Cute, Colorful and French

I know, I know.  Macarons are so 2012.

I should move on to whatever this years big dessert treat is!  (actually, I have no idea what is supposed to be "IN" in 2013.  The internet says it's fancy popcorn, figs and push-pops.)  But you know what?  I love macs.  I think that they are cute and colorful and French, so I will go on making macarons until I run out of flavors to make!  Especially now that I've found my method for macs that works consistently without all the fuss.

First, I got these handy egg tools from OXO (through their blogger outreach program).  OXO suggested I make myself a nice omelet, but quite frankly, I don't really go for omelets.  I'm much more of a cinnamon bun for breakfast kind of girl.  If I'm going to eat eggs, they are going to be scrambled and it is going to be after six pm.  Worry not OXO, these egg tools fit perfectly for my other egg related plan - macarons!

I received an egg separator - perfect for separating those whites from yolks.  I also got a person powered hand mixer - just what my tired arms need for whisking sugar into egg whites over a simmering pot of water.  Finally I got a fancy spatula.  The tag said it was an omelet turner.  I put mine to use in the oh so important macaronage step of macaron making.  These tools should be remarketed to the macaron maker.  They worked perfectly!

The other reason I decided to make macs?  I found these freeze-dried raspberries at a gourmet grocery store in South Orange, NJ.  I knew they would make an amazing ingredient to a macaron, since the best way to flavor the cookie itself is with dry ingredients.  If you find freeze-dried mangos, let me know.  I totally want a mango-flavored mac.  How the French would sneer at a mango macaron!

With the tools and the cookies taken care of, there was just one thing left to deal with.  The filling.  Searching my cabinets I happened upon a block of Callebaut white chocolate.  Raspberry macarons filled with white chocolate buttercream?  That sounds just delicious enough to work.  (Would I rather have filled them with white chocolate ganache?  Yes, but I was out of heavy cream and I wanted to eat the cookies ASAP.)

So now we have raspberry and white chocolate macarons, OXO has a new marketing campaign for their egg tools and my pantry is cleared of two of the more eccentric items.  All in all, a good day!

See, so cute.  So colorful.  Bonjour macarons.

A Wilde Half Marathon

This weekend, all of my weeks of training culminated in my first half marathon!  It was six weeks ago that I decided to sign up for and seriously train for 13.1 miles through Central Park.  I have always wanted to complete a half marathon.  I realized that I would never train for it, unless I made the commitment and signed up for a race.  It was paying that entry fee that made me stick to the training schedule. 

Boyfriend and I woke up at 6:00 am, Sunday morning, and got dressed in our finest running gear.  Boyfriend was not officially signed up for the race, as it was a ladies only half marathon, but he planned to run along with me as long as he could.  I loaded up my running belt with Clif bloks and lip balm and tossed extra clothes and water in my tagged baggage.  We headed off into the sunrise toward New York City.

You want to head into the city?  There really isn't any traffic at 6:30 on a Sunday morning.  You might be a bit early for brunch though.  We parked our car around 72nd st (right near the finish line of the race) and walked into the park with hundreds of other ladies, already wearing their running bibs.  By 8:00am BF was waiting at mile 1 for me and I was waiting at the starting line, nervous energy coursing through my body.

When my seed corral was finally at the start line, all 1,000 women were packed tightly together.  After I crossed the starting line I was ready to go.  The first mile I spent on the outer edge of the course, passing everyone in my corral.  Apparently I underestimated my running pace at 9:40/mile, after my six weeks of training I was running closer to 8:20/mile.  I spent the majority of the race passing everyone in front of me, it felt good.

BF met up with me at mile 1 and kept up until his shoes came untied around mile 4.  I was on my own, with 10,000 women, running the Central Park loop.  The loop is 6 miles around, which meant I would be making two full loops and one mile of a third.  I knew that once I passed the 6-mile marker, I would be much happier the next time around.

