Lemon Tart

Daring Bakers: French Macaroons

Lemon Raspberry Macarons

It's good to be back. Back at home. Back in my kitchen. Back with The Daring Bakers. I've been absent for awhile now, so when I was ready to get back to baking and blogging I was delighted to find out this months challenge was something that pulls at my heart simply due to what it makes me think of - Paris.

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

French Macarons you see are a far cry from the Canadian version - those ubiquitous, sugary, coconut laden mountains that show up in coffee shops, church bazaars and cookie trays everywhere. Yet I have yet to meet anyone you actually enjoys them, although I think that is because so many of them out there are so bad. A future post perhaps - Macaroons rediscovered?

French Macaroons, or Macarons, are a different macaroon altogether. A meringue based cookie (sans coconut), light as air, is sandwiched between a filling of chocolate ganache, or buttercream, with endless variations from nutella to preserves. This creates a cookie that at first shatters on your teeth on contact, seemingly delicate and crackly, only to yield to a chewy interior layer followed by a creamy, flavour packed filling. 3 different textures, a single flavour or a mixture of contrasting flavours, makes these cookies a winner in my books. Not too sweet, delicate, but not too much, and oh so pretty make these a favourite tea cookie of mine. Of course they allow for so much creativity that it invites crazy combinations like green olive and olive oil, ketchup, matcha tea and everything in between.

Composed of a short ingredient list of egg whites, almond flour and sugar, they are a lot trickier than you would imagine. But then again a baguette is made up of the same number of ingredients and finding a good one is a lot more difficult than you would think should be. A challenge for those of us who like to bake, but also a gamble. Even if you've made dozens of these without thinking, most of them turning out near perfect, this is a cookie that eludes and sometimes just decides not to work out. So if you decide to tackle them, don't despair, it happens. Aging egg whites, grinding your own almond flour, sifting the almonds, letting the cookies air dry before baking. They come with a number of tricks and requirements. The good news is that once you get the hang of them, they are quick to make and even quicker to eat!

I began making these at home 4 years ago upon returning home from my first trip to Paris where they are as as common as the chocolate chip cookie or Nanaimo bar here. Back then a recipe for macarons was difficult to find, but I managed to find a couple and began baking (and selling) these little bits of Paris. These were cookies that inspired such smiles from people, especially fellow travelers and Francophiles. Reminders of beautiful times in the city of light. I was happy to bring that back for people and share something new for people who'd never heard of such a thing.

Now macarons have hit North American shores and I'm not sure if its for the better. I've seen them overpriced and stale at upscale gourmet grocers and just shake my head. Who would be so stupid to spend money on these? But apparently people do and I think I understand why. Food can often be as much about memory of time and place than the actual food itself. To me they have to taste good too, but to some people the purchase itself brings them back to happier times.  Recreating my little bit of a city I love is exciting and challenging.

They are also a huge trend internationally and you've likely come across them somewhere near or far from home. What started as a darling little cookie seen only in Paris or France, some people say, are the next trend threatening to derail the cupcake. I don't know about that, but when McDo's  (McDonalds) starts selling them, that's gotta mean its outgrown its humble roots. Although to be fare I can bet the Macarons at Mcdonalds in Paris are for certain going to be better than the sad ones at my local grocer.

Grape Bread: schiacciata con l'uva

Every year around this time, two of my closest friends have a Harvest Party. It's a great reason for a party and something I look forward to each year as the trees start to lose their leaves, the air turns crisp and the markets are still bountiful with squash, apples and plenty of root vegetables. Its a potluck affair, which seems fitting for an event centred around the harvest, so there's always a mosaic of different dishes and styles of cooking. The best part of the party is something called "Fruits of your Labour", where each guest must bring to the party something that they have made or grown themselves. The sideboard overflows with a unique mix of items brought with pride, and I am always excited to see the variety of items on display: creatively made cards, all manner of jams and preserves, coveted buttercrunch, homegrown fruits and vegetables, a handmade beehouse...each year it changes.  When its your turn you go up, admire all the possibilities, and pick something to take home with you. For a lover of all things homegrown and made, it's better than Christmas.

For the potluck part of the party I always bring the same thing. If I didn't, I fear there would be a lot of sad faces in the room. It's a grape Schiacciata - an Italian foccacia-like flatbread covered in grapes. Its a traditional bread seen all over Italy in September and October in celebration of  the grape harvest. Wine grapes are the norm there, the seeds providing the characteristic crunch although I always make mine with organic seedless coronation grapes. These sweet, incredibly intense grapes make this bread what it is and while it may be traditional to use wine grapes, I don't think we would appreciate that bit of roughage here. The grapes cook on top of the bread, bursting their juices into the dough which absorbs it, some of the juices caramelize on the outer edges providing a smokey caramel flavour to the sweet collapsed grapes on top. Rosemary infused oil adds a savoury note and a generous sprinkling of sugar and honey add to the flavour. What you end up with is a simple, puffy bread, full of the goodness of the grapes and one of those dishes that simply screams autumn. When you serve this alongside turkey dinner, forget the cranberry sauce. Some people might even say, forget the turkey.

I fear that divulging my recipe will render me unnecessary at 2010's harvest party, but I'm willing to take the risk to help more people see grapes as more than something to make wine from or have in a fruit bowl.

Gourmet Distraction

 

You might be wondering what's taking me so long to tell you about my time in Italy and France...well I've been distracted today, and have spent quite a bit of time on a certain website, pilfering as many recipes as I can. My time in a foreign country can wait, but a wealth of well written and tested, creative and classic recipes that I thought I would always have access to but might not - can't. So this is where you'll find me. Sifting, sorting, printing, sadly pining for a culinary institution.

This is old news by now, but the day I was wandering the streets of a French Riviera town, shopping for the perfect Cote du Provence, baguette, creamy Religeuse, and haricots verts for a garden lunch, Gourmet magazine was announcing its closing. Since I was sitting in a garden drinking wine, feeding the cat chevre and nibbling on pissaladiere, I didn't know it until my arrival home.

Gourmet magazine is the oldest running food magazine in America and at the ripe old age of 69 years it will close with its current November 2009 issue. Whether you buy Gourmet or not, you probably know of it. And personal opinions aside, its what many would consider the gold standard of food publications, made possible by some of the best food writers, stylists and photographers, not to mention a diverse and info packed website and perhaps the best food tv series I've ever come across.

Bonjour mes amis!

I left you last on my way to Italy, and come to you now directly from France, hence the language change. We have returned from 4 lovely weeks of a mixed bag of experiences and sites. Some small disappointments, some surprises, some familiar places, but all great. We are happy to be home with our Emma-dog, North American plumbing and inexpensive readily available Asian food, but will miss long lunches, beautiful romantic languages, Cote du Provence Rose, lack of sales tax and tipping culture and narrow, ancient European lanes. My report to come soon.