Fresh Orange Sorbet

I had 4 oranges (2 from a previous delivery) and 1 lemon from Boston Organics that I wanted to use up, so I googled "orange lemon sorbet" and found this recipe for fresh orange sorbet from Cooking Light. The recipe said that I'd need about 10 medium-size oranges and 2 medium-size lemons, but I found that the 4 oranges made enough juice for half the recipe. I also added a splash of citrus vodka to the mixture right before adding it to the ice cream maker to keep it from being too icy.

Fresh Orange Sorbet (from Cooking Light)
makes about 6 cups

2 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar
Orange rind strips from 2 oranges
2 2/3 cups fresh orange juice
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
Splash of citrus vodka (optional)

Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan, and bring mixture to a boil. Add orange rind strips; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Remove and discard orange rind strips. Remove liquid from heat, and let cool to room temperature. Stir in orange juice and lemon juice. Chill in refrigerator until completely cool.

Right before churning, add the splash of citrus vodka. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Serve immediately.

When I was churning the sorbet, I noticed these icy globules forming which made me concerned that there might be globs of ice in the sorbet surrounded by sticky orange syrup (similar to what happens when you freeze orange juice), but the texture of the sorbet ended up being pretty uniform.

I did neglect to read the instructions to the end and ended up freezing the sorbet overnight instead of serving it immediately. Despite the addition of the alcohol to lower the freezing temperature, the sorbet did get quite hard and icy so that the texture was more like a granita. It was still quite refreshing, however, and I found the combination of the flavor and texture strangely addictive. I love how it tastes like fresh-squeezed orange juice even days after it was made. And the fact that it was ice cold made it all the more perfect as a summer dessert or palate cleanser.

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Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

I don't like carrots but ended up with a whole pound of them from Boston Organics in my latest delivery. This wouldn't have been a problem back when I was a kid because my brother liked them, so anytime I had carrots I would just give them to him. But now that my brother lives on the opposite side of the country, I am forced to do things like make carrot cake cupcakes. Alas, the tragedy of it all. By the way, my brother's birthday is this Sunday so happy birthday, Timmy, and pretend I made and mailed these to you!

Carrot Cake With Orange Cream Cheese Frosting (based on the recipe from Tartelette's site)
makes 30 cupcakes

For the cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
4 large eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 pound carrots, grated medium fine

For the frosting:
12 oz. cream cheese softened
2 1/ 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Zest of 1 orange
2 sticks butter, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs at high speed until light and frothy, about one minute. Decrease the speed to medium and add the oil, vanilla, sugar, and salt and mix just until combines. Decrease the speed to low and add the flour mixture until just combined. Using a spatula, fold in the carrots.

Fill each cupcake liner halfway with batter. Bake for 18 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Combine the cream cheese, sugar, and zest with an electric mixer. Start on low speed and then increase to medium high speed and beat until smooth. Add the butter and mix on medium speed until just fluffy and smotth, about 45 seconds. Add the vanilla and mix until just combined. Do not overbeat.

The original recipe was for a layer cake, but I thought it translated well to cupcake form. The only issue I had was for the first batch I filled the liners about 2/3 - 3/4 full and the batter ended up overflowing onto the tin when it baked. Adding orange rind to the cream cheese frosting is ingenious and adds a vibrant aromatic and a very subtle whiff of tartness to the otherwise very sweet topping. If I had wanted to go the extra mile, I would've added a sprinkle of additional orange zest on top or maybe finely chopped crystallized ginger. I thought about a carrot curl, but then I'd be defeating the purpose of making these cupcakes because I don't like the taste of carrots.

Off to Mount Tremblant and Montreal!

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Panna Cotta, Take 3

Okay, I think I have finally achieved the perfect consistency after two tries. I basically followed the same recipe as before, but this time I tried orange flavored panna cotta instead of almond, and I only had half-and-half and no cream so I adjusted the ratio a bit.

