Nutella Macarons

Recipe and instructions from Baking Bites.

This is my second attempt at macarons. The first time I made it with almond meal purchased at Trader Joe’s. They came out okay but they had a big air pocket inside and didn’t rise very tall. I didn’t even bother filling them. That was the French macaron recipe by Tartlette.  Google “Tartlette macaron tutorial” for the pdf. This time I used the more difficult Italian meringue recipe and they came out much better with more of a cookie than air. The recipes are very different from each other so I haven’t decided which is better. I ground my own hazelnuts (~$4) with a coffee grinder because hazelnut meal was $12 a bag. I had four trays with one tray being completely ruined by being placed on a bottom rack at 335 degrees. I kept messing around with temperatures and timing. I think they come out best in my oven at 325 degrees for 13 minutes.

The horror!!! The disappointment!! Why are these cookies so hard to make?!

Finally, the last tray that came out had perfect tops and feet.

Filled with nutella buttercream.

Nutella Buttercream

1/2 cup butter at room temperature (1 stick)
1/2 cup nutella
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Cream the butter using an electric mixer.
2. Blend in the nutella and vanilla extract.
3. Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
(If it’s too thick, thin out with milk one teaspoon at time. If too thin, add more confectioner’s sugar).

Om nom nom. So good. You can still see an air pocket.. don’t know what I did wrong.

Bento 10 – Indian style

Bento for dinner last night at work. Everyone kept talking about snow snow snow because a storm was supposed to hit at midnight. Woke up this morning to only 2 inches on the ground. Classes were not canceled for NYU even though most other schools had closed the day before. Finally, NYU decides to close mid-day. Pretty annoying when schools do that since some people had to go out already in the morning just to go home later in the day. Poor planning. The snow is really coming down hard now. It’s beautiful, like someone dumping confectioner’s sugar over everything. I can’t wait to go out and shovel later. Shoveling is my excuse to play in the snow. Thank goodness I don’t have class or work tomorrow so I don’t have to deal with the slush.

This bento was quite yummy.

White rice with red bean, lentil, tomato based curry (Tasty Bite); honey roasted ham and muenster wheat bread roll-ups; homemade momofuku berry and cream cookies (see previous post)

Homemade Cookies

I’ve been craving cookies ever since Cindy took me to Momofuku Milk Bar. Not just any old cookie though, I wanted Momofuku cookies. A quick search online led me to the official recipe for the Blueberry and Cream cookies on Martha Stewart’s site! So of course, I had to make them. While the recipe is not complicated, there are several steps and uncommon ingredients. To be authentic, I went out to get European butter (Irish butter from Trader Joe’s) and glucose (from Choc-Oh-Lot Plus) as per the recipe’s ingredient list. The only thing I changed was to substitute a blend of chopped, dried strawberries, cherries and blueberries for the blueberries because my boyfriend doesn’t love blueberries (and blueberries were expensive at Trader Joe’s!) I got exactly 14 large cookies. Unfortunately, they were flat and not humped like the originals but they tasted amazing. The glucose really keeps the cookie moist and dense while the butter makes for crispy edges.

Here’s the recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart. Watch the video for step by step instructions.

Blueberry and Cream Cookies

by Christina Tosi @ Momofuku Milk Bar

Ingredients

Makes 14 cookies

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup (8 ounces) Plugra European-style unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
• 1/4 cup glucose
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup dried blueberries
• 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup Milk Crumbs

Directions

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix together butter, sugars, and glucose until well combined. Add egg and mix until well combined.
3. Add flour mixture and mix until well combined. Add blueberries and milk crumbs and mix until well combined. Using an ice cream scoop about 2 1/8 inches in diameter, scoop dough into balls and place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Transfer baking sheets to refrigerator until dough is chilled, about 15 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to oven and bake, rotating pans halfway through baking, until cookies are golden brown and tops begin to crackle, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Cookie dough with dried berries and milk crumbs right before mixing.

