This celebratory bunch came from Almondine in DUMBO

Today is Macaron Day in NYC, dedicated to celebrating the delightfully airy traditional French cookie (not your Grandma’s coconut clusters dipped in chocolate). This inaugural Macaron Day is the brainchild of Francois Payard, of Francois Chocolate Bar. From their homepage:

Macaron Day NYC is inspired by and will coincide with the 5th annual Jour du Macaron in Paris, created by Pierre Hermé.

Join us on Saturday, March 20 to discover macarons in New York as bakeries across the city come together to provide free macarons to customers.

To receive a free macaron tell the shop you are there for Macaron Day NYC.

Participating locations will provide one macaron per customer with quantities limited by location.

Want more macarons? At many participating locations, a portion of the day’s macaron sales will be donated to City Harvest. Indulge in macarons while contributing to the efforts of City Harvest. City Harvest (www.CityHarvest.org), which has been serving New York City for more than 25 years, is the world’s first food rescue organization, dedicated to feeding the city’s hungry men, women, and children.

This has certainly been a big year for the little cookie, whose popularity has been on the rise since late fall 2009. I know so many cooks who laid aside their customary Christmas/holiday cookie regime to try their hand at multiple macaron flavors.

Like most French cooking creations, the balance of the ingredients and instruction determines the success of the macaron. A great macaron has slightly crisp outer cookie layers that give way to a moist, more cake-like center. The creme between the two cakes must be sweet but not too sugary, and just the right consistency to hold the two outer layers together. Too much flour will make them grainy, if they sit too long in the oven they stiffen and lose the internal chew that melts in your mouth. Macarons are as much about the process as what you put into them.

I thought this was a great cause, so I purchased my batch at Almondine in DUMBO. They are truly top notch, and I will be going back soon for a baguette (they smelled amazing, but I couldn’t carry one around this morning!)

My mom’s traditional holiday cookie recipes (which I will post later in the week) are for chocolate dipped shortbread and classic, very chocolatey chocolate chip. She’s also been making almond crescents for a few years since my dad expressed a desire for the cookies his grandmother used to make during the holidays when he was young. And that’s what the holiday season is all about: good food, and family.

Admitedly, I have never been a fan of the almond crescent. They were always too dry for me, and I’m a chocoholic which made my sugar consumption priority the other two cookie varieties. This year, my mom selected on online recipe from Vanilla Garlic posted on Simply Recipes and these cookies have converted me to an almond crescent fan. My mom made a few slight changes to the recipe (used very finely ground almonds instead of almond flour, and covered the cookies entirely in powdered sugar instead of just dusting) and I am completely addicted. I cannot stop eating them.

I find myself craving them in the middle of the day. When I reach for the plate of cookies, I take one of each of the other two cookies and three or four of the almond crescents. They’re moist, and have fantastic flavor. Bravo, Mom.

Happy Holidays everyone! Be sure to eat your almond crescents!

Almond Crescent Cookies Recipe

Ingredients

Method

1 Cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the extracts and mix.

2 Add the flour and almond flour. Mix thoroughly.

3 Take generous tablespoons of the dough (it will be slightly crumbly) and roll it into a small ball, about an inch in diameter, and then shape into a crescent shape. Place onto parchment paper and bake at 350°F for 15-20 minutes or until a light golden brown.

4 Dust with powdered sugar.

For added decadence let the cookies cool and dip one end of them into some melted chocolate, then let the chocolate harden.

Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Aubrey is a notorious cupcake fan, both as an eater and a baker. So for her 21st we wanted to bake her a truly special cake. We also wanted to show her one use for one of her gifts, the large cupcake pan.

My mom didn’t put enough batter into the top of the pan initially, but it wasn’t totally unfortunate. The pieces fit together pretty perfectly, and although the decorating required a ton of attention to detail, it was all worth it to see the look on Aubz’s face

I also made her small doggie cupcakes in honor of her dog Jasmine (Shitzu). They’re not quite Jasmine lookalikes, but they come pretty close. A bit of clever piping, working with marshmallows and cinnamon red hots. Voila! Pup-Cakes!

These little guys were so fun to make. The frosting has to be a bit stiffer than normal, in order to form the “fur”. I really wanted these guys to be two-toned, which kind of worked, but not quite the way I wanted.

Ok, so I’m a girl who can admit when she has a problem. I am actually addicted to Foodzie.com.

But all of the things that they have listed are soo good looking. And thus far, I have not been disappointed with any of my purchases. The Cloud 9 Caramels were my last item that did not disappoint.

Heavy notes of cinnamon in every bite make these small chocolate and caramel morsels absolutely delectable. They are difficult to chew when cold, but if you let them sit in the palm of your hand for a few minutes, they are deliciously gooey and they melt in your mouth. The chocolate layer on it’s own does not really shine, but it adds depth and richness to the overall experience. The Cloud 9 Caramels come from Have it Sweet in Burbank, CA.

One cold day in New York, four interns went on a mission for another food cart. Unfortunately, they were few and far between that day. During our walk, we came across the ultimate food-on-a-stick experience. All of the offerings at the Xing Wang food cart on Canal street are displayed on sticks outside the cart:

Plantains, tofu, chicken, you name it. Not your normal shish kabob, but tasty nonetheless. I probably wouldn’t come back to this cart as a destination, but it was fine for satisfying our hunger until we could find a more substantial place to eat.

The Mediaite Cake!

Ever since I began work at my office I have wanted to make a cake for the Mediaite crew (birthdays were the original inspiration, but there was never enough time to pull one together). So to honor the success of the people I share my office with (and the announcement of three very cool new websites to come), I decided a cake was in order. That paired with a fabulous Jo-Ann fabrics sale on fondant (SCORE!) meant that there was only one type of cake I could make: A computer.

