White chocolate and Cherry Macarons

Macarons have always been "That adorable little dessert I will never have the guts to try"... well until the tea party!

There is something about that crunchy chewy combination that is so addictive!

Since this was my first time let me go on and tell you about the funny, frustrating and finally worthwhile experience I had making these little rascals. Obviously I'm no expert at making these so I'm not entirely sure if what I did was right or wrong, and if it goes completely against what an orthodox French macaron should be ... errrr I'm terribly sorry!

So I tried very hard to be as precise as possible with my measuring. It wasn't very easy because I generally am an estimate/look and assume kind of girl. I was super determined to make it work!

The thing is after a lot of reading I wasn't so sure if I should go with egg whites aged for a day at room temperature or egg whites aged in the refrigerator for three days. Since I was short on time I went with the 1 day recipe. Have you made macarons? Which method do you use?

I followed the simple steps:
For approximately 30 macarons

• 100g ground almonds
• 200g icing sugar
• 3 egg whites (covered with cling film and aged at room temperature for a day)
• 4 tbsp granulated sugar

Sift the almond

Mix the icing sugar with the almonds

Whip the egg whites with an electric beater. When peaks start forming add the granulated sugar a tablespoon at a time till stiff peaks form. At this point you should be able to hold the bowl upside down without the eggs slipping out

Fold the beated eggs with the almond mixture

Fill a pastry bag and pipe 1" circles on parchment paper

Allow to sit for about an hour for the skin to form

Bake at 150 degrees Celsius for 10-15 mins

Once the macarons are cooled fill them with your filling of choice

Check this guide out. It has very simple and well explained steps to guide you along the way if this is your first time. Or you could check out Tartlette's amazingly very very detailed how to here.

I bought store ground almonds because I wasn't very sure how fine my grinder at home would grind whole almonds. I would say they worked fine.I should however mention that you would probably want to get your hands on some really good quality parchment paper. I used wax paper which I normally use for cookies etc and I had a horrible time because the macaroons got stuck to the paper. Fortunately I was able to save some of them.

I was so ecstatic that I was able to produce something decent at the end of the day. Extremely exhausted by the time I was done I really didn't feel up to making icing for the filling, so I just melted some white chocolate and use a bit of cherry pie filling I had made earlier. What a stroke of luck because it actually tasted great!

Orange glazed cookies

I've mentioned these cookies before and I've given you a link to them, but I've decided that they are just too awesome to not talk about even more! They don't look exciting and over the top but sometimes great things look so normal they go unnoticed so I'm going to write a little review about these cookies.

Now I'm generally not one to like flavoured cookies because more often than not, it ends up tasting like some highly unnatural flavouring that completely kills the entire cookie. When I was small i recall having to eat a lot of orange flavoured sponge cake and it hasn't left any pleasant memories. Which is why when I saw this recipe the first time I was pretty skeptical but the pictures of them at browneyedbaker looked stunning and I thought why not?

First off, yes my cookies look nothing like the ones in that website. I'd like to think that they at least tasted the same :P. If you are going to give these a shot, I would suggest pressing down on the cookie dough balls before they go into the oven. Because my cookies are a little thick they were a little more crumblier than they should have been. This cookie is soft and not overly sweet. Chewy yet crumbly, it literally melts in your mouth.

Rubbing the zest into the sugar really freshens up the flavour. Do not under any circumstances cut down the the amount of orange zest in this recipe because it really adds so much more character to the flavour of this cookie! Besides, once the glaze hardens it is such a pleasure to bite into, since the variation between the slightly hard glazing and the soft buttery cookie is divine!

Absolutely love love loving this cookie right now!

Just a lazy afternoon tea

When I was at university I used to often miss those big weekend meals where the entire family would wolf down a heavy lunch and laze around the rest of the day. It was almost like a tradition. Late lunch, conversation, a nap, tea and biscuits; that’s how the day would go. Unfortunately when you are a student away from home those big meals are hard to come by. If you were able to open a bag of frozen veggies and mix it into your two minute indomie noodles, that would be special enough.

But what is really great about the weekends is everyone coming together. The amazing feeling you get surrounded by people and their stories and while insults and fights do occur, these are the days that are most memorable. Lately I’ve been feeling like the week drags on forever with no inspiration. So I decided that it was time to change things up a bit. Take a break from the dinners and have a nice cozy tea party with friends. Escape the loneliness for a little while.

Why tea? Well If I were completely honest, I like the little plates of food; the decadent and the savoury, crockery adorned in floral motifs, lace table cloths, the little cubes of sugar, the ribbons and the hats! If I could make all my guests dress up to suit the theme of my dinners and teas, I really would! However for right now I’ll just resort to people actually wanting to come eat my food over them finding my little shindigs troublesome.

 The menu!

• White chocolate and cherry macarons

• Orange glazed cookies

• Raisin stuffed cookies

• “Purple sparkle” cake pops

• Shrimp spring rolls with peanut sauce

• Pickle and salami canapés

• Mint and cucumber tea sandwiches

• A fruit platter of honeydew melon, plum, grapes and strawberries dipped in chocolate

• Ceylon tea (eh what else would I serve in my household)

• Lemongrass ice tea

It was exciting making smaller quantities of various kinds of food. Time consuming? yes, but a lot of fun! I tried my best to have a combination of simple things as well as complicated on the menu. There were those that I had made before, orange glazed cookies, cake pops etc.. as well as those that were first timers; macarons, spring rolls etc...

Macarons became a bit of a dilemma but I managed to scrape through. You can read about it here! I had never used wonton/ spring roll sheets before and I blew a big sigh of relief to find out how easy they were to use, especially when I was cramming for time. Everything eventually did fall into place, definitely a better success than my previous dinner when I had a bit of an accident cutting into my finger...boooo....

I even managed to find time to design some name cards. And of course in my books everything needs ribbons! Check out the next couple of entries for more on the menu!