Cookie dough balls. Making this broke my cheap ice cream scoop! I really want to get a smaller one for regular sized cookies.

Milk Crumbs

Ingredients

Makes enough for 14 cookies

• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon nonfat milk powder
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup white chocolate, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons milk powder, flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Stir in melted butter until well combined. Spread mixture on prepared baking sheet and transfer to oven. Bake until dried and crumbly, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove milk crumble from oven and let cool completely.
3. Transfer milk crumble to a large bowl and fold in remaining 2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons milk powder and white chocolate. Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

NOM NOM NOM! Buttery cookie goodness.

I also made shortbread jam thumbprints to mail, along with above cookies, to my boyfriend. These were much easier to make though less interesting flavor wise. Mine are cracked because I had less than 1 cup of butter and forgot to decrease the flour mixture. My cousin, Patty, recommends adding a few tablespoons of confectioners sugar to make the cookies softer. After preparing recipe below, roll the dough into balls, flatten on the cookie sheet, make indentation and fill with jam.

Shortbread Supreme

Recipe courtesy allrecipes.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in flour by hand until the dough is smooth. Extra flour can be added if the dough is not stiff enough to roll out.
3. On a floured surface, roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
4. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges are lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire cooling racks.

Momofuku night

My sister treated me to a night of Momofuku goodness at the Noodle Bar and Milk Bar for my birthday. I haven’t had a lot of free time to post so things are piling up but here are some pictures. We had really good seats at the open kitchen bar so we watched the chefs and sous chefs make everything in front of use.

The one page menu. Options are very limited here but that’s okay because everything’s interesting. More options/specials on the walls and they have a four course prix fixe for $30.

The famous pork buns meet the hype. It’s a must try, really delicious.

We both got the Momofuku noodle bowl. Fresh noodles with pork, semi poached egg, scallion, nori, naruto, and bamboo? It was okay, a little better with siracha sauce but don’t add too much because it gets super spicy! I’ve had better ramen at other places.

Then we headed over to the Milk bar only a few blocks away (next to Ssam).

The fridge case with the cakes and pies.

Crack pie = sugary buttery gooey goodness in a crust. So good.

This is why it’s the milk bar, they serve cereal flavored milk. It’s pricey though so we didn’t try it. They also have soft serve (in cereal and other flavors) and smoothies made from soft serve.

Chocolate malt cake with marshmallows and malt balls inside. Gooey and dense chocolate goodness. I’m not a huge chocolate fan but my sister ordered this.

We also ordered the compost cookie, cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookie and blueberry cream cookie. OMG these were great. My favorite was the blueberry cream cookie because it was like having a scone with milk in cookie form. No great picture of the cookies but there are lots if you google it. Martha Stewart also has the blueberry cookie recipe directly from the chef at Milk bar so I will have to test that out soon. Calls for glucose and European butter! Luckily I think Trader Joe’s has Irish butter but I’m not sure if I will be able to easily get glucose. Apparently Wilton’s makes it so hopefully the candy supply store near me (Choc-Oh-Lot Plus) will have it.

Coconut Macaroons

I had coconut and I wanted to make something out of it. So I made macaroons. First time I used a whole can of sweetened condensed milk!! I LOVE this stuff but never baked with it. So here you go.

It was easy. They kinda pooled a bit on the bottom but I don’t know why so I can’t help you there. Maybe I should try the recipe on the back of the coconut bag next time. It uses sugar instead of sweetened condensed milk. These cookies are a nice chew.. and of course really sweet.

Coconut Macaroons
14 oz sweetened shredded coconut
14oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 egg whites, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp kosher salt

Directions:
1. Whip egg whites with mixer until soft peaks form. Add salt and extracts and mix.
2. In another bowl, mix the coconut and sweetened condensed milk.
3. Fold egg whites into coconut mixture.
4. Drop golf ball sized pieces of “dough” onto parchment paper covered cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 325F for 25-30 minutes or until bottoms and tops are lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheets immediately and cool on wire racks.