Black Sesame (Koala & Panda) Macarons

Last week, I was reeled into the deep, dark realms of Batman - The Dark Knight Rises on opening night. It was the conclusive installment of the trilogy, and the stellar performances from the cast easily made this movie MY favourite of the year (and probably a long time to come).  Christian Bale is irreplaceable as Bruce Wayne, to me, he IS Batman. 

So along with the dark theme of last week, it was kinda fitting to try black sesame macarons.  Black sesame brings me back to my childhood days, where I was often denied of the thick paste 芝麻糊 as it was considered 'heaty' and ''bad for kids to have too much of them'.  Growing up, I found new joys in black sesame glutinous rice balls and ice-cream. 

The shells were burnt during baking, and looked brown instead of the intended grey... bummer... 

Weekend came, went bake shopping at ToTT, resisted the urge to buy down the whole store but got myself some pretty glass jars. Envisioned filling them up with cheery colourful macarons as giveaways :)

There were two kinds of fillings that I read would work - black sesame buttercream and adzuki beans.  Felt lazy and went with the latter - got a can from the supermarket, heated and mashed it.  The combination is superb; the not-so-subtle, distinctive toasted, nutty black sesame finds great companion in the sweet adzuki bean paste, tipping over the sensory glands of smell and taste with an infusion of chinese and japansese flavours.

Theme of the week - bears!  Kinda tire myself out icing the eyes and noses on the macarons, so I'll leave you with the pics ... and hope they bring a smile to your face.  Happy week ahead!

Koala!

I look like this Panda after all the late-night blogging!

Dim Sum Galore? Nope, they are Koala & Panda Macarons!!

Dedicating this post to my dear friend E, who has been extremely forward with ideas and generous with his support and encouragement!!

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Hello Kitty Macarons

Back on the trails of the macaron craze!

This time I decided to try, after much trepidation (gulp!) the IM - Italian Meringue method.  I've been apprehensive about using this method, as I do not have a candy thermometer and the thought of klutzy me messing up the sugar syrup for the egg whites just ain't such a bright picture.  The method is supposed to yield macarons with smoother tops, give prettier (but lower) feet and provide the answer to the woes of hollow shells.

Since I was experimenting, might as well go all the way, having a mix of of almond and hazelnut meal to reduce the strong almond taste I had when using the FM - French Meringue method.  Still candy-thermometer-less, I weighed out the sugar and water, waited out 3 mins after the sugar syrup boils before pouring it into the whipped egg whites.   Instead of adding the tant- pour-tant (french atas reference to the layman almond meal, icing sugar mixture) into the egg whites, this method calls for the reverse!  This part is way scary, as it seemed that the egg whites would make the macaronage very runny.  I was keeping count on the nnumber of  times of folding, wary about the overfolding scenario. 

After pipping, and trying to create the kitty shells ala iheartbaking comes the dreaded moment of waiting for the shield/skin to form.  This was 35 mins of pure agony. So instead of obessively looking over my shoulder at those shells every 3 mins, I went for a shower to kill the mounting anxiety.  When I returned, the shells looked no different, BUT when I gently pressed them, they had formed the SHIELD.  My little heart was yelping (like a little excited pups, yes) ... praise to whoever invented this method!!!! 

A good 15 mins later, I was a proud convert of the IM method.  The batch still had cracked tops (still think oven temperature is the culprit) but the ones that turned out well, looked really pretty with the smooth tops, delicate frilly feet and most worthy mention of all - they were not hollow!! 

I am in MACARON HEAVEN!

Fast forward to the next day - made the dark chocolate and hazelnuts filling and slowly drawing on the Hello Kitty faces with edible colour marker pens ...geez, this was more difficult and took longer than I expected.  The result - awesome-cuteness!  

Next comes the foodtography. Here is a pic of the normal macs before the cam-whoring Hello Kitty ones...

I laid the cutey Hello Kitty macs on an aluminium reflective cake base as I was running out of a decent table top to take pics with; it created a nice reflection, giving the macs a somewhat 3D effect.  You can see the Hello Kitty ears in the reflection and it looks like I've stackd two Hello Kitties together!



Freckled Hello Kitty Macarons.. LOL!



