French Macarons Using Pasteurized Egg Whites Or From A Carton =•.•=

Yes you can use egg whites from a carton, also known as pasteurized egg whites. You no longer have to separate the yolks from the whites. You no longer have to make flan or try to figure out what to do with those egg yolks. Check it out yo!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup almond flour

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup OR 60 grams of pasteurized egg whites @ room temperature (I have used Kirkland's, EggLands Best, & Trader Joe's Brand- they have not failed me yet)

2 pinches of salt

1 pinch cream of tartar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2-3 drops of gel food coloring- optional

Directions:

Important: make sure the measuring cup, mixing bowl & whisk are all oil free, clean, & dry. If not, you can compromise the meringue stage of the egg whites & the whites will NOT whip.

Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, add the egg whites, cream of tartar & salt & beat the egg whites until foamy; add the granulated sugar and continue beating until egg whites are glossy, fluffy, and hold stiff peaks. 

In a separate bowl, sift together the powdered sugar & almond flour. Next steps are crucial: 

In this step you may add your gel food coloring. Fold the almond mixture into the egg whites, about 30 folds- making sure no traces of egg whites are seen but do not over fold. Spoon a small amount onto the pan making a mound of batter. If the disk of batter holds a peak instead of flattening immediately, gently fold the batter 1 to 2 more times and retest. When batter is mixed enough to flatten immediately into an even disk but does not spread too much, it is ready. DO NOT OVER MIX.

Spoon the batter into a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip (Wilton's #10). Pipe the batter onto the baking sheet with the tip angled 90 degrees from the silpat. Make sure to leave spaces between each mound of batter. Once you have piped all your macarons. Preheat oven to 310 degrees F. 

Let the trays stand out at room temperature until they form a hard skin and is no longer tacky about 30 minutes to an hour. 

Bake for about 12 minutes to 15 minutes until set, the tops should be matte like egg shells. You can test the doneness by touching the tops and seeing if you can wiggle it. If it does wiggle it is underdone and continue to bake for about 2 more minutes. Note: the bigger the disks the longer it takes to bake. Let the macarons sit on the tray and cool completely before removing.

Remember do not get frustrated. You may watch videos on YouTube so you can be familiar with the above steps or see my other posts about Macarons. 

Suggested fillings: Nutella, Ganache, Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter, Speculoos Cookie Butter, Strawberry Preserves, Melted Chocolate, Melted White Chocolate, Pastry Cream, Fruit, whatever your heart desires.

When filled, you can store them in an air tight container and place in the fridge to allow the filling to meld with the macaron shells (maturing stage for about 24 hours). Before eating, let them stand out at room temperature for the perfect macaron-mouth feel texture for about 5 minutes or so. The macarons should be crunchy, flaky, and chewy at the same time. 

See all my baking madness on Instagram, #MaedByMaggie, or under my ID: Maggie13Mae

 

You can also make Ice Cream Sandwiches... Sorry for the finger photo bomb. 

God Bless!!!   =•.•=

S'mores: Kraft marshmallow cream, chocolate ganache, Honey graham cracker crumbs (in the shell & sprinkled ontop), Hershey's bar. 

To make the S'mores' shell, I substituted 1 tablespoon almond flour with finely ground graham cracker crumbs. 

To see how I assembled the S'mores Macarons you can visit my Instagram and  watch the 15 second video. =•.•=

PB stew & cookies too ='.'=

October 1st, Saturday, what a great day to hang out with Irenie (she's always super busy & rarely has time to herself, so this is a rare occasion). I've known her since our pre-nursing Junior College days. Lately, she's been craving peanut butter... protein... I suppose. She apparently doesn't eat a lot of meat & maybe her body & baby bump is telling her to eat more PROTEIN. So today, we are making Kare-Kare (oxtail peanut butter stew- a traditional Filipino dish) & since the pressure cooker wasn't working well it took about 2 hours to tenderize the meat VS 30 minutes, so we decided to kill some time and bake PB cookies for dessert.


Both Recipes are as follows:

Kare-Kare

Peanut Butter Cookies, some with Chocolate Chips, some plain-> HK ='.'=

Kare-Kare (adapted from my SIL, Marianne's recipe)

INGREDIENTS


MEAT:
3-4 pounds of oxtail (you can also add tripe & cubes of beef stew meat if you wish)

VEGETABLES (wash these first):
1 large Chinese eggplant cut in small pieces
1 bunch of pechay or baby bok choy or 1/2 head of cabbage (we only used cabbage since her baby daddy only likes cabbage)1 bunch of sitaw (string beans)

OTHER INGREDIENTS :

2 cups peanut butter (we used 50/50 mix of Lily's Brand & Skippy -Creamy) 

Lily's is sweet, so if you'd rather have more savory than sweet you can use the regular PB
2 packets of Mama Sita's Kare-Kare mix
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 cup of cold water (plus more as needed)
Patis (fish sauce as needed to taste) OR salt to taste

Knorr beef bouillon cube (dissolved in the reserved stock)

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 large onion, minced

EAT WITH:
Steamed White Rice
Bagoong (shrimp paste- my favorite is Barrio Fiesta Brand, FYI I am allergic to crustaceans, so I take my chances with just a little bit when I eat kare-kare, it is not the same without it).


