cinnamon and cream cheese macarons & chocolate cupcakes

Totally kicked healthy out the window last night. I was in the kitchen 3/4 of the day yesterday, baking, trying new recipes, failing, finding new recipes, and so forth. In a few hours I'm going back to my high school to watch the annual marching band tournament that they host with another high school way down the street, so I thought I'd whip up some treats for them youngsters and my band director ^_^

Cinnamon and cream cheese is like an Americanized flavor combination of the French macaron. These macarons have a delicious, warm flavor, and the cream cheese filling balances out the sweetness of the Snickerdoodle-like shells.

When I was selling macarons about two months ago my band director had asked me to recommend a flavor to him, and I recommended these cinnamon and cream cheese macarons. He loved them! And asked me to bring in more the next time I visited him, so I made some to bring today :) 

This is completely off topic, but it's strange how quick our taste buds change and adjust to the foods we eat and don't eat. I dipped a raw almond into a bit of nutella for flavor--I haven't had nutella for about 3 weeks and now--and surprisingly I don't really like the taste of it anymore, so I just put it back in my pantry. I feel kind of sad, and yeah it is pretty shocking for anyone to reject nutella...but yeah that was pretty random huh.


Cinnamon and Cream Cheese Macarons

adapted from 17 and Baking
yields 20 shells (10 macarons)

Ingredients:

1 large egg white (room temperature)
1 tbs granulated sugar (I tend to use less than a full tablespoon)
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup almond flour (I used whole ground almonds for this, mostly for the speckled look)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 

Directions: 

- Preheat the oven 300° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat. Have one large egg white at room temperature ready in medium/large bowl.
- Pulse the whole almonds in a food processor or blender until it becomes fine almond meal. Sift the almond meal with the confectioner's sugar in a small bowl and mix until incorporated. Add in the ground cinnamon and combine.
- Using an electric handheld whisk, whisk the egg white until it is frothy. Add the granulated sugar and continue whisking until the egg whites hold stiff peaks. 
Tip: if you hold the bowl upside-down over your head and the egg white should stay in place
- Use a rubber spatula and gently fold in the almond mixture in tablespoons until incorporated. Be sure not to mix it as it will deflate the egg whites.
- Fill a piping bag with the mixture and use a 1-cm wide tip to pipe circles onto the parchment sheet or silicone mat. Leave enough room between each circle so the edges do not spread and touch.
- Let the batter set about 30 minutes up to 1 or 2 hours. (The macarons should not look shiny when you place it under the light and when you touch it the shell feels somewhat hardened. Once you get the hang of it you'll know when the macarons are ready to bake.)
- Bake 9-10 minutes. You usually see the macaron "feet" start to form about 5-6 minutes into baking.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool, match up the cookies to form sandwiches, then fill with the cream cheese filling and enjoy!

 
Cream Cheese Filling:

yields 1/2 cup

Ingredients:

2 oz cream cheese
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
milk

Directions:

- In a small bowl, cream the cream cheese and sift in the confectioner's sugar so there will be no lumps. Mix well.
- Add in the vanilla extract and continue to mix. If the filling seems dry, add in a few splashes of milk until it reaches a frosting-like consistency.

I've wanted to make cupcakes for a while. The last time I made cupcakes was probably a year and a half ago, and it feels like I lost my touch for making them (I made two failed batches). I tried out a gluten-free cupcake recipe, but the cupcake turned out a bit dry, probably because of the coconut flour, and they didn't really rise; then I made vegan cupcakes but they turned out rubbery...

And so I just made a normal chocolate cupcake, BUTTER and all...

Okay, I did take one tiny bite and they were so moist and buttery and yummy and I wanted to eat the entire thing but I DIDN'T, since I'm saving them for the band tournament today. I had leftover cream cheese frosting from the macarons, so the cupcakes now have a cream cheese center; then I topped them off with an improvised frosting that is healthy-turned-not-so-healthy. I tried out Teresa Cutter's really good chocolate mousse recipe, hoping to use that as the frosting for my cupcakes, but they held onto a strong avocado flavor...

Kind of a bad baking experience for me, failing so many new recipes, and having the end product taste kind of weird...

But I saved the frosting by adding some melted dark chocolate, a few tablespoons of nutella, and some confectioner's sugar :)

So I won't post the frosting recipe here because I don't remember the ratios of my random improvisation, but here's the cupcake recipe! Bringing healthy back in from now on.

Chocolate Cupcakes

adapted from Betty Crocker
yields 12 cupcakes    

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a muffin tin with twelve liners.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and unsweetened cocoa.
- In a larger bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Then add in the egg, boiling water, and vanilla until combined. 
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in tablespoons, mix well and make sure there are no lumps in the batter. 
- Divide the batter evenly among the cups.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.