Coconut Macaroons

This is by far my best batch of coconut macaroons ever! And just in time for Passover! I used finely grated coconut rather than the long, thickish strands of sweetened coconut. I know this helps with shaping and you don't end up with stray strands sticking out of the bottom edges of the cookie that brown first. I think that helped. The other thing that helped (and this is the big thing) is my new method for shaping them. I packed the eggy coconut tightly into a small ice cream scoop--one of the springy ones, so that I could get the perfectly packed mounds out without messing up the lovely shape. I think the firmly packed heaps of coconut browned evenly because they were packed and shaped evenly. Of course they tasted delicious as always, the texture was perfect (lighter than the traditional Manischewitz ones but still nice and moist with that distinctive coconutty chewiness) and they just looked so lovely and golden.

Chocolate Chip Macaroons

My favorite food for Passover is coconut macaroons. They also happen to be one of my pop's favorite cookies for any time of year. Since Passover is coming up I thought I'd perfect my technique and appease Pop's sweet tooth.

I usually used shredded sweetened coconut for macaroons, but this time I used unsweetened coconut (which is drier and has a finer shred.) It's actually much easier to shape the macaroons because it's much smaller pieces of coconut and they are slightly less sweet (I upped bthe sugar significantly, but it's still less sweet) in a good way. For a little change, I mixed some finely chopped bittersweet chocolate into the "batter" of egg white, coconut, and sugar. It was very nice!

I should point out that coconut macaroons (as well as traditional French macarons) are actually gluten free, so for those who can't or don't eat gluten, these are a lovely cookie to make and eat.

Happy Pi Day

I'm a nerd at heart. I'm also a pastry chef (in case you didn't know). So Pi Day is one of my favorite holidays. It combines math (March 14th --> 3/14 --> 3.14, which, of course, is pi) and dessert (pie) into one great holiday.

I happen to be on vacation and am staying with a friend. I didn't want to go crazy in her kitchen (which is a lovely kitchen, but still) so I opted for an ice box pie. This particular recipe comes by way of the William's-Sonoma pie cookbook. It's a cream cheese pie with oranges and a graham cracker crust. I admit the crust is store bought, like I said I didn't want to make a mess in the kitchen. I used heirloom navel oranges on top. they were sweeter and more flavorful than usual navel oranges, perhaps because the were organic and heirloom or perhaps because it's citrus season right about now. The filling's a mixture of cream cheese, lemon juice and condensed milk. It's a delicious, sticky mixture, but it did not thicken or set at all, so it was very messy!

The pie really didn't hold together like a pie when you cut into it (because the filling was too liquid) but gosh was it good! You don't even have to take my word for it: everyone loved it (and ate large helpings). I believe one word bandied around was "refreshing." I think that's a very accurate description of this yummy, citrus-y pie.

I had a little left over filling so I made a few mini pies.

Peppermint White Chocolate Fudge

Based off Paula Deen's dummy fudge recipe, this peppermint white chocolate fudge is absurdly easy to make. It also happens to be the smoothest fudge you will ever try. As you may have noticed, I much prefer dark chocolate over white chocolate; but there is something about the sweetness of white chocolate with peppermint that I love. Yum!

White and Dark Chocolate Brownies

I'm sure you recall that I love the Fat Witch Bakery regular brownie (and for that matter most of their other brownies). Well my pops was demanding chocolate brownies so I made a batch of regular Fat Witch Brownies. I wanted to make something new so I decided to make a second batch of brownies and ended up making white chocolate "Snow Witches."

The chocolate brownies were good as usual. Actually I used better quality chocolate (I've started buying Belgian chocolate in bulk so it costs about the same as Ghirardelli from the store) so they were as good as usual but a bit better due to the richer chocolate flavor. The white chocolate brownies were delicious! They look like blondies but were not really like a blondie at all, which was a pleasant surprise. They were sweet with a surprisingly strong white chocolate taste and pungent vanilla flavor. And the texture was superb. They were chewy and soft and not caky but not fudgy--just perfect

Don't they look nice together?