20s (2023)

Another group post! Some with great results, some stuff that we probably won't make again, but always good to try new things.

Week 21: hot sauce

Hot sauce was a tough challenge, trying to make something that would be palatable to a 4-year-old who doesn't really like spice yet. I didn't want to make my own hot sauce, didn't want to buy a new hot sauce that we weren't going to use much of, and didn't want to really make hot sauce the focus. After a lot of searching, I found a recipe for yuzu hot sauce pound cake on Ciao Bella Kitchen, and decided that would work. It used the yuzu hot sauce from Trader Joe's, which we already had and enjoy adding to various dishes, so at least it wouldn't be a purchase gone to waste. The cake was fine, but I learned I don't really prefer my cake with a little zing.

Week 23: boards

I'm not a huge fan of the "arranging" or "plating" type challenges, so A helped me choose what type of board to make that B might actually eat. We went with a chopped salad with red onions, tomatoes, olives, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, cucumbers, and artichokes with a homemade vinaigrette consisting of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, and dijon mustard. Really good salad!

Week 24: most requested

This challenge choice was a little tough because what did it really mean? Who was doing the requesting? In the end, I consulted Food & Wine's list of the most popular recipes of 2022 and chose the first on the list, an Italian wedding risotto. I love risotto and have been making it more and more (got to use up all the rest of the arborio rice!). This turned out well, and we could see why it was so popular last year.

Week 27: alliteration

I was really ambitious for the alliteration challenge, at least with the name. I had started out with chicken corn chowder and carrot cake cookies, but then just kept adding to it until I ended up with cheesy chicken, carrot, celery, and corn chowder with crushed cheez-its covering + carrot cake cookies with cream cheese and confetti coating. The soup was based on a recipe from Lil Luna, and we really liked it. I would definitely make that again, although the cheez-its weren't really necessary. I just wanted more letter Cs.

The cookies came from Love and Lemons, and while tasty, I only have a mild like for carrot cake, so that one might not be repeated. We do still have some in our freezer though since it made a bigger batch than we could eat at one time, so we can still have more!

Week 29: candying

My original plan for this challenge was to make tanghulu, but I never got around to it and then made some candied lemons. I don't remember what recipe I followed, but I think most candied lemons are made the same way, so anything on Google would probably work. I think my expectations were completely off though, because I was expecting something like those sugary lemon slices that you could just eat as candy, and these were... not. The rind was a little too hard, and they were extremely sour, even with all the sugar that was added to them. I think maybe my brain and taste buds were expecting actual candy versus candied lemons, but once I realized how sour these were, I had no idea what to do with them. We tried eating some plain, but never figured it out before they were out too long and ended up tossing a bunch. I don't think I would do this again without a specific plan for them.

Khetayee

After two great recipes from the Parwana cookbook (the meat kofta sauce and the bolani), I was really excited to try something sweet. I had bookmarked two different cookie recipes, one that was traditionally eaten around Nowroz (new year at the beginning of spring) and one called khetayee that was traditionally eaten for Eid. So to celebrate Eid (last year), I decided to make khetayee on our day off from school!

The recipe seemed pretty straightforward. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, milk powder, baking powder, confectioner's sugar) and then slowly add the oil while mixing everything together. Then shape the dough into balls, flatten them a little, make thumbprints where the ground pistachios would be added (side note: the pistachios in the recipe photo were bright green, but ours weren't - where do the bright green pistachios come from?), and then bake until lightly golden.

I was excited to make these for a bunch of reasons. First, I didn't really make any desserts for Afghanistan the first time around unlike all of our other geographic explorations. Second, B doesn't get much pistachio in his diet other than some ice cream, and I thought this would be a good way to increase exposure (for prevention of allergy purposes). Third, I had never made anything with milk powder before, and I was curious to see how that would affect baked goods.

Unfortunately, the cookies I made were not good. I think that's likely user error, because these cookies would not have been passed down for generations in Afghanistan if they had this texture. They were incredibly dry and hard to eat, so stick-to-your-mouth dry that I couldn't even think about giving them to little B for safety reasons. At least I was able to give him a spoonful of ground pistachios before I made the cookies.

So, what may have gone wrong? First, I used nonfat milk powder instead of whole milk, because I was able to get a big bag of that at Whole Foods. The specialty store had whole milk powder, but I wasn't sure that packet was going to have enough for the recipe in it, and I didn't want to run short. Looking online before buying, it didn't sound like there would be a dramatic difference between the two in baking, but maybe I got that wrong. Second, I had to keep adding flour during the mixing/shaping step, because it was impossible to shape the dough I made into balls. It just kept spreading and would not keep the shape until I added a fair amount more of the flour. Third, maybe I baked them too long. I added a minute or so to the time because they weren't golden on top, but I didn't think that would turn them into bricks of chalk.

Who knows what other missteps I might have made, but the cookies were not good. Edible, but not good. I'd say the best parts of the experience of making these was being able to give B some pistachios and just how soft the dough felt when mixing it. I probably won't make them again after the disappointing results, but I'm glad I tried.

