I don't think I've baked anything exacting in the last half-year; it's been hard in this season of change, to prioritize it. It's actually been challenging really to prioritize anything I want to do for myself, I joke that my life schedule is work, kids and Paynow — in that order. I have some envy for people with hobbies, because my hobby is Paynow, usually at midnight, exhausted and late. (The rush and interruptions though, do remind me to be incredibly grateful, for health, for support, caring responsible friends, waking up nested with four warm growing kids, even when they squabble incessantly).
It often feels like for every one thing I finish, another ten appear on the to-do list, and it can feel frustrating because this runs counter to living in a time when there is a maybe historic amount of newness and access for us to learn independently. So getting these moments to put that all aside to pause and praise, to therapeutically imagine that I'm restoring order through a gratifying number of minute steps, also felt particularly happy, if plebian.
In praise of vanilla macarons with pistachio white chocolate ganache and raspberry gelee, and hazelnut macarons with salted caramel buttercream. I was given a bag of overripe raspberries, which became the springboard for making the gelee, by warming the pure raspberry juice and fruit with gelatin and pouring into a shallow lined pan. It's so beautiful when semi-solid, studded through with seeds, and not that sweet. You can also dehydrate it into rolled natural-fruit leathers.
Roast and grind a mix of green Iranian pistachios and woodier, brown pistachios with three drops of neutral oil. Melt white chocolate, mix in pistachio butter and emulsify with warm cream to make a ganache. Melt sugar to amber, to make salted caramel. Macronage, reserve remaining meringue to make salted caramel buttercream. Pipe out macarons, bake and match the shells.
The girls helped me match the macaron shells and were unusually good at it. I told them this was an essential life skill — you learn a sense of proportion — you can be a diamond dealer and it teaches you both that you are unlikely to get everything you want out of life, and there may not be a perfect partner for everyone out there.
Then pipe a consistent snail of pistachio ganache or salted caramel buttercream, sandwich a square of raspberry gelee and gently twist the shells back together. Stack the macarons in perfect lines back in trays and cure them for another 12 hours. Watch as the greedy children demolish them all in minutes. Happy weekend!
