Vanilla beans macarons with lemon curd

After many fail-carons, I'm finally able to close the chapter with this happy feet-Macarons! It's rather frustrating and annoying whenever the bakes fail, but usually I would try & try until they turn out right. Just like these little macarons, really put my preserverance to test! Urgggh....

With each macaron that failed, I would go in search for other 'easy' recipes. And I'm lucky to find one recipe in Brave Tart that I can manage, though I made a few modifications on the steps. I find her 10 myths and 10 commandments on macaron very useful, and pretty easy to understand.

French Macarons

(Slight modifications, and I did a quarter of the original recipe)
115g almond meals
230g powdered sugar
144g egg whites, temperature and age not important! (I used 5-days aged egg white, room temp)
72g sugar
the scrapings of 1 vanilla bean or 2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp (2g) salt

1 ) Preheat oven to 150 deg C.

2) Sift almond meals and icing sugar, or blitz them in food processor and sift. Set aside.

3) In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg whites, sugar and beans (not the extract) and salt and turn the mixer to medium (4 on KA) for 3 mins. Increase speed to medium-high (7 on KA) and whip another 3 mins, and speed 8 for another 3 mins.

4) Turn mixer off and add in any extracts or colour and whip for a final min on highest speed, till well mixed.

5) The egg mixture will be a very stiff and dry meringue, where there will be a big clump of meringue in the centre of whisk.

6) Put all dry ingredients into the meringue and fold them in with a rubber spatula. Use both folding motion to incorporate the dry ingredients and a pressing motion to deflate the meringue against the side of the bowl.

7) Transfer the batter into piping bag and pipe onto non-stick baking sheet.

8) After piping, hold the sheet pan and hit it hard against the counter to dislodge any large air bubbles that might cause the macarons to crack.

**The original recipe does not require drying the shells before baking. But I did dry them in the oven which was pre-heated at 130 deg C for about 8 mins (oven is off during drying the shells), a tip I learnt from Honey Bee Sweet.

9) Bake for about 18 mins or until the macarons can be easily peel off from the baking sheet. If it still sticks, continue to bake for a min and constantly check when it's done.

10) Cool the macaron on the baking pan before peeling the cooled macarons from the baking sheet.

11) Sandwich the macaron with your favourite filling, eg lemon curd, and leave in fridge overnight in air-tight container for flavour to infuse and for biscuit to soften.

Enjoy!



Since there are still some aged egg whites in the fridge (though aged egg white is not necessary in this recipe), I'm likely to make the last round of chocolate macarons. Stay tuned!

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.

Xmas macarons

Wishing all a (belated) Merry Christmas 2011!

It has been an extremely busy period for me now as my other half has got himself injured during our recent family holiday. Initially we thought that it's a not-so-serious bone fracture, but upon returning home, the CT scan showed that the crack is in rather bad shape. He was almost immediately admitted for an operation and will be in clutches for a long while. Hopefully he will recover and back in action soon! Meanwhile, pardon me for not being able to leave messages in your blog for this period, however I'll still be browsing your blogs as and when possible.



Here's my bake for our family xmas party which was 'constructed' after 2 failed macaron-ings, and even the 3rd attempt was 'haphazardly' done up and put into the oven. That's why you will realise that there's no pretty even shape macarons. As a result, only the little children in the family gets to eat the 'special' reindeers and xmas tree macarons. I guess a clear mind is definitely needed even for a tried and tested recipe.


I'm also submitting this post for this month Aspiring Bakers #14: Creative Christmas Bakes (December 2011) hosted by Hankerie.

Strawberry macarons

Love In The Air ....
Happy Valentine's Day

With my success with the chocolate macarons, I'm gearing myself to try out other flavours and colours of these lovely macarons.

However, without proper planning and research, it spelt trouble and failure! My attempt to replace the cocoa powder with cranberry sauce only produced flat meringue, not macarons. I first blended the almond powder and icing sugar, set aside, and followed by blending the cranberry sauce. Few mistakes, (a) cranberry sauce is not blended fine enough (there are still bits of cranberry), (b) blending almond power mixture and cranberry sauce produced very gluey batter, which make it very difficult to fold into the egg white without deflating all the bubbles, (c) continue to pipe and bake even though the batter look very unpromising.

