A Sweet St Patrick’s Day

It seems that most holidays get way more sweet treats than others-I love the idea of making St Patrick’s Day a little sweeter! While you’re making your corned beef, how about adding these special treats in as a dessert and make it a night to remember?

The Sweet St Patty’s Menu:
Mint macaroons with chocolate ganache
Irish Creme hot cocoa with mint (there’s also a non-boozy version too!)
The Irish Lass

Are you excited? I know I am! Let’s talk set up and then get to the recipes!

First, I LOVE vintage plates. Any reason to bring them out, I take. It really feels like you’re adding a super special touch, but it doesn’t take any more energy. I really love these.

Next up? Let’s cook!

The Mint Macaroon (makes about 12 cookies or 6 sandwiches)

Don’t be intimidated by this french version of a macaroon. It’s like any cookie, but just a tad fancier with the almond meal. Once you make a couple of these, you’ll be a pro in no time! If you prefer not to use food coloring that is okay, too.

Materials:

Mixer with a whisk attachment, or hand mixer
A colander
A mixing bowl
A cookie sheet, lined with a silpat pad or parchment
A gallon sized zip-lock bag (or a pastry bag, if you’re fancy!)
Scissors to snip a corner of the zip lock bag off

Ingredients:

4 egg whites at room temp, the fresher, the better-I usually go and grab them from my coop, so I know they are super fresh.
Green food coloring (you’ll only use 1-2 drops)
1/4 cup of regular sugar
1 1/3 cup powered sugar (yes, this is a sugar treat!)
3/4 cup almond meal

In the bowl of your mixer, put in your egg whites and start them on medium speed.

Add 1-2 drops of food coloring.

While that is mixing, sift your sugars and your almond meal, pushing through any big pieces that are sticking around the bottom of the colander.

Once your egg whites are fluffy, stop the mixer, and slowly fold in your dry ingredients. A note! The fluffy egg white is what makes this treat so pretty and light, so move quickly, but gently when incorporating the dry ingredients. Mix until it is all incorporated.

Remember that zip-lock bag you had? Go ahead and grab that guy and add your macaroon mixture to it. Once it’s filled, remove the air, twist the top, and snip off just the very tip, so that the opening is about twice the size of a pen-cap. You now have your very own, homemade pastry bag!

Squeeze out the mixture onto your parchment paper or silpat lined cookie sheets-you’re aiming for silver dollar sized circles, with a little loft. You’ll want to leave some room between each one, on all sides, since they will rise, but also expand.

Now….we wait for 20 mins! Why? We want them to rest. This lets them set up a bit and allows them to settle a bit. When you get to 15 minutes, preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

Place your cookie sheets in and cook for 15 minutes, and then check, if they don’t feel firm, cook for another 2 minutes, but know that they will firm up as they cool. Let them cool completely before adding the ganache.

The Ganache. (used for cookies and the drink recipes below)

Oh, Ganache. I love you. You sound so fancy and make me look like a Chocolatier. This is the easiest chocolate spread you will ever make -goodbye Nutella (okay, maybe not, but it’s darn close)! I did use a food scale for this.

2.75 ounces of dark chocolate,
1/4 cup of cream (sorry folks-this ain’t diet food!)
3/4 Tbsp of butter

Grate the chocolate finely, add to a bowl and set aside.

In a heavy bottomed pot, take your cream and your butter and slowly warm over low heat.

Once the butter/cream mixture start to simmer, you’re ready! Slowly pour over your grated chocolate and walk away for 3 -5 minutes. You don’t need to stir! When you come back, you’ll see that you have what looks like chocolate milk surrounding a delicious melting chocolate mountain.

Slowly stir with a spoon until all of it is incorporated. It will be pretty runny, and that’s okay.

Put it in the fridge to let it thicken up to your desired spreadable consistency-about 1 hour. Once it’s done, spread on your macaroons and put them together!

The Drinks!

Irish Creme and Mint Hot Cocoa Remember that cream you used for your ganache? Go ahead and grab that, as well as some sipping chocolate. Don’t have that? No worries, you can make up your own with the ingredients from the ganache. This makes one hearty mug.

1.5 ounces of dark chocolate, grated and set aside
1.25 cups cream
2 sprigs mint.
Bailey’s or your favorite brand of Irish Creme (I like Knickers and Carolyn’s)

Follow the directions for the ganache, but add mint into the milk mixture while it simmers. It sounds odd, but trust me…it’s really good! Add one shot per cup for the mint hot cocoa, but leave it out if you prefer not to drink.

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For those of you who like a little kick, may I suggest the Irish Lass? It’s fizzy, tangy, and so tasty!

Irish Lass

Ingredients:

1-2 shots of Irish Whiskey
1-2 Tbsp ginger syrup
1 Tbsp lemon
Top with Seltzer water

Adjust to taste of course, but note that this drink can be a kick in the pants, since it’s slightly sweet and refreshing, it goes down easy so take care!