Almond, tahini, and honey cookies

The fall is upon us, and while the fall may be synonymous with everything pumpkin spice for most, to me it means that the Jewish holidays are coming.  Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) starts on Wednesday, September 20th this year, and so I've started in on my holiday baking today.

First up were these almond, tehini, and honey cookies.  Honey is used in a lot of Rosh Hasahanah treats since it symbolizes a sweet new year.  Apples and honey, to be exact.  And while these cookies lack apples, they're full of sweet honey.  Another thing they're missing?  Gluten (so if you're looking for a gluten-free recipe on this blog, this may just be the first one -- or at least the first one labeled gluten-free). 

This dough comes together in literally a manner of seconds.  Whisk together the dry ingredients in own bowl, the wet in another.  Then, add the dry to the wet and mix together -- I did this with a whisk and some upper arm strength (thanks to my barre workout this morning).  Seriously, it took seconds!  They also bake up in no time!

Honey Almond Tahini Cookies
By The Gush Gourmet
Makes about 28 cookies

1.5 cups almond flour (finely ground almonds)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp tapioca starch OR 1 Tbsp corn starch (I used corn starch)
1/2 cup well-mixed tahini
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/3 cup sliced almonds (The recipe called for slivered almonds but I think she actually meant sliced almonds, but I bought slivered.  I actually went out and bought sliced almonds since I thought they looked pretty on her cookies.  Go with sliced almonds.)

Directions:

Whisk together the almond flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and starch in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients: tahini, honey, egg, and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well.  I added mine in 3 additions.

Place in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Place small scoops of the cookie dough on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Make sure there is plenty of space between each one (they spread a lot!).
Sprinkle a little bit of sliced almonds over each cookie, pressing down slightly so they adhere.  Don't be shy with the sliced almonds -- since the cookies spread, they too will spread out as the cookies bake.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden brown.
Remove from the oven.
Cool completely before removing from the baking sheet.

Flourless blueberry almond muffins (Kosher for Passover)

Passover is here!  While some people I know (whose names will not be mentioned, but they know who they are) lament over the lack of food options during Passover.  Some might even say they *whine* about it.  But I digress.  Bottom line is: food options are limited.  However, one can at least attempt to make lemons out of lemonade, as I have tried.

First off, in a #juliebakesgoessavory endeavor, I made almond crusted chicken fingers for dinner the other night (check it out on my instagram feed).  Then I saw a recipe for Kosher for Passover Almond-Bluberry Muffins, and thought that (a) they sounded delicious, (b) B would love them, and (c) I already had almond meal on hand from the chicken fingers!

I made a few adjustments given what I had at home (Turbinado sugar instead of demerara, sweetened (cinnamon) applesauce instead of unsweetened, and slivered almonds instead of sliced), but they turned out absolutely delicious.  Just a heads up -- I followed the directions and ended up filling the 12 muffin tins and still had enough leftover batter to make 4 more muffins!

And an added bonus?  They're totally gluten-free (or at least can be made that way).  I don't do much gluten-free baking, but between the almond meal and coconut flour I picked up recently, I'm sure I could get int it a little more...

Hope everyone has a wonderful Passover!

Flourless Almond-Blueberry Muffins
(Kosher for Passover, and can be made gluten-free!)
From Epicurious

Ingredients:

2.5 cups almond meal
1 tsp ground cinnamon
5 large eggs, separated
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 tsp kosher salt (crushed between your fingers as you add it)
1/2 pint (about 1 1/3 cups)
Sliced almonds (for sprinkling)
Demerara or raw sugar (for sprinkling)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners (keep a few extra liners around, in case you have extra batter).
Whisk almond meal and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
Set aside.

Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat egg yolks, granulated sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl until pale and doubled in size, about 3 minutes.
Add almond meal mixture and apple sauce.
Stir just to combine.

In another bowl: use an electric mixer on high speed to beat the egg whites and salt (crushing it between your fingers as you add it to the egg whites) until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes.
Add half of the egg white mixture to the almond meal mixture.
Fold to combine.
Then add remaining egg white mixture.
Fold to combine.
Gently fold in blueberries.

Divide the batter among muffin cups (I filled mine full and then had enough batter to make 4 more muffins).
Top with almonds and demerara sugar.

Bake muffins until tops are golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes (mine took 25 minutes).
Transfer to a wire rack.
Let cool in pan for at least 10 minutes before serving.

*They can be made 3 days ahead.

Football cookies

I wanted to make football shaped cookies for the Superbowl.  The only problem?  I didn't have a football-shaped cookie cutter.  I went into a store or two looking for one, but they were sold out.  So I decided I needed to head to my baking store looking for one, but with their hours, it would be difficult to work it out.

