Tiramisu Macaron Recipe

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Tiramisu Macarons

I love tiramisu and I love macarons so one day I thought “Why not Tiramisu Macarons?”. So I got to work on that. They are not hard to make and they are extremely tasty. Making macarons can be a challenge but that is a matter of technique not that they are actually complicated. If you have the right equipment and especially if you have the correct folding technique you will be successful.

To make things easier and more uniform I would get a macaron baking mat for your cookie sheet. They are easily found at Amazon and I have a link for them here.
This will make life much easier when you are piping them out and give you all uniform cookies for making the final sandwich cookie that makes the macaron.

Tiramisu Macarons are the perfect marriage of that classic Italian dessert tiramisu and the French sandwich cookie the macaron. The word tiramisu translates to “Pick me up” or “Lift me up” both ways the meaning would be, its been a long week and I need some tasty relief so I tend to make this dessert on Fridays. The same goes for macarons.

The one thing I would add about macarons is the pronunciation of the word. Almost all the time and without fail people refer to this cookie as if it were the American macaroon. These are entirely different (but tasty) cookies. They have nothing in common other than being tasty to eat and perhaps in basic size. So to ask for one and not the other you need to pronounce the names correctly. Almost every one says them with the same name. The difference is in the end of the word. Macaron ends with RON and macaroon ends with ROON. To pronounce this difference just think ron & moon, Macaron pronounced with ron nice and clear at the end and macaroon pronounced with a clear roon (kinda like moon) at the end. This difference will make it cear the cookie you desire.

Tiramisu Macaron Recipe

Now on to the fun stuff. Here is the recipe for how to make my Tiramisu Macarons:

Tiramisu Macarons
Recipe Type: Cookie
Cuisine: Italian & French
Author: MomoK
Ingredients
  • Macarons:
  • 100 grams ground blanched almonds or almond meal/flour
  • 170 grams confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar
  • 5 grams espresso powder
  • 100 grams “aged” egg whites, at room temperature
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)
  • 35 grams superfine or castor white sugar
  • Filling:
  • 225 grams mascarpone cheese at room temp.
  • 1/2 cup whipping cream
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp cognac (brandy, amaretto, rum, or other)
  • 5 ml vanilla
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup sugar
Instructions
  1. ) Place the ground almonds, confectioners sugar, and espresso powder in your food processor and process until they are mixed together and very fine (about 45 seconds). Then sift the mixture 2 times to remove any lumps.
  2. ) In the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment (can use a hand mixer), beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar, and continue to beat, on medium-high speed, until the meringue just holds stiff peaks (when you slowly raise the whisk the meringue stands straight up (no drooping)).
  3. ) Then, two additions, sift the ground almond mixture over the meringue. When folding, cut through the meringue and then fold up and over, making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Once the almond mixture is completely folded (called macaronage) into the meringue (the batter will fall back into the bowl in a thick ribbon) it is time to pipe the Macarons.
  4. ) Fill a pastry bag, fitted with about a 1/2 inch (1 cm) plain tip, pipe about 1 1/2 inch (4 cm) rounds onto the parchment paper tap the baking sheet on the counter to break any air bubbles (can also break air bubbles with the end of a toothpick). Let the Macarons sit at room temperature for about 30-60 minutes (depending on the temperature and humidity of your kitchen) or until the tops of the Macarons are no longer tacky when lightly touched.
  5. ) Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 205c 400 F convection on. When heated and macarons go in drop temp to 160 c(325F) with the oven racks in the top and bottom third of the oven. Bake the cookies (two sheets at a time) for about 14 – 16 minutes, If not using convection rotate the pans top to bottom, front to back, about halfway through baking.
  6. ) The Macarons are done when they just barely separate from the parchment paper. Remove from oven and let the Macarons cool completely on the baking sheet placed on a wire rack. To assemble the Macarons, take two cookies and sandwich them together with filling.
  7. To make the filling:
  8. ) Make the sabayon by beating egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar over a double boiler until it doubles in volume and this creamy. The mixture falling from the whisk should be able to make a figure 8 when falling back into the bowl. Remove from heat and beat another 3 minutes to cool. Allow to cool completely.
  9. ) Beat mascarpone a little to soften. Fold into the cooled sabayon.
  10. ) beat whipping cream until slightly thick then add sugar, vanilla, and cognac, then beat until soft peak. Fold into the mascarpone & sabayon mixture. Refrigerate to thicken up a bit.

 

Mocha Chip Meringues

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Mocha Chip Meringues

Every friday I like to cook treats and put them in the hallway of my building. We live in a small three story walk up with 10 units. Everyone knows everyone and we all get along. It is lovely to live in a building where you know and get along with all your neighbours and where everyone likes to hang out and do BBQ’s and socialize.

