Just Peachy!

So it has been a while between posts... apologies for my laziness!

But what better way to get back into the swing of things than with a peach- coloured feast of tiered cake, macarons and cupcakes!

And flowers. Don't forget the flowers.

Salt and Vinegar... and Cheesecake?!

Hi all!

Hope those of you in Western Australia enjoyed the long weekend as much as I did!

On to business though. Last week I was asked to make some macarons which fit in with the theme of the AFL grand final and particularly one of the teams which would be playing: the Fremantle Dockers.

Now being a West Coast supporter I was naturally reluctant to make any desert glorifying our cross-town rivals, but in the end the food lover in me won out and I begrudgingly made two types of 'Docker' macarons : Salt and Vinegar and Cheesecake .

Salt and vinegar because salt and vinegar chips are a classic football food choice!
And Cheesecake flavoured... because I just wanted to!

Unless you have suffered a near-death experience at the hands of cream cheese, its hard to imagine anyone not liking the Cheesecake macaron! Its sweet but not overly, smooth, creamy... pretty much everything you want in a delicious snack!
The Salt and Vinegar flavour is a little more of an acquired taste, but please don't be scared off by it! The sweetness of the ganache tempers the tang of the balsamic and the unusual combinations sends your taste buds tripping! 

For anyone who doesn't know, the Dockers colours are purple and white and their logo is an anchor so I had to tie these two motifs into the decoration of the macarons. Simple enough right?

For the cheesecake macarons I baked the shells as plain white (unfortunately they did colour a little in the oven so weren't the perfect white I was after though...) and then used a paintbrush to paint on a rough stripe of purple food colouring (diluted in a drop of lemon juice). I also coloured the filling purple to match but this obviously isn't a necessity. 

For the salt and vinegar macarons I reserved about 2tbsp of the plain white macaron mix I had used for the first flavour and made up another batch coloured all purple. After piping out the macarons I used the reserved white mix to pipe little anchors on top and kept the filling as white as possible to add a little visual appeal. Because the original recipe I was using called for balsamic vinegar which would have coloured my filling an off-brown colour I instead used a white balsamic glaze which which gave me my lovely pure white filling, but you could just use plain balsamic if the colour isn't an issue for you!

For more info on decorating macaron shells I will be posting a detailed tutorial under the "Tips and Tutorials" page soon so keep and eye out!

Cheesecake Macarons

1 x quantity of macaron shells (see basic recipe here)
250g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tbsp whipping cream
1/3 cup icing sugar 


In an electric mixer beat the cream cheese, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary, until smooth.

Add the vanilla and icing sugar and beat until incorporated and then, with the mixer still running, slowly pour in the cream and beat on a low speed until the mixture is smooth and combined.

Refrigerate the cheesecake mix until it is set to a pipeable consistency and pipe onto your macaron shells and sandwich together. 

Salt and Vinegar Macarons

Recipe from Adriano Zumbo
 
1 x quantity of macaron shells (see basic recipe here)
75g whipping cream (between 30-36% fat)
125g white chocolate, chopped
30g white balsamic vinegar (or you can use normal balsamic)
1 tsp sea salt


Put the chocolate and cream in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 second bursts, stirring well between each burst, until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is totally smooth and lump free. Set the mixture aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Stir the balsamic vinegar into the white chocolate ganache and sprinkle in the salt a little at a time until it meets your taste.Refrigerate the mix until it is firm enough to pipe.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a wide nozzle and pipe onto the macaron shells. Sandwich the macaron shells together and voila!

Macaron Basics 101

A quick glance at this blog will tell you that I am a lover of macarons.

From the simple chocolate or vanilla to the more sophisticated salted caramel or rosewater (or even the downright bizarre wasabi and mayo flavoured!) - macarons are a vessel of limitless possibilities!

