How to NOT fail in making macaroons :)

Macaroons. A fear of many. But... you shouldn't be scared!! It's really quite simple =)!!! Just follow this recipe.. and if I can do it.. so can you!!! Even those that have failed at it many times before.. have followed this recipe and succeeded ^^ and its adapted from MASTERCHEF!! =p

Ingredients: (basic macaroon)

225g pure icing sugar
130g almond meal
3 egg whites
60g caster sugar

note: you can add other flavourings, essences, colourings as you wish *be creative* ^^

Filling:

Chocolate ganache - cooking chocolate and cream

Raspberry cream - whipped cream, frozen/fresh berries and sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 120oC

2. Sift icing sugar and almond meal into one bowl then sift the mixture into another bowl and again into the original bowl. (Recipe says 3 times but I've done it 9-10 times ^^ the more times the better!!)

3. Whisk 3 egg whites with electric beater until doubled in size. While beating, slowly add caster sugar and whisk until firm peaks formed. (you can add essence or food colouring at this stage)

4. Fold almon meal mixture into egg white mixture until smooth and glossy. (be careful to mix with CARE.. be GENTLE ^^.. coz this is a CRITICAL part!!!!)

5. Place mixture into piping bag and pipe 4 -5cm diameter circles onto lined baking tray. (HAHHAH BAKING TRAY XD!! haha sorry =p lammeee)

Leave to rest for 20 minutes until macaroons form a skin (Also very crucial!!!)

6. Bake for 20 minutes or until macaroons can be lifted from the tray. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Tip: use a knife to take macaroons off the tray

Chocolate ganache: Melt chocolate in a double boiler and add cream (i'm not too sure about amounts.. you can guestimate =p)

Raspberry cream: Heat berries in a pot with a little caster sugar until they are just broken down. Whip cream with a little sugar. When berries are cooled then add to the cream.

and... CONSTRUCT YOUR MACAROON =D =D =D



Raspberry cream 17-01-11 (maybe we should have baked it longer xP)

 

Chocolate ganache - 25/07/10



ok so these didn't taste AS good as the bought ones..will try and improve the recipe =) but good enough!

PRICE: $2 each =) hehe

Brissy Baking day!

What more could you want than baking with friends? =)

Decided to have a Baking day!! except.. we failed a lot xP
First on the menu:
1) KONYAKKU JELLY (yes i know its not baking.. but still cooking). Just follow the instructions on the packet.

Me and Katie with our heart jelly :)

  

*Tip: make sure the water has come up to the boil before you put the powdered acid in xP

2) CREPES

• 1 cup plain flour, sifted
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• Milk, enough for a smooth batter

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Add a lil oil/butter in a pan and make the crepe!~~ Serving suggestion: ICECREAM! =D

for AUSTRALIA DAY ^^

3) CHOCOLATE CHIP BISCUIT TUILLE

aka. failed choc chip biscuits



This became....



THIS!

 *Tip: add more flour or else the biscuits will join together to form a slice XP

HOWEVER u can save it by curling the joined biscuits around a rolling pin to form a tuille ^^

4) SPINACH and RICOTTA TRIANGLES
(i'm not TOO sure about the ingredients coz i didn't make it.. =p)

• 1 cup of spinach, chopped
• 2 rashes of bacon
• 1 medium brown onion, diced
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• Filo pastry

Fry onion, spinach and bacon in pan till spinach wilted and onion and bacon browned. (if spinach is frozen kinda.. try and squeeze out all the water). Take pan off heat and fold in ricotta cheese. Lay sheets of filo pastry on board, spread melted butter on each sheet and layer another sheet on top. Cut pastry in half lengthways, place filling in and fold like a triangle. Brush with egg wash and bake at 180oC for 10-15min or till golden brown.

5) BAKLAVA (Terie's recipe)

• Filo pastry
• Mixed nuts (e.g. walnuts), crushed
• Sugar

Spread melted butter on each layer of filo pastry, top with crushed nuts and sugar and layer more filo pastry (HAHHA terie tell me if i'm saying this wrongly xD). Bake at 180oC till golden brown!!

6) MACAROONS!
I will write a separate blog on this =P hehe.. but lets just say it was a success :D

Special thanks to the Chai's for letting us invade their kitchen and ingredients. And to all those who were there =) =) DK, Tez (Daniel XD HAHHAHHA), Kelvin, Katie, Law and Em!!
Had an awesome baking day even tho we FAIL =P

fail baking day!

In Brissy atm =D
we had our "baking day"... on the menu

1) Konyakku jelly
2) Crepes
3) Biscuit slice
4) Macaroons with raspberry cream
5) Spinach and ricotta triangles
6) Terie's baklava =)

some kinda failed.. will post more on later ^_^" but yeh! just to say MACAROON SUCCESS :D :D :D hehhehe.. so i dunno why Law failed for 6 times =p hehhe

bye Kelvin and Katie!!! =P going off to the airport soooon!

Btw Terie: Hi I'm Daniel x)

Opera Gateau

This is the first official pro-like cake that I've made~ it's a layer cake ^^ I found out "gateau" means cake (thanks to Bobo) and Opera must mean... coffee.. haha coz its a coffee flavoured layer cake~

Layer cakes are really fun to make and they're not as hard as it looks! There are just different components. It may look like a lot of steps but YOU CAN DO IT :D



Finished product.. now to the recipe =P

 Sponge cake
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups (150g) almond meal
1 cup (160g) icing sugar
1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
25g unsalted butter, melted
4 egg whites 1 tbs caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 220oC. Grease and line 2 25cm x 30cm cake tins
2. Beat eggs, almond meal and sifted icing sugar in a small bowl with electric beater until creamy; beat in flour. Stir in butter.
3. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form; add caster sugar, beating until sugar dissolves. Fold into almond mixture in 2 batches.
4. Divide mxture between pans. Bake around 7 minutes. Cool.

