What I've been doing lately...

Wow, it's almost the end of August! And do you guys know what that means? Ugh, I bet everyone does...school :( Anyways, I've been a very busy gal lately. Actually it's quite the opposite. I spend my last summer days with my feet propped up on a pillow while watching tv. Yea, I'm a lazy bum. Why are my feet propped up? Well...let's just say I had a little accident over a certain little curb while running.....

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture while balancing on only one foot?! Maybe I should've sat down....

What else have I done lately besides totally injure myself and make it hard to walk around the kitchen with a hot pan? Well, I made macarons (FINALLY!!!) and it's all thanks to the Italian meringue method and the cooking class I took in Paris :)

Chocolate Macaron with Raspberry Filling

Fillings: Salted caramel (from Trader Joes), Raspberry Jam, Speculoo Spread, Marshmallow fluff

I bought blue (er Indigo) coloring powder in France and wow, that is a pretty blue. Maybe I should've bought the other colors...oh well, I can always improvise! For the recipe, I used the one they gave us during our cooking course (which I'm pretty sure is Pierre Herme's recipe). I have to so say I loved the class. The teacher was helpful (and spoke English!!) and I was able to finally make a successful batch of macarons...all by myself!

Macaron Shell
Ingredients:
300 g ground almonds
300 g powdered sugar
110 g egg whites
powdered food coloring
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300 g sugar
75 g mineral water
110 g egg whites

1. Sift together almonds and powdered sugar in a large bowl
2. Add egg whties and food coloring and mix until uniform (mix well)
3. Prepare the italian meringue (bottom ingredients list)
4. Bring the sugar and water to a boil and cook to 118˚C (244.4˚F). When the mixture reaches 112˚C (233.6˚F) begin beating the eggs with a whisk fitted to a stand mixer. When the sugar reaches 118˚C pour into the egg whites . Whisk until not hot anymore (50˚C or 122˚F)
5. Carefully fold the meringue into the dry mixture (a little at a time). When you pick the mixture up with a spoon and drop it back into the bowl it should slowly blend back in (about 10 sec) but still see lines
6. Put parchment paper on a baking sheet and pipe small uniform (or as uniform as possible!) circles
7. Let stand for 15-30 minutes
8. Bake at 160˚C or 320˚F for 12 minutes

Variation: for a chocolate shell I added 30 grams of cocoa powder