And I certainly was.  I was so thrilled that I reached up and tapped the mile marker, only 1.1 miles left to run.  Gradually I increased my pace until I was at a full out sprint to cross the finish line at 1 hour 55 minutes, five minutes shy of my two hour goal.  Do I think I could do better?  Yes.  Do I plan to run more half marathons?  You bet.

Finally, my heart goes out to those that have been affected by the tragic events at the Boston marathon yesterday.  It's unbelievable what occurred and so surreal that something like this could happen.  I have several friends that were running in the marathon this year and thankfully have heard from all of them.  Here's hoping for a swift recovery for those injured yesterday as well as the city of Boston.

Coconut Key Lime Squares

I've never been so happy to see Thursday than I have this week!  Not that it has felt like a very long week, it's just been a very tiring one!  Coupled with the fact that I spent a long weekend in Buffalo, eating totally healthy food (aka - hot dogs, Buffalo wings and Perry's ice cream), I'm exhausted.  I even missed one of my scheduled runs for my half marathon training plan!  I'd make it up, but I'm tired.

This past weekend I headed to Buffalo for a few reasons.  1. It was my dad's birthday!  We enjoyed local hibachi at Shogun (ONION VOLCANO!) and ate Dessert Deli cake that was more chocolatey than just pouring chocolate syrup in your mouth.  2. Perry's Ice cream invited me to come visit them and eat ice cream!  And they told me I could bring someone.  I brought my dad, because it was his birthday and he loves their ice cream.  I'll talk more about our ice cream factory tour next week, what I want to talk about today is - my long run in Buffalo.

If you have been reading along, you'll know that I'm only three weeks out from my half marathon!  Each weekend I've been making longer and longer runs to help train for my eventual 13.1 miles in central park.  I've run 10K races in the past and never really trained for them.  BF and I ran a Spartan Super last year that wound up being 11 miles, we trained one day for that race and ate crossant sandwiches the morning of the race.  I decided that neither of these tactics would be a good idea for my upcoming half marathon, I wanted to do it right.

Knowing that it was still a little cold in Buffalo, I packed my new running hat and gloves and fuzzy running jacket.  The only thing I wasn't prepared for was snow.  Which it did on Friday, four inches worth of the white stuff.  I headed to my brothers house and used his treadmill for my 4 mile run.  But there was no way I was going to run 8 miles on a treadmill.  It's so boring!

Instead, I mapped my run online, trying to find the right route from my parents house that would give me an 8 mile loop.  It also had to avoid running up the highway overpass near their house.  I decided upon a route that was just longer than 8 miles and crossed only one 4-lane highway.  It was also on a series of roads that I grew up driving down.  I'm very familiar with the roads of my hometown and I know exactly when each road intersects.  This proved an amazing bonus when running.

Saturday morning, around 9:00am, I worked up the energy to go running.  I put on my layers, showed my mom how to track me with her phone, laced up my shoes and hit the road!  I ran past my High school best friends house, my first house that we moved out of when I was 5, my high school and first middle school.  At mile seven I ran past my brothers house and was on the home stretch!  I crossed the highway and my mile tracker called out the completion of my eighth mile.  Unfortunately, I was still a half mile from home.

After running 8.47 miles in 82 minutes and burning almost nine hundred calories, I had no qualms with eating a big slice of cake for dads birthday that night.

Momofuku Confetti Cookies

A few weeks ago, you may have read that Boyfriend and I spent the evening at Momofuku Milk bar making Crack pie and cereal milk.  Well, BF went out of town for a business trip the other day and I went back to the bakery for more!  And this time we were making crumbs.

I was so excited to be able to make it to this particular class because I have had no luck making Milk bar cookies yet.  I've made them twice before and I have come out with vastly different results.  First, I made the blueberries and cream cookies and wound up with thin, crispy, non-delicious cookies.  The second time, I made the compost cookies and wound up with high mounds of baked dough.  I was determined to make this work!

