4 of 100: Macadamia Nut Macaroons

More coconut?

Admittedly not a very exciting recipe to draw from the hat, but at least it's not brownies. And certainly everyone in my house is quite fond of coconut - even a cat - so it was nice to grab a simple quick and satisfying little cookie.

Didn't even need my big wonderful mixer. See, simple.

Fairly standard fare here, coconut, flour, sugar, the name sake macadamia nuts and...wait, lemon zest? several tablespoons of lemon juice? Perhaps not so standard after all.

I don't often get to bust out the husbands chef knife, so this was pretty exciting.

Full disclosure, I have terrible knife skills. Really truly reprehensible knife skills. If a recipe calls for anything chopped, or god help me, done so finely, it's always a miracle if I still have all of my fingers afterwards. This is something I'm trying to improve. Ish. Or at least improve by pretending I'm a fancy tv-chef every time I get to use the knife. This may not actually be helpful.

Mixed. With a simple wooden spoon. Blasphemy.

This mixture smells amazing. That lemon, oh that lemon. Something about adding it together with the coconut has just made these a very very delicious smelling lump of uncooked egg whites. It was really difficult not to just spoon it into my mouth. I had to get these into the oven fast.

Bake faster!

That smell didn't really carry over into scenting the kitchen quite the way I would like. 20 minutes of nervousness. Would that delicious lemon get lost? Would the macadamia nuts overpower the zest? Will I cut the roof of my mouth on a stray very toasted edge of coconut?

Actually, the macadamia nuts almost get lost in the coconut - though Mr. S says differently. That delicate lemon though, oh it stays and plays so so nicely with the coconut. These might be my favourites so far. Dusted with powdered sugar and devoured shamefully quick. But were they worth the mouth cuts from stray coconut slivers?

Yes. A hundred times yes.

3 of 100: Orange Kissed Brownies

Terry's Chocolate Orange brownie?

Well, the hat giveth what the hat giveth. And today the hat giveth brownies. Meh. I know I may well have to surrender my woman card, but I'm simply not that fond of chocolate. Or shoes. Or purses. But those have little to do with baking. I simply don't care much for brownies. However, kissed by an orange seems interesting, so let's not judge too hastily. Even if it is a chocolatey chocolate thing.

1 whole cup of cocoa powder? Definitely not for me. But bake on!

So far so fairly standard. Well, melting the butter completely is a technique I don't see much, but still, not much variation in simple browniedom. What about that orange kiss? These are going to be basic boring old brownies aren't they.

See. Totally boring brownies.

Totally boring brownies, and a mostly zested orange being juiced? For an orange buttercream frosting. Okay, these are becoming slightly improved. Or maybe I just really like zesting. And buttercream. Both very true.

Smooth. Now if only my cakes looked like that.

After frosting with the buttercream, it's time to live in the fridge for a while. For a long while. Until the buttercream is the hardest coldest meanest crustiest buttercream you've ever seen. Why? Because it's about to have melted chocolate bored directly on top of it, of course!

Told you.

After entirely too much time spent tilting the pan from side to side and front to make to ensure optimal smoothness and the prettiest even coating, I gave up. It's smooth enough and into the fridge, again, it went until the next morning.

Goodnight, brownies.

Finally, it's time to slice and nibble. Wouldn't you know, these are actually quite pretty. I was surprised the orange buttercream layer held up so nicely with the very warm chocolate poured on top. And taste wise, these are actually pretty good. For brownies. More brownie enthusiastic people that I have decreed them amazing, so I suppose that's good enough for me.

My neighbours love me.

2 of 100: French Stuffed Macaroons

Immediate observation, these are not stuffed, they are sandwiches. Carry on.

Next number drawn, and it's - thankfully! - again a recipe I've wanted to make and someone never managed to get around to. At first glance, it seemed like a pretty standard meringue. But wait, what is this? Ground almonds? I get to use the food processor and the mixer. Excellent. Clearly a noisy recipe.