So, the Wednesday before the Superbowl, I finally got my hands on a football cookie cutter.  And helmet, pennant, and jersey ones, too, but I'm saving them for later.  Honestly, at that time I didn't even know what I was doing for the Superbowl, but at least at that point I knew I'd be able to bring some football cookies :)

I decided to try a new cookie recipe, too, because I was intrigued by it for two reasons.  First off, it used almond extract.  Yum!  Then, it used powdered sugar instead of granulated.  My interest was piqued!  The almond flavor was faint but I really enjoyed it.  Despite the recipe saying so, I didn't really notice a change in the texture with the powdered sugar.  These were really tasty!

I wanted to ice them with royal icing, but with the still-busted Kitchen-Aid, it was going to be really hard to make the icing.  Then I thought about covering them in chocolate and piping the laces on in white chocolate, but I figured that those would end up being too similar to the chocolate football lollipops I made.  Someone had suggested covering them in fondant, so on my second run to the baking store in one week, I picked up some colored rolled fondant for the cookies.  I scored the fondant with a toothpick and then covered over it with a little bit of white chocolate for the laces.  (I also think they'd be great with royal icing,)

Almond Flavored Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar (I even sifted it this time!)
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a mixer or using a hand mixer, cream together powdered sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add egg, and almond and vanilla extracts, and mix until combined.
Sift together flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Add flour mixture to sugar mixture, and mix until well combined.

Divide dough into two disc shapes, and wrap in plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for 15 minutes (or up to 3 days).

Roll out dough to 1/8-1/4" thick and cut into cookie shapes.
Place on lightly greased of silpat covered cookie sheet (I used a parchment lined cookie sheet, ungreased).

Bake for 7-8 minutes (my first batch took 7 minutes, the second were more golden and were only in for about 6 minutes).
Remove and cool on cookie sheet.

Assembly:

Frost with royal icing or cover with fondant.
(I adhered the fondant to the cookies with a little bit of water on the fondant, and then slight pressure to affix it to the cookie.  Don't press too hard, the cookies with crack.)

Decorate with white chocolate "laces."

Vanilla macarons

When I baked my mom's birthday cake last week, the recipe called for an egg and an egg yolk (I doubled the recipe, so 2 yolks).  That left me with 2 egg whites.  Great for a breakfast omelette - which, I admit, was the first thought that popped into my mind - or macarons (they call for 3 egg whites, usually).  Of course I tossed the egg whites this morning (I had added a third one to the mug), and then looked at the recipe and found out that it actually calls for 3-5 day old egg whites (mine were 7 days, so in retrospect, tossing them this morning was a good idea).  I had read once, years ago, that room temperature egg whites were best, so I left them sitting out on the counter during the day while I did other things (school work, cleaned, ran errands).

I surprisingly had all the ingredients in the apartment.  That's because there are 5 ingredients in this recipe.  And  because I had leftover almond meal from the last time I made macarons.  You can use blanched almonds -- or you can buy almond meal (mine is from Trader Joe's).  The difference is mostly in appearance -- mine are "flecked" with pieces of almond skin.  If I were making them for an event or if I were to color them (with powdered food coloring only), I'd probably go through the task of grinding my own blanched almonds.  But since I was making macarons just for the sake of making macarons, I went with what I had (and the easy option).

I've made macarons before.  Three times to be exact.  The first time I made Snickers macarons (making delicate French cookies into an American candy bar is kinda sacreligious), then I made pink lemonade macarons (which used pink lemonade mix....sacreligious again, I know), and then chocolate macarons for Passover (less sacreligious).  This time I opted to go with good old fashioned plain macarons.  Although the recipe I used called for the seeds of half a vanilla bean, which I hadn't seen in other recipes.  By the way, these would be great for Passover (which is next month!).

French Macarons
From Tartelette

Ingredients:

100 grams egg whites
25 grams granulated sugar
200 grams confectioners sugar
110 grams ground almonds (or whole almonds)
seeds of half a vanilla bean

Directions:

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue.
Combine the almonds and powdered sugar in a food processor (I used a whisk) and give them a quick pulse if you use already ground almonds.  If using whole almonds, pulse thoroughly for a minute or so.
Add them to the meringue, along with seeds from the vanilla bean, and start to give quick strokes at first to break up the mass, and then slow down.  Should be no more than 50 strokes.
Mixture is ready when tops of drops flatten out on their own.  If theres still a small beak, fold a few more times.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip with the batter and pipe small rounds (1.5 inches in diameter) onto parchement paper lined sheets.
Preheat the even to 280-300F.
Let the macarons sit out for an hour to allow their shells to harden a bit (this is what gives them the little "foot" at the bottom when they bake).
Bake for 15-18 minutes, depending on their size.
Let them cool completely before filling. 

Pipe or spoon some of the filling on one shell and sandwich with another.

White Chocolate Ganache
(Stolen from one of my all time favorite brownie recipes, and quite possibly my mom's favorite brownie ever)

Ingredients:

6 ounces high-quality white chocolate, chopped

5 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon  (optional - I opted for it on some of them)

 

Directions:

 

Place white chocolate in medium microwave-safe bowl.