At the crumb class, Tosi and her team showed us how to take ordinary ingredients, like powdered skim milk, and turn them into tasty inclusions for our baked goods.  We made a white chocolate-coated milk crumb and a sprinkle-filled birthday cake crumb.  The reason I signed up for the class though is what we did with the crumbs - we made cookies.  Those blueberries and cream cookies that I originally had no luck with.  Second try is the charm?

I learned exactly what I ws doing wrong with the cookies.  It was a series of problems.  1. I wasn't using the correct ingredients.  2. I wasn't beating the butter high enough or long enough.  3. I was mixing the flour into the cookies for too long.  4. I had the wrong size cookie dough scoop.  After learning the correct tricks for each of these problems, you might be wondering if my blueberries and cream cookies came out all right.  Well, my bakery partner and I ate them too fast and I completely forgot to take a picture.  Yeah, they were perfect.  Let me pass on the secrets.

Let's start with the ingredients.  I labeled you a nice picture above and hit on the key ingredients.  Bread Flour - I used all-purpose flour the first time.  Because of the higher percentage of butter in these cookies, you want a higher protein flour that can support all that fat.  European butter - Tosi mentioned that regular unsalted butter would work fine, European butter is made with cultures and tastes richer.

Glucose syrup - I originally used corn syrup, as the cookbook said it would be fine.  I can say that the glucose lead to a crunchy/chewy cookie that was amazing.  If you can find it, use glucose.  Powdered milk - Okay, I did use this in the original recipe, but you might not know where to find it.  I bought private label powdered skim milk and it works just fine.  You will either find it in the baby or baking aisle.

Once you have the proper ingredients at hand, it's all about timing.  The Breville stand mixers that we used actually had a timer on the side of the machine.  I totally wanted to take that mixer home with me, it was awesome.  When combining the butter, sugar and eggs, you need to beat and beat until you see no more streaks of sugar crystals.  In the first image above, you'll see exactly how far you have to take the mixture.  It's just before the mixture turns into butter soup.  We started with fridge temperature butter and in ten minutes, on the highest setting, it turned into that fluffy buttery cream.

Adding the dry ingredients to the butter mixture is done quickly.  After pouring all of the dry ingredients into the bowl, you turn on the mixer to medium low and mix for less than 30 seconds.  The final inclusions (crumbs, dried fruits, chocolate chips) are added and mixed in for less than 15 seconds.

The final step is measuring out the dough.  I went to Amazon and bought the same measuring scoop that they use at Milk bar.  It's that blue handled cookie dough scoop you see resting on the baking sheet.  By portioning out the cookie dough with this scoop, the cookies bake perfectly in 18 minutes.

I spent a few hours with the Milk bar team and have finally mastered these amazing cookies.  It's a combination of the high butter to flour ratio, addition of glucose and secret powdered milk ingredient, that make these cookies chewy, crunchy and amazing.  They are also huge and a meal of their own.

Hopefully my previous failures and newfound knowledge will help you when making the Milk Bar cookies!  Let me know if you have any questions when baking, I learned quite a lot from the bakers at Milk!  And of course, if you are coming to NYC sometime soon, sign up for a class yourself!  It's a great way to spend a night!

Homemade Thin Mints

My marathon training continues as it seems to be getting easier to run these longer and longer distances. This weekend was my first "long run," with me logging six miles on a chilly Saturday morning. The training program that I am following gradually increases the weekday runs, from 2 miles to 5 miles, while the long Saturday runs increase by two miles each weekend.

During the week I like to use the treadmill. Especially since I run either very early in the morning (like my 5am, 4 miler yesterday) or late at night (I have a 5 mile run set for 9pm tonight). Right now it's dark outside at those times of day!  Though the best thing about running on the treadmill are speed intervals.

My usual running pace is between 8:30 and 9:30 per mile. I can run at this pace very comfortably and breathe normally. On the treadmill, I tend to get bored about a mile before I hit my goal distance. What do I do? I increase the speed until I'm breathing heavily and have to work hard to keep up with the belt. Yesterday I maxed out at 7:00 per mile.

