Macaron Me

8 Tips for Macaron Success

2014-03-09T04:10:00.001-07:00

I’ve had more than a few macaron fails over the years. They don’t rise, they bubble, the batter is too thin, too thick, they’re undercooked, overcooked, they’re not round, they spread too much, and the list goes on. I won’t lie. Macarons are hard. But, after many hours and many dollars wasted on less-than-perfect batches, I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks to help the frustrated macaron-maker do all they can to achieve macaron success. Having said that, you can do everything right and they still turn out wrong. The temperature of your kitchen, the humidity, the oven and the quality and age of the almond meal can all affect the way macarons cook, but don’t let that deter you! If you’ve all but given up on macarons, have a go at my macaron recipe, put these into practice and see if they bring some joy back to baking my favourite French treat.

1. Age your egg whites
This is an absolute must. I’ve read lots of recipes and blog posts from people who claim to not age their egg whites (or just microwave them instead) and still manage to produce beautiful macarons, but I’m convinced it simply can’t be done. Anything can look beautiful through an Instagram filter, but if you want smooth, silky, chewy, shiny macarons that look stunning in real life, not just on Facebook, you need to age your egg whites. (They need to dry out and thicken to give the meringue the thickness and lift it needs to support the almond paste.) Crack them into a bowl two or three days ahead of time, cover them with a paper towel if you’re paranoid about dust, and leave them on the bench top. They won’t turn gross, I promise. Egg white can be left at room temperature for weeks without any problems. The yolks, on the other hand, need to be refrigerated and used within 24 hours, so go and make yourself a crème brulee or some lemon butter and get back to those macarons in three days. You’ll thank me for it!

2. Pass your almond meal through a very fine sieve
Don't just use a regular ol' sieve. The almond meal needs to be very fine, otherwise your batter won't be runny enough and your macarons will end up lumpy and grainy. I don't actually use a sieve at all - I scrape my almond meal through a splatter guard that I sit flat over the top of a bowl. I firmly rub my fingers over the almond meal in a circular motion against the splatter guard. You'll see all the coarse husky bits that didn't make it into the sifted almond meal - I usually just tap these into the sink, but if you're super thrifty you can always save them and add them to a cake or muffin batter later. If you absolutely have to use a regular sieve, blitz the almond meal in a food processor first - this will help break up the really coarse grains.

3. Use a high-quality stand mixer
I know this is bad news for anyone who wants to make macarons with their hand beaters, but hey – I’ve just given you an excuse to buy a KitchenAid! Unfortunately hand beaters and low-end stand mixers just don’t have the “grunt” needed to beat that meringue into submission. A KitchenAid or Kenwood Chef is the best, but as long as you have a high quality bench-top mixer, you should be fine. I hate to say it, but even the Thermomix doesn’t cut it in this instance. Anyone who knows me knows I rarely go a day without praising my Thermomix, I love it like part of the family, but when it comes to whipping macaron meringue, the speed-4-limit that comes with using the butterfly attachment means the meringue doesn’t quite stiffen up enough. I tried it once and ended up having to finish the job in my Kenwood. Having said that, macarons made with the Thermomix or cheaper mixers may still work, but they definitely won’t be what they could be if a higher powered mixer was used. You’ll find the batter will be thinner than it should be, your macarons will likely spread too far, and they will feel dry or hollow inside. These are still technically macarons, but you will get a better result by far with a KitchenAid or Kenwood Mixer.

4. Ensure the bowl of your mixer is very clean and very dry
Stainless steel is the best bowl to use with your mixer, although I’ve always used plastic as it’s all I’ve ever had and it’s been fine for me. You do, however, need to ensure there’s no oily residue on the bowl or whisk, otherwise it will upset the batter in the cooking process.

5. Be careful with colours
If you’re going to colour your macaron shells, you need to know when to add the food colouring, depending on what type you’re using. Powdered food colouring should be added to the almond meal/icing sugar mixture before the egg whites are incorporated. Liquid food colouring should be added to the caster sugar/water mixture as it heats up on the stove. Gel food colouring is the best type to use (as it has less water so is less likely to affect the consistency of the batter) and this should also be added at the sugar/water heating stage. It’s also important to only have one colour per batch. Don’t try and divide the batter in half right at the end and colour two separate lots – you will end up over-working your batter and it will be ruined. If you want to make shells in two different colours but don’t want to be stuck with 100 macarons (not that anyone would complain about that…) then make two half-batches separately to each other.

6. Don’t use cocoa in shells
Chocolate macarons are very popular, but cocoa and macaron batter don’t mix. The amount of cocoa required to tint your shells a nice “chocolatey brown” ends up adding too much oil to your batter and they will turn out soft and fudgy. You won’t get the crisp outer that macarons are famous for. You can add a very small amount of cocoa which will tint the shells a pale beige, but if you want them to look like chocolate, use food colouring and save the cocoa for the filling instead.

7. Don’t over-work your batter
I think this is where most people get stuck. It’s the scariest part of making macarons. Hundreds of macarons later and I still get nervous when it comes to working the batter. Under-worked batter will leave you with little mountain peaks on grainy macarons, and over-worked batter will cause them to spread too thinly, stop them from rising and will keep the foot from forming. There’s such a fine line between under and over-working the batter that it’s really hard to know when to stop. The best way I’ve found is to keep folding the batter onto itself until you can lift the spatula and a continuous ribbon of batter falls away. If the ribbon “breaks”, it probably needs to be worked a little more. The only way to know is with experience, so keep trying! You want it to wobble like jelly but be smooth enough to fill a well in the centre. When I think I’m getting close to the right consistency I usually put a small amount (enough for 3 or 4 shells) into my piping bag and pipe a couple of circles onto the baking paper. Wait 30 seconds, tap the bottom of the tray onto the bench, and if there’s still a little peak on top of the batter, you probably need to work it a tiny bit more. Remember, the batter will also be working itself in the piping bag as you pipe your shells, so it’s always better to be under than over. At the end of the day it’s an art, not a science, and only experience will tell you when the batter is ready to pipe.