Week 15 - Chocolate

Although the Week 15 challenge took place back in April, I didn't actually complete it until it was time to make Christmas cookies in December. I kept intending to make some chocolate cookies, but just never got around to it, putting it off week after week, sometimes changing my mind about which cookies I was going to make. In the end, I decided to make some chocolate chocolate chip cookies, topping some with Andes mints, adapting the recipe I found on Chocolate with Grace.

I followed the recipe closely, other than replacing the egg with a flax egg and substituting chocolate chips for the Andes mint baking pieces because I didn't have the latter. I also only put one Andes mint on top and only on about half the cookies, since I wasn't sure if B would be a fan, having never had Andes mints before. I was a little concerned that the mint topping wasn't going to work when it hadn't melted after one minute, which was what the recipe indicated, but it just took a little longer and ended up being fine. The cookies were really good, and I would make them again.

Week 18 - Lime

Lime was the Week 18 challenge, and while there were many savory options for lime, I was just in the mood for cookies. I found a recipe for vegan coconut lime sugar cookies on Short Girl Tall Order, and they looked so amazing that I knew that was the one to try. I skipped the glaze to make my life easier, but the cookies were so good that I didn't miss it at all.

I mostly followed the recipe, other than skipping the icing and not measuring some of the ingredients, which made our ingredient list look like this:

- 1 stick vegan butter (softened)

- just under 1/2 cup of sugar + about 2 tbsp of sugar for rolling

- a few tbsp of shredded dried coconut

- zest of 1 lime

- pinch of salt

- juice of 2 limes (about 2 tbsp)

- 1 tbsp ground flaxseed

- 1 cup + 3 tbsp all-purpose flour

- 1/4 tsp baking powder

- 1/4 tsp baking soda

When baking, I do usually try to stick more closely to the recipe, so first was creaming the butter together with the sugar, dried coconut, and lime zest.

Next was adding the lime juice and ground flaxseed, and once those were mixed together, adding the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, pinch of salt) to form a batter.

That went into the fridge to chill for a bit. It was supposed to be 30-60 minutes, but I exercised and then took a shower, and that whole process took over an hour. It was a bit too cold to work with when I pulled it out, so we let it warm up 10 minutes or so. It was a little crumbly when I started to form the cookie balls, but got easier to work with as time went on.

I made our cookies with a 2 tbsp scoop so we could get more cookies, and ended up with about 15 of them. They all got rolled in sugar before going onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Our sugar cookies always end up looking brown since the sugar we have on hand is usually turbinado sugar.

They baked for 11 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees, then a quick tap on the counter and sitting on the baking sheet for a little longer before moving to the cooling rack. It was only supposed to be 10 minutes, but I lost track of time since I was making dinner and forgot them for a bit. They were still fine and not overdone!

The cookies were delicious and perfect for the lime challenge. That first bite had a really strong flavor of lime. We all loved them, and I would make these again.

Ohiopyle Bakery

We're coming up on the fourth anniversary of our road trip through Pennsylvania, so our travels are on my mind a lot. When we last left off, we had just visited Fallingwater and had lunch at their cafe. Fallingwater is still one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen, and we're so glad we made the trip out to Western PA. Back to the recaps!

After lunch at Fallingwater, we lingered around the property some more, trying to take in as much as we could before hitting the road. Our plan was to drive over to nearby Ohiopyle State Park and go for a walk. When we had initially researched Ohiopyle, we wanted to go bike riding, but we just didn't have enough time for that on this visit, considering we still had one more stop to make that afternoon before heading up to Pittsburgh.

I had made a full list of activities we could do that afternoon, trying to take advantage of our brief time in the southwestern corner of the state, but since we didn't end up leaving Fallingwater until after 2, most of those plans ended up going out the window. It also meant we only had a very short window of time at Ohiopyle, just enough for some strolling, seeing one of the waterfalls, and grabbing a snack.

We had heard good things about the Ohiopyle Bakery, so we stopped in there for some sweet baked goods to tide us over until dinner. It was mostly cookies and some doughnuts from what we remember, and we went with both of those. The doughnut was your regular yeast doughnut with some chocolate glaze and sprinkles (of course in Steelers colors). We also got a couple of sugar cookies, because it's hard to go wrong with sugar cookies. While they didn't have any unique variations or flavors at the bakery that we could see, what they did have was done well.

After our snack and a little more time at Ohiopyle, it was back on the road for a short drive over to Laurel Caverns. I had never been to a cavern before, and A's only visit had been when he was really young. We didn't know when our next opportunity would be, so we definitely wanted to check that out. After our tour, we began our trip up to Pittsburgh (of course, in rush hour), where we would spend a couple of days before beginning our drive home.