What a wonderful weekend!  And I wouldn't claim all these credit for my own, I had the Hello Kitty inspiration from a fellow blogger, whom I give special thanks to  - iheartbaking.

Cheerz to a new week!

First Macaron Workshop!

Nope, I did not attend one,  in fact, I was invited to conduct one!!!  You read right... yes, me, the amateur baker ...

From my previous post, you would have known I had my fair share of maca-doomsday and of coz, I am pretty damn sure I ain't qualified to conduct a "workshop".    A friend's wife had saw and tasted my macs (the tiffany ones); she is a seasoned baker and tried without much success with her recipes so my role was to share what I presently know, hopefully offering some useful tips along the way.   I'd be in new environment (her house), unfamiliar equipment and oven, the thought was daunting and it'll be super 'ma-lu' - downright embarrassing- to fail the macs in the 'workshop'.. but somehow I found myself getting really excited!

Three days prior, I sent the list of ingredients, equipment and with instructions for aging the egg whites.

THE day arrived - I diligently packed the piping bag, nozzle, mac templates and foolproof* recipe on iPad along for the baking.   I was greeted with enthusiasm by friend's wife A.  From the moment we met, it opened a floodgate of outpouring of the macaroon catastrophes we've both had.   "Think positive!", I reminded myself, for this could be the turning point in achieving where it was lacking in her earlier experiments.

The workshop started off smoothly enough, the step-by-step process was faultless (or so it seemed), she was hands-on in every step along the way.

The macaronage seemed little runny but the texture looked okie.  We pipped out the macs in two trays. Then, we prayed.

20 mins - no shield
40 mins - still no shield
60 mins - do i feel a shield forming? nope, some parts were still sticking to fingers...
110 mins - ... okie if the shield is not forming, it ain't going to form in that next 2 hrs.. so we popped them into the oven.

6 mins into baking the first tray, do not see any feet forming.  8 mins into the baking (and having upped the temp to induce some feet), we saw very, very, very faint, tiny feet starting to form from the back row of macs!  .... AND THEN to the horror of horrors, the mac tops started to crack, one by one.    Oh great, I've completely lost my credibility and self-esteem at this point.  14 mins, macs out and they are under-baked.  In the oven they went for another 4 mins.  Came out still slightly under-baked and with hollow shells.   BUT, they were pretty damn delicious!

The second tray had pretty much the same results, though there were less cracked tops.  Self esteem at negative.

Okie, so I can't have a back-up career as a macaron chef...doesn't take a failed 'workshop' to find that out anyway.  I'll 'kwai-kwai' - obediently (though reluctantly) stick to my day job and rejoice in mac revelry when weekend hits.

Though my mac-ego took a beating, A was pretty upbeat and understanding about the whole thing, citing that getting them right would be a challenge especially working with a different oven from the one I was accustomed to at home.   Though I still felt bad having failed the macs when I left, I knew we had fun in the process.  We'd not stop making macs after this episode, in fact, we'd continue troubleshooting till we get them right every single time, and this is the same attitude that we should all apply to life.   No matter how many successes one has in life, there will always be moments of disappointments and setbacks; the right mindset to overcome these moments will be where one's greatest triumph lies.

Do not let this post stop you from trying to bake macs, they are fun to bake, a delight to eat and a visual treat.   Whenever you are ready, do your research, read up loads, and watch the youtube videos because they provide lots of useful information for you to start your mac journey.  Remember to have fun throughout the process!

PS : *foolproof for me as I've had 3 successes with all 3 attempts with the recipe.

When Numbers are Everything

6 attempts.
3 screw-ups.

There, the grand statistics of my macaron making adventures.  The remaining three attempts have been gratifying.  The macarons formed nice feet and at the second and third attempt, they had plump, pouffy little bodies.  They are by no means perfect and I am still battling with hollow shells within a batch. Nonetheless, I celebrate every lil success and here are my favourite pics from the last two batches.



My Tiffany macarons - Loving the colour! 
And they pair well with Cuppucinos!




