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Raspberry Coconut Macarons
02.12.2014
If you follow me on Pinterest you may have noticed by now that I love macarons, I’m pinning them all the time. They are so delicate, I love their versatility of flavors and their bright colors and honestly how could I resist them, they taste like candy. Every time we go on vacation I’m sure to grab some – because they only sell them within probably 2 hours of me. In California I loved the salted caramel and the coconut macarons from Lette Macarons in Newport Beach, and during our recent short term move to Washington D.C. I loved getting the red velvet macarons from The Sweet Lobby.
With the recipe below I only listed the ingredients you’ll need then inserted a link to Bravetart for the directions. I love Stella’s recipe and it was also fun reading through her macaron myths. Macarons are tricky, and I’m no pro (I’ve only made them a number of times) so I’d thought it would be better just to link to her directions because she knows what she’s doing.
This recipe is very versatile. I also considered filling these with a chocolate ganache. They are very sweet with the jam, so if you don’t have much of a sweet tooth you might want to go with a little jam along with some dark or bittersweet ganache and maybe use a less sugar jam. Enjoy!
Raspberry Coconut Macarons
Ingredients
- 115 grams almond flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
- 230 grams powdered sugar
- 144 grams egg whites
- 72 grams granulated sugar
- 3/4 tsp coconut extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Red or pink food coloring (optional)
- 3/4 cup raspberry jam
Directions
- For macaron directions please visit the recipe here on Bravetart as that is the recipe I used, adding the 3/4 tsp coconut extract in place of the vanilla and tinting if desired with food coloring.
- Allow macarons to cool completely. Spread about 1/2 Tbsp raspberry jam between 2 macarons. Store in an airtight container.
- Recipe Source: adapted from Bravetart
These are the macarons from Lette (taken March 13′). I loved their vibrant colors.
Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts
These simple yet unforgettable Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts will make vanilla your new favorite flavor.
If you had to pick one dessert to describe your personality, what would it be? Maybe you’re traditional like chocolate chip cookies or a little bit sassy like a fruit tart. Maybe you’re intense like Chocolate Chili Cookies. Or maybe you’re simple like these Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts. Today I’m teaming up with Baker’s Joy to help launch their “Which Sweet Treat Are You?” quiz that pairs your baking personality with one of nine delicious desserts. My challenge was to create a simple yet not boring recipe focusing on vanilla. Trust me when I say this – these doughnuts will change your mind about liking vanilla.
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you probably know I’m not exactly simple when developing recipes, so this was a fun challenge for me. What can I make with vanilla that is simple yet unforgettable? After all, simple does not equal boring. I chose to make doughnuts (or is it donuts?) in my baking pan since they take little effort to make. Make the batter, pipe into pan, bake 10 minutes, done. If you wake up early enough, I bet you could have these ready in time for breakfast.
Vanilla is one of those ingredients where you need to buy high-quality vanilla. Look for the bottle that says pure vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla extract. I promise it’s worth those extra couple of bucks. Next you’ll need to buy vanilla beans. Don’t bother buying any from the store because they are expensive; it’s much cheaper to buy online. Mine are from Marx Food but you can also find them on King Arthur Flour and even eBay.
If you say you don’t like vanilla, chances are you never had vanilla bean before. Ice cream is the perfect example. There’s boring vanilla ice cream from an ice cream stand, then there’s homemade vanilla bean ice cream. These tender baked doughnuts are speckled with vanilla bean, which kicks up the vanilla flavor a notch. Maybe I should’ve called them Triple Vanilla Doughnuts because you have vanilla bean and extract in the batter then a vanilla glaze on top.
Make sure you take the “Which Sweet Treat Are You?” quiz then come back here and leave a comment telling me what your dessert personality is! From April 22 – May 5, you can take the quiz as many times as you want for a chance to win a daily prize which includes $50 Visa gift cards and a year’s supply of Baker’s Joy and be entered to win the grand prize of $500 Visa gift card, KitchenAid mixer, and a year’s supply of Baker’s Joy.
Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts
Author: Carla Cardello (www.chocolatemoosey.com)
- 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, split in half down the middle longways and seeds scraped into a bowl (discard the pod)
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 3-4 teaspoons milk
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 375F. Lightly spray two baked doughnut pans.*
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla bean seeds, egg, and vanilla extract until incorporated then add the milk. Gradually beat in the flour mixture until just incorporated.
- Spoon the batter into a pastry bag** then pipe into each doughnut cavity, being careful not to fill it too full. Bake 8-10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes then remove from the pan and finish cooling on a cooling rack.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, salt, 3 teaspoons milk, and vanilla until smooth. If it's too thick for a glaze, add the extra teaspoon of milk.
- Once the doughnuts are completely cool, dip the tops of each doughnut into the glaze and let the excess drip off. Let the glaze harden before serving. Store in an airtight container.
*If you only have one doughnut pan, bake the first six doughnuts. Once you remove them from the pan, cool in the fridge for 5 minutes then finish baking the remaining doughnuts.