Orange Panna Cotta (based on this recipe)
makes 6 small servings

2 cups half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
Zest from 1 medium orange
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 tablespoon powdered unflavored gelatin bloomed in 3 tablespoons water
1 red navel orange (or any other kind of orange that doesn't segment well; I would not recommend mandarins for example)
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

In a small saucepan over medium-high, combine half-and-half, milk, zest, and 3/4 cups sugar; bring to a boil. Stir in the orange extract. Remove from heat, and let stand for 20 minutes.

Cut the orange horizontally (along the latitudinal planes) so that you have 6 circular slices that will fit into the ramekins you are using.

Microwave the gelatin and water for 8 seconds. Add a ladleful or two of the warm half-and-half mixture to the gelatin and gently stir until all lumps are gone. Add to the rest of the half-and-half mixture. Pass the mixture through a sieve and divide evenly among 6 small ramekins or other servings dishes. Carefully add the orange slices so that they are floating on top. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

In a small saucepan, boil the orange juice and remaining 1/2 cup sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

Once the panna cotta has set, pour the orange syrup on top and serve.

I think because I added the warm mixture to the gelatin to dissove it before adding it to the rest of the mixture, it really helped to distribute the gelatin. I definitely noticed a lot less gelatinous lumps in the sieve this time, and as a result, the texture of the panna cotta was perfect--neither too soft or too firm. On the other hand, I realize I like the almond flavored ones better, so if I ever make this again, I know what I'll stick with.

I had originally wanted the orange slices to sit on the bottom of the ramekin so that after the panna cotta had set, I could flip it upside-down and serve it with the orange slice on top. But the slices ended up floating when I added the panna cotta mixture so I had to scrap that idea. That's also the reason why you can see some milkiness on top of the orange slice and why the circumference of the slice I chose was a lot smaller than the mouth of the ramekin. And by the way, how are people able to unmold the panna cotta anyways? I tried running a knife along the edge, but it didn't work very well; you could see the knife marks along the edge and the top (or bottom, depending on how you look at it) was all sunk in afterwards. Maybe I need to run some hot water on the outside first to "melt" the edges a bit....

I didn't take any pictures of how it looked with the orange syrup because by the time it had cooled the light sucked, and anyways, I like the look without the syrup because you can clearly see the pure white of the panna cotta and the little orange slice floating on top like a lily pad. Too bad you can't really eat the orange slice as is because of the rind. I suppose if I had had the time, I could have candied the slices so that they could be eaten as is. Perhaps next time....

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Clementine Cupcakes

Twas the same snowy morning, and two forlorn clementines were staring at me, beseeching me to do something with them other than throw them away. They were already several days past their prime, shriveled and sunken, although not yet spoiling. There must be something I can do with them, I thought. And then I remembered the clementine cake recipe I had noticed on Smitten Kitchen. A flourless cake made with whole clementines, almond flour, sugar, and eggs. Perfect, because I had some leftover almond flour from the macaron experiments that I needed to use up. Alas, two clementines do not a whole cake make. So then I thought, why don't I try cupcakes?

Since it was snowing, and I didn't have any ice in the freezer, I figured I'd try cooling the clementines outside in a snow bath instead of an ice bath. I put a metal bowl out, and an hour and 15 minutes later, it was halfway full of snow.

I plopped the two clementines in there and covered it with more snow and waited half an hour. When I looked back on it, this is what I found.

One of the clementines melted its own little chimney!

If you don't happen to make this on a snowy day, go ahead and just use an ice bath or even a cold water bath. The clementines don't need to be chilled, just cool enough to cut in half and not worry about getting boiling clementine juice on your fingers.

Clementine Cupcakes (adapted from here)
makes 8 cupcakes

2 clementines
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup ground almonds
1/3 teaspoon baking powder
Powdered sugar for dusting

Put the clementines in a pot with cold water to cover, bring to the boil, and cook for 2 hours.

Drain and, when cool, cut each clementine in half and remove the seeds. Then finely chop the skins, pith, and fruit.

