Matcha Macs with Honey Buttercream

When our Improv Cooking Challenge moderator Lesa posted the 2016 monthly themes back in November, my eyes roved the list making mental notes of what recipe(s) I would attempt to complete. I cross-referenced with Pinterest pins that have been sitting unused for years… February’s challenge being TEA & HONEY, I decided I would finally try Brave Tart’s “nutless” macarons which utilize ground pepitas instead of almonds for the flour. Since they (pepitas/pumpkin seeds) are green-ish, matcha seemed the likely companion.I first ordered matcha powder back in October. I’ve been gagging down trying to drink the stuff as part of my daily regimen. Usually I just bury its bitterness in our morning protein shake. So, maybe all that powdered sugar can tone it down…

I lightly toasted the pepitas and tossed them into my Blendtec along with the sugar & matcha. A couple seconds on low speed ground the mixture fine enough to pass through my sieve.The egg whites whipped beautifully using Stella’s method of 3 minutes on “4”, then 3 minutes on “6”, 3 minutes on “8”, then a final minute on the highest speed.I piped the batter onto the waiting pans. (Because it’s been a year since I last made macarons, my rounds were a little off!) I loved that I could see the little green specks that were pepitas.Macs were baked, cooled & matched.Next was filling them with the honey buttercream I’d whipped up the day before.Too late I realized the star tip made the beautiful filling quite ragged.  

Oh well…Now for the taste test:Oh dear, they’re hollow this time. (In doing a little research I learned that those cute flecks of the seed might have deflated the meringue while baking…)

Here’s the recipe for the Pepita Matcha Macarons (not going to waste space here with the method, ‘cause you can find such detailed information on other sites.)

• 115g lightly toasted pepitas
• 1 T. matcha powder
• 230g confectioners sugar
• 144g egg whites
• 2g Kosher salt
• 72g granulated sugar

And here’s how I made my Honey Buttercream. (So delicious! It reminds me of the honeybutter my mom used to make when I was a kid!)

• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 3/4 c. whole milk
• 1 t. cornstarch

Whisk together in saucepan. Heat until it thickens, but don’t allow to boil. Cool to room temperature.

Beat 1 cup salted butter (softened to room temperature) in mixing bowl. Continue beating while adding spoonfuls of cooled custard alternating with drizzling in 1/4 cup honey. Whip until combined & smooth. Chill until use.

My fellas were allowed to taste the macarons after dinner tonight. Mixed reviews on the flavor of the cookie; but all of one accord praised the honey buttercream! (I even caught a couple of them dipping pretzels into the leftover filling…)

I used a locally produced honey that is soooooooooo deliciously sweet. It is a Citrus/Mesquite Blossom honey that we use by the gallon!

 

Now you can follow these links to see what my co-contributors made with TEA & HONEY:

An InLinkz Link-up

Black & White Russian Macarons

I know, I know, I know! I am sooooooo late to the macaron party… My motto is, however, if you must be tardy – then at least be well-dressed. Black & white is always appropriate, for any occasion.
And our occasion today is the “Ebony and Ivory” Improv Cooking Challenge.

(Thanks to Kristen, we’ve had this song playing in our heads all month! )
I really wanted to try gluten-free chocolate cream-filled cookies; but because I made these a few months ago, I figured I should probably move in a different direction.I’d been studying up on macarons for a couple years. My Pinterest boards are loaded with soooooo much inspiration. The sites I used for most of my ideas are Mardi’s & BraveTart. Because they are so knowledgeable & helpful, I’m not going to waste space here telling you how to make macarons. (Also because I’ve made macarons once…) I will tell you my mistakes, though.
First, here is my recipe:

for the macarons:
	115 g.	ground almonds
	230 g.	powdered sugar
	10 g.	instant coffee granules
	5 g.	finely ground coffee beans
	1 T.	black powdered color
	144 g.	egg whites
	72 g.	superfine sugar
simple buttercream filling:
	½ c.	softened butter (salted)
	1 lb.	powdered sugar
	¼ c.	half & half (could use milk or cream)
	1 T.	Kahlúa®‎
	3 T.	Whipped Cream Vodka

Be sure to use a scale to have accurate measures.I didn’t have enough lovely white Bob’s Red Mill almond flour, so I had to fill in with TJ’s colorful meal – didn’t matter much ‘cause it was triple sifted then colored with black.(Speaking of color… if I use the black again, I will use at least twice as much powder to attain a good hue.)The aged whites whipped up so nicely following Mardi’s directions. The folding in of the almond flour mixture took more strokes than she suggested.I was thankful for the wonderful template from Yumarama. You can see the trouble I had “free-handing” it…My piping skills obviously need much work!
The buttercream turned out quite delicious. I’ve got half of it left to top some cupcakes after Easter. YUM!Pairing up the shells before piping the filling saves a bunch of time!The coffee smell from the shells while filling was overwhelming!So overwhelming that I had to pour a cuppa and sample the wares right away…
If you’d like to see more interpretations of our Ebony & Ivory theme; check out these links:

An InLinkz Link-up

Holy Ground

In our Kindergarten Sunday School class we’ve been discussing Moses’ life. Last week we talked about how God used the burning bush to get his attention after he’d run away to tend sheep in the desert.I wanted to make their snack something that would remind the students of that miraculous encounter with God.These “burning bush” treats were quite simple:Just two ingredients!All I did was nuke microwave the candy melts until I could pour it over the chow mein noodles. Just a gentle stir until everything was coated. And then used a soup spoon to divide it into the baking cups.The most difficult part was deciding whether these were cookies or candies…

(Not really – it was pretty tough explaining to the people at the Asian market what a bagged and fried chow mein noodle was. One lady even said, “Wow! Does that even taste good?” hahaha! Americanized cuisine!)

Dark Chocolate-covered, Vanilla Bean Cream-filled Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

(…tried to think of a catchy name for them, but did not succeed… maybe you could help?)I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t drooling excited when Kristen announced the ingredients for the August Improv Challenge:

I had pinned this recipe for gluten-free Thin Mints some time ago & I figured it would make an excellent base for my cookie. (I do realize oatmeal is not OK for all GF eaters. I’m going to try this recipe again without grains.) After I ground some oatmeal (yep – didn’t have time to run to the store for some Bob’s Red Mill Oatmeal Flour…)and sifted it, this is how I made the cookie:When I got to thinking about a nice, creamy vanilla filling; I somewhat shuddered at the thought of the traditional shortening/sugar fluff. Then I remembered seeing some glorious recipes for vanilla bean cream cheese – A-HAH! Perfect!I wanted to taste vanilla and cream cheese, so I used Stevia in place of honey or powdered sugar. Being sweet-deprived relatively sugar-free this was perfect for me! Here’s what I mixed:

After “sandwiching” the cookies, I made sure they were well-chilled then I dipped them in about a pound of dark chocolate melted with almost a tablespoon of coconut oil.Living in the desert (where summer’s still going strong) one has to decide whether to snap pictures of chocolates with a little refrigerator bloom on them, or melty fingerprints…But, despite their appearance, these little cookies were absolute nuggets of joy! The sweetness of the dark chocolate coating made up for the lack of sugar in the cookie & filling. I loved the slightest tangy flavor of the vanilla-ed  cream cheese.YUM!

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Please be sure to check out other bloggers’ links to their chocolate & vanilla creations.

An InLinkz Link-up

Trust

My little Kindergarten Sunday School lesson was from Exodus 17:1-6 this week.
Water from the rock.
Our theme for this month was trusting in God. (Our memory verse is Proverbs 3:5) So far we’ve learned that Abraham trusted God & moved his family to an unknown land. Next, he trusted God to fulfill His promise of a son. Last week the lesson was about the Israelites complaining about having no food after leaving Egypt, so the Lord fed them with manna and birds. Sooooooooo, this pattern of provision being established, don’t you think the children of Israel should’ve trusted God with their thirst?
No?
Am I the same?
I do believe at times I am the most “trustless” person in the world! Repeatedly my Father takes care of needs & wants; yet still I whine about being thirsty in a desert.
Anyhoo… Lesson finished. Kinda.I made water-from-the-rock cookies. (Actually, they’re just blue Jell-O cookies in disguise.)Quite easy to mix up: you just cream 3/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, & a 3oz. pkg of Jell-O. After that’s light & fluffy you add 2 eggs & flavoring extract if you want to accent the flavor. Then you add these dry ingredients that you’ve sifted together in a smaller bowl: 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder & 1 teaspoon salt. Preheat the oven to 400°. Roll dough into 1” balls, roll in sugar and place 2” apart on prepared cookie sheet. Flatten with bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake for 6 minutes. (any longer & they’ll brown… badly…)So, while my first batch of water-from-the-rock cookies were baking, I was finishing up the little snack baggies.Ran off some labels with the memory verse.Added grapevines to symbolize Moses’ staff used to strike the rock. (by the way – never knew licorice wasn’t gluten-free… pays to read the label prior to stuffing one’s face eating several whips tasting…)
Everything was going smoothly until I took the pan of cookies out of the oven. I neglected to get hold of the parchment paper while at the same time taking the pan out of the oven at a slight angle. First batch = total waste!Next batches came out relatively trouble free. So I finished packaging them up & took them to church the next day.