Pancake Macarons (and more)

Pancake and Maple Syrup Macarons

I love making macarons. They are so versatile and fun to make, not to mention delicious! I bought a couple of silpats so decided to give them a test run.

Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) which is something I don't usually celebrate although it seems the supermarkets this year have found another reason to con us into thinking we do!

When I visited Zumbo last year I ate his pancake and maple syrup macaron and although it wasn't my favourite (too sweet!) I decided to make it anyway as the recipe is in his Zumbaron book.

Explosive Raspberry Marshmallows

Another week, another recipe from Sweet Studio!

This time marshmallows thanks to a delivery of freeze dried raspberries during the week from Just Tomatoes! The package of freeze dried fruit I received was fabulous and managed to get through quarantine without any issues (It was opened and checked). No, I wasn't paid to promote the company, I had just had a lot of trouble finding freeze dried fruit at a decent price so thought it was worth mentioning!

These aren't your ordinary marshmallows - they comprise of a chocolate pop rock disk, raspberry marshmallow with raspberry gel centre, dusted in raspberry dextrose!

This was my first attempt at tempering chocolate and surprisingly - it worked!

The rest of the assembly went pretty well, except for the fact that my semi-sphere moulds are 1 cm larger than the recipe states so some of my marshmallows don't cover the centre. Next time i'll make sure i don't fill the moulds as much and make the bases larger.

Either way it's a pretty exciting sweet treat and I'm sure there are endless flavour combinations that could be used here.

Sarah xx

Chocolate, Mandarin, Salted Caramel Dessert

Chocolate, mandarin (orange), salted caramel

Isn't it exciting when something just works?

That is exactly what happened with this seemingly difficult dessert. For Christmas I was lucky enough to receive Sweet Studio by Darren Purchese. After getting my hands on some extra equipment, I set about making something from the book. First up - Chocolate, mandarin, salted caramel. Mine promptly became orange rather than mandarin due to the price of mandarins but I don't think it mattered.

All up there are 7 components. 

From top to bottom:

• Candied oranges
• Chocolate glaze
• 70% Chocolate mousse
• Salted caramel
• Burnt orange creme
• Orange & vanilla marmalade
• Aerated chocolate shortbread

I cheated and used marmalade mixed with vanilla bean rather than making my own and candied some oranges rather than doing the decorations written in the recipe. I made most things last night then finished it off this morning. You probably do need to allow yourself a full day or overnight as some components need time to freeze. 

What surprised me was although many techniques were unfamiliar to me, it was all fairly straightforward and not too time consuming. The recipes are well written and easy to follow. I very much liked the two ribbons in the book which are required as I was constantly flicking pages to see what to do next.

Constructing the dessert was fairly simple. I had one small issue trying to find acetate. In the end I used baking paper which worked fine. I also found that the recipe said to remove from the fridge an hour before serving. I found it quite difficult to cut after doing this and would recommend cutting it straight from the fridge. It warms up fairly quickly anyway. The caramel was a bit oozy when cut but everything else stayed intact!

I have plenty of several of the components left over so need to come up with some ideas how to use them up. I think I would prefer it if the recipe stated, for example, to make up only a quarter batch of chocolate glaze. Not sure what I am going to do with the other 750mls I have in the fridge!

All in all it was a delicious, albeit very rich dessert. Apparently it serves 8. I'd say more like 12-16 as you really only need a sliver. 

There is no way I'm going to type out the recipe - go and buy the book if you are intrigued! 

Sarah xx

Hunny Pot Cake

I think i'm improving! This cake only took me a day from start to finish and was 100% stress free.

Inside is a honey and coconut cake which was really nice. I was going to do a basic vanilla cake but at the last minute changed as I thought it would be more appropriate!

Ispahan

Ahhh I love holidays and having people around to cook for! In the past few months I have been lucky enough to be given several baking cookbooks, one of them being 'Best of Pierre Herme.' It's a fabulous book full of very challenging recipes, with the greatest challenge being that they are all in French! Tonight I tried out the easiest recipe in the book, and Herme's signature - the ispahan.




Ispahan is a gigantic macaron filled with fresh raspberries, lychees and rose buttercream. This combination of flavours has been recreated in many desserts on restaurant menus and in other cookbooks. One of the other books I receieved, Sweet Studio by Darren Purchese has a dessert with the same flavour profile.

