Mac Attack: Ginger Coffee Macs with French Pastry Cream

For December's Mac Attack Challenge, Mac Tweeters went Savory Sweet for the holidays!! It took me quite awhile to complete the challenge and I scrambled to post this on time! I had a few options which I kept in mind and this included chili macs, curry macs and allspice macs among others. I was also intriqued by Jamie's suggestion to prepare the macs as hors d’oeuvres (isn't that interesting?). After much deliberation, I went with Ginger (a feisty spice) and Coffee (a perfect flavor for cold winter days) with French Pastry Cream filling (a sweet and sophisticated custard perfect for the holidays - or so I imagine - I don't celebrate Christmas and its summer all year round here!!)        

So here they are - my Ginger Coffee Macs with French Pastry Cream. I think I may have added too little ginger powder in the dry ingredients as the spice isn't really noticeable, although they blended quite well with the coffee to cut down the sweetness of the crust. Add French Pastry Cream and voila!! Everything tastes better with French Pastry Cream (I'm biased!).

Happy Holidays everyone!!

Baking With Dorie: Sablés

 According to Dorie, the Sablés that we made this week is "the master recipe" adapted when she "learned to make sablés in Paris working with some of the city's best pâtissier". Wow!! How can one pass trying out this recipe!

This week's recipe was chosen by Laurie of Cookin' up North. You may find the recipe posted on her blog here or page 131 of Baking from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan.

I made half the recipe and ended up with one log and about 20 cookies. They are buttery and sandy and my eldest daughter can't get enough of it! Mine turned out golden brown although Dorie's sablés look creamy and pale. We love them anyways! And they make your kitchen smell super terrific too!!

The bejeweled log. So pretty!!

Check out the other BWD bakers here!