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Snacking in the Kitchen

~ Culinary Adventures In & Out of the Kitchen. Recipes, Reviews, Culinary Musings.

Tag Archives: allrecipes

Adventures in French Macaron Baking

30 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by snackingkitchen in Uncategorized

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Tags

allrecipes, baking, dessert, french, gluten free, macarons

IMG_20150923_125042

The first time I had a French macaron was on my first visit to Paris, France at the famous and breathtakingly beautiful Ladurée Bakery. Up to this point, still in my early 20s, the only macaron I have experienced was actually the coconut macaroons I’d eat for Passover. And I must admit, I wasn’t expecting much more from the French macarons as I did from the chewy, overly sweet coconut concoctions. Boy, was I wrong!

As I fell in love with France, I fell in love with these almond meringue cookies that ranged in color from the softest Easter pastels to the deepest and brightest jewel tones. With a crispy skin on the outside, the cookies are soft and tender and slightly chewy as you bite into them and discover the flavor of the butter cream or chocolate ganache that holds them together. Eating just once is too difficult. You want to get a selection of several and savor them on their own. Skip the coffee.

A decade has flown by in front of my eyes, and I have enjoyed plenty of macarons during that time. From another Ladurée Bakery in Italy and from one of my favorite bakeries in Seattle, Bakery Nouveau.

But it wasn’t until last week that I baked French macarons on my own (I don’t even remember baking them while studying culinary arts at The Culinary Institute of America).IMG_20150910_113827

The opportunity presented itself at work, and I rose up to the challenge. As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, trying out new recipes and techniques is one of the things that I love and appreciate the most about my job as a Food Stylist and Editor at allrecipes.com.

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You guys! These little things are tricky business! Finicky, super time sensitive and require a lot of patience and attention to detail (think measuring all ingredients up to a gram!).

This kitchen experiment will require you to step up, buckle in, and perhaps even say a prayer or two. I know, I’ve said my share of prayers to the Macaron Goddess to ensure that my macarons bake up evenly, with beautiful, tall feet, and smooth, shiny tops.

With the 5 batches of the same recipe, some turned out better than the others. Thanks to my friends and family for encouragement along the way and readily consumption of the baked goods.

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Above is a photo of what my kitchen at home looked like when I tested the recipe. I colored the cookies almost a black currant color and sandwiched them with chocolate ganache flavored with pomegranate liqueur. These got served for a Rosh Hashanah celebration (the Jewish New Year) to add sweetness to the year ahead!

If you are a fan of baking, new challenges, and delicious, French sweets, do give this project a try. There are plenty of recipes out there, ranging in ratios of almond flour and sugar, baking temperature and times. I encourage you to try a few and find the one that best suits your preferences. Enjoy!IMG_20150922_161447

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Banana Zucchini Bread and Muffins

19 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by snackingkitchen in Uncategorized

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Tags

allrecipes, baking, bread, breakfast, muffins, recipe

banana zucchini bread and muffins (11)

Confession time. I don’t like bananas. Maybe it’s one of the reasons I’m not a fan when I get called Anna Banana. The riper the banana, the less I like it. The overwhelming aroma, the dark brown spotted skin, it all makes me want to run away.

But then there’s banana bread and banana muffins, that make it worthwhile to have an overripe banana in your kitchen. For this project though, I’ve combined the sweet, soft banana with the crunchy, fresh zucchini in a recipe that yields one loaf of bread and 12 muffins. Perfect, isn’t it? If you wish, turn this into 2 loaves or 24 muffins. You’re the boss!

banana zucchini bread and muffins (4)

Banana Zucchini Bread and Muffins

Ingredients

4 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, mashed
3 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  Beat eggs, sugars, oil, apples sauce and vanilla extra in a bowl. Stir in bananas.

3.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add to the egg mixture and stir to combine.

4.  Fold in zucchini and walnuts.

5.  Transfer half of the batter to a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan. Transfer the remaining batter into a greased 12-cup muffin pan. Bake in the preheated oven until the toothpick inserted into the bread/muffins comes out clean, about 50 minutes. The timing for the muffins might be less, be sure to check earlier. Cool on a rack.

banana zucchini bread and muffins (9)

And that’s all folks! Now you have bread and muffins to eat up, share and enjoy. These are quite good on their own. Do try the bread sliced, toasted and buttered (with either regular butter or peanut).

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Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs ~ 50 Shades of Grey

03 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by snackingkitchen in Uncategorized

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Tags

allrecipes, art, diy, eggs, holidays

Natural Dye Easter Eggs 3

This is what happens when a girl who celebrates Passover is assigned to test natural egg dyes for Easter at work. I lovingly call the results of this project “50 Shades of Grey”. What do you think? To me, these eggs are quite beautiful. Ranging from lightest, barely-even-there grey (from spinach) to a really dark, stone-like grey of grape juice.

If first hollowed, I would happily keep these eggs forever, perhaps displayed in a large glass jar or a shallow bowl.

Natural Dye Easter Eggs

The beauty of this project is that it can be done at any point with the items you are likely to have on hand in your kitchen and pantry. Here, I used paprika, turmeric, grape juice, spinach (unsuccessfully), tea bags and onion skins.

The methods vary depending on the source you use. There are cold-overnight methods. There are hot-quick-and-easy methods. You decide what works best for you. Here, I boiled the color agent in water with white vinegar and then submerged boiled eggs into the solution and simmered for about 30 minutes.

Do you see the splotchy, blotchy, imperfection in the color? To me it’s beautiful. If you are looking for a more perfect, even color, I’d suggest straining the color agent first and simmering the eggs in the dye with the vinegar.

I am a fan of the matte look. For a shinier, happier exterior, rub the dyed eggs with a little bit of vegetable oil.

Enjoy!

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Allrecipes Builds a Snack Stadium – See How

28 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by snackingkitchen in Allrecipes.com, Snacks, Video

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Tags

allrecipes, football, snacks, stadium

snack stadium allrecipes

The snack stadiums are popping up everywhere these days.  Football fields filled with guacamole, hummus, and nacho dips, surrounded by chips, crackers, sandwiches, and maybe carrot sticks and celery sticks for a healthy measure.

Of course, we at Allrecipes.com had to build our own.   It was certainly a team effort from planning to assembling, to recording.  And how fun it was!  No worries, we donated most of the leftovers from the stadium and made lots of hungry people happy.

snack stadium allrecipes 2

Ready to build your own?  Take inspiration and direction from our video.

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Homemade Juice ~ Live Healthy

15 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by snackingkitchen in Allrecipes.com, Healthy, juice, Kale

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

allrecipes, healthy, juice, juicing

Today is the last day to enter my Suja Juice 3-day cleanse giveaway.  I wish luck to all of you – you have until 5pm Pacific Time to enter.

While I sadly can’t give the juice to everyone who has entered, I would love to share with you a few of the homemade juices videos I styled for Allrecipes.com.  These are simple to prepare and will give you a wonderful boost of energy and vitamins.

Tropical Carrot Apple Juice

Carrot and Orange Juice 

Healthy Green Juice 

Be sure to check out the rest of the videos for homemade juice here.

Back to Snacking in the Kitchen

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