Petite Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Product name: Petite Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Price: $2.99 for 10 oz box

Quick review: I've liked some of the other yogurt-coated shortbread cookies from TJ's (although thinking about it now, I'm not sure if I've finished those reviews; will have to go look after this!), so when we picked up these petite pumpkin spice cookies during pumpkin season last fall, I was sure we were going to like these too. The cookies are shaped like pumpkins and came in both white and orange varieties (although they tasted the same). The cookies themselves were pumpkin spice shortbread, in addition to the pumpkin pie flavored yogurt coating, and they were just a little bit too sweet all around. They did taste like pumpkin spice, but I think maybe we're just hitting our limit on pumpkin spice these days. Don't like it as much as we used to.

Buy again? Probably not. They were fine, but my standard for cookies these days is, "Would I rather buy these or eat the cookies/almond cake that A makes?" So, in this case, probably not.

Shooting Stars

We saw a new snack at Trader Joe's in the weeks leading up to July 4th (yes, this post is long overdue). Not sure if this is still on the shelves, but if not, maybe it'll be back in the future.

Product: Shooting Stars cookies

Price: $2.99 for 16 cookies

Quick review: Described on the box as "chocolate coated sugar cookies covered in popping candy," this immediately reminded us of the fireworks chocolate bar we've gotten there before. The effect of the popping candy was the same - like little fireworks going off inside your head - which is probably why this was introduced around Independence Day. As for the cookies themselves, they were a little on the thin and crisp side. When I saw sugar cookies on the box, I thought they would be soft (sort of like the Potbelly sugar cookies), but then got a sense of deja vu because I think I had the same thought with some coated Christmas sugar cookies they had one year that were never seen again. (I need to not always associate sugar cookies with those soft and chewy cookies I love so much...) The cookies were pretty good, and the box didn't last long. The little popping rocks are also fun.

Buy again? We don't necessarily need them, especially since A makes good cookies from scratch, but kind of fun once in a while.

Birthday Frosting Chips Ahoy

We do most of our grocery shopping at Costco and Trader Joe's these days (as if that wasn't evident from all of the previous posts), since it's more convenient than making trips to 5 or 6 different stores every time. Recently we did stop by Stop & Shop to pick up some staples that we can't get at those places, and in the cookie aisle, we stumbled on a whole bunch of Chips Ahoy flavors we hadn't tried before, including these birthday frosting-filled chewy Chips Ahoy.

The picture of the cookie on the package looked like a chocolate chip cookie, but with colored chocolate chips, filled with a white cream that one would imagine was supposed to taste like frosting. There were about 18 cookies in the package which we got on sale for $3.

M's review:
I was really excited about these cookies since I love birthday cake frosting. When I looked up some reviews while in the store, a few commenters remarked that they were so incredibly sweet that it was hard to eat more than a couple of cookies in a sitting, but that sounded perfect to me because it would be an easy way to limit how many I ate at one time. After trying them though, I didn't really think they were that sweet. Sure, they were sweeter than what I remember regular Chips Ahoy cookies being, but they weren't so cloyingly sweet that I had to rush off to get a glass of water and stop eating them. But I just didn't like them that much. They were okay, but I guess I was just expecting more from them. Part of it is that I think I've been spoiled by the charmingly chewy chocolate chip cookies from Trader Joe's, and liked the texture of the TJ's ones so much better than Chips Ahoy. It's been a while since I've had chewy Chips Ahoy cookies, so I didn't realize how much of a difference there was. Sadly, the TJ's ones are now discontinued, but it just reminds me of how much more I liked them. I also didn't think the frosting tasted that much like frosting. The whole thing just tasted like a slightly sweeter Chips Ahoy cookie. It was okay, but I don't need to get them again, and I let A eat most of the package.

A's review:
I'm pretty sure I liked these more than M which is surprising. She's usually the bigger birthday cake frosting lover, and I expected that this cookie was right in her wheelhouse. I figured I'd like them, but I ended up really liking them. I thought that the frosting would be overly sweet and just be a complete sugar bomb, but it was fairly understated. I think that it was even less sweet than the filling in an Oreo. At the end of the day, these were fairly soft, fairly sweet cookies with chocolate chips and candy pieces in them. I liked them a lot, but I'm not sure I liked them enough to want to buy them again. I think I'll just stick to baking my own cookies.

Macaron Day 2016

Today was the first day of spring which meant it was time for another Macaron Day! We were really excited this year because Macaron Day fell on a Sunday which meant we could both go macaron hunting together for the first time. We planned out our schedule, mostly following the same route through Midtown that M took last year. We figured we wouldn't get 11 like M did last year since it was the weekend and it would likely be more crowded, but we aimed to try for as many as we could.

Stop #1: Woops at Port Authority

The crawl started off at the same spot as last year, the Woops kiosk at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. They just handed out macarons without giving you a flavor choice and we ended up with 2 different ones to try. It wasn't the greatest start to Macaron Day as the person behind the counter somewhat patronizingly corrected our pronounciation of macaron, even though it was pretty clear why we were there as they weren't selling anything else that we could see. (As an aside, we weren't wrong (see here) and to us macaroon means something else (like these).)

