The evening of baking started like any other: my favorite apron, lots of ingredients strewn all over the counter, and wine. However, this time I had my first groupie, er, audience: Eli! Now Eli would soon become an instrumental part of the macaroon experience, but I am getting ahead of myself.
It just so happens that I was watching The Cooking Channel the other day and some chef was separating eggs with his hands. Anyone who knows me knows that I do not like getting messy--seriously--and separating eggs with my hands definitely falls in the messy category. I realized however that if I am to ever be considered a serious baker, I needed to set aside my OCD tendencies and crack that egg into my palm. Ladies and gentlemen: it was cold and goopy. I did not enjoy it.
Overall the macaroon mixing experience was uneventful--other than Eli daring to question whether there was enough liquid ingredients to soften the giant mound of shaved coconut. Rest assured there was. After mixing, the concoction was placed on the stove where there were very specific directions to remove from heat once it started to simmer. It was necessary to obtain a second opinion on this matter, so Eli made her skills available.
As it turns out, both of us are the opposite of deaf. We apparently hear things that are not there. Like simmering. This becomes a slight problem when attempting to form the "pyramids" of coconut for baking. Only one thing could solve the issue at hand: more wine. Again Eli lent her expertise to the cause.
The wine in fact only helped to make the "pyramids" more mound-like, but I have learned in my now-vast baking experience that imperfection is endearing, or something. Either way, macaroons luckily have little discernible shape. Moving on...adding the hand-melted chocolate warrants no special description, other than to note that there was not near enough chocolate to go around (my macaroons may have been a little larger than intended).
In the end, the macaroons were delicious. Shared by JD, Eli, and my lucky co-workers.
Lessons learned:
1) I bake better when I drink red wine than white wine.
2) The term 'simmer' leaves too much for interpretation.
Lessons yet to be learned:
3) A week later, there is still a macaroon in the fridge. I'm not sure if it's still safe to eat. I don't think I am going to find out.
I'm pretty sure I do everything better while drinking red wine. I wish we lived closer so we could bake and drink :( Maybe someday . . .
ReplyDeleteThey look yummy and I don't even like coconut.
Point of clarification: by "in the family" I was really just talking about the siblings. My step-mother Debbie is an avid baker, and I apologize that my statement did not give her credit.
ReplyDeleteAnd what about your MOTHER? HAVE I not baked cookies...oatmeal raisin cookies to be precise. It was awhile back, but I distinctly recall that most of them did not burn. I once baked a cake, and though it divided, like Gaul, into three parts, I glued it together with chocolate icing and it was the hit of your 4th birthday party (it greatly helped that 4-year-olds have limited aesthetic expectations). I BAKE BEANS, for heaven's sake. And I am giving serious consideration to baking banana nut bread for Christmas. I just bought some very green bananas, and they should be nice and rotten in a couple of weeks. (The walnuts come ready to use.) I have a nice recipe in a bread baking book I bought in 1973. The greasy fingerprints on the banana nut bread page attest to the fact that I have hands-on experience with banana nut bread baking. I probably didn't use the walnut part of the recipe back then, but I have grown to like them over the ensuing decades. Time to put the nut back in nutbread!
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