So on Fridays I like to make a nice dinner for my partner and I and part of my friday cooking is also baking. One dessert for us that is a special dessert to go with our fancier than weekday average meal and a treat of some cookies/pie/cake or candy for the hallway. This week was Mocha Chip Meringues. This recipe comes from Martha Stewart and is a favourite I like to make. It is simple and tasty does not have a lot of ingredients and can be make in little time. It is also a great use of some spare egg whites you might have in your fridge.

Tip:

A tip for using egg whites in meringues is to age your egg whites. This is done by simply putting your egg whites into a glass jar, putting some paper towel over it, and than securing the ring of the typical two part lid onto the canning jar. The point here is that you want to secure the paper towel on top of the jar so you can use elastic bands or string or whatever works. The paper towel will allow for air flow into the jar of egg whites but keep anything else out. Now leave it in your fridge for at least a day and up to 5 days. These are now “aged” egg whites and will beat up lighter and fluffier than other whites. Perfect for making macarons or Mocha Chip Meringues

Note, I added a teaspoon (5 ml) of rum extract just to give another dimension of flavour.

Mocha Chip Meringues:

Mocha Chip Meringues
Recipe Type: Cookies/Meringues
Author: Martha Stewart
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 48
Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 3 large egg whites, room temperature
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
  • 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 148c or 300f, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch; set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt on medium speed until frothy. Beating constantly, add sugar mixture 1 tablespoon at a time; beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, 6 to 8 minutes total (scrape down the bowl halfway through). Add espresso powder and cocoa; beat until well blended. With a rubber spatula, fold in chocolate chips.
  3. Drop batter by level tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake until crisp, about 40 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Cool completely on sheets, about 20 minutes.

 
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookes

Here is one of my recipes I am most proud of. It is for the simple but always a BIG favourite, the chocolate chip cookie. Seriously, if you don’t like a great chocolate chip cookie you may be psychotic.

This cookie has a couple of great things going for it. Firstly it uses brown butter for a great caramel flavour. Secondly I add extra salt for a bit of a salty hit. And last but not least I use coconut sugar where others might use white sugar. Coconut sugar is much healthier for you (not the reason I use it here) but more to the point in this cookie it is less sweet and not overly refined also bringing more caramel notes.

This Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie always is a big hit and disappears when I present them to my neighbours!

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Author: MomoK
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 40 cookies
Ingredients
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon espresso powder
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup brown clarified butter
  • 1 cup sugar, preferable coconut sugar
  • 2/3 cup light brown sugar (packed)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups mix chocolate chips
  • 1 cup toasted pecans finely chopped
Instructions
  1. First step is to brown and clarify the butter. On medium heat in a pot add about 1 1/3 cups butter. Stir and watch for it to brown. Scoop off any foam and strain through paper town or fine mesh. All the clarified brown butter to cool and re-solidify.
  2. Preheat oven to 182c convection or 190c regular. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
  3. Whisk together flour, espresso powder, salt and baking soda.
  4. With a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the butter on medium for a minute. Add the sugars and beat for another few minutes until well blended and smooth.
  5. Beat in the vanilla and add eggs one at a time beating for a minute between each addition of egg.
  6. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts with rubber spatula. At this stage the dough could be covered and refrigerated for upto three days or frozen. If freezing make into rounded tablespoons, this can then be baked as needed without defrosting just add another minute or so to the baking time.
  7. Spoon dough in rounded tablespoons onto baking sheets. Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating have way through baking or until edges are brown and golden in the centre; they may still be soft in the middle, and that’s good. Pull sheets from the oven and allow cookies to rest for a minute then cool complete on racks.

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Vegetarian Panna Cotta Tart

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Vegetarian Panna Cotta Tart

You have to love WordPress! There is a plug in for everything! I have just installed the EasyRecipe plugin and it will allow me to post recipes to this blog and have them become easily accessible to you for downloading into your favourite cooking app or print directly from the page. I use Paprika Recipe Manager and I love it. It runs on my mac, ipad, & android phone with syncing between them all. So I can manage my 600+ and growing collection of recipes.

Below you will find my first recipe that I am posting. This recipe is one that I adapted from a basic vanilla panna cotta but here I make it vegetarian using agar agar to set it in place of nasty gelatin. I also like to make this into a tart with brown butter graham wafer crumb crust and it is completely delicious. Using this basic recipe you can adapt this panna cotta to suit many flavours. This weekend I am going to make a rhubarb panna cotta and I will post that recipe as I create it.