EQUIPMENTS:
Large wok or skillet
Pressure cooker or a heavy large pot/sauce pan
Medium mixing bowl
2 Wooden spoons


PROCEDURES:
Wash the oxtails & place in a pressure cooker/heavy saucepan with enough water to cover (add the garlic & onions). When using a pressure cooker, once the steam indicator pops up, cook for about 30 minutes (tender meat that falls off the bone is preferred). If using a regular sauce pan/pot simmer/boil for about 2-3 hours add more water if needed. Once tender and the meat has softened, remove pot from heat and set aside (do not discard the stock).


In the wok heat the cooking oil & stir fry the vegetables. Make sure they are tender before adding the meat (without the stock), continue stirring.

In the mixing bowl, prepare the kare-kare mix by adding the 1 cup water, then add 1/2 cup of stock, mix well. Pour this mixture into the veggie-meat combo and continue to cook for about 10 minutes.

Using the same bowl add the rest of the stock, beef bouillon cube & peanut butter, mix well. Pour this mixture into the veggie-meat-sauce combo. Stir to blend well. Cook for about 5-10 minutes until the sauce thickens. 

Add the fish sauce to taste (this serves as the salty seasoning). Serve hot with bagoong & steamed white rice.


Note: while tenderizing the meat either in the pressure cooker or pot you can add some cloves of garlic & onions OR before pressure cooking the meat, you can sauté it with the garlic/onions/patis for more deliciousness.

AND FOR DESSERT

Peanut Butter Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (We used Skippy)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• Some Hershey's milk chocolate chips (will need about 5-7 chips to top each cookie)

 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with Silpat. Or you can grease your cookie sheets.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the egg, butter, peanut butter, & both sugars until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl sift together all the dry ingredients. Using a small ice cream scoop or roll into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten slightly with the tines of a fork. If you wish you can place about 5-7 chocolate chips on the top of each flattened cookie.
4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. If you are not using a Silpat you can use a spatula to gently lift & nudge the cookies to prevent them from sticking to the cookie sheets. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before devouring.

Hope you enjoy the savory & sweet sides of good old peanut butter, I know we did & Irene's baby was happy too.   ='.'=

El Maggie CHURROS Recipe ='.'=

Bienvenidos!!!

I just came back from "the happiest place on earth" with my Bebesters, Andretti & I just remembered that I forgot to eat a churro. :c

But no worries, I replaced those carbs with two unsalted Mickey Pretzels dipped in nacho cheese & a refreshing Duo Schmoozie (berry smoothie), the chocolatey one is the hubsters. & not eating a churro just reminded me to post my take on the cinnamony-Latin-cylindrical-doughnut-treat. A few months ago, I was chit-chatting with Ate Rianne about how I love Disney's churros but disliked the prices & how Costco churros were not the same. She suggested I look up El Tigre Churro. I found a few YELP ratings about them & how their churro stand was located in the sketchy parts of SD. Ummm, I'm craving them but I don't think I want to get myself killed just to try them. So instead I found a few recipes online and modified them.  Allrecipes has a bunch of rated recipes you can try. But if you'd like to try mine... continue reading...

Deeeeeep fried pastry

Ingredients

For Batter

• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground vanilla bean
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 quarts vegetable oil for frying

For Cinnamon/sugar topping

• 1/2 cup white sugar, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Mix/sift baking powder & flour together in a bowl, set aside. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine water, sugar, vanilla bean powder, salt and butter. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in flour/baking powder until mixture separates from the saucepan and forms a ball.
2. Heat oil for frying in deep-fryer or deep skillet to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Be warned, the batter & oil is HOT... Pipe strips of dough into hot oil using a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip (I used Wilton 1M). Fry until golden; drain on paper towels.
3. Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon. Roll drained churros in cinnamon and sugar mixture. They should look like ...

& guess what we found at the Spring Valley Swap-meet? At least we won't have to drive through the ghetto to try them. & you know what??? They taste very similar. & you won't have to pay the extra dollar for the entrance fee.

Tutorial Chocolate French Macarons ='.'=

It's Monday Morning & this is a pictutorial (picture tutorial) for Chocolate Macarons. NOTE:  If you are using regular cocoa powder & not Bellagio Chocolate then you need to change the 1 tablespoon to 3 tablespoons of cocoa & use only 1/2 a cup of Almond Flour.

Ingredients:

Kitchen Tools: AND also need a stand or hand mixer (make sure all are grease free & clean)

PROCEDURE:

 

Time to PREHEAT THE OVEN to 375 Degrees Fahrenheit

Tap baking sheet to release trapped air bubbles.

LET THIS SIT FOR AT LEAST 15 MINUTES 

in room temp. or Until the tops are dry & have formed a skin.

Reduce the oven temp. to 325 & bake 1 sheet at a time for about 10 to 14 minutes, rotating halfway through. 

The tops of the cookies should resemble an "egg shell" quality. The macarons should be crisp and firm. Let it sit to cool about 2-3 minutes before removing.  

Make sure to increase the temp. to 375 to preheat & repeat the baking process for the rest of the macarons.

Sandwich 2 same size macaron with about 1 tsp. filling: Peanut butter, Nutella, Chocolate Butter Cream, Dobrova, or whatever you are craving.

As always, I just can't leave a plain 'ol Macaron alone... ALOHA KITTY!!! She's tanned & wearing a flower instead of a bow.  ='.'=

This post is dedicated to my dear friend, Ate CeCe, she loves Hello Kitty & one day she will get to taste one of my chocolate HK creations. 

Without Christ I am nothing.