Happy Halloween

I love Halloween! I don't have kids, and I'm thankful San Francisco doesn't put an age limit on dressing up. Michael and I went with some friends on Wednesday to an underground restaurant/costume party at a "haunted" house in Alamo Square hosted by Stag Dining Group. We paraded through a gigantic house-turned boarding school-turned artist studio/event rental complete with a larger than life size painting of Michael Jackson in full Thriller get-up. Oh, and loads of gorgeous glitter paintings. Yes, I said glitter and gorgeous in the same sentence! Artist Rene Garcia Jr. is a genius with glitter. My limited experience with glitter involved a bottle of Elmer's Glue....

We jumped from dark rooms into dark hallways to scare other diners in a creepy empty top floor, and walked through a staged "Haunted House." We also drank some interesting cocktails by Cocktail Lab complete with basil seeds and rum that look and feel texturally like you are chewing on eyeballs. They also made a "Hannibal Lecter;"a whisky sour with chianti poured over a spoon on top to keep the colors separated, which I liked much more than the first.

image from Striking Keys

The chef's behind the Stag Dining Group created a great menu for the night:

Crab Puffs - Togarashi, lemon

Roasted Beets & Carrots - goat cheese mousse, preserved lemon-honey vinaigrette, rye crumble

Squid Ink Chowda - lobster, kabocha squash, clams

Baby-Back Ribs - smoked maple glaze, apple celery root slaw

"Drumstick" - dark and stormy brownie, rum ice cream, waffle cone 

I can't complain much about the food, only a little about the timing. It was fun and provided a good test run of the costumes. 

Saturday I spent a majority of the day decorating the house with spider webs and fake plastic spiders for our grown-up Halloween party. I also tried a new recipe for sugar cookies. They are super soft and puffy and very much like the kind you buy in the grocery store... you know, the round ones with sprinkles coordinating with every holiday. The recipe is great. The cookies are not overly sweet and pair well with the buttercream frosting. I prefer buttercream on cookies as opposed to royal icing decorated cookies - the buttercream tastes so much better. The recipe I tried came from Sweet Pea's Kitchen and I didn't change a thing (except on the second batch I rolled them a bit less than 1/4"). The general consensus was good and Michael really liked them. I believe his exact words were, "Those cookies are the Bomb!" Then we laughed and high-fived. This is the key to a good marriage. 

Hopefully I'll get to hand out some candy to neighborhood kiddies this year since we have a front door! I think I'll refrain from my creepy Black Swan costume as well... no need to terrify the little ones. 

Happy Halloween!

Successful French Macarons!

Last month, I had a Fight with French Macarons. Literally. They stuck to my parchment and the tops cracked a bit. I had no idea why, so I decided to take a class from Richard at Baking Arts here in San Francisco. Richard is pastry genius and a fantastic teacher. His classes range from the most simple biscuit and scones to intricate sugar flowers and souffles. He's a stickler for his favorite brand of chocolate and makes the most seemingly-difficult macaron easy. So, thanks Richard, a whole new world of baking is in my future. 

The problems I had before were sticky, cracked cookies. This comes from too wet a batter and not enough folding. You want your batter to flow like lava and mine was no lava. You should also just go ahead and buy an instant digital thermometer that can read a temperature while touching the bottom of the pan, and a digital scale is a must. Converting recipes from grams to cups and teaspoons is not very accurate and you may end up with a whole sheet of failed cookies. It's not fun, it's sad and depressing and makes you feel like a failure (not good). 

During our class, we watched Richard demonstrate the whole process, then under his supervision made our own batch. It was nice to have someone there to tell you when your batter looked like lava, and give your tips the best piping technique. It's also good to make a template on the back of some parchment paper. A 1 1/2 inch round makes a good size cookie and the template insures you'll be able to match your cookies for proper sandwiching. Another good trick to test for doneness is to press down on the center of the cookie and wiggle. If it wiggles a lot, cook it a little longer, if it wiggles very slightly it should be done. Also, you should peel them off the silpat by bending the mat, not attempting to lift the cookie. Fill cookies when cooled completely. 

We made vanilla cookies with a little espresso powder sprinkled on top and filled with chocolate ganache and salted caramel. Yum! They were so good. I can't wait to try them again. I'll be buying pre-made almond flour from here on out. If you've tried macarons before without luck, don't give up, keep trying, it's all about the proper technique. 

I also mentioned in my last post about macarons that I was headed to NYC and wanted to try some macarons from Bisous Ciao Macarons in the East Village. We happend to stay very near here, so a trip wasn't too far. They have mixed reviews on yelp, but Michael and I really enjoyed our flavors (blood orange with chocolate ganache and strawberry with basil chocolate ganache). The flavors were intense and the cookie itself was just what you expect from a quality macaron. My next traveling macaron stop will jave to be Pierre Herme in Paris. He's the godfather of Macarons (and french desserts) and why not travel to Paris for another tasting? Do you have a favorite french macaron shop in your city? 

the following photos from Michael Townsend at Bisous Ciao, NYC 

Feel free to peruse the rest of Michael's photos on Flickr or follow his Tumblr account! 

Apple Fritters

I've always enjoyed apple season. We used to go and pick apples at Stephenson's Orchard as a family when I was young. My sister and I would climb the trees to get some of the best apples from the tops. I have fond memories of blue rimmed heart shaped sunglasses during these adventures. Yeah 80's. I don't think you were supposed to climb the trees but we were little and probably light enough it didn't matter. We picked a ton of apples, mostly Jonathan apples, and stored them in a fridge in the garage. I miss the convenience of having an extra fridge or freezer. I don't know if the orchard still exists for picking in the Kansas City area, but the restaurant that had some of the best apple desserts does not. I was always fascinated by their caramel apples, and still am to this day. I'll be making my own soon so don't fret. I also have a special place in my heart for fried dough balls filled with apple chunks. 

I picked a variety of recipes for the month of September for the Easy Bake cOven blog but I chose to make the fritters first. I usually get around to making quite a few of the recipes but these were calling me. Michael asked why I bought so many apples at Trader Joe's when we got back from our NYC trip, my response was baking. It's usually baking when I buy an excess of one particular ingredient. Unless butter is on sale... 

I don't fry things often. Sometimes Michael and I will make tortilla chips if we're out and have nothing but corn tortillas, but this is the extent. Desserts are excessive to start and I feel worse eating something fried. Doughnuts fall in this category. I love doughnuts but don't have them often. Guilty pleasures. I really enjoyed these little fried dough balls. Simple and quick yet small enough you don't feel bad eating a few. 

Apple Fritters
Pioneer Woman
I halved the recipe and it made about 2 dozen ping pong ball sized fritters. 


2 C all purpose flour
1/2 C sugar
3 T sugar
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
3/4 C milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 T melted butter
2 whole granny smith apples peeled and diced
powdered sugar for dusting

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

Melt the butter in a large liquid measuring cup and add the milk, egg and vanilla. Whisk to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until little flour remains. Add in the apples and stir to combine. 

Heat a couple of inches of canola oil over medium heat. I kept my oil temperature around 325˚F and the fritters took about three minutes each. Using a small cookie scoop, drop a few blobs of dough into the hot oil, don't overcrowd or your oil will not stay consistently hot. Flip them over to insure even golden brown and test your first batch to make sure they are evenly cooked. Drain on a paper towel and sprinkle with powdered sugar for eating.