Coffee Cake

I have never had a coffee cake with a filling before.

We made this in a springform pan, spread a layer of batter first, then piped circles of jam and topped with frozen raspberries, the rest of the batter, and then the streusel. Other people did blueberry, chocolate chip, and raspberry orange.

Recipe is coming...

Scones of two sorts

Today we made both a savory scone and a cream scone.

It was choose your own flavor on the cream scone so I tried something wacky. I chose to do a crystallized ginger, cardamom and concord grape scone with a few purple sprinkles on top to give a hint of the grapes inside.

It was actually pretty good!

Here's the savory- this is goat cheese, scallion and pine nut. I am not a fan of goat cheese so I wasn't too sure about these. Luckily, you couldn't actually taste the goat cheese but it gave a salty, sour flavor to the scone.

Parisian Macaroons

These are tricky little guys. You have to be careful whip the egg whites to just the right consistency and then deflate them just enough for them to turn out right.

I had to choose a color and then a filling to go along with the color. Next time I would probably try to get a little deeper green color. These have a mint ganache filling and then are sprinkled with cocoa powder.

Now I just need to work on my food photography skills. =)

Parisian Macaroons

150 grams powdered sugar

90 grams almond flour

75 grams egg white

35 grams sugar

1/4 gram cream of tartar

food coloring (Ingredients must only be water and color. If there is any fat in the coloring it will deflate your batter)

1. Sift ground almonds twice and mix with powdered sugar with a whisk.

2. Separately beat whites until soft peaks form and slowly add sugar, cream of tartar, and a couple drops of food coloring. Beat just to combine

3. Fold almond mixture into egg mixture. Slightly overmix in order to knock it a bit flat

4. Using a pastry bag, pipe circles the size of a quarter on parchment on a baking sheet. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes until a slight crust forms. Bake for ten minutes at 310ºF. They should have a thin hard shell on the outside and have a brownie-like texture on the inside. If they are going to crack (which you don't want), they will do so within the first two minutes. And, of course, the larger you pipe the shells, the longer they will need to bake properly.