Store dried lavender buds by placing them in an airtight container. You can also place them into a sealable bag. Be sure to store your dried lavender buds in a dry place so they wont get wet.
When to harvest lavender for drying?
Try to harvest the lavender when it’s most fragrant. This is when the buds are a vibrant purple color right before they open. Cut the lavender stems during a hot day. You don’t want to pick them when they have been recently rained on.
How to dry lavender?
Dry the lavender by putting a rubber band around the stems and hang it in a dark warm area. By drying them in a dark area it will keep its vibrant color as much as possible. Put a paper towel under them to catch any that fall on the floor. They should be ready to store after about a week of drying.
Remove the buds from the stem of the lavender. Store the dried lavender buds in an airtight container in a dark and warm area until you’re ready to use them.
Powdered Sugar is dusted by using a sifter to separate the powdered sugar into dust form.
How to put a dusting of powdered sugar for a decoration on the top of your recently made creation:
Put about ¼ cup powdered sugar into a sifter
Place over your creation, touch the side of the sifter with a bit of force to let the sugar be dusted onto the creation
Move the sifter to a different location until the whole item is covered to your liking.
What is a sifter?
A sifter is used in the kitchen to separate clumps of food. It looks like a mesh bowl with a handle. It looks similar to a strainer, but it has a long handle. The mesh on a sifter is very fine, unlike a strainer which is a bit larger. This way, it will have to pass through very small holes creating only a tiny amount of icing sugar passing through at a time.
This creates the “dust” look on a dessert
How does the sifter work?
A sifter increases the surface area of the icing sugar by separating it.
Sifters are made of stainless steel. They resist wear and tear, and you can put them in the dishwasher when they are very dirty.
How to clean a sifter?
Tap the sifter on the garbage can, or into the sink to get the excess off. Wash with soap and water when you want to give it a good clean after a few uses.
Only use your sifter when it’s fully dry. Otherwise, you’ll have clumps of icing sugar that will not be able to pass through your sifter.
Dusting powdered sugar onto your dessert is easily done by using a sifter and about ¼ cup of powdered sugar. Tap the sifter gently to dust lightly onto the food. Add more as needed.
Medium sized mesh – sifts almond flour fast (see video below)
Sift enough almond flour in less than a minute for 1 batch of macarons
Creates velvety smooth macaron shells
See video below.
Sifting with a heavy mesh colander will make it a lot easier to break up the clumps of almond flour.
Otherwise, you’ll spend hours sifting almond flour just to make a couple of batches of macarons.
Your hands will get tired and frustrated because you won’t be able to get all of your almond flour sifted.
When you don’t sift your almond flour for your macarons, the shell will be lumpy and will not turn out.
When baking macarons, the almond flour is crumbly and clumpy.
If your almond flour is too clumpy, you can blend it in a food processor for a couple of minutes until it’s a bit finer of a grind. This will make it much faster to sift the almond flour.
Be sure to sift the almond flour again when you go to make macarons, just in case they clump up again by the time you use them.
You can also sift your icing sugar with the same sifter.
Icing sugar clumps up into balls of icing sugar. You want your icing sugar to be like powder, aerated, and feel like dust when you mix your macaron batter together.
The ExcelSteel Heavy Mesh Colander is built keeping in mind best practices for ergonomics. If you’re someone who bakes a lot of macarons, this is the sifter you’ll want to save your hands.
Handles on both sides – easy to hold steady while sifting
Ergonomically friendly
Made so it can rest on the top of a bowl
Stainless steel – strong, resists wear and tear, dishwasher safe
Are there other reasons to use a sifter
A sifter increases the surface area available for mixing to the liquid ingredients. This means the ingredients will be more evenly spread throughout the mixing process, creating a balance of flavors and textures.
What is a sifter used for
A sifter is a kitchen accessory that usually has a handle and metal basket. The basket has metal criss crosses creating a bowl shape that allows small pieces of food to pass through.
This breaks up chunks of food into tiny pieces.
The process of sifting adds air and lightens the food (flour, icing sugar).
This is especially important when making a cake. This allows the cake to cook with small air bubbles throughout the cake. The cake has a bouncy feeling when you push your finger into it. You can feel and taste the difference of a cake that has had the flour sifted.
