Raspberry Éclairs

Behind a beige desk, on a green metal chair connected securely to the desk by a thick piece of metal, is my spot. Every day, very carefully, I must climb over the bar to sit in my spot – a spot that must be fought for daily. If I stop in the hall to tie my shoe, I lose the spot and am banished to the back of the room. Law class is so argumentative that there are even arguments about seating. We are so loud that we close the door to the hallway to keep the hallway quiet.

Raspberry éclair with pink fondant and fresh fruit

M stood up to close the wooden door that separated our dystopia from the hallway. My phone began to ring. Usually, it just vibrates. But this time it rang, and quite loudly too. I had to take it out of my pocket to turn it off – I could not wait for it to simply finish ringing. That was a challenge though because of the desk design. The only way I could take my phone out was if I got up from my desk. I slid out the left side and placed my hand into my pocket, grabbing the ringing phone. I flipped it over to read the caller ID as I was turning it off. It was an important call that I couldn’t miss.

Consume more content

Tutorial: French Macarons

(2017/09/04 Note: this post does not have my latest thinking on making the best French macarons possible. I encourage you to, instead, follow the instructions in this post where I compare, head-to-head, the macaron recipes of the world’s top pastry chefs.)

This is a tutorial for French macarons (also known as macarons), not for macaroons. Macarons are delicate French pastries that come in hundreds of flavours and colours while macaroons are made from dessicated coconut and come in regular and chocolate, and that’s about it. Macaron is pronounced [MAC-a-ron] while macaroon is pronounced [mac-a-RUNE]. Roll your Rs (and speak with a French accent) for the former. If you want some macaron recipes, please check out my recipe index! Macarons are great for eating by themselves or, if you want to be fancy, make a great decoration for entremets. So, let’s get started!

Help!There are thousands of recipes online for macarons, all slightly different. The problem is a lot of them aren’t very clear. Since macarons are very delicate, it’s important to have excellent technique. That’s hard to do though when recipes tell you to do things like fold the batter until it looks like “magma”. Seriously? Magma? Underground lava? That’s helpful.

Consume more content

Passion Fruit Crème Caramel

I’m part of the science club at my school and a few days ago we went to Guelph University for a science competition.

Passion fruit crème caramel with strawberries and a Chinese lantern fruit

In one of the events that I was signed up for, contestants had to assemble a human foot using “clone bones” with the help of a diagram. Thirty or so bones were laid out in front of each team on a blue mat. My team was competing against three other teams. A few minutes before we began one of the volunteer supervisors asked everyone to put their phones in their pockets.

Consume more content