Classic French Madeleines

How have you been? I know it's been quite around here, it's been quite hectic at work. Worst of all, I met my nemesis, the flu. The flu kicked me down and knocked me out for a week. I'm still fighting the after effects, but I think I am finally winning.

The wedding plans are also coming along (mostly?). I don't think there's anything left for us to do this year. All the things that need to be booked ahead of time are done (I hope, I think?), so we just wait until we're closer to the date. I'd like to think we're ahead of schedule or at least on track! I wish I could tell you more, but I'm an odd believer that I'll jinx it if I do. Some things were too good to be true and then fell through, so I'll wait until it's all over before I say any more!

I'm still loving little madeleines though. These tiny tea cakes make good afternoon snacks. I hope you all get madeleine pans this holiday and make these tasty little morsels.

Classic French Madeleines
Recipe from Madeleines: Elegant French Tea Cakes to Bake and Share
(Makes about 24 regular or 48 minis)

1 stick of unsalted butter + 4 tablespoons for the pan
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
3 large eggs
2/3 cup of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon of fresh lemon zest

1. Preheat the oven at 175°C or 350°F.
2. Place the butter in a microwavable bowl and melt on lower power for about a minute. Let it cool to room temperature. Butter up with the 4 tablespoons! Make sure you brush soften butter into all the nooks and crannies of the pan for easy lift up after.
3. Using a mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together until it is light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Add in vanilla extract and lemon zest, mix for another minute until combined. Fold in the flour and baking powder. Don't over mix at this stage, the flour just needs to be incorporated completely.
5. Use a spoon or scoop to fill the pan molds until they're almost full. You can smooth out the batter if you like, but I find that it'll melt nicely into the mold in the oven's hot temperatures.
6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes for regular sized madeleines and 5 to 6 for the mini sizes. They should puff up to show that signature madeleine hump and be golden in colour.
7. Remove from the oven and let the madeleines cool. Eat them right away. Seriously, they're best when they're fresh!

I'm thinking these will make great gifts this holiday at the office. I've made macarons two years in a row, it's time to switch it up!

One more thing, don't skip the lemon zest, it gives the cakes such a great boost in flavour. Not to mention, the aroma!!

Madeleines

Madeleines . . . the first time I had memorable madeleines was at Café Boulud. They were sitting in a warm nest of linen napkins, and even though I was full from the meal, I devoured them.

Little miniature tea cakes, madeleines are described as "small, shell-shaped cakes made of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter and baked in molds." I think we can all agree that we could use more madeleines in our lives, so I couldn't wait to look through a whole book about them!

Beautiful endpapers should always be acknowledged.

If I woke up to that basket of madeleines every morning, I would be happy and content. All would be right.

I quickly flipped to chapter three, dark and deluxe chocolate madeleines!

Madeleines: Elegant French Tea Cakes to Bake and Share
Written by Barbara Feldman Morse
Photographs by Steve Legato
ISBN 13: 9781594747403
ISBN 10: 1594747407
Publisher: Quirk Books
Hardcover: 224 pages

Let's give the dark chocolate espresso madeleines a try. The author mentions that this recipe was adapted from her award-winning recipe that is a mix between brownies, fudge, and dense chocolate cake.

I used a double boiler and a stand mixer to create the batter. A lot of butter, sugar, semisweet chocolate chips, espresso powder, eggs, flour, and cocoa powder went into this.

This particular batter was dark, thick, and shiny. It also doesn't rise much, so you can fill the molds to the top without worrying about overflow.

The espresso flavor really stands out, the only thing I wished was that my mold was more defined. I felt that they didn't produce enough of a shell imprint on the madeleines. So if you're on the search for madeleine pans, get ones with more defined edges!

If you're not picky on how they look, then it doesn't matter because they taste great anyways. Looking over the table of contents, I would want to try these recipes next: the classic French madeleines, lemon poppy seed, chai tea, peanut butter and jelly, sunshine, molten, peaches and cream, snowball, fresh lemon drop, browned butter pecan, gruyère and rosemary, brie-stuffed, caramelized onion and asiago, and banana foster. As you can see, there are savory and appetizer madeleines!

Disclaimer: A review copy of Madeleines was sent to me for review from Eric Smith at Quirk Books. Thank you! No incentives were used to produce a positive review of this book.