I then proceeded to read more blog posts about macarons, and came out with the Strawberry Macarons. I was not very hopeful initially, but the outcome turned out acceptable. The only complaint that I have is the faint colour of red, and the not-so-smooth dome. Anyway, Love is not always smooth, there are ups & downs. More trials & errors in macarons, and practice make perfect!

Strawberry Macarons

Ingredients/ Method:
(Makes about 36 pieces or 18 sandwiches)

50g icing sugar
37.5g almond powder
1 large egg white, room temperature (about 36g each)
32.5g caster sugar
2 -3 drops of strawberry emulco

1) Preheat oven to 150 deg C.
2) Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about 1 cm) ready.
3) Grind together icing sugar with almond powder so there are no lumps, using blender or food processor.
4) In a bowl of standing electric mixer, beat the egg white until they are foamy. Add sugar in 3 batches and whip egg white until very stiff and firm.

5) Add in strawberry emulco to the egg white mixture and beat until colour evenly blended, about 5 seconds.
6) Carefully fold in the dry ingredients in two batches into the egg whites mixture using the mixer on low-medium speed, about 5-10 seconds . When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop mixing and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you’re alone).
7) Pipe the batter like a v-shape on the parchment-lined baking sheets. Evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.
8) Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then bake them for 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet.

Filling can be anything, I'd used nutella and peanut butter this round.

Note:
1) Smooth the piped batter if rapping the baking sheet did not give a smooth dome/ surface.

2) There's no need to rest the macarons before baking. I put them straight into the oven after they are being piped.
3) So far I use Glad's baking paper for most of my baking and these macarons can be easily removed using them too.

4) Add more colouring or emulco to have more pretty/ obvious colour.

I'm submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #4: Love In The Air which is hosted by Ellena of Cuisine Paradise for this month's theme.

Chocolate macarons

With all the CNY baking, I've got so many egg whites left. For the past few years, these egg whites will be thrown away (*heart-ache*) cos I don't how else I can do with them. This time, I've put them in good use, in fact, I'm very happy with the outcome!! Macarons!! However, I did failed on the first attempt using another recipe and I was like, "...well, these egg whites would have gone to waste anyway ;( " I've read of many failed stories, and that macarons are not the easiest to bake. I agree and disagree. Why? Depends on the recipe, I would say.

My first failed attempt! No feet & the macarons cannot be

removed from the parchment paper. Only "empty" shells left.

Through my sis's close buddy, whom we got closer because of our baking interest, she recommended me an almost fail-proof chocolate macaron recipe by David Lebovitz. I would recommend to anyone who wants to try out macarons! When the macarons came out from the oven, I can see the nice little feets, shiny & firm dome! Happy!

Whilst filling up the macarons, Zakris took one and said it's nice. Returned to the kitchen and took another 2 more, followed by saying it's very nice! Even T commented that it's nice too! Very happy! I've to add that Zakris has tried more macarons than us, but I think he's basically attracted to the arrays of colour and these super-sweet biscuits. I'm not as sweet-toothed though.

Chocolate Macarons

Ingredients/ Method:
100g icing sugar

50g almond powder

25g unsweetend Dutch-process cocoa powder

2 large egg whites, room temperature (about 36g each)

65g caster sugar

1) Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

2) Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about 1/2 inch - 2cm) ready.

3) Grind together icing sugar with almond powder and cocoa power so there are no lumps, using blender or food processor.
4) In a bowl of standing electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they are foamy. Add sugar in 4 batches and whip egg whites until very stiff and firm.
5) Carefully fold in the dry ingredients in two batches into the egg whites mixture with a rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you’re alone).
6) Pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch (3 cm) circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.
7) Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then bake them for 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet.

Filling

1 portion of Nutella

1/3rd portion of cranberry sauce

1) Mix well and spread on the macarons.

Note:

1) I use Van Houten cocoa powder instead as this is what I had in my kitchen.

2) I bake the macarons at 150 deg C.

3) There's no need to rest the macarons before baking. I put them straight into the oven after they are being piped.

4) As I have problem using the spatula, I used my electric mixer - balloon whisk - to mix the dry ingredients with the egg whites. This takes about 5 seconds on low-medium speed.

5) So far I use Glad's baking paper for most of my baking and these macarons can be easily removed using them too.

6) My piping tip is rather small (less than 0.5cm) and they works well.

7) I piped the batter about 1.5cm as I think small macarons are more cute.