**It's easiest to pipe the batter into the pan using a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip (either a real pastry bag or a sandwich bag with the corner cut off), but you can also carefully spoon in the batter.
Copycat Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
Glazed doughnuts are my weakness, especially when they’re Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts. Aren’t they everyones weakness?
It took several attempts to get a homemade version that is like a Krispy Kreme. As the saying goes, third times the charm. I tried three different types of flour, bread flour first then blend of cake and all purpose flour and I ended up settling on just all purpose. It’s hard to get the exact same texture as theirs because according to the ingredients they have listed online they use emulsifiers, gluten, thickener, firming agents and other additives, which I’m guessing is what gives their doughnuts such a delicate texture. For us home cooks, are we ever going to try and track down all that stuff? With that said these doughnuts are very close, just not identical. Also, my version isn’t as pretty :). The dough is somewhat delicate to work with after the second rise so they didn’t keep their shape perfectly well once I lifted them to transfer to the oil. If only I had one of those conveyer belts like they have at Krispy Kreme. My family and I did a side by side comparison with my version and theirs and both flavor and texture were so close.
If you like a thick coating of glaze, you can make more glaze and double dip them. This recipe could easily be doubled for feeding a crowd. When you eat one of these warm, that perfectly golden, glaze covered edge and fluffy interior just melt away in your mouth. Enjoy!
Copycat Krispy Kreme Glazed Doughnuts
Ingredients
- Doughnuts
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup warm water, 110 degrees
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
- 1/4 cup evaporated milk, warmed to 110 degrees
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening, at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, then more as needed
- 3 - 4 cups vegetable shortening, for frying
Glaze
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 tsp evaporated milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 - 4 tsp hot water
Directions
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, whisk together yeast, warm water and 1/2 tsp of the sugar. Let rest 5 - 10 minutes. Add in evaporated milk, remaining granulated sugar (3 Tbsp + 2 1/2 tsp), salt, 1/4 cup shortening, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Add half of the flour and set mixer with whisk attachment and blend until smooth. Switch mixer to hook attachment, slowly add remaining flour and knead on low speed until smooth and elastic about 4 - 5 minutes, adding additional flour as needed (I only added about 2 Tbsp more. You shouldn't need a lot more, you want dough to be slightly sticky and tacky but shouldn't stick to a clean fingertip). Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
- Punch dough down and roll into an even layer onto a floured surface to slightly less than 1/2-inch thickness. Cut into doughnut shapes using a doughnut cutter or two round circle cutters (on large and one small for holes). Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 - 40 minutes.
- Heat shortening in a cast iron dutch oven to 360 degrees (don't walk away from oil while preheating and don't let it get above 375 degrees, remove from heat and reduce heat as needed). Meanwhile, prepare glaze by mixing together all of the glaze ingredients in a shallow dish (don't add too much water, you'll be dipping warm doughnuts in glaze so you don't want it to be runny, fairly thick is good). Carefully transfer doughnuts to oil (I could fry 3 at a time) and fry until golden on bottom, then using a wooden chopstick, flip to opposite side and fry opposite side until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool 1 - 2 minutes then dip top half in glaze while still warm and return to wire rack and allow glaze to set at room temperature. Best served warm. Once cool reheat in microwave 5 - 10 seconds if desired.
- Recipe Source: Cooking Classy
Lavender Whoopie Pies with Vanilla Bean Frosting
If you are one of those people looking at these cookies saying, really? Flowers? I know just what you mean. I used to think the same thing, I thought people were trying too hard to be fancy :). Then one day I tried something with lavender and I’ve been hooked ever since. Some days I crave lavender cupcakes, something I never imagined myself craving. Lavender is a very unique and complex flavor (but unique in a good way). While bold and rather surprising, it seems hard to find a similar flavor to relate it to. It would be almost like what I’d imagine a sweet pine flavor to be, along with hints of mint – but it sounds kind of gross when I put it that way so lets just leave it at the opinion of it being an amazing flavor. I love giving someone something with lavender who hasn’t tried it before, they’ll take one bite and get this look of delight followed by a look of utter confusion and deep thought because they can’t quite put there finger on just what is in it. Then I divulge the secret ingredient, and they will say something like, “oh, wow I didn’t know you can actually eat lavender” or “who knew lavender really tasted good.” Yes lavender can really taste good (culinary lavender of course, don’t start baking with your Grandma’s potpourri :) The key is, when you bake with it just don’t overdo it.
My entire family, husband and kids included loved these whoopie pies. My husband just said after taking one bite “Mmmm, I love Lavender” (and it sounded kind of funny coming from a manly man, I don’t know why). Then following he said “get these out of my life” because he claims he can’t stop eating them :).