Vanilla Panna Cotta Tart, Vegetarian (with agar agar)
Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: Italian
Author: MomoK
This is a simple vanilla panna cotta but it uses agar agar not gelatin so it is vegetarian. This recipe can be easily adapted for other flavours. The agar agar ratio in panna cotta is .5 grams agar agar to 100 grams liquid. Use this to adapt any panna cotta.
Ingredients
  • Tart Shell:
  • 3 cups Graham Wafer Crumbs
  • 3/4 cup Butter, browned this will end in 1/2 cup butter once skimmed
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • Panna Cotta:
  • 600 grams Heavy Cream
  • 400 grams Whole Milk
  • 15 ml Vanilla Bean Paste or
  • 1 whole Vanilla Bean
  • 6 tablespoons Sugar
  • 5 grams Agar Agar
Instructions
  1. Tart Shell:
  2. ) Preheat oven to 175c/350f
  3. ) Melt and brown butter. Skim off foam and measure 1/2 cup browned butter.
  4. ) Combine with the graham wafer crumbs and mix well.
  5. ) Press into a 9″ tart pan with removable bottom and bake for 10 minutes. Cool.
  6. Panna Cotta:
  7. ) Mix cream, milk, vanilla paste, and sugar. If you are using vanilla bean scrape out the seeds and add the seeds and pod to the milk. Remove the pod once cooking is done. bring to a boil, 80c/180f.
  8. ) Once cream/milk mixture is at temperature whisk in the agar agar and keep whisking for 8 minutes. Keep an eye on the temperature and do not let it go above 90c/194f. If it does hit 90c reduce temperature and keep it at the 80c mark.
  9. ) After 8 minutes of heating and whisking the cream/milk/agar agar remove from heat and let it cool so that it is warm. Poor into prepared tart shell and refrigerate. Agar Agar will set quickly once in the fridge so the panna cotta will be ready within a couple of hours.
  10. ) Once set you can serve with your selection of fresh fruit, fruit compote, whatever you would like that you think will work well. This is not an overly sweet panna cotta. My preference is to enjoy with cognac!

 

Baby Salmonberries in Stanley Park

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Baby Salmonberries in Stanley Park

First of the new crop of Stanley Park Salmonberries
First of the new crop of Stanley Park Salmonberries

I was out for my regular morning walk in Stanley Park when I spotted the first signs of the coming crop of salmonberries. I have seen flowers for weeks now but this was the first of the berries. Now I am excited!  I love salmonberries. They are fantastic as jam and baked into pies. For some reason you never see these in stores and most people thing they are blackberries. But they are not.

Salmonberries can be red/yellow/black and often on the same bush you will find all three colours ripe and ready to eat. In fact I often see people grabbing a quick snack of these wonderful berries. They do contain a lot of seeds, more so than blackberries. But seeds are healthy for you. Enjoy these berries when you come across them. They are all over Stanley Park and are the dominant berry you will find.

Salmonberries ripen before blackberries and will be in season from early or late may until June or even July. The blackberries will pick up when the salmonberries are gone. The main visual difference you can use to tell the bushes of berries apart is that salmonberry bushes thiner branches with fine thorns. Blackberry bushes have thicker branches and thorns that are more like rose bushes and can really cut you. Be carful!

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Scott’s Salmonberry Pie Recipe

Baby Salmonberries in Stanley Park
Recipe Type: Pie
Author: Scott Clark
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 (9-inch) pie
Ingredients
  • Pastry
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 4 ounces cold butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cardamom spice
  • 1/4 cup cold water
  • Flour, for rolling
  • Salmonberry filling:
  • 4 cups Salmonberries
  • Water
  • 2/3 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • Topping:
  • 1 pint whipping cream
Instructions
  1. Mix the flour, butter, salt, and cardamom. Add water and mix until it becomes a ball. Be sure not to overmix.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  3. Flour surface and rolling pin to roll pastry out on. Roll to about 1/4-inch. Place in a 9-inch pie dish and crimp the edges. Line crust with foil to maintain shape. Bake at 350-degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for another 5 minutes. Remove and let cool.
  4. To make the Salmonberry filling: Crush 2 cups of the Salmonberries through a sieve. This will take some time but it is essential to remove all of the seeds. Add water to Salmonberry juice to make 1 1/2 cups of liquid. Put the juice and water into a pan. Add sugar and salt.
  5. Mix the cornstarch and cardamom with some of the juice, then add it to the sieved berry mixture. Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly for about 5 to10 minutes. Do not scorch. Remove from heat and let cool. Add remaining berries, stir and pour into the pre-baked shell. Chill pie until completely cold.
  6. Whip cream until stiff peaks form. Pipe or spread over the top of the pie and serve.

 
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