The Macaron Obsession Continues: Peanut Macarons

A few weeks ago, A and I were watching an episode of No Reservations called "Obsessed", which was all about chefs who were so obsessed with their craft that they had taken it to a level of perfection were food is art. The two of us looked at each other in disbelief, shocked and awed by their devotion, but also agreeing that neither one of us were likely to attain that level of perfection in anything we do. I mean, sure, I like baking and I like bread, but no, I don't have the patience, or even interest, required to determine precisely at which temperature a sourdough loaf should ferment to yield the best taste. Hell, I don't even measure the flour that I use to feed my starter - I just throw it in.

But then last night, standing in my kitchen, in an explosion of flour, egg whites and almond meal, I realized that macarons actually might be my obsession. I spend a really unhealthy amount of time thinking about macarons, when I am not actually making them. That copy of the Flavor Bible I requested for Christmas? Not to help us cook better like I claimed. No, my true motivation was a new source of inspiration for creative macaron combinations. I want to buy a stupidly expensive macro photo lens for my camera so I can photograph them better. I am content to spend hours in the kitchen (and lots of money on almond flour) fussing with the recipe. I never get bored. Instead I just want to make more.

Lately, I have deviated from the standard recipe and started experimenting with different types of nuts. For easter, I tried pistachio, which was delicious. This week - peanut, for a decidedly American macaron. Sure, other cultures eat peanuts, but peanut butter and peanut flavored sweets strike me as pretty unique to American culture. I guess the Euros have nutella, but hazelnuts just aren't the same as peanuts. 

For this batch, I subbed 55 grams of almond meal for ground peanuts, and then sprinkled some crushed peanuts on top to give a visual hint of the flavor. The flavor was pretty striking, with the peanuttiness giving these macs a very different taste that the traditional almond based cookies. I filled them with a peanut gianduja cream, which made them taste almost like gourmet Reese's peanut butter cups. 

While the filling tasted great, the texture was not perfect. I used all natural peanut butter, which for some reason did not set in the chocolate as I expected. After an hour of stirring, the milk chocolate and peanut butter mixture was still too runny to pipe onto the cookies. Adding powdered sugar still did not thicken it enough. Also, I was lazy and did not temper the chocolate, which meant that there was a tiny bit of bloom after the macs cooled. Next time around, I think I will use more typical peanut butter, as the texture will probably lend itself to a better gianduja mixture. 

Recipe for the macarons after the jump!

Easter Supper for Eight: Taking full advantage of spring produce!

Easter weekend marked the first real spring weekend in New Jersey. A few months ago, our friends were kind enough to invite themselves over for easter supper (haha!), so A and I were left with no choice but to pull together a spring-themed feast.

A handled the shopping. Initially, I thought this was a great idea, as it gave me time to grab lunch with one of my girlfriends. Then A got home. I walked into a kitchen filled with more produce than I had ever seen in my life.

- Honey, what is all this?

- You told me to get baby vegetables, so I got everything that could have been considered a baby.

- You what????

- Well, yeah, and I hope that nobody else is planning to buy baby vegetables today because I bought everything they had.

- But we just needed carrots, and a few other root vegetables. Did you get baby beets?

- No, I didn't get beets. But I did get fresh baby corn, baby artichokes, baby fennell, baby turnips, baby potatoes, fiddleheads...

- You bought fiddleheads? But why? We don't even know how to cook those.

- They are baby ferns. I told you, I bought everything they had that was baby.

Seriously? All I could do was shoot him my best "exasperated wifey look" and make a mental note to never let him do the shopping alone again. With hindsight, I must admit, it is a good thing he bought every vegetable they had because everything got eaten. Once the last guest had left, there was scarcely a leftover to be seen.

Here is the menu:

Goats Cheese and Olive Tapenade Crostini

Manchego Crostini with Romesco Sauce

Fresh Fava Bean, Baby Corn and Feta Salad

Grilled Leg of Lamb with Tomato and Fennel Vinaigrette

Roasted Baby Vegetables

Sauteed Asparagus and Fiddleheads with Chanterelles

Strawberry and Orange-Scented Mascarpone Tart with a Port Wine Reduction

Homemade Vanilla and Cinnamon Ice Cream

Pistachio Macarons with Pistachio Gianduja

Guests J-squared (ha!) brought a lovely fig and orange toast with goats cheese that I somehow did not manage to take photos of! Probably because it got eaten too quickly.

Prep for the party took about a day and a half. While none of the recipes were particularly difficult, the sheer volume of vegetables meant several hours of sousing. A decided after peeling 3 lbs of asparagus that we might not ever serve asparagus again. While I do enjoy it, I am okay with sacrificing asparagus if it means I never have to peel them again. Tossed with fiddleheads, chanterelles and tarragon, they were lovely, but probably not worth the trouble.

Crostini is definitely our new go-to appetizer. It is very low stress, as the spreads can be made in advance, and the bite-sized pieces are crowd pleasers. For the two varieties we made this weekend, the romesco sauce was leftover from a week night dinner (shh!) and the olive tapenade can be prepped up to a week ahead of time. Garnish with your favorite cheese (in our case goats cheese for the olive spread and manchego for the romesco sauce) and you are good to go. For the bread, I pulled together a batch of pain a l'ancienne from the Bread Bakers Apprentice, a must have book for anyone who is interested in making bread at home.

The weather was very much in our favor - bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. If anything, it was almost too hot! A tossed some lemon and mint into a pitcher of water to keep everyone refreshed, and offered up sun-screen to accompany glasses of white wine.

   

Dessert continued the spring theme. Two of our guests, D and J, gave us an ice cream machine as a wedding gift a few years ago. As such, whenever they come over, I make it a point to whip up a batch of fresh ice cream. Today was no different, and I looked to my favorite recipe for vanilla bean and cinnamon ice cream. A and I had run out of serving dishes, so the ice cream was served as a "palette cleanser" in mini-martini glasses. It looks like we were being fancy, but really, we just didn't have any more dishes.

The ice cream was followed by a decadent strawberry mascarpone tart. I made the mascarpone myself, and added sugar, lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, orange juice and vanilla to flavor it. The entire tart was drizzled with a port glaze before serving.

 

We closed the meal with pistachio macarons because I just don't think I can host a party without them anymore. For the macarons shells, I used the same recipe I have referenced before on this blog, but subbed in ground pistachios for half of the almond flour. I also added green food coloring. For some reason these macs had much softer texture than those I have made in the past. Maybe it was the pistachios?

All in all, it was a successful event. Maybe hosting easter supper could become a tradition for us. I honestly think I enjoyed it more than our annual barbeque.

Honestly, there is just too much here for me to write-up all of the recipes. Recipes taken directly from other sites are linked above. After the jump, recipes for the pistachio gianduja, fava bean salad and the ice cream. If you want other emails, leave a note.