Black forest gateau macarons

I'll start today by telling you that this is a bit of an experiment. Not my baking, well, maybe. Actually that's always a bit of an experiment, but that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm attempting to blog from a tablet rather than a proper computer. I have a fond idea that I'll get more written if I don't have to sit at a desk. That it won't feel like work. Less formal. We shall see.

On to the baking. The start of a new series of the Great British Bake Off has once again ignited my interest in baking. Last week I made the rookie error of not having any treats in for scoffing whilst the program was on! So my brain was quickly running through what was in the cupboards in an attempt to find something to reconcile the situation.

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Comic Relief macarons and cupcakes

This year for Red Nose Day a group of people from my work decided to participate in the Comic Relief Bake Off.

It wasn't a competition or anything, we just arranged to each take a day and bring in some treats. We put out a donation box and raised some cash for a good cause.

I made these vanilla cupcakes with a cherry on top and bright red macarons with a white chocolate ganache filling.

I was concerned that folks might not fancy them being that RED but they disappeared very quickly, in fact only crumbs remained by 11am. You gotta move fast at my work when macarons are on offer!

Autumn macarons + recipe

Hello macarons.

Yep. More.

I've had to change my 'current obsession' back to les macarons. I've been making them a lot more often this year. I'm still not sure why I love baking them so much. They are really hard work and I am usually so impatient!

I made these for the lovely people at my work. We had a 'Summer Social'. Yes, at the end of September. So I made Autumnal themed macs. They are flavoured with a hint of cinnamon and filled with a milk and dark chocolate ganache.

I tried to get a subtle orange-y brown colour. I didn't want them to be too 'Halloween-orange' or look like they were meant to be orange flavoured. I'm still using gel based food colourings, but I think I'll have to try the powdered ones soon.

They went down really well. I thought they were a little on the rustic side, but no-one seemed to notice. Maybe because one of my colleagues made Nigella's Chocolate Guinness cake and it was freaking awesome.       



For the first time ever, I'm posting a full recipe with my macarons. Please read it all the way through before you decide to make a start. I use the Italian meringue method which involves hot sugar so please be careful.

Makes: about 18 full macarons. Takes: some time.

Ingredients

150g Ground almonds
150g Icing sugar
108g Egg whites (about three large eggs)
150g Granulated sugar
38g   Water
1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
Red and yellow food colours (or orangey-brown if you have it) - not the liquid ones.

Filling

50-60g Dark chocolate
50-60g Milk chocolate
1/3cup about 85ml Double cream
(Information about using ganache in various ways)

Tools

Electronic scale
Food processor/spice grinder
Three or four baking sheets
Candy thermometer
Mixer/electric hand mixer
Piping bag with large tip
Baking/parchment paper
Paper with circles drawn on it

Method

- Firstly you'll need to make these the day before you want to eat them.
- Secondly you'll need to leave your egg whites out to 'age' a day or two before that. (You can microwave them for 10 seconds to skip this - it works, mostly)