8. Use a template
Using a template ensures all your macarons are uniform. They look so much more beautiful when they're lined up perfectly matched with pairs the same size and shape. Just slip your template underneath the baking paper and you're good to go. Make your own on the computer or you can use mine. Alternatively, trace your circles directly onto the baking paper by tracing around a circular object about 4cm in diameter. Just make sure you turn the paper upside-down before piping. No one wants pencil-flavoured macaron.

I hope these tips are helpful in your macaron endeavors, but really the best thing is to just keep trying!!! If something goes wrong, Google it and find out why! You’ll feel such a sense of accomplishment after baking your first (or second, or third, or fourth) successful batch of macarons, it’s definitely worth persevering!

Rocky Road Macarons

2013-09-14T00:04:00.000-07:00

I was almost too ashamed to write this post for fear that everyone would see how long it's been since I last blogged. I knew it had been a while, but really? October 2012? How did I go 11 months without posting a blog? More to the point, how did I go that long without baking macarons???

In my defense, a LOT has happened since last October. I had a baby for one thing. And I guess with pregnancy, working, staging The Wizard of Oz, supporting Brendan and the Unichurch plant, giving birth and learning to use my new Thermomix, there just hasn't been any time for baking. How embarrassing.

So when a friend asked me to bake macarons for a lunch get-together tomorrow, I was more than happy to have a reason to get back in the kitchen to make something other than dinner.

I've had this vision in my head for a while now to make one of those chocolate cakes with a chocolate finger biscuit border that you see all over Pinterest, except filling the top with a mish-mash of rocky road bits. I needed to make macarons for Sunday, so Brendan, in the style of Old El Paso, suggested, "Why not have both?"

I guess since it was hubby's idea to make the macarons in the first place, I can forgive him for nearly sabotaging the entire effort. After waking up at 7 to give our bubba boy his morning feed, I put him back to sleep (yes, we have a super baby. He sleeps 10 hours, has a feed, then sleeps 2 more), I sacrificed my Saturday sleep-in so I could bake without distraction. While the macarons were in the oven, baby Ethan needed another feed, so I asked Brendan if he could put the last two trays in the oven for me. I gave very explicit instructions, one on the top shelf, one on the bottom shelf, nothing in the middle, put the hot tray on the stove, etc, etc, but failed to mention that the trays of uncooked macarons were sitting on the table at the other end of the house (I keep my trays there while they wait for the oven so they don't clutter the kitchen.) My lovely, helpful husband unfortunately didn't read my mind, and instead of looking for the trays of raw macaron batter, he saw two trays that were already cooked and put them back in the oven for another 16 minutes. Sigh... We both agreed that each of us were partially responsible, but secretly I was thinking to myself "really? Pretty sure a trained monkey would have known that tray was already baked". Brendan is very patient. He let me have my moment, he let me breathe deeply, close my eyes and say "I'm not angry at you, I'm just angry", but I'm pretty sure he was secretly thinking "really? THIS is what makes you angry? Two trays of overcooked macarons? First world problems much??"

Anyhoo, on with the baking.

I started with just regular ol' pink macaron shells, but instead of filling them with a traditional ganache, I added in a cup of minimarshmallows, hoping to get a bit of the marshmallow flavour in with the chocolate. I used my Thermomix for this (I still needed my old faithful Kenwood Chef for the whipping of the egg whites though - speed 4 on the Thermo just doesn't cut it for Italian meringue) by combining 250g dark chocolate, 200g cream and a heaped cup of mini marshmallows at 50C for 4 minutes on speed 3.

When it came to filling the shells, I piped a blob of ganache on the bottom shell, sprinkled some chopped nuts on the ganache, then piped a small amount of ganache on the inside of the top shell before sandwiching them together. (The ganache on the top shell isn't normally necessary but I needed to make sure the shells still stuck together even with nuts covering the ganache.)

Then came the fun part!

I decided my rocky road would be made out of mini marshmallows, small slices of raspberry licorice, chopped nuts and milk chocolate. I piped another small blob of ganache on top of my assembled macarons, arranged three marshmallows and three licorice slices on the ganache, drizzled the tops with melted chocolate and sprinked nuts on top. Too easy! Perhaps one day I'll make the marshmallows and licorice myself, but for now, I'll stick with what's convenient.

I have to say, I'm pretty chuffed with how they turned out. Brendan and I agree - they are the most delicious flavour combo I've come up with (well, Brendan thinks he can take the credit since it was his idea). It's probably a good thing I only had half a batch to work with. Because I need to take every single one with me when we go to lunch tomorrow, there aren't any leftovers for us to nibble on - I can guarantee you, they wouldn't last long otherwise.

Gingerbread Man Macarons with Gingerbread Cookie Dough Buttercream

2012-10-08T04:42:00.003-07:00

One baking blog I've been following for some time is Raspberri Cupcakes. Everything she does is amazing, but I especially love her crazily shaped macarons. She's done all kinds of animals, ice cream cones, shamrocks, presents, hearts and more. She also writes about a delicious-sounding cookie dough buttercream which I was keen to use in a macaron. One of my most reliable and delicious cookie recipes is my Gingerbread Cookie Dough recipe (I'm sure I'll put it up here sooner or later). Whenever I make them I have to force myself to stop eating the raw dough. So, I had a go at combining the cookie dough buttercream with my gingerbread cookie recipe to put together these ultra cute Gingerbread Man Macarons with Gingerbread Cookie Dough Buttercream.

