When beginning my project, I went online and searched the toughest food to bake, and macarons showed up everywhere. Being a very enthusiastic macaron consumer, I decided to try and tackle this daunting dessert.

My first go was with Bryan (a professional chef and awesome human), and he did most of the heavy lifting. Prior to his visit, we had discussed the difficulty of macarons, and Bryan, being the perfectionist that he is, said that he had never made a perfect one. However, as we began, the macarons were not as difficult as I had expected: you just have to know what you are doing (thank god for Bryan). And you have to get every part right and make no mistakes. Starting to rethink how hard these actually are. Okay…they’re hard.

The first thing you have to understand is that this takes a lot of different things happening at once, it’s tough to do with just one person. The second is egg whites. Click here to see my guide for whipping the perfect egg whites, because really what does a ‘soft peak’ look like anyways?

Tips:

1. When you start, although the recipe does not call for it, you should mix the sugar and almond flour in a food processor and then sift it into a bowl. This will allow the macarons’ outer shell to be as smooth as possible. Sifting is always a good idea with basically any dry ingredient anyways.
2. You have to use a candy thermometer. It seems scary, but it’s not so bad.
3. With the sugar heating up, the egg whites can wait for the sugar, but the sugar can’t wait for the egg whites, so make sure your egg whites are done first.
4. Use a template! We traced the bottom of a shot glass with pencil onto parchment paper and made the circles about 1.5 inches apart. This way you can pipe the right amount in the right place, and all of your macarons will be the same size for even baking. Just make sure you put the penciled side down.
5. I realize the recipe is written using the metric system and that freaked me out as well, until Bryan made me buy a scale and told me it won’t work unless I follow the weights exactly. Seriously…I own a scale and actually use it to weigh flour when I’m baking anything and it is a game changer.
6. The cookies don’t actually have the flavor (they can with other recipes but usually don’t), that’s where the filling comes into play. You can make the same batch of cookies and use different flavored filling.

This is what the sugar should look like. Keep your thermometer in the pot and wait for 116 degrees C or “soft ball” stage.

Use a template for the right size and shape

otherwise they look like this

You will see tiny bubbles come to the surface- use a toothpick to pop them

Like I said…templates are the best idea ever!

Parisian Macarons Recipe

Tant-pour-Tant Dough

• 150g ground almonds (almond flour)
• 150g icing sugar
• 50g egg white, room temperature

Meringue

• 120g granulated sugar
• 40g water, room temperature
• 55g egg white, room temperature

Directions:

1. Sift ground almonds and icing sugar together and set aside
2. In a saucepan over medium heat boil 120g of granulated sugar and water together.
   1. Simultaneously whisk the 55g of egg whites on medium speed in a stand mixer bowl with a whisk attachment (or carefully with a hand-mixer) until you see stiff peaks.
3. Once the sugar syrup has reached 116 degrees C, reduce the speed of the mixer and pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a steady but swift stream. Try to pour the syrup between the side of the bowl and the whisk, if it hits the whisk it will spray everywhere.
4. Once all of the syrup is poured in, bring the speed back up to medium to whip into a meringue for 8-10 minutes.
5. Pour the 50g of egg whites onto the dry almond-icing sugar mix in a mixing bowl and fold in the ingredients with a spatula just until they come together as a stiff dough
6. At this point, the meringue is ready to be folded into the dough when the bowl has cooled till just warm to the touch and the meringue is stiff and glossy. Fold the meringue in using gentle and firm strokes, scraping from all the sides of the bowl and pulling the spatula through the middle to incorporate all ingredients just till it reaches a smooth and glossy cake-batter like consistency. Do not push down batter, you want to keep it as full of air and fluffy as possible.
7. If you want to add food coloring and different colors to different macarons you can separate the batter into bowls, add food coloring gel (liquid will weaken your batter), and put them all into their own piping bags. Cut parchment paper to the size of the baking trays (you really want straight trays for this to get that perfect circle shape). Using a stencil of circles will help you make all of the macarons the same size. Leave 1.5 inch gaps in between each macaron.
8. Once a whole tray is piped with batter tap firmly against the counter to make bubbles rise to the surface. Pop any bubbles with a toothpick to avoid holes and cracks.
9. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C or 350 degrees F. The macarons will be ready to go in the oven when they have a sort of outer shell that is slightly sticky. This will give your macarons the “foot.”
10. Bake for 13 minutes. Once baked, let the trays and shells cool completely on a heatproof surface or a cooling rack before peeling shells of gently.

