Ginger Macarons with Orange Sugar Buttercream

My first stop for baking with my orange sugar simply had to be buttercream frosting to pair with ginger macarons.

 Baking with a new ingredient is always so much fun. Lately I've been in a macaron making mood. Ever since Christmas and making macarons with my mother I've been wanting to make more and keep perfecting this process.

It seems like every time I post a macaron recipe I get a lot of comments on the post about being scared to make a macaron! Let me clear this up: making a macaron is NOT hard. It's actually relatively simple, and takes very little hands on time! Can you whip egg whites until they have soft peaks? Can you sift and fold? Can you pour out a tester teaspoon to see if the batter will flatten slightly? Yes? Then you're going to be just fine!

If it makes you feel any better, the vast majority of the macarons I see sold around DC aren't done perfectly either. Their batter is undermixed. How can I tell? The lumpy tops are a dead give away. The batter never flattened properly. I have made that mistake myself. If you look at my chinese five spice macarons you can see that they are actually just slightly under-mixed. Is it a learning process? Sure! But so was cake right? Or making caramel? or Toffee?

Want me to talk you into it? Shoot me an email! Trust me, you'll be just fine! .....well.....one weird rule: if it's humid, don't bother. At least that's what I hear. I've just always followed that rule. One of these days I'll be a rebel and make macarons during a horrible rain storm.

Now as for using my orange sugar to make a buttercream, this took a bit of pondering. I had to put forth some effort to grind my sugar into powdered sugar. It took longer than I wanted it to. I'm not the most patient of people. Quality time with my food processor is not really what I look for in a Tuesday night. I succeeded. The orange sugar will in fact, after a while, turn into a powdered sugar that can be used in buttercream! So happy!

Hope you enjoy this little recipe, and more importantly I hope that if macarons scare you, you'll face the fear. They are a wonderful cookie!

Ginger Macarons

100 g. egg whites

25 g. white sugar

200 g. powdered sugar

110 g. ground almond meal

1 tsp. ground ginger
dried orange zest (optional)

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

In a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites into a foam, gradually adding the sugar. Continue to beat into a meringue. 

Sift together powdered sugar, ginger, and almond meal to remove any clumps. Gently sift into meringue gradually folding in, usually as few strokes as possible. Test a teaspoon of batter by pouring onto a plate. If it flatten slightly, you’re ready. If it remains stiff, give it a few more strokes. Err on the side of under-mixed.

Moving quickly fill a disposable pastry bag with the macaron batter with a 3/4 inch wide cut end. Pipe small rounds one inch in diameter and one inch apart, onto the baking sheets. Allow to rest for half an hour. Sprinkle the tops with dried orange zest.

Preheat the oven to 300. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes. My experience is that if the macarons are hard to remove from the paper, they need more time to bake. Allow to cool on the pan and then remove. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to fill. 

Orange Sugar Buttercream 

1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 cup powdered orange sugar (pulse sugar cubes in a food processor)

Whip with a paddle attachment: butter, and vanilla until creamy then whip in the sugars.

Five Spice Macarons with Caramel

Chinese cassia cinnamon, star anise, anise seed, ginger and cloves are added to these dainty french cookies sandwiches with caramel and loaded with flavor. 

I was trying to come up with a way to make our gingerbread houses into a post. Though they are rather cute, I highly doubt that gluing kit-kats together with royal icing constitutes a recipe! So instead there will be a juxtaposition in this post. Successful macaron recipe and attempts at gingerbread houses. 

I'll give you a few guesses on the top left gingerbread house before I tell you what it is. No, it's not a shack from Deliverance. Guess again! Nothing Tim Burton whatsoever, though yes, there is some resemblance to his Hansel and Gretel project. Good guess! Try once more. Oh, and here's a clue....that gummy bear at the bottom that looks like he met the business end of a gingerbread Narwhal, he's meant to look like he's fishing. Oh, sad! You wasted your last guess on Tom Sawyer. Nope. ....okay, so I have no idea what you guessed, most likely it was far more entertaining that my guesses. 

