Breakfast For Lunch

Hard working volunteer Jeff working his magic at the griddle. Look at those perfect golden brown pancakes!

We served breakfast for lunch today at the Wednesday Community Meal and set a new record for number of meals served — 397!

Just like last Wednesday, it was unexpectedly busy for it being early in the month and it kind of caught us off guard.

Good thing we had our indispensable volunteer Jeff who also happens to be a pancake flipping master.  He worked nonstop in front of the hot griddle and we would have been lost without him.

In addition to the pancakes, we served sausage, cheese omelets and fruit. Guests were also offered bowls of hot soup and dessert.

Chocolate Hazelnut Macarons

For chocolate aficionados these Chocolate Hazelnut Macarons are the ones to make.

When my chocolate loving husband first tasted them he said, "mmm...mmm... a classic."

To make the macarons, I added 10 grams of cocoa powder to the batter and a generous tablespoon of hazelnut extract to the buttercream filling.

Once again, I kept the filling lightly sweet to balance the sweetness of the macaron shells and allow the flavor of chocolate and hazelnut to stand front and center.

Cupcake liners, a cellophane bag, baker's twine and a homemade tag make for a sweet package of macarons.

 Chocolate Hazelnut Macarons
180g ground almonds, sifted
270g powdered sugar, sifted
10g cocoa powder
150g egg whites, aged 2 to 4 days in the fridge and then brought to room temperature
100g granulated sugar
brown food coloring (optional)

Line four heavy baking sheets with good quality parchment paper and set aside. Also, set aside two pastry bags for the piping of the macarons.

Sift together your ground almonds with the powdered sugar and cocoa powder and set aside.
Whisk the egg whites (at room temperature) to glossy firm peaks adding the granulated sugar gradually in four parts. If you want a darker chocolate colored cookie, this is the time to add a few drops of brown food coloring.

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the beaten egg whites using a large rubber scraper.  Mix well. 
Fold the mixture with the rubber scraper by pulling down the sides and flipping the mixture over. Do this until you have a smooth mixture that falls like a “ribbon” off the scraper.

Transfer the mixture into the two piping bags. Use rubber bands to close the piping bags. Clip the tip of the bags, one at a time, and pipe small quarter sized rounds, leaving 1-inch of space between each because they spread as they set.

Macarons resting before baking. I added a few drops of brown coloring to the macaron batter to enhance the chocolate look.

Leave to set for about 30 minutes or until the top has formed a crust and is not sticky to the touch.


While they are setting, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. A convection oven is preferable. 

Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for about 12 minutes or until the cookie is firm, matte and doesn't wobble when touched.
Leave on the baking tray until cool then lift them all off the parchment carefully. You may need to use a thin knife to help lift them off.

Sort into pairs and fill with Hazelnut Buttercream.

The essential ingredient for the Hazelnut Buttercream.

Hazelnut Buttercream
3 large egg whites
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon hazelnut extract
pinch of fine sea salt


Place the whites in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar and cream of tartar.

Place bowl over a double boiler on medium heat, stir frequently until the mixture is very hot (120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit).

Move to mixer and whip whites on high for 2 to 3 minutes; turn down to medium low until cool (use the bowl as your guide).

In a separate bowl with a wooden spoon, stir butter to soften.

With mixer on medium/high speed, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon just as the previous one is blended in. Once all the butter incorporated, add in vanilla, hazelnut extract and salt and whip on high speed until fluffy. 

Sold Out!

Sale Snapshot: We sold boxes of hand-dipped Belgian chocolate truffles, French macarons, decorated sugar cookies and handmade Valentine cards.

Thank you to everyone who shopped at the Valentine Treat sale yesterday at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

Because of you, we sold every single treat and raised money that will be used to support the Wednesday Community Meal. It was the perfect ending to a busy week of baking and chocolate making.

Volunteers spent a few hours the day before the sale packaging the Belgian chocolate truffles. The flavors were dark chocolate, milk chocolate and raspberry dark chocolate.

Just a few boxes to sell!

A package of cherry macarons.

A package of chocolate hazelnut macarons (the recipe will be on the blog soon).

Tags For Cookies

A tray of cookies ready to be sold.

The packages look sweet and complete with ribbon and a tag (in the back).

