Jenna is a self taught, home cook with a passion for baking. She gets her culinary inspiration by travelling abroad, and learning new culinary techniques.
Darker macarons are more difficult to draw on, even if you have a light colored marker. I would recommend painting macarons instead of drawing on macarons for dark colored macarons.
You need to be quite gentle when drawing on macarons, because you do not want to pierce the shell.
You can draw a ton of different designs on macarons including writing words to customize the theme of your macarons.
You can make characters with your macarons first, and then add the details by drawing with your edible marker after.
You’ll want to make the shells, fill the macarons, and then draw on the macaron shells. Usually you would only want to draw on one side of the macaron. Have the drawn side up when displaying for your guests.
Macarons can be painted on, just like a blank canvas. You can use a food safe paint brush to make beautiful brush stokes on macarons for a unique look to your specialty cookies.
Using a food safe paint brush gently paint on your macaron. You don’t want to use too much almond extract. If you pour too much, the color will be more like watercolor paint.
If you just use a little almond extract, the color will be strong and easily painted on the macaron. The color will not run.
For any other further designs, you can draw on your macarons using edible markers.
When painting on macarons, make sure you have let the shells fully cool, then fill the macarons.
After you’ve filled all of your macarons, you’re ready to paint on your designs.
You can add vanilla extract to food batters such as:
waffle batter
crepe batter
pancake batter
You don’t need a lot of vanilla extract, a little goes a long way. Use about 1 tsp at a time until you’re happy with the flavoring.
One recipe to try cooking is raspberry vanilla cream crepes. Vanilla is infused into a cream sauce which fills the crepes with a hint of vanilla. The crepes are then topped with raspberries for a punch of flavor.
List of 10 vanilla bean desserts
There are a ton of recipes to use vanilla beans with. Vanilla beans can be used for their vanilla beans inside of their pod, or the pod itself can be used to infuse flavor. When making foods like ice cream, custard, or syrups, the vanilla bean pod is used. Otherwise, only the vanilla beans are used for foods like scones, frosting, and cupcakes.
Vanilla extract can be used in coffee by infusing vanilla extract into a simple syrup.
Using a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water (1 cup each works well), cook the sugar syrup over medium heat in a saucepan until it thickens in about 8-10 minutes.
Remove the syrup from the heat and it cool down for awhile.
Add the vanilla extract and mix well.
Alternatively, you can use a sliced vanilla bean and cook the vanilla bean into the syrup.
Then add the extract after it has cooled down.
The vanilla bean will release vanilla beans into the coffee syrup.
The vanilla coffee syrup will be smooth, decadent, and a lovely addition to your morning coffee. Use anywhere from 1 tsp – 1 tbsp of syrup.
The syrup will not last very long. The syrup will stay good for about 14 days.
Vanilla beans are made from vanilla plants that grow up to 30 meters long. Vanilla plants are climbing plants, and usually climb up wooden trellises.
Vanilla bean plants have specific growing conditions that include having high humidity, warm temperatures, and indirect sunlight.
Vanilla plants flower periodically, and are only available for 24 hours to be pollinated. Farmers are actively watching their vanilla plants for any signs of flowering due to this short window of pollination.
Vanilla must be hand pollinated due to the unavailability of natural pollinators in these humid and warm environments. The pollinators needed for vanilla are only available in Mexico.
Once vanilla is pollinated, it can mature on the vine for up to 2 months. After the coloring of the vanilla bean pod is dark, it’s time to harvest the vanilla.
Vanilla goes through a processing of curing for the following 3 months. It involves drying out the pods and creating a high moisture environment. Gourmet vanilla beans have 30-35% moisture within them.
How is vanilla extract made
Vanilla extract is made by first cutting open the vanilla bean pods. The vanilla beans are placed into a jar and then it is filled with vodka.
The vodka is then infused with vanilla flavoring. It takes about 6-12 months to get a good flavoring of vanilla extract.
Every week the jar is shaken to release more flavor from the vanilla pod into the vodka creating vanilla extract.
How is imitation vanilla made
Imitation vanilla is made from a byproduct of a papermaking manufacturer. Wood contains “lignin” which is used to create vanillin synthetically. Lignin is chemically treated into making vanillin. Vanillin is the flavoring used in imitation vanilla.
