Out & About: Bouchon Bakery

If you follow me on Instagram you may be aware that over the holiday season, I took a mini vacation with my family to New York City. I had only been there once before, in high school with the school band, so this time around I was excited to cross a few things off my list of must-do's in the Big Apple. New York City is an awesome place, everybody knows that, and there is so much to do, see, and eat that it's easy to cram your day full of things and yet miss so much at the same time. Most of what we did day-to-day revolved around bakeries, cafes and restaurants I wanted to eat in, which I'm sure by now is no surprise to you. One of the first on my list was Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery.

This bakery is a beautiful place. With open windows to the baking process in the back and an open display of the freshly baked goods - ranging from croissants to macarons to cookies and more - it's difficult to walk out empty handed. Having just had lunch at Hale & Hearty near the Rockefeller, we decided to finish with something sweet and caffeinated from the bakery I had heard so much about. Mom and I split the cranberry-orange and the egg nog macarons, while my dad and brother each had a TLC cookie - nobody was disappointed. The macarons were perfection, perfectly smooth and crisp on top, chewy inside, and not too sweet - oh how I hope to one day make macarons just like 'em. 

Happy to have crossed the bakery off my NYC list, a few days later on Christmas I was pleasantly surprised to open up the beautiful Bouchon Bakery cookbook. It is filled with gorgeous pictures and stories on how the bakery came to be, various baking techniques and suggestions, and of course drool-worthy recipes of items from the bakery itself! I tried out the carrot muffins (post to come) and they were delicious. This book is a great one to add to your cookbook collection, and the bakery is an even better place to stop off for a quick cup of coffee and sweet tooth satisfier. 

Note: None of these pictures are my own - mine were lost to an unfortunate phone+water incident. 

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Out & About: Parisian Macarons

Pink Macaron with Vanilla Buttercream

At Christmas I like to try out at least one new recipe, and I usually try going against the average Christmas cookie recipes available. This past Christmas we took a shot at making those beautiful, little french cookies - macarons. After two tries we were moderately successful and very proud of our petite delights. They weren't perfect, but they still looked cute and tasted great. Since then we've been discussing how to make them just right, and looking through various recipes and books to figure out how we could perfect our macarons. So a couple months ago my mother and I decided to sign ourselves up for an afternoon class at Le Cordon Bleu. They have an extensive list of short courses available to the public and I was eager to try some out, but given the high price we had to narrow it down to just one. We chose "La Ronde des Macarons".

Chef Jocelyn preparing the cookie shells.

The class begins with a demonstration for both the cookie shells and fillings by two pastry chef instructors of France origins. They were both funny and knowledgable and taught us the exact process to making the perfect macarons - including the history, timing, and science behind them. I took as many notes as I could so that in the practical portion, I could replicate their creations.

Making the buttercream filling.

Next we're sent up to the kitchens and given ingredients, tools and uniforms to start the process. It was great to be able to ask questions to the chefs along the way to ensure we were doing things properly and that our cookies would turn out just right. I chose to make pink macarons with vanilla buttercream filling and Mom chose beige macarons with coffee buttercream filling. We were both very happy with the end result and now have a house swimming in macarons! It was the perfect afternoon for learning something new, having some fun, and eating something delicious.

This recipe is very simliar to the one we used however based on what I've learned, here are my suggestions:
- Heat the oven to 250 F
- Add a small pinch of cream of tartar to the eggs before beating, this helps them to form the soft peaks you're looking for
- During the deflating process (step 5), add the food colouring of your choice half way through
- Let the macarons rest for at least half an hour
- Do not open the oven before 10 minutes of baking have passed. At 10 minutes rotate the baking tray and bake for another 10 minutes for a total of 20 minutes baking time. 

Beige Macarons with Coffee Buttercream.