M's review: I wasn't sure what flavor macaron they had handed me and it was hard for someone of my height to see inside the macaron case after we got them because it had suddenly gotten crowded, so I spent most of the day thinking it was an oddly colored peanut butter macaron. After tasting it, I think it was actually blueberry. It wasn't my favorite one but it fell within the top half of my ranking. The blueberry flavor was nice, not overly sweet, and the cookie held up relatively well.

A's review: I was handed a pistachio macaron which was fine by me. Being my first free macaron ever it held a special place in my heart. Overall, it was just okay. There wasn't a ton of discernible pistachio flavor, and the cookie portion part had a nice crisp exterior but wasn't extremely chewy in the inside. It was okay, but nothing special. The cream had a nice consistency, though.

Stop #2: Francois Payard Bakery

Francois Payard Bakery is basically the home of Macaron Day, so it's a great place to stop by. Last year, they had quite a few flavors of macarons to choose from but this year they had only 2 - black n' white and strawberries and cream. Since we visited another FP location where we both got the strawberries and cream, we'll leave that one for later and just talk about the black n' white here.

A's review: I opted for the black n' white at our first stop in the hopes that we'd get to the second Francois Payard stop in time for me to get one of the strawberries n' cream from there. The black n' white consists of 3 vanilla bean ganache, vanilla macaron cookies, and a dip in 61% dark chocolate. Because of the chocolate dipping, everything else gets a bit lost. The chocolate shell packs a lot of flavor, and it ends up overpowering the vanilla encased underneath. I couldn't even get much of a feel for the cream inside. It wasn't a bad macaron, but it wasn't the best.

Francois Payard Bakery was also the home of a new macaron hybrid that people have been talking about all week - the macaron donut. These were $5, not part of the free macaron giveaway, but today was the first day they were available (and they would only be around for a limited time). Consisting of a strawberry flavored fried dough bottom, a strawberry cream filling, and a macaron top, and about the size of a small cake donut, this was pretty good. It was definitely sweet but it had nice strawberry flavor and the texture of the "donut" held up pretty well.

Stop #3: Bouchon Bakery

Although we had indulged in the macaron donut at Francois Payard, we hadn't eaten any of our other macarons yet, instead saving them for later. The first one we actually ate was the cookies and cream macaron from Bouchon Bakery at the Time Warner Center.

M's review: This was by far my favorite macaron of the day. I had liked the one I got last year at Bouchon, and Bouchon is one of the few places in the city where I've actually bought macarons, so it was no surprise that I thought this one was fantastic. The cookies had the perfect chewiness, and the cookies and cream flavor was exactly what I was looking for. It was like eating an Oreo cookie but with much better texture. After eating it, I was a little concerned that I might have started the day with the best instead of ending it on a high note, but either way, I'm just glad we were able to get one of them. We tried making it to another Bouchon location later in the day but they had just run out minutes earlier.

A's review: Best macaron of the day by a long shot. It all starts with the cookie, and this one was phenomenal. Perfectly crisp exterior that evolved into an amazingly chewy interior. They also had the perfect amount of cream filling which was equal parts smooth and sticky. Eating this was like eating warm cookies and cream ice cream. It had the perfect consistency, and it made me want to go back and actually buy more of their macarons. I wish we could have saved this for last, but the way in which they construct their macarons makes that difficult. The cream fills the entire cookie interior and is a pretty thick layer so it would squish out far too easily.

Stop #4: FP Patisserie at the Plaza Food Hall

The patisserie had the same options as Francois Payard Bakery, but they had already run out of the black n' white, so we both got the strawberries and cream. That macaron was strawberry puree and white chocolate ganache in a strawberry macaron shell.

M's review: I think it's just a coincidence, but all of the macarons in the top half of my ranking were from the first few stops. This strawberry and cream macaron was good, similar in flavor to the macaron donut. It was a little sweeter than I prefer, but it was still good. The texture of the FP macarons are of course always nice too.

A's review: As previously mentioned, I banked on getting to this second FP location to get the strawberries and cream macaron option. I'm glad I did. You could really taste the strawberry in the cream, and the cookie had a really good texture to it. I don't think it was quite as good as Bouchon, but it was still really good. After eating this cookie I kind of wished I had gotten two of these instead of splitting my choices, but how was I supposed to know which one I would like more?

Stop #5: Macaron Cafe

Last year, Macaron Cafe was one of M's favorites, and we were both pretty excited that they hadn't run out of macarons yet when we got there. (This was technically our sixth stop, but we're skipping listing or numbering the ones that had run out already.) They had let customers choose any macaron from their vast selection in the past, but this year had narrowed the eligible ones down to a "seasonal" list (of about 9, so still quite a few choices). (It seemed to be a trend this year to have less options to choose from, for whatever reason.)