Where does vanilla come from
Vanilla comes from mainly Madagascar (40%) and Indonesia (30%). The remaining 30% is produced by Mexico, Reunion Island, and Comoro Islands.
To use a vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract, you’ll want to cut open the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds. The seeds can be placed directly into your recipe. If you’re wanting to infuse more vanilla into your wet ingredients or are making foods like custard or ice cream, you can place the whole vanilla pod into the recipe. Once the flavor has seeped out of the vanilla pod, you can remove the vanilla pod and continue on with your recipe.
How long is a vanilla bean
A vanilla bean is usually 10-15 cm in length. Gourmet vanilla beans are usually 6-8 inches long.
How many vanilla beans in a pod
There are thousands of vanilla beans in a single vanilla bean pod.
Pin the vanilla pin down with one hand where you want to begin cutting.
Sometimes it’s easier to cut the vanilla bean in the center and then cut the rest of the vanilla bean. Place the tip of the knife close to your finger that’s holding the vanilla bean down. Cut the bean below your finger that’s holding it. Try not to go all of the way through. Make a small incision and continue cutting down the vanilla bean.
The vanilla bean will be resistant to being cut. It kind of has a bit of a wood texture on the outside. Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise until the whole vanilla bean is open.
Scrape the sides of the vanilla bean to get the beans out of the pod. You can place the beans on your cutting board or directly into your mixture. Some of the vanilla beans will adhere together.
Once you’re finished scraping out the vanilla bean, you can also use the vanilla pod for flavoring as well.
If you’re making pastry cream or vanilla ice cream you can put the whole vanilla bean into the warm cream in the saucepan and it will ooze out vanilla flavor.
It’s easier to get the rest of the vanilla beans out this way as well.
Dip the vanilla bean into the cream and then use your finger lengthwise down the pod to push the vanilla beans into the cream.
How do you use a vanilla bean instead of extract
A vanilla bean can be used in place of extract by removing the vanilla bean seeds out of the vanilla pod.
Place the seeds into your wet mixture, with your eggs and milk.
Mix the vanilla beans into the wet ingredients until the beans have come apart from one another.
Sometimes it’s difficult to get them to pull away from one another.
Use a whisk if you have to, to separate the vanilla beans into individual seeds.
Do vanilla beans need to be cooked
Vanilla beans do not need to be cooked in order to use them.
You can scrape the seeds of the vanilla pod and place them directly into an icing mixture.
You can place the vanilla beans into cold milk to infuse the vanilla flavor and use the vanilla bean that way.
There is no need to cook the vanilla bean pod before using.
How long do vanilla beans last
Vanilla beans last up to 2 years. Keep the vanilla beans in a warm, dry place.
Do vanilla beans go bad
You can tell when the vanilla beans go bad, as they will grow mold on them from being too humid.
Madagascar produces over 40% of the world’s vanilla beans. But many vanilla beans are not grade A. If the vanilla bean has blemishes, brown or red coloring on its exterior pod, or must be cut to remove any disease, these vanilla beans do not qualify for a Grade A rating.
Why is Madagascar Vanilla expensive
Madagascar is prone to climatic changes. In 2017 a cyclone went through a region growing vanilla and wiped out 30% of their vanilla crops. Vanilla takes a long time to grow and cure, therefore with this devastation, vanilla bean prices increased due to demand and lack of supply.
How is a vanilla bean grown
While farmers vanilla bean plants are growing, they are actively watching for any sign of a vanilla blossom.
A vanilla flower only blooms once a year, and the flower must be pollinated within 4-10 hours. Vanilla beans are typically pollinated by hand.
Vanilla beans must be harvested within 2 months after they have matured, or they will become too ripe and will not be usable.
Vanilla mainly comes from Madagascar (40%) and Indonesia (30%).
Where does artificial vanilla flavoring come from
Artificial vanilla flavoring comes from a byproduct of a pulp mill. Wood contains “lignin” which is used to create vanillin synthetically. Lignin is chemically treated into making vanillin. Vanillin is the flavoring used in artificial vanilla. It isn’t have as complex of flavoring as actual vanilla extract.
