Macaron Fetish

Dried Longan and Longan Jelly Macaron

2013-04-28T10:29:00.001-07:00

Hello my fellow followers,

Lately, I have been searching for some idea to create some macaron with exotic and unusual flavour that is inspired from my childhood.

Longan fruit

Photo credit to http://genuineaid.com/

Longan has always been one of my favourite fruit. One of my favourite is certainly a dried longan syrup drink. The dried smoked longan is cooked with sugary water and served chill in a recycle glass jar. I remember when I was little, I would order them when we eat out in the Kopi Tiam (coffee shop). It was called Mata Kucing in some places (cat eye).

Dried Longan, photo credit to Rasa Malaysia

This is how I like my longan drink to be served

Photo credit to http://cquek.blogspot.fr/

I managed to get hold of some good quality dried longan from my last trip in Malaysia. So I decide to give it a try and see how it would turn up. To my surprise, it somehow tastes very sublime, quite delicate and I also added some fresh longan jelly on top.

Enjoy !!

For the shells:

Ingredients
* 1 egg white (40g)
* 30g castor sugar

* 50g icing sugar
* 30g almond powder
(blend together)

* Edible bunnies (optional)

Methods

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. 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:

*4-5 dried longan
*10g water
*50g fresh full cream
*50g white chocolate (Barry / Valrhona)

*3-4 fresh longan (diced up)
*30g water
*10g sugar
*2g agar agar powder

Methods

* To prepare the jelly, put fresh longan, sugar, agar agar and water in a pot over medium heat , stir constantly. On its first boil, set timer to 1 minutes, keep stirring. Remove from heat, pour into a shallow bowl immediately. Let cool before putting it in the fridge .

* In a small pot, dried longan, water and fresh full cream, warm it up and remove from heat, let infused for 15 minutes. When time is up pour the mixture through a sift and you will need 25g of it. Discard the remaining.

* Rewarm the mixture, and meanwhile melt the chocolate over water bath. Pour the mixture over chocolate, mix until a smooth shiny ganache is obtained.

* Set in the refrigerator until the ganache is harden up slightly. Pipe on the shells.

* to stick the bunny on the shell, place a tiny amount of chocolate ganache on the edible bunny and stick it on the shell.

Macaron Fetish is oon it's way!! Stay TUNE

2013-04-06T07:47:00.004-07:00

Hello all this is the first sneak peak of the book that is coming out soon :)

Chendol Macaron with Pandan Coconut Jelly

2013-03-18T13:53:00.003-07:00

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 !

Chendol, source : George Town, Penang | Facebook

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.

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.

2012-12-03T03:35:00.001-08:00

As the holiday season approach, BLURB is giving up $10 OFF any book purchased on Blurb.com

Just enter GIVE10 during check out.

Tricolour Satsuma Mandarin White Chocolate Macaron

2012-11-21T13:21:00.003-08:00

Hello all,

Sorry that I haven't been posting for a while. Have some great news to share with you guys.

After one year of preparing and doing my research, I am finally accepted and enrolled in a pastry course. I will be in school and working in a pastry shop to learn all the baking base. In 6 months I will be passing the exam and will have my own qualification to open a pastry shop or setting up a business should I decide to pursue the path. I guess for the next 6 months I will be super busy as it is intensive and there are a lot to learn. So I am apologising in advance if I wouldn't be able to post.

As autumn kicked in, I saw some wonderful, juicy Satsuma Mandarin in my organic grocer in the market. Always love fruity flavour in pastry so I thought to give it a try. Love how the flavour turns out, it is refreshing and the acid taste of the fruit balance out the sweetness of the white chocolate ganache.

I hope you enjoy this entry and Happy Baking

FOR THE MACARON SHELL
2 room temperatured egg white(80g total)
100g icing sugar
60g ground almond
60g castor sugar
1 tsp orange powder food colouring
1 tsp green powder food colouring

Tools:
1. Big piping bag with a noozle no.8 placed inside.
2. 3 small size freezer bags, fold the bottom up to a side, then staple, making a piping bag. Repeat for all 3 bags.
3. 2 extra mixing bowls
4. 2 extra rubber spatulas

Method:
1. Put ground almond and icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender. Blend them finely.

2. Sift the blended mixture and set aside

3. With an electric beater, Beat the egg white, start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed. Beat until frothy (you will see lots of fine bubbles)

4. Now it's the time to add in the castor sugar, add half of the sugar, continue to beat in maximum speed for around 2 minutes, add in the other half, continue until stiff peak is obtained.

5. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg whites. This process is called Macaronage. Start folding with a rubber spatula. Mix just until you roughly incorporate the mixture.

6. Divide the mixture into 3 parts. Add orange food colouring powder in one part, green food colouring in the second part. Leave the third part without colouring, continue folding until the batter flow like magma, do the same with other 2 parts.

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

8. I use 3 plastic freezing bags, fold the bottom side up to the right, so that I can fill up the bag via the opening.I get a triangular which will make a cone when open up. Staple along the side. You will fill the batter in the opening of the freezer bag

9. Fill up each freezing bag with each colours.

10. Cut the bottom of each freezing bags

11. Put those 3 bags carefully in the piping bag , pipe your macaron (about 2 cm diameter) it should spread a bit as it settles. The point should slowly disappear if the mixture is the right consistency. If not you could hit the bottom of the tray with your hand to smooth the point. The first few macarons piped might not have 3 colours, depending on how well those 3 bags are positioned. but don't worry they'll come eventually

12. For step by step guide with photos, please visit the following post http://macaron-fetish.blogspot.fr/2010/02/tri-colours-blueberry-white-chocolate.html

13. Let your macarons sit for about 30minutes. This will depend on the humidity in your house and the day. Try touching the macaron softly, after 30mins. it should not stick to your hand.
For the filling.

14. Heat your oven to 150 C on the (heating on the top only). When the oven is ready, put your macaron at the very bottom shelf. Bake for 12 minutes, check them in the mid time of 6 minutes, the feets should already start forming. Turn the baking tray to the opposite direction to allow even baking. When the 6 mins is up, change the heating setting of your oven to Bottom only. This will help cooking the macaron and rise the feet more. Bake for another 6 minutes. You can test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's cooked. if it's not add another 1 mins each time and check.

