Category: French

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Cakes Citrus Cookies dessert French Fusion olive oil

Blood Orange Olive Oil Madeleine

Growing up in India, tea time has always been a part of life. Even though its not like the english tea with cucumber sandwiches and cookies, having a biscuit, or a mini cake or even something savory like a samosa with a cup of Chai is very common. Continuing the tradition, I love having friends over for chai and try to make something fun to go with it

Madeleines, french mini-cakes/cookies are just perfect for such occasions. The story has it that when a chef forgot to make a desert, he stormed out of the kitchen. A little girl made these cakes and saved the day, and hence they are named after her, Madeleine and that’s how these cakes got their name.

I love traveling, it is my the most favorite thing to do in the world. Visiting new places, exploring new things, trying new foods, meeting new people, every aspect of travel is exciting. One of the favorites, no in fact the favorite place is Italy. I have been there thrice and I think the only way I will be content is if I move there. I visited Sicily, an island off of southern coast of the main land is a beautiful place. I fell in love immediately. Catania, Palermo and more, its just so gorgeous.

Mercato del Capo in Palermo

Sicily is a culinary melting pot, so many invaders and conquerers meant those many food influences. Chickpeas, Saffron, Oranges and more. You can almost know the history of the place looking at the food.

One more famous thing is the olive oil from Sicily. I loved tasting it and could understand why one can live off of a good olive oil 🙂

When I got my hands on this gorgeous olive oil from Nuvo, flavored intensely with my fav, blood orange, I went right back to the island of Siciliy. I thought, why not create a dessert that screams Sicilia ( imagine a handsome Italian man screaming that 🙂 )

Sicilian Cannoli

Here is the part one of that desert, don’t forget to check out the others to see how it all came together

Madeleines are usually made with butter, but I played around and made these with this floral olive oil.

Madeleines
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Blood Orange Olive Oil Madeleines

A beautiful cookie/ cake flavored with floral blood orange olive oil, perfect to go with your afternoon tea or as a part of a desert

Course cake, cookies, Dessert
Cuisine French, fusion, Italian
Keyword baking, blood orange, cake, cookies, italy, madeliene, madelienes, siciliy, teatime
Servings 7

Ingredients

  • 85 Gms Blood Orange Olive oil you can also use plain olive oil
  • 10 Gms Honey 2 TBSP
  • 2 Eggs
  • 70 Gms Sugar
  • 90 Gms Sifted Flour
  • 1/2 Tsp Salt
  • 2 Tbsp Orange Zest
  • 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

Instructions

Mixing the batter

  1. Warm the olive oil. It should warm enough to melt the honey in it however not hot. Once the honey is melted, remove from heat and let it cool

  2. Whisk eggs and sugar until creamy

  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and orange zest

  4. Add the oil mixture to the egg mixture and combine well

  5. Add the flour mixture and mix till everything comes together

Rest the batter

  1. Let the batter rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour

Heat the oven to 350 F

Prepare the pan

  1. Grease and flour a madeleine pan

Baking

  1. Bake the madeleines for 10-12 mins

Categories
dessert French

A Pair of Swans

I met my husband on Dec 31st, got engaged on Jan 14th and we got married in April, between this time we met each other only a couple of times but we talked a lot on the phone. The phone bill ( which my dear parents had to pay) was a clear indication of how much we talked.

Our wedding took place in this town but my parents also hosted a reception in my town. Our family has lived there for four generations and knows so many people who enjoyed being a part of my special day. It was very nice to share our happy day with everyone.

The reception was open doors on a beautiful lawn and the stage was set such that we were overlooking a pool. The pool was full of jasmine and filled the air with amazing fragrance, there was also rose petals everywhere. The back drop against which we stood, had a pair of beautiful Swans, my parents thought those swans represented us, together, ready to fly into our world.

I came to the USA a week after I was married and that separation from my family was not very easy, I missed them very much. There was no internet at home and phone calls were expensive. I remember calling them once a week for 10 mins, it costed $1.25/ min to call India at that time. My dad loves to write letters and we love getting letters from him. In fact, we have an arrangement amongst us siblings about who gets the next letter. Each time Dad writes a letter, one kid gets the original and the rest get a photocopy. At that time, since I was the only one away from home, I always got the originals.

I used to wait everyday anxiously for two people, my husband who would come home at 6, and the postman who would bring letters from India.