Hopefully you love this recipe because it was my third attempt. First one too dry, and the bit of honey mixed in added a light light tint after baked which I didn’t care for. Second attempt, too spongy and the batter seemed pretty wet to work with. Third attempt, just what I was looking for. First, I tried flour+cornstarch along with all butter and milk. Second more milk, cake flour and used butter and oil. Third attempt added in 2:1 ratio Greek yogurt to milk rather than all milk, went with all-purpose flour, butter and oil and they were just what I was looking for. Fluffy, cake-like and soft, what a whoopie pie should be. I paired it with my favorite buttercream frosting, but since whoopie pies aren’t as moist as cupcakes I added more moisture (milk) into the frosting that could absorb into the cookies. I chose to pair it with vanilla beans which I added to the frosting because I love the combination and how the vanilla doesn’t overpower and hide the lavender (I made a few with lime frosting and preferred the vanilla, but if you wanted to do a lemon or lime frosting just replace the milk with lemon/lime juice and also blend in the zest). Enjoy!
Lavender Whoopie Pies with Vanilla Bean Frosting
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (I used Chobani 2%)
- 1/4 cup milk
- 4 tsp dried lavender flowers
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- Red and blue or purple food coloring, optional
Vanilla Bean Frosting
- 1 cup butter, softened (preferably 1/2 cup salted butter, 1/2 cup unsalted)
- seeds of 1 vanilla bean
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 - 3 Tbsp milk
- 2 Tbsp heavy cream
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor or blender, combine greek yogurt, milk, dried lavender and vanilla and blend for 1 minute, scraping down sides and lid of food processor once during blending. Pour mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl while using a spatula to press and rub lavender against strainer to release oils (also scrape out any excess from food processor - get all of it). Set aside and allow to rest.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. In a separate mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer whip together butter, oil and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Blend in eggs one at a time, adding in food coloring with second egg if using (I used about 30 drops blue and a little less red). Add in flour mixture in three separate batches alternating with half of the milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing on low-speed just until combined after each addition.
- Transfer batter into a piping bag fitted with a 1/4-inch or 1/2-inch round tip and pip cookies onto a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet into 1 3/4-inch rounds (I did this by holding the piping tip about 1/2-inch from baking sheet and piping the batter out allowing it to spread outward while slowling moving the piping bag up - similar to piping a meringue cookie without so much tip on top), spacing cookies 2 inches apart. Bake in preheated oven about 6 - 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely then spread Vanilla Bean Frosting on bottom of one cookie and sandwich to bottom of another cookie. Store in an airtight container.
- For the Vanilla Bean Frosting:
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter and vanilla bean seeds on medium-high speed until nearly white and very fluffy, about 6 - 7 minutes, frequently scrapping down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add in powdered sugar, milk, heavy cream and vanilla extract and mix on low speed until blended, then increase speed to medium and beat until very light and fluffy, about 5 - 6 minutes, frequently scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Recipe Source: Cooking Classy
I know I should probably be posting a dinner recipe because it has been a while since I have, but I just can’t seem to get control of my sugary cravings :). What’s new though. I’ve always loved sweet things and doughnuts are a favorite near the top of that sweets lists. This vanilla bean doughnut is a baked version so I can feel a little bit better about eating them versus a fried doughnut. These are a cake style doughnut with a soft fluffy texture and a deliciously moist crumb. They seem as though they just melt away in your mouth, especially with that sweet, buttery, vanilla glaze.
I forgot to get a close up picture of the crumb inside but these things are loaded with vanilla beans. It gives them a delicious natural sweetness and that irresistible flavor that just cannot be duplicated. The batter for these is very versatile, you could use it for many different flavors by omitting the vanilla bean seeds and replacing them with cinnamon, nutmeg, a chai spice blend, lavender, almond extract, etc. It is one of my favorite baked doughnut recipes I’ve ever made so it will be one you will definitely want to hang on to. Enjoy!
Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts
Ingredients
- 2 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- Seeds of 1 vanilla bean
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
- Softened butter, for tins
Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 small pinch salt
- 2 - 3 Tbsp milk
- Food coloring and sprinkles (optional)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter 14 holes of three doughnut tins and set aside. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds, set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer, blend together melted butter, vegetable oil, sugar and vanilla bean seeds until smooth, about 1 minute. Blend in eggs one at a time then mix in vanilla extract. Working in three separate batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, add 1/3 of the flour mixture alternating with half of the milk and mix just until combined after each addition. Spoon batter into buttered doughnut wells, filling them about 1/4-inch from the rim. Bake in preheated oven 7 - 8 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into doughnut comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool until lukewarm then dip in glaze and return to wire rack, immediately top with sprinkles if using and allow glaze to set at room temperature.
- For the glaze:
- In a flat bottomed bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, melted butter, vanilla and salt then stir in 2 Tbsp of milk, adding additional milk 1 tsp at a time to reach desired consistency and whisk until smooth. Tint with food coloring if desired. Warm in microwave in 6 - 10 second intervals on HIGH power to warm as it begins to set while dipping doughnuts, as needed, whisking after heating.
- Recipe Source: cake portion adapted with slight changes from King Arthur Flour, glaze - Cooking Classy
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