Fall Flavor Macarons! (With a recipe for Italian Meringue)

I LOVE Autumn. It is my favorite season, with Winter being a close second. There's just something about cold weather that makes me feel so snuggly and happy. I love everything about it, the colors, the fashion, the food, the hot drinks. And Halloween! Nothing gets me in the mood for fall like the movie Hocus Pocus! So this weekend I got into the fall spirit and put together a couple of new macaron flavors to celebrate the season!

Pumpkin Spice and Apple Spice! I know everyone goes ga-ga over pumpkin when September rolls around (thank you for the Pumpkin Spice latte, Starbucks), but I don't want to forget the amazing apple! I love apples, apple cider, and APPLE BUTTER! Delicious! These flavors of macarons are now available for purchase in my Etsy Shop!

When coming up for the fillings for my various macarons, I often use Italian Meringue (sometimes called Italian Buttercream, but there is no butter in this recipe). For both of these new flavors, I mixed in Italian meringue to give it texture and sweetness.

I find that this recipe is fairly simple, and makes a cream/meringue that you will not be able to stop sampling. I think I went through at least five spoons in the process of making my last batch because I couldn't stop taking taster bites.

Ingredients
8 oz sugar
2 oz water
4 oz egg whites

Directions
Heat the sugar and water mixture, make sure you brush the pan with water to make sure there are no dry sugar crystals. When the syrup reaches 220, start beating your egg whites. Once the syrup reaches 240, your egg whites should be at stiff peak stage. CAREFULLY pour the syrup into the egg whites, as they are still beating. I can not stress enough how careful you need to be with this syrup. It is lava! Pour all of the syrup in and keep beating until the mixing bowl reaches room temperature. I'd guess this takes about eight minutes, but I'm terrible at time estimation (I know, terrible affliction for a baker, but that's why I use my trusty phone timer when things are in the oven), so just mix until the bowl is room temp and you're good.

The finished product is going to be thick and glossy and delicious and amazing and addicting. And and and. You can use it to frost a cake, make meringue cookies, top a pie, or make macaron fillings!

Image from Classy Catering Creations because I fail at remembering to take pictures

If your meringue starts to separate after a couple of days, just throw it back into the mixing bowl and mix it until it becomes fluffy again. All good!

Happy Autumn, everyone!

J'adore Friday #1

J'adore Fridays and j'adore these things!

Chocolate peanut butter cupcakes are my FAVORITE cupcakes ever. My best friend, Kristin, can attest to that. She's made them for me a few times, and she's a golden goddess. I love this recipe from Annie's Eats and the way she does the frosting to look like a peanut butter cookie, is SO CUTE!

I super love poached pears, and these honey poached pears in puff pastry from Sprinkle Bakes look amazing! I'm definitely going to have to try this one!

I LOVE FARMHOUSE SINKS! When I have my dream house, some day in the distant future, my kitchen will have a gigantor farmhouse sink and I will die of happy. I love this one featured on Pink Wallpaper. It's beautimus and the turquoise kitchen makes my heart smile. 

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you all have lovely weekends! If you try either of those recipes, feel free to comment and let me know how it went!!

Out of the Kitchen Tuesday #2

I've had these blank greeting cards in my hallway Closet O' Random Stuff for quite some time and I finally decided to do something with them. Every once in a while I get really in the mood to do stuff with ink pens, and I thought it would be fun to draw on these little cards with some fun pens. There is really nothing like a good pen. So smooth and inky, it's incredibly satisfying.

I got these colorful pens that I've really been enjoying lately. They are pretty colors, and the case folds back to make a little pen stand, which I enjoy immensely.

When writing or drawing with black ink, my current favorite pen is the Pilot Precise V7 or V5, depending on how fine a line I want.

So, I used all my fun, fancy pens to draw a couple of silly greeting cards. 

I have only done these two so far, but I'd like to do some more, and I have plenty of blank cards left. It's kind of a relaxing project. I worked on one card while hanging out in my boyfriend's office, keeping him company while he was working. The other I did while hanging out with my mom in her glass studio. Fun things, fun things!

I may put some handmade cards up in the Etsy shop someday soon!