I used my basic macaron shell recipe to make the gingerbread men. I meant to colour the shells with Parisian Browning Essence, except I forgot to add it to the sugar (second time this week I've done that!!). I didn't want to stuff up my egg whites by adding too much liquid, so I just put in a few drops of the browning essence meaning I didn't get as deep a brown as I was hoping for.

It was my first time piping shapes, so I used a slightly smaller nozzle on my piping bag and drew some gingerbread man outlines on my baking paper. I ended up undermixing my batter which made my men a little bumpy, but at least they all held their shape.

Gingerbread Cookie Dough Buttercream

Adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes

55g butter, cubed and softened
6 tbs firmly packed brown sugar
135g plain flour
180g sweetened condensed milk
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1 - 2 tsp ginger (to taste)
2 tbs golden syrup
1/2 cup icing sugar

Beat the butter and brown sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and mix for 3-4 minutes until well combined. Leave in the fridge to set for 20 minutes or so.

Be sure to not add garam masala to your buttercream instead of ginger like I did... My fault for seeing the "G" on the packet and assuming I had the right spice. I scraped as much as I could out of the mixture, but the slightly strange spicy flavour tells me that I didn't quite get it all out. It's still a delicious buttercream and tastes just like the bits of cookie dough I nibble on whenever I make Gingerbread Cookies. The decorations are done with a very basic royal icing made of egg white and icing sugar mixed together until a stiff consistency is reached.

They're a little too cute to eat! Fortunately I made some round macarons too, so I can indulge on those instead of beheading one of my little macaron men.

Choc-Malt Macarons

2012-10-05T00:30:00.002-07:00

I LOVE Maltesers. The chocolate, the malt, the crunch...yum! So what could be better than combining my two loves to make Choc-Malt Macarons?

I wanted these macarons to give the same experience as eating a Malteser - smooth melty milk chocolate, followed by the crunch of the malt, but I didn't want to cheat by using actual Maltesers. I read online that you can make your own malted milk balls by combining malt power with white chocolate, rolling it into balls, freezing them, then dip them into melted chocolate. I used this technique to make malt discs large enough to cover the surface of the macaron shell. Ganache is generally made with dark chocolate, but again I wanted to preserve the taste of Maltesers, so I used milk chocolate instead. Click here for the basic macaron shell recipe.

Crunchy Malted Milk Filling

125g white chocolate

4tbs malt powder

Melt the chocolate over a double-boiler or in the microwave. Mix in malt powder. Once the mixture is combined, take a handful and press onto a flat surface until it is about 5mm thick (you could probably use a rolling pin but I just used my fingers). Using a 3cm cookie cutter (or anything else round) cut out circles of the mixture. Place the circles onto a tray lined with baking paper and freeze for a few hours. I also sprinkled some of the crumbled mixture all over the baking paper before freezing, as I wanted to try two different techniques for including the malt into the macaron.

Milk Chocolate Ganache

100mL cream

250g milk chocolate chips

Place the cream in a medium saucepan over low heat. Just as bubbles begin to appear, pour the hot cream over the choc chips and stir until melted. Refrigerate until set.

Once the discs and crumbles are hard, pipe chocolate ganache onto one macaron shell, place the malt disc (or crumbles) over the chocolate, then pipe a small amount of extra chocolate ganach before sandwiching another shell on top. I chose to dust cocoa on top for decoration.

The "disc" macarons really do give that sensation of biting into a Malteser. First you gently bite into the soft macaron shell, then you taste the smooth, rich chocolate, then you crunch into crisp malt in the middle. Admittedly, it's not quite the same level of "crunchiness" that Maltesers have (I think Maltesers go though some sort of vacuum process to get the bubbly crispiness) but it's still exciting to experience that many textures in such a tiny morsel. Having said that, I actually think the "crumble" macarons look a whole lot more special. They look like they're going to be fun to eat. They look like they should be served at a party or somewhere exciting. But they don't have that same contrast in texture as the "disc" macarons. I guess you have to decide what you want more - textures or prettiness. Or you can be like me and make both.

Anyhoo, I hereby dub Choc-Malt Macarons a roaring success. They have also received the seal of approval from Brendan, who thinks they may even taste better than his all-time favourite Peanut-Butter Choc Macarons. Who needs Maltesers when you can make your own in macaron form?

Turkish Delight Macarons with Pashmak (Persian Fairy Floss)

2012-10-04T06:15:00.004-07:00

School holidays have come and have brought with them plenty of macaron inspiration! I can't believe it's already Thursday and I'm only just getting my first batch of macarons up and running. Well, despite a slow start, I'm hoping to get right on track and try all sorts of baking experiments. First up: Turkish Delight Macarons.

To be perfectly honest, the main reason I wanted to try Turkish delight macarons was so I had a reason to buy pashmak, otherwise known as Persian Fairy Floss. Okay, I know, Perisan Fairy Floss and Turkish Delight are from two separate countries, but it's all kind of the same area, right? Anyway, I've always wanted to try pashmak, and Turkish delight macarons seemed like a good accompaniment. Pashmak isn't something you buy to eat on it's own, it's more of a garnish to add prettiness and excitement to desserts. My vision was to make some cute little pink macarons and finish them off with a swirl of pashmak on top.

I made a basic white batter but tried out this technique to get the pink swirly effect on some of the shells. I also used the toothbrush splatter technique on a different tray to get a cute pink speckled look. I left a few trays just plain white.

Once that was done, it was time to tackle the Turkish delight. That's when things got a little crazy. In my head I wanted to make some sort of flat tray of Turkish delight and then cut out disc shapes with a cookie cutter to sandwich between the two shells. I googled some Turkish delight recipes and ended up trying not one, not two, but three different versions. Yes, you read correctly. I needed to try three different times, and still wasn't 100% satisfied. But here's what happened anyway...

