Eve of Christmas Eve

Also known as... preparations. Louie was very into it. I love to bake, but, I don't do it often as I don't like to bake and have a batch of goodies go to waste. Christmas is the perfect reason to bake though and I was so excited to be able to spend a day doing that!

I went over to Jon's mother's house for some baking. She was in charge of pies- pecan of course! Oklahoma may not be the deep south- but we're pretty close to it so...

I was in charge of cookies- French ones bien sur! Now, don't judge me too harshly. I do not have the guts to make my own puff pastry- so store bought it is!

I decided to make palmiers. One batch with jam and one without. It was my first time making these delictable cookies (not to mention the first time dealing w/puff pastry) so I was a bit nervous.

During my experimentation Jon's mother used the leftover dough and pecan pie batter to make mini-pecan pies! She's a pie making pro.

First batch of palmiers ready to go!

Mmmmmm..... pie.

My palmiers! Not too bad for a first go. They don't look too pretty, but, they tasted great. I'll work on my presentation next time around.

Jam palmiers. Next time I'll roll in some sugar on both sides before layering in the jam. I loved making these cookies! Pretty easy to make and oh, so, delicious.

I made macarons as well. 'Supersized' macarons! I soooo did not intend to make them this big or chunky. I was in a rush and didn't pay attention to detail. I can hear the bakers at Laudree crying in horror!

Despite all the baking I managed to get to Best Buy to buy Jon's gifts AND I was able to wrap them while the macarons were cooling I wrapped them up. All in all a very busy and successful day of Christmas preparations.

The irony is that we're under a blizzard watch today and we probably won't be able to have a holiday gathering if the weather does what the weather man is predicting. Ah well! Still it was a fun day and I will take a White Christmas if it means staying curled up on the couch with Jon watching the snow come down.

Heaven Comes in Small Packages

Rather, small edible packages. I cooked macarons- no, NOT macaroons, macarons. Macarons are a cookie from france made from egg whites, almond flour with a filling. They come in many different flavors and hues. I've been baking chocolate ones and they are pure bliss.

I made this batch over at Jon's sister's last week. One nice thing about macarons is that they are completly gluten-free. Faith has a gluten intolerence and these cookies are utterly delicious and friendly to those who can't consume gluten. The picture above is the cookie part post-oven. The bottom part of the cookie that looks like it's has oozed or something is called the 'foot'. Don't ask me, I just read it and bake it.
Keenai, their Rhodesian Ridgeback, LOVES chocolate. She's an addict and will stalk you once she gets a whif of that cocoa bean based goodness. I indulged her because I'm a sucker and I adore her, but, at the same time I felt the need to get a restraining order.

Can you get a restraining order for an animal? Hmmm questions to ask lawyer boyfriend. Anywho, this is a ganache I made by scratch that serves as the filling. Once this yummy amazingness cools you just slather it on one cookie and put another on top. And Violà! you have macarons.

Here's the final product... kinda looks like a mini-hamburger doesn't it? I actually forgot to photograph all the cookies once I put them together, luckily there were a few leftover so I got a shot before Jon and I headed out. We ate them too soon though, which is why I wasn't completly satisfied with this batch. For whatever reason these babies need to sit for awhile as they have a much better texture after several hours of 'gelling'. We ate ours an hour after they were put together- still yummy, just not quite right. I also needed to sift the almond flour after I mixed to take away a bit of the mealy texture. Ah well, there were no complaints and there will be more macrons to perfect in the near future.

[Oh if you are really curious, here's the recipe I used for the cookie from David Lebovitz's awesome all things French site: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2008/09/making_french_macarons.html (click on his chocolate recipe)

I don't use his ganache/filling, I found another recipe and while it makes more than what I need it is perfect as it isn't too sweet and compliments the cookie VERY well imho:http://www.epicurean.com/featured/french-chocolate-macaroons-recipe.html]