The real answer is Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright. Bonus points for creativity. This was Brandon's invention. The rest of us at our gingerbread house competition were a bit more traditional.

By traditional I mean that my roommate Julie and I made houses not out of architectural guide books. Julie made a good solid structure. She was not taken in by the guiles of our competition. No, no. She built the only house that was still standing by the end of the night. (Brandon, I ate your house's roof as soon as I saw your taillights. Sorries!). I on the other hand.........well...........

Falling Water taken from this site

I made a Victorian house. It had cellar doors, a bay window, a chimney, and about 32 pieces that I baked up. I got the pattern from an online site and should have been VERY wary that there was no completed picture! I can only assume that there is no actual way of completing this house! In the end I had an okay structure, without the cellar, bay windows or chimney. It did have a nice roof and snow (bottom right of the collage) but it was not a Victorian house by any stretch of the imagination. In all reality it was a basic stucco cookie cutter home I could see anywhere in the Southwestern section of the United States. SAD! After cutting and re-cutting all those little pieces, half of them just wouldn't work out......and to top it all off the darn thing collapsed. (I blame my fake snow. I think it was too heavy for the load bearing walls to manage). It was an excellent learning experience.

Gingerbread Tips (that I learned from failure) 

1. keep it simple people! 

2. decorate the walls before assembling the house. 

3. know what your completed house looks like. gingerbread puzzles are not fun. (I had to re-arrange the walls a few times before they were in their proper places). 

4. re-cut all the walls after baking. they spread out and that's no good. 

5. watch the weight of your roof! I used fondant to cover the roof. be wary! 

After all that I have to now find a way to transition to the juxtaposed macarons. Ha. I'm not that great a writer. Not. Gonna. Happen.

These macarons were ones I made at my mother's house and took to the family Christmas dinner. I made them a bit "spicy" shall we say. Very flavorful. I used my Chinese Five Spice powder (Chinese cassia cinnamon, star anise, anise seed, ginger and cloves) which is not the traditional mix with Fennel in it (thank heaven!). Consider them my redemption for failing miserably with gingerbread this year. I found the spice to be strong and addictive, my mother would have halved it. Take your pick! One teaspoon or two you can't go wrong with five spice and caramel! 

Caramel Filling

As adapted from Epicurious

2 large egg yolks

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup whipping cream

2 cups powdered sugar

5 tablespoons water

Place yolks in a stand mixer. Bring 4 tablespoons butter and cream to simmer in heavy small saucepan. Gradually whisk hot cream mixture into yolks.

Stir sugar and 5 tablespoons water in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat and boil without stirring until syrup is deep amber color, occasionally brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush and swirling pan so caramel will color evenly, about 10 minutes.

Slowly whisk hot caramel into yolk mixture, then whisk until smooth. Transfer caramel mixture to small bowl; let stand until no longer warm to touch about 1 hour. Whisk in remaining butter. Cover and chill one day prior to use. 

Chinese Five Spice Macarons 

100 g. egg whites

25 g. white sugar

200 g. powdered sugar

110 g. ground almond meal

1 tsp. (or 2 tsp. for a kick) chinese five spice powder (without fennel! see above! there are different variations on five spice powder)

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

In a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites into a foam, gradually adding the sugar. Continue to beat into a meringue. 

Sift together powdered sugar, spices, and almond meal to remove any clumps. Gently sift into meringue gradually folding in, usually as few strokes as possible.  

Moving quickly fill a disposable pastry bag with the macaron batter with a 3/4 inch wide cut end. Pipe small rounds one inch in diameter and one inch apart, onto the baking sheets. Allow to rest for half an hour. 

Preheat the oven to 300. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes. My experience is that if the macarons are hard to remove from the paper, they need more time to bake. Allow to cool on the pan and then remove. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to fill. 

To Fill: 

Scoop and roll two teaspoons of caramel, gently flattening into a disc roughly the size of the macarons, gently sandwich between two. 

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. 

Sweet Potato Ice Cream

If they can make sweet potatoes into pies, why not ice cream too? A unique blend of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, brown sugar and sweet potatoes make this one ice cream not to miss!