(This is the method i found the best that works for me after few trial and error. I baked with heating the oven top and bottom and i had crack macarons. Having said that, every oven is slightly different than another, so please adjust accordingly)

15. Let the macaron cool down before removing them. You could wet your working area and slide the baking sheet on it to speed up the cooling process, but do not let it sit there too long, if not the macarons will become soggy. Other wise you can leave them cool at room temperature and remove them.

For the Satsuma Mandarin White Chocolate Ganache

- 1 Organic Satsuma Mandarin (zest then peel and squeeze out the juice)
- 10g of the squeezed mandarin juice
- 30g full fat fresh cream (30% fat)
- 100g white chocolate

1. Chopped white chocolate finely, and place it in heat proof bowl.

2. In a pot, heat up the cream and satsuma mandarin zest. When the cream is warm pour it over the chocolate, mix well until a smooth consistency is obtained. Add in the juice, mix well.

3. Let cool and place a cling wrap over the surface of the ganache before placing it the refrigerator for it to set. It will take about 1 hour

4. When the ganache is set, pipe it over a shell and close it up with another. Enjoy your macaron!!

Apple Jelly White Chocolate and Walnut Macaron

2012-10-04T13:15:00.003-07:00

Hey guys,

I AM BACK!!! First of all let me apologise for being absent the whole summer, I just realised that my last post was back in July, almost 3 months back. So it means I been missing the whole summer!!

This summer was kinda eventful for me. Shortly after the post in July, one of my elder bunny Nestor had fell critically ill and we almost lost him. Luckily with good vet and medication, he is still alive and kicking. He wanted to live and he is my little fighter and had never once given up even he was in lot of pain. I was exhausted after 4 days of providing him intensive care day and night.

During summer I have been getting myself more active in sports and had been going to swim with a friend. I feel so much better physically and mentally. August just flew by without even I realise it, my sister in law was visiting so we spent a lot of times in family and at the same time being so busy preparing for our trip to Asia. I just came back last week and the jetlag has finally gone away and life is back to routine.

I am glad that Mac Attack is back for autumn, theme : Fruit of the season... Autumn and winter are not really exciting for me in term of fruits and vege. I started to see oranges, apples, pears... (like them but just do not love them) All my favourite berries are coming to an end and I have to wait until next year. Oh well this is the nature.... I found some walnuts and some organic apples in the market yesterday, and was thinking using apple with Manzana liquor to give it a kick in my macarons. So for this entry, let me present you Apple Jelly White Chocolate and Walnut Macaron.

So let's start baking

For the shell (about 24 shells of 3 cm)
- 1 egg whites (40g) - Room temperature
- 30g castor sugar

- 50g icing sugar
- 25g almond meal
- 1/4 teaspoon of green powder /gel food colouring
- 1 - 2 walnut, skin removed and crushed

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. Sprinkle some walnut over the shells.

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

For the jelly
- 1/2 apple (skinned and juiced)
- 1/2 tsp Manzana Apple Liquor
- 1/2 tsp agar agar powder

For the ganache
- 50g good quality white chocolate (valrhona)- chopped
- 20g fresh cream / soya cream
- 1/2 tsp Manzana liquor

1. In a pot, put apple juice, Manzana liquor and agar agar powder together. Stir and bring it to boil for 2 minutes. Pour it over a flat bowl / plat and let cool before placing it to set in the fridge.

2. Heat up the cream and Manzana liquor in another pot so that it is warm.

3. Pour warm cream over chopped chocolate stir to mix well and until a smooth consistence ganache is obtained.

5. When the jelly is set, cut it into small cubes. Fill one of the macaron shell with chocolate ganache, place the jelly cube on top, place a tiny drop of chocolate on another shell before placing it over.

6. It is best eating the same evening or next day as the moisture from the jelly might soften the shells.

Holiday Macaron with Exotic Flavour

2012-07-14T04:13:00.001-07:00

Wohooo summer is finally here (or not). The weather is really nothing to be excited about, we probably get 1 sunny day a week and it is grey, rain, wind and more rain. The fruits prices just went rocket high since most of the producer of cerise and mirabelle (local produce) are having bad harvest because of the rain.

Anyway, to kick the blues away and to participate in the MacAttack for this month. As the theme is Holiday Macaron, I just have to make myself feel better and imagine myself back on my tropical island home. Let me introduce you the exotic kick in macaron - Pomegranate, Kaffir Lime and Coconut Ganache. In case you have never heard of kaffir lime, it is variety of lime usually found and used in south and south east asia. It has rough and bumpy skin, the flavour is somehow sublime - a less acid taste than green lime with a light bitter note at the end.

The blend of the flavour is just lovely, the acid kick from the kaffir lime and pomegranate is soften up with the flavour of the coconut and the creamy texture of the ganache. Needlessness to say, it wasn't long until the plate was empty

Some photos down the memory lane, can't wait to get back again...

The Ferringhi Beach, Penang, Malaysia

Georgetown, UNESCO Heritage area, Penang, Malaysia

Air Itam, market near where my parents' home

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (aka the Blue Mansion), Penang

Best noodle for breakfast in town, Air Itam, Penang

Exotic fruits in the market

So let's start baking

For the shell (about 24 shells of 3 cm)
- 1 egg whites (40g) - Room temperature
- 30g castor sugar

- 50g icing sugar
- 25g almond meal
- 5g dried coconut flakes, more to sprinkle
- 1/4 teaspoon of white powder food colouring
- some marigold flower petal (optional)

1. Mix almond meal, coconut flakes, food colouring 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. 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. Sprinkle some coconut flakes or flower petals over the shells if you like.

For the filling

- 1/2 pomergrante (de pulp just keep the fruit in grains)
- juice of 1 kaffir lime
- 1 tablespoon of coconut flakes
- 50g good quality white chocolate (valrhona)- chopped
- 25g fresh cream / soya cream

1. In a pot, fill it up with some water and place white chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Bring the water to boil and place the bowl of chocolate on top to melt it.

