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.

Running

Remember when I said I had started doing some exercise? Well I meant it.

I completed that 'Couch to 5k' podcast. Granted it took longer than nine weeks, but I got there and started listening to other podcasts when I went out running. I can't help but rave about how much it has done for me. I got one of my friends hooked too - I overheard her telling someone how she never liked PE at school ...
I think something should be done about PE. It's still not working is it?  

Anyway. I wanted a challenge so I entered the Cancer Research UK Race for Life with my Mum. Race for Life is a 5k course that you can run or walk for the charity. We ran the whole thing! I was amazed and it felt great. Plus we raised some money for a good cause. (Thank you everyone who sponsored us.)

Since then I've kept up my running and started running a bit further.

I wanted another challenge so I entered a 10k race. I had three months to double how far I could run. I wasn't sure I could do it - but on the day I ran every step. I can now run for over an hour.

Check out my medal collection ;) It really goes to show what you can do when you put your mind to it.

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.

     

Outdoor cinema

We went to see Jurassic Park ... in the park.

There was an outdoor cinema screen set up and when it got dark enough they projected the film onto it. We sat on the grass. We took a few snacks but usually you are not allowed to drink in the park, so we didn't take any alcoholic beverages. Some other people had beers, so I walked up to the pub and bought a bottle of wine. The guy behind the bar was very helpful and found me some paper cups to take back with me.

We should have brought some warmer clothes - it was quite chilly by the end of the film! Well worth it though.

Jurassic Park, it's a classic, isn't it?

Heston inspired turkey burgers

Hello, I am still alive! I've had a bit of a stressful month and I've been spending a lot of my time on another project I can't you about yet. But I really wanted to stop by and tell you about this 'recipe' I tried. The pictures are rubbish, I tried to get a tasty looking one when I was consuming the left overs for lunch but it is not pretty.

Now, I know you've heard of Heston Blumenthal. He cooks in some crazy ways, but what I find interesting is how he tests and tests things to find out the best way to do it. A little while ago he had a show on TV where he took one ingredient each week and explained some great, though unconventional, techniques for getting the best out of them.

The first week was beef and he got some guys to make their best burger recipes. Then he made this one using only beef and salt.

o_O

No breadcrumbs, no egg yolk, no onions, no herbs, no cheese hiding in the middle. It relies on the 'grain' of the meat created by keeping all the strands of minced meat going in the same direction.

I decided to give it a go with some turkey mince. Partially out of laziness and partially out of experimental spirit. And it worked great! I just added some salt, rolled up the mince and after a bit in the fridge, cut some slices. I made six from 500g of turkey and cooked them for about three minutes each side. Lovely and juicy and great in a squishy white bread cob with lots of salad. Yum.

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.

Make your own totally* free rubber stamps

*Okay, not totally free but almost.

I had this idea the other day, it's probably been done before (for the net is vast and infinite) but I was hit by a flash of inspiration and had to try it out. Graphic patterns like chevrons are really in at the moment in various crafts and certain kinds of design. I wanted to be able to use them in paper crafts without a) printing them out or b) forking out a lot of cash. See, I like rubber stamps, but they can be pretty pricey and sometimes I don't want to use the same shapes again.

Basically, I made simple stamps from rubber bands. I cut up some Amazon packaging and taped it together to make a sturdy base then used some strong double-sided tape to stick bits of rubber in place. Now I did say almost free. Obviously we paid for the stuff that was delivered in that cardboard, but corrugated card is easy to pick up at the supermarket. Free. The elastic bands? The postman regularly leaves them on our porch when delivering said merchandise. Free. The tape though, I did pay for.

These are just pages from my sketch book (and I only have black ink) but I think they work quite well. For free. The flags are my favourites. I could have cut all the little pennants out of paper, but this was fast and has a nice hand made feel. Maybe that's why I didn't want to just print them out? I do that kind of work all day, when I get home it's nice to play with more tactile art forms.

Obviously these are not sturdy pieces of kit. Yes, some areas are still sticky where the tape is not covered. Yes, that meant they stuck to the sleeve of my jumper whilst I was reaching for the cmd button just now. But, who cares? I enjoyed making them and it's a super fun way to recycle.