However, all good macarons rely on a few basic things:

1. A solid base recipe
2. Good technique
3. Lots of loving! 

So, I thought I would create a post that can help anyone (from the first-time baker to a seasoned kitchen warrior!) to master the macaron basics as well as a few hints and tips to help you create your own unique designs and flavours. I am by no means an expert in the fine art of macaron creation, however I have tried and tested a lot (and I mean A LOT!) of recipes, techniques, flavours etc. and found a recipe and style which hasn't failed me yet.


A few things to note before we continue...

1. The Macaron Recipe

   
   The recipe I use and recommend uses a French Meringue as its base - this means you simple add sugar to egg whites whilst you are beating them. There are a huge range of varying macaron recipes out there and many other macaron recipes use an Italian Meringue (where you make a boiling sugar syrup to add to the egg whites). The latter is the recipe used by Adriano Zumbo in his book Zumbo and one I have attempted numerous times, but for whatever reason I never seem to get the same result as when I use  my favourite French meringue recipe!
   
   After adjusting and tweaking my recipe over time I eventually settled on a final version which has provided me with consistently good results, so this is the one I have stuck with and recommend to you!
   
   
   
   

2. The Individual Oven

    

   The recipe below is based on the cooking time required in my oven. Its a pretty standard oven - some knobs, a light, glass door and a fan. Unless your oven for some reason lets hot air escape or suffers from fluctuating temperatures (in which case it may be worth investing in a new one... just a though) there is no reason it shouldn't work for you too. That said, cookbooks are always adding that little ........  "cooking times may vary" so I thought I would mention it here! If possible try out this recipe using the stated cooking temperature and times and check you macarons - if they don't wobble or shift when you give them a gentle poke then you are set to go. If they aren't to this stage yet pop them back in for a further 5 minutes and check again, repeating until they are cooked then note down the extra time needed for future reference.
   
    
   
   

3.  Piping Your Macarons

    

   If your not familiar or comfortable with piping you can get a piece of paper and draw small circles on it the size you want your macarons to be. Then just pop it underneath the baking paper on your tray (you should be able to see the drawings through your baking paper) and use the circles as a guide to ensure you get perfectly round and uniform macaron shells. Just remember to slide the paper off of the tray before sticking it in the oven - you don't want to set off any smoke alarms! 
   
   
   
   
   

4. Ageing Your Egg Whites 

    

   Many macaron recipes will call for 'aged eggwhites'. This means that the egg whites are separated from the yolks and left in a bowl covered with clingfilm for a couple of days before they are used. The theory behind this is that as the egg whites age they lose some of their moisture which makes for a better batter texture - resulting in 'chewy-er' macarons! Whilst the actual effect of this process is debatable macarons are such finicky little beasts that I think it's better to be safe than sorry. 
   
   
   
   If I have planned ahead I will separate my egg whites 2-3 days in advance BUT if you are short on time you can also separate your whites and microwave them for 5-10 seconds. This helps to quickly reduce their moisture content but make sure you don't do it for any longer or they will start to cook!
    

So, with these things in mind, lets proceed!

Basic Macaron Shell Recipe

 Makes ~24 macaron shells or 12 sandwiched macarons 

 

 

2 aged egg whites (at room temperature)

100g icing sugar

60g ground almond

60g caster sugar

Method:

1. Put ground almond and icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender and process until they are finely ground.
   
   
2.  Sift the blended mixture and set aside
   
   
3. With an electric beater (or your ass-kicking Kitchenaid mixer!), beat the egg white for 1-2 minutes until frothy (start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed).
   
   
4. Whilst continually beating, add in the caster sugar in a little at a time and beat at maximum speed for around 2 minutes until they just reach the "stiff peak" stage.  If you over-beat them you will get too much air in your macarons so as soon as you can lift you beater and it leaves a peak standing upright (or when you hold the bowl upside down and the mixture don't fall out!) stop the beating.  
   
