Mich's Maccs

Dear world, 

I have a confession to make. I’m in love. I want to shout it from the rooftops. I now have something to come home to everyday, something to console me when I’m upset, and something to calm me down when I’m stressed. Yes, it’s true: RISH LOVES MICH… Mich’s Maccs that is. Michelle Goldberg’s gorgeous macaroons are pure, delightful love.

Milk Chocolate

If you’re a fan of traditional coconut macaroons you need to order yourself some of these. I’ve never had one so perfectly crispy and crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. My method of choice for eating a macc is quartered straight from the fridge. Michelle recommends eating them room temp, chilled, halved quartered, whatever you like as long as you share always. I may need to go back to kindergarten because I’m having a tough time with the sharing part. There are only 6 in a bag (and yes you might think I’m crazy for using the modifier “only” before the number 6 when you see the size of these, but once you taste one you’ll understand why) and I don’t want to share! But I’m a nice gal, so I did it, I shared. I offered each of my housemates a few bites which is almost worse than not sharing at all because it’s not nice to tease.

I admire Michelle’s company for its luscious simplicity. Coconut and chocolate mixed with a community support and passion. Michelle has mastered the macc and she’s spreading the love all around New York. Mich has been maccing since 2008 when she started selling the maccs at local stores around her home in East Hampton. Eating one of these maccs is like feeding your soul. Having my first macc not only satisfied my sweet tooth, but it put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. Anyway, the need for maccs is spreading to the city where they will be sold at Macy's starting in April! Just in time for passover, or a perfect gift for your Easter Dinner host. I hope the maccs make it out to California and everywhere in between because it is imperative that everyone has the chance to try a macc. For the time being, you can (and should!) buy your maccs online at michsmaccs.com. I wouldn’t recommend buying only one bag because you’ll regret it. You’re going to want two bags minimum.

White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate.

Another thing I love about Mich’s Maccs is that they are gluten free. Celiac disease is a serious problem in today’s world where seemingly everything is made with various types refined flours. There are many gluten free alternatives to flour and while many are just as delicious as wheat flour, others can turn out to be heavy, stodgy, or just wrong in flavor. But you know what, Celiacs deserve a delicious treat, too! Mich’s Maccs are the proof to all the nonbeliever that every delicious baked good doesn’t need flour at all!

"Crunchy, Chewy, Chocolate, Coconut Heaven."

Mich's Maccs donates 10% of proceeds to a program called i-tri that "is an inclusive, community based intervention program that fosters self-respect, personal empowerment, self confidence, positive body image and healthy lifestyle choices for at-risk adolescent girls." How great is that?? Just another reason to support Mich's Maccs. At only  $11 for a bag of 6, or $16 for a pound (about 10 maccs), you really can't go wrong. I get the impression that Mich's Maccs is all about positivity, passion, and community love. It's so wonderful to see this kind of business in the hustle and bustle of our modern society.

My favorite so far is the dark chocolate – after all that’s my favorite kind of chocolate – because the bittersweet taste of the Belgian dark chocolate balances out the sweetness of the coconut. That moment when you bite into one and the chocolate cracks and then your teeth sink into the heavenly fluffy coconut…wow. Have you ever heard of world peace cookies? Well, I think Mich’s Maccs just upped the ante. 

Black Bottom Cupcakes with Raspberry Jam

You can't really go wrong with chocolate, cream cheese, and raspberry jam. If you're in the mood for something sweet on a cozy winter night in, try making these black bottom cupcakes with raspberry jam. I originally saw these on foodgawker minus the jam. I'd heard of and tried this type of cupcake before but I'd never made them. I added the jam because I thought it might add a little brightness to deep flavor of the chocolate and the heaviness of the cream cheese.

Yummy, creamy goodness.

I changed a few other things from the recipe as well. Originally, the recipe called for 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, 1 cup of water, and cider vinegar. When I read the recipe reviews, one woman said she did half milk half water for a richer batter, and a heaping 1/3 cup of cocoa powder. I took her advice, but I don't drink cow's milk at home so I did 1/2 cup soy milk and 1/2 cup water. I also didn't have cider vinegar and didn't want to buy a whole bottle for one use, so I used rice vinegar which you'd think would be weird but it was actually fine. I think the purpose of the vinegar was just to loosen up the batter a little bit. The flavor of chocolate was all I tasted in the end.

Unbaked

Baked.

These were super delicious and pretty easy to make. They were surprisingly light as well, even after our Spinach and Black Bean Enchiladas from the same night. The cake part isn't overly sweet at all, because cocoa powder isn't sweet, but the cream cheese and jam mixture was perfect in the middle. The tang of the cream cheese with the tang of the raspberry- mmmm perfection.

Reading over the recipe just now, I realized you could easily adapt these into a vegan cupcake, you'd just need to substitue a dairy-free chocolate chip, and swap out the cream cheese for tofutti cream cheese. I think the cream cheese mixture would do fine without the egg. Voila!

Split open.

Raspberry Black Bottom Cupcakes
Makes 12 large cupcakes

Ingredients

8oz cream cheese- softened

1 egg

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup mini chocolate chips

½ cup raspberry preserves

1 ½ cups AP flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder- heaping

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup milk (or soymilk, rice milk, almond milk, etc)

½ cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Steps

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1.      1.  Lightly spray muffin pan with pam so overflowing batter doesn’t stick to pan. Line tin with paper or foil muffin cups.

2.       2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, egg, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/8 tsp salt with whisk attachment until mixture is light and fluffy- about 2 minutes. Meanwhile, heat raspberry preserves in a bowl in the microwave for 45 seconds. Stir chocolate chips into cream cheese mixture. Push cream cheese mixture over to one side of the bowl and pour jam in other side. Using a butter knife, gently swirl the two halves together creating a ribbon of jam throughout the cream cheese. If that doesn’t work, don’t stress, it will still taste just as good.

3.      3.  In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, 1 cup sugar, cocoa powder, and salt until little to no lumps remain. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the milk, water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Stir until well moistened. Fill muffin cups ½ full with cupcake batter and top with a dollop of the cream cheese jam mixture in the center of the batter. If you wish, you can do two pans of smaller cupcakes.

4.      4. Bake for 25-30 minutes until edges of cupcakes look set and are slightly firm to the touch. The cream cheese in the center should start to brown a little bit, but not much. Let cupcakes cool in pan for about 20 minutes. They are delicate, so be careful!