Happy Mother's Day!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've started working and have been pretty busy for the last three weeks. With my new job and everything, my sleep cycle has changed really dramatically. After I graduated, I would go to sleep as late at 3 or 4am every night/morning and wake up sometime in the afternoon. Now... I sleep around 10pm and wake up around 5am. XD It's quite a change, but I actually kind of like it? Because of it, I was able to wake up early enough to make muffins for my mom for breakfast.

I adapted the recipe from Joy of Baking using the blueberry muffin recipe and adding some strawberries we had in the fridge.

I'm obviously not the best when it comes to filling each cup perfectly... XD

...and I think i could've left them in the oven longer to get more of that golden brown color. Eh... maybe next time :D

First time Macarons!

Two days ago, I made macarons for the first time!! I think they came out pretty good, but there's always room for improvement.

I adapted the recipe from My Food Geek's Almost Foolproof Macaron recipe.

First, I weighed out all of the ingredients. 

Since I was making salted caramel macarons, I made the filling first: the salted caramel buttercream :D Mmmmm... yummy caramel...

After the caramel cooled, I transferred the caramel into another bowl, added the pieces of butter, and whipped them with a hand mixer

Next, I mixed the freshly ground almond meal, powdered sugar, and the first container of aged egg whites together in a bowl with some food coloring to get a caramel-like color for the shells (sorry! I forgot to take a picture of that). Then I started to whip the other container of egg whites. As they were whipping, I made the sugar syrup. When the syrup reached to about 240 °F and the whites had formed soft peaks, I slowly added the syrup to the beating egg whites. I probably should've added it a bit slower... hence all of the syrup sticking to the side of the bowl... X_X

Stop beating the egg whites and sugar syrup mixture once it starts to cool down. It look nice and marshmallow-y... and be really tasty! :D

Then, take all of the meringue out and mix it with the almond paste mixture.

Next, pipe the macaron shells on baking sheets with a regular round tip. Each shell should be about 3cm in diameter. I found a template online... just to make things more uniform and easier. :D 

Note: make sure to let these rest. I had them rest for almost an hour.

In a 320 °F oven, bake each batch one at a time for about 15 minutes... then.... VOILA!

Take the caramel buttercream out of the fridge, add the salt, and whip until combined. Put the buttercream in a piping bag and start filling the shells!

Overall, they came out better than expected. I read so many comments on other blogs about how some people couldn't get the feet to form, meringues falling flat, and shell cracking, which lead me to be super cautious. I guess it paid off!! I can't wait to make these again!

Baking up some lovely scones!

Yesterday, I baked some strawberry scones since I had some strawberries that I needed to use up. I got the recipe from a blog called Confessions of a Tart. I followed the recipe as close as I could, but  I didn't have cream or buttermilk on hand, so I used whatever milk I had in the fridge. I also added a little bit more strawberries since I needed to use them up. The result? It tasted pretty good, but it could've used the extra fat from cream or richness from buttermilk and just a little more sugar. Overall, it's a very good and easy recipe.

Here's the recipe from Confessions of a Tart:

Strawberry Scones
(makes 6 large scones or 12 minis)


1 cup strawberries (or other fruit)
3 tablespoons sugar (granulated)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, in cubes, slightly softened
2/3 cup half-and-half or cream or cold buttermilk


Topping:
1 tablespoon sugar


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.


If using larger fruit, cut into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle fruit with 1/2 tablespoon sugar; set aside. Be sure to make the pieces small, or they tend to fall out of the dough. They'll still be plenty prominent in your finished scones.


Combine remaining sugar with flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter, using a pastry cutter or 2 knives to cut in butter (you may want to use your fingers to be sure butter is evenly mixed into flour). Stir in fruit; then add cream/half-and-half/buttermilk all at once. Use spatula to gently stir dough until it holds together.


Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to incorporate dry ingredients. Be gentle so you don't break up the berries and don't overwork the dough. Sprinkle dough with flour if it gets sticky.


Press (pat) the dough into a circle 3/4 inch thick. If any berries peek out, push them into dough. Cut circle into 6-8 wedges, then transfer wedges to the cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space between them. Bake 15 minutes.


Sprinkle with sugar and bake 5-10 more minutes or until the tops are beginning to brown and spring back when you push them (this took another 15-20 minutes in my oven, but keep a careful watch and check every 5 minutes - you do not want dry scones!). (The sprinkling of sugar over the top for the last few minutes of baking creates a simple, sparkly topping.)

I think the next time I attempt these, I'll follow it more closely plus add a little bit more sugar.