   
5. Taking care not to over mix, fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites with a spatula until the mixture is incorporated and when you lift your spatula the drizzle  that falls back into the bowl should completely disappear into the remaining mix within 10 seconds
   
   
   
6. Line several baking trays with non-stick baking paper and spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip
    
   
7. Carefully pipe out the macarons (aim for a roughly 2cm diameter, or whatever size you are after!) leaving a couple of centimetres space between each
   
   
8. Leave the macarons for at least half an hour for the 'skin' to form (when you gently touch the shell your finger shouldn't stick to it!). How long this will take can depend on the weather, temperature, humidity etc. so just keep gently poking them until they are ready. Poke, poke, poke!
   
   
9. Bake them in a 150C oven for about 20 min or until firm to touch ( to test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's ready!). If not yet ready keep a close eye on them and give them another test every minute or so.
   
   
10. When finished take out of the oven and leave to cook completely on the baking trays.

 

So that's the basic macaron in a nutshell! 

Next time I will discuss how you can give your macarons a little more flair by colouring, flavouring and decorating the shells so stay tuned!  xo

 

 

 

 

Sweet 16 Macarons

A friend of recently came to me asking whether I would be interested in making some macarons for her daughter's 16th 'High Tea' themed birthday party.

My response: "umm, hell yeah!"

Having tasted some of my salted caramel macarons before these were definitely one flavour she was keen to have and I can understand why! The sweetness of the caramel enhanced by the salt flakes - dreamy! To mix it up a bit I also decided to do some Jaffa flavoured ones because, well, who doesn't like a little choc/orange sweetness in their lives?

Overall I was pretty pleased with how they turned out (and so was my friend and her daughter most importantly!) and so I present to you the recipes for salted caramel and jaffa macarons, perfect for a High Tea party or as a delicious snack with a cup of coffee...

A stack of salty sweetness!

Jaffa anyone?

 

 

 

 

For the Salted Caramel (recipe from Adriano Zumbo's Zumbaroons)

 

Ingredients:

• 1 x quantity of macaron shells, tinted light brown (see basic recipe here)

• 220g whipping cream (35% fat)
• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped (or you can use 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla essence)
• 120g water
• 300g caster sugar
• 60g liquid glucose 

• 150g unsalted butter, softened
• 5g sea salt flakes

Method:

1. Place the cream and vanilla in a bowl and microwave for about 1 minute or until it just starts to boil (then remove vanilla bean if your using one)
2. Place the water, sugar and glucose in a large saucepan over a low-medium heat and cook until the glucose and sugar are fully dissolved, stirring occasionally
3. Increase the heat to medium, and cook the sugar mixture until it reaches a dark amber colour - don't worry if it seems to be taking a long time, patience is a virtue!
4. Remove from heat and, whisking the sugar mix constantly, carefully pour the warm cream into the saucepan - WATCH OUT! the hot sugar will spit when the cream hits it!
5. Continue whisking the mix until totally smooth and pour into a bowl and set aside to cool completely.
6. With an electric mixer beat the sugar until light and fluffy and gradually beat in the cold caramel mixture (you may not need to add all the caramel, just enough that the mixture is at a pipeable consistency and too your taste!)
7. Stir in the salt a pinch at a time (again, add as much or as little as your taste buds prefer).
8. Refrigerate the mixture until it is firm enough to pipe onto your shells without running off the edges and get piping!
9. Refrigerate the assembled macarons to allow them to set and then bring to room temperature to serve.

Voila!

For the Jaffa Macarons

 

Ingredients:

• 1 x quantity of macaron shells, coloured with swirls of orange (see basic recipe here)

• 300g good quality dark chocolate, chopped
• 100ml whipping cream (35% fat content)
• 1 x Orange

Method:

1. Place the chocolate and cream in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second bursts, stirring in between each time, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth when stirred. Alternatively you could do this on a stove top using a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water.
2. Set aside to cool to room temperature
3. Zest the orange and add to the cooled ganache.  
4. Juice the zested orange and add as much or as little juice as you desire - I was using a chocolate with a very high cocoa content so used all of the juice to balance it's intensity but you can adjust it to suit your taste, the type of chocolate used etc.
5. Refrigerate the ganache mix until it is at a pipable consistency and pipe onto your macaron shells. 
6. Sandwich the shells together and enjoy!

