Macaron Recipe (Adapted from Pierre Hermé)

March 27, 2021.Reading time 11 minutes.

I’ve tested many macaron recipes over the years. Overall, I’ve found that getting the right ingredients, understanding the techniques, and troubleshooting is significantly more important than the recipe itself (i.e. the slight differences in the ratios of the ingredients). Last week, we finally tested this recipe with a grade 11 student of mine making macarons for the first time. With some guidance, we had pretty good results. That’s when I know it’s time to share. For the sake of accuracy, we are not going to include any volumetric measurements for this recipe. Go get your scale!

Chocolate Violin

March 7, 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

Backstory: During the first COVID lockdown, with the stay at home order, I thought it would a good idea to improve my chocolate skills by making multiple showpieces at home: an iceberg with a polar bear, a queen bee on top of her honey box, and a large chocolate animal. Most of the showpieces were not as good as I’d imagined them to be, but with each of these projects I was able to learn something and improve my skills a little along the way.

Dumplings With Crispy Lattice

March 3, 2021.Reading time 2 minutes.

With the stay at home order and the move to working from home, we jumped on the at-home dumpling bandwagon back in April of 2020. I have been eating dumplings for the majority of my life, but had never seen the crispy lattice/skirt (sometimes called wings) until I saw it on Instagram around the same time.

Lemon Squares

March 1, 2021.Reading time 2 minutes.

This lemon square has a soft texture, tons of lemon flavour, and just the right balance of sweetness and tartness. The graham crust adds a nice complimentary flavour and texture, and as a bonus it is quicker and easier than a typical shortbread crust.

Mint Chip Ice Cream

February 15, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

Mint chip is hands-down one of our favourite ice cream flavours. An added perk of this recipe is that it calls for fresh mint, which is basically a weed so it is easily available in our backyard all summer long!