Choux pastry is made of dough that is cooked over medium heat in a saucepan. Once all of the flour is incorporated and cooked for a few minutes, the dough is transferred to a stand mixer.
While the dough is mixing with the dough hook, the eggs are added one at a time until the dough becomes shiny and silky. Then the éclair dough is ready to be piped and baked.
What is Éclair filling made of
Éclair filling is made of pastry cream.
Pastry cream is made by tempering eggs and adding hot cream. Pastry cream is very delicate, and needs to be made slowly.
Otherwise, the eggs will cook and ruin your pastry cream. Just in case some of the eggs do cook a little, it’s best to strain your pastry cream before letting it chill in the fridge.
What is Éclair sauce
Éclair sauce is the topping that goes on the highest choux pastry. Éclairs can be topped with many different foods including salted caramel sauce, chocolate ganache, or other types of icing.
What is chocolate éclair sauce
Chocolate éclair sauce is made of chocolate ganache. Chocolate ganache for éclairs is a topping that hardens onto the choux pasty.
Chocolate éclair sauce is made by adding warm heavy cream to small pieces of the chocolate. The mixture is combined until it’s smooth and then it can be used once it’s cooled down to room temperature.
You don’t want to use the chocolate éclair sauce when it’s too warm, otherwise it will be too hot to adhere to the choux pastry.
How do you prevent eclairs from deflating
You can prevent eclairs from deflating by poking a toothpick into the dough as it is baking.
Poke the dough near the end of the baking cycle. Poke the eclairs again as they are cooling out of the oven.
Poking the dough will release the steam, which means that the steam will not be retained by the pastry.
If the steam is retained within the dough, it will make the dough collapse onto itself with the trapped moisture seeping into the pastry.
Can I make choux pastry the day before
You can make choux pastry dough up to 3 days in advance.
The choux pastry dough will last in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Pipe and bake your choux pastry and use the baked choux pastry within 1-2 days. Choux pastry is better served the same day it is baked. The fresher the better.
How to make Eclairs
Prepare choux pastry. Pipe onto a baking mat and bake the pastries. Prick with a toothpick to let the air escape either as it’s cooking or as soon as it comes out of the oven.
Let the pastry fully cool. Prepare pastry cream. You can choose any type of pastry cream – salted caramel pastry cream, raspberry mousse, vanilla pastry cream, coffee pastry cream, etc.
Pipe chilled pastry cream on top of the choux pastry or inside of it. You can also cut the choux pastry in half and then pipe the pastry cream so it sits in the middle.
Prepare the topping – this could be chocolate ganache, salted caramel sauce, etc.
Pipe the topping onto the pastry.
The pastry is complete, or continue piping other toppings – buttercream and a chocolate decoration.
Serve within 1 day of preparing.
What is the difference between an éclair and a Long John?
The difference between an éclair and a Long John is that a Long John is made with dough prepared with yeast, and then the dough is deep fried, whereas an éclair is made with choux pastry and then is baked in the oven.
Both a Long John and an éclair are filled with pastry cream and chocolate icing on the top of them.
What is the difference between a cream puff and an éclair
The difference between a cream puff and an éclair is that they are piped in different shapes. Both an éclair and a cream puff use choux pastry.
They are light, fluffy, and an airy pastry. Éclairs have both a filling and a topping, whereas a cream puff may only have a filling.
Do unfilled cream puffs need to be refrigerated
Unfilled cream puffs do not need to be refrigerated.
However, if you do refrigerate unfilled cream puffs, this will prevent the cream puffs from again as quickly. You can use your refrigerated unfilled cream puffs for 2-3 days after baking.
When should you fill cream puffs
You should fill cream puffs right before serving.
The longer the pastry cream sits on the choux pastry, the more soggy it will become. By only filling the cream puffs right before serving, the pastry will be light and airy.
Can you freeze cream puffs that are filled
You can freeze cream puffs that are filled for up to one month in the freezer.
Thaw the cream puffs in the fridge overnight when you’re ready to eat them.
