Yeah, I’m way behind the curve on this one, but whatever. I’ve been reading for a while about the wonders of macarons (not to be confused with American macaroons). I finally bought some recently at La Baguette, a French cafe at the Stanford Mall. I’m sure they were somewhat (ok, hugely) inferior to the famous ones you find on the streets of Paris, but I thought they were still pretty tasty. They’ve been in the back of my mind for a while now of something I need to try, but they are notoriously difficult to get right. They must be mixed for exactly the right amount of time so that they have a perfectly frilly “foot” at the bottom, but are not too dense. Some say they must be left out for up to a couple hours before cooking to develop a “skin” to help form that beautiful domed shape and ruffled foot, etc., etc.

So when I finally decided to try my hand, I of course carefully looked back at all the detailed directions I had seen of what to do to produce the perfect macaron, right? No, of course not. At 10:00 pm on a recent Saturday, I felt a sudden urge to bake. I was getting started kind of late, so I didn’t want anything that would take too long, but any type of cookie I had made before just didn’t seem exciting enough. I was sure David Lebovitz would have a recipe for macarons, and of course he did. Last time I tried something from his site it turned out pretty well, and I had all the ingredients on hand, so I was good to go. These actually come together pretty quickly, so 45 minutes or so later (including cooling) I had myself some very un-authentic macarons. (Though apparently I should’ve let the flavors meld overnight instead of eating the entire plate that night … I’m only barely exaggerating.)

The good news? Despite my inattention to detail (the tops are peaked, they are too narrow and tall and shaped somewhat like acorns, many of them cracked on top, but miraculously, some of them do have a decent-looking foot) they still taste pretty delicious, even if they don’t look anything like they are “supposed to.” The even better news? I’m sure I’ll be trying these again (perhaps with a more creative flavor), and when I get it right, I’ll fill you in on the results!

If you want some more details on what to do to have adequately-tasting but ridiculous-looking macarons, here’s what I did wrong that I will correct next time:

• Since our freezer is still filled with Honey-Lavender-White Chocolate Opera Cake, I halved the recipe. This meant folding the dry ingredients into only one egg white, which was very difficult to do.
• Fold the ingredients together more thoroughly. I was super-worried about overmixing, but based on these tips, I think my batter was too stiff. (Hence, I ended up with the peaked-top acorn-shaped cookies.) Apparently the batter should “flow like magma”, not hold any shape you pipe it into exactly.
• Pipe out bigger circles. (This could’ve been partly from the too-stiff batter.) I realized after the fact that David says 1″ circles and about a tablespoon for each cookie. (I just read the 1″ part the first time.) I don’t know, maybe when you move to France your definition of an “inch” shifts. At any rate, my 1″ circles were way less than a tablespoon, and I think they should’ve been a bit bigger and also flatter. Though the almost-bite-size result was kind of cute.
• I used leftover ground almonds from the opera cake, which I realized later had a little bit of flour in them. I don’t know as much about baking chemistry as I would like, but my guess is that’s probably not kosher (sorry, I know that’s a terrible pun, I’ve been hanging around Matt too long), so next time I will add a bit of the powdered sugar instead of flour to keep the almonds from turning to butter.
• Let egg whites come to room temperature. I have no idea what effect it did or didn’t have on the end result (in fact I saw one recipe saying to keep the egg whites chilled), but next time I’ll follow what most recipes seem to say and use room temperature eggs.
• Don’t grab unsweetened instead of bittersweet chocolate from the pantry for the filling. (Yep, that’s how little attention I was paying. Amazing, huh?)

I made these cookie cups from David Lebovitz‘s blog when my cousin Anne visited a few weeks ago, and served them with Clotilde’s (of Chocolate & Zucchini) Super Simple Nutella Ice Cream. You can find the recipe for the cookies here; scroll down to find it, as it’s toward the bottom of the post. I’ve always thought tuile cookies like this were so pretty, but figured it’d probably be kind of difficult to get that lacy look right. In fact, it couldn’t be simpler — you just put a dollop of the batter on a piece of parchment and flatten it a little, and it spreads out and becomes lacy while it bakes! Getting them off the pan was slightly more challenging, mostly because I don’t have a metal spatula, so I found it easiest to tear the parchment in pieces so I could pick it up and transfer it directly to the bowls I was using for a mold.

I highly recommend these as they come together in a jiffy, but they make for a very elegant and impressive way to serve dessert. Now, I just have to get my hands on a copy of The Perfect Scoop, David’s ice cream book, for some more ideas on what to fill them with. Check it out, everything looks delicious!

