Macaron-ing

I didn't expect I would have time for any baking after Zak's birthday celebration last Sunday. I guess I really need a little baking-time to off-load some work stress. As we don't cook at home, there's no eggs in the fridge unless I plan to bake something. After baking my boy's birthday cake, I'm left with 3 eggs. Not wanting to throw them in the bins, I separated the egg white/yolk yesterday, of course with half-mind yearning to bake a macaron or two if time permits.

Other than baking, another good way to de-stress is definitely spending good quality time with my little boy. We don't have to spend dozen to be happy or lavish on expensive food to feel fed, a simple bus ride and a piece of roti prata made boy & mum extremely contented! Our happiness is not dampened by the 'lousy' roti prata we had at Jalan Kayu, even my boy lamented that it's really not nice. We then proceeded onwards to Ikea to satisfy his incessant-liking-for-long-bus-rides. Both of us had our retail therapy at Ikea, followed by lunch of hotdog and donuts. When we stepped out of Ikea, realised that it was raining so heavily. Our initial plan to take a return bus trip was thwarted as there's no covered shelter to the bus stop. It's actually quite a relieve (for me) as it's a good excuse to take the cab home after hours of walking and heavy stuff to carry.



Back to the macarons, they were done when it's daddy's turn to bring little boy for their fun bus-train-LRT-bus rides on a lazy Sunday. I was half doing work & half macaroning. And half the macarons turned out feet-less, and the rest with short-feets. Nothing is wasted (except one odd shell that is left), they were slabbed with godiva dark chocolate ganache, waiting to be matured and devoured days later.



72% cacao dark chocolate macarons
(macaron recipe adapted & modified from Tartelette, refer for more details)

Ingredients/ Method
45g egg white (ideally aged for 3 days, but mine was aged 1 day)
15g caster sugar
100g powdered sugar
55g ground almonds
powdered colour (optional)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste/essence (optional)

1) Whisk egg white until foamy, and gradually add sugar until glossy meringue. Do not overbeat or it will be too dry.
2) Added sieved almond and powdered sugar, (colour & vanilla bean paste) to the meringue. Give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that falls back on itself after counting to 10.
3) Use quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. Whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. (To test - if tops flatten on its own, you are good to go. If there is small beak, give batter a couple of turns.)
4) Pipe batter on good baking sheets. Rap the tray 2 times to let any air bubble escape. Sit macarons for 30 mins to 1 hour, until a firm layer on shell forms.
5) Bake in pre-heated oven 150 deg C for 15 - 20 mins.
6) Let the macaron shells cool down and remove from the baking sheet.
7) Spread any favourite fillings on the shell and keep in air-tight containers. Keep macarons in fridge for at least 1 day to let taste mature.

Chocolate ganache
70g 72% cacao Godiva dark chocolate
3 tbsp whipping cream
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter

1) Put all ingredients in a bowl and microwave on medium heat for about 2 mins.
2) Stir to mix them evenly and keep in fridge for about 10 mins to harden ganache for easy spreading on macarons.

I'm also submitting this post to this month Aspiring Bakers #17: March Macarons Madness! (Mar 2012) hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies.

My boy turns 5!

Pardon my lack of update on this blog and though I still visit my favourite list of blogs, I seem to have lesser time to do so these days. Lesser time to bake as well. Hopefully I'll be freer come 2nd quarter of the year!

Today is an exceptional and joyous day, my boy turns 5 and he sure has grown and changed alot! Long before his birthday, he'd made many requests and threw ideas on how he wanted his celebration. Not one, but two parties; one with family members and another one in school. A Monopoly cake and an Angry Bird cake. Since AB cake is more readily available at the bakery, I did a Monopoly cake for the family celebration. I'd to bring out the Monopoly boardgame to mimick the details, not an easy feat since I had not been baking or playing with the fondant for a while :p And instead of name of places, my boy specifically and repeated reminded me that we should have our family members' name on the board. I'm pretty happy to know how much thoughts he put in for his party and everyone was pleasantly surprise to see their names on the cake. Even the peanut-butter cream for the chocolate-flavoured cake, which was an instant hit with the guests, was decided by the birthday boy. The at-least 3kg cake was 'wolfed' down and requests for 2nd servings/ 'ta-baoing' (packed) would made any baker a happy (wo)man.