M's review: I debated for a bit between the Earl Grey and the jasmine, with a brief temptation by orange blossom, but in the end, ended up getting the jasmine. I anticipated that it would taste like fragrant jasmine tea, one of our favorites. Unfortunately I have no idea what this flavor was. I didn't taste any jasmine whatsoever, just something kind of bitter and not really easy to discern. I made A try a bite (even after I said it was awful), and he tasted banana. I have no idea what was in there, but it was my least favorite macaron. I have no interest in getting that again, and I was so confused because the ones we got from Macaron Cafe last year were so good!

A's review: I opted for the Earl Grey since I really like drinking that tea. I'm not really sure what flavor this was in the end. It had a bit of a citrus flavor which I assume was meant to account for the bergamot, but after that it was all downhill. The cream had the consistency and the flavor of room temperature butter. I was actually looking forward to this one as M liked Macaron Cafe so much last year, but... this was a complete and utter disappointment.

Stop #6: Woops on 2nd Avenue

After attempting a new pop-up spot in Bloomingdale's that had already run out of free macarons, we found ourselves at another Woops, this time near the Queensboro Bridge. This one had a designated person handing out the free ones from a giant cardboard box. Not sure if there were multiple flavors, but we both got cookies and cream.

M's review: This Woops macaron was okay, but I liked the blueberry better. Texturally it was about the same, but I found the cookies and cream flavor a little too intense (for lack of a better word). Oddly it seemed to have a strong fragrance to it which was a little overwhelming. I definitely preferred the Bouchon cookies and cream.

A's review: They called this cookies and cream, but it didn't taste anything like cookies and cream. In fact, I don't even know what I think this tasted like. It was okay, but it wasn't anything amazing. It had a similar texture to the other Woops macaron I had, but it was nowhere near as good as the Bouchon cookies and cream option.

Stop #7: Eclair Bakery

M remembers Eclair Bakery from last year mostly because it was the place where M realized how many people brought plastic containers to hold their entire macaron haul. This year, they were giving out vanilla macarons.

M's review: This one was okay for me, probably right in the middle of the pack. Texturally I didn't like it as much as Bouchon, but the flavor wasn't bad. The vanilla was a little on the sweet side, but it was fine.

A's review: I didn't like this one very much. Sometimes you can tell when it's artificial vanilla flavoring instead of real vanilla, and that was my thought when eating this one. It just didn't quite taste right, and that was disappointing. The cookie also wasn't nearly as chewy, and since this was the second macaron we ate, following Bouchon, it was a major letdown.

Stop #8: Macaron Cafe

This Macaron Cafe location in the East 40s was M's last stop on her macaron crawl last year, and considering how satisfied we were with Macaron Cafe last year, we were happy to get another one from them here. Once again, we decided to try 2 different ones.

A's review: I got the matcha chestnut macaron because it sounded really interesting. I've had chestnut desserts before, and they had a really nice, subtle sweet and nutty flavor that I thought would pair well with the flavors of the matcha. As you can see, the matcha cream far outweighed the chestnut cream, and that was a huge issue. The matcha was, expectedly, really bitter. Unfortunately there wasn't nearly enough chestnut cream, and this whole cookie was really bitter overall and not very pleasant to eat at all.

M's review: I wasn't sure what cassis was, but the guy working there said it was black currant, so I got that instead of the apricot and chocolate coconut ones I had been considering. This was definitely better than the jasmine one, as it actually had a nice, sweet fruit flavor. That said, it was still very rich, just like the other one, and not as good as I remembered from last year. Pretty disappointing since those were some of my favorites.

Stop #9: La Maison du Chocolat

We had gone to the La Maison du Chocolat location at the Plaza Food Hall earlier in the day, but they were out of macarons and we'd have to wait 30 minutes (which we didn't think was worth doing). Luckily they hadn't run out of all of them yet by the time we got to the Rockefeller Center location, so we still got to try them. They had a bunch left, but all the flavors we initially asked for - raspberry, passion fruit, hazelnut - were gone. Clearly we have similar taste preferences to a lot of other people.

M's review: I ended up getting the Macapuno, which had coconut and lime ganache. I definitely tasted coconut, but no lime. This was probably the sweetest macaron I had all day, too sweet, and even sweeter than the chocolate and praline truffle we got at Godiva immediately after. (It was a very sweet afternoon.) It reminded me a little bit of the macarella cookies we made one year at Thanksgiving (based on this), when we only had sweetened shredded coconut instead of unsweetened, and combined with the additional sugar, it was so ridiculously sweet that only my grandmother was willing to eat them. It was kind of like that, very, very, very sweet. All that said, I still preferred that to the jasmine one from earlier.

A's review: I opted for the Quito when all of our first two or three choices were all gone. It's a chocolate cookie filled with a dark chocolate ganache, and I thought that sounded good. Their website describes the macaron as, "The embodiment of chocolate, as we like it, is expressed in this full-bodied dark chocolate ganache with fresh, fruity and floral notes." I don't know about fresh, fruity and floral notes, but I got one note. SWEET. Yes, there was chocolate mixed in there somewhere, but the overriding flavor profile of this macaron was cloying sweetness. It wasn't horrible, but it definitely wasn't what I was expecting.

