Merry Christmas with Macarons and a tower

 

Merry Christmas to all readers. Made some chrismassy macarons this year - again. This time, the colors are more bold and the chocolate ganache was pretty awesome.

As you can see, I have attempted to build my own macaron tower. Always wanted to and finally got down to it in 2013. Not easy as it looks. Had great trouble sticking those red and greenies on the tower. Lesson learned was always count (and count accurately) the number of macarons you have at hand before building your tower. You would not want to end up like me making do with extras to cover up the gaps. Seriously, I thought I had enough macs to go round the tower but again, it was pure estimation. Anyway, I had many likes on my facebook...

Would I create this tower again for 2014. No way:)

Mac-Oreos

 

I guess oreos cookies are every one's favourite. They are certainly my family's fav cookies as they are always in stock in our pantry.

Saw these beautiful coal-like macarons at a popular bistro and was spurred to try making them.

 
I was glad I bought the right powder - bamboo charcoal powder - to give these beauties that glossy jet black. A little expensive though but gained satisfaction when the colors turned out as I had wanted (see my post on My Macarons - A Grey Issue dated 14 May 2011). Guess I had come a long, long way as far as my macs are concerned.

Only grouse is that I was too generous with the oreos cookies and thus the buttercream turned out thick and chunky. Well, can we ever get enough?

Taste of Chocolate - Macarons

 

It is rather late for me to say that these chocolate macarons were my Valentine's gift to my wife. I made them only after 14th February. I made them a week later and I am now posting this blog. How late can one be. But it is the thought that counts.

Well, 'thoughts' as it remains. After making them, I did not present her the macarons but simply left them in the refrigerator - own time own target - help yourself to them, so to speak. Isn't it terrible? Dying romance, one would say? At least it is not dead!

No, I have to qualify. It was mutual and I mean me and my wife understood the situation back then on the14th. Let's hope history will not repeat itself. By the way, for those keen in learning to make macarons, I suggest you surf the net. You'll get lots of recipes and advice. The thing is - keep working on it. I am doing just that.

Christmas Macarons #1

Attempted the so called Christmas macarons. Well, it is basically having red, green and white macarons with different fillings.

By saying attempted I meant on the colors. I could not get that Christmassy Red and Green. Anyway, even for the green ones, they were matcha macarons. So much for Christmas eh?

However, this is my version #1 as stated in my post title. I will attempt another batch and may consider chocolate ganache for the red ones; peppermint for the green and vanilla for the white. We shall see...

Orange Macarons

Once again, I have decided to make macarons and this time, orange macarons. Two reasons why I wanted my macarons to be orange. Firstly, I wanted to experiment using the orange coloring powder I had bought and secondly, to prepare for Halloween!

Well, I do not celebrate Halloween at all but the mere thought of making macarons that resemble pumpkins crossed my mind. Who knows too, I may be able to sell these heavenly halloweenees to those who celebrate the event.

I was torn between making chocolate ganache and chocolate buttercream for their fillings. I decided on the latter as I wanted a firmer filling and for me to splash a couple of teaspoons of Cointreau into the buttercream.

Recipe for my chocolate buttercream:

90g icing sugar

100g unsalted butter

Zest of two oranges

Juice of one orange

100g valhorna chocolate (melted and cooled)

2 tbsp Cointreau (optional)

1. Sift icing sugar into a bowl and add butter, orange zest and juice.

2. Using a handheld mixer, beat (1) at low speed so as to prevent splatter. Increase to medium speed and beat till all ingredients are incorporated.

3. Add the cool chocolate mixture and beat for a couple of seconds before adding the Cointreau, if using.

4. Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle.

5. Pipe buttercream onto the macaron shells. Be generous with the buttercream so that it will spread out evenly when another shell is pressed above it.

The filling was not very sweet but as usual, I regretted that I added just too much Cointreau. I could have used zest of one orange instead of two. And maybe, I should have added tiny orange bits from the rind to lend some texture to the filling.

Tiramisu Macarons

The thought of making either coffee or tiramisu macarons had been brewing in my mind for the past week or so. I finally settled for the latter as it would be my first attempt.

I checked out the internet to look for a different recipe from mine. I stumbled on a blog by Food Nouveau which not only offered a recipe but a troubleshooting guide as well.

As tiramisu macarons, I thought I should increase the amount of coffee powder in the fillings. So in my white chocolate ganache, I added 2 tablespoons of coffee powder and the rest of the remaining powder (don't think it was more than a tablespoon) in the bottle. That was followed by a couple of dashes of rum into the ganache. The more the merrier...

