Edge Grain Cutting Board

We're back with another woodworking project!  Our cutting board which has served us well for several years is starting to come apart and I figured it would be a perfect opportunity for a new project.

First step was to get some wood, reclaimed, preferably.  I went to a place here in town called Architectural Salvage Warehouse and picked up one big oak board, and another board that came from the top of a piano lid, also oak i think:

I took the boards and cut them up into strips like so:

Then I played around with the arrangement and applied a bunch of glue:

And clamped them up:

After letting it sit overnight i took it out of the clamps and used this planer to smooth out and flatten the board:

Nom nom nom: 

Squared off the the ends on a miter saw and here we are:

Oiled it up with some mineral oil and let it soak in overnight:

Wiped off any excess and we're done! (hat tip to Michelle for the arranging the picture)

This is where i chose to stop, with an edge grain board.  If I felt inclined, I could have done another round of cutting and gluing to create an end grain board, but then the final step of flattening the board would have taken much longer as the planer is not meant to handle end grain.  

If you're interested in a more detailed step by step, you can refer to this Instructable, which is what I used to do this project.

Overall, very pleased with the way it turned out, and how quick it was.  It only took two separate trips to Techshop (and only about 1-2hrs each time), with the gluing and oiling doing their thing overnight. 

Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Happy national ride your bike to work day! Since we live just under 3 miles away from work, I felt obligated to ride to work today. I almost changed my mind when I walked out the door since it felt extra swampy with a side of overcast and drizzle, but I powered through and showed up to work only slightly grosser than usual.

On an even MORE exciting note, today is NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DAY! Chocolate chip cookies are kind of a big deal around the HoTang household - mainly because they make wonderful bribe material for the Patricks.

My idea of a perfect chocolate chip cookie is one that is slighty chewy and filled with goodies (chocolate chips/nuts). I've been trying out different chocolate chip recipes lately, but none of them have really impressed me - so I combined a couple of recipes together and came up with this one (which I think, is a keeper).

Chewy Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

(makes 20 large cookies)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups + 2 tbs all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp tapioca starch (or cornstarch) <-- this is the secret to chewy cookies!
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt 
• 1 + 1/2 sticks unsalted butter melted and cooled
• 1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed  <--more brown sugar than granulated = chewier!
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs (room temperature)
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 + 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions :

1.  Sift flour, baking soda, tapioca starch and salt into a medium sized bowl and set aside

2. In mixing bowl, add butter and sugar and mix on med-high speed for 1-2 minutes. Do not overmix (unless you want puffier, more cake-like cookies). Add eggs (1 at at time) and vanilla.

3. Gradually mix in dry ingredients until just moistened.

4. Fold in chocolate and walnuts until evenly incorporated throughout dough. 

5. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. 

6. Preheat oven to 325 deg F

7. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Scoop with ice cream scoop (about 2-3 tbs) and don't press dough down. Sprinkle with additional sea salt if desired.

8. Bake for 18-20 minutes (12-15 min for smaller cookies)

Green Tea White Chocolate Macarons

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'm only 2 months late - which isn't too bad considering that I'm still working on thank you notes from the wedding. I see the bag of wedding cards every time I walk in our office but I'm always so drained and tired from work that it gets pushed back (again). I'm still trying to figure out this whole work-life balance thing, but I have a feeling life's going to revolve around work for a while longer. However, I'm going to try to be more consistent with the blog because it makes me do normal people/non-work activities - which is something that has been severely lacking for the past few months...

Since this was my first weekend off in three weeks, I decided it was finally time to suck it up and tackle the dreaded French macarons. I think they turned out pretty decently for a first try. THEY HAD FEET! and Pat said they were pretty nom - so I guess that was a win too... Adapted the recipe from Mable's blog (whose blog I'm constantly drooling over). 

Green Tea White Chocolate Macarons

(supposed to make 25 Macarons)

White Chocolate Ganache Filling Ingredients:

• 6 oz white chocolate chips
• 5 tbsp heavy cream

Macaron Shell Ingredients:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup ground almonds (or almond meal)
• 2.5 tsp matcha powder
• 2 large room temperature egg whites (see tip in step 3 of shells)
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar (optional, but will help form stiffer peaks)
• 5 tbsp granulated sugar

Directions for the filling:

1. Place white chocolate and heavy cream in a small bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Mix until creamy and smooth, heating in the microwave at 15 second intervals if needed (chocolate should be fully incorporated and melted by the 3rd time). Do not over heat! 

2. Let cool until touchable, then fill a piping bag and place in fridge until ready to use. 

Directions for the shells:

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and grab a pasty bag with a 1/2 inch plain tip

2. In a food processor (or bullet), pulse almond flour, matcha powder, and powdered sugar - then sift into a small bowl. 

TIP: Sifting the powder is extremely important if you want your macarons to have a glossy appearance (the almond meal is never as fine as you want it, and you may have to sift and re-grind your dry powder mix a few times). 

3. Add your egg whites into a stand mixer and beat on low to med-low until foaming (about 1 min)

TIP: Most macaron recipes will tell you to use aged egg whites (2 days in fridge, then 1-2 days outside). This takes way too much planning. You can avoid that step simply by placing your eggs in warm water for 5 minutes prior to separating the yolk from the egg white.

4. When you egg white foam starts to increase in volume, immediately add the cream of tartar and increase speed to medium to med-high. Slowly add the sugar in a stream down the sides of the bowl and increase the speed to high. Whip until you get a stiff meringue with soft peaks. Do not overbeat or your macarons won't rise as well when baked.

TIP: Don't add the sugar to the middle of the bowl as you'll risk deflating your egg whites. 

5. This is the trickiest step. Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in 2 batches using long, gentle, smooth sweeps. Do not deflate the meringue or you'll end up with a liquidy mess. Should have everything incorporated and smooth/glossy in about 40-50 foldings. When dropped from the spatula to batter, the mound should take about 10 seconds to mold into the mix.

6. Fill your pastry bag and pipe in 3.5 cm circles spaced 1 inch apart. Since I'm not so great at the piping.small.circles portion of this task, I ended up with 13 widely sized macarons (instead of the 25 the recipe usually makes. HAHA)

7. Rap baking sheet a couple times about 1 inch above the countertop, to flatten and get rid of bubbles. I find that the matcha powder always makes my baked goods stickier and dryer than usual - so you might have to use a toothpick to help get rid of the stubborn bubbles.

8. Let rest at room temperature for 45-60 minutes. The tops should be dry, and nothing should stick to your finger

Tip: Resting your macarons before baking is the most important step if you want your macarons to have feet. This step ensures that the shells rise while baking instead of spreading out.

As you can see, I don't quite yet have the size consistency down yet...

9. Preheat oven to 310 deg F and bake for 16-18 minutes.

10. Let cool completely on pan. Line up similar sizes and pipe chilled filling onto shells.   

Feet!!

 And that's it! Not as scary as you think it'd be. This is a great dessert to make in order to use up those left-over egg whites from making ice cream - but since it's too cold for that right now, I used the leftover yolks to make Creme Brulee (which will be for another post).