- Take the ground almonds, icing sugar and cinnamon and grind them together in a food processor or spice grinder. Then spread the mix out on a baking tray to dry out. You can do this in a slightly warm oven if it's damp in your kitchen.
-Weigh out your egg whites into two sets of 54g each.
- Sieve the almond/sugar mixture into a bowl and add 54g of egg whites and a small blob of red and yellow food colouring.
- Mix together really well into a smooth paste.
- Put the other set of egg whites into a sparkling clean bowl and whisk them until it forms soft peaks, it will still be a bit foamy looking.
- Put the granulated sugar and water in a small pan and start to heat it gently. Don't stir it. Keep an eye on the thermometer.
- When the sugar solution reaches 118c take it off the heat.
- Pour the hot solution in a slow stream into the eggs whilst continuing to whisk.
- Whisk until the mixture gets nice and shiny and check the temperature is below 50c.
- Fold the shiny mixture into the almond paste.
- Get a piece of printer paper. Using a upside down shot glass or a set of compasses draw a set of circles with a couple of cm gaps between them. Or download a template - like this one.
- Put a wide circular tip in your piping bag, place the bag in a glass and load it up with macaron mixture.
- Put your template on a baking tray and cover it with a layer of parchment paper.
- Pipe out circles until you have filled a tray. Then tap it on the counter to remove any air bubbles and the bobble on the top left by piping.
- Continue to fill trays this way until you have no mixture left.
- Leave the macarons to set and form a skin. Your finger shouldn't stick if you touch it. It takes about half and hour, but can be longer if it's humid or has been raining.
- Set you oven to 160c (fan) and let it get up to temperature.
- Put your first tray of piped macaron mixture on top of another (empty) tray and place it in the middle of the oven.
- Leave the oven door open a little bit (use a wooden spoon to prop it open) and cook for around 10-12 minutes. They shouldn't 'wobble' when they are done. I also like to turn mine around during cooking as I use a fan oven and they sometimes rise unevenly.
- When you take them out let them settle for a minute or two then gently peel them off the paper.
- Let them cool completely on a rack.
- Do the same with each tray.
- Whilst they are cooking, make the ganache.
- Break up both kinds of chocolate into a bowl.
- Microwave or heat the cream in a pan until it is just about to boil.
- Pour it over the chocolate and leave for a minute or two, then mix thoroughly until there are no lumps.
- Put the mix in the fridge to set.
- When all the macaron are cool, match them up in pairs. If your piping was really good, they'll all be the same size. I usually have a few that are a little larger. oops.
- The ganache should have set enough that you can pipe it. If it has gone really solid - like a truffle - just heat it a little to get the right consistency.
- Pipe a blob of ganache on one side of each pair and pop the top on to flatten it out. You should be able to see it at the sides but not have it ooze out.
- Put all the macarons in an airtight container and pop them in the fridge overnight.
- Remove them from the fridge 30-60 mins before serving.
- Enjoy!

If they didn't come out like you expected - try a troubleshooting guide like the one at foodnouveau.com.

Burger Macarons

We've just had a lovely bank holiday weekend. We were invited to a BBQ on Sunday, which ended up being a glorious day. Traditionally all bank holidays are soggy affairs leading to large queues at the shopping centre. So it was a nice to be able to eat and drink and chat in the sun. 

In fact, this is one of the reasons why I decided to embark upon the task of creating burger macarons. I thought if play was rained off we could still eat burgers! And I love making macarons. And people love eating them. 

Obviously I didn't invent the novelty macaron. They've looked like burgers forever and you can find a few pictures of other people's versions if you look for them online. I didn't use a tutorial or anything for these though, so I'm going to add a few tips for if you fancy having a go. 

Burger Macarons

The 'bread'

Just make the shells with your favourite macaron method/recipe. Personally I find the Italian meringue method easier to get the correct consistency. A lot of recipes seem to say it should be a magma like texture? That seems a rather bizarre thing to compare your cooking to. I think it looks more like melted marshmallow. It's shiny and pourable but not runny. 

I got the colour by adding some yellow colouring and a little bit of red. I was a pale orangey shade which went a bit darker when baked. I wouldn't add too much though, even plain macarons are quite burger bun like. After I'd piped them, but before they set I sprinkled on some sesame seeds. 

The 'burger'

For the burger I used a chocolate ganache. I left it in the the fridge to harden up a bit, but not completely. I piped globs about the size of a cherry tomato (or a large cherry I suppose?) onto a plate. Then I took each one and placed it between two pieces of cling film and squished it down with the bottom of a glass dish. Using something made of glass made it easier to see when the 'burger' was the right width for the shell. Pressing them down like that also made a nice uneven edge.

The 'cheese'

I didn't make fondant or colour it or anything. I just bought a bar of bright yellow ready to roll icing. I rolled it really thin and cut some squares. Make sure everything is covered in icing sugar or it'll all stick together. eugh. 

Didn't last long!

