Friday, April 06, 2012

Happy Easter Macarons








The month of March has certainly been soooo crazy and I didn't feel that I had done anything much except many trips to the vet.

One of my bunny old papy Nestor had a very nasty eye infection. he had always have runny left eye and this time the vet recommended an x-ray to make sure there is no teeth problem that cause the runny eye. Everything came out perfect so they did a culture test on his pus. While waiting for the result, Nestor's eye got worst and an ulcer was developed in his cornea. He was in pain and thus being treating with intensive drops and antibiotics without the analyse result. A week later his eye got worst and the result came back showing that he has the worst form of bacteria. The bacteria was eating up his cornea and he was in need of urgent and a very risky surgery to remove his eye or else it might burst and he could die. All this happen just right before our trip to London to visit my sister in law. Finally Nestor pulled through the surgery and we got him back the night before we left. Thanks to all my Facebook friends and family for the emotional and financial support and thanks to my in laws who took good care of him and all other bunnies while we were gone, Nestor is now recovering and doing well.

This batch of macarons are actually for thanking the vets and the team member who had done an excellent job for our little Nestor.

So, enough for the blah blah. Get back to the topic. Easter had become one of my favourite time since I became BUNNY CRAZY. I get excited seeing bunny decoration and just can't never have enough!! Sadly each year many baby bunnies are bought and offered as gift and most of them are abandoned after a few months. So I would let to take this opportunity to urge everyone to spread the words to people around them about this. Bunny can live up to 10 years and more, required regular exercise outside the cage, quality food and hays, and they required a lot care to keep they healthy and happy. So you are not prepare for 10 years commitment then - MAKE YOURS CHOCOLATE or Macaron !! :)

May I present you the Easter Macaron - Egg, Chick and Bunny




To make this batch I use
- 2 egg whites (80g)
- 60g castor sugar

- 100g icing sugar
- 60g almond meal

You will need 4 piping bags and, one nozzle with tiny head, 3 x 10 mm nozzles, toothpick and icing pen, some sugar decoration if you wish.

1. Mix almond meal and icing sugar together and blend it up in the blender. Sift then set aside.

2. Using electric beater, beat egg white until foamy, then add in half of the castor sugar, continue until the egg white reaches soft peak then add in the rest and beat until stiff peak.

3. Fold the dry ingredient to the meringue until everything is ROUGHLY combine. Seperate the batter in to 3 seperate bowls. Keep 1 tablespoon of mixture in a tiny bowl for the decoration.

4. One bowl will be left uncoloured, while the other 2 will be added in green and yellow. colouring. Start folding each batter in each bowl until a smooth shiny batter is obtain. The batter should flow down smoothly and formed a ribbon when it's ready.

5. Prepare your piping bag and block the tip. Fill in each piping bag. Start piping the batter in to oval shape.

6. For the chick macaron I simply pipe out some batter on the side and use chopstick to dip on each sides of the piped oval to create the wings.

7. For the bunny I place the nozzle with tiny head over the 10 mm to pipe the ear.I then place the sugar heard and sugar pearl on the piped shell.

8. For the egg macaron, add in orange colouring in the one tablespoon batter that was scooped out earlier, mix well and using a tooth pick, carefully dip in the batter then over the egg to 'draw' the decoration.

9. Preheat oven to 150 C while the macaron is resting. Bake for 12 minutes and let the macaron shells cool down before removing them.

10. Using the icing pen, draw the eyes and viola !






For the filling I just make simple chocolate ganache with milk chocolate and dark chocolate.

I hope that you enjoy the post and the macaron. Have a great Easter :)