Sunflowers salute!

Glorious Sunflower:

May 22 Sunflower

These sweet peas have been blooming since before the first day of spring and they are still going strong.  I just came in from picking these plus giving some to my neighbor and I'm going back out with another empty vase.  I wish you could smell them....divine

morning pick

French macarons- a delightful classic

Macarons with chocolate ganache and white chocolate ganache filling

We have all seen these lovely little French sandwich cookies.  They are delightful to look at and eat.  Last week I was on a mission to make these little treats and make them perfectly.  They are an art form in the kitchen to say the least.  They are time consuming.  The ingredients and methods are precise....no compromising and the best recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's Book

one of the best cookie books

Macarons are fanciful elegant sandwich cookies as light as the almond meringue they are made of.  These beauties were not part of the curricula when I was a student at the Cordon Bleu School of Cooking.... patissiere.  But they are sure popular now.  The tops of the cookies are called "shells" and are smooth.  The rims around their bottoms are called "feet" and are rough.  The filling is where most of the flavor is from and can be anything you want.  My fillings were chocolate ganache and white chocolate ganache.  My third batch was a cream cheese frosting with cherry jam.  Ok let's start:

 For the macarons:

2 cups (200 grams) almond flour

1 2/3 cups (200 grams) confectioners' sugar

2/3 cup (150ml) egg whites

food coloring

1 cup (200 grams) sugar

1/4 cup (60 ml) water

weigh your ingredients

OK  Get your kitchen scale out and switch it to metric.   Get your digital thermometer out too.  This is why you have these awesome kitchen tools.  In cooking school, especially pastry, we weighed every ingredient.  Flours especially carry different amounts of moisture so the proper ratio of ingredients is more precisely measured by weight.  

Equipment:

kitchen scale (with metric option)

digital kitchen thermometer, candy thermometer will do too

stand mixer

2 baking sheets

parchment paper or silpat liners - W-S has one just for macarons

strainer

large pastry bag

plain 1/2 " tip

pastry brush

Method:

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  You can make a 1 1/2" circle guide with a cookie cutter and a pencil and then flip the marked side over or just eyeball the 1 1/2" circle.

 Place the stainer over a large bowl and press the almond flour and the confectioners' sugar through it.  This, as Dorie calls it, is an annoying step but don't skip it.    revendique!

almond flour and confectioners' sugar through the sieve

Put half of the egg whites in your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

Add food coloring to the OTHER half of the egg whites.  This was 8 drops:  Then stir egg whites into almond flour/confectioners' sugar mixture.  Using a flexible spatula mix and mash the whites into the dry ingredients until you have a homogenous paste:

paste of egg whites, almond flour, confectioners' sugar and food coloring

OK  now for the meringue

Another classic French patisserie essential:

Bring the sugar and  water to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat.  If there are splatters on the sides of the pan, wash them down with a pastry brush dipped in cold water.  Cook this syrup until it reaches 243-245 degrees F ( It will take about 10 minutes. )   

Meanwhile:

Beat the egg whites until they hold medium-firm glossy peaks.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and keep mixing until the sugar syrup comes to the 245 deg temperature:

sugar syrup

When the sugar is ready, take the pan off the heat.  With the egg white mixer on low speed, pour in the hot syrup, trying to pour it between the whirring whisk and the side of the bowl.  Do not try to incorporate the splatters.  It will ruin your smooth meringue.  

Increase the mixer speed to high and beat until the meringue has cooled to room temperature, about 10 minutes- you'll be able to tell by touching the bottom of the bowl.   Revendique!

Perfect meringue!

Give the almond flour mixture another stir with the spatula, then scrape the meringue over it and fold everything together.  Don't be gentle.  Keep folding and mashing until when you lift the spatula, the batter flows off it in a thick band:

folding in the meringue 

all mixed in

Add more food coloring now if too pastel.  This batch is from 8 drops of red.  The saturation is reduced to a pastel after this step.

Spoon half of the batter into a pastry bag fitted with the 1/2" round tip and pipe out 1 1/2" rounds.  Hold the bag straight up.  No tilting!  Don't worry if you have a point in the middle.  It will dissolve into the batter while it is "resting"

1 1/2" rounds 2" apart on parchment lined baking sheet

Grab the baking sheet with both hands raise to about 8" above work table and drop it onto the table.  Yep!!!  Drop it without cushion 8"    Slam!  You need to do this in order to get the bubbles out of the batter and to smooth the tops.

Set the cookie sheet aside in a cool, dry place to allow the cookies to form a crust.  When you can lightly touch the top of the macaron shell without having batter stick to your finger, you are ready to bake.  This resting takes about 15-30 minutes and looks like this:

rested batter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Bake the macarons one sheet at a time in the middle of the oven for 6 minutes.  Rotate the pan and bake for another 6-9 minutes or until the macarons can be carefully peeled away from the paper or lifted from the mat.  The bottoms will still feel just a little soft.  

Slide the parchment or mat off the baking sheet onto a counter and let the macarons cool.

Repeat with the second sheet

Peel the macarons off the paper or mat and match them for sandwiching.

Sandwiching:

You can use a piping bag or a short handled knife or teaspoon to fill the macarons.

Add filling to one shell, top with another and gently swivel the top macaron to spread the filling to the edges.

Cover the macarons with plastic wrap or pack them into a container.

Refrigerate for AT LEAST 24 HOURS.  Revendique!