Preheat the oven to 375 °F.

Line a cupcake pan with 8 cupcake liners.

Beat the eggs. Add the sugar, almonds, and baking powder. Mix well, adding the chopped clementines.

Pour the cake mixture into the cupcake liners, about 3/4 full, and bake for 30 minutes, when a skewer will come out clean. Remove from the oven and cool.

Remove the cupcake from the liner, turn upside down, and dust with powdered sugar. Serve at room temperature.

I was a little afraid that the clementines were too old to use, but boiling them in water for two hours really rehydrated them into their young, plump selves. I filled the liners to about 3/4 full but these cupcakes barely rose so you can probably fill them higher if you want. The cupcakes break easily when you remove them from the liner, so you can just dust them while they're still in their liners and serve them that way, but I like the look of the individual mini-cakes.

I like this recipe because you can definitely taste the clementines, but it's not an overly sweet or tart citrus dessert, like say, a lemon bar or key lime pie. If you do want something sweeter and more tart, you can always make a simple glaze with lemon juice and powdered sugar and glaze the cupcake with it. Also, the cupcakes were super moist even without the addition of any oil or butter, which is great if you're worried about that sort of thing. =)

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Macarons: A Lesson in Humility

A few months ago Ellen was telling me about her obsession with macarons and how she was going to try to make them. I wasn't that familiar with these confections although I had seen plenty of beautiful pictures of them on other food blogs. Turns out that 1) they are another species entirely from the coconut macaroons (two o's) that I'm used to, and 2) supposed to be incredibly difficult to make. Naturally, that meant I was going to try at some point.

So first of all, macarons are made with almond flour, sugar, and egg whites, whipped to a meringue. They are then sandwiched with the an appropriate filling (ganache, buttercream, jam, curd, etc.) and the resulting sandwich is also (confusingly) called a macaron. An unique feature of the macaron cookie is called the "feet"--the uneven, ruffled skirt around the edge. Amazingly enough, you want feet on your macarons. The hard part about making a macaron mostly involves the meringue and folding in the tant-pour-tant (the one-to-one mixture of almond flour and sugar). One fold too many or too little will result in cracked and/or hollow cookies and no feet.

Another difficult part about making macarons is amassing the ingredients and tools needed to make them. Egg whites aren't hard to come by, but one tip that has been circulating around is that they should be "aged" at room temperature at least overnight and up to 72 hours. Sure it sounds disgusting, but any germs and bacteria that might grow would be killed in the oven and the aged egg whites hold a meringue that much better because more water has evaporated, leaving more of the structural proteins. Next, almond flour. If you can't find any you can always make it yourself with almonds and a food processor (although I'm not sure how you would get almond flour vs. almond butter) but luckily enough, Harvest carries almond meal in their bulk bins. Unfortunately, the almonds aren't skinned beforehand, so there's flecks of almond skin in the meal, but what can you do? (Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I can sieve the meal beforehand to try to get rid of the skin....) Anyways, you'll want to use the food processor to grind the meal even finer. One great tip I read is to use the food processor to mix the almond flour and powdered sugar so that you don't have to individually sift the two (which is great because I don't have a sifter, although I guess a sieve would work).

To make the macarons you need a mixer (a stand mixer is ideal but I'm too cheap so I just used a hand mixer), pastry bag (again, too cheap to buy so I just filled a large Ziploc bag and cut a hole in the corner), high quality baking sheets (I used my Pampered Chef stoneware cookie sheet), parchment paper, Silpat, or non-stick aluminum foil (I used parchment paper), a food processor (thanks, Carsten!), a candy thermometer, and ideally, a food scale.

You can tell it's an Italian meringue because it is so glossy.

There are two ways of making meringue for the macarons, the French way or the Italian way. The Italian way is a little more difficult and involves streaming boiling sugar syrup into the egg whites are they are being whipped but results in almost foolproof macarons as the Italian meringue is much more stable than French meringue. So I chose to try the Italian method. Since I didn't have a food scale (yes, I am cheap!) I used Lesley's recipe here which is "translated" from Tartelette's and decided to try my hand at making a hazelnut macaron with Nutella filling.