Butter Cream Filling

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon Cream
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/4 cup of soft butter
• 4 Tablespoons of your favorite jam, peanut butter, nutella or anything else you want to try!
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Directions:

1. Blend together the butter and half of the sugar. Stir in your jam or other flavor, cream and vanilla extract.
2. Gradually add the rest of the sugar until the mixture is soft and smooth.
3. Place in piping bag and pipe onto macaron cookie. Enjoy!

So today I decided to do cream puffs because cream puffs are delicious. This recipe from Chef in Training  is super simple, however, my first go was not fully a success. The first batch was good but had a sort of not-so-subtle eggy flavor. I fear that this is because after finishing the dough, I added the eggs while the dough was still extremely hot. I tried to see if I had cooked the eggs and it didn’t look like it, however, I can’t see another reason they may have tasted so much like eggs.

The second try, I waited for the dough to cool before adding the eggs (which takes quite a while), and thankfully it tasted much less eggy. My other piece of advice would be to make the pastry part as high as you can (without making it a weird tower) because when they spread out, they look considerably less like the cream puffs you may imagine. The second batch I piped the cream puffs onto the baking sheet instead of just spooning them out, and they actually were not as pretty. Using a spoon to shape them makes for a fluffier looking puff.

The filling for cream puffs is pretty simple. However, when I let it sit the first time it was not for long enough, and it was still really soupy when I tried to add it to the cream puffs. My advice would be to whip it as much as you can and then let it sit overnight if you have the time. I also added vanilla extract because vanilla extract makes everything better. Also, adding a chocolate sauce on top really makes these cream puffs. I used the recipe below and it worked out really well and tastes delicious. Tip: make the chocolate sauce right before you intend to add it to the cream puffs and then you will get a nice, slightly hardened shell on top.

Cream Puffs Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 packages (3.5 ounces) of instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup water
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Mix together vanilla instant pudding mix, cream and milk. Cover and refrigerate to set.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
3. In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an un-greased baking sheet.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Centers should be dry.
5. When the shells are cool, either split and fill them with the pudding mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the pudding into the shells.Frosting:

Frosting:

• ½ cup butter
• ⅓ cup cocoa
• ¼ cup milk
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• ½ tsp. vanilla
• ⅛ tsp. salt

Directions:

1. Melt butter and milk in microwave safe bowl.
2. Add powder sugar, cocoa, salt and vanilla.
3. Whisk together and pour into a large zip lock bag. Cut a small corner off and drizzle chocolate over cream puffs.

Much like brownies, there are a million different kinds of chocolate chip cookies you can make. I stumbled onto a Buzzfeed recipe for chocolate chip cookies and then discovered 4 recipes in total to account for cakey, classic, bakery, and crispy cookies. I decided to tackle the classic and the cakey. My personal favorite was the classic cookie, partially because the cakey did not turn out quite right so that is the recipe I decided to share.

These cookies are super easy: they come together just like cookies should, the dough is incredible, and the end product is to die for. First of all, they do not turn out like fat lumps like the cookies I made first, these cookies spread into addicting circles of heaven. My only tip for these is to measure out your flour correctly, and follow the instructions in the order you’re meant to. As long as you follow everything, there isn’t too much to mess up: which makes this the best recipe.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature (8 oz/226g)
1¼ cups packed light brown sugar (9 oz/250g)
¾ cup granulated sugar (6 oz/175g)
2½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled (10.5 oz/300g)
1½ tsp kosher salt or ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
12-ounce bag (2 cups) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
Flaky sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Whisk both sugars in a large bowl and make sure to break up any large chunks. If there are any stubborn lumps, break them up with your fingertips. Add the melted butter and whisk vigorously for about 1 minute, until the mixture forms one mass and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a flexible spatula.

3. Whisk in one egg to the sugar-butter mixture, stirring until it’s fully mixed in. Scrape the sides of the bowl with your spatula. Whisk in the second egg and the vanilla and scrape the sides of bowl again.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir with the spatula to fully combine. Make sure you’ve scraped the bottom of the bowl and there are no streaks of dry ingredients left. Stir in the chocolate chips.

