more flavors.

So I've been busy working on new flavours. I wish my macarons look better as they taste! You can't really see it from here but they are slightly deformed on the top. I don't know why when I bake them, some of them depress very slightly in the centre, almost like a tyre going out of air. Could I be I didn't age my egg whites enough? (I use 24 hour aged ones). Anyway deformed or not, they still taste great.
Green - White Chocolate ganache infused with screwpine leaf (pandan). We are lucky we have pandan leaves growing wild in our backyard. everytime I need some, I just go out and cut some.
Yellow - hazelnut shell with dark chocolate and nutella ganache. I can eat dozen of this flavour combination. I simply adore hazelnuts!
Pink - It's hard to find passionfruit in Brunei but luckily, I saw some in the supermarket a few months ago. I immediately juiced and froze it. I've been meaning to try the popular milk chocolate-passionfruit combo I'd seen in blogosphere. I'm lucky to have tasted pierre herme's mogador macaron before but it was the only combo that didn't work for me. I found passionfruit goes really weird with milk chocolate, maybe white chocolate would be better? I know of others who love it though so maybe it's just me..
Brown - Chocolate Macarons with Milk Chocolate and Chilli Ganache.

The accidental macaron and thoughts.

Salted Butter Caramel Macarons



Macarons with Rose Buttercream



It was all an accident. While making some macarons one day, I couldn't find the low, circular metal stand I use to place the baking sheet on in the oven. So I used a higher stand and guess what? The hollow problem was gone!
All this while, I'd been wondering what the air pocket in my macarons were due to. How could it be after whipping up hundreds of batches, I've never once got a perfect batch? I had sifted, measured and folded everything correctly - surely the mistake couldn't be on my part. It all came down to this: The position of the tray in the oven. Using a higher or lower rack to bake your macarons will definitely have an effect on the macarons. Here are a couple of other tips that helped (for me). I can't comment on every factor out there but if anyone had the same problems like I did, I hope what I'd experienced will be of some help.

(1) I bake my macarons at 150 C for 18 min. Every oven has its own idiosyncracies so you have to find what temperature works for you. A friend of mine used 170 C but for my oven, it burns the macarons after just a few minutes. I cover the above rack with aluminium foil to prevent the colour of the macarons from fading. This is a must for me.

(2) I always do my macarons in an air-conditioned room (living in a tropical clime). I've found that without it, the macarons do not dry and form skins even when placed under a fan. I've had macarons 'drying' for one entire day under a fan and yet they still cracked when placed in the oven, because the humidity in the air affected with the ability to form skins. The drying time is again, individual, but in my case it takes 45 min to an hour before I pop them into the oven with confidence they will not crack. For me, resting for the macarons to dry out is very important - it will ensure crack free macarons.

(3) Lopsided macarons (when they decide to put on sun hats) are due to leaving them to dry out for far too long. I get lopsided macarons when I leave them to crust over for more than 4 hours.

(4) When the feet of your macaron splay out, it is not aesthetically ideal. You have to lower your oven temperature.

(5) If you have any problems with hollows, you may (1) rap the pan sharply on the table a few times after piping the shells to remove air bubbles, then prick them with a pick (2) adjust your temperature or (3) adjust position of pan in the oven. Also, an undercooked macaron will definitely be hollow. I find there is a very fine line between being slightly undercooked and just done.

(5) After being filled, macarons must be rested in the fridge for at least 24 to 48 hours, and then brought to room temperature 2 hours before eating. This is extremely important. Newly filled macarons taste dreadful because they are too crisp. Once the shell absorbs the moisture from the filling - the transformation will make the macaron snap delicately like an egg shell upon bitin,g into a moist and tender interior.

(6) I'm using French meringue because I find it yields a more tender and melt-in-your-mouth macaron. I have not much success with italian meringue (my shells always end up crunchy even after maturation) but I will keep practicing the technique more in future.

Review: The salted butter caramel is incredibly rich and to die for. I much prefer this over say a caramel buttercream because I feel the former has a more decadent flavour and as for the rose, - as I've mentioned before I'm not a big fan of buttercream but somehow this seems to work - the sensous feel of the rose perfumed buttercream absolutely melts in the mouth :)

on croissant making.

Brushing egg wash on the shaped croissants.



Layers of laminated dough in the pain au chocolat.



