Saffron buns, Swedish knack and mac's - End of 2013

I kind of forgot about the blog towards the end of the year so here are a few things i made in November and December.

Firstly i felt a bit Xmas'y and made some Gingerbread macs and some Dark chocolate and ginger - turned out rather nice if i may say so myself!

It was then time for my Swedish Christmas treats - Saffron buns and toffee with almonds (knack)..i made the traditional "figure of 8" and also some rolled up with the addition of marsipan and butter filling - YUM.

It was then time for NYE at our friend's house and i made some Pistachio mac's with some edible silver glitter stripes and also some mini pannacotta's with some crunchy nuts on top (made in small disposable shot glasses) - rather festive i thought.

White chocolate & Raspberry Jelly Macarons - 27 April 2013

I have a recipe for Pierre Herme's Ispahan macaron's waiting to be tried and tested but have not yet dared to attempt them. Instead i decided to do a simpler version with just a white chocolate/vanilla ganache and raspberry jelly

See recipe at the bottom of the post - note that i halved it to make a smaller batch.

White Chocolate & Raspberry macarons
(based on "Macarons" by Pierre Hermé)

makes about 72 macarons

For the raspberry jelly:
420g raspberries (fresh or frozen)
35g caster sugar
2 leaves of gelatine (2g each)

For the macaron shells:
300g ground almonds
300g icing sugar
110g 'liquefied' egg whites
red food coloring
+
300g caster sugar
75g mineral water
110g 'liquefied' egg whites

White chocolate ganache
200 gr white chocolate (broken into pieces and put in a bowl)
100 gr double cream
Vanilla extract


Start by preparing the raspberry jelly. Soak the gelatine leaves for 15 minutes in cold water to soften.

Using a hand blender, blend the raspberries and sugar to a purée. I used frozen so i heated them in the microwave to soften first. Strain the purée to remove the pips. Heat a quarter of the purée to 45°C.  Squeeze out the water from the gelatin andadd to the hot purée. Stir and add the rest of the raspberry purée.

Pour it into a gratin dish lined with clingfilm up to a depth of 4mm. Allow to cool for 1 hour at room temperature then put the dish in the freezer for 2 hours. Turn out the jelly and cut it into 1.5cm squares. Return the jelly squares to the freezer.

For the ganache:
Heat the cream and pour over the chocolate and added vanilla extract, stir until combined and then pour into a piping bag and put in the fridge to cool.

For the macarons: Mix the almonds and icing sugar in one bowl.
In another bowl, put in the 110 gr eggwhites and be ready with an electric whisk

Put the castersugar and water in a pan on the hob and heat until 118 C - also add your color at this stage. When it is getting close to this temperature, start whisking the eggwhites on medium until frothy. Slowly pour the hot sugar syrup (whilst whisking the eggwhites on high) into the eggwhite bowl. Whisk for about 5 minutes until it is glossy and starting to cool down.

Then empty the rest of the liquefied eggwhites into the bowl with the ground almonds/ icing sugar, give it a quick stir and then add the whisked eggwhites.
Combine until a nice flowing "lava" texture. Scrape into a piping bag and pipe 2 cm rounds on to a silicon paper. Let rest for about 15 min until a skin has formed then put into the oven (heated to 135 c) for 14 - 16 min until firm to the touch.

Let cool, then pair up. Pipe some ganache on one side of the macaron and s small blob on it's other half. then add a piece of jelly and sandwich together.

I dusted them with freeze dried raspberry to make them look pretty. Let them rest in the fridge overnight, bring back to room temp before serving.

Bon appetit!

Salted Caramel Macarons recipe

I quite like baking and i like macarons in particular.. they can be a little hit or miss but i guess that is part of the fun.. So much can go wrong when making the shells.. a bit like russian roulette even though i use the same recipe each time (too hard/ no "feet" - that is the frilly bit, cracked top etc). They are so worth it though when it all goes to plan and they come out looking and tasting great!

We did a bake sale for Comic Relief at work a week or so ago and i made some of my salted caramel mac's and they were a big hit!
 

Here is the recipe if anyone fancy having a go!

Salted Caramel Macarons (shells) 

Makes 25 to 50 filled macs depending on size

150 g Ground almonds

150 g Icing sugar

55 g egg whites (room temperature)

150 g caster sugar

40 g water

Food colouring (if using)

55 g  egg whites  - extra (room temperature)

Sugar thermometer

 

·         Line baking trays with non-stick baking paper or silpat/silicon paper

·         Combine the ground almonds and icing sugar in one bowl

·         Put 55 g of the egg whites in an electric mixer with a whisk attachment

·         Put the water and the caster sugar in a small saucepan over a low heat and stir until dissolved.