The 'tomato sauce'

These are pretty time consuming little things to put together so I didn't make this icing either. I used a little tube of writing icing. You know the kind they do for piping 'happy birthday' on a cake? I added a couple of 'drips' where you could see them from the outside of the burger and a little bit in the middle so you would see it when you bit though.

I also added a dab of extra ganache on top of the 'cheese' to make sure the lids stayed on. Once the lids were in position I popped them in the fridge for 24hrs.

Just before the BBQ I wrapped them individually in squares of baking paper so they looked like fast food burgers ready to go.

What do you think? Would you try one?  



Check out this amazing time lapse video my friend made of the BBQ.

     

Patriotic (red, white, and blue) Macarons

It's been a little while since there was any macaron action around here hasn't it? In fact last time was my Cherry Pie macarons over a year ago. That seems to be just enough time to forget how tricksy they are to make ...

Here is a little story. This last weekend was the Queen's Jubilee in the UK. My friends decided that the extra bank holiday would make it ideal for their housewarming party and gave it a Jubilee theme. Now, I'm not much of a royalist but the opportunities for crafting and baking around an event like this are awesome. I mentioned I might bring some iced biscuits which I vaguely remember being countered with, "Why would you make biscuits when you can make macarons?" I think I took that as a challenge. (I may or may not have been in the pub at the time.)

So, I decided to make red, white, and blue macarons for the occasion. I think Patriotic Macarons is a good title - they would work in the UK, USA, France, Norway, Russia, Iceland, Luxembourg, Australia ... you get the picture. I wasn't convinced I could make 'white' macarons. They are always a little bit yellow-y from the almonds, so I went with a white filling instead - white chocolate ganache. Plus ganache is super easy to make and very tasty.

This is how they turned out. I was worried no-one would eat the blue ones, since blue food is meant to be really unappetising, but they all disappeared no problem.

Here is the recipe for the ganache, you can use it to make truffles too.You need 5oz of white chocolate and 3oz of double cream. (I used a whole 150g bar of chocolate.) I think the ratio might be different for milk or dark chocolate, so this is just for white. All you do is warm up the cream in a pan until it just about simmering - then pour it over the chocolate and leave it for a minute or two. Mix it up well so there are no lumps left then leave it to cool. I popped mine in the fridge for half and hour. If you leave it longer it will get a bit more solid - which is not useful for filling macarons but you can roll it into balls and make delicious truffles. As a side note, making macarons tends to leave you with a lot of egg yolks. If you don't have anything to do with them right away, I read that it's best to cover them with a little water before you put them in the fridge to stop them from drying out. However, this time I used all the yolks and the left over cream from the ganache and made a pint of custard which I've put in the freezer. Next time we have apple pie or something, I think I will be mighty pleased that it's there waiting.

Cherry Pie macarons

As you may know if you've visited here before, I've got a thing pour les macarons. I am now going to have to admit something kind of embarrassing. I also love Warrant's Cherry Pie. It's a classic (though somewhat sleazy) rock tune. So yes, I made sweet cherry pie flavoured macarons and guess what? They taste so good make a grown man cry. Oh yeah.

Mango macaron in the wild

shhh. If you're very lucky you might see a macaron in its natural habitat.

My second attempt at the Italian meringue method of macaron creation went a bit better than the first. I wanted to try something a bit different this time, so I went for pink shells with a mango filling. I made my own recipe for the filling so I was pleased it turn out okay. It's not the greatest colour, but it tastes good.

I made them a bit thinner this time and let them dry properly before baking them. I also only cooked one tray at a time. They are so temperamental!

Italian meringue macarons

 

I finally got time to try a recipe from Pierre Hermé's macaron book. I've been a little daunted by the idea and not just because of the French text. Anything using hot sugar has generally been a recipe for disaster in my kitchen (get it, recipe ... for disaster ... heh) and all the macarons in the book are made with Italian meringue. 

