pistachio meal. This batch came out with very few cracks (yay!), but I made them too small. The class includes a piping template in the recipe that you are supposed to print out and set on your baking pan before the parchment paper, so you can just follow the lines and pipe each one the same size. Sadly, my computer seems to have resized the document to fit the page better, so mine turned out really small. This wasn't that big a deal since they still tasted fantastic, but it's something to keep in mind when printing out the sheets.

Next I had to decide on a filling. The class gives recipes and videos on how to make a white chocolate ganache, salted caramel, and Swiss buttercream fillings. I loved the idea of the caramel and ganache, but I didn't have all the ingredients  for those. Swiss buttercream it is! It's hard to believe now that I had never made Swiss buttercream before this. It really wasn't difficult at all, and the result it amazingly silky and delicious. I decided to make the filling purple so it would look pretty and Valentine-y with the green and the pink cookies. I matched up similar sizes of cookies, piped one side, then squeezed them together. Et Voilà! Macarons!

Isn't it cute?! I was a little too thrilled at this point, lol. It's just so nice when your efforts turn out well on something this time intensive. At this point, I had to try one for myself. I had never actually had one before! And let me tell you - whoa, these things are delicious. I can absolutely understand the hype, and after making them myself I also understand the price. 

And of course I had to grab some of my more perfect looking ones to take a fun photo :) They're so pretty and just feel fancy. The texture was lovely - the outsides are nice and crisp, but the insides kind of give as you bit them, and then you hit the silky buttercream. Mmmmmmm...

I had some small treat bags on hand, and I had a lot of people I wanted to give these too. Everyone just got a few, and I used some of my lesser-used craft items to make little fancy tags and I tied them on with scraps of pin yarn.

All my little bundles :) You can see here how many of the pink ones cracked, lol. Oh well, they still tasted amazing. As the class promised, I am now totally addicted to making macarons. Now that I have a bag of almond meal ready to go in the freezer, they won't be nearly as much work next time. I can see this happening again very soon! I want to experiment with some fancy flavors like rosewater and orange blossom water. But even just to make a whole box of plain almond ones wouldn't be bad either, lol. In a way it's good that i made these for a holiday because it meant I couldn't just eat them all myself, ha ha.

So those were my Valentines I gave out :) I had fun handing out my pretty pastel packages to my friends and family. Everyone seemed to enjoy them, which is always a plus. All in all, I have nothing but good things to say about the Miniature French Desserts Craftsy class. I have no doubt that this experiment would not have turned out near as well without what I learned in the class. I'm actually excited to make madeleines using her method as well and see what it can add to my game. This class is certainly worth it even if you only wanted to make macarons, which makes the other desserts like added bonuses for the price :)

Here's a little Valentine's bonus for everyone - the card my mom gave me, lol. It says Hogs and Kisses inside. Mom Valentine's are basically the best.

I hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day!

*The Craftsy links in this post are affiliate links, but my sister bought me this class and all opinions are 100% my own.