Macaron temptation!

Well today was a pretty good day. My migraine finally went away. I didn't start out my day with a walk like I normally would, and instead helped my Mom with the making of birthday cards for her co-workers. April is Bday month for like half the Earth's population! (At least it feels like it!)

For breakfast I had Organic Blueberry Flaxseed oatmeal, and then an hour later a 60 calorie all natural Trader Joe's Fiber Fruit bar. Not bad!

We decided today we would try to make a French Pastry I've always wanted to try...the Macron! Oh the elusive Macron! Apparently it's supposed to be really hard to do, and American's are incapable of making a good one. I was really interested to try it. It's basically a meringue cookie with a filling of some sort (usually jam, ganache, or buttercream). A few days ago I did some pretty through research and found an awesome blog I wanted to use from this awesome lady. So the first thing we did was go grocery shopping since you need Almond Flour, which I've never used, and which is usually hard to find unless you go to a specialty store. Lucky for me we have a food processor and it's easy to make your own!

So off to Winco we went to do some healthy grocery shopping and get some almonds for the flour. Well after shopping we (my Mom and I. Usually who I'm referring to anytime I say "we.") decided we were famished and went to the Subway right across from the grocery store. I had a 6" Whole Grain Wheat bread Turkey Breast sub with lots of veggies, and just a tiny bit of light mayo one it. About 300 calories and 7 grams of fat. Still doing well! I also had a 0 calorie Snapple tea with my lunch too. Still doing good!

So on to the baking. I won't go into detail, but we were marginally successful with our Macaron project. Our batter was slightly under mixed, but the first batch into the oven came out SO CUTE and light and fluffy with their little "feet." Almost perfect! The second batch we used a Jellyroll pan instead of a cookie sheet or insulated air pan (like our first sheet) and they came out crackled and collapsed. Hrm. Obviously can't use any other pan but the insulated air pan. Tried another batch on a regular old cookie sheet (like we've had this thing for at least 7 years) and the ones in the middle of the pan came out PERFECT but the ones all along the edges crackled and collapsed. Yikes. Decided to buy more insulated air pans and throw the old pan out. Might get around to that next weekend!

So next was making the buttercream. Because I'm lactose intolerant I use an awesome Vegan Buttercream recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
The recipe if you're curious is;

1 stick Earth Balance vegan "butter"
1/2 cup Vegan shortening (use Earth Balance brand or get some from Whole Foods)
3 1/2 cups Sifted powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract (use clear for white frosting and reg if you don't give a shit)
and 1/4 cup soy milk (or almond, you get the point)

Now with a stand mixer (so much easier than using a handheld!) Beat the Earth Balance and the shortening for about 3-5 minutes until combined and fluffy on medium high. Then add your sifted powered sugar slow, make sure the mixer is on low while you're doing this unless you want to be covered in powered sugar! After all the powdered sugar is in then turn the speed back up to medium high, and beat for about 3-5 minutes until fully incorporated. Now turn off the mixer and add your vanilla and soy milk (also this is a great time to add gel food coloring if you're doing so). Beat on low until not sloshy, then turn the speed up to med/high and beat for 5-7 minutes or until the buttercream is fluffy. Now you're done! Pipe it or frost it onto cupcakes or delicious Macrons, or well, anything you want buttercream on really.

So after I made the buttercream and while the Macrons were cooling my Mom and I decided we really needed to test the failed Macrons to see how they tasted. Still pretty tasty, even if they were collapsed and crackly. So I filled the good ones and packed them into an air-tight container for my Mom to take to her co-workers. Now, here's the part where we were bad today. I've probably eaten like 10 Macrons! That includes the ones that actually got made into sandwiches. So yeah, didn't do to well there today. It's hard to bake and then not eat what you baked. OK so maybe not so hard, maybe just need more self control as to not over taste test what you bake! I think that's totally do able. I just need more self control. I wonder where I can get some...

As for dinner, we're going to have Turkey hot dogs, which are about 5 grams of fat per dog, and 70 calories per dog. I tried to persuade my Mom that we should buy wheat hot dog buns, but I have to agree with her, they're not very tasty. We've tried many a brand but they're just not very tasty, and we're both people who really like wheat bread!

Anyway that was my day today! If I can figure out how I'll post a pic of my cute little Macarons!