My first attempt at making Turkish delight came from here and turned out like this:

Yeah...I know, right? It looked like a cross between vegemite and tree sap. Poor Brendan even stood over the stove for an hour stirring, and it STILL failed. Plus my beautiful Tupperware silicone spatula is now stained. Not to worry, I decided to give it another go, this time with a microwave recipe. Apparently this one wasn't technically Turkish delight, because it used gelatine to set rather than a starch. It ended up looking okay...

...but it didn't taste so good. It was alright at first, but I was left with a really floury aftertaste. I didn't want to ruin a perfectly good batch of macaron shells by filling them with sticky cornflour. Trying not to think about all the ingredients I had already wasted, I decided to give it one more try using this recipe. It wasn't too bad in the end.

Aside from the fact that I added a bit too much rosewater essence, the flavour was quite nice. It may have had a texture like Clag glue, which threw my cookie cutter idea out the window, but it wasn't so bad in the end as it meant I could pipe the mixture straight onto the macaron shells.

The finishing touch was the pashmak. I only put it on top of the white shells, but it actually enhanced the flavour and made them taste so much better, so I think it's worth serving with all the shells, not just the whites. The pashmak is so deliciously delicate and so stunning to look at on its own that when paired with macarons it brings the entire dish to a whole new level. It was exciting for me just to plate it up, let alone eat it!

I would definitely make these again, especially if I was going to some sort of Middle-Eastern-themed event, but I think next time I'll just buy the Turkish delight and either cut it or pipe it onto the shells. Although I was happy with the flavour of my third Turkish delight attempt, I still think the store-bought stuff tastes better (especially the one they sell at Kakulas Sister!!!) I'll be looking for other ways to incorporate pashmak into my cooking, too. It's hideously expensive ($15 a pack) but now that I have some, a little seems to go a long way. I still have most of the packet left, and it seems to last a while in an airtight container. Has anyone else had more success than me in making Turkish delight? Can you think of other ways to use pashmak?

Margarita Macarons

2012-08-06T06:48:00.001-07:00

What better flavour to compliment my friends fabulous Mexican-themed dinner than Margarita Macarons! Personally, I don't actually like margaritas (I think it's the saltiness that really doesn't do it for me) but I LOVE lime, so I thought I'd see what happens when I try making a lime curd with tequila and piping it into lovely green macaron shells.

To be honest, I didn't love these macarons. There was something about the line curd that I just didn't like. I used Stephanie Alexander's lemon curd recipe but replaced the lemon juice with a 3:2 ratio of lime juice and tequila. I love lemon curd, but the line flavour was a lot more different to lemon than I was expecting. Having said that, everyone else who tried them seemed to really enjoy the taste so I guess it depends on how much you like lime.

The macaron shell is my same, tried and tested recipe using green food colouring. The lime curd is made using 4 egg yolks (finally a way to use up the yolks that usually get thrown out!!!), 2/3 cup castor sugar, 60g butter, 2 tsp grated lime zest, 60mL lime juice and 40mL tequila. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until well combined but not frothy. Tip into a heavy-based saucepan and add butter, zest and juice. Stirring constantly, bring to simmering point over a medium-high heat (about 5 minutes). If you want to, add a little green food colouring. Allow to cool. Refrigerate until thickened and pipe onto macaron shells.

Since I didn't really like the lime curd, I decided to only make a half batch of margarita flavour and fill the rest if the shells with a basic ganache. Chocolate is a great, fool-proof, timeless classic. Everyone loves chocolate, so it's a great choice to serve up for dessert. My freezer has been getting rather cluttered with unfilled macaron shells (leftovers from making large batches and running out of filling) so I used some of the ganache to fill these too. I love having ready-to-go macarons in the freezer!!

For the chocolate ganache, heat up 150mL of whipping cream in a saucepan over low heat until just before boiling. You know the cream is ready by smelling it. (I'm serious! As soon as the cream's smell becomes rich and sweet, it's ready.). Pour the hot cream directly over 200g chocolate chips/buttons and stir until chocolate has melted. Refrigerate until thickened and pipe onto macaron shells.

Honeycomb Macarons

2012-07-28T03:16:00.002-07:00

This experience has shown me, beyond the shadow of a doubt, just how important it is to age egg whites. My last few batches of macarons have been made with egg whites that either haven't been aged at all, or have just been out overnight. Sick of frantically trying to age egg whites in the microwave, I have begun to always have a bowl of egg whites on my bench ready for me to bake whenever I please. The egg whites I used today had been out for 4 days and as soon as they went into the mixer I could see the difference. They begun to foam up much quicker than normal, and after six minutes of whisking they were gloriously glossy, voluminous and airy. The sheer volume of the egg white also meant my batter went further - I was able to fill 5½ trays with batter. I've had as little as 3½ tray's worth with non-aged egg whites. I don't know why it is (something to do with the proteins in the egg breaking down or something) but I am now completely convinced how important this step is in making macarons.

The inspiration for this flavour came from a friend at work. And let's face it - who doesn't love honeycomb? I wanted to create macarons that combined both chocolate and honeycomb flavours, but I was a little hesitant about attempting chocolate macaron shells again. Zumbo may say it's okay in his book, but things just never work out for me when cocoa is involved. Instead of risking another failed batch of macarons, I emailed Alexandre Lui-Van-Sheng who taught a macaron class I attended last year. He replied by saying that this particular recipe for macarons just doesn't work when cocoa is added. Maybe due to the oil content perhaps? I'm not sure. So even though it apparently works for Zumbo, it's just not going to happen for me.