Coffee butter cream
1/4 cup (60ml) milk
1/4 cup (55g) brown sugar
2 tsp instant coffee granules
1 egg yolk
125g unsalted butter, softened

1. Stir milk, sugar and coffee in small saucepan until sugar dissolves
2. Whisk egg yolk in small bowl and gradually whisk in hot milk mixture.
3. Return custard to pan; stir over heat without boiling (~ 5 min or until thickened slightly)
4. Cool. Beat butter in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy; beat in custard.

Coffee syrup
1/3 cup (80ml) boiling water
2 tbs caster sugar
1 tbs instant coffee granules

1. Stir ingredients in small bowl till sugar and coffee dissolves.

Ganache
160g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarsely
1/3 cup (80ml) cream

1. Stir ingredients in small heatproof bowl over small saucepan of simmering water until smooth. Refrigerate until spreadable.

Glaze
50 g unsalted butter
75g dark eating chocolate

1. Stir ingredients in small heatproof bowl over small saucepan of simmering water until smooth. Use while warm.

Assembling the cake
1. Cut cake so that you can get 3 even pieces (there are 3 layers for this cake.. so cut a third off each cake so you are left with two 2/3 pieces and two 1/3 pieces if that makes sense =S)
2. Place one large sponge (the 2/3 one) on baking paper and brush with half of coffee syrup. Spread cake with half of butter cream; refrigerate for 10 minutes.

3. Place next cake layer on top (two pieces of 1/3) and brush with remaining coffee syrup. Spread with ganache and top with remaining cake; refrigerate 10 minutes.

4. SPread top of cake with remaining butter cream; refrigerate 3 hours.

5. Make glaze and spread evenly over cake. Refrigerate 30 minutes or until glaze has set.

TA DA!! Look at that awesome glaze dripping down.. and ganache oozing out.. mmm mm :)

Cherry tart

Since its Cherry season! (and before Cherries get really expensive) why don't you try this recipe for Cherry tart? I actually got the recipe from a Coles magazine ^^ but turned out pretty good :)

Ingredients:
PASTRY
1 1/2 cups Plain flour
100g cold butter, chopped
2-3 tbsp iced water
FILLING
100g cold butter, chopped
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
100g almond meal
1/3 cup plain flour
500g cherries, pitted

1. Place flour in large bowl. Add butter and use fingertips to run in until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add water and mix with knife until mixture comes together.
2. Gather dough in a ball. Roll out pastry and fit into flan tin (34cm x 11.5cm). Chill for 20 min.
3. Preheat oven to 180oC. Line pastry with non-stick baking paper and fill with dried rice or beans. Bake for 15 min then remove dried rice or beans and cook for a further 15 min or until dry and lightly golden. Coll.
4. Filling: Beat sugar and butter with electric beater till light and creamy. Bean in vanilla essence. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Folld in almond meal and flour. Spread into pastry case. Arrage cherries over the filling, pressing in slightly. Bake for 30 min or until set and golden brown. Cool and dust with icing sugar to serve.

we could have put more cherries.. but they were huge ^^" hehe

Gingerbread GIANTS!

So Vin had a craving for Gingerbread men and I felt like baking something so we did :D

They were supposed to be Gingerbread men but mutated into GIANTS!!! I think coz we added way more Self-raising flour and Vin kneaded the dough heaps.. so they're softer than normal but still taste delicious :)

Here's what you need:
125g margarine
2 tbs golden syrup (i didn't have any so i just used maple syrup)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
3 cups self-raising flour (can add more if needed)
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 165oC.
2. Melt butter and syrup. Mix in sugar and egg.
3. Add sifted flour, salt, ginger and cinnamon and mix well. Dough should come away from the sides of the bowl.
4. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface and use cutter to cut biscuits.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes until a delicate golden brown colour.


Men turning into GIANTS!

 

Ta da~~

ROYAL ICING (Vin's favourite icing) 1 egg white
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup icing sugar, sifted

1. Whisk eggs whites with lemon juice using electric mixer until soft peaks form.
2. Add sifted icing sugar slowly while still mixing.

Decorated by Vin

My personal faves: azn man

Masked man

Simple as that =p We made WAY too much icing so I thought.. maybe I can make the icing into meringues ^^ AND IT WORKED :D :D :D bake till golden brown!

MERINGUES <3

Marble cake - bday edition :)

Marble cake is one of the classics and a favourite for all :) I find that all the ingredients are usually in the pantry which makes it a simple cake to make without going to the supermarket to buy any special ingredients~

Ingredients
170g butter
140g caster sugar
3 eggs
140g self-raising flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Preheat the overn to 180oC.
2. Beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time.
4. Sift the flour over the top then fold in.
5. Divide the mixture between two bowls. Stir vanilla extract into one, sift cocoa over the other and fold in.
6. PLace alternating spoonfuls of the two batters in the cake tin. Drag a skewer through the dollops three or four times to give a marbled effect (hence.. marble cake :P)
7. Bake for about 45 mintues or until risen and golden (really depends on how hot your oven is)
8. Transfer to wire rack and leave to cool completely.

IF you would like to add some icing here is the recipe:

Icing
80g butter
150g icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder sifeted
1-2 tbsp milk
chocolate chips to decorate

1. Beat together the butter, sugar and cocoa and 1 tablespoon of milk until smooth and creamy. If neccessary, add a little more milk.
2. Spread icing over cake.
3. Sprinkly chocolate chips on top to decorate.

I made this as a thank-you cake for lab :)
Perfect cake for all occasions!!! even birthdays! haha.. speaking of bdays..

*Happy bday Manda and Law :)*