In my quest to master a bunch of gluten-free recipes I have been trying to find a good Meringue recipe. Meringue is gluten-free and great with ice cream and/or fruit.

This week I finally created a recipe based on one I found that worked well for me. Next time I want to make the Meringue into tiny bites like I’ve had in ice cream desserts in Austria.
Here is the recipe:

Meringue (based on http://www.bhg.com/recipe/cookies/star-mint-meringues/)

3 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a large bowl, combine egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until peaks start to form and the batter starts to look glossy. Gradually add sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beating on high speed until stiff peaks form and batter looks super glossy.

2. Using a pastry bag and star tip, transfer meringue batter into prepared pastry bag. Pipe stars slightly apart onto prepared cookie sheet.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 80 minutes (check on them every 30 minutes and turn cookie sheet) or until meringues appear dry and are firm when lightly touched. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.

For Cupcake Friday last week I decided to make 2 differennt kinds of cupcakes. The first was a vanilla bean with cherry cream cheese frosting and the second was cocoa-chocolate with Manner chocolate glaze. I used silver ball and colored sprinkles to add a decorative touch.

I was very happy with both. I made them as minis and full size for a family birthday party on the weekend.

Celebrating my favorite place to visit in the world – Austria!

So for Halloween this year I’ve been thinking of a 1950’s inspired costume with a halloween twist. I created these saddle-like shoes using shoes from Ardene (NR’s suggestion), googly eyes and a glue gun. I got the idea from a Craft Blog and I’m really happy with the outcome!

I’m looking forward to continuing my costume work…

This week I challenged myself to make gluten-free cupcakes and I wanted to make carrot cupcakes. So to make the gluten-free cupcakes I searched out gluten-free flour. Fortunately, my supermarket now carries a wide variety of gluten-free products.

I made a basic vanilla cake recipe but added 1 tsp. cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg and 2.5 cups of shredded carrot. I also used my homemade vanilla extract which I really like. I put the batter into the mini cupcake trays and cooked them for 11 minutes.

While my cupcakes were cooking I made a vanilla bean cream cheese icing. I used 1/5 of the PC blue line cream cheese package, 1/4 cup butter and approximately 4.5 cups of icing sugar (make sure if you want glueten free that the icing sugar uses corn starch and not wheat starch).

I also toasted pecan slivers in my toaster over for 4 minutes.

I was very pleased with the outcome and would definitely make these cupcakes again.

Okay, so last night I tired my hand at macaroon cookies. This was quite challenging for me because macaroons use a meringue base (whipped egg whites) and so many things can go wrong when trying to whip egg whites.

I looked at several macaroon recipes and came up with my own version of the french macaroon, a vanilla macaroon cookie.

Ingredients

2 cups ground blanched almonds
3 cups powered sugar
8 egg whites
1/3 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
2 vanilla beans, seeded

I preheated the oven to 275 and lined some cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Using a hand mixer I whipped 3 egg whites – make sure there is no grease in the bowl because the eggs will not whip properly otherwise.

In a small sauce pan I put the water and the granulated sugar until it was melted. (Watch the sugar very carefully because you can not let it burn.)Then I added the sugar mixture to the 3 egg whites and whipped it until it was glossy and a little bit stiff (around 12-16 minutes).

In a bowl I put the ground almonds, powdered sugar, remaining egg whites and the vanilla bean seeds. You mix this until it looks like a paste.

Then I folded in the whipped egg mixture with the other bowl.

I used a piping bag or a spoon to put “blobs” of my batter onto the parchment paper and allowed the trays to set for approximately 10-15 minutes.

I put one tray at a time into the oven and set the timer for 6 minutes. Then I turned the tray and set the timer for another 6 minutes or until the cookies were ever so slightly browned and a crust had formed.

Raspberry Coulis
In a small sauce pan, I put approximately 2 cups of raspberries, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water and let it simmer down until it was a thick mixture. Coulis often doesn’t include the seeds but I usually leave mine with the seeds – it’s similar to jam.

Lessons Learned

1 – next time I would grind the almonds into a thinner consistency
2 – my whipped mixture started to “deflate” I think because the kitchen was warm, and it lost some of it’s thickness
3 – whip my egg white mixture slightly longer
3 – the smaller cookies were harder to handle and often broke, the larger cookies were much easier to handle

So recently I’ve been doing a lot of baking for the GCWCC, a charitable campaign at my work, and I’ve been making mini cupcakes on Thursday nights for Fridays at work.

Tonight I’m going to really challenge myself and try making French Macaroons, these are gluten-free which is something I’ve been trying to accomodate.

I will be taking pictures and will post about the French Macaroon process.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Not a day goes by that I don’t wear my Do It For Daron (D.I.F.D) purple bracelet.

On November 12th, 2010, Daron Richardson took her own life. She was 14 years old and a friend of my younger cousin. I know when I heard of her death I was shocked and deeply saddened that such a young girl would take her own life. Daron’s family started this organization to bring awareness to the issue and to inspire conversation on mental illness.

This important group will be featured on Battle of the Blades! Bryan Berard and Marie-France Dubreuil will be skating for D.I.F.D at the Royal as their charity of choice. The prize if they win – $100, 000 for D.I.F.D!

How to vote

Web Options

Install the Battle App via www.cbc.ca/battle (using your facebook account)

Official Battle of the Blades Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/battleoftheblades

You can vote every five minutes http://www.cbc.ca/battle/vote/terms.html

Phone

1-877-844-8155 to cast your vote for Bryan and Marie-France – unlimited voting

Thanks for your support – for more information on D.I.F.D visit:

http://www.doitfordaron.com/

Um, just the cutest puppy ever!

So my golden half has definitely solidified itself as one of my favorite of all time toy cameras. Here are a few shots from my recent trip to NYC. I know I’ve not been on the blog to much recently but life got busy and I haven’t had time to be doing my cakes or much photography. I’m definitely hoping to start making time and get back into all the things I love to do.

Thanks to my cousin, AP, and the rest of my family for showing us a great time and giving us fun tours of the city!