TO BAKE RIGHT AWAY: Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Refrigerate the dough for at least 10 minutes while the oven preheats, then scoop the dough in 2-ounce portions with a cookie scoop (or you can measure out ¼ cup/4 tablespoon scoops with your hands) and sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Bake the cookies 3 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet (about 6 cookies per baking sheet) for 10 to 14 minutes, until the edges are set and the cookie is beginning to turn golden brown throughout. Let cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

TO BAKE AFTER DOUGH RESTS (recommended): Scoop the dough into 2-ounce portions with a cookie scoop (or you can measure out ¼ cup/4 tablespoon scoops with your hands) and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Wrap the baking sheet tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 3 days. You can also freeze the chilled balls of dough in an airtight zip-top bag for up to 1 month.

Thirty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 375ºF. Sprinkle the dough with flaky sea salt and bake 3 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 12 to 16 minutes, until the edges are set and the cookie is beginning to turn golden brown throughout. Let cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

If you are going to try making macarons or lemon meringue pie,  you’d better be able to master the art of whipping egg whites.  Once you understand what not to do and what to look for, it’s easy!

3 must-have tips before you even think about whipping egg whites!

1. If your mixing bowl has any oil or butter in it, your egg whites will not whip no matter how hard you try, so make sure your mixing bowl is clean!
2. If any yolk at all gets in with your egg whites they will not whip, so be careful!
3. Room temperature egg whites beat fluffier! To get eggs to room temperature leave out for an hour or place in warm water for about 5 minutes.

The Peaks:

1. No peaks: After a little whipping, the egg whites will begin to get foamy and opaque; however, it will be too liquid to hold any shape.
2. Soft peak: The peak is starting to hold but will collapse after a second
3. Firm peak: The peak will fold over but still hold its shape
4. Stiff peak: The peak will stand straight up without collapsing

Firm peak

Stiff Peak

Full out meringue

How to tell when cupcakes are done:

We discussed in my cupcake blog that you want to avoid opening the oven or taking them out if they aren’t done, but how can you tell?

1. Pick the biggest cupcake or the one that looks the least done (cupcakes in the middle will bake the slowest)
2. Lightly touch it on top. If it sticks to your finger, it’s not done. It should spring back when you touch it.
3. You will be able to see the cupcakes starting to lose a little bit of their glossy look when they are done. How simple is that!

Tip:

While the cupcakes are cooling in the pan use a knife to unstick any part of the cupcake touching the pan. When they are ready to come out of the pan, it will be harder to pull them out because the overhanging cupcake will be stuck to the pan.

Today I tackled my greatest enemy: cupcakes. I don’t know why, I just hate making cupcakes. But today, with Chef Bryan’s help, I made some kick-ass cupcakes from a recipe I found on Natasha’s Kitchen. And let me tell you: they are not that difficult at all!

The cupcakes went well, my only mistake was opening the oven door. Upon opening it a crack, Bryan exclaimed, shutting the oven, and explained to me why you shouldn’t open the door unless you’re pretty sure they are ready to come out. He told me that, with cupcakes, if you take them out or open the door too much before the centers are baked through, then they will cave in, and instead of having a pretty dome shape on the top, the cupcake will have a dip in the center.

Also, something important to note is that when the cupcakes are done, you should let them cool in the pan to allow them to hold their shape. When cake comes out of the oven it is extremely tender, but it will firm up when it is cooled. However, if you cool it out of the pan, it could cool too quickly and the cupcake could collapse.

Yellow Cupcakes Recipe

1 ¼ cups cake flour
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 large eggs
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup canola oil
½ cup buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a cupcake/muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 ¼ cups cake flour, 1 ¼ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda and ½ tsp salt and set aside.
3. In an electric mixer, beat 2 eggs with the whisk attachment on medium speed.
4. Add ¾ cup sugar and continue to beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds until combined.
5. Add vanilla and oil and continue to beat on medium speed for about 1 minute.
6. Reduce mixer to low speed and slowly add about half of the flour mixture. When combined, add half of the buttermilk, after that is mixed in, add the rest of the flour mix and, finally, the rest of the milk. Beat until just combined and smooth, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl to be sure everything is well mixed.
7. Pour batter into each cupcake tin until they are about half full.
8. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

If you aren’t sure how to check whether or not the cupcakes are done click here.