When do you measure your ingredients, before or after sifting
Measure your ingredients for baking always after sifting. Sifting aerates the food, making it lighter. If you measure beforehand, you could be putting too much of the ingredient in your recipe.
Why do you measure your ingredients after sifting
This is the accurate measurement. Spoon the sifted ingredients into a bowl on your scale to get the weighted measurement.
Even when baking a cake where you are using your measuring cups, you need to spoon the sifted ingredients into your measuring cup. Then level off the excess with the back of a knife (flat edge). This way, you will not be packing your flour into the cup and may inadvertently over-measure the amount of flour and then have your recipe not turn out how you want it to. Too much flour or not aerating your flour will result in a dense cake which will be difficult to chew. It wont give you that light, spongy texture that you picture when you’re eating cake.
How much should you sift at once
Only ⅓-½ full basket
Otherwise, your flour or icing sugar will go over the sides and make a huge mess.
How do you use a sifter
Fill your basket ⅓ – ½ full of your first ingredient.
Move the sifter side to side using your hands.
Tap the edge of the sifter gently to let the food fall into the bowl.
For excess food that isn’t coming through the sifter – the dregs of the last bit – discard this. Don’t try to force it through.
Spoon and measure your ingredient – either with a scale, or with a measuring cup and level off with a knife.
How to clean a sifter
Bang the excess into a sink or into the garbage can
If it’s very dirty, wash it with soap and water. Allow to dry fully before using. Never use a sifter when it’s still wet.
Tips
Only sift and measure one ingredient at a time
Use your sifter over a larger bowl than you think you need
Don’t overfill the sifter – this will take more time than if you only sift a little at a time
Use a spoon to gently measure out your sifted ingredient
Think about your own ergonomics when selecting a sifter
Do you want an extending handle
Do you want handles on the side
How big are the holes for what you’re sifting – do you need small or large holes
How large of a sifter do you want
The larger the sifter, the bigger the bowl needed to catch the sifted food
What foods can you use with a sifter
Flour (almond flour, all purpose flour, bread flour)
Icing sugar (powdered sugar)
Cocoa powder
A sifter is one of the tools you need in the kitchen at certain times – making a cake, macarons, etc. Select a sifter for your kitchen that you know will work for the desserts you will be baking, and that will last a long time. You will have your sifter for years to come.
Watermelon and mango salsa is a refreshing salsa you can serve with pork tacos, chicken quesadillas, and nachos.
The sweeter the fruit, the better the watermelon mango salsa recipe will taste.
What can you eat watermelon and mango salsa with
tortilla chips
tacos
fajitas
quesadillas
burritos
enchiladas
One of my favorite dishes to serve is fish (salmon) topped with watermelon and mango salsa. It’s refreshing, and a burst of flavor that goes well with salmon.
How to make fresh watermelon mango salsa by hand
Get your biggest cutting board out and get ready to start chopping!
It’s best if you start with the bigger fruits – watermelon and pineapple first.
Cut the larger fruit pieces into ~ 0.5 cm pieces.
They will fit on a tortilla chip well if you cut them this size.
How long is fresh watermelon mango salsa good for
Watermelon mango salsa is best served in the first 2 days, but you can keep in the fridge for up to 3 days after making it.
Chop watermelon, mango, and pineapple into small pieces ~ 1/2 cm cubed. Put them into a medium size bowl.
Put on gloves. Begin to cut jalapeno in half. Remove all of the seeds and membrane from the jalapeno. Discard these. Finely cut the jalapeno into tiny pieces. Add these to your bowl. Wipe the surface of your cutting board clean and discard gloves.
Finely chop red onion and red pepper, add these to your bowl.
Chop cilantro and add it to your salsa.
Juice lime and add it to your salsa.
Pour olive oil over salsa. Add salt, paprika and cumin to taste.
Your salsa is ready to serve. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Coconut chocolate mousse is made with coconut milk which makes the chocolate mousse extra creamy and rich.
Be sure to use full fat coconut milk, not light.
You will need a stand mixer to whip the coconut milk as it does take awhile to whip.