Speed intervals not only help me bust out those last quarter miles in no time, but they also train my legs for the faster speed. After a week of speed intervals on the treadmill, I find my overall pace when running outside has improved!  Then I come back to the apartment and have a few post-run cookies!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

I usually don't do holiday posts, but I had to make these.  I don't really celebrate St. Patricks day in the traditional sense either.  You know, the whole - wear green, drink a copious amount of green liquor and stumble home in the early hours of March 18th.  It's not really my thing.  What I do love to do is coat cereal in marshmallows.  Then dunk the results in $10/pound Belgian white chocolate, you know, to class them up a bit.  After I tinted the fancy, Belgian white chocolate green.  They're super classy marshmallow treats.  Go make them and celebrate like the Irish cereal-promoting leprechauns celebrate March 17th.

Lucky Charms Marshmallow Treats

6 cups Lucky Charms Cereal

1 10-ounce bag Jet-puffed marshmallows

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 pound white chocolate

Green food coloring

Melt butter in a large pot.  Add marshmallows and stir until melted.  Add Lucky Charms and stir to coat. 

Coat a 9x13-inch pan with cooking spray.  Pour marshmallowy cereal into the pan.  Coat your hands with cooking spray and gently press marshmallowy cereal into the pan.  Let set for at least 4 hours. 

Turn pan upsidedown to release marshmallow treats.  Cut into reasonable sized bars.  Melt white chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water (or in the microwave).  Add a few drops green food coloring and stir until evenly colored. 

Dunk cereal treats in the chocolate and place on wax paper to set up and harden the chocolate.

Biscofferoos

Several years ago, I ate almost an entire pan of scotcheroos at a Super Bowl party.  And I didn't even feel guilty about it, because they were delicious.  Luckily this was before the start of WITK.  I wasn't obligated to recreate them in my kitchen and share them with you.

Little did I know that scotcheroos were a fairly common dessert treat and that you could find on the Rice Krispy website.  It was only recently that I learned the name of the bars that I devoured in between watching SB commercials and gabbing with my girlfriends.  It was at that same time that I picked up a jar of Biscoff spread from Fairway, fate seemed to have forced my hand to make these - Biscofferoos.

I thought I was being all creative, as all we bloggers think we are, until I checked the internet.  Apparently I was almost brilliant, except one person beat me to it!  So close.

Were these just as addicting as the original scotcheroos?  You bet your cutest pair of shoes they were!  I ate so many of these.  An unhealthy amount of them.  Then I brought them to work and fed them to my unsuspecting coworkers.  Mostly just one guy.  He ate 90% of them.  I ate the rest.

Side Note: Thankfully I made these before I began my marathon training, because I would have found myself sitting on the couch eating them and not lacing up my sneakers to hit the treadmill.

Cherry Kuchen Bars

I make a lot of desserts.  I go through pounds of sugar every month.  I love to bake, but I also love to fit into my jeans.  So here are the ways that I stay healthy and still make all these tasty treats.  Maybe my tips will help you keep off the pounds but let you enjoy time in the kitchen!

- For most of my recipes, I will make half batches.  Having fewer cookies around means fewer to eat.

- I make things that Boyfriend likes to eat.  As long as I leave fruit out of my dessert recipes, he'll happily chow down cookies, brownies and blondies.  He's six foot three inches and burns calories like a hummingbird.

- My coworkers often enjoy treats on Monday morning.  I once put an entire bundt cake in the lunchroom and left for an hour.  When I returned, I found an empty cake plate.

- Boyfriends coworkers also get to have sweets.  Things like cakes, cupcakes and pies stay in New Jersey because they are awkward to carry on the commuter train.  The most positive thing about sending them to work with BF is that I don't eat any extras.  The downside?  I've lost a few containers because someone forgets to bring them home.

- The freezer is full of dessert.  They are there if I really want something sweet.  At the end of the month I go through the freezer and clean out all the excess food.