My Baba like many other men, does not express his feelings very openly, but his letters exude love, advice, encouragement. In the first letter that Baba wrote, he expressed how he felt when I left India and came to the US. The whole family had come to see me off and Baba was of course there. His words, ” when you said good- bye to us and turned around, you two looked like the pair of swans ready to fly away from the nest’. I have read that letter at least 100 times, and I still cry every time I read it.

My husband made sure to everything possible to make that the transition was easy for me. I love him for that amongst many other things.

When I came to this country, I did not know much about different cuisines other than Indian, and my husband is the one who introduced me to different cuisines. One of the first fancy restaurants we went to was a french restaurant. I still remember eating many firsts like Escargot, Souffle and Profiteroles. I remember the pretty pair of Swans that we had for dessert. Each day is special with him but some are just etched in your memory and that dinner is one of them.

In Roman mythology Swans are sacred to Venus, they say Swans indicate eternal love. We fell in love after we got married and these swans indicate just that, our love for each other.

So swans have a very special meaning for me, the man who gave me life and the man who is my life.

Today’s post specially for our anniversary – it is all about love and I wanted to recreate that dessert from the french restaurant today.

This is a very versatile recipe, today I have shaped them like swans however you can make eclairs, cream puffs and even savory gougres with cheese. I have made these with coffee cream and that tastes amazing

Pate Choux Swans with orange blossom rose

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A Pair of Swans

Its a pate a choux pastry shaped like swans and filled with aromatic rose orange blossom cream 

Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Keyword choux pastry, pate a choux
Servings 8

Ingredients

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup  milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 stick of unsalted butter
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 Tsp of salt
  • 2 Tbsp Sugar
  • 4 eggs

For the filling:

  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 4 tbsp powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp Rose water or orange blossom water
  • 1 tbsp dried rose petals for decoration

Instructions

Method:

  1. Take a sauce pan. Heat milk, sugar, salt and butter till the butter is melted. While the mixture is heating, get the food processor ready and the eggs cracked in a bowl/cup. 

  2. While the mixture is heating, get the food processor ready and the eggs cracked in a bowl/cup. 

  3. As soon as the butter is completely melted, add flour all at once and cook on low flame for about 2 mins. When the mixture starts sticking to the bottom of the pan, take it off the heat.

  4. Transfer the hot mixture to the food processor and start it on a low speed. Add one egg at a time to the hot mixture and keep processing till a nice homogenous mixture. The dough will be sticky but don’t worry.
  5. Preheat the oven to 375 F
  6. Fit a pastry bag with a large star tip.
  7. Fill the mixture in a pastry bag.

  8. Take a baking tray lined with parchment paper.  

  9. Make a tear drop, if you get pointy tips, with wet finger you can just gently tap it down.

  10. Draw swan neck with a small round tip 

  11. Now bake these in the oven for 30 mins. Once the baking is done, let them sit in the hot oven for another 7-10 mins. Take them out and let them cool. The swan necks would need much less time to bake so keep an eye 

For the filling

  1. Mix sugar, orange blossom water and whipping cream  and whip till you get a nice and firm cream. Keep it in a separate bowl.

Assembly

  1. Take the cooled pastry , you can cut a slit .Slice them horizontally and then cut the top in half.

  2. Fill the pastry with the flavored whipped cream 

  3. Attach the swan necks to the puff 

  4. Sprinkle some rose petal so they stick to the cream, and serve

Recipe Notes

If you want to serve these as cream puffs, you can make an opening at the bottom of the pastry and fill the cream with a round tip

You can pipe these and freeze them and thaw and bake when ready

Pate a choux pastry
Categories
dessert French Master Chef India

Blood Orange-Meyer lemon tart

Master Chef taught me many things and one of them was that desserts are not as difficult to make as they seem. I normally don’t bake as much however the new year resolution is to try to new baking recipes.

Today’s recipe started from my Farmer’s market visit. I went to the market after a long time and as usual got excited and picked up a whole bunch of things. Market is full of citrus and all cold weather vegetables like Kohlrabi, Cauliflower, Ash gourd and so much more. Amongst the citrus, there was blood orange, Meyer Lemon along with pomelo etc.

Processed with Snapseed.

Blood orange is a very short season so I try to make as many things as I can while its available in the market. I also make Blood Orange Marmalade to enjoy later in the year. I have not posted a recipe for it , but I promise I will soon. Meyer lemon is another citrus which is so versatile and I love it.