No eggs are needed for this coconut chocolate mousse recipe! Egg free and dairy free chocolate mousse that tastes absolutely decadent!
You wont believe its vegan. It does look grainy and not a smooth color like full dairy and egg chocolate mousse. But, the texture is creamy and delicious! You will love it!
Try sifting the cocoa powder to make it light and fluffy. This will prevent the grainy bits in your mousse.
Separate coconut cream and coconut water by pouring the water out of the can. You can use this water for a different recipe, we wont need this portion for our vegan chocolate mousse. Whip cream portion of coconut milk until fluffy – a few minutes on high with a stand mixer.
Add cocoa powder and icing sugar gradually until full combined. It will be a bit grainy.
Add the vanilla extract and mix together.
Place vegan chocolate mousse into serving cups. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
Using a potato peeler, add chocolate shavings from a chocolate bar. This will create the scroll look for the topping on the mousse. (optional)
Cookies and creaming icing is full of delicious cookie crumble and has a hint of vanilla.
Cookies and cream icing is a buttercream icing that has crushed cookies throughout the icing.
You can use cookies and cream icing for icing cakes, as a macaron filling, or as a cupcake icing.
How to make cookies and cream icing
Cookie and cream icing can be broken down into only a few different components:
Butter for buttercream icing
Cookies: choose your favorite cookies for your icing. Some of my favorite cookies to use are Oreos, birthday cake Oreos, vanilla creme peek freans
Milk (alternatives include: half and half for a more rich flavor, oat milk & skim milk for a lighter flavor. The percentage of milk I usually choose is 2%. It’s a nice balance of flavors and creaminess
vanilla- you could get the vanilla flavor from the filling in the cookie, or vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
How to make cookies and cream buttercream icing at home using a stand mixer
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: icing, macaron filling
Yield: 60macarons
Author: Jenna Atkinson
Equipment
Stand mixer
Materials
1/2cupbutterroom temperature
2tbspOreo crumbs
8Oreo Cookiessmashed into small pieces
1 1/2cupsIcing sugar
2tbspmilk2%
4tspvanilla extract
Instructions
Begin by creaming the butter until it is fluffy, just a few minutes by a stand mixer.
Add your vanilla extract and cream together.
Add the milk and mix together. It should be a but liquidy and not fully come together yet.
Add Oreo crumbs.
Put Oreos into a ziploc bag. Place the bad on a wooden cutting board and then put the cutting board on a strong surface. You could put it on your kitchen counter or on your dining room table. Smash the cookies using a kitchen mallet or crush them up with the opposite end of a wooden spoon until they are all broken up into smaller pieces.
Remove the Oreos from the bag and put them in your stand mixer bowl. Mix together with butter mixture.
Start adding the icing sugar 1/2 cup at a time and beat it until it’s fully combined and a nice consistency. If you need the icing a bit more stiff add a bit more icing sugar. If you need the icing more runny, add a splash of milk.
Your icing is ready. For any leftovers, store in the fridge for 5-7 days. For anything longer, store in the freezer for up to one month.
If you’re coloring your bear macaron black, you’ll have to get a different color for the bear markings. You might have to use melted white chocolate for the coloring to show up on your black bear macarons. You can use a food safe paint brush to gently brush the white chocolate onto your bear macarons.
When you bake your bear macarons they will be approximately 2″ in diameter.
The bear macaron template has 2″ in between each bear macaron. This gives you more than enough space so your bear macarons are piped with plenty of room for them to spread out.
Place the bear macaron template underneath your silicone mat or parchment paper fitted on a baking pan.
Begin by piping a round circle for the bear head.
Add ears to the bear macaron by piping the ear and dragging the macaron batter downward into the round circle.
Remove your template from underneath your silicone mat or parchment paper.
Remove the air bubbles from the macarons by banging the bottom of the baking pan.
Bake the macarons, cool, and fill them.
Add the bear macarons eyes, eye brows, and nose using an edible marker.
Store your bear macarons in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Let them dry for about 30 min until a skin forms.
Bake your macarons for the same amount of time your recipe calls for.
Let your macarons cool completely. Fill your macarons and then they are ready to decorate!