I was disappointed, as I had a picture in my mind of a deep, dark, brown chocolate shell filled with a bright yellow honeycomb filling. I had a look in some kitchen stores to look for some brown food colouring, to no avail. I wasn't brave enough to mix red, blue and yellow food dye - I didn't want to be left with some purpley-browny mess. I was about to give up and just make yellow shells, when I discovered Parisian Browning Essence in Coles. It says to use to to brown puddings, gravies, sauces and cakes, so why not macaron batter? Apparently it's not Parisian at all, and it looked a little like soy sauce, but I decided to give it a go. It didn't have that deep, dark, chocolatey-brown effect like I was hoping, but it is still a good alternative to using cocoa. It absolutely stinks so I wasn't going to put too much in. I used about 2 tablespoons which gave a light brown shell colour. I could have added more, but didn't want to risk affecting the taste.

Even though they don't look as striking as I wanted, they still look quite rustic and pretty (rustic because the chunks of honeycomb in the buttercream make it impossible to pipe smoothly!) They taste delicious, and look lovely with a bit of cocoa sifted on top (I'm not sure how the sprinked cocoa will go in the freezer though, so I would only do this just before you serve). I'm sure the Arts Staff at school will love these!!!!

For the macaron shells:

Makes about 50 macarons

300g finely sifted almond meal (see note)

300g sifted pure icing sugar

110g aged egg whites

300g caster sugar

75g water

110g egg whites extra, at room temperature (don't have to be aged)

2 tbs Parisian Browning Essence (or a few drops of brown food colouring)

Note: I use my hands to press the almond meal through a splatter guard as I can't find a fine enough sieve. Sift it first, and then weigh to see if you have enough. You'll end up having to discard any almond meal that's too course for the sieve.

Line four trays with baking paper. Combine the sifted almond meal and icing sugar in a large bowl. Put the aged egg whites into a mixer bowl. Combine caster sugar and water in a saucepan and carefully mix so all the sugar is wet. Try not to leave too much sugar on the sides of the saucepan - use a spatula to push the sugar back down to the bottom. This will prevent the sugar crystalising. Heat up the sugar on low heat until it's dissolved (rub some water between your fingers. If you can feel the granules, the sugar hasn't dissolved.) Increase the heat to medium and bring to the boil. Once the sugar reaches 100oC, turn the mixer onto low speed. As the sugar is boiling, add the browning essence/food colouring. Adding it here allows the water to evaporate out. If you are using powdered colouring, mix it into the dry ingredients instead.

Continue boiling the sugar until it reaches 118oC. Pour the sugar into the mixer. Pour it down the side of the bowl, rather than in the middle, to prevent spun sugar. Increase the mixer to high speed and whisk for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, use a spatula to combine the extra egg whites with the dry ingredients to create a thick paste. When the egg whites are thick and glossy, mix a bit at a time into the almond paste. Once all the egg white has been incorporated into the paste, continue working the mixture with a spatula. Be careful not to overwork the batter - it's ready when you can lift the spatula out of the bowl and the batter slowly falls off.

Using a piping bag with a 12mm nozzle, pipe 3cm circles of batter onto prepared trays (I like to use a template that I slide under the baking paper). Turn on the oven to 135oC (I have a fan-forced oven so I only heat it up to 135oC. All ovens are different, so you just have to figure out what works for you. Wait 20 minutes and see if the batter has formed a skin (gently touch one of the macarons - if the mixture feels sticky, leave it for another ten minutes.) Bake for 16 minutes. I like to just bake one tray at a time because my oven is a bit dodgy, but other ovens may happily take more than one tray - you just have to experiment.

Remove trays from the oven and sit for 2 minutes. Try removing a macaron with a spatula. If it is sticking to the paper, put the tray back in the oven for 2 minutes then try again. Allow macarons to cool completely, then pair them together with shells of similar size.

For the Honeycomb Buttercream:

120g softened butter

200g sifted icing sugar

1 cup finely crushed chocolate coated honeycomb

Yellow food colouring

Cream butter in a mixer with the beater attachment. Add icing sugar and mix on low speed until combined. Increase speed to high and beat until pale and fluffy. Add food colouring and mix until combined. Fold honeycomb into the buttercream.

Assemble your macarons by piping the buttercream onto a shell, then sandwiching it with another shell. Be careful with the size of your nozzle - you need to make sure the nozzle size is larger than the chunks of honeycomb in the buttercream.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge overnight. Let the macarons sit at room temperature for a few hours before serving. Dust with cocoa if desired.

Weekday Pasta

2012-07-26T07:07:00.000-07:00

This is definitely not a baking post, but this is one of my all-time favourite dinners to make, so I figured it was worth sharing anyway. This spaghetti is a dish that I often cook on busy evenings when spending more than 15 minutes on dinner just isn't an option. It's a great one to do as I usually always have the core ingredients in my pantry, and I can fill it out with whatever's in my fridge.

Diced tomatoes are a staple in my pantry. Every so often I buy a whole tray of 16 cans and it's amazing how quickly I use them up in various recipes. I'm really into using fresh garlic cloves at the moment. I've always used minced garlic from a jar, thinking it would last longer and be more convenient than cloves. I recently bought a fine grater, and since then I've loved crushing up a garlic clove or two whenever I need it. It really does taste more delicate and exciting, I've definitely been converted! Fresh basil, on the other hand, is not something I usually have readily available. I hate buying bunches of fresh herbs. I spend $3 or $4 on the whole bunch, only end up using half, and then it's all shriveled up and gross before I try and use it again. Gourmet Garden herbs are a lifesaver for me. I have about six different herbs in my freezer ready to use whenever I need them, and I definitely think they taste just as good as fresh. I use a good squeeze or two of basil when I cook up this pasta. I will set up a herb garden for myself eventually (maybe when our house is built) but until then, tubes are fine for me!