Of course I also hit the gym several times a week and I'm on my feet a lot during the work day.  I generally eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch during the week (oatmeal for breakfast & a salad for lunch) and I make lean protein and veggies for dinner.  Repetition helps me maintain my healthy weight.

Or you could think about it this way.  The more cupcakes you feed your coworkers, the thinner you look in comparison!  It's a win-win.

Almond Cut Out Cookies

As a food blogger, I have decided that I must have strange, food friends.  No, not foodie friends.  Food friends.  Like this guy.

What?  You've never seen a stuffed hot dog before?  I have to say, he's one of the most hilarious stuffed animals I've ever seen.  As you can see, he's a native of New York City and hails from the Times Square Toys 'R' Us.  If you are in the city and feel like you need a strange food-themed plush toy, you can get one for only $9.  This particular stuffed hot dog is special.  He has his own blog.

Yes, this stuffed hot dog has a blog, which I am in no way a part of.  It's all the fault of the guy sitting next to me on the couch.  Life of Hot Dog chronicles the big (and not to big) events in Hot Dogs life and is the brainchild of Boyfriend.  He's a little bit crazy, but I love him, so it's all okay. 

For Christmas, BF got me several hot dog themed gifts.  This isn't new.  Last year someone went a little crazy at the Wal-mart photo lab and I got a pillow case, blanket, key chain and necklace, all adorned with pictures of this little hot dog. 

This year I was proud recipient of a hot dog ornament, calendar, pillow, 11x14 photograph and a hot dog shaped cookie cutter.  At some point I'm going to have to put a stop to it, or I'll be like one of those crazy cat ladies, but with pictures of this hot dog on everything I own.  (Hot dog PJ's anyone?)

Last week, Boyfriend and I (Hot Dog joined us too) tried out the cookie cutter.  Yes, BF was in the kitchen baking and decorating with me!  I've made a few changes to my almond cookie recipe and have come up with the best cut out cookie ever.  Easy to form and cut.  They hold their shape in the oven.  Soft, with a snap.  Not hot dog flavored.

If you want to make a cookie that will make you smile, get out your red and yellow food coloring and make yourself some smiling hot dogs.  They are perfect for a birthday party, picnic or just plain eating.  Decorate them with your favorite toppings.  We went with just plain mustard because stuffed hot dog only has mustard on!  So make some cookies and sit down and read BF's Hot Dog blog.  You won't regret a minute you spend in front of the computer screen!

Hey new friends!  Eat Me!  I'm so delicious as a cookie!

Eggnog Mallomars

Happy Holidays everyone!  Can you believe that we are less than a week until Christmas and two weeks until we bid adieu to 2012?  This year has gone by so quickly, I'm not quite ready for 2013 just yet.  I haven't really had a chance to enjoy the holidays and the end of this year!

Over the past four weeks I have been struggling with the cold that would not leave.  This past weekend I headed to the doctor who told me I had bronchitis!  I was hooked up with some medicine and have been crashing at home for the past few days.  I'm hoping to kick this out of my system before I head home to Buffalo this weekend.

The exact same thing happened last year, I got sick just before the holidays.  I was laid up for weeks and missed out on so much fun while I was napping.  I think that BF and I went to sleep around 10:30 on New Years Eve. 

After three days on my medication, I'm feeling much better.  Hopefully I'm on the mend for real this time.  I was feeling healthier this Saturday and made some holiday mallomars!  Last year was peppermint, this year I made you some eggnog flavored sweets.  Though I am concerned about feeding them to anyone, what with my bronchitis diagnosis a day after I made them!  I can tell you that these guys were tasty and I was the only one to have any.  Maybe being sick while making cookies is a good thing?  All for me!

Hope you are all enjoying these last few weeks of the year.  With my recent illness, the last few weeks of my 2012 challenge have fallen to the wayside.  I've pushed the final challenges into the new year, to be sure that I complete them all!  And don't worry.  A new 2013 challenge will be announced soon!  Stay warm and bright everyone!

