This time, I was sure to succeed. I bought Ogita’s book “I Love Macarons”, which is said to be the one of the best guides to make macarons and I really loved it, because it gives you a lot of different macaron options based on a “basic” recipe. It also has some very detailed instructions and I read all of them carefully to finally make some “real” macarons. Yeah, the macarons didn’t crack as last time, but I couldn’t form the foot, or “pied” as the French call it. Ogita says if the batter is too dry, you cannot make the foot; but I don’t even know how I got the batter that dry. I didn’t even whisk the egg whites too much (that can make it dry). And what is worse, according to Ogita, my “things” are not even called macarons because she says: “Without it [pied], the pastry cannot be called a macaron.” So, I just call them macaron-ish-s!
Whisking the egg whites with granulated sugar. Everything seems to be normal:
Hmm, maybe I dried the egg whites, I don’t know. They still look normal, maybe a bit hard:
Almond, powdered sugar and black tea mixture:
Blending the two mixtures:
They are now starting to look hard. I’ve waited for 45 minutes and the shell around the macarons didn’t form:
Crossing my fingers to see the “pied”:
My little sad hearts:( …
I put them into a box, because they were still delicious:
Almond Milk & Mini Fat-Free Donuts
Wow, is that my blog? When’s the last time I posted here??
After my epic macaron fail, I’ve been denying to post any recipes and that wasn’t the only reason. I was so busy with my finals (I graduated by the way!) and then my getaway to Bodrum -such a nice vacation!. Then I started to work and I’ve been trying to adapt this crazy lifestyle since then. I wake up at 7 am. YEAH 7!! Now you may say “What’s wrong about 7? We all wake up at 7.” But remember, for the past 4 years, I was a college student, and I was trying to schedule my classes later than 10 am . If I had to take a class at 9:30 am, I was usually skipping it. Well, things have changed. Now I don’t have the excuse to “skip” the work, obviously. So, I wake up at 7, go to work and come back home at 7 pm, which means I have little time to eat my dinner, do some other things and finally cook for the blog. Actually, I don’t have time to cook. Then I decided to plan my days and I think I’ll cook for the blog 2 days a week, because I really want to improve this blog. The thing is, I don’t really plan the recipes (that’s why it is kitchen “impromptu”) and I don’t bother much about the photos. I just take them, without using any setting, which makes the photos, I think, poor. See, I’m quite lazy..
I’m planning to go on like this for now, but I definitely have some future plans about this blog. In the future (who knows when), the blog will surely remain “impromptu”, but not that much. At least, I will try to pay more attention to the photos.
Anyways, there are two recipes I made during the past couple of months, but I’ll post them soon because I can’t find their photos. But today I’ll give something different.
I’m lately obsessed with those “raw food” and “vegan” food blogs. Not that I’m a vegan (I love meat!!) or a raw food eater, but I like to (and try to) eat healthier. I try to use less sugar and fat in my recipes, avoid white flour, etc. Then I saw these beautiful fat-free vegan mini-donuts!!! Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? But it requires soy milk as the dairy substitute, and I have to say that I HATE soy milk, tofu or other soy-related products. Also in Turkey, you cannot really find non-GMO soy products, and even they’re non-GMO, there’s a lot of controversy about soy out there. So, I decided to make the cutest little donuts with almond milk.
Nut milks are very good alternatives to soy milk, they are proven to be healthy (no controversial issues) and they also taste good. I decided to start with almond milk, and save some of them for the donuts.
You can find the recipe here, and the blog has really cool recipes. I added some of the raw food blogs in my “Links” bar, so you can check them out. I added almond milk instead of soy milk. Since these donuts are fat-free, they taste different than classic donuts, but in the photos they look like cupcakes, which is also not true, because they definitely don’t taste like cupcakes. Actually, they do have a really unique taste closer to donuts. Also, don’t mind my hole-less donuts, I just don’t have donut molds. Well, to be honest, nobody can say these are actually donuts by looking at the photos. Sorry :/
And the almond milk? It’s the easiest thing to make. Soak 1 cup of fresh almonds for a few hours or safely, overnight. Then, blend it in the food processor along with 3 cups of water (2 for a thicker, creamy milk). By the way, you don’t need to peel off the skins. Finally, get rid of the almond particles using a fine mesh strainer and ta-ta! You have 3 cups of fresh almond milk! If you think it’s tasteless, you can add a tablespoon of honey. You can make this milk with any nuts, or make some mixed nut milks which is what I plan to do next.