Anyway onto the Ispahan. My high school french came in very handy for this recipe, and combined with my knowledge of macarons, i'm pretty sure I got the recipe right. It tasted amazing and Dad declared it one of my best desserts yet. I did make two fairly big flaws: -
1. My macaron shell on the top cracked. Either because it was undercooked or because my raspberry layer underneath was too uneven.
2. I left the finished dessert under the window whilst Dad pressure sprayed the outside of the house. Who knew our windows were so leaky? The result was a very speckled dessert from the water spray!

Oh well! It just shows i'm not perfect!

So for the recipe. Here is a translated version. It is my translation so I accept no responsibility if I have made mistakes! Having said that it worked for me! There seemed to be a lot of mixture - I ended up making 22 macarons with leftover mixture and filled them with leftover rose buttercream and had extra buttercream left over. I think there was probably enough mixture to make another whole Ispahan!

Ispahan

(translated from Bestof Pierre Hermé)

Serves 6-8.Preparation 90mins. Cooking 60mins

Ingredients

Rose Macaron

250g almond meal

250g icing sugar

6 (180g) egg whites

3g pink food colouring

250g caster sugar

65g water

Italian Meringue

4 (120g) egg whites

250g caster sugar

75g water

Rose PetalButtercream

90g full cream milk

3-4 (70g) egg yolks

45g caster sugar

450g butter, softened at room temperature

4g rose essence

30g rose syrup (eg Monin)

(I didn't have essence & syrup so used 35g rosewater)

To Assemble

200g lychees in syrup

250g fresh raspberries

Glucose

Fresh rose petals

Method

Rose Macaron

Place almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor andpulse until combined. Sift mixture into a medium-sized bowl.

Add the food colouring into 3 egg whites, add to almond mealmixture and stir to combine.

Place the extra 3 egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer.

You need to ensure the almond paste is bright pink like this, otherwise it will become too pale when the egg whites are added.

In a small saucepan add the caster sugar and water. Heat ona medium heat until it reaches 110 degrees. Turn stand mixer to high to whipegg whites. When the syrup reaches 118 degrees, remove it from the heat andpour onto the whipped egg whites, in a slow, steady stream.

Keep whipping the egg whites until it becomes thick andglossy and reaches approximately 50 degrees.

Add approximately 1/3 egg white mixture to the almond mealpaste. Stir to incorporate and loosen the mixture. Fold in the remainder of theegg whites.

Place the mixture in a piping bag fitted with a #12 tip*.Line 1-2 trays with non-stick baking paper or a silpat and pipe 2 20cm discs,starting from the centre and working outwards.

The discs resting on the bench.

Leave the discs to sit at room temperature for approximately30 minutes or until a crust has formed. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (160fan-forced). (I baked at 140 degrees because that's what I usually do!)

Place the macaron discs in the oven and bake for 20-25minutes or until cooked. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

*I only have a size 9 tip which worked ok.

Italian Meringue

Place the caster sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Bringto a boil, brushing down the sides of the saucepan with a wet pastry brush. Letcook until it reaches 118 degrees. Meanwhile place the egg whites in the bowlof a stand mixer and whip until soft peaks form. When the sugar syrup is attemperature, add to egg whites, while the motor is running, in a slow steadystream (as per the macaron recipe). Continue to whisk until mixture is cool.Put aside 175g of the meringue for use later. (The remainder can be used tomake meringues or something else)

Rose PetalButtercream

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl.Place the milk in a small saucepan, bring to the boil then pour over the eggyolk mixture. Whisk to incorporate then pour the mixture back into thesaucepan. Heat on a low heat until mixture reaches 85 degrees (be careful notto let the mixture stick to bottom of the saucepan.) Pour mixture into the bowlof a stand mixer and whip on high to cool mixture. Pour into a bowl and placein the fridge to continue to cool.

Place the butter into the bowl of the stand mixer (don’tworry about cleaning it.) Using the paddle, beat butter until soft and creamy.Pour in cooled crème anglaise mixture (the one you just put in the fridge) andbeat to combine. (If it curdles keep beating!) Using the lowest speed, or by hand, fold through the Italianmeringue and both the rose essence and syrup. Transfer into a piping bags witha #10 tip, ready to use quickly.

