This post is brought to you by Louis Jadot wine. Recipes and ideas are my own.
We LOVE a reason to entertain around Stir and Strain headquarters, and while the fireworks have died down (mostly) around Los Angeles, we’re still seeing some blue, white, and red in our future as Sunday the 14th is Bastille Day. And what better way to celebrate than with some french wine— Louis Jadot to be exact, and a colorful macaron tower… that you get to build AND eat?!
If you plopped me somewhere in France today, with all the pastries and desserts laid out in front of me, my first instinct would be to sprint towards the macarons. Yes, sprint. Macarons are like tiny empty canvases waiting to be filled with delicious flavor combinations. Also, I find them hard to just have one, and a party becomes instantly better for me if a platter has been laid out. And if you’ve managed to create a tower of them I will gush about your party foreverrrrrr.
But why celebrate Bastille Day if you’re not in France, or not French? Because we just have a love of French food and culture. And we still have our 4th of July decorations up from last week (kidding). There’s also a lot of interesting history there as well. Personally, I am huge history buff and my favorite types of books delve into the intricacies of a country’s politics and culture. Bastille Day actual celebrates the storming of the Bastille, a prison, and the beginnings of the French Revolution and democracy in the country.
Interested to know a bit more? While there are numerous books one could read, recently I just finished the book A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel, a favorite author of mine, which follows the characters who made up the French Revolution and their lives through the revolutionary times. Funny at times, violent at others, it was an intense read about events I really knew little about. When speaking of the revolution in France, I think most Americans might recall Marie Antoinette saying “let them eat cake”, and they definitely will recall a guillotine or two, but wow, those times were so much more than that and I highly suggest this particular novel to get a real sense of the years that surrounded the changes in the country.
But let’s get back to entertaining. First, go ahead and pour yourself a glass of wine. We’re pouring a Beaujolais and Mâcon-Villages Chardonnay from Louis Jadot. Both of the wines work well with desserts and are great party wines if you’re considering a spread of french foods like cheeses, seafoods, and light meats. The Beaujolais is 100% Gamay with juicy flavors of strawberry and black cherry with a little spicy black pepper. While the Chardonnay, made with 100% Chardonnay grapes, is more floral with apple and citrus aromas and slightly mineral notes. They are also both reasonably priced if you are looking for a few bottles or more to serve at your fête.
Now, the macaron tower. My biggest pet peeve about all the macaron towers out there is that the entire thing is not edible. Most are stuck on to a styrofoam tower, held in place with buttercream or a toothpick. While it can be impressive in height, I’d rather have a dessert tower that can be fully enjoyed by my guests. So, I decided to make this more of a “petit†tower, and have as my structure for the macarons to sit on be tiered vanilla cake. I mean, I wouldn’t be disappointed to be served a piece of cake with macarons covering it. This does mean baking a few small cakes (like, 3), but if you have the basic pantry staples around and a few small cake tins or even ramekins, this comes together quite quickly. And the macarons, while you most definitely can make those two, I just happen to have a favorite macaron shop here in Los Angeles I got mine from (and that is just far enough away I don’t visit them everyday… that would be dangerous for me).
If you’d like to make this taller, you can bake a larger base and build up from there. Height is totally up to you, but for me, I found three cake layers sufficient for a small party.
Et Voilà ! Let’s pour another glass of wine, make some buttercream, and build a macaron tower for Bastille Day.
For the cakes
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg
1-1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
- Preheat the oven to 350, and grease a 6″ round cake pan, a 4″ cake pan, and a 4 ounce ramekin. Line the bottom of the pans with a round of parchment paper.
- In a medium-size bowl, beat together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy, 1-2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until well-combined, about 15 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add half of the this to the batter and beat for just a few seconds before stirring in half of the buttermilk. Continue beating. Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat, and then stir in the remaining milk.
- Divide the batter into the prepared pans, about 2/3 of the way up the pan. Bake smallest cake 16-18 minutes, and the larger cakes 35-37 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool on a wire rack in the pan. Carefully remove it from the pan, pulling away the parchment paper once it has cooled.
For the buttercream
1 cup unsalted butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
salt to taste
In a stand mixer, beat butter until creamy, 1-2 minutes and then slowly pour in 4 cups of the powdered sugar. Add in heavy cream and vanilla extract. Beat mixture until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. If mixture is too soft, add in more powdered sugar up to 1 cup, a quarter cup at a time. Beat in a pinch of salt. Set aside.
Macarons
(these can be any flavor, we are just looking for the blue, white, and red of the French flag)
11 blue macarons
8 white macarons
8-9 red macarons
Assembly
Once cakes have cooled, lightly frost outside of cakes. Add an extra dollop of buttercream between each layer of cake to secure each layer. Next fill a piping bag with the remaining buttercream and pipe a quarter sized dot around the edges of each cake layer. Secure a macaron in place, pressing lightly to hold. Place a small dollop on the very top layer and secure 2-3 macarons in place at an angle. Enjoy with a glass of Louis Jadot wine!
This post was made in partnership with Truvia®. Recipes and ideas are my own.