Preparing a garlic clove for mincing involves using a butter knife to press the garlic first. This allows the paper skin to come off much more easily.
How to prepare and mince a garlic clove
Gently remove 1 garlic clove from a garlic bulb by pulling the garlic bulb apart. Remove 1 garlic from the garlic bulb.
Take the garlic clove and put it on a cutting board.
Use a butter knife horizontally and press the garlic down a little. You’ll hear the garlic come away from the paper.
Gently remove the papery skin from the garlic clove.
Place the garlic cloves in the garlic press. Usually you can fit 2-3 garlic cloves in at once.
Press the garlic together by using the handles. Use only 1 hand to press the garlic together. The garlic will come through the holes on the other side, so be prepared for a little bit to fall. You can have a dish for it to fall into.
Using a butter knife, scrape the garlic from the garlic press and into your recipe.
Using a butter knife, scrape the inside of the rest of the garlic that didn’t make it through the press. Discard this garlic.
Your garlic is ready for your recipe and your garlic press can be placed in the dishwasher to clean.
Can you store garlic in the fridge
Do not store garlic in the fridge, this is not the ideal temperature for garlic. Store garlic at room temperature.
How to store garlic
Store garlic in a dry, dark area at room temperature. Keeping garlic at room temperature will prevent the garlic from creating any sprouts. Store garlic in a cabinet with no moisture and low humidity. Moisture can create bacterial growth on your garlic, so it’s best kept in a cabinet away from any splashes. Garlic can be exposed to the air, so keeping it in a bowl in a cabinet will work well for storage.
What can you use if you don’t have a garlic press
You can use a grater if you don’t have a garlic press, or you can use a sharp knife to cut the garlic into small pieces. These are not ideal options as they pose a risk of hurting yourself. Grating garlic is hard to do at the end of a garlic piece, only grate the garlic about 3/4 way to prevent grating your skin. Cutting garlic is another option, but it’s difficult to cut the garlic into small enough pieces for a recipe.
“To cut in butter” means to break butter into smaller pieces. Typically the smaller pieces are about a pea sized portion or smaller.
Butter is cut into recipes that need small chunks of butter to melt into the food to create flakes of pastry.
If you’re cutting in butter to your recipe, it’s best to use cold fat to cut in for your pastry. The butter will remain in small cube and be able to melt in the oven.
If you melt your butter prematurely to use for your recipe, you wont get the flakiness for your desired pastry.
How to Cut in Butter
Your bowl should be full of flour, baking powder or soda, salt, and sugar. Mix them together.
The butter needs to be placed in the center of your dry ingredient bowl because the flour mixture must coat the butter.
The flour coated butter is easily cut into recipes because the flour coats the butter as it is cut. The flour acts as a barrier to enclose the butter. This way, the butter will not mix with any of the wet ingredients.
The butter will only be melted in the oven, creating a delicious flakey pastry.
How to cut frozen butter
Freeze butter until it has solidified.
Remove the butter from the freezer and using a grater, grate the butter into small pieces. Depending on your recipe you might want to use the smaller holes, over bigger holes.
Grate until all of the butter is in pieces.
How to cut in butter for crumble topping
For crumble topping, you have a couple of different options to cut in your butter.
Use your hands: this involves your hands warming the butter a little, and then squishing it with your fingers to create small lumps of butter for your crumble topping. Usually crumble topping is mixed by hand because it creates more of a lumpy mixture than if you’re using a spoon. The lumpy mixture is more desirable because the topping tends to look more coarse and not as uniform.
Use a pastry blender: cut the butter into the topping by using a pastry blender. Keep the butter in larger chunks than you would a pastry, because the topping will be able to retain its moisture better. The topping should be coarse and look like nuggets for crumble topping.
Use a grater: grate using one of the medium holes. Grate the butter and then mix the topping together with your fingers. Gently sprinkle the topping over your dessert, and then bake.
What does cut in shortening mean
If you’re cutting in shortening, this means to break up the shortening into small pieces. Use a pastry blender to separate the shortening into smaller pieces for your recipe.
What can you use if you don’t have a pastry cutter
If you don’t have a pastry cutter you can use two knives to cut the pastry into smaller pieces. The pieces need to be quite small, they should look like coarse crumbs.