I also found some fresh red chilies. I love cooking with these but most of all I always end up making Harissa when ever I get these in the  market.

When I got home, I looked at my market loot and thought of making use of these citrus and chili to make something that helps me keep with my new year resolution of baking more, so here is what I made.

I love combining flavors and today I decided to play on the classic combination of Chili, Lime ( here lemon), Cumin and sugar. Some how I feel it just makes it perfectly balanced dessert. Blood Orange curd is inspired by ‘Bojon Gourmet’

Blood Orange- Meyer Lemon Tart with Chili Jam

ready-tart

Now you might ask, what is the difference in a Pie Crust and a Tart base. There are two main differences:

  1. How you make the dough-
    • When you are making a pie-dough, you take the fat ( in most cases it is butter), and cut it into the flour to make a bread crumb like texture. You add ice cold water to bring the dough together.
    • For the tart, you make a ‘Pâte Sucrée’, which is basically a sweet short crust. For this, you cream the butter and sugar and then add the flour.
  2. Egg or no egg
    • For the Pie Dough, you use ice cold water to bind the dough
    • Tart dough is an enriched dough with some egg yolks. This also makes the dough a lot more crumbly than the pie crust.

So here now you know the difference, lets make that crust.

Crust

Ingredients

  • 250 g Flour
  • 100 g Sugar
  • 100 g unsalted butter
  • 1 eggs
  • 1/4 tsp coarse ground Cumin
  • 1/8 tsp salt

Method

  • Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer
  • Add the egg and mix well
  • Add the flour, Cumin, and salt mixture
  • Bring it together with a wooden spoon. Don’t overmix
  • Make two discs and wrap it in plastic
  • Refrigerate it for at least 2 hours
Cream Butter & Sugar
Add egg
Dough ready

 

  • Take out the dough and roll it to fit a 9 inch Tart pan
  • Bake it at 350 F for about 25 mins

three-juices-1

Curd

Ingredients

  •  1 tbsp Zest of 1 blood orange
  • 1/4 tsp chopped chilies ( seeds removed)
  • 3/4 cup Blood Orange Juice
  • 3 tbsp Meyer Lemon Juice
  • 1 cup Sugar
  • 3 eggs plus
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

Method

  • Make a Bain Marie or Double boiler. I use a 2 quart saucepan and fill it with 2 inches of water and bring it boil. I add all my ingredients in a steel bowl and cook it over the boiling water. I feel this helps the eggs from scrambling and you get a smooth curd.
  • Mix both the juices, sugar, eggs, egg yolks and whisk well to combine
  • Cook over a double boiler till the mixture thickens and reaches 160F.
  • I have learnt that using a thermometer makes it easy to know when the eggs are cooked ( from food safety perspective)
  • Now take the bowl off the heat and quickly whisk in the butter pieces
  • Pour it into the cooled tart
  • Bake for 20-25 mins in a 350 F ovenimg_7190
  • Cool the tart in the fridge for at least 4-5 hours

 

Chili Jam

This recipe is super simple and I feel it adds the heat and salt needed to balance this desert.

Ingredients

  • 3-4 chopped red chilies ( try and take out as many seeds as possibile
  • 4 tbsp white vinegar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • a pinch of salt

Method

  • Mix everything and cook on a slow flame till the mixture thickens

 

To serve

Cut a piece of tart.Serve with whipped cream, blood orange supreme and some chili jam

Categories
Cuisine dessert French

Profiteroles with coffee cream and drizzled with coffee-chocolate sauce

It is my daughter’s birthday today. She is a smart, sweet and very caring  girl. She also has very diverse and sophisticated palette. So when I asked her what kind of cake she wants for her birthday, she said,” Mom, can I have profiteroles instead of a cake this year?”.

This is what prompted me to make the profiteroles today. I had watched Anne Burrell make these on one of her shows and had scratched  down her recipe, this is my take on her recipe. The ingredients are very simple, yet the result is a fancy pastry.

Profiteroles is a french pastry made with a french pastry dough, Choux Pastry. 

Choux pastry is an easy to make versitile dough. You can make many things like eclairs, cream puffs using this dough. It is light and airy and is perfect for filling it up with whipped cream or ice cream.