Today I cooked this up with mushrooms and rocket, but there are so many combinations you could try! Some of my favourites include prosciutto and asparagus, ricotta and spinach, garlic prawn and basil leaves, and many more. I always try and top it with something bright green, as the contrast against the red tomato sauce is just so deliciously enticing.

It tastes great, so easy, and a delicious way to use up leftovers, but best of all, the sauce is cooked and ready to go by the time the spaghetti is done!

Basic Recipe:

Serves two

200g spaghetti (or more if you want leftovers for tomorrow)
2 cloves garlic
2 tins crushed or diced tomato
1 handful basil, finely chopped (or 1 tbs Gourmet Garden Basil Paste)
Olive oil
Shaved or grated parmesan
Whatever fillings you have available (suggestions include mushrooms, garlic prawns, chicken, prosciutto, ricotta, rocket, spinach, or whatever else you feel like!)

Cook spaghetti according to packet instructions. Finely chop the garlic and heat it up with the oil in a large pan. If you are adding meat to the sauce, cook it now. Add the tomato to the pan and heat through. Stir in the basil and allow the sauce to simmer. If you are adding any vegetables that need to cook/wilt, add them now. If you are adding rocket or anything else you want fresh, leave it to the very end. Once the spaghetti is cooked through, drain in a colander and add to the pan. Stir the sauce through the pasta and serve. Top with parmesan and any rocket/spinach/leafy greens you have.

Rainbow Checkerboard Cake

2012-07-25T07:51:00.001-07:00

This will just be a short post since I'm typing it up on my iPhone. I had a couple of packet cake mixes that were about to expire. I don't love packet cakes, but every so often I need an emergency dessert and have no ingredients in my pantry. As it happened, I did need a dessert for tonight, and also had these packets waiting to be used, so decided to convert these blah-buttercakes into something very cute and creative.

I got the inspiration from Raspberri Cupcakes. I won't bother writing out instructions to create the checkerboard effect, she does it much better than me.

For the chocolate ganache, heat up 150g cream in a saucepan. When it is almost boiling (when the cream begins to have a distinct milky smell) pour it over 200g milk chocolate buttons. Stir until chocolate has melted. Allow the ganache to sit until it has thickened to a spreadable consistency. Use a spatula to spread the ganache over the cake. You can leave it as is, but I chose to cover mine with 100s & 1000s as I didn't like the 'bumpiness' of my ganache. Unfortunately I don't have a cake smoother, so I'm at the mercy of my silicone spatula. I'll post photos up properly once I get onto my computer.

This cake was not without its drama either. The chocolate cake had been in the oven for about 10 minutes when I realised I had forgotten to add the eggs. After some frantic Google searches ("what happens if you bake a cake without eggs") I discovered that eggs are a pretty vital ingredient unless you're happy to eat a brick. The cake had already started to rise, and the top of the cake was baked, but I took it out, slopped the partially cooked batter back into my mixer and beat the life out of it until it was liquid again. I was then able to add the eggs (hoping the steaming hot batter wouldn't cook them instantly) then popped the whole thing back in the oven . I guess it worked out...I mean, it was edible, but it had a very different texture to what a cake should be. It was much heavier and more fudge-like than normal, but I actually think that added to the texture of the Checkerboard Cake. It gave a bit more variation between the chocolate and vanilla. Well, I'll keep telling myself that anyway to hide the fact that I made the rookie error of not adding eggs to a cake batter.

As cool as Checkerboard Cakes are, I can't see myself making them every week. All the time involved in slicing, cutting and layering the cakes certainly adds to the "wow" factor when you cut it open, but I'd rather use that time baking something really special and amazing, rather than a cake that looks cool, then gets eaten. Still, it's nice to have some fun every now and then!

Peanut Butter and Honey Macarons

2012-07-22T00:23:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty sure peanut butter and honey were made for each other. I regularly find myself eating toast with peanut butter and honey on those nights when I can't be bothered cooking dinner. I could definitely eat it for every meal in a day, so it made perfect sense for me to try my hand at Peanut Butter and Honey Macarons.

This was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing. It's my last day of holidays before school goes back, so I thought I may as well make use of my last opportunity to bake before the craziness starts. As such, I didn't have any aged egg whites available, so I had to try out the microwave method of ageing my egg whites.

I left them on the bench top for about two hours, and then I microwaved them for 20 seconds, stopping to stir at 10 seconds. I was so nervous I would cook them, so didn't dare zap for longer than 20 seconds. Right before I used them I zapped them for another 10 seconds. The egg whites turned out okay. The meringue didn't beat up to be as voluminous and stiff as I would have liked, but I added a few pinches of cream of tartar to the meringue as it was being whisked and this seemed to lift the mixture a little. I would still recommend the traditional method of ageing egg whites (leave them in a bowl on the bench top for 2-3 days, covered with a paper towel if you don't like the idea of leaving an open bowl out to collect dust) but if you're pressed for time, the microwave technique is a suitable alternative.

I baked these to serve for supper at the Bible Study Group Brendan is starting up this week. As I only needed a handful of macarons, I decided to halve the recipe. It was a little quicker to prepare, as I didn’t need to sift as much almond meal and icing sugar (this is probably the longest and most labour-intensive step in making macarons) but I think in the future I will just whip up a whole batch and freeze the rest. They freeze so well that it’s totally worth the extra time to bake a whole batch instead of a half.

The honey peanut butter ganache worked out beautifully. I had made a choc-peanut butter ganache in the past with milk chocolate, peanut butter and butter, so my honey filling was a slightly modified version of that recipe. I used white instead of milk chocolate and added 1½ teaspoons of honey. I probably could have added more, but I wanted a really subtle honey taste that complemented the peanut butter, rather than competed with it. It’s really just a matter of taste.