This is another recipe that we always make at Christmas and that I don’t remember having any other time of year. They are a pecan shortbread cookie rolled in powdered sugar (the ones on the left in the picture). I’ve also seen similar cookies by other names, such as Mexican wedding cookies. We make ours in a skinny finger shape though, so we call them nutty fingers or lady fingers.

The recipe makes a bunch, but they are small and tend to go fast. They are slightly more labor intensive than some cookies, but they are absolutely delicious. The recipe comes from my grandmother, who always made them when my mom was growing up.

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This recipe comes from my grandmother Pat, who I think got it from her mother as well. I’m not putting in a picture, as the only one I have is also in the Nutty Finger post. Mom and I often make them for Christmas, although this year we had some that Pat made instead. They are one of Matt’s favorites, and another that we only have at Christmastime. It makes a bunch of cookies, but you can keep the dough in the fridge if you don’t have time to make them all at once. They are a dense chewy cookie with lots of dates, nuts and raisins — delicious!

You might also like:

• Nutty Fingers
• Pecan Toffee
• Mocha Peppermint Bark Cookies
• Peppermint Bark
• Christmas Cookies

Date Rock Cookies

Ingredients:

1 c butter
1 1/2 c brown sugar
3 eggs
3 c flour
1 t baking soda in 3 T boiling water
1 t cinnamon
1 lb chopped dates
1 lb chopped pecans
1 lb raisins

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix all ingredients together. This will give you mixer a real workout! Drop by teaspoons on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for about 9 minutes.

So in case you haven’t noticed, I’m on a baking kick lately. Last weekend seemed like a good time to make some cookies. I made three kinds: Heidi’s Minty Chocolate Christmas Cookies, Espresso-Toffee Shortbread Cookies, from Dorie Greenspan via Smitten Kitchen, and Madeleines. Below are a few more details about how the cookies turned out, and the recipe for the madeleines (the other two recipes you can get from the links above).

Minty Chocolate Christmas Cookies

These have a short, crunchy chocolate cookie with a peppermint filling. I made the cookies pretty much as directed in the recipe, except I used baking sugar instead of powdered sugar, and white flour. For the filling, I used half powdered sugar and half baking sugar (I ran out of powdered). I didn’t want to use cream since I was giving them as gifts and thought they might be around for a few days, but I didn’t really want to just add water. So I creamed the sugar with a few tablespoons of butter to make a buttercream type frosting, and then added enough water to get the consistency right before adding the peppermint extract.

The cookies were very good, and I liked the balance of the rich, dark cookie with the mint frosting. However, they got soft very quickly (the next day). So, if you’re going to try them, I would recommend not filling them until just before serving, which I feel silly for not having thought of in the first place.

Espresso-Toffee Shortbread Cookies

In Deb of Smitten Kitchen’s post about these, she suggested substituting chopped Ghiradelli Toffee Interlude bar instead of the chocolate. I did this, and it was good, but I honestly am not sure the toffee added all that much; it mostly just tasted like chocolate chips, maybe because the coffee flavor covered it up? I also used very strong espresso instead of instant espresso powder because I didn’t want to buy any. They were good, but I think the coffee flavor would’ve been good if it had been a bit more pronounced. Overall, these are delicious and I will definitely make them (or some variation) again. Also, the rolling the dough out in a bag trick is a really great idea.

I make madeleines with a slightly adapted version of the recipe that came with my madeleine pan, which in turn came from Williams-Sonoma. As you can see in the photo, I use a metal non-stick pan, and it works very well. I know some people like these new-fangled silicone molds. After my recent experience trying silicone muffin tins, as well as several too many headaches from silicone swim caps, I’ve decided to try to avoid silicone if at all possible (though I realize computers make it a little hard to escape).

You might also like:

• Nutty Fingers
• Pecan Toffee
• Date Rock Cookies
• Mocha Peppermint Bark Cookies
• Peppermint Bark

Madeleines

Ingredients:

5 T unsalted butter
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 egg
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1 t vanilla (or orange-flower water)
1/3 c granulated sugar

Special equipment:

Madeleine pan (to make one dozen regular sized madeleines)

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter. Brush a little in the mold of the madeleine pan. Place pan in the freezer. Reserve remaining butter.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.
3. Lightly beat together the egg, lemon zest, vanilla, and sugar.
4. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture and beat until well combined. Beat in remaining butter just long enough to incorporate.
5. Refrigerate batter for about an hour. (This is probably not absolutely necessary, but I’ve read that it helps get the characteristic madeleine “hump.”)
6. Preheat oven to 375 F. Fill molds half full with batter.
7. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops are golden and the edges start to brown. Unmold onto a wire rack. (Better to put the shell side down; the tops may get dents in them from the wire rack.)
8. If desired, dust with powdered sugar. (I usually don’t.)