Begin decorating by using an edible marker to draw on the eyes, nose and mouth.
Feel free to maybe add some pink icing dots on either side of the cheeks for more of a colorful look. You could also add a couple pen marks in the ears to give it more depth. Have fun with your bear macarons and make them your own. 🙂
Vanilla earl grey lavender ice cream is a creamy tea flavored ice cream with a hint of vanilla.
The ice cream base is made by tempering eggs to make it have a rich flavoring.
Earl grey is steeped into the milk while making the base of the ice cream to add the tea flavor.
Lavender is added to infuse the ice cream with a earthy lavender taste.
How to use lavender from the garden in baking
When your lavender is in full bloom and ready to harvest, cut the stems below the flowers. Dry your lavender by with laying them near a sunny window or tie them together and hang them upside down.
Culinary Lavender vs Garden Lavender
Do you need to use culinary lavender instead of lavender from the garden?
No you don’t need to use culinary lavender in your baking. You can use your fresh lavender from the garden.
Why?
Culinary lavender gives off a sweet fragrance. Your lavender from the garden might not be as sweet, so it might not give you the perfect flavor you’re wanting. The more sweet the lavender, the more intense lavender flavor it will give you.
I don’t use the stems when I use lavender from my garden. The most sweet part of lavender are the flowers, so I just put the flowers/buds into my baking.
If you wanted to try out using lavender in different recipes you can try grinding up the lavender using a mortar and pestle. Then add it to some sugar to give you that rich sugar/lavender-perfect for your morning coffee with a hint of lavender!
Lavender ice cream ready to be chilled and churned
What can you bake with lavender flowers from the garden?
How to make vanilla earl grey lavender ice cream using lavender from your own garden. Infuse earl grey tea into your vanilla ice cream mixture, then use your ice cream maker to churn it.
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Active Time45 minutesmins
Fridge/Freezer9 hourshrs
Total Time10 hourshrs
Course: Dessert
Keyword: ice cream
Yield: 10scoops
Equipment
Ice Cream Maker
Materials
2cupsheavy cream
2cupshalf and half
1tspvanilla extract
1/3cupdried lavender
1tea bagearl grey tea
4egg yolks
1/3cupsugar
Purplegel food coloringoptional
Instructions
In a medium saucepan (make sure it holds >1.5 liters) combine the heavy cream and half and half together. Add lavender to the saucepan without the stems. Bring to a gentle simmer for a couple of minutes over medium heat.
Remove your saucepan from the burner. Add earl grey tea bag to the pot and let steep for 4 minutes. Remove and discard the tea bag.
In a large bowl whisk egg yolks and sugar together. Gradually temper the eggs by adding a bit of the hot cream mixture (couple of tablespoons at first) to the eggs and whisk vigorously to make sure not to cook the eggs. Add all of the hot mixture to the bowl gradually until it’s all incorporated.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat until the mixture thickens (couple of min).
Remove the saucepan from the burner. Use your large bowl from before and add your food colouring if desired. Place a mesh sieve on the bowl and pour your hot egg/cream mixture through the sieve. Whisk the food coloring until it’s combined. Add the vanilla extract. Let cool to room temperature/cold enough to put in the fridge. Refrigerate overnight. Freeze your ice cream bowl overnight as well.
Making dough from scratch is easy using a stand mixer.
If you’ve never made dough before it can be daunting just thinking about it.
But creating these new items in your own home kitchen is one of the most rewarding foods you can make.
Pesto, sundried tomatoes and cheese stuffed bread
Kneading dough by hand can be a very difficult process. It involves putting plenty of flour on your counter-top and using the base of your hand to push the dough away from you. Then rolling it back towards you into a ball and pushing it into the counter again repeatedly.
You managed to get flour all over the counter-top and your arms are exhausted at the end of just seven minutes of kneading!
By using a stand mixer to make your dough it will start by being tacky when it comes away from the sides of the bowl. After a few minutes mixing, the dough will come away from the sides of the bowl easily, making it smooth to touch. When you take the dough out of the bowl, it will be easy to form a uniform ball with your hands.
What qualities do you need in a stand mixer for making dough?