Although we still love Macaron Day, and there were some bright spots like Bouchon and Francois Payard, it was a little bit of a disappointing day overall based on how we liked the macarons. If you're looking for the short version, here are each of our rankings in order:

M's rankings:
1. Bouchon Bakery cookies and cream
2. Francois Payard strawberries and cream (x2)
3. Woops blueberry
4. Eclair Bakery vanilla
5. Macaron Cafe cassis
6. Woops cookies and cream
7. La Maison du Chocolat Macapuno
8. Macaron Cafe jasmine

A's rankings:
1. Bouchon Bakery cookies and cream
2. Francois Payard strawberries and cream
3. Francois Payard black n' white
4. Woops pistachio
5. La Maison du Chocolat Quito
6. Woops cookies and cream
7. Eclair Bakery vanilla
8. Macaron Cafe matcha and chestnut
9. Macaron Cafe earl gray

Week 52 - Cookies

The last cooking challenge for 2015 was all about cookies. Most people doing the challenge did some sort of sweet cookie, but I really wanted to do a savory cookie because I wanted to make cookies for dinner. I found an option for a ham and gruyere thumbprint but that was a lot of work, so when I found this recipe for savory masala cookies, I decided to do that. Unfortunately, getting this challenge completed really wasn't as simple as it should have been.

First, I planned to make the cookies along with the Indian chickpea salad. I scheduled it for the Tuesday before Christmas, but then we had to change the day/time of our haircuts to Tuesday night, so no cooking on Tuesday night. So I decided that even though it would be a ton of food, I'd just make it an Indian night on Monday instead, and make the dal (I would have pushed the dal off to another day, but it had already been soaking overnight) along with the chickpea salad and the cookies, and have lots of leftovers for lunch for the week. But when I went to take out the ingredients for the cookies, I realized we didn't have any flour, or at least not enough for the cookies. Who plans to make cookies and then forgets they're almost out of flour?

We bought the flour over Christmas weekend (after having to go to 2 stores to find some), so I planned to make the cookies the day we returned. The only problem was that I didn't have any cilantro. The last time the cookies were on the schedule, there were other recipes with cilantro that week, so I had plenty of cilantro on hand. This time, no cilantro, and of course I didn't realize that until dinnertime when I was about to make the cookies. You would think I would have learned from the flour incident. Since we had already bought ingredients for every other meal this week, now the cookies were just going to be an add-on and not dinner. At this point, I might as well have just made sweet dessert cookies - except I had already bought the onions and jalapeños for these cookies. What a mess. If I didn't actually like the cookies as much as I did, I would call this the PITA cookie challenge.

The ingredients for the cookies (mostly following the recipe) were:

- 2 cups flour ($0.22)
- 1 tsp baking powder ($0.10)
- 2 tsp sugar ($0.05)
- 1 tsp cumin ($0.05)
- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 2 onions, finely chopped ($0.70)
- 2 jalapeños, finely chopped ($0.26)
- 1 bunch of cilantro, leaves finely chopped ($1)
- 1/3 cup coconut oil ($0.65)
- 4 tbsp butter, melted ($0.37)
- 1/4 cup water ($0)

The total cost of the cookies was approximately $3.45. That would have been a pretty cheap, under $10 dinner if I had combined that with the chickpea salad like I originally planned.

The steps for making the cookies were:

1. Prep vegetables - finely chop onions, jalapeños, and cilantro leaves.

2. Mix dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, sugar, cumin, and salt. (NB: The original recipe said dry ingredients, but had listed the cumin and salt in a separate section under spice blend instead of with the other dry ingredients, so I missed them until I was ready to put the cookies into the oven (will address that later). If I make these again, and I might, then I would put the cumin and salt into the mixture at this point, so that's why I'm listing them here now even though it's not what I did.)

3. Add onions, peppers, and cilantro to the dry ingredients, and mix well.

4. Add the coconut oil and melted butter and stir well. (It was all very crumbly and dry at this point, but I think it's supposed to be.)

5. Add water to create the dough. Cover for about 30 minutes. (Mixing the dough with the water at this point almost felt like mixing mashed potatoes. It certainly looked like mashed potatoes.)

6. Uncover dough and roll out cookies. (The dough at this point had the consistency of stringy white cheese.) The first section of dough that I picked up, I rolled it out and then picked up sections to create cookies. Considering I wasn't using a cookie cutter and was just putting them together in clumps anyway, I just decided to make cookies with my hands after that. They weren't all the same size, but that was okay with me.

7. Put cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. (It was at this point that I started wondering where the flavoring of the cookies would come from. The onions? Cilantro? Maybe, but I realized the cookies didn't even have any salt. Then I realized I hadn't made the spice blend and didn't remember it being in the recipe. So before I put the cookies in the oven, I mixed up some cumin and salt and sprinkled it on top of all the cookies.)