Yes, you can see the specks of almond skin, but look, you can see feet as well!

Hazelnut Macarons (based on Lesley's recipe)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup aged egg whites (comes out to about 4 egg whites)

3 T sugar

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 cup almond meal

2 tsp. hazelnut extract

For syrup:

3/4 cups sugar

1/4 cups water

Begin by placing the water and sugar for the syrup in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Once the sugar syrup registers 170° F on a candy thermometer, start whipping two of your egg whites. When the egg whites have started to froth, slowly add the 3 T sugar.

When the sugar syrup gets to 230° F on a candy thermometer, add it in driblets to your egg whites (which should hold soft peaks at this point).

Whip the mixture for 10 - 15 minutes, until cool.

Mix the remaining egg whites with the almond meal and powdered sugar in a food processor. Fold this mixture and the hazelnut extract into the meringue mixture.

Fill a pastry bag with a 1/4 inch tip (or a large Ziploc bag with a corner snipped off) with your mixture. Pipe 1" circles on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, non-stick aluminum foild, or Silpat.

Bake at 320° F for 12 - 15 minutes. After they are done baking, allow them to cool and carefully transfer them to an airtight container. Macarons can be stored in the fridge or freezer.

I made the filling used in the picture above with this recipe, but in the end, I decided I liked just plain Nutella as a filling. I forgot to mention that I had never actually had a macaron before, so I was quite surprised at how sweet it was with my first bite. But after a while I knew what to expect, and it might have helped that I was eating them chilled from the freezer (the colder something is, the less sweet it will taste; one reason why there is so much sugar in an ice cream recipe).

So ta-da! I made my first batch and didn't have too many issues: my macarons had feet, weren't hollow, and didn't have any cracks. The hardest part was actually piping the cookies as I had never piped anything before in my life, and I wasn't exactly using the best tool. The macaron batter is actually quite drippy so you really have to be careful if you aren't using a pastry tip. I would definitely recommend having your parchment paper already cut and spread out so that you can pipe all the macarons at one time. One site I read recommending drawing 1" circles onto the paper beforehand so you know when to stop piping and also where to place them. Another tip that I read on many, many sites is to let the macarons sit for an hour before putting them in the oven so that the top can dry out. I didn't really adhere to this with my first batch as I figured that by the time I had piped the last macaron, the first one would have already had a chance to sit a bit.

Piped orange macarons (although not very orange in color)

So now that I had one good batch under my belt, I figured it was time to try a different flavor, and I settled on orange macarons with clementine curd using the recipe here. I added orange extract to the macaron batter and used food coloring to try to get them orange. I'm not used to using food coloring, and even though I read that baked macarons come out much lighter than the batter, I was just too scared to get much color into the cookies. And this time I decided to let them sit after being piped. Well I think that was a mistake. Of the four trays I made, only the first one came out without cracks, and I'm pretty sure that was because that one didn't sit as long as the others. Even so, the macarons from the first tray were almost all hollow. =( I was able to salvage a few to take pictures of, but the rest I'm just eating individually and dipping into the curd like chips and dip. I also need to find a filling that's not as runny. As you can see in the picture below, the curd is starting to drip out the sides and one of the principles of macaron making is that the filling should never go past the circumference of the cookie.

Orange macarons with clementine curd

Now I understand the angst of making macarons; even the "almost fool-proof" recipes can go horribly wrong. But I'm not entirely defeated; I think I'll try to make more macarons in the next few days. I even have the egg whites sitting out already. It's really too bad Highrock is a nut-free church or else I'd bring some for people to try. Anyone have any ideas for other flavor combinations? I might try a peppermint macaron and chocolate ganache combo or maybe a coconut macaron with orange marshmallow creme filling....

P.S. I tried the peppermint macarons with peppermint chocolate ganache!

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