Profiteroles

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Equipment needed:

Food processor, a pot, wooden spoon, whisk, pastry bag with a large tip

Ingredients:

1 cup of milk

1 stick of unsalted butter

1 cup flour

1 pinch of salt

4 eggs

 

For the filling:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

4 tbsp powdered sugar

1 1/2 shot of espresso

 

For the chocolate sauce:

6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 shot of espresso

Method:

Take a sauce pan. Heat milk and butter till the butter is melted. While the mixture is heating, get the food processor ready and the eggs cracked in a bowl/cup. As soon as the butter is completely melted, add flour all at once and cook on low flame for about 2 mins. When the mixture starts sticking to the bottom of the pan, take it off the heat.

Transfer the hot mixture to the food processor and start it on a low speed. Add one egg at a time to the hot mixture and keep processing till a nice homogenous mixture. The dough will be sticky but don’t worry.

Preheat the oven to 425 F

Fit a pastry bag with a large tip, I have used a large star tip but round works just as well.

Fill the mixture in a pastry bag.

Take a baking tray lined with parchment paper. If you get pointy tips, with wet finger you can just gently tap it down.

Pipe some mounds on the parchment paper. The first time I made these I made them too flat, I would recommend making them taller so you can fill it up with a scoop of ice cream easily.

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Now bake these in the oven for 20 mins. Once the baking is done, let them sit in the hot oven for another 7-10 mins. Take them out and let them cool.

I have seen some recipes where you bake them in a high heat oven like 425 for a few minutes, which helps form the crust and then bake in lower temp like 375 for 12-15 mins for it to cook through from inside. 

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Once these are cooled,you can cut a slit and  they are ready to be filled with some yummy cream or ice cream.

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For the filling:

Take a little bit of cream and make sure that all the sugar and the espresso are dissolved well in it. Now add the remaining chilled whipping cream and whip till you get a nice and firm cream.

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In the meantime, in a microwavable glass bowl take the chocolate chips. Melt them according to the package instructions, mine asked me to heat it at 50% power for a min and then in the increments of 15 secs there on, stirring each time. Alternatively, you can also use a double boiler to melt the chocolate.

Once the chocolate is melted, add the espresso and cream to make a smooth chocolate sauce.

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Now comes the fun part…

Take a puffed pastry and fill it up with the coffee whipped cream.

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Drizzle with chocolate sauce and dust with some powdered sugar.

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Yummy profiteroles are ready to be gobbled up.

Note:

If you are using a whipped cream for the filling, instead of making a cut in the pastry,  you can just poke a hole and fill up the cream.

Categories
Breakfast French Kids favorite Snack Vegetarian

Leek, Potato & Goat cheese Galette with Pistachio Crust

Last few days have been very challenging, I consider myself a very strong person but it is amazing how vulnerable one gets when they are emotionally invested. I know it will be alright eventually but right now it hurts.  I really needed to do something that takes my attention away. So I have started lifting weights and  decided to try at least one new  recipe every week.

I love love brunches. You can try different things than your usual lunch and you are not rushed to have everything ready. Perfect for lazy mornings and occasions like Mother’s day. On the occasion of Mother’s day, I am sharing this recipe that can be a perfect addition to your brunch table. You can make the prep ahead of time and then comes together in less than 15 mins.

I love nuts, and especially pistachios. I am in love with combination of  green, pink colors you see in these raw nuts. I recently made a nice torte with pistachio crust and it was a major hit at my work.  Todays recipe uses the nuts in the crust, giving it a unique toasty flavor and crunch.


I had seen this recipe on Bon Appetit and have been wanting to make it. I have grown fond of goat cheese recently and loved the contrast of the tangy, creamy goat cheese against the caramelized leeks and sweetness of honey.

Goat Cheese & Leek Galette with pistachio crustPistachio Galette

 

Ingredients

For the dough

  • ½ cup shelled pistachios
  • 2½ cups unbleached flour
  •  1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces

_MG_3035

Toppings

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for drizzling
  • 1 large leek, halved lengthwise, white and pale-green parts only, finely chopped
  • ¼ cup  heavy cream
  • 4 ounces goat cheese
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  •  2/3 Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
  • 4 tablespoons coarsely chopped dill, plus more for serving
  • 2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, thinly sliced
  •  1 large egg, beaten to blend Honey (for drizzling)
  • Crushed szechuan peppercorns
  • Flaky sea salt (optional; for serving)_MG_3039

Method

 Dough

  • Pulse pistachios in a food processor until coarsely ground. Add flour, kosher salt, and sugar and pulse until combined.
  • Add butter and pulse until a coarse meal forms.
  • With motor running, slowly add ½ cup ice water and process until dough comes together.
  • Transfer dough to a work surface, form into a ball, and flatten to a disc.
  • Wrap dough in parchment and chill 30 minutes.
Dough
crust

Topping

  • Preheat oven to 400º. Heat oil in a small skillet over medium-low; cook leek, stirring occasionally and being careful not to brown, until just softened, about 5 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, mix cream, goat cheese, and garlic in a medium bowl until smooth. Season with kosher salt and pepper. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
  • Transfer dough to a work surface and divide into 4 pieces.
  • Working with one piece at a time, roll out to an 8″ round.