Recent triumphs and disasters in the kitchen

Well, hello there. Today I want to talk to you about some of my recent culinary adventures. In the main my savoury endeavours have been triumphant and my baking more on the disastrous side.

My baking inspirations have been about being a bit more calorie conscious. I've found a couple of recipes that sounded ... viable whilst not being insanely calorific. Not that I'm against a calorific piece of cake. Chocolate fudge cake is one of my favourites, but if its 550 calories, its obviously got to be an occasional treat (or else I've really got to step up the exercise!).

First up - Chocolate chip blondies that are supposed to be 75 calories a slice. I pinned the recipe from Chocolate-covered Katie. They are made from chickpeas. I found them just about edible, Marc said they were horrid. Before I even told him what they were made of. Fail.

After that, I thought I'd go a slightly different route. There are lots of recipes around that use bananas to sweeten cakes. So I had a go at Banana/oat breakfast muffins. These were also not nice and actually give me a terrible stomach ache. Epic fail.

You'd think I'd learn after these escapades that cake is calories. If you remove the sugar/butter/flour there is no tasty cake left ... but I felt like one more go. So I went with 'World's Healthiest Chocolate Chip Cookies?' I can tell you right now that they are not. They did actually taste quite nice, which is good compared to the previous two. But they are not even low in calories. They are about the same as a Bourbon biscuit. And technically you get two in each of those.

My savoury inspirations have been about upping the variety in the cuts of meat I use. My interest in this is twofold. Firstly I want to eat more of the less popular bits of animals. I'm not squeamish about handling raw meat and I know where it comes from. But I do think we should eat as much of the animal as we can. Someone who is really into this is my friend Di (who blogs at Veg Box Chronicles) she is an awesome cook and uses odd bits all the time. WIth delicious consequences. The other factor is cost. These are also usually cheaper cuts, and saving cash is always good right?

In the last couple of weeks I've cooked a ham hock and pulled pork (pork shoulder). Both are dishes which are full of flavour but need low and slow cooking. Using the slow cooker is great for this. It takes 6-10 hours to cook things, but you don't have to do anything. Just chuck it in and then its ready at tea time.

I really enjoyed the ham and Marc loved the pulled pork. Both are going in 'the book'. This is where recipes go that we want to use again. The last recipe to make it in there was Chicken Fajita Lasagne, but that's a tale for another day ...

Getting healthy

One of my goals this year is to work on getting more healthy. I'd like to lose a bit of weight too, but that's not specifically my aim. I'd like to eat less processed food, make better choices and do more exercise.

Exercise has always been a big issue for me. I'm not good at sport and I always hated PE at school. This really didn't set me up for a lifetime of good habits, actually apart from a couple of ill-fated attempts at going to a gym, I've pretty much ignored it. The problem was always that I couldn't actually do the tasks. At the gym, they'd say, 'then jog for ten minutes' TEN MINUTES! I had no clue how people did that.

Finally I realised I needed to learn how to do exercise from a more basic level. In the same way you have to learn cooking. It's all well and good to have a recipe, but if you don't know what boil or whisk means? It's not going to work.

That's when I found this: NHS Couch to 5k plan.
It's a series of podcasts which guide you from doing nothing to being able to jog 5k (about 3 miles) after nine weeks.

It starts you off running for 60 seconds at a time. The first week I even found that difficult, but I quickly learnt that breathing in enough air is one of the most important elements. Getting out of breath, amongst other things, was why I couldn't do ten minutes on a treadmill. Each week the amount of running you do builds up, you run for a bit then walk for a bit to recover. The podcast tells you when to speed up and when you can slow down again.

I can now run for 25 minutes in a row. I'll admit that it's taken much longer than nine weeks - some things got in the way. But I'm getting there.

I really recommend you give it a go if you want to get moving, it's free to download, so what have you got to lose?

New home

You might have noticed a couple of changes around here over the weekend. The most notable being that 'Other Amusements' has moved to: www.otheramusements.com 

This name not only reflects the contents more accurately but also marks the beginning of a new chapter. I'm looking forward to doing more blogging now I have a new computer (finally) and working on my writing and photography skills. I hope you'll join me.

p.s. Everything should redirect automatically.