2. Mean while, heat up the cream in another pot so that it is warm.

3. When the chocolate is melted, pour the warm cream over, stir to mix well.

4. Add in kaffir lime juice and coconut flakes. Stir until a smooth consistence ganache is obtained.

5. Fill one of the macaron shell with chocolate ganache, place 3-4 pomegranate grains over, place a tiny drop of chocolate on another shell so that the shell is able to stick to the pomegranate grains.

6. It is best eating the same evening or next day as the moisture from fresh pomegranate might soften the shells.

Enjoy!!!

US$100 OFF any order on Blurb.com

2012-06-30T11:29:00.002-07:00

Hello all

If you have been thinking to get any of the Macaron Fetish books, this is your opportunity to save big. Blurb is giving $100 OFF any order. Just enter BOOKLOVE123 on Blurb.com upon check out.

Limited time only !

Tom Yum Macaron

2012-05-18T13:54:00.002-07:00

Hello, just thought to share this savoury macaron with you guys for the coming summer day gatherings.

Savoury macaron is very particular, for me it's either love it or hate it. If you love sweet and savoury combination you probably will find this interesting.

For this particular post, I am going to share a recipe from one of my book - Macaron Fetish - the Luxury Collection. These are going to be a macaron with some exotic ingredients - Tom Yum macaron.

For the readers who aren't familiar with asian food, Tom Yum is a sour and spicy soup. It is one of the signature dish of Thailand. The key ingredients to make this soup are kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, roasted chili paste and lime juice. The soup is usually named 'Tom Yum Gong" which basically means Prawn Tom Yum. It also comes in a vegetarian version which I often cook at home with oyster mushrooms, button mushrooms, inoki mushrooms and some veggies.

For this recipe the macarons are going to be filled with tofu. Hope you like it. Enjoy

For the shells (makes about 24 shells of 3 cm)
- 1 egg whites (40g) - Room temperatured
- 30g castor sugar

- 50g icing sugar
- 30g almond meal
- 1/4 teaspoon of powder food colouring

1. Mix almond meal, food colouring 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. 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.

Tom Yum Tofu Filling

- 60g extra firm organic tofu
- 2 tablespoon coconut milk
- 2 teaspoon of tom yum paste (found in asian grocer)
- few spring of coriander leaves
- 1 teaspoon of lime juice
- salt to taste

1. Drain tofu and pat dry it with paper towel. Chop and crush it up with a folk against a sieve to squeeze out any excessive water in the tofu.

2. Put tofu in food blender along with other ingredients;

3. Mix it up to obtain a smooth creamy paste;

4. Fill the macaron shells 1-2 hour before serving to prevent the shells from soften up and being humidified from the filling.

Happy Easter Macarons

2012-04-06T12:06:00.006-07:00

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 :)

March Saving On Blurb.com

2012-03-14T03:58:00.002-07:00

Hey guys, just thought if some of you might be interested, Blurb is giving out special discount until 2 April 2012.

You can use these code on Macaron Fetish books or any other book on Blurb :)

Have fun

Macaron Day - The Mac Tweet Challenge and more..

2012-03-03T07:48:00.005-08:00

Ohh shoooo ... it's March... I meant to do so many thing and time just flies !!!

Oh well March is going to be a busy month, as we will be visiting London to meet up with my sis-in-law and a new friend I had met in an animal protection group.

It's good and important for me to meet up with some people who are like minded with me. This makes me feel at least I am not alone in the battle to fight for the animals and it's always good to have thelm around when someday I feel so powerless against all the cruelty we have in the world.

So why am I telling you guys all this? Because I have created the Cat macarons for this challenge and they are my compassion to support a good friend of mine who had recently founded an association to help abandoned cats in Lorraine. They are doing a dinner and classical music night to help raising fund for the Lorraine SPA, the animal shelter in the region. She had asked me if I would like to participate. Unfortunately I have already booked the ticket to London and will not be in France the night of the event. However I made 100 macs in advance and keep them in the freezer and they will be offered for the event. All benefits will go to the association.

I am not including the recipe because they are classic white and black chocolate ganache that I had already posted in the previous posts. If any of you are interested, please kindly let me know and :)

Have a fabulous March !!!

It's February

2012-02-03T03:28:00.001-08:00

Hello my dear followers

It's February again!! Love is in the air :) I have got a new code from Blurb to share with you guys

You can use it for my macaron books or any books you like that is on sell on Blurb.com :)
This code works only once per person, however you could share it with your friends and family as many times as you want :) The code is for a saving of $10, valid until 27th Feb 2012.

To use the discount code, just type SAVE10 in capital letters upon checking out.

Hope you guys are enjoying the fabulous February!

Pomme d'Amour White Chocolate Apple Shaped macaron

2012-01-23T06:54:00.000-08:00

Hello guys,

Happy to show you guys that my hubby bought me a new toy as I am currently into baking bread - well since the organic toast price had gone sky rocket I figured that it's best to bake my own organic bread :)

So here it is the Kitchen Aid Artisan yay!!!
I got to make the meringue using it 2 days ago making this batch of macaron, I can see the different in the texture of the eggwhite, very airy and consistence - so love it!

Back to the first MacAttack in 2012 - had been wanting to experiment with different syrup, this particular one is called Pomme d'Amour. Pomme d'amour is actually a fresh apple being dipped into cooked sugar, so it has the glace look on it.

Photo credit : http://www.hum-gum.com/

Hope you guys like my Pomme d'Amour Macaron!!

For the shell

Ingredients

1. 40g egg white
2. 30g almond powder
3. 50g icing sugar
4. 30g castor sugar
5. 1/2 tsp of paste red colouring
6. 1/4 tsp of yellow colouring

Methods:

1. In a blender, mix up the almond powder and icing sugar, sieve it and set aside

2.Beat the egg white until frothy, add in half castor sugar, keep beating till you get a soft peak and then add in the rest of the sugar. Beat to stiff peak.

