redo

The previous post,  I have brown my macarons, instead of chewy is crunchy.  I follow my oven heat instead of the instructions of Jill Colonna, she uses 160 degrees with fan forced.

This time round, I use the oven heat that she recommended and for 12 mins, yes the macarons cames out of the oven beautifully and I have declared I will always use this method instead of Italian meringue.  Italian meringue is beautiful, it will gives u a glossy surface but I found that it's is a little bit troublesome to boil the sugar and et, no doubt, I did say is fool proof, it is indeed fool proof, few of my friends has problem in doing French method, but for Italian method, they are fine.

Macarons Again

Now, I am hot on making macarons, my niece has given me encourage to made more....  Yupee, especially when someone really appreciates your bakes and way to go.............

Surf the website and I loved the looks of the macarons  of this particular author, Jill Colonna, mades me wanted to follow her recipes and method and it works, no doubt my bake macarons is a little brown but the texture is good when tasted.  Have a try.

Macaronssssssssssss

A group of friends have been doing macarons using Italian method and it really motivates me in doing it and I did.  I made lemon & chocolate macarons.

I found out that this is not really difficult and it's even easier to handle than the french method.  I did not even aged the eggs and  did not even rest the macarons to let the skin formed.  I liked this method and the first try, I am happy with the result.

 A friend's daughter even tried the italian method through internet learning, no doubt it's has bumpy and rough surface  but it has little feet  at the edge, but it's a good begining for her,  She used star nozzle to pipe.




Recioes:- Sweet Spot's Blog

Chocolate Macaron with Dark Chocolate Ganache

(makes 20-24 macarons)

100g Almond meal
100g icing sugar
20g cocoa powder
36g fresh egg whites (about 1 egg white)
pinch of salt

100g caster sugar
30g water
36g aged egg whites (about 1 egg whites)
1g egg white powder -( I did not add )
Dark Chocolate Ganache

80g Valrhona Guanaja discs
50g cream
15g butter
Pinch of Salt

Method:




1. Make ganache. Put chocolate in a bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a light boil. Pour into chocolate and stir till chocolate has melted. Add in butter and salt and stir till everything is combined. Cover with a cling wrap on top of the surface and leave it to cool.

2. Make macaron. Sift almond meal, icing sugar and cocoa powder in a wide bowl. Add in the egg white and salt and mix well. Do this only when you’re ready to cook the sugar, otherwise it gets hard.
3. In a medium sized pot, pour in caster sugar and water. Bring to a boil and to 118 C. Which means that yes you need a candy thermometer. When the sugar syrup reaches 110 C, in a mixing bowl, whisk egg whites and egg white powder (I’ve tried without it, it’s alright) It should be somewhat medium peaks when the sugar syrup reaches 118 C.
4. While the mixer is still whisking (about medium speed), gradually pour in the sugar syrup. (To wash the pot, add in water and bring to a boil, it’s easier to wash) Then turn up the speed of the mixer for about 2 minutes till it turns glossy. Reduce the speed to medium and let it whisk till it’s stiffer. It should be somewhat stiff, but not so stiff. (Picture on row 3, left)


5. Now, add in 1/4 of the meringue into the almond mixture from step no.1. Whack it till it’s well incorporated. At this first step, I usually literally do it un-TLC-ly just to get some air out from the meringue and to lighten the almond mix.With the remaining 3/4 of meringue, add into the almond mix and fold it in. This time, a little more TLC until it becomes lava like.

6. I’m using a 10mm nozzle. Fit into a piping bag and scoop the batter into the bag. Pipe onto a tray lined with parchment paper or silpat. Lightly tap the tray on a table top. Let it rest for about 10 minutes then bake at 150 C for 14 minutes.
7. When it’s cooked, remove from the oven and let it cool on a rack. Once it’s completely cool, it should be able to peel off easily.

8. Pair the right sizes and arrange them on a tray. Fill with chocolate ganache and let it mature in the fridge and eat the following day (That is if you can resist but trust me, macs definitely need the maturing stage)

To Reminisce

It has been ages, that I have done this, I did this for my friend and mom who loved to eat this... worried that I won't be able to get the same texture and the last time, I did was almost 15 years ago.

Almost 3 months, over my father's demise and we, the children has been given my mum the full care and attention and has been cooking and baking mom's favourite things, so that she will consume some food, Bless the Lord, that she has recovered fast and has been more independent now, Thanks for all the people who has given moral support and concern to us.

Back to Kueh Bangkit, I don't really like to do this because of the flour, it has to fry until it's light and it will "fly" all over the place. I live in a HDB flat, and I have a portable stove where we use for steamboat, luckily, outside the door there is a space and a bit away from neighbour and I fry my flour over there, it really helps but I don't know whether my downstairs neighbour's plant, will it be coated with flour? for these, I am not going to find out :)

A Request

First a Happy & prosperous Chinese New Year and good health to everyone.

My youngest angel who is going to be 7 years old this year and now at the moment, her favourite is anything to do with rabbits. Even her hair clips is bunny. Both she and her mummy went shopping and bought a set of miffy plastic cutter for me to bake cookies, this is what she request for.... "Da Gu, can you made for me rabbit cookie" and I can't refuse any request from any of my angels.

I bake the cookies from this blog using the cutters they bought, had a hard time to cut the cookies (the insert is loose), manage to finish the lot.

After baking, I liked the teddy bear shape better than the rabbit, it looks cuter, that's what my daughter say so also. I loved the taste of this cookie, have a try, you will not regret it.

Recipe from the Blog

Animal Cookies

Ingredients
(A)
150gm Unsalted Butter
50gm Icing Sugar
50gm Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla essence
2 Egg Yolks
1 Egg white
Pinch of salt
Pinch of Ground Cinnamon (optional) - I did not add

(B)
325gm All-purpose Flour / Plain Flour
50gm Milk Powder
30gm cornflour
½ tsp Baking powder

Method

Pre-heat oven at 180~C and line 2 baking tray with parchment paper or lightly greased it.

Beat (A) till light and fluffy.

Sift (B) and fold in lightly into (A) until a dough is form.

Roll the dough into 3mm thickness and use the animal cookie cutter to shape it. Place onto a greased tray or on parchment paper, bake for 20 minutes at 180~C.

Set on the wire rack to cool before storing into air-tight container.