Bonbon Macarons

Another macaron post?

 

Yup

 

Getting sick of writing about them yet?

 

Nope. Never. But for those less enthusiastic about these miracle biscuits as me, FEAR NOT!  I have plenty of non-macaron related posts coming in the very near future so stay tuned from them... but for now, ENJOY a little more crunchy, chewy goodness!

 

 

Just a quick "howdy-do" from me today. For the past few weeks I have been totally consumed all those things which come with the seasonal Christmas Spirit! Between work, baking up a variety of homemade treats, braving the shopping centres and trampling little old ladies just to get that last jar of fruit mince, to be honest I feel like a need a holiday from the holidays!

So now the craziness is over (hope you all had a happy and safe break!) I finally have the time to share with you a little gift idea I came up with this year. My girly-friends and I have a little tradition of meeting up for either a Christmas breakfast or dinner at the end of the year and, some of us being poor uni students and all, we tend not to give each other presents or otherwise just give little token gifts.

As you may be aware for the past couple of weeks I have been making batch after batch of macarons and since my friends are always commenting on my latest cooking photos (my Facebook is really more about food porn than me!) I thought it might be nice to make them up some Christmas macarons. Using some plain red and white shells (see my past recipes here and here ) I made up a batch and filled them with a cinnamon-spiced ganache I kind of just made up as I was going along and then wrapped them up a la bonbon style and finished them with curling ribbon to make a festive little gift.

 

 

 



So simple yet so effective.

Call me old-fashioned (wow, I think using that saying made me age about 100 years!) but I still feel like homemade gifts are incredibly special and a great way of showing people that you are prepared to put in the time and energy to making something unique for them. Anyone can go out, throw some money at a cash register and hey-presto - Instant present! But wrapping up a couple of biscuits in cellophane and tying the ends with curling ribbon, then actually curling it! That takes real dedication!

Yes Christmas is over, but you could really make these little babies as a mini present all year round. I know I fully intend to! 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy! xo

Christmas Macarons

Deck the halls with boughs of holly

Fa la la la la, la la la la

Shove a macaron in your face hole-y

Fa la la la la, la la la la

   

Yes, once again 'tis the season for Christmas cooking and after a bit of a delay I have finally got myself into the swing of things! Needless to say many of the gifts I give in the festive season are edible and in the weeks leading up to the big day most of my hours are spent bustling around the kitchen making a mixed array of jams, spice rubs, biscuits, truffles, oils, relishes, tarts etc. etc. (keep and eye out as I will be putting up some of these recipes as soon as I have my jars and bottles prettily wrapped!). So, when my sister told me she was after some Christmas treats to take into work this week it took me a few minutes to calm myself, wipe the excitement froth from my mouth and decide to make her, surprise surprise, MACARONS!

Not long ago I wrote a post about my foray into the crazy world of multi-coloured macarons and promised that it wouldn't be my last post on the subject (seen here). Guess what? I wasn't kidding! So, here we go again and I give you my latest attempt at the two-tone macaron - Christmas style!




Holly = Instant Christmas-ication

As per the pink/red and white colour of the shells, my initial plan was to make a candy cane flavoured filling based on the recipe of the wonderful Mr. Zumbo (just google Adriano Zumbo + candy cane macaron to check it out).

 

 

 

 

 

However, just like seeing a film featuring a suicidal looking Kristen Stewart, all too often for my liking I find my best laid plans going awry and in the end a shortness of time (mixed with a little bit of pure laziness) meant that I just whipped up a simple white choc ganache with a few drops of peppermint essence to fill these little babies with.

