Strawberries and Cream Macarons

I don't know if you can tell, but I'm on a macaron kick. Once you figure out these persnickety bitches, well you feel like you've conquered something and you want to make them over and over again. It also helps that they're delicious and bite-sized, so you can just pop one in your mouth every time you go in the kitchen. I made these with my friend and fellow baker, Liz. We did a double batch, so I will tell you those measurements (with the weights in case you want to do more or less). This recipe makes about 48 macarons (96 shells- they're sandwich cookies).

For the Shells:
132 g egg whites (4 eggs for me) *if you recall from the lemon macarons, this is your base number, so everything else you can measure based off of this.*
198 g almond flour (1.5 amount of egg whites)
105 g granulated sugar (0.8 egg whites)
198 g powdered sugar (1.5 part egg whites)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla

*a dash of red food coloring if you want a more "strawberry" look

1. Prepare a piping bag with a large round tip and set aside. Line baking sheet with silpat mat or parchment. *You will want to draw a circle template to pipe your macarons on to if you're using parchment;**You'll need at least four baking sheets with the parchment ***If you plan to make a lot of macarons, just invest in some mats. I bought mine on amazon for like 12 bucks for 2 mats.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, start mixing egg whites. Don't mix them on too high of a speed (no higher than 6 on a kitchenaid). While this starts out, move to the second step.

3. Weigh out almond flour and powdered sugar. Sift together into a large bowl and set aside. 

4. Once egg whites have started to foam up, add cream of tartar. 

5. Slowly add granulated sugar to the egg whites and keep mixing until egg whites get to a stiff peak. 

6. Add vanilla to the egg whites and allow to incorporate. 

7. Fold half the dry ingredients into the egg whites. You don't have to be gentle here. You think you do because it's egg whites, but you don't. Mix that shit.
8. Fold second half of dry ingredients into the mixture. Here you can be a bit more gentle. You are going to mix for a while until the mixture gets shiny and the batter ribbons back onto itself. If the ribbons incorporate back into the rest of the batter within 20 seconds or so, you should be okay.
9. Pour batter into prepared piping bag and pipe onto the circles of your sil pat or parchment. Don't draw around the circle; just pipe directly down until it fills the circle.
10. Slam the baking sheet on the counter several times to get rid of air bubbles.
11. Allow to sit at room temperature until they are matte and don't stick to your finger when you try to touch them gently. This can take 20 minutes if it's not humid, or an hour if it's June in the midwest when you're making them...

12. Towards the end of your sitting, you can preheat oven to 350F. 
13. Once you are ready to bake, drop the oven to 325F and bake for 12-14 minutes (but check at 10 mins). You can check by placing your finger on a shell and gently moving it back and forth. If the shell moves, it is still not baked enough. Once the shell stays on its base, they're done. **ONLY BAKE ONE TRAY AT AT TIME!** I tried to do more than one, but then my shells cracked. I did the same batter but one tray at a time, and it worked. I mean, you can do more than one, but don't come at me if it doesn't work, but feel free to say "I told you so" if it works out totally fine for you.
14. Allow to cool completely before filling.

For the filling:
3 c powdered sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 c crushed dehydrated strawberries
Zest of one lemon
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp strawberry jam *You will also use strawberry jam in the center of these macarons as well.

1. Prepare two piping bags- one with a star tip and another with a small circular
piping tip.
2. Crush dehydrated strawberries and sift together with powdered sugar in a large bowl.

3. In a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, start whipping up butter. Slowly add powdered sugar mixture to the butter, incorporating before adding more.
4. Add salt, lemon zest, and strawberry jam and mix until fully incorporated. Place in the piping bag with star tip.
5. In other piping bag, place some of the strawberry jam.

Assembly
1. Take one shell and pipe a ring of buttercream around the edge. Be careful here- you don't want to overdo it on the filling.
2. Plop a little dollop of jam in the middle of the buttercream ring.

3. Add the top shell and gently push together.
4. Store in an airtight container. *Others say to put it in the fridge, but I don't It doesn't need to be refrigerated, and I like the texture better when they're not refrigerated, but you do you, boo.

Orange Spice Muffins

It's fall y'all, which is making me want to start making all the warm spicey delicious things. As you well know, we are down the rabbit hole of ratios, and so here we are with another ratio- quick breads AKA muffins! A quick bread ratio is 1 part egg, 1 part butter, 2 parts liquid, and 2 parts flour. When you know the ratios, you can make as little or as much as you want. You want 6 muffins for a Saturday breakfast? Done. You want 48 muffins to bribe all your coworkers into loving you? Deal. So, I'm gonna give you the weights because the ratios are in weights, and the best approximation of American measurements as well. This recipe makes 6 muffins, but like I said, double or triple away! Also let me just say that these throw together in like 5 minutes, so in like 25 minutes you have hot muffins. Talk about a win.

For the Muffins:
1 large egg (mine was 60 g)
60 g butter, melted (4 tbsp- half a stick)
60 g granulated sugar (1/4 c) *I stick to a 1 part sugar here also so that it's not too sweet, but you can add more or less to your muffins- maybe that's why it's not strictly part of a muffin ratio. Also let us not forget about savory muffins*
120 g all-purpose flour (1 c)
120 g (ish) buttermilk (1/2 c)
Juice and zest of an orange **This is why I say ish on that buttermilk- it's 120 g of liquid, so combine buttermilk and juice of your orange to get to that**
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder (general rule of thumb here is 1 tsp baking powder per cup of flour- in case you're doubling ;)
1 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch each of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg (or you can just do a few pinches of like pumpkin pie spice as well).

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Prepare muffin tin with liners.
2. Melt butter and allow to cool slightly.
3. In a mixing bowl (no stand mixer required here!) mix wet ingredients together- butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, buttermilk, juice, and zest.
4. In a smaller bowl, mix dry ingredients to combine- flour, salt, baking powder, spices.
5. Slowly mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until incorporated- you don't want to over-mix here.
6. Distribute between muffin tins. *I find that a 1/4 c measurer is the perfect amount for a stand-sized muffin tin.*
7. Bake for 16 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. *Mine took 18 mins*

For the Glaze:
As I have said before for a glaze, this is not really a recipe. Liquid + Powdered sugar til you have the right consistency you want and the right amount. You do you, boo.

Juice of 1 orange
1/2 c (ish) of powdered sugar, sifted

1. Squeeze juice into a bowl and slowly incorporate powdered sugar. It will look like it's not going to make a liquid, but it totally does. You want it to be thick but pourable. If you need more liquid, add more juice or a little water. If you need it to be thicker, add more powdered sugar.
2. Once muffins are cooled, dunk or drizzle muffins with glaze. I opted for dunk, and even let the glaze harden a bit and did a double dunk. Damn right I did. There's no such thing as "extra glaze" in my book.

3. Anyway, enjoy these sweet little babies. I also feel like these would be perfect for like a holiday brunch. Maybe even for Thanksgiving snackies before dinner. The possibilities are endless.