3. Add the blended dry ingredients to the stiff egg white. Mix them up roughly but do not fold yet. Scoop half of the mixture into an extra bowl, add in yellow colouring fold it well until it flows like a thick ribbon when lifted. In the main bowl add in red colouring and start folding.

5. Keep folding until you get a mixture that flow slowly like lava. This should take about 50 folds. The mixture should be uniformed, shiny and when lifted it should flow down and form a thick ribbon.

6. Put a piece of baking sheet over a baking tray, fille the piping bag by alternating red and yellow mixture - meaning one scoop yellow one scoop red.

7. Pipe the mixture by making two slight diagonal lines to create the form of apple.

8. Let the macaron sit until a shell is formed and it's nolonger sticked to the fingers when touched. Depanding on your room temperature, and air humidity this should takes somewhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour.

9. Pre heat the oven on 160 C with only top heating.

10. When the oven is heated up, put in the piped macarons, bake for 8 mins, the feet should already start forming at this stage.

11. Change the heating to bottom only, bake for another 6 minutes. To know if your macarons are baked, you could try it by gently touching the shells, when it's baked it should nolonger slide against the feet.

12. If the macaron shells are not well baked, extend the baking time by 1 minutes and recheck.

13. Let macaron cooled before removing them from the baking sheet. You could speed up the process by lightly wetting your working area with a sponge and drag the baking sheets over.

14. Match up all the similar size shells, and get the ready for filling.

For Pomme d'Amour White Chocolate Filling

Ingredients:

1. 50g High grade cooking white Chocolate
2. 20g fresh liquid cream
3. 10g Pomme d'Amour Syrup

Method

1. Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over water bath to melt it

2. In a small pot, over low heat, warm up liquid cream and syrup.

3. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat. Pour over chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth, shiny ganache is obtained

3. Let sit in room temperature for 30min and place into the fridge for at least 2 hour for it to harden up. Place a cling wrap on top touching the ganache prior putting it into the fridge to prevent any crystalisation on the chocolate ganache.

Happy 2012

2012-01-05T14:01:00.000-08:00

Oh la la I can't believe how fast the past year had flown by !! And how slack I am for not getting on my blog for a few days !!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012! May 2012 bring you plenty of joys, tenderness and wonderful moments!

I did manage to find some time to take some photos to show you guys what I offered for my family for xmas before they were all gone eaten :) Enjoy!

Some bunneh moments :)

Arlequin Macaron - 4 Coloured Macaron

2011-12-17T11:30:00.001-08:00

Guess what made me so excited this week ? Holiday season ? Naa... I was looking and browsing at Blurb.com and suddenly somthing caught my eyes. It was my Macaron Fetish book being featured on the front page as Staff Pick !! I never thought this would happen heheh, just so so happy to see that.

So what's up in this cold and grey months of December? I had been thinking to experiment new macaron flavours with some French candies... Here's the first one - Arlenquin (for those who isn't familiar with the term, Arlequin is a Franch candy that is sour and fruity at the same time). I was itching to try out 4 coloured macaron shell as I wasn't suscessful on the first trial. Pair up with white chocolate the sourness and sweetness blended perfectly.

Hope you like the entry. Enjoy!

For the shell
1. 40g egg white
2. 30g almond powder
3. 50g icing sugar
4. 30g castor sugar
5. yellow, red, green, white colouring

1. Prepare4 freezer bags, 1 piping bag and 3 extra bowls. To see the illustration on how to prepare the freewer bags please follow the link .In a blender, mix up the almond powder and icing sugar, sieve it and set aside.

2. Beat the egg white until frothy, add in half of the sugar, keep beating till you get a soft peak and then add in the rest of the sugar. Beat to stiff peak.

3. Add the blended dry ingredients to the stiff egg white. Mix until the mixture is roughly combien. Devide the mixture into the extra bowls. Add each food colouring in each bowl, start folding.

4. Keep folding until you get a mixture that flow slowly like lava. This should take about 50-60 folds. The mixture should be uniformed and shiny. When lifted, it should flow down and form a thick ribbon.

5. Pour each colour in each piping bag. Press down slightly to remove air. Snip off the tip of the begs before placing them carefully together in the piping bag. They might be needed to be adjust slightly so they are at the same level in the piping bag. Pipe the mixture.

6. Let the macaron sit until a shell is formed and it's no longer stick to the fingers when touched. Depending on your room temperature, and air humidity this should takes somewhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour.

7. Pre-heat the oven on 150 C with top and bottom heating.

8. When the oven is heated up, put in the piped macarons. Increase to 160 C after 2 minutes and continue baking for about 4-5 minutes, be sure to work with your oven and you might need a few test to know how much your oven heats up. The feet should already be forming after 4-5mins. Decrease the temperature to 150C, open the oven door quickly to allow hot air to escape. bake for another 6-8 minutes until the shells are baked.

9. To know if your macarons are baked, you could try it by gently touching the shells, when it's baked it should no longer slide against the feet.

10. If the macaron shells are not well baked, extend the baking time by 1 minutes and recheck.

11. Let macaron cooled before removing them from the baking sheet. You could speed up the process by lightly wetting your working area with a sponge and drag the baking sheets over.

12. Match up all the similar size shells, and get the ready for filling.

Ingredients

1. 5 Arlequin candies
2. 1 tablespoon water
3. 50g white cooking chocolate
4. 20g fresh full cream

Methods

1. Crush the candies with a pestle and mortar.

2. In a small pot, melt the candies with some water. Watch closely so it doesn't burn.

3. When the candies are melted, add in fresh cream and warm it up.

4. Remove the cream from heat, pour over white chocolate, mix until the chocolate is melted completely and a smooth texture is obtain.

5. Let cool in room temperature and set in the fridge for about 1-2 hours, check back from time to time. The ganache should be soft but not runny.

6. Fill up the shells. The macarons are best eaten the next day.

Speculoos Macaron

2011-12-01T08:03:00.000-08:00

Wohoo... follow by the macaron curse week, the Macaron God is with me this week YAY!!! Praise the Macaron Lord lol!