Lemon Chewies with Honey

I am back with another cookie post! It is hard not to bake something when all the ingredients are here and the instructions are so simple. There are no reasons why I should not be eating these cookies, especially if they were recommended to me by my colleague, Monique.

I woke up this morning and flipped open The Cookiepedia (for your chance to win a copy, click here). I took the butter and egg out to reach room temperature as I had breakfast. And just so you know, you can make these and eat them before lunch time, they are that easy!
Finished eating breakfast? Preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F).

In your mixing bowl, add 1 stick (1/2 cup) of unsalted butter.

Then pour in 1/2 cup of sugar.

Cream the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest, mix until incorporated into the butter and sugar mixture.

In a measuring cup, pour in 1/3 cup of honey. Crack an egg and add it with the honey. Use a spoon to stir them together until they are combined. I've never mixed honey with egg before either, but don't worry, it works! Add this to the butter mixture and beat until incorporated.

Add 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt to the mixture. Mix until the dough comes together, then add 1 more cup of all-purpose flour. Blend until the batter looks smooth.

You can either lightly grease a cookie sheet, use parchment paper, or a silicone mat. Scoop up the batter with your hands and gently roll them into little balls. Flatten them slightly and place them about 2 inches apart on your baking sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are set and the bottoms are a golden brown.

While the cookies are cooling, make an easy glaze. Mix 1/2 cup of powdered sugar with 1/2 tablespoon of water. Mix until a glaze starts to form, if the mixture is not runny enough, add more water, a 1/2 teaspoon at a time. If your glaze is too runny, add more powdered sugar. You'll know when you have the right consistency for drizzling over the cookies.

Go on, this is the fun part. The icing doesn't have to look neat, just zig-zag over the lemon chewies.

That was fun wasn't it? Pop these pillowy cookies in your mouth, you can really taste a hint of lemon and honey flavours! I'd want to up the lemon flavours next time, maybe a squeeze of juice or more lemon zest. I'd also have to use regular honey, my wildflower honey may have overpowered it!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve or Merry Christmas depending where you are! To get into a little creative mood, I made green tea Christmas tree cookies for our families.

Green Tea Cookies

Adapted from The Cookiepedia: Mixing, Baking, and Reinventing the Classics

(Makes about 18 Christmas tree cookies)

3/4 cup of powdered sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of matcha powder

1/2 cup of unsalted butter

3 egg yolks

1 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour

A pinch of salt

1. Gently mix the powdered sugar and matcha powder together.
2. Add in the butter and beat it all together until smooth. It'll look like spinach green icing!
3. Add in the egg yolks and beat until incorporated, scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Pour in a third of the flour at a time. It will take a minute or so for the flour to absorb into the dough. Also add in the pinch of salt and mix. Make sure that there are no dry or crumbly sections in the dough.
5. Flatten the dough into a disk and plastic wrap it. Seal it up and let it chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
6. Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
7. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out to about 1/2-inch thick. Cut out shapes with your preferred cookie cutter. Set them on a parchment sheet or silicone mat.
8. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until you see the edges start to turn lightly golden. Cool before decorating.

You can eat the cookies as they are, but if you want to dress them up like sugar cookies, you'll need to make some royal icing.

Green Tea Royal Icing

(Makes enough to line and flood 18 Christmas tree cookies)

1 1/2 tablespoon of meringue powder

2 cups of powdered sugar

1 tablespoon of matcha powder

2 1/2 tablespoons of water

1. Beat all the ingredients together until icing forms peaks. I would recommend using a clean and grease free stand mixer. You can add more green colour if you like, but I found the light green from the matcha powder to be sufficient.
2. This is your stiff consistency, have your piping bag and tip ready, fill about a handful of royal icing into the bag.
3. Pipe along the edges of your cookies, refill if necessary. Add any remaining icing back to the batch.
4. To thin out the royal icing for flooding, keep adding 1 teaspoon of water until you reach the proper consistency.
5. Using the same piping bag and tip, carefully fill it with the thinner icing and pipe them onto the cookie. By now, the edges should have hardened enough to stay as a border. Decorate as you see fit!

Use clean toothpicks for correcting, if you need to slightly shift a line or pop an air bubble. I clearly need to work on my cookie piping skills.

I really like the look of the simple hollies on the tree.

I have an extra copy of Stacy Adimando and Tara Striano's The Cookiepedia: Mixing, Baking, and Reinventing the Classics. Would you like to win it? Our Christmas gift to one lucky winner!

