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I fuckin love cookies! I'm interested in trying to make French Macaroons for the first time but I could use some tips. I've seen it's recommended to use a Convection oven, is that a deal breaker or just a recommendation? I'm going to have to pick up equipment to make them, so in the meanwhile, are there any good recommended kitchen scales I should pick up? Because I have literally no scales right now.  Aside from that stuff, I've seen a handful of different recipes online, anyone have a particular recommendation to start with? In terms of flavoring I think I'd probably like to start with either Lavender or Pistachio. Some place in town also makes these awesome Coconut Rum flavored ones which I would mind attempting to replicate too... Normally I just wing this kind of stuff but these sound like they're a bit delicate to work with.
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Oct 27, 2016 19:28
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 06:22 |
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That's pretty much perfect thanks, found a lot of good info on that blog in general actually. Since I'm lacking the equipment for them for the time being, I made some Chewy Amaretti Cookie Sandwiches instead, filled with chocolate ganache. There are no pictures because people came over and destroyed them instantly For the next target I'm debating between some Crunchy Peanut Butter Buckeyes, or those Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies posted up in this thread.
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Oct 31, 2016 17:24
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cocoavalley posted:Tried a blue cheese filling in a few chocolate macarons using cream cheese as a 'carrier'. It's certainly interesting - the cheese funk sort of reveals itself only after the initial chocolate intensity subsides so they don't really complement as much as compete. I guess it makes sense since they are both earthy flavors ... I still want to try it with fruit shells, though. Well they certainly look delicious. A long time ago I had a skillet brownie filled with blue cheese and it was absolutely amazing. I'd love to have something like that again, but as you say it seems like it would require some pretty serious balancing to get right. Probably a very common cookie problem: I was making a batch of the Alton Brown Chewy cookies, and they came out fine except a handful of the bottoms on them were very burnt. I actually noticed they were starting to get browned on the bottom already when I rotated them half way through. I baked them on parchment paper FWIW. I was recommend to try something like an AirBake sheet next time to help with that, anyone have any experience with these?
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Nov 29, 2016 19:27
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cocoavalley posted:Did you notice if the burned ones were happening in a particular area of your oven? Hot spots are definitely a thing, though it sounds like you already know this since you were rotating your pans. You can try different rack heights too. Are the tops coming out ok/baking normally (e.g., not too fast)? If you don't have one, an oven thermometer can help figure out if the temperature is off. I move a lot and bought one several apartments ago, it's been pretty useful. As far as sheets, I personally have not used air bake - my go-to's have always been the plain dark sheets by Wilton/Farberware/etc that seem to be sold everywhere. I also have shiny aluminum half sheets, but I always use parchment or silpats on those. Didn't notice where they were happening no. Pretty much all the bottoms were at least a little burnt though, just some of them were REALLY burnt. I did rotate the pans and at two different heights (as per the recipe), I would not be surprised if my oven was just too hot though, I was already thinking of getting a thermometer to check it. My mom actually recommended the AirBake sheets when I showed her what happened, she said they helped her a lot so I may end up picking some up before I cook the other half of the batch.
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Dec 1, 2016 01:24
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JBark posted:I find the Alton recipe does not like too much heat. Here in Oz with most ovens being fan forced (convection) only, I find I often have to cook them around 150C to prevent them browning too much before they are cooked through. That's just barely over 300F, and well below the usual 20C drop that most recipes seem to need when going from a regular oven to fan-forced. Also, if the dough isn't completely chilled through, they don't turn out right at all. I tried our airbake pan a couple times, but it ended up just leaving the bottoms under cooked, but that's probably expected with fan-forced vs. bottom element. Huh, that's quite a drop since the recipe calls for 375F. Mine is a regular oven with a top heating element, maybe I'll try making the rest with an air cushion pan and @ 350 instead, see if that helps out.
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Dec 1, 2016 18:23
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:Huh, that's quite a drop since the recipe calls for 375F. Mine is a regular oven with a top heating element, maybe I'll try making the rest with an air cushion pan and @ 350 instead, see if that helps out. I did try this and the cookies came out perfectly. Man I love the chewy recipe so much. Next week is gonna get pretty crazy, we're making cookies for presents for all the relatives, of which we have quite a lot of, many with specific allergies. Anyone got some interesting/awesome cookies that don't have any eggs in them? We've got a few so far but I'm always on the look out for more.
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Dec 15, 2016 18:20
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Question about cookie storage. We're making cookies for Christmas and we had to start early since we'll be too busy to make them later in the week. If I want to ensure they stay as fresh as possible until then, should I just throw them in a tupperware and freeze them? I know it's better to freeze the uncooked dough instead but our schedule is really packed this year.
