Coffee-glazed zeppole

Giada De Laurentiis made these lemon-scented, coffee-glazed Italian doughnuts on an episode where she hosted a bridal shower, and indeed they are the perfect sweet treat to round out a chic social gathering. After all, who can resist fried dough? Gussy them up with an aromatic coffee glaze and you have an elegant dessert no one can resist.
You can find the recipe here.

My substitutions:
I couldn't find espresso powder at the local grocery store, and I didn't have time to make it to an Italian bakery, so I used regular instant coffee granules. The recipe calls for vegetable oil, so I used canola oil. I'm still not 100 per cent convinced that was the right choice, so I will experiment with another oil next time. Which leads me to...

Would I make this again?
Yes I would, however, I would take it more slowly to ensure a more consistent size and shape. I was in a rush, and the doughnuts came out all different sizes in my attempt to finish before the guests arrived.
Still, these lemon-scented doughnuts ended up moist and fluffy and delicious served alongside coffee.

Grade:
Four stars out of five. I felt like I had to use an awful lot of oil just to make one batch, which is not the most cost-effective option.

Pretty in pink cupcakes

When my sister-in-law asked me to make the same spiced apple walnut cupcakes that I had made for Christmas Eve dinner and to invite her over, I happily agreed.

As you may remember from my previous post, I was eager to try out the three dozen Paper Orchid cupcake wrappers I purchased some time back.

I was also keen to try the 1M open star piping tip I recently purchased, and to try my hand at making some candy out of heart-shaped molds.
And this is the result. Making the candy from the molds was much easier than I anticipated.

My only faux-pas, however, was piping too much brown sugar buttercream around the circumference of the cupcake so that it smeared on the inside of the cupcake wrapper. Really though, when your guests are ripping the wrapper off to get to the cupcake, does a little smeared buttercream even matter? I didn't think so.

Almond coconut macaroons

I'd tried making macaroons before and the result was a miserable failure. Let's not talk about my attempt to make French macarons. Disastrous.

When I pulled the baking sheet from the oven, the coconut-egg white mixture had softened to spread into a large gooey mess. Sure enough, this happened about five minutes before I was due to run out to go to a birthday party. Of course, I had been planning to take the macaroons. Still, I vowed to try again one day.

So when I received Martha Stewart's Cookie of the Day email and it promised me that this macaroon recipe was dead easy, I trusted her.

What Martha Stewart says, she means. At least when it comes to important matters such as baking, that is.

Ingredients:

Makes 8 large macaroons.

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg white
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup whole almonds, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Pinch of coarse salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


2. Line a baking sheet with a nonstick baking mat or parchment.


3. Whisk together sugar and egg white in a large bowl.


4. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Form dough into eight 2-tablespoon mounds, and drop each onto sheet, 2 inches apart.


5. Bake macaroons until golden-brown on bottoms and edges, about 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks, and let cool.

My substitutions:

I used non-sweetened coconut as the recipe called for, and I wished I had used sweetened. After tasting the delicious macaroons, I felt like I should have added almond extract. Sure enough, when I checked other recipes, they included almond and vanilla extracts, so I will be sure to add both next time.

Would I make this again?

Yes, probably within days. Next time, however, I will use sweetened coconut, add some almond extract, and bake it for one minute less. One or two of the macaroons turned out perfectly but the others had a slightly crispy bottom. I'll also planning to dip the bottoms of the macaroons into some melted chocolate.

Grade:

Five stars out of five. Yes I plan to make some additions to my next attempt, but these were so easy, so tasty, so mindless, that this recipe deserves a perfect score.

Baci di dama, or chocolate-filled hazelnut cookies

When I was 16, my Sweet Sixteen present from my parents was a trip to Belgium and Holland.

During the day, I wandered around Antwerpen by myself as my father had business to conduct. Sure enough, this meant drinking lots of coffee at outside cafes.

I was pleased to discover there a small sweet treat always accompanied my coffee - perhaps a chocolate square, or a buttery cookie.

And so when I saw a recipe for the hazelnut-based, chocolate-filled cookies, or baci di dama (which means lady's kisses) in a Gourmet issue from 2004, I ripped it out with the intention I'd make it to serve alongside espresso. And it stayed in my recipe folder ever since this weekend.