8. Bake for about 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

I wasn't sure if these cookies would be any good when they came out of the oven, but when I tried them, I really liked them. It probably helps that onions and cilantro are 2 of my favorite ingredients, and I love cumin. The cookies were really soft, not like most cookies we bake (well, A does most of the baking, but it's not like eating one of his chocolate chip cookies). They kind of reminded me of eating a baked mashed potato cookie with onions and herbs in it. I would try this again - but for dinner.

Macaron Day

While doing some cleaning the other day, I found a flyer for one of the macaron shops I visited on Macaron Day earlier this year. I wrote pretty much all of this post way back in March, but for some unknown reason, never finished or posted it. Just *slightly* overdue, but here's a recap of my first real Macaron Day experience.

The first day of spring was Macaron Day, which meant that participating vendors were giving out free macarons to anyone who showed up for the holiday. (It was also to raise awareness and money for City Harvest as a portion of the proceeds from macarons sold that day went to them.) Despite Macaron Day running in the city for 5 previous years, I still had not gotten 1 free macaron. Some years I was too busy at work and/or the lines were too long. The last time I tried, I got out too late (2:30 or so) and the first 3 places I stopped at had no macarons left so I gave up. I commented at the time that they should just call it "Macaron 1/2 Day" since there was no way the free macarons were going to last until 5 pm. This time, I vowed to do things differently, to start earlier, and to see how many places I would be able to hit.

Stop #1: Woops at Port Authority. I set off around 11 this year (much better than last time) and decided that Woops, which had a location in Port Authority Bus Terminal, would be a good place to start the macaron crawl. Although I passed through Port Authority fairly regularly, I hadn't even known there was a macaron stand there. I figured that it was early so I had a good chance of getting a macaron, and even if this was the only one I got all day, it was still more than what I got last time.

They had a couple different flavors at Woops and I went for the Nutella. They were the only place that had their free macarons in sealed packages, which was nice, so I just tossed it in my bag for later. This actually ended up being the last macaron we ate (I saved whichever ones I could so that A and I could eat them together and share in Macaron Day even though he had to work). It was okay, but not our favorite. The Nutella on the inside was a little bit more liquidy than I had expected it would be, which made eating this macaron a little bit messy, and the cookie crumbled a little more than it should have.

Stop #2: Bouchon Bakery at the Time Warner Center. I've bought macarons from Bouchon before and knew they were good, but with how crowded the mall up there is, I wasn't sure they would have any left. Luckily they did!

Bouchon's offering was chocolate salted caramel. This was one of the best macarons all day and it's why people are always going to Bouchon for macarons. Cookie texture was perfect and the flavor was spot on. I always worry with salted caramel that the caramel flavor is going to be too intense but this was great, perfectly balanced. Although I had packed a ziploc bag to wrap up some macarons to share with A for later, this one I ate there because I didn't want the filling (which went to the end of the macaron) to smear all over the paper wrapping. Poor A didn't get to try this one. We'll just have to go back to Bouchon another time to get some. It's not like it's far. 

Stop #3: Epicerie Boulud by Lincoln Center. On my previous failed macaron crawl, I think this was the first place I stopped and they were completely out. This time, I fared better.

I went with the pistachio macaron since that one looked more popular than the vanilla that was also on offer, and because we had really liked the pistachio macaron from the TJ's box set. This was good, but it didn't hold up as well as some of the others. The cookie was a little drier and more crumbly than some of the others, but the taste was good. It was the only pistachio I got all day so I can't really compare to anyone else's pistachio macarons.

Stop #4: Francois Payard Bakery near Columbus Circle. This finished off the 3 Macaron Day spots in the Columbus Circle-Lincoln Center area (and also completed re-visiting all the ones where I had failed last time). City Harvest was at FPB for the event and they still had macarons! This day was going much better than last time. I thought they might run out at the stops I was going to make after FPB, but I figured at least I was going to have some macarons to show for my effort.

FPB was offering a special mint macaron for the event, one that they don't usually have available for sale. Although I was tempted by other flavors, I had to get that one because if not now, then when? Biting into this one, it was green on the inside, which was supposed to be similar to City Harvest's colors. This was another one that we really liked. The mint flavor was great and the cookies were also quite good.

Stop #5: FP Patisserie in the Plaza Food Hall. By the time I got over to Plaza Food Hall, places were getting busier, it was lunch hour for a lot of people, and I started to think they were going to start running out of macarons. I was still going to try, but if I didn't get any, I was pretty satisfied already with what I had been able to pick up since it was so much better than last time. Luckily, FP Patisserie still had plenty and the crawl would continue on for a while longer.

I was trying to decide between the raspberry champagne and the passion fruit, and asked for a recommendation. The guy there suggested the passion fruit since they mix in a bit of chocolate, which makes it a little different. Great recommendation. We loved this one. There was that hint of chocolate that you could definitely taste, but it matched up really well with the passion fruit flavor. And since this is another Francois Payard place, you can be sure the quality/texture of the macaron was just right.