Giveaway Regulations and Conditions: 

• The Cookiepedia Giveaway is open from Saturday, December 24, 2011 to Sunday, January 8, 2012. Entries submitted after 12 midnight EST on Sunday, January 8, 2012 will not be considered. 
• There are three ways to enter, post in the comment section below or on A Baked Creation's facebook page: I could eat ______________ cookies all year long. (Fill in the blank with your favourite cookie.) 
• To enter via twitter, tweet: @abakedcreation I could eat ______________ cookies all year long. (Fill in the blank with your favourite cookie.)
• Please leave a way for us to contact you (via e-mail, twitter handle).
• The winner will be randomly chosen and announced here on A Baked Creation on Monday, January 10, 2012. 
• The winner will have 7 days to claim their prize. If we do not get a mailing address, the prize is forfeited.
• This contest is available to residents of Canada and the U.S.A. only! However, if you have friends and family with a Canadian or American mailing address, feel free to enter. There will be four different winners, one for each book.
• Disclaimer: My copy and the giveaway copy of The Cookiepedia was not sent to us by the publisher.
• UPDATE: A winner has been chosen! Congratulations to SweetThingsTO who said, "I could eat chocolate peanut butter cookies all year long... or anything chocolate peanut butter actually..."

On a Stick!

First, there would be no drooling of food-on-a-stick photos or book review if it wasn't for Matt. I liked that he calls us readers his "food blogging friends." Second, thank you to Eric Smith from Quirk Books and Jessica Scott from Random House of Canada for sending us a review copy of Matt Armendariz's On a Stick!

On a Stick! 80 Party-Perfect Recipes
Written by Matt Armendariz
Photographs by Matt Armendariz

ISBN 13: 978-1594744891

ISBN 10: 1594744890
Publisher: Quirk Books

Paperback: 184 pages

The first thing I did when I got the book was look up page 142 to see what Matt was eating too much of. Ahh, it all made sense now. Recently, I had been asking around to see who had a deep fryer, because friends should let friends have have deep-fried food parties.

Let me rewind and tell you that this book intrigued me because:

a.) it is by Matt of MattBites.com, who takes beautiful food photos,

b.) I was having food on-a-stick withdrawal (or maybe it's fried-food-that-I-shouldn't-be-eating withdrawal), and

c.) there is a section for Sweet Foods on a Stick.

So guess which section I took my recipe testing from? Yes the sweet section, page 140: Decorated Sugar Cookies. Being a baking and dessert blog, I thought it made sense that I took it upon myself to test this sweets-on-stick business out.

I have to admit, I didn't follow the exact instructions. The cookbook suggests Popsicle sticks while I used candy sticks. It also said to insert the Popsicle sticks after the cookies are baked and while they're still warm on the cooling rack. I inserted the candy sticks into the cookie dough before baking them:

Luckily, they didn't burn, and I really trusted that they would be fine. If you don't want to take that risk, please do it Matt's way. Although, I do believe you can have a bit of fun and leeway when you're creating party food. ;)

Matt also includes a recipe for decorating icing, which I didn't add (the cookie eaters at my house don't want too much sugar).

Let's go through the rest of the cookbook too. Matt starts out with an introduction to sticks and skewers along with dips and sauces. He provides 10 stick and skewer suggestions, which come in a range of different materials (food and man-made). The recipes for the dips and sauces are provided throughout the cookbook, paired with the right food. Each recipe introduction is well written, infused with Matt's humour and voice. It shines through and you can relate the writing style back to his blog.

The savory foods on a stick is obviously more dominant in this book, and I found that most recipes required a grill/grill pan or a heavy pot with vegetable oil (or a handy deep fryer).

Over all, I will be whipping this book out when I finally have a deep fry party or when it's barbecue season here in Toronto! The recipes are fun and easy to do, especially with a group of friends.

Favourite recipes to look out for? Bo La Lot, Chicken and Waffles, Deep-Fried Mac 'n' Cheese, Elote, Fried Mozzarella, Berries 'n' Buttermilk Smoothie Ice Cream Pops, Fresh Mango and Chili Powder, and Fudge Puppies. I know, it was hard to narrow down!

Quirky, no? This isn't icing or fondant, it was made on www.picnik.com when I was feeling goofy. =)