Plentitude Macarons

It's been a while, a pretty long while since my last post. Are you wondering what I've been up to since then? Well, after changing to my new job, the hours are long, workload's heavier and I don't have much time nor energy to dream of baking sweet treats like I do last time. When I get off work, some time is spent destressing (i.e shopping) to get my mind out of work mode and into the lifestyle mode. And after that, I'm pretty much ready to go to bed. Baking time is almost non-existent.

Well, I miss baking! Miss the days when I can dream about the goodies I can bake with my "spare" brain capacity. Miss the days when I can spend long hours in the kitchen without worrying about finishing within a certain number of hours. All that has changed, quite abit in fact. 

I feel a little rusty in the kitchen, a little lost when I can't find those ingredients like I used to, a little sad when I had to throw away expired ingredients that hasn't seen the daylight since months ago. Wish I had more time to make good use of them rather than throwing them away right now.

The first thing I decided to bake when I had an off day is macarons! I have not tried any recipe from the Pierre Herme's Macarons book yet, and decided to pick a simply one - Plentitude Macarons. The description for this sounded delicious enough - caramel chocolate filling with fleur de sel dark chocolate chips sandwiched between 2 shells - I'm sold just by reading this!

Seriously, I was quite rusty. I forgot to start beating my egg whites and my sugar syrup was already reaching 110 degrees. I overmixed my batter and it turned out pretty runny. I was all set for a failed batch until I saw those frilly feet rising up high. Phew!

However, the texture didn't turn out quite right, they were wayyyy too crispy for their own good. I had a good laugh when I bit into one and heard a crunching sound HAHA. Ended up with a batch of Crispy Plentitude Macarons!

Apart from the shells, the caramel chocolate filling was super yummy! I caramelised the sugar to a deep amber and it gave this a nice burnt sugar taste which I love. The filling's a winner for sure :).

I'm still in 2 minds as to whether these can be shared with the world. After all, it's kinda like a "failed" batch, though it's edible. Alternatively, I can look at this as being the "pioneer" of Crispy Plentitude Macarons...HAHA.

Oh well...

A Charming Blackforest Cake

It was a case of right time, right place. I was at I12 Katong's supermarket when I spotted the jar of preserved morello cherries. Been wanting to make Hidemi Sugino's rendition of the blackforest cake, hence I grabbed a jar and made these :). It was for a good reason, my darling Darren's birthday! Haven't made an entremet in months...I hope the taste will turn out fine...haha.

I first spotted the recipe on Evan's blog. Her version of Charmed (Sugino's name for this cake) is absolutely lovely. I had some problems with the dark chocolate chantilly but eventually it turned out alright. The steps were really easy to follow, one of the easiest entremets to make, but not the easiest to get it perfect.

I loved the taste of preserved morello cherries, had it with my pint of Awesomely Chocolate ice cream from Udders, which was very yummy! This particular brand had it lightly sweetened...I would have preferred it more tart though :).

Unfortunately, I gotta wait for my darling to be back in Singapore before I can present this to him and celebrate his birthday. Well, at least I had a liiiitle bit of time to make a cake for him this time round!

By the way, anyone has experienced issues with the whipped cream hardening after folding in the melted chocolate? I wonder what went wrong with mine, as mine kinda "seized" when I folded in the chocolate, even after I cooled it. I wish the texture of my chantilly could be softer and smoother though...any suggestions?

Almond Cocoa Nib Sticks for Chinese New Year

For some reason, January passed in a blink of the eye. It's now nearing the end of the month and we're heading into Chinese New Year! Gosh, where did the first month of 2012 go? I really wonder, hmmm...

This year, I received a big Bengawan Solo hamper plus loads of CNY goodies including Kueh Bangkit, Bak Kwa, Famous Amos Cookies, Danish Cookies etc. I reckon there was no need for me to make any, plus I didn't have much time. Hence this was the only thing I made - Almond Cocoa Nib Sticks.

I made these twice before, once very recently for Christmas Favours, and they've received very good reviews and feedback! Even mum, who's usually very critical of my bakes, commented that these were really good. Hence, I decided to make a double batch of this for the new year!

I simply love the raw crunchy texture of cocoa nibs with its full and deep cocoa flavour. It's like eating chocolate, but without the sweetness! Baked to a crispy crunch, these are especially good with a cup of tea or coffee!

A friend of mine gave me a sachet of mint hot chocolate during Christmas, hence I can't resist having them with these Almond Cocoa Nib Sticks. They were absolutely delicious :).

Before I leave you the recipe, just wanna wish all of you a very Happy Chinese New Year! May you PROSPER BEYOND MEASURE! Yippee!

Almond Cocoa Nib Sticks

adapted from Bittersweet by Alice Medrich

Ingredients:

3/4 cup ground almonds

1 cup + 2 tbsp plain flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into chunks

2 tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp almond extract

1/4 cup cocoa nibs

Preparation:

1. Combine ground almonds, flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like a mass of bread crumbs. 

2. Combine the water, vanilla and almond extract, drizzle them into the bowl and pulse just until the dough looks damp. Add the cocoa nibs and pulse until evenly dispersed. The dough will not form a smooth cohesive mass, it will be crumbly but it will stick together when you press it.