So what am I up to is baking up batches and batches of shells for some order for this weekend :) I have NO failed batches! I was surprised. Guess I am getting use to work with my oven baking few batches in continuous manner. My oven is one of those kind that heat up A LOT when it reaches its temperature. I guess letting some cold air and lower the temperature before putting in the next batch does help. I am glad that I find a way to work better.

I bought a second grill for the oven thinking i could do 2 batches in one go but it doesn't seem to work for those in the bottom rack, there is just not enough heat to rise the macarons on the bottom shelf. So I think I am going to bake them in chain and I could have better control over baking.

So what's up in Dec? Well the idea of making Speculoos macaron had lingering on my mind. My brother in law told me maybe some people would be interested. So I decided it's time to make some today. For those who doesn't know what Speculoos is, it's a Belgium cookies / biscuits made with butter, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. In Belgium it's available in spread too, just like Nutella. Here we started to see them in fine grocer not long ago - the price tag is ahem... about 6 euros for a small pot.

Having eating much better and more careful of what we use since 2 years ago, I refused to buy industrially made biscuits or Speculoos spread that might be full of unknown preservative, coloring, sugar etc etc .. Before this I've only known store bought Speculoos, I made the biscuits then the spread, it was just delicious - definitely nothing like the sugary one from the store :)

Enjoy the baking! Don't worry it might seems like a lot of work but it wasn't that difficult :0)

For the biscuit (to obtain 50g biscuit)

1. 50 g flour
2. 30 g brown sugar
3. 25 g butter (or margarine)
4. 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
5. pinch of baking soda
6. pinch of salt

1. Melt the butter.
2. In a mixer add in all ingredients above, pour in the melted butter and mix until it forms a smooth dough.
3. Form a ball, cover with a humid tea towel and let rest in the room temperature for 1 hour.
4. After an hour, preheat the oven to 190 C.
5. Flatten the dough to 3mm thick. Cut out with cookies cutter.
6. Put the cut out dough on a sheet of baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.

For the Speculoos Spread

1. 50g of Speculoos (crushed into powdered form in a blender)
2. 20g honey (or aloe vera syrup)
3. 10g sugar
4. 30ml soy milk
5. 30g de good quality white chocolate (chopped finely)

1. In a small pot, heat up soymilk, sugar and honey but do not let it boil.
2. In a bowl, put powdered speculoors and chocolate together.
3. When the milk mixture is warm, pour in 1/3 of the mixture into the bowl, mix well, repeat until the mixture is used up and a smooth paste is form.
4. The mixture would be a bit liquid when warm but it will harden up slightly as it cools.
5. Pour in a jam pot, close the lid and let cool. Once cooled, place in the refrigerator.

For the shell
1. 40g egg white
2. 30g almond powder
3. 50g icing sugar
4. 30g castor sugar
5. 5g cacao powder (unsweetened)

1. In a blender, mix up the almond powder, icing sugar,and cacao powder, sieve it and set aside

2.Beat the egg white until frothy, add in half of the sugar, keep beating till you get a soft peak and then add in the rest of the sugar. Beat to stiff peak.

3. Add the blended dry ingredients to the stiff egg white.

4. Keep folding until you get a mixture that flow slowly like lava. This should take about 50 folds. The mixture should be uniformed and shiny. When lifted, it should flow down and form a thick ribbon.

5. Put a piece of baking sheet over a baking tray, pipe the mixture. Sprinkle some crushed biscuit over the shells

6. Let the macaron sit until a shell is formed and it's no longer stick to the fingers when touched. Depending on your room temperature, and air humidity this should takes somewhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour.

7. Pre-heat the oven on 150 C with top and bottom heating.

8. When the oven is heated up, put in the piped macarons. Increase to 160 C after 2 minutes and continue baking for about 4-5 minutes, be sure to work with your oven and you might need a few test to know how much your oven heats up. The feet should already be forming after 4-5mins. Decrease the temperature to 150C, open the oven door quickly to allow hot air to escape. bake for another 6-8 minutes until the shells are baked.

9. To know if your macarons are baked, you could try it by gently touching the shells, when it's baked it should no longer slide against the feet.

10. If the macaron shells are not well baked, extend the baking time by 1 minutes and recheck.

11. Let macaron cooled before removing them from the baking sheet. You could speed up the process by lightly wetting your working area with a sponge and drag the baking sheets over.

12. Match up all the similar size shells, and get the ready for filling.

Snowman Macarons - Cinnamon Anise Chocolate & Wine Jelly Macarons

2011-11-20T05:37:00.000-08:00

Can't believe xmas is in 1 month!!! doesn't really feel that it has been the whole year!
End of the year is surely one of the most hectic time for many people - well not much for me as I am not working :) For me I prepare the gifts early and most of the time finish up the bits and pieces by purchasing online.

Just been selling some macarons to colleagues of brother-in-law. this is the second week and I am making the 3rd and 4th batch. God knows what was wrong in my first and second batch last week - everything was cracked, flat or no feet - feel like that particular day I was having a macaron curse. I finally gave up and tried the day after and it went well... i think there's certainly a macaron curse day!!

Up for this last MacTweet entry for the year, I might have more entry coming soon as I am baking up for xmas order.

This is a recipe which is in my new book : Macaron Fetish - C'est la Fête (It's Party Time). It's actually a macaron fetish based on special occasions and holiday theme. I am including some pages for a sneak peak at the end of the post. Mean while I hope you like my Snowman Xmas Macaron!

For the 6 Snowman shell

Ingredients:

1. 40g egg white
2. 30g almond powder
3. 50g icing sugar
4. 30g castor sugar
5. 1/2 tsp white food colouring
6. 1/4 tsp blue food colouring (optional - unless you are looking for BLUE LIPS FUN)
7. icing colouring pen (to draw the eyes, hands and nose)

1. In a blender, mix up the almond powder, icing sugar,and white food colouring, sieve it and set aside.

2.Beat the egg white until frothy, add in half of the castor sugar, keep beating till you get a soft peak and then add in the rest of the sugar. Beat to stiff peak.

