|
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
|
|
|
|
|