I’m so happy with these macarons. Hopefully people eating them won’t expect them to be lemon. It confuses your head a little when you expect a macaron to be one flavour and turns out to be something totally different.

Here is the recipe for a complete batch. I halved it, but like I said earlier, I think you’re better off cooking the whole lot and freezing half (if you can resist eating them!)

For the macaron shells:

Makes about 50 macarons

300g sifted almond meal*
300g sifted pure icing sugar
110g aged egg whites (egg whites left on the bench for a few days)
110g extra egg whites, at room temperature
300g caster sugar
75g water
Yellow food colouring (optional)

*Almond meal must be sifted through very fine sieve. I use a splatter guard placed over a bowl, and rub the almond meal with my hands until I have sifted enough. Weigh the almond meal after you have sifted it, not before, as you will end up throwing out the grains that are too coarse to fit through the sieve.

Line 4 baking trays with baking paper. Combine sifted almond meal and icing sugar large bowl. Place aged eggwhites in the bowl of your mixer (making sure the bowl is very clean and has the whisk attachment in place). Combine caster sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat. Gently stir until the sugar dissolves (to check if the sugar is ready, rub some between your fingers. If you can feel the granules, it’s not dissolved yet.) Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat and bring to the boil and increase the mixer speed to medium. This is the point where you need to add your food colouring (unless you are using powdered colouring – add this to your dry mixture instead). By adding your liquid/gel colouring now, the extra water can evaporate out instead of ruining your batter! When the mixture reaches 90oC, turn the mixer onto low speed so the egg whites become frothy. Allow the sugar-water to boil until mixture reaches 118oC. Carefully pour the sugar into the mixer bowl as the eggwhites are being whisked. Pour down the side of the bowl rather than over the whisk to prevent spun sugar. Increase the speed to high and whisk for about 8 minutes. In the meantime, use a spatula to combine the other eggwhites and the dry mixture. Keep mixing until a paste forms. When the eggwhites are thick and glossy, add them to the almond paste a bit at a time.

Once all the egg white has been combined with the almond paste, fold the mixture with a spatula until it is a wobbly, hommus-like texture (try lifting the spatula out of the batter – if the batter slowly falls off the spatula, it’s the right texture). Attach a 12mm nozzle to a piping bag and pipe circles of the batter. I like to use a template under my baking paper. The best way to pipe is to hold the piping bag perpendicular to the tray, about 2cm above the surface. Pipe until the batter fills the template, then quickly move the nozzle to the top of the circle, then do a little swirly motion to bring the nozzle down to the bottom of the circle. This prevents your macarons from have pointy tops and keeps them nice and smooth. Once all your batter has been piped, turn the oven on to 130oC and leave your trays somewhere to rest. After about 20 minutes, check to see whether a skin has formed on the macarons (gently touch one of the macarons – if you can caress it without the batter going onto your fingers, then they’re ready for the oven). Bake for 16 minutes. I like to bake one tray at a time, because my oven is a bit dodgy, but all ovens are different so you just have to experiment and see what works with your oven. After 16 minutes, remove the trays from the oven. Let them sit for two minutes, then try removing a macaron from the tray using a spatula. If it comes off easily, your macarons are done! If not, put them back in the oven for 2 minutes then try again. Allow macarons to cool completely before piping.

For the honey peanut butter ganache:

240g white chocolate buttons
215g crunchy peanut butter
50g butter, chopped and softened
3-4 teaspoons honey

Put white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water (ensuring the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl). Stir until the chocolate has melted, then pour over peanut butter. Stir until soft and mixed well. Add butter and mix well with a stick mixer. Add honey, one teaspoon at a time, to taste. Refrigerate until thickened. When you are ready to pipe the filling into the macarons, put the ganache into a piping bag. If it has become too hard, put it in the microwave for 20 seconds or so. Fill the macaron shells and sandwich them together.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge, taking them out half an hour before they’re needed. Alternatively, store them in the freezer for up to 3 or 4 months.

Tim Tam Macarons (kind of)

2012-07-21T07:15:00.002-07:00

I'm starting to feel a little bored with the more "traditional" macaron flavours. I've sussed out how to make the standard flavours you see everywhere - vanilla, pistachio, rosewater, lemon, etc, but of the things I LOVE about macarons is that the flavour options are endless! (Some of Adriano Zumbo's macaron craziness includes vegemite macarons, lemon and olive oil, and even cheeseburger!) Yesterday I decided I would take a break from the traditional and start experimenting with the most marvelous and exciting flavour combinations I could think of. In true teacher-style, I started a brainstorm, listing all the wonderful flavours I want to experiment with. Some of the flavour combinations on my "to try" list include: Malteaser, gingerbread, bacon and maple syrup, champagne, brie and cranberry, peanut butter and honey, raspberry cheesecake and caramelised onion. I'm not sure how long it will take me to get to all of them (if ever), but I made a start today by trying Tim Tam Macarons.

And that's where things started to go wrong.

I've always had trouble with chocolate macarons. Right from when I began my macaron obsession I could never figure out why things always went wrong when cocoa was involved. I was already off to a bad start when I realised I forgotten to compensate for the extra dry ingredients that come from adding cocoa. Usually I’d combine 300g of almond meal with 300g icing sugar, but chocolate macarons need 60g cocoa, which means you only mix 270g of both almond meal and icing sugar. Fortunately I realised in time and removed 60g of my almond/icing sugar mix and added in the cocoa, but even still, my batter was lumpy and grainy. I worked the batter for an extra long time to make it as runny and smooth as I could without over-working it, and things were looking good when I piped it onto the trays. I think the cocoa must affect the way the dry ingredients absorb and mix in with the wet, because after I’d piped the batter the onto the trays and left them to rest, the macarons needed way less time to form their skin than they usually do. This is possibly another reason as to why they went wrong.

