Thursday, April 29, 2010

Caramel Salted Butter Cream Macaron





FOR THE MACARON SHELL
1 room temperatured egg white(39-40g)
50g icing sugar
30g ground almond
30g castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon unsweetened cacao powder


Method:
1. Put ground almond, cacao powder and icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender. Blend them finely.

2. Sift the blended mixture and set aside

3. With an electric beater, Beat the egg white, start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed. Beat until frothy (you will see lots of fine bubbles)

4. Now it's the time to add in the castor sugar, add half of the sugar, continue to beat in maximum speed for around 2 minutes, add in the other half, continue until you get very stiff peak.

5. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg whites. This process is called Macaronage. Start folding with a rubber spatula. Continue to mix until you obtain a smooth lava flow batter.

6. When you get smooth shiny mixture, stop folding, lift the mixture with spatula, if the mixture falls back slowly in the bowl means you're good to go. You could also check if the lines formed from the lifted mixture, they should slowly disappear in within 30 seconds. At this stage you're good to go. Do not over fold, it will be too liquid and becoming very hard to pipe.
if you're unsure, you could refer to my basic macaron recipe as a guide HERE

7. Pipe the macaron on a baking sheet over baking tray. Hit the bottom of the baking tray with your hand to flatted out the macarons slightly.

8. Let your macarons sit for about 30minutes. This will depend on the humidity in your house and the day. Try touching the macaron softly, after 30mins. it should not stick to your hand.

9. Heat your oven to 150 C on the (heating on the top only). When the oven is ready, put your macaron at the very bottom shelf. Bake for 12 minutes, check them in the mid time of 6 minutes, the feets should already start forming. Turn the baking tray to the opposite direction to allow even baking. When the 6 mins is up, change the heating setting of your oven to Bottom only. This will help cooking the macaron and rise the feet more. Bake for another 6 minutes. You can test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's cooked. if it's not add another 1 mins each time and check.

(This is the method i found the best that works for me after few trial and error. I baked with heating the oven top and bottom and i had crack macarons. Having said that, every oven is slightly different than another, so please adjust accordingly)


10. Let the macaron cool down before removing them. You could wet your working area and slide the baking sheet on it to speed up the cooling process, but do not let it sit there too long, if not the macarons will become soggy. Other wise you can leave them cool at room temperature and remove them.




Caramel Salted Butter Cream

Ingredients

For the Salted Caramel Cream
60g castor sugar
15g salted butter (cut into small cube ~ 5 cm - room temperature)
67g fresh full cream

For the Butter Cream
20g Salted butter (Cut into small cubes room temperature)
35g Butter (Cut into small cubes room temperature)


Methods

We'll prepare the Salted Caramel Cream first
1. In a small pot, pour in half quantity of the castor sugar. Wait until the sugar dissolve then add in the rest.

2. Once the sugar starts to melt, beware and watch closely, because it will burn quickly if it's not remove from the heat quick enough. Stir lightly, once the sugar turn brown, and smell caramelised, remove immediately from heat. BE CAREFUL NOT TO BURN YOURSELF.

3. Add in 15g salted butter, stir with a wooden spatula until the butter is melted.

4. Add in the 1/3 off fresh cream, stir and mix, then another 1/3, repeat until all cream is added .

5. Pour it over a wide and flat container, if not a curved plate would do as well.

6. Put into the fridge, for about 2 hours, until the caramel cream is cold and harden slightly

Butter Cream
1. When the caramel cream is ready, bring it out of the fridge, set aside.

2. Immediately, in a mixing bowl, add in the salted butter, and butter.

3. with an electric beater, beat up the butter until it's well incorporated.

4. Add the Caramel Cream in the mixing bowl. Continue to beat until a smooth, consistent texture is obtain.


Fill your macaron immediately. Keep chill in an air tight container for up to 48 hours. Bring the macarons out of the fridge 20 mins prior serving for maximum taste! :) Enjoy

Blue Fairy Macaron (Rose Bubble Wine & Candied Pansy Butter Cream Macaron)



This month the MacAttack theme is about storybook of childhood. It makes me remember one of my favourite fairy tale - Pinocchio and the Blue Fairy that makes him a boy.



I started to think of what I could made out of this sweet fairy tale. I was sure of something blue and sparkly, but I would also like to add some bubbly touch to it.

That's how I came out with the Rose Wine butter cream with candied Pansy inside. I thought about champagne but I decided that it might be a bit wasted to use a bottle of champagne. Instead I used a bottle of bubble rose wine.



FOR THE MACARON SHELL
1 room temperatured egg white(39-40g)
50g icing sugar
30g ground almond
30g castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon Metallic blue food colouring
1/4 teaspoon Metallic blue food colouring (set aside to be sifted on top of the shell)


Method:
1. Put ground almond, food colouring and icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender. Blend them finely.

2. Sift the blended mixture and set aside

3. With an electric beater, Beat the egg white, start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed. Beat until frothy (you will see lots of fine bubbles)

4. Now it's the time to add in the castor sugar, add half of the sugar, continue to beat in maximum speed for around 2 minutes, add in the other half, continue until you get very stiff peak.

5. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg whites. This process is called Macaronage. Start folding with a rubber spatula. Continue to mix until you obtain a smooth lava flow batter.

6. When you get smooth shiny mixture, stop folding, lift the mixture with spatula, if the mixture falls back slowly in the bowl means you're good to go. You could also check if the lines formed from the lifted mixture, they should slowly disappear in within 30 seconds. At this stage you're good to go. Do not over fold, it will be too liquid and becoming very hard to pipe.
if you're unsure, you could refer to my basic macaron recipe as a guide HERE

7. Pipe the macaron on a baking sheet over baking tray. Hit the bottom of the baking tray with your hand to flatted out the macarons slightly.


8. Sift metallic food colouring powder over the shells.




9. Let your macarons sit for about 30minutes. This will depend on the humidity in your house and the day. Try touching the macaron softly, after 30mins. it should not stick to your hand.

10. Heat your oven to 150 C on the (heating on the top only). When the oven is ready, put your macaron at the very bottom shelf. Bake for 12 minutes, check them in the mid time of 6 minutes, the feets should already start forming. Turn the baking tray to the opposite direction to allow even baking. When the 6 mins is up, change the heating setting of your oven to Bottom only. This will help cooking the macaron and rise the feet more. Bake for another 6 minutes. You can test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's cooked. if it's not add another 1 mins each time and check.

(This is the method i found the best that works for me after few trial and error. I baked with heating the oven top and bottom and i had crack macarons. Having said that, every oven is slightly different than another, so please adjust accordingly)


11. Let the macaron cool down before removing them. You could wet your working area and slide the baking sheet on it to speed up the cooling process, but do not let it sit there too long, if not the macarons will become soggy. Other wise you can leave them cool at room temperature and remove them.




Rose Bubble Wine & Candied Pansy Butter Cream

If you couldn't find any rose / pink bubble, a normal yellow one would do just fine.

Ingredients

1 egg white
2.5 tablespoon of bubble wine
110g butter (cut into small cube ~ 5 cm - room temperature)
70g sugar
2 candied pansy (break into small pieces)


Methods

1. In a medium pot, fill up 3/4 of the pot with water. Bring to boil lightly

2. While the water is boiling up, hand whisk egg white in a heat proof mixing bowl until foamy.

3. Add in the sugar, when the water in the pot is warm enough, place the mixing bowl over the pot.

4. Continue to stir and hand whisk the mixture until the mixture becomes piping hot and all sugar has dissolved.

5. With electric beater, on high heat, beat the mixture until it starts to cool down.

6. Add in one cube of butter to the mixture, then beat with the electric beater until it's well corporate. Incorporate well after each addition.

7. With a rubber spatula, fold in the bubble wine and candied pansy.

8. Put in the fridge for about 2 hours until the butter cream is harden up a bit.

9. When the butter cream is ready, fill a piping bag, and pipe over one shell of macaron. Cover with another.


10. Take them out of the fridge 20 mins prior eating.Enjoy!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Rose Lychee Rasberry Macarons (Inspired by Pierre Herme's Ispahan Macaron)



FOR THE MACARON SHELL
1 room temperatured egg white(39-40g)
50g icing sugar
30g ground almond
30g castor sugar
1/4 teaspoon pink or red food colouring


Method:
1. Put ground almond, food colouring and icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender. Blend them finely.

2. Sift the blended mixture and set aside

3. With an electric beater, Beat the egg white, start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed. Beat until frothy (you will see lots of fine bubbles)

4. Now it's the time to add in the castor sugar, add half of the sugar, continue to beat in maximum speed for around 2 minutes, add in the other half, continue until you get very stiff peak.

5. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg whites. This process is called Macaronage. Start folding with a rubber spatula. Continue to mix until you obtain a smooth lava flow batter.

6. When you get smooth shiny mixture, stop folding, lift the mixture with spatula, if the mixture falls back slowly in the bowl means you're good to go. You could also check if the lines formed from the lifted mixture, they should slowly disappear in within 30 seconds. At this stage you're good to go. Do not over fold, it will be too liquid and becoming very hard to pipe.
if you're unsure, you could refer to my basic macaron recipe as a guide HERE

7. Pipe the macaron on a baking sheet over baking tray. Hit the bottom of the baking tray with your hand to flatted out the macarons slightly.

8. Let your macarons sit for about 30minutes. This will depend on the humidity in your house and the day. Try touching the macaron softly, after 30mins. it should not stick to your hand.

9. Heat your oven to 150 C on the (heating on the top only). When the oven is ready, put your macaron at the very bottom shelf. Bake for 12 minutes, check them in the mid time of 6 minutes, the feets should already start forming. Turn the baking tray to the opposite direction to allow even baking. When the 6 mins is up, change the heating setting of your oven to Bottom only. This will help cooking the macaron and rise the feet more. Bake for another 6 minutes. You can test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's cooked. if it's not add another 1 mins each time and check.

(This is the method i found the best that works for me after few trial and error. I baked with heating the oven top and bottom and i had crack macarons. Having said that, every oven is slightly different than another, so please adjust accordingly)

10. Let the macaron cool down before removing them. You could wet your working area and slide the baking sheet on it to speed up the cooling process, but do not let it sit there too long, if not the macarons will become soggy. Other wise you can leave them cool at room temperature and remove them.