Stop #6: Epicerie Boulud at the Plaza Food Hall. Yes, I already went to the other Epicerie Boulud, but the poster did say to eat macarons around the city at all participating locations. It was at this point that I started to recognize fellow Macaron Day crawlers that I would see at multiple other stops.

This time, I picked up a raspberry macaron. I was starting to get a little peckish, so I ate half of it and put the rest away for A to eat later when we met up for lunch. The cookie was the same as the pistachio one, a little bit drier, but overall, it was good. I didn't think the flavor of the raspberry jam was as rich and pronounced as the other raspberry macaron I got later, but A thinks he might have gotten more jam in this one and thought this one had better filling.

Stop #7: Sugar and Plumm at FAO Schwartz. Located in the sweets shop at the (now closed) toy store, they had a bunch of different flavors but only a few for the special event. A didn't get to try this one, because they only gave a small square of paper (better for the environment?) to hold the macaron and I couldn't wrap it up for later. 

I picked the passion fruit macaron. This might win for the prettiest macaron as I loved the red and orange coloration and how it seemed to glitter under the toy store's bright lights. Taste and texture, it was very different from any macaron I had before. The filling was thick and creamy and very rich. You could really taste the cream, like you can in ice cream. It also was kind of a "sticky" macaron and the filling was chewy. That doesn't mean it was bad, just different from what I was used to with macarons. Very sweet and very rich, but also very pretty.

Stop #8: Macaron Cafe just down the street from FAO. I liked this section of the crawl because there were a whole bunch of Macaron Day participants in a straight line. This was the first place where I encountered a line outside, and it reminded me of a previous Macaron Day where I tried to go to the Macaron Cafe in the 30s and the line was just way too long. I hoped it would be worth the wait!

Once inside, I figured out why the line was so long. They let you choose from the entire selection of macarons and that included some of their more unique flavors that no one had. I decided on the rose lychee, but it was a tough choice since so many sounded good. This was another one of our favorites. We love any rose flavored dessert and this was no exception. It was a little heavy on the filling, and since we ate it later on, the filling had started to melt a little bit, but it was more solid when I got it so that was on us. But the flavors of the rose and lychee were so good. 

Stop #9: Mad Mac Macaron at the Bernardaud store. This looked like a pop-up that was at the store just for this event. Pretty much everyone "shopping" at the time was on line for a macaron.

I picked up a raspberry macaron here. It was on the smaller side for size, but it was quite good. I liked the raspberry filling better in this one than the Epicerie Boulud one, but A liked the other one a little more. The cookie was better on this one though; we both agree on that.

Stop #10: Eclair Bakery in Midtown East. This was the spot where I started to feel like I hadn't "prepared" enough for Macaron Day. I thought I was smart, bringing a zipper-closed bag since it was snowing, and packing away inside that an empty ziploc bag (sandwich bag size) to collect macarons so I could share them with A later. But it was at Eclair that I realized that multiple people had brought plastic tubs for their macarons. Tupperware! It didn't even occur to me to do that, but I watched several people (who were not traveling together) rearranging their packed macarons in their boxes. I was running out of space in my ziploc bag, but it had served me well for the most part. Is bringing Tupperware really a thing? Clearly I was a Macaron Day newbie.

Eclair was offering salted caramel macarons. This was pretty good, but I liked the Bouchon one a little more (and it's easier to get to).

Stop #11: Macaron Cafe in the East 40s. This would end up being my final macaron stop of the crawl. (Although I did check out the other Macaron Cafe in the 30s later in the afternoon, they were out of free macarons by that time.) I was pretty excited and was hoping to get one of the other flavors I had been eyeing at my first Macaron Cafe stop.

Success! I got the honey lavender. It didn't fit in my ziploc bag which was bulging at the seams, since the Macaron Cafe macarons are on the larger size, but that didn't matter since I was heading to lunch with A and was planning to share this with him while we waited for our special Shake Shack burgers. Just like the other one from Macaron Cafe, this macaron was fantastic. The honey and lavender flavors went together so well. We would definitely go back for another one of those.

All in all, it was a pretty successful Macaron Day and I'm so glad that I went. Not only did I get some much needed exercise (over 18,000 steps for the crawl!), but it was really fun. It reminded me a little bit of the Easter Egg scavenger hunt from the year before, going around the city looking for all the hidden eggs. I really get a psychological boost from doing things like that, running around the city finding or picking up stuff. This really fulfilled a need that I hadn't even realized I was missing. It was a lot of fun and the awesome macarons were a great bonus.

I don't know if we could pick a single favorite macaron, but the 2 Macaron Cafe ones are up there along with the 2 Francois Payard ones and the one from Bouchon. 11 macarons for the 2 of us definitely made up for all the years we walked away with none. Long live Macaron Day!