Lavender macarons with buttercream


When you are a amateur baker, there is always a 80/15/5 chance of getting the macarons right;  80% chance of complete failure (feetless, browned tops, cookie-like texture), 15% "manageable" success (with feet, but may have cracked tops, hollow shells, uncooked insides etc), and 5% perfect awesomeness. You'll get a hint of the success rate by first, looking at the egg white meringue, before the dry ingredients are folded in.  The  second hint, is the look and texture of your macaronage after the folding  and the third, after the resting period where the skin/shield forms.

I tried a new recipe for chocolate flavoured macarons last week.  In my overzealous state of mind, I had forgotten a very important piece of advice I had read, "macarons only work based on precise measurements, do not adjust them".

In the world of macaroon making, impatience is a dirty word.  The new receipe calls for cup measurements whereas my usual one uses grammes.  I had a conversion print out (credits to B) but I misread the copy and used bread flour conversion for all the ingredients.    Conversion error is  a one-way-ticket to disaster-dom. I found this out later when I was troubleshooting the dismal results, and realise the conversion for each ingredient from cup to grammes is so very different.  Plus, the recipe seems to call for a lot less icing sugar than the one I normally follow, which could have caused an imbalance in the equation.  Had I been dilligent to do the calculations before I embarked on the mission, it would have saved me a lot of grief (and egg whites..and almond meal..and the list goes on).

How did they turn out?  ....Well, they ended up looking like mini brownies...

"Photos?"...  No,there are no photos - zilch, zero, na-da, DONCH HAVE ... I was an inconsolable self and photo taking was the last thing on my mind.   On hindsight, I should have taken some photos, that would have been a great visual element on my hall of (baking) shame to remind myself never to repeat this mistake, ever.

I was too eagar and possibly too complacent with my little succes that I neglected to dissect the receipe in detail.  Similarly, most of us hurry through life  in our quest for materials gains, personal fame and glory, wanting to achieve the most within the shortest time without nary a pause to focus on the significant, intangible aspects which on the contrary give us the greatest fulfilment - i.e giving our time to our loved ones, spending  quality 'me' time with ourselves, setting time aside for self development.   Arr, life lessons from baking macarons...

PS : I made another batch using the correct measurements and still they turn out like brownies.  This time, I suspect the ratio of the dry ingredients versus egg whites/sugar was a bit off in the recipe.  Going to stop trying using this recipe till I can figure the right ratio.  This second time round, I remembered to take a pic, they tasted great by the way!



Spot the Difference - Brownies or
Chocolate Macarons?



Now, before I get caught up in yet another hoola hoop of macaron baking frenzy, I'd like some suggestions on what I can do with left over egg yokes besides making hollandise sauce and creme brulee? It's such a waste to toss them out but I'd be challenging my cholestrol level if I have any more scrambled egg yokes.  Any ideas?

Happy week ahead!

"What! Not Another Food Blog!" I Hear You Say

The GOOD  news, this is NOT (quite) a food blog; I refuse to say it is.  I do not and am not qualified to dish out culinary advice or give food reviews , although from time to time, I may recommend my fav hang outs or suss out newbie hotspots in and around town (locally, perhaps regionally and by a far shot, around the world) so that you peeps can also enjoy and be part of the inner circle of the coolest dining joints.

The BAD news, the key focus will still be food. Hey look, I can't help it if I live to eat and wondering what I'd be having for dinner when I've barely made it through breakfast.  I have negligible culinary sense, but I have a HUGE appetite for anything related to cooking, eating, living.  When life hits a rough spot (read : when food cravings are not satiated) I turn to the web for comfort, trawling food blogs for inspiration and alternatives to curb that darn craving.   I do step into the kitchen once.in.a.loooong.while (clocking up frequency these days), and I try to do so without victimising anyone with my ermm, cooking (mis)adventures .

"How is this radically different from other food & lifestyle blogs?", you ask.  Well, this blog is not planned to revolutionalise the food and/or lifestyle blogging community.  It will be for now, serving it's purpose as a practicing blog to build my street creds for not being a kitchen mishap/misfit and to learn and explore food photography.

If you decide to ditch this post and exit now, thank you for stopping by.  And if you decide to come back later and check out this blog again, you'll be more than welcome, and when you do, leave a note of encouragement or click a 'Like', I'll appreciate it. :)

So, what's for supper?