Grind almonds with powdered sugar, oh I like where this is going.

 

I like to be orderly!

So obviously not a standard meringue. And not a standard macaroon. So we begin our adventure in egg white whipping. Soft peaks, come on soft peaks. Of course putting the vanilla and some sugar directly into the egg whites means, even with my awesome Kitchenaid Pro, this takes forever.

And ever. And ever.

 After much noise, and much checking. And more noise. And more checking. Finally, soft peaks!

See?

 

But wait, you want me to add more powdered sugar and whip until stiff peaks. My neighbours are seriously going to dislike me after this recipe. But we do what we must, and we must whip on high for many minutes. Many. Finally, stiff peaks and a "gently folding in the almond mixture" later, we are ready to plop the goo into a pastry back and pipe little circles. Lots of little circles. Bake a little...

Maybe sprinkle coconut on some of them because, why not.

 So my piping skills were a little sloppy and my sandwich halves a little less than flat. Nothing a little raspberry jam can't cover up! So after assembling the little sandwiches, and maybe eating a few renegade sloppy pieces, the verdict? Oh my god good. The ground almonds add such a delicious texture to the otherwise fairly normal meringues, and the sprinkled coconut - even if it didn't toast properly, hmph - such a nice tiny layer of flavour. And the jam....oh the jam.

Heavenly.

Of course Mr. S, being a great lover of meringue, is now demanding I make these weekly. Probably not going to happen. Then again, they are awfully terribly horribly wonderfully amazingly good.

1 of 100: Chai Crescents

First up, and it's already gone 19.

Oooh, Chai Crescents. With butter icing. These sound good. These I've meant to make for a while. These call for....finely ground tea? A little odd, and I can only imagine a little bitter. And the butter frosting icing appears to be a pretty standard buttercream and that seems a little odd too. But we won't know until we bake!

So let the baking begin!

After, of course, I carefully lay out each and every little thing I will need.
Every mis en it's place!

Anything that begins without creaming the butter and sugar makes me a little nervous. So these are making me quite nervous. Why is this dough so dry? So crumbly. Why doth thou look suspiciously like a pie crust?  However, chai tea crust on a pumpkin pie would be delicious.  I should make this happen.

Until I can make that pie happen, I will have to make these crescents happen. So wrapped and squished into almost holding together dough and popped in the fridge. Good luck weird little yummy smelling dough.

Two chilly hours later.... this dough does not roll. It crumbles. It falls apart. It is in need of a good spritzing and disaster is averted. Also, I do not have a crescent cookie cutter. I do, however, have many sizes of biscuit cutters.

Ingenious.

 

 

Eight minutes per pan, cooling time and some fairly average buttercream later.... these are actually quite good. They have a surprising browned butter taste, not particularly chai-tastic, but decidedly spiced and not gingerbread. So, I suppose, a success. Anyhow, Mr. S loves them.

Procedurally...

With 100 numbered cookies arranged in somewhat themed sections, I realized probably I don't particularly want to bake brownies for a month straight. So! I think I will select numbers at random, from my large black sun hat. Naturally.

In the beginning....

...there was a pretty well liked magazine.

I don't quite remember where or when I picked up this magazine, so carefully curated and brought to me by the fine people at Better Homes & Gardens. Probably, it was snatched from the impulse aisle one frantic holiday shopping trip years ago. Who knows? It's origins are a mystery. 

But it's recipes are delicious! I've made dozens of these recipes dozens and dozens of times. It occurred to me that the ones I've made have been very well liked and very well received, but what about the 75 or 80 that I haven't tried? Well, this is the year! Or rather, 2013 is the year!

This year I will be making, or trying very hard to, all 100 recipes. Why? As an experiment to see if I can finish a silly project, as baking practice, as something fun to mail to my far away friends, as an excuse to eat a lot of cookies. There is no why in cookies.