I'm not much for professing my love of anything. People, places, things.....okay, I do profess my love for food all the time. All. The. Time. But, this post is not going to profess my love for food.....just a food critic's book. It's different than food I swear! ....okay, what I really love is her talking about food all the time.....I give. I only love one thing.

I've been reading Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl. I. Love. It. Mostly for the theatrics of it all. Who doesn't love a food critic who dresses up in ridiculously fun outfits! Telling stories about the way she would get treated in restaurants and the elaborate measure of concealment it would take....including going on a date! While married! She paid for her own food but still! I love it. I'm only half way through, and normally just stick a blip about what I'm reading at the bottom....but this book I have been enjoying too much to keep it on the sidelines.

One thing I've loving is the occasional mention of ice creams served in the restaurants. It makes me happy to hear that these four star place of the 90s in NYC were making some ice creams I've been trying my hands at! Granted the last one they mentioned was one that I failed at need to work on: Lemon Verbena.

But here is one that turned out beautifully! Sweet Potato Ice Cream is one treat not to miss!

Sweet Potato Ice Cream


2 lbs. sweet potatoes
1 cup cream
1/2 cup milk
3/4 s packaged dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
pinch salt


Bake the sweet potatoes on 400 for one hour. 


Peel the baked sweet potatoes and puree. Beat in the half-and-half, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and salt. Beat together until smooth. 

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker. Allow the ice cream to churn until finished and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Apple Donuts

The beautiful fall flavors of pumpkin, cinnamon, and apples coming together into a wonderful cake doughnut perfect for the season! 

Alright, I've been getting far too behind at life. But when you think about it, how could I not? The last month...actually just the last two weeks. I mean, how on earth could I not get behind when our office manager gets fired in a big way, me and the boyfriend call it quits, our office had a board meeting....in which we had to smooth over all the byproducts of the office manager's mess, I catered a wedding, and then a breakfast, and went out of town for three days, and to top it all off my car is in the shop. Life. Is. Awesome. 

Actually life really is good. I can't complain. I mean, let's just look at that list the other way: I have a job, I have been loved, I have a semi-successful blogging life, I get to travel, I have good food and I have a car. Honestly, that pretty well puts me about the top of the ladder as far as I can see. I have a nice little life, even if it is a bit full. 

I have been promising wedding catering posts. I have been promising posts about my recent trip (and that is going to be one AMAZING post!). I have two other posts that I still haven't gotten to, but since every one of those sentences started with "I have" I'm just going to go ahead and say it means I have a lot to be thankful for! 

These little doughnuts are coming from the breakfast I did last week. They are chock full of yummy apples, and pumpkin and cinnamon and nutmeg, or in other words, chock full of YUM! I took a large parcel of them with us on the road trip. It was so hard not to eat them all in one sitting! I hope you like them too! 

Pumpkin Apple Cinnamon Cake Donuts

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

½ teaspoon Vietnamese cinnamon

½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup peeled, cored and chopped apple

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons Vietnamese cinnamon

apple cider or water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 doughnut molds.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, pumpkin and oil. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stirring just to moisten. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into doughnut molds filling roughly half full.

Bake for roughly ten minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool, and decorate accordingly.

To make the apple cinnamon glaze mix powdered sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Add cider or water until you reach the desired consistency. Dip each doughnut in and allow glaze to set.

Enjoy! 

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Pumpkin Chiffon is a light, smooth, creamy version of tradition pumpkin pie. It's my mother's favorite, and that right there says it all! :) Mama knows best, right?

For my birthday party we held a mini-pumpkin themed night. Or at least we tried to. We were going to play games like mini pumpkin bocce, capture the mini pumpkin, mini pumpkin relays, and of course, mini pumpkin pie eating contest! In the end, the weather made most of our plans impossible, and though playing in the rain can be fun....this would have been playing in a downpour. Not. So. Fun. 