When the perfect looking macarons were cooled, I dusted cocoa powder over them. In my attempt to make them tiramisu-ish, I think I over did it with the coffee powder.

Once again, the macarons tasted heavenly. After a few bites, I concluded that the bitter taste of the ganache was balanced with the sweetness of the shells.

2012 National Day Macarons

In celebration of Singapore's 47th years of Independence, I decided to make these lovely Red & White Macarons with Chocolate Ganache as their fillings. I discovered by chance that some local stores were selling white coloring powder. Perfect for my white macarons. I had initially intended to use soft beige coloring.

                         

I trawled the internet to look for more macaron recipes. I have my own basic recipe for macaron shells but it is the different types of fillings that I am more interested in. 

Perhaps for those wanting to venture into the land of macarons, you may want to check this uk site -

http://www.macarons.org.uk. Absolutely interesting recipes to experiment with. 

For the chocolate ganache, I used Martha Stewart's Chocolate Ganache Frosting recipe but adapted it:
8oz good quality chocolate
200ml Thickened Cream (Heavy Cream is mentioned instead)
40ml Karo Corn Syrup

I chanced upon this glass jar in my pantry and thought it would be a great idea to store my macarons in it and present it as a wonderful gift. My macs were a hit, especially with my dear wife who devoured quite a number...

In the Pink with Macarons

I made them again. It is the fever. I made them just to arrange them for a photo shoot. I am thus perfecting my skills in making macarons and honing my skills on food photography.

I had intended to make Raspberry macarons. However, the raspberry powder I used on the macarons resulted in total disaster. So I decided to make plain pink ones and a thick layer of chocolate ganache to go with them.

There are so many recipes and videos on how to make macarons. Perhaps I should attempt the recipes mentioned and see how the macarons will turn out. 

A Pistachio MacArt

A piece of Pistachio Art

I just had to make Pistachios macarons. The recipe is again from Jill's book which I had mentioned in my previous blog.

Macarons left aside to 'set'

What you see here are the macarons from the third batch. The first batch, was to me, not perfect. When I piped them, they were a little too liquid. Into the bin they went. But the next two batches were successful. Noticed I sprinkled some coarsely crushed pistachio on a couple of macarons only? I was not sure if they would turn out right.

To attain the pistachio-green, I mixed yellow paste with dark green. I would recommend the above food colors which I had purchased online from the UK - Squire's Kitchen. I personally found them to be slightly thicker and richer in color than Wilton's. 

Pistachio macarons with dark chocolate ganache

I have included below the packet of baked pistachios which I bought from the local store. The nuts were great. I had some crushed into the ganache as well. I guess I should have been more adventurous to mix more in the ganache.

These are the plain ones and their pistachio-ness are found in the ganache only. They look and tasted great. If only my wife and boys would pop them into their mouths...

Chocolate Macarons au cafe-creme

Perfect shot of my two perfect macarons

It has been a while. I decided over the weekend to try my luck on making Macarons again. By now, we all know how 'difficult' it is to make them. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you fail.

Given the many macaron recipes I have, I zoomed into Jill Colonna's recipe in Mad About Macarons. I am still fascinated by the macarons one can make from her recipes. So far, they have worked for me.

Drizzled with Valhorna White Chocolate

I referred to the Dark Chocolate Macarons recipe to make the shells but used the recipe from Coffee Macarons to make the cafe-creme. In fact, I adapted the cafe-creme by leaving out the butter. It still tasted heavenly. However, I learned that the next time I do a cafe-creme, I should follow her recipe and stick to two tablespoons of coffee powder. I had added close to three tablespoons with the intent of creating a more flavorful and stronger coffee taste. It was bitter. But I want to believe that the sweetness in the shells balanced the taste.

To make the macarons less boring, I drizzled melted Valhorna white chocolate over the smooth brown tops.

I must admit that I am pretty pleased with my macarons. They looked and tasted good. And yes, I will attempt to make macarons in the next couple of weeks.

Peppermint Macarons

This is the second batch of Peppermint Macarons I made. The first one done last weekend had the right color but there were obvious burnt marks on the shells. It was challenging for me to have light-colored macarons without brown marks that indicated an uneven distribution of heat in my oven. Although I used the fan mode, I noted the hot spots in my oven so I had to turn the tray around while baking before the shells get burnt. I know this is plain common sense but you know what, I try not to touch anything that is in the midst of baking in the oven.

