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 :)

6 comments:

  1. That is so adorable and beautiful! So eager to try this recipe out :) Glad I came across this post!

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  2. Hi Kim! i really love ur blog..it's so inspiring! and since i'm obsessed with macaron baking rite now.. well, it's just my 3rd attempt, but i'm so frustrated with my macaron.. i really need help for few questions here..
    1) i live in sabah, malaysia.. so the weather here is quite humid and it took me hours to leave my macaron to sit while waiting for the shell to form outside layers.. Do the weather really affect my macarons?
    2) i'm baking using my stove oven (electric powered) so, i'm wondering, does the oven affects my macaron turning out wit no feet?
    I really appreciate ur help Kim because i'm thinking of doing home-business with this macaron :)
    Thanks in advance!

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    Replies
    1. Hello

      I had baked macaron once in Malaysia but in air conditioned room. In my experience if you bake the shell without letting it rest the only difference for me is the shape. The mac looks more 'domey' . I had tasted some macarons in Singapore and Thailand i think the humidity does affect the shells, they are too chewy for me.

      Each oven is different and you may have to do a few tries before finding out what is right. Some oven tend to heat up more. Just make sure the fan is working

      Hope it helps

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  3. Hi Kim!

    I love your blog and your creations! Totally inspirational for what I probably won't be able to do hahaha. I have been baking macarons a few times now but my luck with getting feet is 50%. Do you know why you don't get feet sometimes? I do wait for the shell to form before I put them into the oven.

    Thanks in advance!

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    Replies
    1. Hi sorry for the late reply. For the feet is it kind of a complex thing to explain; it depands highly on macaronage (not enough folding - no feet), too much (flat macaron). Then it also depands on your oven, if your macaron cracks it wont get any feet, try lowering your oven temperature by 10 C. Hope it helps

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  4. These are so adorable! How do you keep the ears so tiny?
    Thanks for sharing at the March of Macaron link party!

    ReplyDelete