Substitutions:

Buttermilk: You can substitute buttermilk with regular milk mixed with some white vinegar or lemon juice (dependent on the amount of milk the recipe calls for) and set aside for 5-10 minutes.

Canola oil: vegetable or extra light olive oil

I, personally, am very particular about my brownies. I would kill for a nice, easy Duncan Hines brownie from a box mix. However, at some point you have to move away from the mixes and try to create something wonderful on your own.

Brownies can be dense and fudge-like, light and cakey, or somewhere in between. I like my brownies to be in between; they should be moist and gooey and not too dense. These brownies certainly were not it; however, they were delicious and so easy. If you love fudge and you like dense, rich, decadent brownies, this is the recipe for you. But no matter what kind of brownie you like, I promise you won’t be able to resist these amazing homemade brownies.

NOTE:   Although the recipe calls for heating in a saucepan, you can really just melt the butter in the microwave.

TIP: When you are putting the finished brownie mix into the pan, try your best not to push it down, this will make your brownies more dense.

TIP: When sifting the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, do not stir at all until everything is added. When flour gets wet the gluten is activated and you want to do this all at one time.

Double Chocolate Fudge Brownies Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• sea salt
• powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9″ x 13″ cake pan with parchment paper.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat then add chocolate chips and stir constantly until melted. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
3. Whisk eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt in a large mixing bowl until completely combined. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a small mixing bowl and pour into a sifter. Sift over the egg mixture then stir to combine.
4. Add your cooled chocolate to the mixture then stir until completely combined. 
5. Spread batter into cake pan and bake for 20 minutes or until firm in the center. Grind a few shakes of sea salt over the top then cool completely. When cooled,  dust with powdered sugar. YUM!
   

   ---

   

   Stir the sifted ingredients into the egg mixture

   

   Melted chocolate ready to mix in!

   

   Pour the chocolate into the flour mixture

   

   Use your muscles! It’s hard to stir!

   

   Spread the thick batter into your cake pan!

   

   YUM!

Today I baked 4 batches of chocolate chip cookies from my mom’s old recipe. This took foreverrrrr. The prep time might say 20 minutes but you may as well triple that by the time you actually get your shit and your ingredients together. I intended to only make 2 dozen cookies all identical, however, a recipe that was only meant to make 24 cookies ended up able to make about 60.

The first batch followed all the rules: the cookies were 1 inch in diameter, 2 inches away from each other, and put in for 8-10 minutes. However, by minute 10 they still looked like they weren’t ready so I put them in for 12 minutes. I put the second batch in for about 9 minutes upon discovering that the first cookies were overdone. The second batch was better, but it was not something you would necessarily give your friends. The cookies looked nothing like the picture (of course) and were much smaller and fatter, so I decided to do 9 for the third batch and flatten them a bit before putting them in. I also only put these in for 8 minutes on the dot, and, to be perfectly honest, I was not 100% sure they were fully done. They were, and they were a lot better than the first and second batches.

I started noticing that the cookie dough was drying out so something prompted me to put milk in a portion of the dough to make batch #4. I figured, hey these are dry, let’s put something wet in there. So I added milk. There were 9 cookies in the 4th batch, and they were the best of all!

Today was definitely not a big success, the cookies are nothing to call home about, but they did get better with every batch, so that’s something to smile about. 

Things to know: your product will probably never look like the picture, just take the cookies out they don’t have to be hard or anything, prep times are a lie, always listen to Beyoncé while cooking, and, finally, practice makes perfect.

Mom’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups flour
• 2 1/4 cups oatmeal, finely ground 
• 1 milk chocolate hershey bar, finely ground 
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream butter with both sugars until light and fluffy. Then add eggs, vanilla milk and salt and blend until combined.
3. Add oatmeal to a food processor and blend into a fine powder. Add milk chocolate bar pieces in with oatmeal and pulse until chocolate is finely ground.
4. Place chocolate and oatmeal mixture in a large mixing bowl and stir in flour, baking soda and baking powder until combined. Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Roll batter into 2” balls and place 2″ apart on parchment-lined baking sheet.
6. Bake 8−10 minutes or until edges are slightly browned and tops are cracking.
7. Remove from oven and carefully tap the baking sheet flat on the counter to deflate the cookies slightly so the cookies will be chewier.
8. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes then place on cooling rack for another 10 minutes. Enjoy!