 

Was this the original plan? No.

Did they still taste feakin amazeballs? Hell yes!

 

How can I experience this supposedly 'amazeballs' taste for myself? Well you have to make them, silly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas 'Candy Cane' Macarons

 

For the Macaron Shells:

2 egg white (at room temperature)

100g icing sugar

60g ground almond

60g caster sugar

1 tsp red powder food colouring *

 

*How much you need will depend upon the exact shade of colour you want to achieve, the brand of colouring used etc. so just add a little at a time until you get the colour you want.

You can also double the recipe easily if you want to make more! The quantities listed above only make 12 or so depending on how big you pipe them*

Method:

1. Put ground almond and icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender and process until they are finely ground.

2. Sift the blended mixture and set aside

3. With an electric beater (or your ass-kicking Kitchenaid mixer!), beat the egg white until frothy (start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed).

4. Add in the caster sugar in a little at a time and continue to beat at maximum speed for around 2 minutes until they reach the stiff peak stage.

5. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites with a spatula until the mixture is incorporated (don't overwork at this stage like I did! It only need to have just come together!)

6. Divide the mixture into 2 parts and add the red food colouring to into one part.

7. Fold each mixture until the batter flows smoothly and falls from your spatula

8. Spoon each mixture into a zip lock sandwich bag and snip the ends to make little piping bags then, trying not to squeeze the mixture out, put both bags into a larger piping bag so they are at the same height (i.e. so when you go to pipe the colours come out at the same time)

 

9. Line several baking trays with baking paper and carefully pipe out the macarons (aim for a roughly 2cm diameter, or whatever size you are after!)

10. Leave the macarons for at least half an hour for the 'skin' to form (when you gently touch the shell your finger shouldn't stick to it!). How long this will take can depend on the weather, temperature, humidity etc. so just keep gently poking them until they are ready. Poke, poke, poke!

11. Bake them in a 160C oven for about 7 min then turn the tray around to (to ensure they bake evenly) and cook for a further 7 min or until firm to touch ( to test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's ready!). If not yet ready keep a close eye on them and give them another test every minute or so.

12. When finished take out of the oven and leave to cook completely on the baking trays.

 

For the Candy Cane Filling:

 

100g White Chocolate

60ml Cream

Few drops of Peppermint Essence

50g Butter (optional)

*I never used to add the butter but I find it does give you a nicer consistency in the end*

Method:

1. Break the chocolate into small, even sized pieces and place in a heatproof bowl

2. Bring the cream to the boil (either on the stove or, if your short on time) in the microwave and pour over the chocolate

3. Leave the mix to stand for a minute then stir with a spatula until the chocolate is fully melted and the mixture is smooth

4. Add the peppermint essence (add as much or as little as you want, subtle or bold flavours: both a good!) and mix well

5. Allow the mixture to sit and cool until it is at room temp and has thickened then, if desired, using a hand blender to blitz in the butter.

6. Pipe the mixture onto the macaron shells and sandwich together. Voila! 











Macaron Madness!

Apologies for the terribly clique and totally unoriginal post title... I have been at work all day and unfortunately the functioning part of my brain seems a little unsparked! Nevertheless, I will try to string together some coherent sentences, add some pretty pictures and create some sort of half-decent post!

Like many self-confessed foodies, in the past few years I have fallen in love with the macarons - the more flashy, little rich kid of the biscuit community! The crisp outside, gooey centre and virtually limitless flavour combinations that can be crammed into these little delicacies makes them the perfect treat for those who love to experiment with their cooking. Just one trip to Adriano Zumbo's now famous patisseries and you will see what I mean! Every year these stores host the annual Macaron Day where people queue down the street just to grab a box (or two...or three...) as all the flavours are wheeled out - this years selection varied from the humble chocolate or lychee flavoured to the more unconventional Redskin, Caramelised Hummus, Duck Pancake and even Fried Chicken  (yup, those babies are actually deep fried!). Needless to say this won't be my last post on the subject!

