walking dead

good afternoon! sam and i rushed back from portland yesterday morning, and i went straight from the airport to work. . . it always sounds like such a great idea to save $50 and get an extra night with your friends when you're buying the plane tickets, but i'll tell you, waking up at 4 am after a late-night sushi party is ROUGH. and working through it is rougher. i spent yesterday in major zombie mode.

before we left for portland, i made a batch of extra-large macarons. when i was in school, we were taught to make them about the size of a quarter - petit four size - and it has been a really hard habit to break, maybe because you get so darn many out of a batch and they're so tiny and cute that way. i decided it'd be easier to travel with extra large macs rather than a box full of delicate little guys, so i made them about three times their usual size, and i will never go back.



raspberry vanilla macarons with dark chocolate ganache

100 g aged egg whites, preferably at room temperature
28 g sugar
5 g egg white powder
1 t bakto vanilla ground vanilla beans (or vanilla bean paste, or just plain vanilla if that's what you have on hand)
1/2 t bakto raspberry extract
a few drops of deep red food coloring
120 g almond flour
200 g powdered sugar

for ganache:
200 g dark chocolate
about 3/8 cup (or 6 T, or 1/4 cup plus 2 T. it's a clumsy amount.) heavy cream

as always, get everything measured out and a nice big space cleared. i like to go ahead and prep 3 baking pans by trimming parchment to fit them and securing them down with butter before i start, and get a piping bag ready with a tip about the size of a pencil eraser.

sift together the almond flour and sugar and set aside. now combine the sugar and egg white powder. using a handmixer, whip the egg whites until they are foamy and no longer yellow; slowly add the sugar mixture and beat until you have a nice meringue, with peaks that will still droop a touch. before you're finished, add the extracts and color and mix until they're evenly combined. the egg white powder does a good job of preventing an over-mix, but you want to make sure not to under beat it, too - it should be nice and shiny.



at this point, shake off the beaters and grab a good, flexible rubber spatula. grab the sieve you used to sift together the flour & powdered sugar, and add the flour/sugar mixture to the meringue in five additions, sifting it through the sieve again each time to evenly distribute it. gently fold the flour each time until you don't see streaks anymore.





all right! pour all this into your eagerly awaiting piping bag; i usually fit mine over a quart container, twisting the tip, so i can pour it in there with both hands and get every bit out of the bowl.

move to your trays. the trick we were taught in school was to count as your piping, a quick "one-two-three," so that they all turn out the same size; err on the size of giving yourself too much space between cookies, because they'll spread a bit after being piped and even a bit more when baking. after you pipe a sheet, tap them once, hard, on the table to release air bubbles.

then just let 'em sit. while this is happening, turn your oven to just under 300; i'd definitely get a thermometer, if you don't have one already, as my busted old brooklyn oven actually burns at 375 when i have it set to 300, so i have to watch it and adjust accordingly.

let them rest, preferably not somewhere super hot or humid, until they develop a skin, and you can poke them gently without the batter coming off on your finger. pop them in your preheated oven and set a timer for six minutes, then rotate them and bake for six more - this is perfect for my oven, but yours might need a bit more or less time, so watch for them to start to barely turn light brown on their feet and take them out then.

let them cool entirely before peeling them off the parchment; you can refrigerate or freeze the shells if you don't want to fill them immediately, otherwise melt 2/3 of the chocolate with the cream over low heat on the oven, and mix in the rest of the cold, chopped chocolate after it's all melted. this should give you a good consistency for piping; pipe a dollop onto one sandwich, match it with a mate, and voila. these things only get better with a day or two in the fridge, so don't be afraid to make them ahead of time.

i know i've done macarons to death, but i continue to be delighted with them; as a pastry chef with a seriously stunted sweet tooth, i never tire of the mix of textures and the fact that you can make any flavor combination under the sun with these things. the raspberry flavor in this is as good, or better, than when i've tried pulverizing dried raspberries to use - i highly recommend all the flavors bakto offers. the woman behind the company is a scientist really does an incredible job of extracting the most natural tasting flavors. give 'em a try.

that's all from me for today. we had such a fantastic time up in maine and have lots to show for it, as soon as i've rested up and gotten my act together a bit.

xo audrey

viva la france!

hello everyone! happy bastille day! i just made a bunch of crepes for my office mates, and i'm heading home tonight to make macarons for a bastille day party sam & i are attending on saturday. in the meantime, i have the final stylecaster & hawaiian tropic video to share - along with a couple of recipes, including a galette, which is french. full circle.



galettes are free-form french pastries that are great for any time of year - a delicious, buttery pastry that you can fill with just about whatever meat, cheese or veggies you have hanging around in your fridge, mixed up with an egg and topped off with some salt and pepper. i also love rhubarb - it's only around for a short time of year, and it's sweet and tart flavor is well paired with juicy summer strawberries. the crumb i use here is good on just about any fruit you can cut up and bake - peaches, apples, or blackberries all make delicious crisps.

thanks so much for watching! i had so much fun making these videos with the guys from stylecaster, and i'm very grateful to hawaiian tropic for helping me keep my skin freckled but sunburn-free this summer.