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Dec 22, 2016 01:55
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Don't forget about cookies y'all Especially not PEANUT BUTTER
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Apr 1, 2017 00:07
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These are my preferred Peanut Butter cookies (also flourless): https://smittenkitchen.com/2015/10/salted-peanut-butter-cookies/ Pretty similar to the one posted above, but uses Brown Sugar instead, and you sprinkle the top with coarse sea salt. Another interesting flour-less cookie (uses almond-paste): https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/04/chewy-amaretti-cookies/ You have to be a bit careful with them though, as they're leaning towards overly-sweet IMO. So I recommend smaller cookies with more filling. Also, eat them fast because they don't keep for very long.
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Jun 9, 2017 00:26
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I needed to stop making those Peanut Butter cookies so instead ... I made Peanut Butter Cream French Maracons  This was my first try making them myself. The batter came out almost perfect every time, so it's nice that I got all those parts correct. However the first batch was a bit of a trainwreck because I tried using an Airbake sheet to cook them. They gone done on top but were completely raw on the bottom, so using a regular old pan is the way to go for sure. The pic is from my second batch, and they turned out pretty well. First in the oven got a bit overdone doing 20 minutes @ 300F, so I reduced it do 18 minutes and they came out better but still not perfect (little under done inside but a little overdone on the outsides) So next attempts to get them perfect I will try either: - Using a heat shield pan, 20 minutes @ 300F, or - Just doing 20 minutes @ 275F All things considered, it took a bit of planning and some frustration but I got some pretty good cookies out of it. My stand mixer kind of sucks unfortunately, and it seems like it has probably stripped a gear or something because the beaters are clanking into each other. Time to start saving up for a proper Kitchenaid mixer I guess 
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Jul 17, 2017 17:11
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Those all look amazing and I'm gonna make at least one of those this weekend. I made those Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles posted earlier a couple of times as well. Like those a lot, though I tweaked the recipe a bit to use half Coconut oil/extract, and cut down on the Cayenne a bit. Kind of want to replace the Cayenne with a different pepper entirely but I'll have to play around with it.
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Nov 29, 2017 18:15
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Some kind of pretzel theme going on here lately. Sorry about my garbage camera as usual. Pretzel Cookie Sandwiches with Salted Caramel. These are pretty involved to make but they look nice. Middles puffed up more than I hoped so the shapes didn't come out as clean as I hoped, anything I can do about this?  Peanut Butter and Pretzel Buckeyes (with half milk, half white chocolate). I kind of made this up as I was going along but they turned out pretty awesome. Next time I'm going to try and see if I can get the cute swirl pattern to actually stick out more, kind of a pain though.
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Mar 21, 2018 06:04
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They weren't bad by themselves but I wouldn't say they were super exciting either. I would think you could top them with pretty much any of the usual pretzel suspects if you wanted to, certainly no need to make a sandwich. I suspect the quality and type of pretzels you use probably has a lot to do with it though, I was using a cheapo brand so I think getting some better pretzels would help a lot. I'm going to try a better brand, and thinner and smaller cookies next time, and see how that improves the end result. Gwyrgyn Blood fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Mar 21, 2018 |
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Mar 21, 2018 06:23
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That's definitely a good call, I didn't check them right as they came out of the oven but maybe they are still soft enough to re-cut at that point. I ended up with a page full of notes for how to make those cookies better next time, so I'll see how it goes. Once I've managed to eat all these buckeyes anyway.
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Mar 22, 2018 07:04
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Second try at these Salted Caramel Pretzel Sandwich cookies: Came out 100% better this time after following all my notes from last attempt. I started with butter snap pretzels and that helped considerably. Also was careful to get them as thin as possible, and not overcook the cookies or caramel so they were far less overly crispy and dense. These are a big winner now that I've gotten it down, but still a pretty large amount of work. Took me about 2 hours from start to finish to make em, with a little help.
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Apr 9, 2018 23:27
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Chocolate Espresso is a pretty good one. Lemon tends to be pretty good too, I was thinking I should try a glazed lemon poppyseed shortbread sometime.
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Apr 12, 2018 19:18
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 06:22 |
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Coffee+Toffee is pretty much a winning combo whatever you do. Cappuccino Crinkles are a good choice if you want something very chocolaty. Don't have a particular favorite recipe for these but I have made these before: https://www.bhg.com/recipe/cookies/cappuccino-crinkles/ I liked these Espresso Chocolate Shortbread cookies: https://smittenkitchen.com/2007/12/espresso-chocolate-shortbread-cookies/ I was actually thinking about trying to making some kind of pecan + toffee cookie tonight to see how that would go.
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May 9, 2018 00:45
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