3. Turn out the dough onto a sheet of foil and form it into a 6 by 9 inch rectangle that is 1/2 inch thick. Fold the foil over the dough and press firmly with your hands to compress it, then wrap it airtight. Slide a cookie sheet under it and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

4. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Slice the dough into 1/2 cm thick slices and place them on the lined cookie sheet at least 1 inch apart.

5. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the cookies are golden.

Pink Peppermint Macarons for the New Year!

Happy New Year! I'm so glad 2011 has passed, and that I survived it! Looking forward to an awesome 2012, which I know will definitely be a great great year of unceasing fruitfulness!

Secondly, am glad to be baking again. After surviving the last few mad and crazy months of 2011, I can finally take a short breather and indulge myself in some me-baking-time...heh.

I made these with the intention of celebrating New Year, yet the colour turned out to be more suitable for Valentine's Day instead! Well, at least they were cherry enough to bring forth the year :). I made one of my favourite flavours of all time - peppermint chocolate - and sandwiched the mint chocolate ganache between plain macaron shells. They turned out simply heavenly :).

It's such a luxury to sip a cuppa tea, with some macarons at the side. I love these simple pleasures of life, so simple yet so enjoyable and comforting. When I have a home to call my own next time, I'll be sure to dedicate a nice tea corner by a window to enjoy a warm cup of afternoon tea.

This year, hope to explore more unique macaron flavours and move out of my comfort zone! I wonder if that will eventually materialise...haha! We'll see :).

Christmas 2012

It's Christmas time once again! Another awesome year has passed and I have many things to thank God for this year. Time to sit back, relax and count the blessings :).

Since I'm really short on time this year, my colleagues and I decided to organise a combined baking session to make cookies for all our very helpful colleagues in the office! Here's what we made:

Chocolate Almond Rounds & Almond Cocoa Nib Cookies with handmade tags :).

I hope our colleagues love them as much as we enjoyed making them! I love these handmade tags!

As for family dinner this year, we had turkey, roast potatoes, mango avocado prawn salad and a chocolate logcake. Here's an overview of the spread :).

Mango Avocado Prawn Salad with Honey Dressing

Fruit Platter - Rainer Cherries, Korean Strawberries, Grapes and Longans

Table Setting with half the dinner spraed

Mini fresh Christmas Tree!

I didn't have the full set of photos as I went to finish up the turkey and potatoes after taking these, hence the incomplete pics! Anyway, thought I'd share these with you anyway as I haven't been blogging much these days.

Merry Christmas!!

Cookie Topped Chocolate Cream Puffs

You know, I lost my phone over the weekend. It's horrible and I hate this feeling, especially when I have no clue how I lost it...it just disappeared. Well, looking on the bright side, I got a spanking new phone that does not have the iPhone button issues like my old phone...though it burnt a hole in my pocket. Sigh...these things happen don't they? I wish they didn't though...haha.

I made these Cookie Topped Chocolate Cream Puffs last week, months after my not-so-successful attempt at making eclairs. I have no idea what went wrong in my first attempt but the choux pastry really wasn't crisp nor tasty. This time round, I tried a different recipe adapted from Chelle's blog. The results turned out fabulous and I simply love how these cream puffs taste! They were less buttery and milky than the previous recipe I tried, perfect for my dairy-sensitive tastebuds :).

On the downside, I think my cream puffs turned out really ugly. The thick-skinned me still posted this up anyway...haha...simply because they were so delicious! Seriously, don't be put off by their looks. They could have looked alot better if I'd used a smaller piece of cookie dough on each of these little pastries. They would have spread a little more and looked more cute than burnt :).

Oh well, regardless of their looks, I love these nonetheless. I made a simple pastry cream using Pierre Herme's recipe and filled them with it...oooh....these were sooo chocolaty and yummy!

Recently, I also bought a new victorian style tiered plate for high tea. I'm dreaming of having a nice homemade afternoon tea with some of my friends one of these days! I hope it materialises real soon! Haha  :).

Stamped Shortbreads

It was a special occasion, our 5 month anniversary, and we reached the point where we needed more grace in our relationship. Though I know "anniversary" is not quite the right word to describe it, but still, we used it used it anyway. Thought it would be nice to make something sweet and personal for him...and stamped shortbreads came up. I used a simple recipe from Daily Delicious and the cute little wordpress I had to create these. I have to say, I think they look pretty cute!

These were so easy to make that I had a dozen other cookie ideas as I was shaping them before baking. I can totally visualise how people will be so happy to receive personalised cookies like this!

To showcase the wordings, I packed them in a transparent box with a simple ribbon for the recipient. All the words that I wanted to say, prepared in the form that I know best - cookies.

And here's the recipes :).

Stamped Shortbreads

adapted from Daily Delicious

Ingredients:

100g unsalted butter (cold and cut into pieces)

⅛tsp salt
40g icing sugar
120g cake flour
45g rice flour

Preparation:
1. Place the butter into a bowl and sift cake flour, rice flour, icing sugar and salt over the butter.
2. Cut the butter and flour mixture into small pieces (or you can use your fingers), when the mixture looks like small bits of bread crumb, pour out of the bowl onto a work surface.
3. Knead the crumbs until stick together and smooth.
4.Wrap with the plastic, flatten the dough into the shape of a disk, refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
5. When ready to back, preheat the oven to 160°C
6. Roll the dough until 5mm thick. Cut into the desired shapes, place on the prepared baking sheet and stamp the cookies with the prepared wordpress
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a light golden colour.