All of the sugar cookies I made and decorated for the upcoming Valentine Treat Sale are wrapped and ready to go thanks to two wonderful friends who came over yesterday and helped me add ribbon and tags.

Adding the tags was a last minute idea that I think adds a lot to the packages and was easy to do. And, it was inexpensive because we made the tags ourselves using a scalloped oval punch and cardstock.

Using a standard hole punch, we punched a hole in the cookie bag and tags. Then, we thread a 12-inch piece of ribbon through both and tied a bow. Not hard to do but super easy with the help of two friends who are much better at bow tying than myself.

Now the cookies are really ready to share. I hope others agree and we raise a lot of money at our sale to benefit The Wednesday Community Meal.

The tags were made using a scalloped oval punch.

The punch is available at craft stores.

Mini Heart Cookies

 Here are just few simple decorating ideas for mini heart sugar cookies.

Because they are small, one batch of cookie dough (see recipe below) yields at least 40 cookies, making them the perfect treat for a platter at a Valentine's Day party.

Baby pink and medium pink.

Baby pink and dark pink.

Red and medium pink.

The most basic - white and pink.

Sugar Cookie Dough

1 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

 In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until blended, then beat on high speed until creamy. Add egg, vanilla and almond extract and beat until well blended. Add flour and salt; beat on low speed until combined, then on medium speed until well blended. Divide dough into two equal portions. Place dough between sheets of plastic wrap. Press evenly into a disk and chill until dough is firm, at least 20 minutes. Working with one portion of dough at a time (keep remaining chilled), peel off plastic wrap and roll on a floured board until 1/4 inch thick. Cut with floured cutters and transfer onto bare baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees (325 for convection) for 7 to 9 minutes or until firm to the touch and slightly darker brown around edges. Cool on wire racks.

Thankful

Adding a few spoonfuls of drippings to a roast beef sandwich that is ready to go into a hot oven. The beautiful roast was donated to us by Phil's Meat Market.

We were unexpectedly busy today at the Wednesday Community Meal.

With it being the first of the month when our numbers are typically lower, we were thinking we would serve around 275 meals today — But boy were we wrong.

We served 354 meals and at the end of the day I am so thankful that we didn't have to turn anyone away.

There was just enough for everyone in large part due to the generosity of Phil's Meat Market and Good Samaritan Hospital who donate wonderful food to us each week and help us keep our pantry stocked.

From Good Samaritan today we had soup, rice, pasta, enchiladas, sweet and sour chicken and barbecue ribs. And from Phil's Meat Market we had roasted turkey, chicken breasts, ground beef, chili mac and a beautiful beef roast.

With the latter, we sliced it thin and made hot roast beef and cheese sandwiches which were the hit of the day.

All of the food was delicious and enjoyed by our hungry guests. I am so thankful for our generous donors.

Thanks to Good Samaritan Hospital, we were able to serve steaming hot bowls of hearty soup. The hospital donates wonderful food to us each week.

Dogwood Cookies

I can think of a lot of occasions these pretty Dogwood cookies would be suited for....

Valentine's Day
A Tea Party
A Baby Shower
A Wedding Shower
A Spring Wedding
A Little Girl's Birthday Celebration
A Spring Festival

And, they are not too hard to make. The Dogwood is one of most basic flowers to create because it's just four petals and some tiny piped dots for the centers.

I'm going to wrap these cookies up and sell them this Sunday, February 10 in a Valentine's Treat Sale at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. The sale is a fundraiser for the Wednesday Community Meal.

Also available for purchase will be hand-dipped Belgian chocolate truffles. All of the the treats will be beautifully wrapped and ready to give. The sale will be in Kempton Hall from 9 a.m. to noon.

Here's how to make the Dogwood Cookies:

Outline the cookies with piping consistency light pink icing.

Flood the cookies with a darker pink flood consistency icing. Use a skewer or toothpick to ease the icing to the edges.

Let the cookies dry completely before moving onto the next step.

With a dark brown icing that is piping consistency, pipe branches onto the cookies (see the cookies in the back of the photo). Let the branches dry before adding the flowers.

With a reddish pink icing that is the consistency of sour cream, pipe four petals on the ends of the branches. Use a brush to ease the icing towards the center. You don't want the petals to be completely filled. You still want to see the flood icing underneath in areas.

Pipe little lime green dots in the center of the flowers using a #1 tip and piping consistency icing.