My best wishes to my lovely darling to be ever so healthy, all-rounded and successful person. Not forgetting to have fun and smell the roses along the way <3<3<3

Here's some pictures on Zakris' Monopoly-themed 5th birthday party and cake.

With Feb's month Aspiring Bakers' deadline extended, I'm glad to be able to participate and therefore submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #16: Fun with Fondant! (February 2012) hosted by Yvonne of iceamericanos.

Year of Water Dragon 2012

Wishing all prosperity, good health, happiness in the Year of Water Dragon 2012!

Let me share with you some of the new year goodies and food that were dished out by me....

1) Steamed "Huat Kueh" - one of my mum's favourite! Hopefully we can "一路發發" in the year of Dragon!

I'm submitting this Steamed "Huat Kueh" recipe to this month's Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

2) CNY cookies - Everything has to be easy and less fuss this year as I'd to lift my hands to do spring cleaning now that my better half is still recovering from his injury. Only managed to churn out 2 types - sugee cookies and pineapple tarts.


- Pineapple open-tarts like pretty daisy! After so many years of preparing the pineapple paste from scratch, this is the first time I'm using store bought pineapple paste. The 1kg low-sugar pineapple paste from Kitchen Capers is a good alternative and I don't mind using it again if lazy bone sets in next year!



- Sugee/Sugi cookies, tasted as good as last year! Still have a big can of sugee leftover due to small quantities prepared this year.


- Osmanthus cookies - Did I say 2 CNY cookies? This is actually not meant to be included as one of my CNY bakes and there's no recipe. I just used the leftover dough from the pineapple tarts and added osmanthus and little more flour. It would have tasted better if there's more crunch and more sugar.


3) Nian gao spring roll or 年糕夹心卷. Another dish I learnt from my mum on how to eat up the otherwise "hardened" nian gao, and instead of coating with egg-flour and fry it which would be a pretty mess with the melted nian gao sticking to the wok.

Ingredients/Method:
1 packet of spring roll skin, small
Yam
Sweet potatoes (can be the yellow, orange or purple ones)
1 Nian gao
1 tbsp corn flour + 3 tbsp water

1. Clean and slice the yam and sweet potatoes of equal sizes.
2. Steam them for about 5-8 mins on med-high. Set aside and cool.
3. Slice up Nian gao of almost same size as the yam & sweet potatoes.
4. Arrange yam, Nian gao and sweet potatoes on top of each other and place on a piece of spring roll skin.
5. Roll up and secure edges of spring roll skin with cornstarch mixture.
6. Heat up pot on med heat and fry with enough oil to cover the spring roll, until golden brown.

I'm submitting this Nian gao spring roll recipe to this month Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

4) Crispy skin roast duck, recipe adapted from Peng's kitchen. My first time roasting duck which yield a delicacy to savour when I invited my relatives to my house on the 6th day of CNY. Although the process of preparation is easy, there is the long hours of air/sun-drying the duck before it can be sent to the oven for roasting. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the process thoroughly and would attempt to do it again (of course, when I have the luxury of time!)

I'm submitting this Crispy skin roast duck recipe to this month Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

5) DIY Spring Roll, which signifies good luck, prosperity and abundance! This is a special spring roll made good by my mil, but due to her health condition, she has not made it for many years. My hubby jotted down the recipe based on his mum's brief dictation years ago, and it's my must-have once a year! Another dish that we prepared when my relatives came but my skill needs improvement...lol. Anyway, my hubby & me had it for breakfast on 7th day of CNY as well, which happened to be "人日" and aren't we supposed to eat at least 7 types of vegetables on this day? This dish would fit the bill!









Hope everyone has many many good years ahead!