Bring cream to simmer in small saucepan.

Pour cream over chocolate in bowl.

Let stand 30 seconds, then stir until chocolate is melted and smooth.

If necessary, microwave on low power in 10-second intervals until white chocolate is melted completely.

Chill until ganache is thick but not hard.

 

Fill the macarons.  Let them sit a little while so the ganache is not too soft or runny.  Serve.

A twist on French macarons

I have weird cravings.  Not the type of craving where I want to eat something, let alone something weird, but they type of craving when an idea pops into my head and I feel that I must make it.  It's not even that I want to eat it once it's been made; I just want to make it.

This idea came into my head a while ago when I was searching for something else, and I am honestly shocked that I've waited this long to make them.  A few weeks ago, while doing some research on some Dr. Seuss-themed cupcakes, I came across these macarons.  Colored and flavored with....wait for it....Kool-Aid!  Yes, you read that correctly.  Blasphemous, right?  Kool-Aid and high-end French desserts, which sell for upwards of $2.50+ a piece, together?  But it's also kinda ingenious.  Flavor and color in one addition?  I was intrigued.  However, the flavors used for those macarons were not the least bit enticing to me, as I do not like fruit punch, and things that are dyed artificially blue weird me out a little.  Then I started thinking about flavor combinations that would sound good to me.  Chocolate always works but (a) there is no chocolate Kool-Aid that I know of, and frankly even if it did exist, I would NOT want to try it, and (b) I'm saving those for next week.  I kept coming back to lemon/lemonade, but ultimately settled on pink lemonade, because that would lend not only flavor to the macaron but also a hint of color.  Instead of buttercream, I decided that a homemade lemon curd would go really well with the slightly sweet/slightly tart pink lemonade.

They're not as pink as I had hoped, but look at those perfect feet!

Kool-Aid Flavored Macarons

110 grams almond flour (I found almond meal - at Trader Joe's - such a time saver!  Although the only almond meal I found had the skins on them, so my macarons are a little spotted.  In the past, I weighed out 110 grams of almonds and then pulsed them with the confectioner's sugar)

200 grams confectioners sugar

100 grams egg whites (from 3 eggs, separated 24 hours in advance or microwaved for 8-10 seconds - I got impatient and let mine sit for 13.5 hours)

50 grams granulated sugar

1 envelope Kool-Aid (I looked it up, 4.5 grams per packet....I couldn't find packets so I had to buy  an entire container - but I went with CountryTime pink lemonade since Kool-Aid only came in yellow lemonade.  I also had to do some playing around with it, since the packets of Kool-Aid say to add sugar, but the larger containers already contain sugar.  If you use packets of Kool-Aid without sugar in them, keep the original measurements.  If you use the sugar-already-added larger containers, subtract 4 grams of sugar from the original recipe, using 46 grams of granulated sugar.)

1-2 drops food coloring, optional

Lemon curd, see below.  If you choose other flavors of Kool-Aid, you can mix up the flavors of the filling.  Maybe a lime curd, or a raspberry coulis.  Or a good old chocolate or white chocolate ganache.  Or buttercream.  They'd all work, depending on the flavor of macaron that you choose to make.

Directions:

Pulse the almond flour (or almonds) and confectioner's sugar several times in your food processor until thoroughly mixed.
Place your aged egg whites in the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk until foamy.
Add the sugar and turn the mixer to high, whisking until you have a glossy meringue.
Add the Kool Aid and food coloring, if using, to the egg whites and let the mixer run a few circles through the batter to distribute.
Fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites gently, briskly at first to break up the meringue a bit, until thoroughly mixed. The batter will be a little lumpy but will relax.
Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe rounds of 1.5 inches along two parchment-lined baking sheets.
Let sit one hour at room temperature (this allows them to get the "foot" that you see on the bottom of the macaron).
Heat oven to 300. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely and remove from the pan.
Not more than 24 hours before serving, pipe 1-2 tsp of frosting onto one cookie and top with the other, gently pressing down (because of the moistness of the lemon curd, I decided to wait to fill the macarons until just a few hours before serving).
Store tightly covered

Homemade Lemon Curd
(This lemon curd recipe is embedded in another recipe, a braided lemon bread, which is absolutely fantastic and I have made it several times - all before I started the blog.  It will eventually make its way onto the blog, but if you're impatient and want to make it beforehand, I highly recommend it!)

3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 tsp fresh lemon zest, finely grated (perfect use for a microplane grater!)
3 Tbsp sugar
1 large egg
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:

Whisk together the lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, and egg in a saucepan.
Stir in the butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubble appears on surface, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Transfer lemon curd to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap so that the wrap touches the surface of the curd, and allow it to chill until cold, at least 1 hour.

**Depending on how strictly you keep kosher for Passover, these macarons would be a nice addition to your Passover dessert repertoire, however I am personally hesitant to use Kool-Aid mix on Passover.  I will, however, have a more Passover friendly macaron coming up in the next week or so**