Layer it up

  • Using an offset spatula, spread one-quarter of the goat cheese mixture on dough, leaving a 1″ border.
  • Top with 1 Tbsp. dill and a thin layer of potato slices. Drizzle with oil and season with kosher salt.
  • Top with one-quarter of the leeks. Fold edges over, overlapping slightly.
  • Carefully transfer galette to prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
  • Brush crusts with egg wash. Bake galettes until crusts are golden brown and potatoes are soft, 30–40 minutes. If you want to make a vegetarian version, you can skip the egg and instead use some water mixed milk to brush the edges.

Cut slice

Original Recipe:

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/goat-cheese-leek-and-potato-galette-with-pistachio-crust#recipe-ingredients

Categories
Condiments French Jam & Preserves

A tale of two friends-Apricot lavender jam 

I love spring. The weather is perfect, there are blossoms everywhere and the air is fragrant.  I go the farmer’s market every week. And when you start seeing fresh green pea shoots, you know that Spring is here. A few weeks go by and then suddenly you see heaps and heaps of fresh spring peas, sweet, tender and just plain delicious. Right about this time you also see fresh apricots in the market. Although I am not a huge fan of apricots as a fresh fruit, especially when compared to nectarines and peaches, I love dried apricots.

This week I got two gifts from my friends..my neighbor gave a bag full of Apricots and my farmer’s market friend gave me a bunch of Lavender. Last year she had told me about this place not to far from where we live, ‘Lavender Hollow’. As the name can tell it is a Lavender farm and the visit was just amazing. The air was filled with the beautiful lavender frangrance adn there were bunches of fresh cu lavender everywhere.

lavender

I thought it was very sweet of my friends to share these things with me so I decided to make something that I can share back with them. So here is how I combined the two to make one yummy preserve.

Apricot jam with fresh apricots, dried apricot, Fresh lavender & Riesling!

First time tried it with lavender and it was delicious.

Apricot Lavender Preserve

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds fresh apricots

• 12 ounces dried apricots

• 4 cups sugar

• Juice of 1 lime

• Juice of 1 orange

• Zest of 1 orange

• 10 ounces of Riesling

• 1 tsp Lavender flowers

Method

Chop dried apricots, place in glass bowl, add wine and soak overnight.

In a new bowl, quarter fresh apricots, remove seeds, chop to a bite size bit

In nonreactive pan, add fresh apricots, sugar, orange zest/juice, and lime juice.

Simmer about 10 minutes, mixing all ingredients together until sugar dissolves

Remove from heat, cover, refrigerate overnight. Next day, add dried apricot mixture to fresh apricot mixture . Stirring, simmer until thickens

Add Lavender Flowers

Put the jam in jars and seal in water bath

I tend to simmer only for a short time and shut off the heat, letting the jam cool. I reheat for a short time again to thicken the jam. I usually make just enough to last for a few weeks so dont necessarily can it.

I love serving it with some creamy mascarpone cheese on crackers. It makes for a very fancy looking appetizer.

Categories
dessert French Uncategorized

Tricky little temperamental Treat

French Macarons

IMG_2157

I had never seen a Stand Mixer until a few years ago. Always wanted to buy one since I saw it but could not justify the investment …until today, I bought my first KitchenAid..

Growing up in India I did not know much about baking. For one, we did not have any oven or any stand mixer  at home.  Mom made cakes on the stove top in this contraption and creamed the butter & sugar patiently with just her hands. I always love the cakes she makes but now I appreciate even more knowing how much effort went into it. When I came to the US I tasted so many yummy baked good and I started baking as well. The first time I tasted Macaroons, I did not care much more it. I personally don’t like coconut & chocolate together. Every time my daughter asked me to make Macroons, I kind of made excuses since I thought she was referring to Coconut Macaroon.