For the Rose Lychee Rasberry Filling

Ingredients

1. 80g white chocolate
2. 4 canned lychee
3. 1/4 teaspoon of rose water
4. 1/2 teaspoon of lychee syrup from the can.
5. 6-8 frozen / fresh rasberry (cut into half)

Methods

1. Chop up 4 canned lychees, into small pieces, squeeze out the maximum of the juice through a sift - set aside (Too much liquid will result a liquid kind of ganache and it can soften and wet the macaron shells)

2. In a small cooking pot, over low heat, put in chopped lychee, cook over for 1-2 minutes.

3. Add in rose water & lychee syrup. Let it warm up lightly.

4. Remove from heat. Finally add in white chocolate, stir until all chocolate are melted and
well mixed.

5. Fill up the macaron shell with ganache, top up with half rasberry, then close with another macaron shell.

6. After finish piping all the macarons, pop them in an air tight container. Leave them in refrigerator overnight. You could keep the macarons up to 48 hours in the fridge. if not consumed, freeze them up. Because after 48 hours they will lose the texture.

7. Take them out of the fridge 20 mins prior eating.Enjoy!


Saturday, April 10, 2010

Licorice Mascarpone Cream Macarons



Seriously, I think if I was to present these macarons back home in Malaysia, people might not eat this. Black is generally not a good colour for luck, furthermore, blackfood is just so weird. We do have black sesame cookies, but black macarons with licorice are completely different story.

I thought of this for my Mac Attack Entry for April. The theme is April Holiday, I thought about april fool. It was one of my favourite day when I was little, because I was able to fool my classmates. So making a black macarons is kinda like a joke, at least in my cultural context. I could simply imagine the face of my parents if I took these out of the oven!



FOR THE MACARON SHELL
1 room temperatured egg white(39-40g)
50g icing sugar
30g ground almond
30g castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon black powder food colouring
1/4 teaspoon metalic white food colouring


Method:
1. Put ground almond, food colouring and icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender. Blend them finely.

2. Sift the blended mixture and set aside

3. With an electric beater, Beat the egg white, start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed. Beat until frothy (you will see lots of fine bubbles)

4. Now it's the time to add in the castor sugar, add half of the sugar, continue to beat in maximum speed for around 2 minutes, add in the other half, continue until you get very stiff peak.

5. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg whites. This process is called Macaronage. Start folding with a rubber spatula. Continue to mix until you obtain a smooth lava flow batter.

6. When you get smooth shiny mixture, stop folding, lift the mixture with spatula, if the mixture falls back slowly in the bowl means you're good to go. You could also check if the lines formed from the lifted mixture, they should slowly disappear in within 30 seconds. At this stage you're good to go. Do not over fold, it will be too liquid and becoming very hard to pipe.
if you're unsure, you could refer to my basic macaron recipe as a guide HERE

7. Pipe the macaron on a baking sheet over baking tray. Hit the bottom of the baking tray with your hand to flatted out the macarons slightly.

8. Sift metallic food colouring powder over the shells.


9. Let your macarons sit for about 30minutes. This will depend on the humidity in your house and the day. Try touching the macaron softly, after 30mins. it should not stick to your hand.

10. Heat your oven to 150 C on the (heating on the top only). When the oven is ready, put your macaron at the very bottom shelf. Bake for 12 minutes, check them in the mid time of 6 minutes, the feets should already start forming. Turn the baking tray to the opposite direction to allow even baking. When the 6 mins is up, change the heating setting of your oven to Bottom only. This will help cooking the macaron and rise the feet more. Bake for another 6 minutes. You can test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's cooked. if it's not add another 1 mins each time and check.

(This is the method i found the best that works for me after few trial and error. I baked with heating the oven top and bottom and i had crack macarons. Having said that, every oven is slightly different than another, so please adjust accordingly)



11. Let the macaron cool down before removing them. You could wet your working area and slide the baking sheet on it to speed up the cooling process, but do not let it sit there too long, if not the macarons will become soggy. Other wise you can leave them cool at room temperature and remove them.



For the Licorice Mascarpone Cream Filling
I found that the cream has a better taste of licorice the next day. If you like you could prepare the cream a day before you bake the macaron shells.

Ingredients

1 egg yolk
15g castor sugar
125g mascarpone
2 rolls licorice candy (around 50g)


Methods

1. Cut the licorice candies in small pieces. about 5mm.

Licorice Candies

2. In a small mixing bowl, add egg yolk and sugar. Whisk until pale with a hand whisk.

2. Add in half of the mascarpone into the mixing bowl, whisk until it's well mixed, then add in another half, whisk again until you get a smooth cream.

3. Add in the licorice candies, and mix lightly.

4. Pipe the macarons.

5. After finish piping all the macarons, pop them in an air tight container. Leave them in refrigerator overnight. You could keep the macarons up to 48 hours in the frige. if not consumed, freeze them up. Because after 48 hours they will lose the texture.


7. Take them out of the fridge 20 mins prior eating.Enjoy!