3. Add the blended dry ingredients to the stiff egg white.

4. Keep folding until you get a mixture that flow slowly like lava. This should take about 50 folds. The mixture should be uniformed, shiny and when lifted it should flow down and form a thick ribbon. Scoop out 2 tablespoons of the mixture in an extra bowl, add in blue colouring, mix well and set aside.

5. Put a piece of baking sheet over a baking tray, pipe a small circle about 2 cm, a the bottom of the small circle, pipe another circle of 3-4cm. Repeat until all mixture is used up. Using a fine stick ( I used chopstick ) dip in the blue mixture prepared earlier, then drag over between 2 circles to make the scarf.

6. Let the macaron sit until a skin is formed and it's no longer stick to the fingers when touched. Depending on your room temperature, and air humidity this should takes somewhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour.

7. Pre-heat the oven on 150 C with top heating.

8. When the oven is heated up, put in the piped macarons. Increase to 160 C and continue baking for about 4-5 minutes, be sure to work with your oven and you might need a few test to know how much your oven heats up. The feet should already be forming after 4-5mins. Decrease the temperature to 150C, open the oven door quickly to allow hot air to escape. bake for another 6-8 minutes until the shells are baked.

9. To know if your macarons are baked, you could try it by gently touching the shells, when it's baked it should no longer slide against the feet.

10. If the macaron shells are not well baked, extend the baking time by 1 minutes and recheck.

11. Let macaron cooled before removing them from the baking sheet. You could speed up the process by lightly wetting your working area with a sponge and drag the baking sheets over.

12. Match up all the similar size shells, draw the hands, nose and eyes. Get the ready for filling.

Cinnamon Anise Chocolate & Wine Jelly Macarons

Ingredients :

1. 50g fresh cream (35% fat) / soycream

2. 50g dark chocolate (chopped finely)

3. 1/4 tsp cinnamon + 1/4 tsp anise (powder )

4. 50ml red wine

5. 1/4 tsp agar agar powder

Methods:

1. Mix red wine and agar agar in a small pot, bring to boil for 3 minutes.

2. Pour over a flat plate, let cool before putting it in the fridge.

3. Place dark chocolate in a big heat proof bowl. Place the bowl over a smaller pot with boiling water to melt the chocolate (water bath).

4. In another pot, boil up the cream with cinnamon and anise powder. Remove from heat and infuse for 10 minutes.

5. Rewarm the mixture and pour over chocolate . Incorporated the mixture together, let the ganache cool down then put it in the fridge.

6. Cut the jelly into small square, fill up one macaron shell with chocolate ganache, top up with the jelly, and put a pea size chocolate ganache on the jelly, close it up with another shell.

HAPPY HOLIDAY !!

Macaron Fetish - C'est la Fête (It's Party Time)

Macaron Fetish - C’est la fête by Kim Chodkowski | Make Your Own Book

10USD OFF on any book purchase on Blurb till 30th Nov 2011

2011-11-03T02:03:00.000-07:00

GOOD NEWS - Until 30th Nov 2011, Blurb.com is giving up $10USD discount on every purchase!

if you're interested, here is the discount code to use upon check up

Front Cover

Back Cover

Hello all,

I am so excited, the first proof copy of my book is finally here yay!! After working on it for a few months, I have been anticipating for so long to see the real tangible book :)

So here is some sneak peak for the book, for those who had contributed your input on "what's your flavour" post, I'll send you guys a promo code shortly in case you'd like to grab a copy.

Thank you all again :)

Macaron Fetish - The Luxury Collection by Kim Chodkowski |

20% OFF Discount Coupon

2011-10-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

Hello all

Here is the 20% OFF Discount Coupon on any Macaron Fetish Book :)

Please visit
http://www.blurb.com/user/kimhong1984?profile_preview=true

Key in code: ADBLURB (valid once per customer) until 31st Dec 2011 at last stage of check out for 20% OFF

Any question feel free to ask :) Thank you

Please Chase My Winter Blues Away Macaron

2011-10-26T13:21:00.001-07:00

Cold air is in the air, it's not even winter yet and I am already counting down to summer. It's just so awful for me, every year at the beginning of fall I am kinda depress. My already cold feet getting even icier, my skins are all itchy and cracking up from the cold and dry air, the lack of sunshine and the cold is sucking out all my energy. I usually not fond to go out if I don't have to. As I have to spend at least 10 minutes to layer myself up and go out like a bear!

I am longing for those summer days where I could open the windows with breeze, flowers, butterflies and dragonflies in the field, going out with just a sundress and flip flops, having fun with my bunnies outside... sign... worst of all winter is not even here yet, it's just a beginning of a long cold days ahead. So NOT looking forward to the snowing season and below freezing temperature.

Anyway, making myself some blue macarons with light floral scent. Hoping to make myself feel better. After all I need to eat every 2 hours with my metabolism going completely crazy - guest my body need more food to keep warm.

These macarons may look pretty but the next time I'll leave out the metallic blue painting over the shell - it made everyone's lips BLUE!!! gosh! I did a test to make the meringue with cane sugar instead of the usual white castor sugar and it works just fine.

I also did a test with double heating option as some of my fellow bloggers ask me about that because some oven do not have option of heating sections. I know my oven warms up a lot and always heat up too much. So I heat up the oven to 150 C with double heating, pop in the macarons in the middle tray, then increase to 160 C after 2 minutes for about 4 minutes before turning it back to 150 C and bake for another 7-8 minutes until it's baked. I also open the oven door quickly for a few time to cool down my oven slightly. It helps to prevent browning on the top of the macarons.

Hope all of you are having an excellent autumn :)

For the shell

Ingredients:

1. 40g egg white
2. 30g almond powder
3. 50g icing sugar
4. 30g blond cane sugar
5. 1/2 tsp blue food colouring
6. 1/2 tsp metallic blue food colouring (optional - unless you are looking for BLUE LIPS FUN)

1. In a blender, mix up the almond powder, icing sugar,and food colouring, sieve it and set aside

2.Beat the egg white until frothy, add in half of the cane sugar, keep beating till you get a soft peak and then add in the rest of the sugar. Beat to stiff peak.