·         Increase the heat and cook until it reaches 118 c

·         Add liquid food colouring into the sugar water at this stage – if using a cream or gel colour – then add it to the egg whites in the mixer instead.

·         When the sugar reaches 110 c then start whisking the egg whites slowly until frothy. Increasing the speed when the sugar is up to 118 c – then slowly (at the same time as you whisk) add the syrup in a steady stream into the egg whites. Continue to whisk for 5 min or so until the egg whites have cooled down a little.

·         Add the extra egg whites to the ground almond/icing sugar mix and then scrape in the whisked egg whites. Fold through until fully combined and the mix is at a dropping consistency and falls slowly off the spatula.

·         Transfer the mix to a piping bag and pipe into small rounds about 3 cm in diameter. Easiest to pipe straight down onto the tray – not at an angle.

·         Let sit for 20 min to form a skin on top. (touch one with a finger – if it is not sticky then it is ready for the oven.

·         Oven should be pre heated to 135 C – they go in for about 16 – 20 min.

·         Take them out and leave for 2 min then try and see if they come off the tray easily – if not and still too soft, put them back in the oven for another 2 min.

·         When cooled – match them up according to size ready for filling.

Salted Caramel filling

110 g double cream

Vanilla bean or vanilla extract (to taste)

60 g water

150 g caster sugar

30 g liquid glucose

100 g softened un-salted butter

2 – 3 g of sea salt flakes

 

·         Mix the cream with the vanilla and heat slightly in the microwave

·         Put the water, sugar and glucose in a saucepan and cook until dissolved. Increase the heat and cook until the caramel is a dark amber colour.

·         Carefully stir the cream into the caramel – note that it will spit and release a lot of heat.  Stir until smooth then pour in a bowl cool until room temperature, then cover with cling film and refrigerate. (this can be done a day or 2 in advance)

·         When you want to fill your macarons – whisk (electric whisk or electric mixer) the softened butter until fluffy. Heat up your caramel until just runny in a microwave (around 50 c) then pour it into the fluffy butter and whisk until thick and creamy. Fold in some sea salt to taste.

·         Put into a piping bag and pipe onto the flat side of half of the macarons then top with the remaining shells. (i add an additional pinch of sea salt to each one before sandwiching together - entirely optional)

·         Refrigerate and let them rest ideally for 24 hours in the fridge before eating. Can be kept in the fridge for 4 days.

DONE J

Raspberry mac's

New Year, more macarons to be baked on Sundays afternoons :-)

I now follow Adriano Zumbo's recipe for the shells and i find that it works the best. It is the Italian version with hot sugar syrup which is a bit more time consuming than the French version - but it makes the shells crack free, shiny and with good feet!
I will post the recipe shortly.
For yesterday's baking session i did a raspberry macaron filling:

White chocolate & Raspberry ganache

- 100 gr white chocolate - broken into pieces
- 1 dl of double cream
- 3 teaspoons of powdered freeze dried raspberries
- tiny bit of pink gel colour
- 25 grams of unsalted butter

Heat up the cream and when boiling - pour over the white chocolate pieces and stir until melted. Add the powdered raspberries and the colour and stir. Add the butter and stir to combine. Pour into a disposable piping bag, seal and put in the fridge to set.

Here are the little finished macaroons. They turned out pretty nice if i may say so myself.

Macaron class at L'atelier des chefs

I was lucky enough to be given a voucher for a 2 hour cooking class at L'atelier des chefs (http://www.atelierdeschefs.co.uk/) and i booked in for a French Macaron class for last Saturday. The shop/school is very centrally located in Wigmore st and first impressions were very good. It was 12 of us in the class and together learned how to make macarons and various fillings. We all got to make a couple of trays of macaron's each and i have to say that my piping was pretty much spot on.. i even impressed myself! I only took one photo which is of my macarons ready to go into the oven. Yes, i know some of them are blue like the smurfs - one of my dear class mates went a bit overboard with the blue color!!

The biggest tip of the day is to let the macaron's sit on the tray for around 15 min before putting them in the oven.. you basically let them form a "skin" on the surface which then prevents them from cracking in the oven!

I really enjoyed the class and would go for another class. My only criticism is that you have to divide some of the work up between you so you don't get to be totally hands on with each step.