After reading this my secret will be blown. But, since we’re all friends, I doubt they’ll care all that much. They know I really come for the Swedish meatballs. Are you sitting there reading this thinking to yourself “I like wine, I like spices, but I don’t necessarily want them piping hot…” Well, lucky for you great minds think alike and I’ve got a new twist for your holiday mulled wine traditions!
I’ve teamed up with 
Since we’re making this into a cocktail I decided to pair this mulled wine syrup with bourbon for a wintery drink. Bourbon imparts some vanilla and buttery caramel flavors into the mix as well. Finally, a burst of citrus comes from freshly squeezed lemon juice and Cointreau. How to garnish is up to you. If you want it to be reminiscent of a Glögg, add in a cinnamon stick, orange slices and a star anise when you serve up the drink. You could also leave all of this out and you’d be fine. Personally I like the aroma that fresh spices add to the drink, but if you’re serving this up at a party you could also just throw in the orange slices. And speaking of parties! This syrup makes enough for plenty of drinks so you might want to consider this for a different take when you host your next holiday party.
One last note. I realize I might be edging out some of you that really enjoy a hot mulled wine. Clearly my friends do since they host this party every year. Here’s a quick tip so you can enjoy a glass of Glögg any time: you can make this drink hot too. Yes! You don’t have to wait for someone to throw a party and use up several bottles of wine and occupy your InstaPot for an entire day. Make the syrup, add the ingredients, and add in some hot water! You’ve got a hot mulled wine cocktail now!
Truvia Chilled Mulled Wine Cocktail (with Hot Version too!)
But this is a spirits site, why are we talking salads?? Well, because we’ll be using that wine you’ll be serving your guests as an ingredient too! The star of the salad is the pickled stone fruit: nectarines, plums and cherries. These pickled stone fruit take a 3 day dip in a sweet and sour bath laced with wine and come out the other end transformed into some crazy delicious bites. I love it when I can incorporate elements from both the drinks and the food together for dishes.
In addition to this yummy salad, we’re also taking wine today. If we want to keep our get togethers simple and laid back, we also need a laid back wine. Enter Beaujolais; more specifically Régnié.
Régnié (pronounced like rein-yay) is the ultimate outdoor entertaining wine. It’s food friendly and pretty much pairs with all those foods you’d want to eat at your outdoor fête. Charcuterie plate? Yes. Spinach salad? Yes. All the cheeses?!?!? Yes yes yes! That’s why we’re pairing this medium-bodied red Beaujolais (did you know Beaujolais comes in red, white AND rosé?) with our salad; the slightly spicy berry, tart and dry wine compliments the pungent, sweet and sour flavors of the pickled stone fruits as well as the salty goodness of the charcuterie and cheese perfectly.
The idea of this salad came about because, well…I’m not really a cracker person. Shocker, what?! Is that a thing?? I’m usually the odd one just eating cheese and meat slices off a fork; I just don’t want all the filler. My husband however is a water cracker connoisseur and is baffled by this approach to eating a cheese and charcuterie board. I thought that if I want to eat my meat and cheese and all the components of a well-dressed spread in a more substantial manner, I can put them all in a salad. The added bonus is the wine in the pickled stone fruits which punches their taste way up, and the resulting brine is an amazing substitute to plain old vinegar in the dressing for the salad.
Are you guys ready to throw one last summer party now?
Wine-Pickled Stone Fruit and Charcuterie Board Salad
For about the last month or so you guys may have noticed I’ve been promoting a 
So let’s talk about how I like to make wine cocktails, or rather, since the weather is getting HOT again in my neighborhood, wine slushie cocktails. I don’t bat an eyelash over frozen cocktails as evidenced 
The wine I’ve chosen as my base is Tarantas Monastrell, an inky, tart and not-too-sweet red from the Jumilla region of Spain. Because it’s so dry, I added in some sweetness with honeydew melon and Pimm’s No. 1. The Pimm’s also adds in some spices and subtle earthy flavors. I wanted to finish this on a spicy note so in went crystalized ginger. (You can get crystalized ginger in a speciality grocer, online, or can make your own too.) I wanted to add a touch more sweetness and have some of the ginger chunks actually present in the drink- think of them as your chewy spice bombs. Otherwise I could have gone with fresh ginger infused in some capacity.
To minimize watering the drink down with ice, I pre-freeze the mixture the night before. Because there is a low alcohol content, the mixture actually becomes solid overnight but not completely frozen. This way I can add the pre-frozen mixture directly into the blender and only add ice to it as needed. Yes, it’s an additional step that requires some thought beforehand, but it makes for a better frozen drink. If you don’t have the time to freeze overnight, you should at least chill the mixture a few hours beforehand, and if you need this IMMEDIATELY, then go ahead and throw it into the blender with crushed ice, just taste and adjust as you go.
You’ve got options for Valentine’s Day folks. Sexy, sexy wine options.
2014 Broc Cellars Love White
2014 Gragnano from Poggio delle Bacanti
L’Unique Gaz de Schiste
2014 Bow & Arrow Gamay