Large capacity
Durable motor
Dough hook attachment
Slow speed capability
Pizza Dough
Pizza dough can be a messy process to make by hand.
It involves kneading it for a long time to develop the gluten so it can be stretched and molded into a round shape.
Using a stand-mixer for only a couple of minutes to knead the dough for you makes pizza dough an easy go-to for a weeknight dinner idea.
How to use a stand mixer to create pizza and bread dough
Place yeast, sugar and warm water in a separate bowl and let sit for 10 min.
Put yeast mixture into your stand mixer’s bowl once bloomed.
Add salt, oil, and flour one cup at a time and mix on the lowest speed until all the flour is added.
Mix on low speed until the dough is kneaded and comes away from the bowl without being tacky. Dough should feel smooth, easily touched without having excess on your fingers.
Remove the dough hook and form dough into a ball.
Let rise for 1.5-2 hours.
Punch down dough.
Dough is ready to be formed and baked, or let rise again and then bake (depending on your recipe).
Using a stand mixer to create pizza and pasta dough takes all of the arm strength needed from manually kneading dough right out of the picture.
Pasta Dough
Pasta dough is one of the toughest dough’s to make by hand.
Using only 00 flour and eggs, the stand-mixer evenly mixes the two ingredients together and creates a ball of dough ready for you to rest and roll out in only a few minutes of mixing.
It’s very difficult to mix pasta dough by hand, I would not recommend trying this without a heavy-duty stand mixer.
Pumpkin Ricotta Ravioli with Brown Butter Sauce
Bread Dough
Types of bread dough to use in your stand mixer:
Rolls
Buns
Bread Sticks
Loaves
Here is an easy to follow beginner recipe that I quite enjoy for sandwich bread. If you would rather use a bread maker instead, here is our recommendation for our favorite bread maker.
Depending on the type of bread you are making, you need to be careful not to over-mix.
Breads that are dainty and light for example lemon-loaf, pumpkin-loaf, etc. these need to be mixed until only just combined. Do not over-mix. This will make the loaf very chewy and difficult to eat.
Larger dough’s like baking cinnamon buns or dinner rolls are easy to make in a bigger capacity stand-mixer.
Add one cup of flour at a time on low speed, slowly incorporating the ingredients together. By using a larger bowl you’ll be sure to keep all of the ingredients in your recipe instead of on your counter.
KitchenAid creates very heavy duty stand mixers.
As soon as you take a KitchenAid stand mixer out of the box you can feel how heavy it really is. KitchenAid stand mixers come with a sturdy metal dough hook. The motors in these stand mixers are very powerful and can make up to 3 loaves of bread in a single batch.
The KitchenAid Professional Stand Mixer will be able to reach the very bottom of your mixing bowl, making sure it mixes all of your ingredients together. KitchenAid is a timeless brand that knows what bakers need, and they deliver that with each stand mixer that they make.
KitchenAid stand mixersevenly distribute ingredients, and develop the gluten while kneading the dough. It adds air into the dough, creating air pockets in your bread.
Your bread will be light, fresh, and bounce back when you touch it.
The smell of freshly baked bread will fill your home and you’ll never imagine purchasing bread from the grocery store again.
Unicorn macarons are one of the most intricate macarons you can make to bring to a baby shower, or birthday celebration.
Unicorn macarons are so beautifully decorated, your guests will be amazed at how much detail and work you’ve put into these enchanting cookies.
You will dazzle your friends and family with these adorable desserts. When I brought them to my friend’s birthday, a few of them said they didn’t want to eat them because they were too special!!
Be prepared to decorate your unicorn macarons for at least 2 hours to make sure they’re perfect.
See video below for a quick demo on how to decorate unicorn macarons.
What recipe to use for unicorn macarons
You can use your favorite Italian method macaron recipe for your unicorn macarons.
Use gold dust (powdered food coloring) with a little almond extract and paint the gold unicorn horn using a food safe paint brush.
Use pink powdered food coloring and a little almond extract together to make a paint. Paint the pink color on the inside of the ears of the unicorn using a food safe paint brush.
Let dry for 20 minutes.
Store your unicorn macarons in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