I thought I'd drag myself away from chocolate, well almost. These are caramel with dark chocolate ganache filling. They tasted pretty good, unfortunately they don't look all that great. The sugar syrup makes the meringue more stable and it was actually easier to get the right consistency but I think I made them a bit thick so they didn't dry out enough. Hence no feet and some cracked shells :(

I also made it way more difficult for myself by making a rather small quantity. I ended up trying to weigh out 14g of egg white! Luckily I now have an electronic scale, but still, I'll not be doing that again. Plus you don't get enough to scoff and they are so tasty! 

 

Macaron book

Happy New Year folks!

Check out this cool book Marc got me for Christmas. It's by one of the top chefs in the world of Macarons - Pierre Hermé. It's got loads of recipes for different flavours including tomato ketchup!

What's interesting is that the basic mix he uses is made with Italian meringue. The recipes I've tried have always used soft meringue. The main difference is that hot sugar syrup is added to the egg whites. Apparently this makes for a more stable meringue which won't deflate as much when you add your other ingredients. It does mean more washing up though and hot sugar...

There's one other issue. The whole book is written in French. Luckily although my spoken French is awful, my reading is okay. Hopefully I'll be able to decipher enough to give it go. Maybe not the ketchup ones.

Making Macarons - attempt 4

Success! Yay!!

After my macaron 'revelation' the other day I was dying to have another go and see if I'd found the final piece in the puzzle. They came out of the oven really crispy again (blagh) but I filled them anyway and left them in the fridge. 24hrs later - beautiful smooth macarons. I'm so pleased, I thought they had me beat! Mr Fiancé also got to finally try a proper macaron and see what all the fuss is about.

So this time I followed the David Lebovitz recipe again (except I only made half as much in case they were wrong... again).
I left the egg white out while I went into town, so only an hour or two.
I whipped the egg whites until it was shiny but not really stiff.
I did all that tapping on the counter and waiting for a skin to form stuff then I baked them for 15 minutes with the oven open a bit.

I used my favourite chocolate sauce recipe for the filling instead of chocolate ganache then left them in a box in the fridge for 24 hours.

In honour of them finally working out they got their pictures taken on my cake stand with the pretty roses.

Thank you for all your helpful tips!

Making Macarons - attempt 3

Third attempt at the macarons! If you've ever had a go at making macarons (or you've seen my previous failures) you'll know there are a lot of variables which can affect the final product including the humidity in the kitchen.

This time I used a recipe from David Leboviz for chocolate macarons. I only aged the egg whites for an hour, I made sure that I didn't over whip the egg whites, I let them set before I baked them and I cooked them with the oven door slightly a jar.

They look a lot better than last time. A little flat maybe - perhaps I was a bit too cautious with the whipping! The taste was okay, but the texture was still the problem. Instead of being soft and fluffy in the inside they were really chewy. I was starting to think I would never get this right, until someone sent me this post from Not So Humble Pie. It includes a quote from Hermé:

"As soon as they're made they're not ready to eat, but they're really at their best after 24 or even 48 hours," he says. "An osmosis takes place between the garnish and the biscuit. When freshly baked this is hard and crisp, but it absorbs some humidity from the filling and its inside becomes more tender while the crust on the surface stays intact."

So maybe that's how they are supposed to be when they come out of the oven?! I didn't bother doing the filling as I thought they were all wrong! Next time macarons, next time.

Making Macarons - attempt 2

I had another go at making macarons. It was a total disaster.

Last time they looked okay, but the consistency was wrong. This time I tried a chocolate recipe and I aged the egg whites, which is supposed to help; but as you can see they are not even right on the outside.

I think I made the eggs too thick and I didn't leave the oven door open. Why are they so frustratingly tricky?

Super macaron review

Om Nom Nom. I tried lots of tasty treats on my trip to the capital, luckily I also did tonnes of walking so I've managed not to put on two stone in the process.

So on to the macarons. I visited four different places and as a 'control' I always chose chocolate as the first flavour and caramel as the second. And I mostly chose the small macarons where I could. I went to Laduree, Pierre Herme, Maison du Chocolat and PAUL.

Laduree Burlington Arcade and Harrods:
£1.50 each 

I found the staff at Laudree quite rude. Maybe they treat you better if you buy more?