This is my third attempt on making croissants and it seems I shaped the dough better this time. I remember my 1st attempt on croissant making was a complete disaster. Making the croissant pastry is akin to making puff pastry and involves rolling a slab of butter into a yeasted dough, folding it in thirds, rolling out, rotate, do another turn and in between you chill the mixture 4 times. It was a disaster because I was working in a warm environment and the butter kept oozing out of the dough until the whole thing disintegrated in a gloppy mess. Moral of the story: Work in an cir-conditioned room and keep on dusting your workplace and your hands generously with flour. If you do get leaks, simply patch it up with a bit of flour.
Anyway, after 3 times - I quite enjoy making them now. They are not too difficult to make but making it is a fairly intensive process - you need at least a full day. The positive thing is that the end product tastes so much better than the ones in the freezer section of the supermarket. Flaky, buttery and moist insides - what's not to love?

in the mood for pecan pie.

A pecan pie is the quintessential American classic. However, the first time I tried the recipe, my teeth almost fell out. I like sweet things but this was wayyyyyyyy so sweet that my pulp cavities were tingling. A few adjustments later, I've reduced the sweetness level to acceptable for me. And not being a fan of deep dish monster pies, I did individual tartelettes. The following recipe does enough to fill six 8 cm tart rings or a shallow 9 inch tart pan. The crisp shortcrust, the buttery pecans, the gooey caramel filling - can you say heaven?

Recipe:
6 pre-baked tart shells (use your favorite shortcrust pastry)
2/3 cup golden or corn syrup.
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs.
1 and 1/2 cup chopped pecans.
2 tbsp melted butter.

Steps:
1. Melt the butter and let cool.
2. Whisk the sugar lightly with the eggs, add in the syrup and whisk.
3. Whisk in the melted butter.
4. Toss in the pecans and stir.
5. Spoon mixture into the tart shells.
6. Bake at 160 C for 18 minutes till filling has puffed up and set.

in the mood for lemon tart.

When it comes to lemon desserts, people are divided into 2 camps. either they hate it or they love it. I've eaten my fair share of horrid lemon desserts; the usual complaint being it being far too sour to be palatable.
I am very particular when it comes to the lemon curd; it cannot be too sour nor can it be too sweet. fortunately, this tart has just the right balance. The custard is seductively smooth and creamy almost like eating the lemony version of a creme brulee.
For this lemon tart, I took the recipe from here:http://www.exclusivelyfood.com.au/2009/04/lemon-tart-recipe.html. I halved the filling recipe for the lemon curd and it made just enough to fill about 6 eight cm diameter tartlets. The filling will soften the pastry over time so it's best to eat the tart as soon as possible. When making custard type tarts, I like to wrap the tart mould in aluminium foil and let them stand in a roasting pan filled with warm water. I find the filling will bake and set more evenly but that's just me :)

the humble chocolate chip cookie.

O Chocolate Chip Cookie, how do I adore you? Let me count the ways..
I've always felt every good baker should have an awesome chocolate chip cookie recipe up his or her sleeve. I've tried out so many recipes before but this remains my favourite one. They are thin, but not too thin and best of all - they are giant sized. You want them to be soft and chewy so overbaking them is a big no-no. Definitely good for sharing but you won't want to share once you take the first ecstatic bite :)



Recipe:

4 and 1/2 tbsp of butter
5 ounces of 70% dark chocolate chopped into rough chips.
1 cup plus 2 tbsp of plain flour
1/2 tsp soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar

Steps:

1. Cream butter and sugar till light. Add the egg and vanilla.
2. Stir in flour and soda.
3. Toss in the chocolate.
4. Chill at least 30 mins (Some people suggest overnight or even up to 3 days but I do not like how dry the cookie dough will become).
5. Drop by tablespoons into golf sized mounds on cookie sheet.
6. Bake at 150 C for 12 min. Cookies will still look slightly undone but will firm up as it cools.

thoughts on macarons.

Here are some macarons I made over the weekend. The beige ones are filled with pink vanilla buttercream. I used a whole vanilla bean for the cream but it still tasted bland to me. Which reminds me why I don't like buttercream - I think next time, I'll do it as a white chocolate-vanilla bean ganache. But the texture of the macaron shell though was lovely, it simply melts in your mouth.
My favourite flavour by far has to be the orange ones filled with salted butter caramel. I really have to stop myself polishing off the whole lot :)




Remember my very first attempt making macarons? Those horrid brown ones only serve to remind me what a long way I've come.
I still have not resolved the air pocket problem though... after trying the french meringue method a gazillion times, I've always encountered a gap, ranging from slight to very obvious, between the shell and the foot. Reading across all the info by macaron makers online, I found at least two who said they have never resolved the air pocket when it comes to the french method but when they used the italian method, they do not get hollows. I will try the italian method next month when my thermometer arrives.
Anyway, hollow or not - these bottoms of these shells can be pressed slightly to make way for the filling and when bitten into, I don't think anyone is gonna notice. I've tried macarons at two places in Brunei - the first had really glaring air pockets and the second had textures really tough and chewy which wasn't ideal.