Cookie Craze

Here are some pictures from our latest baking adventures. First, we made Lime Macarons. We added lime zest into our usual almond base recipe and filled the cookies with a lime buttercream. The lime juice concentrate really puckered up the flavor.


I was in St. George last week for work so Josh was bored:) He made Hazelnut Macarons all by himself! He has been researching how to make the perfect macaron, he even talked to my favorite bakery in San Francisco, Miette Bakery.
He is determined to master these cookies, even though he can't eat them because they are made with nuts. So he tried out some new techniques...he even made his own powdered sugar! He did a great job for his first macaron making! I was impressed.


Over the weekend I did some baking. First, I tried Dorie's Sable recipe. Sable cookies are a classic French cookie. Sable is French for "sand," which refers to the sandy texture of these delicate shortbread-like cookies. Since we love lime, I tried Lime Sables. They turned out great! They are now one of my favorite slice-and-bake icebox cookies. They are full of bright citrus zest and are very tender. The secret to the tenderness is that confectioners' sugar is used in the dough instead of granulated sugar. Josh couldn't stop eating these buttery bites! I am going to make these again soon!


Next, I baked a batch of Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies. I know, Josh is deathly allergic to peanut butter, I wasn't trying to kill him, I promise! These brownie like cookies only have peanut butter chips in the dough, so the smell wasn't too strong! The cookies were soft and chewy with the perfect chocolate and peanut butter combo! And lastly, I did my classic chocolate chip recipe, with some dark chocolate M&M's tossed into the mix. They are always a favorite.
So there you have it...a baking update from Maria and Josh's Kitchen!