I found their macarons to be the most delicate and had a beautiful shape. They have a thicker filling and the texture was slightly lumpy.




Laduree paper bag from Burlington Arcade.

Very uniform and smooth looking.








Pierre Herme Selfridges:
£1.85 each

The staff were helpful at Pierre Herme and talked with me about the different flavours. The macarons where slightly thicker than Laudree and very smooth. They were less cakey and the salted caramel was delicious. They had a stronger flavour.

Packaging from Pierre Herme in Selfridges.









Chocolate macaron with cocoa dusting.










Maison du Chocolat Piccadilly and Harrods:
2 for £3.50

The staff here were very nice, the shop is elegant, well spaced out and air conditioned to keep everything cool.








They like to package things up so they are a real treat.












The macarons were delicate and had a very smooth filling. They are slightly smaller than the Laduree offering, but it's more of an experience buying them.

PAUL many locations:
Large macaron £2.80

I went to the one at Covent Garden - the people are generally nice though the cafe is quite upmarket. Everything is more expensive if you eat in.

I had the large chocolate macaron, not entirley fair since it was a bigger size, but it tasted like the most divine brownie in the world. Very fudgey, but still light.


Paper bag from PAUL.










Tasty giant macaron.







My personal favourite was the PAUL macaron. It wasn't quite as delicate some of the others but it tasted great. Laduree and Pierre Herme had some very pretty packaging if you were buying larger quantities but I prefered Maison du Chocolat as a shopping experience.

I might have another go at baking my own now I know how they are supposed to taste.

Adventure planning: Other Amusements Tour of London

I'm quite excited about this new adventure.

In a few weeks time I'm taking a trip to London for a couple of days. I've been to London before, but there has always been a reason, like a gig or a show or for work. This time I'm going to all the places I never had time to go on other visits! This is the Other Amusements Tour of London.

I'm looking forward to going to the cupcake shops I had to walk past in order to catch trains, fabric shops which were already closed for the night and the Lomography shop - since it's my newest obsession.

And most of all I'm looking forward to trying some macarons from the top bakeries like Ladurée (the top picture) and Pierre Hermé (the second picture) maybe even PAUL,Yauatcha and La Maison du Chocolat if I don't feel sick by then...


Any other recommendations? What would you do with a day in London?

Cupcakes and macarons at Fancie

I wrote a post a couple of years (yes, years!) ago about some luscious cakes we had at an event at my work. At the time the woman who created them was just starting out. Now its a tasty cupcake empire!
The company is called Fancie and is based in Sheffield UK.

They have a really cute little cafe/shop on the outskirts of town and recently opened a kiosk right in the city center.

Check out the cupcake I consumed yesterday and yes...

 ...macarons.
I tried my first (not made by me) macaron. Chocolate flavour and it was delicious. I require more.

This many will do nicely.

or maybe this many.

Macarons in the UK

You can now mail-order macarons from Bougie in the UK! I really want to try some but they are rather expensive treats.

Making Macarons - attempt 1

So I had a go at making some Macarons. After a bit of research I decided on a recipe from Serious Eats, and these are the results.

I'm not sure they're quite there yet. The tops turned out a bit domed and cracked and the ruffley bit around the bottom isn't very defined. I think maybe the oven was too hot? There seems to be a lot of factors which can affect how they turn out, like how dry the egg whites are. I tried the method where you microwave the eggs for 10sec instead of leaving them out all night. Maybe I'll try aged eggs next time.
.
Anyway, I think they are not too bad for a first attempt. They taste nice - slightly chewy and very very sweet, but I'm not sure what they're meant to taste like so I can't really make a comparison!

...speaking of baking

There seems to be a thing with the 'lolita community' and Macarons. Now I've heard of Macaroons - as in coconut macaroons, but never really the french Macaroon. Anyway, they do look pretty so I thought I'd look up a recipe. They are mainly made from meringue and ground almonds with different flavours and colours added to the macaroon and the cream in the middle. I might give it a try.




pic from www.cookboutic.fr