3. Add the blended dry ingredients to the stiff egg white.

4. Keep folding until you get a mixture that flow slowly like lava. This should take about 50 folds. The mixture should be uniformed, shiny and when lifted it should flow down and form a thick ribbon.

5. Put a piece of baking sheet over a baking tray, pipe the mixture.

6. Let the macaron sit until a shell is formed and it's no longer stick to the fingers when touched. Depending on your room temperature, and air humidity this should takes somewhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour.

7. Pre-heat the oven on 150 C with top and bottom heating.

8. When the oven is heated up, put in the piped macarons. Increase to 160 C after 2 minutes and continue baking for about 4-5 minutes, be sure to work with your oven and you might need a few test to know how much your oven heats up. The feet should already be forming after 4-5mins. Decrease the temperature to 150C, open the oven door quickly to allow hot air to escape. bake for another 6-8 minutes until the shells are baked.

9. To know if your macarons are baked, you could try it by gently touching the shells, when it's baked it should no longer slide against the feet.

10. If the macaron shells are not well baked, extend the baking time by 1 minutes and recheck.

11. Let macaron cooled before removing them from the baking sheet. You could speed up the process by lightly wetting your working area with a sponge and drag the baking sheets over.

12. Match up all the similar size shells, and get the ready for filling.

White Chocolate Violet Ganache

Ingredients:

1. 1 tsp violet syrup
2. 50g dark chocolate
3. 30g organic unsweetened soya milk
4. 4-5 pcs of candied Violet

Methods:
1. Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over water bath to melt it

2. In a small pot, over low heat, warm up soya milk with candied violets. Let infuse for 10 mins, strain then rewarm the mixture again.

3. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat, add in violet syrup and mix well. Pour over chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth, shiny ganache is obtained.

4. Let sit in room temperature for 30min and place into the fridge for at least 1 hour for it to harden up. Place a cling wrap on top touching the ganache prior putting it into the fridge to prevent any crystalisation on the chocolate ganache.

5. Fill up the macaron shells and enjoy!

Bunz moment :

Nestor begging to the max for his treats.

Myrtille's after nap look.

Reglisse dead bun sleeping position

Working together to get bun-minate the study room

Eddy aka the Evil-E / T-Rex is keeping warm with her prince charming Nestor

Mac Attack Entry - Pink October Macaron

2011-10-12T13:05:00.001-07:00

Guest what, I was browsing through some flyers today and saw some advertisement for Christmas decoration - ALREADY! In most shop here the xmas decorations are u. Just thinking it wasn't so long ago it was xmas. And we're counting down to christmas again... to me it's just so surreal.

Anyway, the cold air and the falling leaves certainly remind me that we're at the end of the year. On the mountain there is already some snow and I have to remind myself that soon my 'torture season' is back - seeing how my bunnies are fattening up with fat cells and wools, I think we're going to have a cold winter.

So Pink is the colour against breast cancer, here I present you the Pink Ribbon Macaron - with Szechuan Pepper Soya Milk Chocolate Ganache .

Enjoy the entry :)

For the shell

Ingredients:

1. 40g egg white
2. 30g almond powder
3. 50g icing sugar
4. 30g castor sugar
5. 1/2 tsp red food colouring
6. 1/2 tsp SzeChuan Pepper

Methods:

1. In a blender, mix up the almond powder, icing sugar, Szechuan pepper and food colouring, sieve it and set aside

2.Beat the egg white until frothy, add in half castor sugar, keep beating till you get a soft peak and then add in the rest of the sugar. Beat to stiff peak.

3. Add the blended dry ingredients to the stiff egg white.

4. Keep folding until you get a mixture that flow slowly like lava. This should take about 50 folds. The mixture should be uniformed, shiny and when lifted it should flow down and form a thick ribbon. Scoop up a tablespoon of the mixture into another bowl. Add more red colouring in the extra bowl to get darker pink colour.

5. Put a piece of baking sheet over a baking tray, pipe the mixture. Using a chopstick, dip into dark pink batter and slowly, draw a ribbon over piped shells.

6. Let the macaron sit until a shell is formed and it's no longer stick to the fingers when touched. Depending on your room temperature, and air humidity this should takes somewhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour.

7. Pre heat the oven on 160 C with only top heating.

8. When the oven is heated up, put in the piped macarons, bake for 8 mins, the feet should already start forming at this stage.

9. Change the heating to bottom only, bake for another 6 minutes. To know if your macarons are baked, you could try it by gently touching the shells, when it's baked it should no longer slide against the feet.

10. If the macaron shells are not well baked, extend the baking time by 1 minutes and recheck.

11. Let macaron cooled before removing them from the baking sheet. You could speed up the process by lightly wetting your working area with a sponge and drag the baking sheets over.

12. Match up all the similar size shells, and get the ready for filling.

Szechuan Pepper Soya Milk Chocolate Macaron Filling (dairy Free)

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 tsp Szechuan Pepper
2. 50g dark chocolate
3. 45g organic unsweetened soya milk

Methods:
1. Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over water bath to melt it

2. In a small pot, over low heat, warm up soya milk with Szechuan pepper. Let infuse for 10 mins, then rewarm the mixture again.

3. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat. Pour over chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth, shiny ganache is obtained.

4. Let sit in room temperature for 30min and place into the fridge for at least 1 hour for it to harden up. Place a cling wrap on top touching the ganache prior putting it into the fridge to prevent any crystalisation on the chocolate ganache.

5. Fill up the macaron shells and enjoy!

Mac Attack Entry - Macaron de saison

2011-09-21T02:57:00.000-07:00

Oh, time flies~~ really it does, in a blink of the eye the end of September is approaching and today is the last day of summer.

To me the summer seems to already end a week ago, chilling winds and temperature, my skins starts to itch and lips start to crack from the dry air... The season that is certainly not my favourite is IN! How I just miss the tropical weather and can just pop down on the street without having to check the temperature to get dress accordingly.

