Oeufs Cocotte

Easy easy French breakfast. I mean, really easy. It takes about 1 minute to make these eggs. Delicious creamy eggs and toast points, and "microgreen" herbs. The herbs I just started growing in a little pot on my kitchen window- they are baby chives and baby basil sprouts and were surprisingly flavorful. Sorry for stunting your growth, baby sprouts.

Oeufs Cocotte (serves 1, multiply accordingly):
1 egg
2 tablespoons crème fraîche
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Spray ramekin with cooking spray. Add 1 tablespoon crème fraîche. Add egg. Add additional crème fraîche and sprinkle with salt and peper. Bake in oven, about 10 minutes or until slightly set and serve with toast.

White Russian Macarons

I know. Macarons, again. Sorry. These are some White Russian flavored ones I made last weekend. They've got light coffee flavored shells, thanks to a bit of instant coffee, and a white chocolate ganache with a little Kahlua and more instant coffee.

White Russian Ganache

227 g white chocolate
100 g cream
20g butter
2 tablespoons Kahula
1 teaspoon instant coffee
1 teaspoon water

Mix water with instant coffee till dissolved and set aside. Melt chocolate with cream, add butter and liquids. Mix till smooth. Pour onto cookie sheet covered with plastic wrap, fold wrap over making a little package and cool in fridge till set, about 24 hours.

TPT (tant pour tant)

200 grams ground almonds
200 grams confectioner’s sugar

Mix together. Sift. Let sit out overnight to dry out.

Coffee Macarons

Batch A:

400 grams TPT
75 grams fresh egg whites
1 tsp coffee extract

Batch B:

200 grams sugar
50 grams water
1 tsp glucose
75 egg whites

Batch A: Mix all together in a large bowl to form a thick past.

Batch B: Add sugar, water and glucose to pan. Heat without stirring till it reaches 118 C. In the meantime, whip egg whites to stiff peaks. Slowly pour syrup into the egg whites. Fold together, slowly at first to incorporate, then beat violently a couple times until you've reached the proper consistancy.

Pipe and bake at 300 F for about 10-15 minutes. Fill and let age about 2 days in the fridge before eating.

Macaron tips and tricks

1.) The Italian meringue method to make macarons is the way to go. This way, you can flavor the shells in the sugar syrup.

2.) To make uniform macarons, buy a couple of half-tray cookie sheets and make yourself a template with parchment paper and a sharpie. Place a second piece of parchment over the template on the sheet, then when you're done piping, carefully slide the template off. Repeat.

3.) Convection ovens cook everything perfectly. If you don't have one, things are gonna get screwed up.

4.) Chocolate espresso ganache is delicious.

These are coffee macarons with chocolate espresso ganache. I made them in pastry school. This weekend I'm going to try and tackle some white russian macarons, with step-by-step photos, instructions and recipes.

Espresso Ganache

375 g milk chocolate
250 g cream
60g butter
1 tablespoon espresso
1 tablespoon of Invert sugar or glucose or honey

Melt chocolate with cream, add butter and invert sugar. Mix till smooth. Pour onto cookie sheet covered with plastic wrap, fold wrap over making a little package and cool in fridge.

TPT (tant pour tant)

200 grams ground almonds
200 grams confectioner’s sugar

Mix together. Sift. Let sit out overnight to dry out.

Coffee Macarons

Batch A:

400 grams TPT
75 grams fresh egg whites
2 tsp coffee extract

Batch B:

200 grams sugar
50 grams water
1 tsp glucose
75 egg whites

Batch A: Mix all together in a large bowl to form a thick past.

Batch B: Add sugar, water and glucose to pan. Heat without stirring till it reaches 118 C. In the meantime, whip egg whites to stiff peaks. Slowly pour syrup into the egg whites. Fold together, slowly at first to incorporate, then beat violently a couple times until you've reached the proper consistancy.

Pipe and bake at 300 F for about 10-15 minutes. Fill and let age about 2 days in the fridge before eating.

Opera Cake

Usually I don't really like coffee flavored desserts. Almost ever pastry I made in class was coffee flavored. Now I love coffee flavored things. Like this Opera Cake. You've got 3 layers of Joconde (almond sponge cake) soaked in coffee syrup. You've got coffee flavored buttercream. You've got a layer of chocolate ganache. You've got the thin, perfect chocolate glaze. And on the bottom you've got a coat of dark chocolate. Delicious, even if it does take three days to make.

Opera Cake was supposedly invented by the Patisserie Dalloyau.

For those that want to try it, there's a recipe here. Also, you'll want to get a sheet of acetate to keep the top perfectly smooth and build the cake upside down.

ZAP! Éclairs.

So for the past couple of days, I've been taking "Fundamentals of French Petite Fours" at the French Pastry School in Chicago. I wanted to hone my macaron skills- one of the Chefs worked with Pierre Herme. More on that later. In the meantime, this is why I'm never making tiny éclairs again:
Pâte à Choux, piped in two inch pieces with egg wash and scored with a fork. Lookin' okay.

The pastry tip we were given for filling these with pastry cream just put a big crater in the bottom of the pastry. Instead, let's focus on the fondant icing, which has been flavored with chocolate and has weird chemically properties that make it get all crusty-glazey on top.


Oh, and two-inch éclairs? They are a pain in the ass to cover with fondant.

Sad-looking éclairs. At least my madelines, coconut roches and raspberry financiers looked better. More on that soon. Bonus fact: éclair is French for "lightning,"

A few of my favorite things...

Over the holidays, I got to enjoy a lot of my very favorite things. Shrimp cocktail for instance, I am a sucker for a good homemade shrimp cocktail with extra horseradish-y sauce. And a nice Old Fashioned doesn't hurt either.

Best friends are also a great treat to have around the holidays. My puppy is best friends with this little basset hound, Ruby. They like to chew on each other's faces and then nap.

Butter. Butter is always a favorite thing. Here's me and my French Laundry cookbook- I tried to make my beurre monté sauce exactly to the book's specifications, including posing with a handful of butter. I then poached lobster in the butter- you totally need to do this.

Finally, eating butter-poached lobster and filet mingon is good too. It's even better when I get to use my Grandmother's table linens, china, and my other fancy things that only get broken out for special occasions- champagne flutes, silver chargers, gold flatware- and a gorgeous floral arrangement given to me as a hostess gift. By candlelight.

Cheep Cheep Cheep!

This weekend I attended my first Fried Chicken Social. I brought cupcakes frosted to look like chickens- a rough copy of a Martha Stewart Cutest Cupcake contest winner. I frosted them with a Swiss cream cheese buttercream, and the cake is my favorite red velvet.

So many chickens!