Anyhoo, things weren’t looking too bad until I put the trays in the oven. The macarons still rose and had lovely feet, but the tops weren’t smooth at all. The colour went all blotchy and, although none of them cracked, the tops were wrinkled and ugly. The shells were also far too soft. I kept them in the oven for another few minutes, but even so, they just weren’t cooking properly. I was left with a batch of blotchy, deflated, wrinkly, soft macarons that can do one of two things: they can either crush all your hopes and desires to ever make macarons again, or they can inspire and empower you to try, try, try again until you get it right.

I defaulted to the first option. I went through the seven stages of grieving over a failed baking attempt, and then managed to gain some perspective and decided that, hey, they still taste good, they’re more than salvageable, and I’m still dying to try out my idea for Tim Tam Buttercream. So, with high spirits, I went on to making the filling.

And SUCCESS! The filling was a-ma-zing! B was eating it by the spoonful. It was my first attempt at making Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and I can see why so many people are choosing to use it over regular buttercream. It’s much more silky, smooth, and not as sickly-sweet as traditional buttercream. I flavoured it by adding finely ground Tim Tams, and also added some roughly chopped Tim Tams for added texture. This buttercream is the saving grace for my failed macaron shells. It looks and tastes lovely, and the flavour of the Tim Tams comes through beautifully – not too intense, but it’s undeniably there.

I scrutinised the batch to find the most picture-worthy macarons to photograph, and these were the best I could come up with. I also photographed the steps I took to make them, so maybe someone can spot where it all went wrong!

Hopefully you will have more luck with them than I did!

To make chocolate macaron shells:

Makes about 50 macarons

270g sifted almond meal*

270g sifted pure icing sugar

60g sifted cocoa powder

110g aged egg whites (egg whites left on the bench for a few days)

110g extra egg whites, at room temperature

300g caster sugar

75g water

*Almond meal must be sifted through a very fine sieve. I use a splatter guard placed over a bowl, and rub the almond meal with my hands until I have sifted enough. Weigh the almond meal after you have sifted it, not before, as you will end up throwing out the grains that are too coarse to fit through the sieve.

Line 4 baking trays with baking paper. Combine sifted almond meal, icing sugar and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Place aged eggwhites in the bowl of your mixer (making sure the bowl is very clean and has the whisk attachment in place). Combine caster sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat. Gently stir until the sugar dissolves (to check if the sugar is ready, rub some between your fingers. If you can feel the granules, it’s not dissolved yet.) While the sugar is dissolving, turn the mixer on low speed to break up the egg whites. Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat and bring to the boil and increase the mixer speed to medium. Allow the sugar-water to boil until mixture reaches 118^oC. Carefully pour the sugar mixture into the mixer bowl as the eggwhites are being whisked. Pour down the side of the bowl rather than over the whisk to prevent spun sugar. Increase the speed to high and whisk for about 8 minutes. In the meantime, use a spatula to combine the other eggwhites and the dry mixture. Keep mixing until a paste forms. When the eggwhites are thick and glossy, add them to the almond paste a bit at a time.

To make Tim Tam Buttercream:

2 egg whites

½ cup caster sugar

150g unsalted butter, cubed and softened

8 Tim Tams finely ground in a food processor

3 Tim Tams, chopped

Place the egg whites and caster sugar in a heat-proof bowl and whisk together. Place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and continue to whisk until the mixture reaches 60^oC. Place the eggwhites and sugar into a mixer and whisk on high speed for 5 minutes. Add the butter to the mixture, a few cubes at a time. Wait for the butter to incorporate into the mixture before adding the next lot. If the buttercream becomes soft and runny, put it in the fridge for 10 minutes before adding the remainder of the butter. Once all the butter has incorporated into the icing, fold in the ground and chopped Tim Tam. Use a piping bag to fill the macaron shells before sandwiching them together.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge, taking them out half an hour before they’re needed. Alternatively, store them in the freezer for up to 3 or 4 months.

Blue Vanilla Macarons (and the start of my blog)

2012-07-21T05:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my first ever blog entry. After reading and getting excited about so many Australian Baking Blogs, I decided it was high time I started my own. This is where I can share with the world my triumphs and epic fails in the world of baking, especially MACARONS. Macarons (note: NOT macaroons) are my favourite things in the world to bake. Apart from being unbelievably delicious and ever so pretty, I always get such a sense of satisfaction after successfully baking a batch of beautifully smooth, shiny, chewy, sweet macarons. They're incredibly temperamental and stubborn - you do one thing slightly wrong and the whole batch is messed up. That's why it's so exciting to bake a great batch. This school holidays I have baked three batches of macarons and I'm slowly figuring out what works and what doesn't. I've tried a number of recipes and techniques, and I've figured out that for me, the best recipe is a slightly modified version of Adriano Zumbo's macaron recipe. I'll type it up in my next post, but for now, for your viewing pleasure, I'll leave you with my Blue Vanilla Macarons I baked for Women's Preaching Group this morning. Usually you'd only make blue shells if they matched the flavour of the filling (blueberry or something), but I LOVE blue sweets. There's something gorgeously exciting about seeing that bright, artificially coloured blue M&M, lovely fluffy blue iced cupcake, and cute blue polka-dot macaron shell. I chose to fill the shells with vanilla ganache because, aside from being so quick and easy, it's by far one of my favourite fillings. (Blue Vanilla was the name I wanted to give this blog, but it was already taken. Bummer.) I'm hoping that as my baking adventures continue that my colour/flavour combinations can become more original and experimental, but for now, here are my crazy-cute Polka-Dot Blue Vanilla Macarons.