Oh My! More Macarons!

I really can't help my self. In part because I love to eat them. In part because they are easy and fast to make. In part because they are so pretty- both piped out, baked in rows, as well as little sandwich cookies. One can color them, top them, fill them, then eat them.

 These I made pink meant to have the salted caramel ganache, and blue meant to hold the peanut butter and chocolate. I loved them both, but the PB & C did not get as high reviews from others. Nobody ever complains about the caramel ones.... ever.

 I love the soft pillowy egg whites before the dry ingredients are added.

 I intentionally left some pink batter in the bag to see how the initial cookies would come out. The few that were affected were very very cool looking.

It's so hard not to just pop them in my mouth before filling. But then I remember how excellent they are after they are filled....

Fig and Goat Cheese Tart with Port Wine reduction and Hazelnuts

This tart is composed of some of my favorite foods.

I made a hazelnut tart shell with toasted ground hazelnuts, filled it with a soft goat cheese filling, arranged the lovely fresh and ripe figs, topped with a port wine that was reduced to a thick syrup and sprinkled with more hazelnuts.

I gathered the parts from a few different recipes to create this dessert and it worked fabulously. I can only look forward to finding fresh ripe figs again so I can repeat it.

Actually, I am confident that another fruit could easily be substituted for the figs. Berries would certainly lend themselves well in this combination.

Chocolate covered cherry marshmallows
This was my first attempt at marshmallows and I had found a naturel cherry flavoring that I thought would work so well. Luckily it did and they were enjoyed by all after an impromptu dinner with friends and kids down at the lake. My technique for dipping or covering with cjocolate leaves a bit to be desired, the the mouth is not complainimg.
I did try to make them again and coat them with cocoa powder- why have I never seen that? Well, they tasted just weird, so I will have to work on my dipping.

Kransecake!