Home - finally - and not going anywhere for at least a few weeks now. Between personal travel and business travel, I feel like I have not been home in ages. Summer is my favorite season, and I like to spend as much of it at home as possible, enjoying the flowers and pleasant weather in my garden. May and June flew by in a whirlwind of travel and we will be away for all of August, leaving me with just the month of July to savor the season. Even July is feeling a bit rushed to me.
For the fourth, A's college roommates are descending on our apartment for barbecue and booze. I do always love to entertain, but with the past weekend spent in Oregon, almost all of the preparation had to be squeezed in this week after work. Fortunately, excursions to Sam's, Whole Foods and Chelsea Market for provisions are complete and the cooking has started. With the blueberry pies done a few weeks ago, macarons were in order. Red velvet cupcakes prepared the day of will complete the dessert trio.
Now that I am consistently turning out perfect shells, I view each batch of macarons as an opportunity to try out new ingredients and combinations. Early on, I decided to make some sort of strawberry macaron to keep with the theme of seasonal ingredients and red white and blue desserts. In the end, I opted for a vanilla bean shell with a white chocolate and strawberry ganache filling. In my head, I had hoped that the filling would be a deeper shade of red, but pink is close enough, right?
I made enough macs so that A and I would have a few to sample before the party. I mean, we need to make sure they taste okay! In review, I would give them three out of four stars. The shells might have been the best tasting shells I have ever made - sweet like a fancy, yet delicate vanilla wafer. The filling was good but not great, as I felt that the strawberry flavor should have been a little stronger. To be fair, A loved them, and I know that I can be a little over-critical of my own cooking. If I make these again I think I might try to find a strawberry flavored liquor to add to the ganache.
At a minimum, I am just relieved that most of it is done with a day or so still to spare. All that's left to make are the red velvet cupcakes... and I guess the rest of the meal, though I have left A in charge of all things savory. Burgers are the husband's job! Stay tuned for the full 4th of July update and my almost fool-proof recipe for red velvet cupcakes!
Recipes...
White Chocolate Strawberry Ganache
310 grams white chocolate
150 mL cream
1/4 cup strawberry jam
Splash of almond extract
Chop the white chocolate into smallish pieces and place in a bowl. In a small saucepan, mix the cream and strawberry jam together over medium high heat. The cream and jam should blend completely and come to a boil. Add a splash of almond extract and allow it to boil for a few seconds, then pour it through a fine mesh sieve into the white chocolate. The sieve will strain out any strawberry solids from the jam. Use a wooden spoon to stir the cream mixture into the white chocolate until the mixture is completely smooth. Continue to stir slowly for a VERY long time... probably more than an hour! You need to keep stirring as the mixture gradually cools and thickens to a consistency where it can be piped. Once the mixture reaches room temperature, you can use the refrigerator to help it along, by chilling it for 5-7 minute increments and stirring it in between. I don't recommend putting it into the refrigerator when it is still warm as this can cause the ganache to set improperly.
Once the ganache is thick enough to pipe (it holds it shape when you allow it to drop off the spatula), put it into a piping bag and fill your macarons!
Vanilla Bean Macarons
Adapted from Pierre Herme's basic recipe for macaron shells
yield: approximately 36 gerbet
150 grams almond meal
150 grams powdered sugar
87 grams egg white
10 grams vanilla extract
Seeds from one vanilla bean
250 grams powdered sugar
67 grams egg white
62 grams water
Follow the prep instructions here, and use vanilla extract instead of orange extract and add the vanilla bean seeds to the almond meal/powdered sugar mix before adding the egg white.
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