Whilst I have tried and tested many different flavour combinations myself (salted caramel, simple as it is, remains my fave!) I had never before really experimented in crazy-ing up the macaron shell, until now that is! May I present to your my first attempt at the tri-colour macaron!



*drum roll please...*

As you can see my first attempt was not exactly a total success, I was a little rushed and trying to navigate a new recipe as I went which resulted in some air bubbles (see Exhibit A. above!), the white mixture being a bit thicker than the red and greens and some logistics issues in stuffing the three mixtures together into the one bag without covering myself in sticky, Christmas coloured joy!

Nonetheless I persisted and the result, though somewhat imperfect, was no less delicious. Particularly when filled with an 'Eggnog' inspired ganache...

Christmas Macarons With 'Eggnoggy' Filling

For the Macaron Shells:

2 egg white (at room temperature)

100g icing sugar

60g ground almond

60g caster sugar

1 tsp red powder food colouring *

1 tsp green powder food colouring *

*How much you need will depend upon the exact shade of colour you want to achieve, the brand of colouring used etc. so just add a little at a time until you get the colour you want.

Method:

1. Put ground almond and icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender and process until they are finely ground.

2. Sift the blended mixture and set aside

3. With an electric beater (or your ass-kicking Kitchenaid mixer!), beat the egg white until frothy (start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed).

4. Add in the caster sugar in a little at a time and continue to beat at maximum speed for around 2 minutes until they reach the stiff peak stage.

5. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites with a spatula until the mixture is incorporated (don't overwork at this stage like I did! It only need to have just come together!)

6. Divide the mixture into 3 parts and add the red food colouring to into one part and the green food colouring in the second part, leave the third part white.

7. Fold each mixture until the batter flows smoothly (so it looks 'magma-like')

8. Spoon each mixture into a zip lock sandwich bag and snip the ends to make little piping bags then, trying not to squeeze the mixture out, put all three bags into a larger piping bag so they are at the same height (i.e. so when you go to pipe the colours come out at the same time)

9. Line several baking trays with baking paper and carefully pipe out the macarons (aim for a roughly 2cm diameter, or whatever size you are after!)

10. Leave the macarons for at least half an hour for the 'skin' to form (when you gently touch the shell your finger shouldn't stick to it!). How long this will take can depend on the weather, temperature, humidity etc. so just keep gently poking them until they are ready. Poke, poke, poke!

11. Bake them in a 160C oven for about 7 min then turn the tray around to (to ensure they bake evenly) and cook for a further 7 min or until firm to touch ( to test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's ready!). If not yet ready keep a close eye on them and give them another test every minute or so.

12. When finished take out of the oven and leave to cook completely on the baking trays.

 For the Eggnoggy Filling:

200g white chocolate
80ml cream (I use whipping cream)
Brandy
Ground Nutmeg
Ground Cinnamon


1. Break the chocolate into even sized pieces and pour over the cream
2. Microwave on high for 30sec, stir well and microwave for a further 30 sec
3. Continue the above step until the chocolate is completely melted
4. Stir in as much of the brandy and spices as you like (some like it spicy, some subtle!) - I used roughly 60ml of brandy and about a tsp of each spice.
5. Set the mixture aside to cool and thicken and when ready pipe onto one macaron shell and sandwich with another shell.
6. Voila! You are done, now go eat those delicious little babes and enjoy!

FYI,  the recipe for the macaron shell is largely based on the recipes provided at http://www.macaron-fetish.blogspot.com.au/ - a wonderful blog recommended to me by one of my fellow Masterchef auditionees! Anyone keen on macaron-age should definitely check it out as it provides step-by-step and very detailed instructions on how to create macarons and also some great tips for overcoming those common mistakes!


Right post done, the hour is late and my eye-bags are hanging low and swaying too and fro... must be time to go!


Ciao! xo