Pinata Cookies

Clear your calendar, because you are going to want to make these cookies and it is going to take a while!  Boyfriend and I spent the week making these treats for his companies holiday bake sale.  BF is the creative mind behind these cookies.  He saw this post from "She Knows" and thought they would make a great holiday cookie.  We also thought that they would bring a pretty penny at the bake sale and raise lots of money for Hurricane Sandy Victims.

The process was simple, but involved.  It took us three days to complete these cookies.  You could finish these in one day if you devote the whole day to it.  BF and I worked on these at night after work for a few hours.  For someone who does little to no baking/cooking, he was a great kitchen helper.  I made the dough on my own and he helped will all the remaining steps.  Give these cookies a try if you are looking for a fun project!

Here are a few step-by-step instructions for preparing these steppy treat!

Not shown, prepare your dough and divide it up into three balls.  Place each dough ball between two sheets of  plastic wrap.  Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness.  Place dough on a cookie sheet and put dough in the fridge for 1 hour.

Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  Preheat the oven to 350 F and grab your chilled dough from the fridge.

Lightly flour the countertop and remove plastic wrap from the dough.  Stamp out dough with your desired cookie cutter.  Be sure to choose a cookie cutter that is large enough to punch a hole in the middle.  And remember, for each pinata cookie you will need three cookies, so stamp out cookies in multiples of three.  Using a circular cookie cutter, punch a hole in the middle of every third cookie.

Place cookie dough cut-outs on the prepared baking sheets.  Chill the baking sheets in the oven for 30 minutes.  Bake the cookie sheets for 10-12 minutes, depending on the size of your cookie.

Remove cookies from the oven once they just begin to turn golden brown.  Let cool for 1 minute on the baking sheets on a wire rack.  Remove from the baking sheet and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Now would be a good time to call it a day.  You don't want to ice the cookies until they are completely cooled.  Once you are ready to design and draw, make a batch of royal icing (I used Bridgets from Bake at 350, no changes required because it's an amazing recipe!)

Since BF and I went with snowmen and snowflakes, we didn't have to worry too much about icing colors.  We piped and flooded the cookies with white icing.  The snowmen got black hats too!  Day two was completely taken up by piping and flooding the cookies.  Let them sit overnight or a few hours until the icing has dried.  Remember, you only need to decorate a third of the cookies.  Do not decorate the cookies with a hole in the middle.

We used parchment paper cones to add the final touches to our snowmen.  Check out this helpful video if you want to make parchment cones for icing too.  I made tiny ones and we used them to pipe the carrot noses.  Okay, to be honest...  I piped the scarves and noses.  BF gave them eyes using a toothpick.

While your final decorations are drying, begin the cookie sandwiching.  Take the completely undecorated cookie and the cookie with the hole in it.  Pipe some royal icing on the back of the holey cookie.  Place the holey cookie on top of the undecorated cookie.  Do this for all of your cookies.  Let the icing dry for 30 minutes.  Now fill the hole with mini M&Ms.  Don't overfill, just a single layer of M&Ms should do it.

To finish your pinatas, pipe some more royal icing on the top of the holey cookie.  Place the decorated cookie on top and gently press down.  Ta Da!  Sandwiched, snowman, pinata cookie!

Maybe you want to see it done with the snowflakes?  These bad boys were edged and flooded with white royal icing.  Once the white icing was dry, some stiff icing was tinted blue and piped onto the tops of the cookies.  You don't have to be perfect, remember, every snowflake is unique!

We got a little fancy with these cookies and piped the holey cookie too.  Just a little...

Here comes the M&Ms!!!

This time we offset the cookies when sandwiching them together.  The icing on the center cookie shows through to the top and makes our snowflakes extra special!

I hope all of BF's coworkers like these cookies and they help raise lots of money for Hurricane Sandy victims!  All I know is they smelled delicious and I wanted to eat all of them.  It was difficult to let them leave the house without me!