The macarons, under my watchful eyes, came out well - peppermint green. I was careful when I added the coloring (Wiltons Green Verde) so as not to make them too green as in matcha macarons.

I had wanted to add mint candies, crushed finely to bits, and mix them with the almond mixture. However, I did not dare to do anything I was not sure of. The mint bits could blemish the macaron shells.

While surfing the internet, I came across a ganache recipe that is made with peppermint extract and chocolate. It is from http://dessertfirstgirl.com. Good blog to read.

Doing ganache is rather straightforward and as a mint lover, I was tempted to add more peppermint extract but I resisted. I did not want the mint to overpower and subsequently mar the taste of the macarons. As I mentioned earlier, I should have added fine bits of mint candies into the almond mixture during the pre-baking stage. 

In retrospect, whilst doing the filling, I could have experimented and added the crushed mints into the ganache to produce a crunchy and sweeter ganache. Better still, add some of Arnott's Mint Slice into the ganache. These mint slices are available at our neighborhood 711 stores. 

I guess it is also important to use good chocolates like Valhorna's and for the extract, pure peppermint extract by Nielsen Massey. The combination of these great products produced a nice flavored ganache.

Mum loved it and said it was the best compared to the others I had made. Of course, mum, you like all things mint!

As I had made too much of the ganache, I guess I will have to make more peppermint macarons before I venture into doing my next flavor - let me see - Rose Macarons? Oh wait, found a new recipe - Earl Grey Tea Macarons. The Madness never ending.

Gold Macarons, not Lemon

I attended my third Macaron baking class last Saturday morning. I will be attending another one (hopefully my last with all that hundreds of dollars I have been spending per class) at the end of May. Call me crazy, mad, ridiculous and so on. But I simply enjoy baking and especially baking with others who have the same interest. It is like group therapy for me seeing others absorbed in trying their best to perfect, in this case, their macarons. In fact, my wife is the one who encourages me to, "Go and learn. Never stop learning. Who knows you will pick up a tip or two". "If it makes you happy, go on," and she will end up saying, "It's your money anyway". Apart from that, I think I just want to learn new recipes for macaron fillings. 

I know I can make references to the book I have by Jill Colonna or the millions of recipes for fillings on the internet but somehow, it is different in a class. You become a student all over again. You get to try out the recipe and see for yourself the outcome as it should be or should not be. You know what I mean?

I want to be honest here. When I did the macaron shells as soon as I got home after the class, I had intended to make Lemon ones with Lemon Curd fillings. Since I had made them in class a couple of hours ago, I thought I should try it out at home. Having had a bad experience with the coloring (as pointed out in my previous blog), I wanted to make sure I had bright and cheery and lemonnish yellow macarons. I used the icing gel labelled Buttercream yellow. Mistake! Again! What turned out were Coppertoned Macarons. Darn! Hey, wait! Got an idea. Creative outburst in the midst of defeat.

As part of a 'rescue' operation, I dusted the resting shells with gold powder - as you can see in the photo above. Did not bother whipping up the lemon curd anymore but came up with a Baileys cream filling instead. Thought it more suitable here. From Lemon Macarons, I am now presenting Gold Macarons with Baileys Cream fillings. I really cannot remember where I got the recipe from. Must be from the net but did not copy the URL. Give me time to search for the owner of this recipe before I post the amount required each of the ingredients. At this juncture, I suppose I can share the steps I took to make the fillings as they are the universal steps to make cream fillings. On hand, have

-a tub of mascarpone

-whipping cream

-sugar

-Coffee liquer - which I obviously used Bailey but I am sure Kahlua or Tia Maria will do just as great

On a stand mixer, I whipped up the mascarpone till light. Added sugar and beat again. Poured in 1/2 cup of Baileys (always like a strong taste) and whipped it up again. Found it too liquid. Perhaps I should have added in more mascarpone. 

In a separate bowl, I whisked the cream till stiff. Folded the Baileys mixture into the whipped cream. Piped them out immediately on my waiting shells.

They say that after piping the fillings, keep the macarons refrigerated and allow the fillings to infuse into the shells. Point noted but not taken. I immediately popped one into my mouth. Delicious.  I took another and decided to bite off a little and let the remaining portion pose for a photo shoot. 

As I arranged the macarons and positioned the Baileys bottle outdoors, the mid afternoon humidity began to bother me and my poor macarons began to become more shiny and soft by the minute. Not sure if this happens to other macaron makers as well. Anyway, I must say I was quite pleased with how my Lemon, I mean, my Gold Macarons with Baileys Cream fillings turned out...