Monday, March 18, 2013

Chendol Macaron with Pandan Coconut Jelly


Hello my fellow followers,

First of all, I would like to apologise for my long absence, the last past 3 months with my crash course and internship had been really crazy and I am usually dead tired at the end of the day. However, I managed to find some time today to share a recipe that I had tested a while ago with you guys.

I have also a good news to share. In last December, I was contacted by an independent publisher in New York named Skyhorse. They are interested in publishing my Macaron Fetish book. So I am also currently working on grouping 3 of my Macaron Fetish books and adding more recipes to make a big book with around 100 recipes inside. It is going to be finished soon and as soon as I know the published date, I will surely share it here with you guys. Mean while please take note that all Macaron Fetish books on Blurb are nolonger available for sale to public.

So here it is - the Macaron with Malaysian flavour. Chendol is surely a well loved dish by the Malaysians and I think most Malaysians would agree that one of the best Chendol is found in Penang - my home town. Shandol is a shaved ice dessert, traditionally, prepared with some gula melaka syrup diluted in coconut milk and is topped up with some green tapioca jelly and sweet kidney bean. It definitely sounds like a crazy combination for most foreigners but this dessert is always irrisistable to me especially under the hot weather in Malaysia.

In this recipe, I am using butter cream and pair up with some coconut pandan jelly. I personally love how the combination and it is definitely one of the favourite of my family and my chef loved it :) Hope you enjoy this entry !




For the shells:
Ingredients
* 1 egg white (40g)
* 30g castor sugar

* 50g icing sugar
* 30g almond powder
* 1/2 teaspoon green food
   colouring powder
   (blend together)
Methods
1. Mix almond meal, food colouring (if use powder form) 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. if you use gel or paste food colouring, you can add it when the egg white reaches soft peak and continue to beat until stiff peak.

3. Add the dry ingredient to the meringue. 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.

4. For details and FAQ on folding please refer to this post http://macaron-fetish.blogspot.fr/2010/02/basic-macaron-recipe.html

5. Prepare your piping bag and block the tip. Fill it up. Start piping the batter.

6. Preheat oven to 150 C while the macaron is resting. Bake for 12-14 minutes and let the macaron shells cool down before removing them.

7. Match up the shells by size and get ready to prepare the filling.

For the filling:

* 1-2 pandan leaves
   See glossary page 181-182
* 25g coconut milk
* 10g water
* 1/4 teaspoon agar-agar

* 25g dark palm sugar
   See glossary page 181-182
* 15g water

* 15g castor sugar
* 8g water

* 1 egg yolk
* 60g butter
   (room temperature, cubed)
* 4 tablespoons coconut flakes


Methods
* To prepare the pandan jelly, put pandan leaves, coconut milk, and water in a deep container and blend it up with an immersion mixer. Filter the mixture with a sieve. Pour the mixture into a pot, add agar-agar powder and heat it up over medium heat , stir constantly. On its first boil, set timer to 2 minutes, keep stirring. Remove from heat, pour into a shallow bowl immediately. Let cool before putting it in the fridge .

* In a small pot, add in palm sugar and water to make palm sugar syrup. Cook over medium heat for about 5-8 minutes until a thick syrup is obtained. Set aside.

* Put castor sugar and water in a pot, warm over medium heat. Using the candy thermometer, the sugar should reach 118 °C. Start beating the egg yolk with a hand mixer in a mixing bowl when the sugar reaches 114 °C.

* Once the sugar reaches 118 °C, remove from heat, slowly pour over near the side of the bowl while beating the egg yolk using medium speed. Keep the mixer turning, until the mixture has cooled down slightly. Add in butter one piece at a time, beat and incorporated well between each addition.

* Lastly pour in palm sugar syrup, then coconut flakes. Mix well until a smooth butter cream is obtained

* Fill a macaron shell with butter cream, cut a small piece of pandan jelly, place it on the butter cream and press it down lightly before closing up with another shell.