We did however get to have our mini pumpkin pie eating contest and these little beauties were it! I made them in a cupcake tin! I'm not sure how it happened, but I FINISHED DEAD LAST! Everyone kept yelling at me not to be dainty. DAINTY?!?!?! Are you kidding me? I had pie across half my face! The stupid  adorable little pie kept scooting farther and farther away from me as I tried to eat it. I spent half my time trying to pull it back with my teeth so I could get another bite! Epic. Fail. My friends Tristan and Hugh won practically in a dead tie. Amazing. My favorite part had to be when someone commented "Wow. That was the best pie eating contest pie I've ever had!" ....first off, thank you, but secondly, how many of those have you had?!?! This was my first! 

In a few weeks I'm going to the Giant Pumpkin Regatta in Goffstown, NH. I hear the festival has a pumpkin pie eating contest. I hope so, because I could use a little redemption! 

I also recommend making the pumpkin chiffon filling and simply putting it into individual ramekins or hallowed out mini pumpkins as a pumpkin mousse dessert. 

Chiffon Pumpkin Pie

2 baked 9” pie shells or about 24 mini pie shells

4 tsp. gelatin

6 tsp. cold water

1 15 oz. can pumpkin

¾ cup milk

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

2 cups sugar minus 4 tablespoons

4 eggs, yolks and whites separated

To slightly beaten egg yolks, add ½ cup of the sugar, pumpkin, milk, salt, and spices.

Heat in a double broiler. Pour cold water in small bowl and sprinkle gelatin on top

of water. Once set add to hot pumpkin mixture. Mix thoroughly and cool. Beat egg

whites with remaining sugar to make a meringue. Fold into pumpkin mixture. Pour into

previously bake and cooled pie shells. Chill in refrigerator.

Phyllo Pie Shells

sugar

cinnamon

nutmeg

butter

phyllo dough

Make up a cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg mixture to your preferred ratios. Take phyllo and layer it, about four deep, brushing with melted butter in between each layer, and sprinkle the sugar mixture on every other layer. Press down into your molds and bake at 350 for a few minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool in the pan completely before trying to remove. 

Sesame Ginger Ice Cream

Sesame Ginger Ice Cream is certainly not your average ice cream! The slightly savory hint of the Asian oils and spices create a unique blend that is sure to impress!

So..... round one of this ice cream was taken to a dinner party a while back......I was informed it tasted like chicken. It didn't taste like chicken, just the glaze on a chicken. There is a difference. Haha. Yes, the blend of spices includes many of those found in a sesame ginger chicken recipe.........so we'll call version one a fail and move on from that.  After halving the spices, removing the garlic, it now is no longer followed by the phrase "tastes like chicken" just "mmmm." 


And speaking of mmmmmmm...I'll be spending my weekend gearing up for the Arizona trip on Wednesday! Jet skis, rock climbing jeep, clay pigeon shooting, RAWHIDE!, and most importantly: GREAT Mexican food! I'm sorry DC. I love you, but really, have you been to Mexico? Not Cancun! For shame! Actual Mexico. No? Lauriol Plaza has some good food....but it's about as Mexican as Cancun. You want to make some real money on Mexican food? Drive down to Puerto Penasco, make your way over to Cholla Bay, find a stand called Mr. Fish Taco. Take care of all the legalities and make it work. You will not regret it. I currently regret not being there. Right. This. Minute. 


I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! And please don't forget to please vote for Cherry Tea Cakes (I mean really, what other food blogger could make ice cream that DOESN'T taste like chicken!) in the Express Night Out's Best of 2010 DC Food Blogs contest! Look under people and places! I am the underdog, and realize I stand no chance, but it's fun for a moment to pretend I do! :) 

Sesame Ginger Ice Cream

1  tablespoons  balsamic vinegar

1  tablespoons   soy sauce

1/2 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2  tablespoon  water

1/2  tablespoon  dark sesame oil

1/2  teaspoon  minced peeled fresh ginger

1/8  teaspoon  crushed red pepper

pinch teaspoon dried orange peel

2 egg

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

2 cup cream

1 cup milk

Combine first eight ingredients, stirring well with a whisk. Set aside. 

In a stand mixer combine the eggs and sugar.  Beat for one minute until light and fluffy. 

Gently mix in the cream, milk, lemon extract and spice mixture. 

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker. Allow the ice cream to churn until finished and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.