Macaroon Madness!

Macaroons have been the most 'in' dessert/snack! It's now everywhere in Singapore! Most high tea buffets I've been to serve macaroons. Pastry chefs have been using these colorful shells to decorate their cakes. I've tasted quite a number of macaroons and the best is still France's laduree macaroons!

It's shell has a thin crispy crust whiles the inside in chewy! The shell itself has the flavour of the filling. The shop was so pretty! Full of delicious pastries! It was like walking into part of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

I've made quite a number of macaroons but none as good as laduree's. Though I would say they are better than your average hotels which serve macaroons. My best friend said she usually doesn't eat macaroons because they are just sweet and after taking a bite you just wana put it back! But she said mine changed her perspective of macaroons! Haha. That's probably because she never tasted Laduree's macaroons!

Ok, now, the part that you guys probably just skip right to! The recipe! My recipe as you can guess, is extremely simple!

Macaroon shell Recipe
180g Egg White
73g Sugar
180g Ground Almond
375g Icing Sugar

Method of Preparation
1. Beat the egg whites till foamy
2. Slowing add in the sugar and beat till stiff stage. (the meringue should be able to hold it's shape)
3. Add in desired color to the meringue.
4. Sift icing and ground almonds together. If your almonds are not fine, you could use a Robo Coupe to grind them.
5. Fold in sifted icing and almonds into meringue. Fold in 1/3 by 1/3.
6. Fold till batter is smooth and shiny without lumps. DO NOT fold till it becomes runny! If not it will be difficult to pipe.
7. On a baking sheet, pipe out the macaroons using a round tip. If you are new to these, you could make a stencil and put it under a baking paper to use as your guideline.
8. Rest for 30 minutes till the top is harden/dry.
9. Bake at 150C for 20-30 minutes. Test by lifting the macaroons out of the sheet to see if it can come off cleanly. If the macaroons are browned, it means it's been over-baked.

Salted caramel filling recipe
60g Sugar
60g Water
50g Whipping cream
15g Butter
Pinch of Salt

Method of Preparation
1. Caramelise sugar with water.
2. After sugar reach caramel color, remove from stove and pour in cream. Be careful as it will spatter.
3. Add in butter and stir. Put it back to stove if caramel is not smooth.
4. Add in pinch of salt.

Chocolate Ganache filling
60g Chocolate
50g Whipping Cream

Method of Preparation
1. Put chocolate and cream in a bowl and microwave for 3-5 minutes till chocolate has melted.

Assembly
1. Match shell sizes into pairs.
2. Once filling and shells has cooled, pipe a dope into 1 side of each pair of shells.
3. Lightly put the top shell onto the one with the filling and twist gently.
4. Refrigerate overnight so shell has time to absorb the flavor of the filling.

A 2012 macaroon countdown clock I made for the new year!

Cookies

This is exam week and I've been munching on tidbits the entire two weeks! Probably gained a couple of pounds.. I kept munching till my house ran out of tidbits! So I decided to bake cookies!

Obviously, I didn't have much time to be baking because I need to study so I just played cheat by baking Betty crocker's cookies! It's delicious I took me just 10 minutes to get them on the baling tray! Just throw in an egg, 1/4 cup veg oil and 2 tablespoons water with the Betty crocker's flour mixture and you will get a cookie dough! Easy as ABC! The thing I love about Betty crocker's is that it's gives a generous amount of chocolate chips.

If you want crispy cookies, bake them for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven and cookie size. If you want chewy cookies, just bake them for 11-15 minutes.

Pancakes for breakfast..

Just had pancakes for breakfast! And yes, it's self-made! You don't need to go all the way to Macs to get pancakes! It's super easy to do.

Ingredients
240 gm Self Raising Flour
180 ml Milk
15 gm Sugar
1 no Egg

Method of Preparation
1. Just mix everything together till batter is smooth!
2. Using a paper towel, wipe oil on pan.
3. Using a ladle, pour a scope of batter to the pan.
4. Fry till golden brown!

Serve with maple syrup, butter or any jam of your choice!
You could add fruits like blueberries to the batter too!

Japanese Cheesecake

Just made a Japanese cheesecake for faith's birthday! A small heart cheesecake! I've been baking cheesecake for my friends' birthdays because it's super easy and most importantly, does not require CREAM! Every time I bake a cake, i have to buy a new packet of cream because it spoils within a week. Plus, cream cakes have to be kept refrigerated so I have to worry about it melting during its journey to the birthday venue.  Japanese cheesecake solves these problems! Just 5 ingredients and you get a light and moist cheesecake!

It's best eaten alone without cream or any glaze on top. So, it's not really meant for big parties because it doesn't look glamorous but for just a party within close friends or family, its great! If you really want to decorate it, just melted some chocolate and pipe the birthday girl/guy's name on top!

 

I baked this for a friend's birthday a couple of weeks ago. As you noticed, there's a crack in the middle! This cake is quite delicate so it cracked whiles I was moving the warm cheesecake to a cake board. I also tried decorating it with chocolate petals at the side! Epic FAILURE!

Ingredients
420 gm   Cream Cheese
40 gm     Sugar
4 nos      Yolks
50 gm     Cake Flour (sifted)
85 gm     Melted Butter

 4 nos      Egg Whites
100 gm    Sugar

Method of Preparation

1. Using a K-beater, beat cream cheese and sugar till fluffy.
2. Slowly add in yolks. Followed by sifted cake flour.
3. Slowly pour cooled down melted butter from the side.
4. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites and sugar till soft peak.
5. Fold in half portion of egg whites(meringue) into cheese mixture. Fold in the other half.
6. Pour into mould and bake in water bath at 150C for 50mins to an hour depending on the size of the cake. 

Red Bean Paste Pancake

This whole month I've been learning Asian sweets. Before this month, i was not really fond of Asian Sweets cause when i think of desserts, i would think of french pastries like chocolate cakes, eclairs, tarts, cream puff and such. But this module totally changed my conception of Asian desserts. They are much simpilier to make and taste equally delicious. For my exam, I decided to go with Chinese theme. I chose 1 of my favourite desserts which is Red Bean Paste Pancake! I don't really like Red Beans, however, after trying out the Red Bean Pancake at Crystal Jade, it changed my mind!

The pancake was very thin and the skin was cripsy yet the inside was chewy with just the right amount of red bean paste inside. Here's the Red Bean Paste Pancake recipe I used.

Ingredients

125 gm Plain Flour

Pinch of Salt

Dash of Vanilla Essence

1 no. Egg, lightly benten

70 gm Water

150 gm Azuki Red beans (mashed)

Method of Preparation

1. In a mixing bowl, combine flour and salt.
2. Mix in V. essence and egg.
3. Slowly add in water till batter flows down smoothly from spoon.
4. Wipe frying pan with oil with paper towel.
5. Over low heat, pour a tablespoon of batter, tilt pan to let batter run evenly, forming a thin layer.
6. Cook till batter becomes a crepe. MAKE SURE THERE IS NO BROWN SPOTS.
7. Spread 2 tablespoons of red bean paste across the middle third of each pancake.
8. Fold the top flap over the paste and side flaps inwards followed by the bottom flap, forming an envelop.
9. Seal with a litt batter.
10. Heat oil in wok and deep fry pancakes.
11. Remove pancake from oil and drain on paper towels/
12. Cut into strips and serve immediately!

This is my 1st attempt of frying the pancake. I did the red bean paste myself and it tasted horrible! It was very bland and had hardly any red bean taste. So i suggest buying the canned azuki beans instead. Taste fantastic!