A hot pot of ginger tea with dark sugar is cooking in the kitchen to warm me up - even my nose is cold! Oh well, guest all I will do now is start counting down until winter ends.

Macaron de saison, I first wanted to create macaron with some seasonal fruits or nut, but second thought, what is the very one thing I cannot live without in every season? The answer has to be CHOCOLATE!!! Chocolate is great to work with and the versatility is endless.

So I have decided to create 4 flavours based on dark chocolate theme but adding a little something different for each season.

May I present you

Spring Lime Chocolate Macaron :
Green - Colour of first sign of spring is coming.

Summer Rose Chocolate Macaron :
Red - Full bloom roses and the smell of summer.

Autumn Ginger Chocolate Macaron :
Yellow - Colour of autumn, ginger to warm up the spirit and mind!

Winter Spiced Chocolate Macaron :
Blue - Cold air & snow, cinnamon and cardamom to chase away the winter blues.

Hope you enjoy the entry :)

For the shell

Ingredients (for each colour)

1. 40g egg white
2. 30g almond powder
3. 50g icing sugar
4. 30g castor sugar
5. 1/2 tsp of green / yellow / red / blue food colouring

Methods:

1. In a blender, mix up the almond powder, icing sugar and food colouring (use one colour), sieve it and set aside

2.Beat the egg white until frothy, add in half castor sugar, keep beating till you get a soft peak and then add in the rest of the sugar. Beat to stiff peak.

3. Add the blended dry ingredients to the stiff egg white.

4. Keep folding until you get a mixture that flow slowly like lava. This should take about 50 folds. The mixture should be uniformed, shiny and when lifted it should flow down and form a thick ribbon.

5. Put a piece of baking sheet over a baking tray, pipe the mixture.

6. Let the macaron sit until a shell is formed and it's nolonger sticked to the fingers when touched. Depanding on your room temperature, and air humidity this should takes somewhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour.

7. Pre heat the oven on 160 C with only top heating.

8. When the oven is heated up, put in the piped macarons, bake for 8 mins, the feet should already start forming at this stage.

9. Change the heating to bottom only, bake for another 6 minutes. To know if your macarons are baked, you could try it by gently touching the shells, when it's baked it should nolonger slide against the feet.

10. If the macaron shells are not well baked, extend the baking time by 1 minutes and recheck.

11. Let macaron cooled before removing them from the baking sheet. You could speed up the process by lightly wetting your working area with a sponge and drag the baking sheets over.

12. Match up all the similar size shells, and get the ready for filling.

Spring Lime Chocolate Macaron Filling

Ingredients:

1. 1 organic lime (wash, dry well, grate rimd - set aside)
2. 1 tbsp lime juice
3. 50g dark chocolate
4. 45g fresh cream

Methods:
1.Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over water bath to melt it

2. In a small pot, over low heat, warm up liquid cream, lime rind and lime juice.

3. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat. Pour over chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth, shiny ganache is obtained

4. Let sit in room temperature for 30min and place into the fridge for at least 1 hour for it to harden up. Place a cling wrap on top touching the ganache prior putting it into the fridge to prevent any crystalisation on the chocolate ganache.

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Summer Rose Chocolate Macaron Filling

Ingredients:

1. crystalised rose petals (optional)
2. 1 tbsp rose water
3. 50g dark chocolate
4. 45g fresh cream

Methods:
1.Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over water bath to melt it

2. In a small pot, over low heat, warm up liquid cream and rose water.

3. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat. Pour over chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth, shiny ganache is obtained

4. Add in crystalise rose petals if used, let it sit in room temperature for 30min and place into the fridge for at least 1 hour for it to harden up.

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Autumn Ginger Chocolate Macaron Filling

Ingredients:

1. 1-2 strips of candied ginger (cut into small slices)
2. 1 tsp ginger powder
3. 50g dark chocolate
4. 50g fresh cream

Methods:
1. Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over water bath to melt it

2. In a small pot, over low heat, warm up liquid cream and ginger powder.

3. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat. Pour over chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth, shiny ganache is obtained

4. Let it sit in room temperature for 30min and place into the fridge for at least 1 hour for it to harden up.

5. To fill macaron, simply pipe the choclate ganache on one shell then top up with a slice of candied ginger before closing up with another shell.

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Winter Spiced Chocolate Macaron Filling

Ingredients:

1. 2 cardamom seed
2. 1 cinnamon stick
3. 50g dark chocolate
4. 50g fresh cream

Methods:
1.Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over water bath to melt it

2. In a small pot, over low heat, warm up liquid cream, infuse cinnamon stick and cardamom seed. Set aside for 15 mins. Remove the spice before reheating the cream again.

3. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat. Pour over chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth, shiny ganache is obtained

4. Add in crystalise rose petals if used, let it sit in room temperature for 30min and place into the fridge for at least 1 hour for it to harden up.

I'd like to introduce my new family member - Papy Nestor, prince charming of Miss Evil Eddy :) He had been here for about a week now, he is old and abodoned on the road side to fend or himself before the shelter found him. He spent close to a year in the shelter and is getting depress because noone is interested in him. I am glad that he is here now to spend his golden year with us, he is surely one very intelligent bunny.

Miss Evil Eddy with Papy Nestor

HAPPY MAC-BAKING!

The winner

2011-09-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hello all here is the result for

" What's your flavour ? " entries

The most creative flavour winner is : Dianne at http://diannesfoodoflove.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much to everyone for participating and congratulation to Dianne.

Please kindly email me at kim_hong_lim@hotmail.com with your email address so I could send you guys the discount code in case you'd like to grab a copy of the book :)

Macaron Fetish - The Luxury Collection Book

2011-09-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

GOOD NEWS - Until 30th Nov 2011, Blurb.com is giving up $10USD discount on every purchase!

if you're interested, here is the discount code to use upon check up

Front Cover

Back Cover

Macaron Fetish - The Luxury Collection by Kim Chodkowski |