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heirloom tomato & swiss chard galette

ingredients:

for the dough:

2 cups all purpose flour
a pinch of salt
12 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter
1/3 - 1/2 cup of ice water

for the filling:

1 yellow onion, sliced
2 bunches rainbow chard, with stems removed
6-10 heirloom tomatoes of various sizes & colors, cut into thin slices
1/4 cup white wine
a splash of olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
salt
pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 eggs, beaten
feta cheese
thyme

directions:

1) cut the butter into small cubes and combine with flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.

2) use two knives to cut the butter until it becomes pea sized pieces, adding a little bit of water as needed.

3) add just enough water so that it does not crumble and roll into ball; there will be bits of butter throughout the dough.

4) wrap it in plastic and refrigerate while making the filling.

5) preheat oven to 400 F.

6) cut and separate onions, swiss chard and tomatoes

7) sauté onions in a large pan with a splash of olive oil and butter until soft.

8) add the swiss chard and cook down until wilted; add white wine, salt and pepper. cook until most of the wine has evaporated.

9) add cream and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the veggies are coated with a thick liquid and little excess remains. Remove from heat.

10) roll out the dough into a large circle

11) beat egg in small bowl. stir almost all the egg into the chard and onion mixture, reserving a bit to brush the dough with.

12) put the mixture in the middle of the dough circle and tile the tomatoes on top of it in a mosaic type pattern. sprinkle the top generously with feta cheese, then a few leaves of thyme.

13) fold up the edges of the galette around the filling; there should be three or so inches of crust all around the edge. brush with the reserved egg, and then bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.


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ingredients:

for the filling:

4 cups strawberries, hulled and sliced in half
6-7 stalks of rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
vanilla

for the crumb:

1 stick of butter, cut into squares, chilled
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cup of nuts of your choice (I used almonds)
1 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt

tarragon whipped cream:

several tarragon leaves, made into a chiffonade
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons powdered sugar


directions:

1) preheat oven to 350 F.

2) cut strawberries and rhubarb and place into ovenproof dish.

3) combine water, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla in a pot over the cooking range until boiling; stir carefully and let it boil for 2 minutes. pour this over the strawberries & rhubarb.

4) to make the crumb mix flour, oats, nuts, and brown sugar and salt together in a food processor until finely chopped. add butter and pulse the processor until you have a good-sized crumb. sprinkle this on top of the rhubarb.

5) bake for 30 minutes or until crumb is browned and the edges bubble.

6) for the cream, beat ingredients until cream makes soft, but stable peaks.

enjoy!

there is also a recipe for a cocktail i whipped up, straight of an ernest hemingway novel i read while sam & i were on the honeymoon - you can find it here.

all right! i hope everyone has a lovely thursday! one day closer to the weekend. . .

xo audrey

rollin' in dough

i have used this recipe dozens of times and probably mentioned it here nearly as many. finally: galette dough.

i've made galettes for years, and until a few months ago i used a pretty straightforward recipe, quite similar to a standard pie crust dough. then, more recently, we started making seasonal fruit galettes at work, and i discovered with the same few ingredients (butter, salt, flour, and water) you can get a very different, absolutely heavenly flakey crust. here it is:

2 sticks of butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes and placed in the freezer for at least 30 minutes (until quite hard and cold)
240 g AP flour
100 g cake flour
1/2 cup water, with 1 t salt dissolved in it and placed in the freezer to cool


you'll need some table room to work on. clear a space as large as you can on a kitchen table or counter.

dust your work space with the slightest bit of ap flour to work on. sprinkle the butter on top in a small pile; dump the 2 flours on top of that, and get out your rolling pin. you'll also want some kind of scraper to gather the dough. roll it out and scrape it back together until the butter has all been flattened into little pieces and the dough looks very shaggy, like the first picture on the left.



one you've gotten it all nice and shaggy, gather it up, make a well in the center, and pour in the water that's been chilling in the freezer. use your scraper to cut the water into the dough a bit before using your rolling pin to begin to roll the dough out into a long rectangle (as in the above photo.) use extra flour on your rolling pin to keep it from sticking, and on your table as needed. once you've got it all together, as a cohesive dough, even out the sides and then simply fold it up as you would a letter - 2 folds, in three sections. then turn it to the side, and roll it out again, the exact same way - long rectangle, then folded into thirds. roll out once more, fold it up, and wrap it in plastic and let it chill for at least an hour.

once you're ready to use the dough, roll it out into a big rectangle, with the dough about 1/4 inch thick. all the folds you've put in there give it amazing, flaky layers - it's almost like puff pastry, but without all the work and waiting between turns. simply cut up any fruit that's in season, sprinkle a bit of lemon juice on top (if it's something like an apple or pear) or else just some sugar, and bake at 350 until browned. simply incredible. i use it for savory galettes as well.

a wonderful and unforeseen consequence of a surprise half birthday party? friends unable to attend offer to buy you drinks! for no reason except that you didn't see them a night you hadn't even known to expect them! for such an occasion, i wear:



blouse: j crew
brooch: picked up at a little shop in red hook (for a DOLLAR!)
skirt: american apparel
belt: thrifted
tights: bought off a guy in the street (yes, but they were in untampered with packaging, i swear!)
shoes: oak nyc

wearing these shoes while i still can, before the first snow comes. i tremble in fear.


have a lovely night, all!

xo audrey