How to make French Macarons

Last week I posted about these macarons that I made. Here is the follow up with a picture how-to. Enjoy!

French Macarons

With Valentines Day approaching I wanted to make French Macarons. Not only do they taste fantastic, but they are a beautiful treat. I love a good excuse to make a great looking and tasting dessert. The basic recipe that I followed came from here. I changed it up a bit though, to create the flavors that I wanted. The macarons are raspberry with a lemon cardamom butter cream filling. The flavors went together excellently! To make some of the macarons pop more I added some hot pink sugar sprinkles. These are such a girlie treat! Below is my butter cream recipe. Next week I'll post a picture how-to for making macarons with a few tips that I have learned.

Here is my Lemon Cardamom butter cream recipe:
-1/2 stick butter (4-5 Tablespoons)
-1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest
-1 (scant) teaspoon cardamom
-3 Tablespoons milk
-3 cups powdered sugar
(yellow food coloring optional)
Mix all ingredients together with a high speed mixer. Add yellow food coloring to your desire.

Raspberry & Chocolate Ganache Tartlets

In preparation for Valentines Day (coming up!) here is a wonderful, delicious tartlet recipe. (If I do say so myself.) I am not a huge fan of Valentines Day, but I do love the excuse to make fun desserts.

I used a crust recipe from Epicurious and it will work for either a full 9" tart pan or about 4-6 mini tart pans, which is what I used. This crust recipe is great to make ahead of time and then freeze until you need it. If you make it ahead of time, form the dough into a disc (or discs if you are using smaller pans), wrap, and freeze/refrigerate it that way.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
• 2 tablespoons chilled whipping cream

Preparation:

Blend flour and salt. Add butter; using a pastry cutter, cut in until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3 tablespoons ice water and cream. Process just until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; chill 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 375°F and spray or butter the tartlet pans. Roll dough into a small circle and then push the tart dough into the pans, poke holes in the bottom with a fork, and place in freezer for 10-20 minutes. Remove from freezer and bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

For the Ganache:

• 6 ounces dark or bittersweet chocolate (finely chopped)
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 4 tablespoons raspberry jam
• 3-5 cups fresh raspberries

In a small sauce pan allow the cream to boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam. Then stir in chocolate. Continue to stir until all of the chocolate has melted. Let the ganache cool for about 10-15 minutes, then pour into baked tartlet crusts. Arrange whole raspberries on top of the tarts. Over medium heat stir remaining 3 tablespoons of raspberry jam and 1 teaspoons of water until melted. Pour this glaze over the raspberries on the tartlets.

Divine

Cranberry Almond Wedges

View the recipe here.

Yum, these wedges look divine. I might just have to try my hand at making them for a Thanksgiving day snack. Move over turkey and stuffing I want the sweets!