Using 2 knives to cut in butter will take longer than using a pastry cutter.
Can you use a potato masher instead of a pastry cutter
You can use a potato masher instead of a pastry cutter if you butter is a pretty large piece. Once your butter becomes a more useful size to work with, switch back to your pastry cutter.
A pastry cutter has sharp edges to really cut the butter and not mush it. The butter will retain its shape instead of being pushed into a shape.
How to cut in butter with fork
To cut in butter with a fork, use your largest fork to cut into your butter. Hold your fork horizontally and press the fork into the butter to cut it. Repeat and continue cutting the butter with your fork until the butter is in coarse crumbs.
The crema in espresso is the coffee bean oils oozing to the surface of the espresso shot. Carbon dioxide is released when brewing espresso and forms many tiny bubbles. This pushes the coffee been oils to the surface of the espresso shot.
Crema is considered the gold standard for brewing a perfect espresso shot.
What should espresso crema look like
Crema in espresso is the top layer of an espresso shot that has a golden caramel color to it.
Crema looks creamy and smooth in its texture.
Crema in espresso should last for at least 2 minutes before dissolving into the rest of the espresso shot.
Espresso crema should be about 1/10 of the espresso shot in size. This is the ideal amount of crema a barista is looking for when brewing an espresso shot.
How to Make Crema Espresso
To make crema espresso, make sure you’re using fresh coffee beans. Espresso is usually not creamy if the espresso beans are old. Freshly roasted espresso beans are needed to achieve a creamy espresso shot.
Clean and dry your portafilter.
Grind your espresso into your portafilter. You can measure the dose of coffee using a digital scale to get an accurate measurement. Use the correct dose based on your filter basket manufacturer recommendation. Only use this measurement. Your dose should never change. For a double shot of espresso it could be anywhere from 18-20g of dry ground coffee beans.
Tap the portafilter to let the espresso grinds fall into the filter basket.
Once the espresso dose is level and even around of the portafilter, you’re ready to tamp your espresso.
Tamp your portafilter using ~ 30 lbs of pressure. Use a scale if you need to get the rough measurement of how much pressure to use.
Brew your espresso. The brew time should be about 25-27 seconds.
This should produce an espresso shot that weighs ~30 g. The weight of your espresso shot should be double the amount of your dose. If your espresso dry ground dose is 18g, this should produce a 36 g espresso shot.
How fresh of coffee beans should you be using for espresso
Espresso beans should be roasted and used within 1-3 weeks.
The older the espresso beans, the finer the grind needed to produce the espresso shot of ideal timing.
Make sure to adjust your grind as your espresso beans get older to achieve your ideal 20-30 second brew time.
When should you grind your espresso beans
Espresso coffee beans need to be ground right before brewing. If you grind your espresso beans too soon, the humidity in the air can penetrate the espresso beans, making them damp and not being able to fully be extracted. This can cause the flavor of espresso to be not as strong or flavorful.
Too light of a crema
under-extraction. The crema disappears within 1 minute, indicating the crema is too thin. Under-extraction causes espresso to not be as flavorful and strong as it should be.
espresso machine not warm enough. The brew head needs to be heated up long enough until it reaches 195-205 degrees F. You can get a temperature gauge to measure the temperature of the brew head.
Espresso machine not making any crema
over-extraction: There may not even be any crema showing in the espresso shot. This could be due to over tamping, the grind being too fine, or the brew time being too long.
espresso machine too hot. (over 205 degrees F) The espresso beans can become too hot when brewed which can cause the shot to become bitter, harsh, and too thick.
Which coffee beans produce the best crema
Arabica Coffee beans produce a beautiful crema and has the best flavor possible for espresso.
Arabica coffee has caramel, chocolate, nutty flavor to it, with a hint of fruit. Arabica coffee has only a small amount of acidity and bitterness to it.
Robusta Coffee beans produce the best crema, but it is a little more harsh and bitter than Arabica coffee. Robusta coffee has more caffeine than Arabica coffee, and has less sugar. This produces a less than ideal flavor for espresso over Arabica coffee beans.
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