Personal note: 

I learned the word "revendique" while a student in Paris. It is a word with no translation:  It basically means "no compromise"  This is the way and the only way to do this.  French pastry making is like this.  If you are not willing to follow this method 100 per cent you are taking a huge risk of failure.  The French pastry chefs are revendique and it pays off.  

I worked this recipe and method until I got it right.  It's labor intensive.  It's very specific and it's totally foolproof if you follow the method exactly.  This was 3 1/2 hours from start to filling and then you wait at least 24 hours until you can serve or eat one.

Plan ahead: Macarons characteristic texture takes this 24 hours to develop.  But once they are ready they store nicely in the fridge for 4 days.  If you have any left the will store nicely in the freezer for up to 2 months.  I keep mine in the freezer and take just one out for a personal treat or a couple to give as a gift to a lucky friend.

Perfect macarons with the eyes of a lamb looking right at you

Bon Appetit!

or

just go out and spend $5 for one.   It's well worth paying a chef to make one for you

Speaking of Miracles....Welcome Poppy!

Poppy 10 hours old

How about that spot on her nose?

 Yes she has wattles

LuLu 2 days ago

And her beautiful MaMa

Poppy entered our world last night.  Usually goats give birth to two but not this time.  Each of these baby kids that enters my world is unique and adorable.  Truly miracles of life.

Milagros.....miracles Thank you Jane LaFazio

Milagro trio

My friend and fabulous art teacher, Jane LaFazio has on online class on Milagros.  It's combining felts in her designed pattern and brings them together with fabulous embellishments:  threads, sequins and beads.  This is so fun for me and I have so many of these fun embellishments in my studio stash plus silk ribbons and charms so I couldn't wait to take this class.  They have a little stuffing in them and for me anything with stuffing is begging for some dried lavender.

Margarita Milagro

I found it helpful in choosing my felt colors to turn to Kaffe Fassett for his brilliant color combinations which you may recognize:

The finished piece almost disappears on the inspiration fabric but here it is against black:

Margarita Milagro on black

This Milagro has 3 different sequins, pink, aqua, green and gold beads, copper and silver metallic threads, lots of embroidery thread colors and silk ribbon.  Yes you can embroider with ribbon.  One of my favorite sayings: BE BOLD!!!

Margarita Milagro  Be bold

This is a great project to do while your watching TV at night.  From cut out to final stitch maybe takes 3-4 hours so a nice little project that's easy to complete.  I made 3 in 5 days!! Yes they are addicting.

My recommendation is to find an inspirational fabric in a print.  The main color will be easy to recognize.  The complementary colors you may not think of on your own.  My second recommendation is to go to your sewing and embellishment stash first and then supplement from your favorite craft or sewing shop  My favorite is Piecemakers in Costa Mesa.  Once you get all of your armamentarium assembled  have fun!!! 

Remember:  More is better in embellishing.

TAKE JANE'S CLASS!

Invite miracles into your life!!!

Poppy Milagro

Poppy Milagro detail

Poppy Milagro on inspirational fabric

Lavender blue Milagro

Lavender blue Milagro up close

Lots of French knots and lazy daisy green stitch

Lavender blue Milagro on inspirational fabric

I do love this color combo- Sunset quilt made 2005

Margarita Milagro on 2019 outdoor Sunbrella fabric

The cushion sewing is next.

Brand new rose: Huntington's Hundredth First Bloom

The Huntington library and gardens celebrates its centennial year in 2019 and a brand new rose was hybridized for this occasion.  In January I went to the gardens and after listening to the lecture purchased this new rose in bare root form.  It's name is Huntington's Hundredth. Well it's blooming:

Huntington's Hundredth

In full bloom on the bush:

Huntington's Hundredth

It starts out as a red tipped bud:

Huntington's Hundredth

It's first day bloom is yellow:!

Huntington's Hundredth

and the second day it this fun yellow and pink ruffled bloom:

Huntington's Hundredth

Yes it is fragrant.....a must in my garden.  What a nice way to turn 100!

Happiness is.....the fragrance of orange blossoms

orange blossom

I live on Orange Street which was probably named for the Orange grove that was here when I was growing up in the 50s.  The fragrance of orange blossoms is absolutely "home" to me.  It is intoxicating, sweet, pungent---the best.  Thursday I was at Disneyland with Kate and Ryan and as we were walking through the park I could smell the orange trees in blossom.......as I take my afternoon walk in my own neighborhood I am gifted again with this fragrance and now when I wake up in the morning and go outside to start my barnyard chores the odor hits me first thing and I LOVE it.  Happiness is the fragrance of orange blossoms.

orange tree

My Uncle Ed and Aunt Jeanne moved to their forever property in Buena Park in 1952.  This tree was already there.  That makes this tree at least 67 years old  and is headed for a record year of production based on the abundance of blossoms:

Amazing!!!

great old orange tree

Go find a citrus tree that's in blossom this week.  Or if you're not in a region where citrus grows go to a garden center and look for the citrus trees there.  Breathe in and enjoy one of nature's true gifts.

Happy first day of spring!!! I love it!

wisteria

Even though the vernal equinox hits us all at the same time  Spring comes a lot earlier in Southern California.  This wisteria is a beauty   I wish you could smell her fragrance.  AND

it's a full moon rising!  All is good!

Did you plant your peas yet?
In Denver the rule of thumb is to plant your spring peas on St Patrick's Day.  Well I'm in California now and I planted mine in January.  Here is today's harvest:

sugar snap peas March 25