To assemble

Cut the lychees into a 2cm dice and let drain in the fridgeovernight (or pat dry well with a paper towel if you forget!) Place one of themacaron discs on a plate with the flat side facing up. Pipe the rosebuttercream over the disc, leaving 3 cm border. Place a row of raspberriesaround the border of the macaron. Next place a ring of lychees inside theraspberries. Repeat two more times, alternating rings of raspberries andlychees until the disc is filled. (you should have 3 rings of raspberries and 3rings of lychees.)

Place the second macaron disc on top, with the flat sidedown.

Decorate the top of the macaron with 3 fresh raspberries and5 rose petals, ‘gluing’ the decorations down with a dab of glucose. 

Don't leave uncovered under a window where it can get wet!!!

Leave in the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving.

Sarah xx

Merry Christmas!

How about a macaron tree?

Pistachio, candy cane, gingerbread and plum pudding flavours.

More macs to come thanks to one of my Christmas presents being Zumbarons!

Sarah xx

The Macaron Showdown: Zumbo Packet Mix vs. Recipe

L) Packet mix R) Recipe

It's no secret that I love everything Zumbo! When I first saw the packet mixes in the supermarket I was a little dubious. Could macarons really work coming from a box? Would people even attempt to make them? Macarons have a stigma associated with them that they are difficult and and unachievable to make. Maybe a packet mix is the answer to make them accessible to everyone? Well I was about to find out!

 I decided to conduct my own little experiment. Make two batches of salted caramel macarons; one from the packet, and one from his recipe book.

The handy kit, complete with piping bags

 So I set off on a macaron baking frenzy. I must say it was lovely having all the ingredients all weighed out! No weighing of egg whites required.

So it all started off fairly simply. Beat one mixture till thick and creamy (pictured above), then add in the sifted almond meal and stir until combined.

Issue #1: piping without a tip results in wonky circles!

Next, place your macaron batter into one of the supplied piping bags and pipe onto paper-lined trays. Leave to dry on the bench then place in the oven.... And this is where it all became pear shaped! 

I don't really have many words to add - the pictures say it all!

Issue #2: The shell when still hot, completely stuck to the baking paper, cook it for 2 minutes more and they were overcooked and crunchy.

Issue #3: Most of the shells cracked.

Issue #4: There is a huge air bubble between the top and bottom of the shell

But I persevered anyway and made the salted caramel filling.  The filling was very easy to prepare and oh-so-delicious!

I scrounged around and found the best, uncracked shells and voila! Here is my result.

Definitely not professional quality!

Most of the macarons appeared overcooked. Even after leaving them in the fridge overnight some of the shells were crunchy ie overcooked. The problem is, when I took the shells out earlier they would not come off the tray. Another thing I noticed was that the shells had a caramel flavouring. I wasn't a huge fan as it smelled and tasted really fake. 

Surprisingly the box says that it makes 15 macarons... well I made 11 and ended up eating a whole lot of cracked shells. Considering I did use the circle template supplied to make the correct sized shells, I assume Zumbo's serving size assumes that you will have many failures along the way.

So what about the recipe? Well not surprisingly it worked very well. Shells were perfect, filling was fairly simple to make. The caramel maison was delicious. However, from the picture below you can see that the recipe caramel buttercream is a lot lighter than the packet mix version. This is a result of much more butter. I'm not sure if I made a mistake somewhere along the line but it definitely was not as caramel-y as the packet mix. Next time I will add less butter to the caramel maison in the recipe. 

Finally the cost. The Zumbo packet mix retails for around $7.50 and I got 11 from it. If you didn't have so many cracked shells You could probably get up to 30. On the other hand it cost me around $10 to make the macarons from the recipe, and this recipe makes 50 macarons. It is much more cost effective to bake from scratch, not to mention the better end product!

So in summary, skip the packet and make them from scratch. It's more cost effective, results in a better macaron and requires a similar skill level. It might take you an extra hour or so due to the extra weighing, and piping all the extra shells but it's well worth it, especially because they freeze so well.

Just make sure you:

1. Sift the almond meal and icing sugar. Discard anything that doesn't sift through. If you skip this step your shells with be lumpy, not smooth.

2. Beat the macaron mixture more than you think you should - it should be loose and easily slide off a spoon. You aren't making a sponge!

3. Leave your macarons on the bench for at least 30mins so they form a skin before placing in the oven. Alternatively use a hairdryer on a low setting to dry the tops.

Sarah xx