Sunshine Macaroons

I still don't know how I feel about single-subject cookbooks, but I wanted to take a chance with The Macaroon Bible because my dad loves eating coconut flavoured treats. He claims that he never gets to eat any when I make macaroons - that I give them out too quickly - so this batch was made especially for him.


The Macaroon Bible
Written by Dan Cohen
Photographs by Alice Gao
Food styling by Vivian Lui
Prop styling by Kira Corbin
ISBN 13: 9781118472163
ISBN 10: 1118472160
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover: 152 Pages

Dan Cohen founded New York City's macaroon company, Danny Macaroons, in 2010. His macaroons have just launched in locations across Chicago as well. This book is the result of Dan's experiments, using the basis of a plain macaroon as a blank canvas. What I like about making macaroons is how little equipment you need! It's almost a one-bowl treat!

In the introduction, there's a few pages for the tools, techniques (with step-by-step photos), a history of the macaroon, and how Dan started up his company. Basically, once you know how to make the original vanilla macaroons, you can start playing with flavour variations. The ones I liked the most from the cookbook were the salted caramel macaroons, piña colada macaroons, tiramisu macaroons, stoopid macaroons (inspired by Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar, they contain pretzels, potato chips, and a Butterfinger bar), coconut s'mores macaroons, chocolate bombs macaroons, and guava macaroons.

I'd like to seriously applaud the photographer and stylists. It's not easy taking photos of cookies that have a similar exterior look because the difference in flavour isn't always visible. They made each plate, pan, jar, and bowl of macaroons look tasty and inviting.

Please note that I read through the uncorrected proof of the book, so check with the finished copy for final information and recipes. My little cousin and I teamed up to make some sunshine macaroons from the cookbook. Except, we swapped the orange zest for lime zest (whatever was available in our fridge).

Sunshine Macaroons
Recipe adapted from The Macaroon Bible
(Makes about 24 two-inch macaroons)

2 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon of salt
10.5 ounces of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Grated zest of 1 lime
14 ounces of sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F). Line a baking pan with parchment or a silicone mat. Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, whisk the egg whites and salt on medium high until stiff peaks form.

While the mixer is running, zest the lemon.

And the lime. Easy enough that a 10-year-old can do it!

Add the vanilla extract to the condensed milk. Mix until all of the coconut shreds have been covered with the condensed milk mixture.

 Add both zests to the shredded coconut mixture. Gently fold the egg whites in.

Using a round cookie cutter, spoon the mixture in to form 1 centimetre thick.

Flatten it out with the spoon and gently lift the cookie cutter.

Or you can free form it by making round balls and flattening the cookies. Place the cookies about an inch apart (the macaroons will spread a little).

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Check for colouring, look for an even, light golden colour. Remove from the oven and let the macaroons rest and cool. The macaroons will keep at room temperature for 3 to 5 days, about 3 weeks in an airtight container in the fridge, or a few months in the freezer.

Take it to the next step by sandwiching ice cream or frozen yogurt in between two macaroons. Squeeze. Bite. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: A review copy of The Macaroon Bible was shared with us through NetGalley. There was no incentive or payment exchanged for a review or mention. All opinions are our own.

Chocolate Mousse

We made our first chocolate mousse dessert, and it counts towards a contest! Thomas Allen & Son Ltd. is challenging Canadian home chefs and bloggers to create recipes from Jacques Pépin's newest cookbook, Essential Pepin. I thought I would give it a try for my chance to win a copy of the cookbook.

One could make an entire Pépin meal from the three recipes provided:

a) Composed salad of greens, goat cheese, and caramelized pecans

b) Chicken in tarragon sauce

c) Chocolate mousse

Each one that you make would count as an entry. The salad and chicken was tempting, but I went for the dessert!

The recipe is pretty simple, calling for sugar, egg yolks, bittersweet/semisweet chocolate, heavy cream, and cognac/dark rum/Grand Marnier. I was probably over confident, because this dessert took us longer than I thought!

First of all, I bought table cream from Shopper's by accident. My mousse-making partner and I figured something was wrong when it wouldn't form soft peaks after intensive whipping. So we had to put our chocolate and egg yolk mixture aside and go to the supermarket.

No Frills was sold out of heavy cream! How about Wal-Mart? Crap, it wasn't a Superstore with the fridge aisles. Even our last hope, a Daisy Mart convenience store, no luck. So we went home and debated risking the mousse by using the bubbly table cream. Was everyone making desserts with heavy cream this weekend?

Then we received good news, Howard found some and brought over just enough for the recipe! Hooray, we could continue...

Unfortunately, our chocolate mixture had gotten hard by the time we finally had soft peaks from our cream. The chocolate had probably seized and started to break down. In which Pépin suggests to "immediately stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of the whipped cream to smooth out the mixture."

Oh crap again. We didn't get a chance to do that "immediately" because we didn't have whipped cream at that time.

We warmed it up again and tried our best to salvage it. Then we folded in the whipped cream until it was as smooth as it could get.

Then, we funneled the mixture into four cups and one take-out container for my mousse-making partner to take some home (it made six servings - perfect). We didn't end up chilling it for two hours because we were keen on decorating them before the sun went down.

For two of the glasses, we piped little poofs on top of the already firmed mousse with the whipped cream we set aside. Then sprinkled some cinnamon on it. For the other two, we added a layer of milk chocolate Crispearls and then piped on whipped cream. Yum!

And for some odd reason, we had it in our heads that we were making chocolate pudding that day. Some weird switch must have happened in my mind, so when it didn't turn out jiggly, we thought we made it wrong. But upon checking the recipe title, we realized that it was correct! What a day of ups and downs!