I hope everyone had a great holiday season full of
amazing foods - I know I did!
Cheesy Quinoa
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained
Veggies of your choice (optional)
good pinch of salt
a few grinds of seasoning salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large eggs
1 cup soy milk or non-fat milk
1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese, more for
sprinkling
Optional- Crushed Red Pepper, Panko Bread crumbs
for topping
Toppings (optional)- salsa, hot sauce, sour cream,
scallions
Directions
Lightly sauté any veggies you
would like in this dish.
Cook quinoa to packaged instructions until fully cooked. (About 15 minutes)
Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat 13x9 inch dish (or 8
individual ramekins) with cooking spray. Whisk together eggs and milk in large
bowl. Fold in quinoa mixture and cheese. Stir very well and let some of the
cheese melt. Transfer to prepared baking dish and if using Panko Crumbs or
Bread crumbs add now and bake 30-35 mins, until bread crumbs are browned.
Amy used silicone muffin cups, which released really easily for
individual portions. She found in using the traditional muffin pans, the quinoa
stuck to the bottom. Amy also increased the cheese to two cups, because
it tastes better. Thanks for sharing, Amy!
Now here's Abi's recipe for her Earl Grey Macarons. The recipe came from Building Buttercream, but instead of making the honey rosewater buttercream, she used Biscoff (a speculass cookie spread) between the layers. She also added black food coloring to make the macarons look more "grey".
Earl Grey Macarons
Ingredients
Based on Brave Tart's detailed recipe.
115g almond flour* 4g Earl Grey tea (about 2 tea bags)230g powdered sugar144g egg whites (about 5 eggs worth)72g sugar1 tsp vanilla extract½ tsp salt*Blanched almonds will work as well, but you will need to grind them with the powdered sugar.
Directions
Preheat the oven to 300° F. You might want to invest in an oven thermometer to ensure your temperature is correct.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. If you'd like to ensure macarons of the same size, trace some guide circles on the parchment paper, and then flip it over (so that you don't get pen in your cookies!).
In a food processor, grind the almond flour with the Earl Grey tea leaves for about 30 seconds. Sift the almond flour/tea and the powdered sugar together and set aside.
Combine the egg whites, sugar, and salt and mix with beaters on medium for 3 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-high and whip another 3 minutes, then go to high and whip for another 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat for one more minute on high.
Dump the dry ingredients into your meringue. Mix with a spatula. I stopped mixing my macarons at about 60 strokes with the spatula. The batter should melt back down in 20 seconds after being spooned out and dropped back in.
Transfer the batter to a piping bag with a plain tip. Holding the bag straight up, pipe batter out until you almost fill the circle you drew.
After all the macarons have been piped out, bang the cookie sheet onto your counter top a few times to get the air bubbles out. Let the macarons sit for an hour (this may or may not be necessary, but probably doesn't hurt, especially if you're not sure about if you've over/under-mixed).
Bake the macarons for 18 minutes (19 if you're doubling cookie sheets). Remove, and cool completely before peeling the macarons off of the parchment paper.
Thanks for sharing, Abi. Now, I for one am very intimidated by the whole macaron process, so I'll just hope you'll be our resident macaron swapper :)
See everyone on February 2nd!