 

Then last year, Whole Foods opened near where we live and I got to see and taste French Macron for the first time, and let me tell you I fell in love with it.  Every time we go grocery shopping to Whole Foods, we coem back with a pack of macrons. They are yummy but expensive and I never felt like I ate to my hearts content.

 

So I decide to try and make Macrons at home. Usually I am good at following instructions and recipes, so I figured I can make macarons as long as I have the recipe and ingredients. Boy was I wrong, I failed miserably…not one, two, more like 6 times.  I had almost given up…but then I remembered that I had a set a birthday goal for my self. Yeah, like people set New Years resolutions, I make Birthday resolutions. On every birthday I set a few goals and try to complete them before the next birthday. So going back to Macrons, making them is one such goal I made last year and just could not give up.

I tried the seventh time… and very proud to say it worked. And that is how that KitchenAid came into my life..

French Macarons- a delicate temperamental cookie..but worth every min spent on it.

Macrons have very simple ingredients and looks very deceivingly easy looking, but the trick is in following all the steps and tips. I watched many you tube videos, read many recipes and then finally settled on this one..

 

Ingredients:

Cookie:

7 oz Confectioner ( powder) sugar
4 oz  Almond flour/meal
4 oz  Egg whites at room temp
3.5 oz granulated sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp gel color of your choice

Filing

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
4 cups Confectioner ( powder) sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp milk

Method

A. For cookies:

Part 1- Dry mixture
  1. Sift the almond flour and the confectioner sugar at least 4-5 times. This makes the batter light and also ensures that there are no lumps in the batter.
Part 2- Meringue
  1. Making meringue- Take the egg whites and start beating them on a low-medium speed until it foams
  2. Add granulated sugar slowly. Once all the sugar is added, add the cream of tartar.
  3. Kepp checking in between and make sure you stir in between so make ensure that there is no liquid egg white remaining at the bottom of the bowl.

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  1. Scrape down the sides, add the food color
  2. Beat on high till you get a soft peak.
  3. It is not done if you get a beak, when you left the whisk out of the egg mixture.
Part 3- Mix the ingredients
  1. Mix 1/3 of the almond flour mixture in the egg mixture.
  2. Using the folding action mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
  3. When the dry flour is sort of mixed, add the next 1/3 and continue
  4. THIS IS IMPORTANT- DO NOT UNDER MIX OR OVER MIX. THIS PICTURE SHOWS YOU EXAMPLES.
  5. When you can see a ribbon falling from your spoon, your batter is ready
Part 4- Piping and baking the cookies
  1. Draw circle on the paper. These will act as a template for piping your cookies.
  2. Out that template on the baking sheet.
  3. Line your baking tray with parchment paper, on top of the template
  4. Fill the mixture in a pastry bag and using a #2 round tip, pipe the cookies on the parchment paper

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  1. Make sure you keep the tip almost buried in the mixture so you don’t get a point on the cookie- if you get a point it will look funny and the point will burn during baking
Part 5- Drying of the cookies
  1. Heat the oven to 325 F.
  2. Take the tray with the piped cookies and tap really firmly on the counter. This will ensure that the air trapped is released

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  1. Let the tray sit on the counter until the cookies have a skin on top and are dry to touch. Depending on the weather it could take from 20-30 mins
  2. I write the time on it so I know when I can check.
  3. Now your cookies are ready to go in.
Part 6: Baking
  1. Make sure that the oven temperature is right.
  2. Bake th cookies  for 10-15 min
  3. Turn half way to ensure even baking
  4. Check if the cookies are done- when you gently try to move the top and it kind of wiggles and slides, the cookies are not done.

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  1. Watch carefully  though since they go from not done to done very quickly
Part 7: Cooling
  1. I know it is tempting to eat them right away
  2. Wait for 3-4 minutes to take the cookies off the baking tray
  3. Let them cool completely before you fill them up.
B. For Filling
  1. Beat the butter until creamy
  2. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time.
  3. Add the color, lemon juice and zest and beat the mixture until light and fluffy.
There are 7 key points to remember, I have listed them here and have mentioned again along the way.
  1. Measure your ingredient- I recommend weighing them instead of measuring in a cup
  2. Sieve the almond meal & Suagr
  3. Beat your egg white just till soft peak stage
  4. Don’t over or under mix the Egg & Almond mixture
  5. Make sure the air is tapped out before you bake the macrons
  6. Make sure they dry out before you bake
  7. Make sure the oven temp is right

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