This was my first time working with fondant in a cake setting. I had worked with it a bit, making small cutouts to put on top of cupcakes when I worked at Georgetown Cupcake in DC, but I had never done a cake. I was really nervous for how it was going to turn out. Cakes with fondant are normally beautiful, but when you’re trying to make something look more life-like, it’s difficult to capture all of the details with fondant.

The key to this cake was sculpting. The inside is three square cakes stacked vertically, bound together with layers of frosting and then cut into the shape of a computer. A fourth cake was the keyboard, cut on a downgrade using string. Rolling the fondant was one of the most stressful parts of the process, because it is so delicate and I was so afraid that it was going to tear as I folded it over the corners. Frosting markers made the customized screen possible. It was one of the most fun cakes I’ve made to date. Congrats Mediaite!

What to do when you get a delicious Foodzie package from Whimsy & Spice in Brooklyn? Well, since the purpose of a marshmallow is to add childlike amusement to life, what better way to honor them than to play.

These maple marshmallows were absolutely DELISH in hot cocoa. As they slowly melt and dissolve at the top of the cup, a creamy froth forms so you sip the liquid chocolate through a sugary filter. They held their shape much longer than other marshmallows do, and since I was drinking unsweetened cocoa, they added just the right amount of sweet. By themselves, the marshmallows were sugary, spongy, with just a hint of burnt sugar and maple.

In short, if you’re looking for the perfect compliment to a warm winter beverage, maple marshmallow is the way to go. They’re fun too To make this guy, i stacked, and broke an M&M into pieces to make the face. Just like making a snowman.

Second: HELLOOOOOOO BUTTERLANE!

Ahhh, a group of folks after my own heart! Ever since I was two and my Dad gave me a small stuffed cow that was featured in all of my childhood photos, I have LOVED cows. I have a sweet spot in my heart for the resident cow of my childhood vacation spot, Block Island, and hopefully sometime soon will have his portrait purchased 8 or so years ago framed and hung on my wall. So you can imagine my little heart jumping for joy at the site of this beautiful bovine hanging on the wall of my sweet-tooth driven destination. Everyone working at Butter Lane is unbelievably friendly, talkative, and so helpful.

Butter Lane is like most cupcakeries in that they have two or three cake bases (vanilla, chocolate, and I believe their only other one is banana), and then the frosting combinations are where the creativity lies.

You know something has to be good when a patron already in the store tells you to trust the employees to picking the flavors for you.

Which brings me to:

The Cupcakes!

Ahh, such high expectations. And for the most part, Butter Lane came through. To start off with, the brief not-so-goods: the vanilla and chocolate cakes that I had were just a bit dry. They crumbled too easily, and didn’t dissolve on my tongue the way I expect cake to. I also like my chocolate cake to be a bit bolder, with a chocolate flavor that you would be happy to have in your corner in a fight between the frosting. A real hold-it’s-own kind of chocolate cake. Butter Lane’s chocolate was just a tad shy of the bar.

Now that we’ve got that squared away, on to the good stuff!

Ohhhh that frosting! The buttercreams are absolutely DELISH. They make all kinds: vanilla, chocolate, maple, cinnamon, raspberry, strawberry, espresso. And the banana cake was ON POINT! Moist, delicious, and not too overwhelming on the banana. It’s no surprise that my favorite cupcake flavor came with a banana base. The Banana with Cinnamon Buttercream is the kind of thing that I would go back and order a whole dozen of at full price.

Overall, I give Butter Lane a thumbs and a half up. I’m going to go back to see if cake is a bit moister next time, but I’m going to protect against dry mouth with at least a half dozen with the banana base. Of course, now that I’ve said that, the next time I go everything else will be oozing moisture and the banana will feel like sand in your mouth. That’s just how the world works.

Butter Lane

123 East Seventh Street, New York, New York 10009 (p) 212.677.2880

Being a locavore is so trendy these days, so I walked into Fort Defiance in Red Hook feeling pretty good about the simple, chic traditional food I was about to consume.

Not to mention that I had just walked a little over a mile through a rather dark neighborhood to get there because my boyfriend told me it was “really close to the subway.” Yeah right. On top of the walk, I had not been feeling so good, and breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw the small chalkboard sign on the restaurants corner.

The beautiful cherry interior garnished with bright colored prints on the chairs and tables echos the warm and genial service. The server was incredibly attentive and helpful. We ordered two of their signature home-made seltzer drinks–mine was a gingerade (spicy ginger and tart lemon is a PHENOM combo) and Nate ordered a Dark and Stormy. Our next course was a goat cheese salad with beets and a tomato bread soup with shaved parmesan, both fresh and full flavored with that juicy quality of just-picked vegetables. Our next course was chicken with balsamic braised brussel sprouts and whipped potatoes. Simple, but perfectly executed. The brussel sprouts were the best I’ve had this season, with a crispy glaze and perfectly tender inside leaves.

Of course, I couldn’t leave without dessert when I found out that their special was a chocolate pudding with fresh whipped cream. Chocolate pudding is a personal favorite of mine, and this particular dish was the perfect combination of dark chocolate and cream. Often times there is just too much milk in the pudding, but this pudding was dense with dark chocolate, and left the creaminess to the fresh whip on top. I would definitely go back if I’m in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn, and I would treck back to it as a destination if I knew they were serving the chocolate pudding again.

Overall: Great drinks, delicious, simple food. Warm and welcoming atmosphere.

365 Van Brunt Street (corner of Dikeman)
Brooklyn, NY 11231
347 453 6672