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!

Congo Bars

My last post is a bit too depressing to read. I was having one of those days; feeling cranky and frustrated. So I am going to take that down.

I’ve been itching to bake in a while, but I’ve been having issues with the trip going off suddenly at my place. This happened when I was in Malaysia for a week and everything; I mean EVERYTHING that I brought from Oman and the rest of what I had in the fridge was rotten by the time I got back. I think I’m still a bit upset about all that cheese that got ruined. It kept happening over and over. Each week I had to throw out most of my groceries until I changed my fridge and things seem to be okay so far. Good thing the chocolates survived it or I wouldn’t have chocolate chips for this. 

I baked yesterday which made me feel really good. I’ve been watching some Korean drama lately, (Do not ask me why) so I put the tray in the oven, cleaned the kitchen and sat down for an hour of Lee Min Ho and for once after a very long time I felt calm and quite happy. Honestly it felt great because I’ve been feeling awfully stressed out lately because I do not have time for anything. 

I made Congo bars! These congo bars were for my awesome new colleagues at work.  Congo bars are in between a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie. As bakerella calls is; a ‘brookie’. These guys pretty much combine the best of both worlds. They are super chewy which the best part of it all! Who doesn’t like a big chewy cookie? I’ve been searching all over for a nice chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I think this is way better because it is also a brownie! Sigh..... I was so excited I kept on eating raw batter the whole time I was making it till I felt a bit sick once the bars came out of the oven. I didn’t even taste any till I tried one at work. Thank goodness Bakerella’s recipes have been amazing so far or I would have been feeding rubbish to everyone at work. 

I picked up a few pointers from Bakerella’s post. I did all the mixing by hand as suggested because the texture would be better. I didn’t do another batch with the mixer to see the difference but I am super happy with the texture of the bars so I think I’ll stick with mixing by hand. When I read that I should mix by hand I felt a bit lazy, but it wasn’t hard at all. It is nothing like having to mix dough with a big wooden spoon until your arm hurts. This is merely mixing the ingredients together and if I used a metal tablespoon to do I’m sure it would be much easier with a wooden spoon/spatula.

Also I am using a new oven! I love my old oven, I honestly do. But being in Sri Lanka means I had to buy an electric oven and this was my first time using it. I had a few issues but nothing too serious. It took longer than 30 minutes to bake until I finally had to cover the tray with foil and let it bake for 10 more minutes. Notice how the top of the Congo bars are a bit too brown?   

 

(please excuse this bad photograph.... had to rush to take these just before heading to work) :p

I borrowed an aluminium tray from my cousin and so far I have to say I miss my good old non stick pans. I’m probably going to have to keep baking in these aluminium trays while I’m here and I hope I have some positive reviews to relay to you guys soon.  Getting used to a different kitchen without any of your trusty utensils and appliances is a bit daunting but I suppose this is how it is to have to be a student, never in one place constantly shuffling between countries. You start missing a lot of things and have to make do with the temporary. I suddenly thought of this long story about moving from country to country that I should probably keep for next time.  For now I’m going to bask in my good mood.

If you want the recipe for the congo bars I made you can get them from Bakerella. 

OOOOOOOH OHHHH I also got a new phone!!! Since I do not have my brothers DSLR here I’m going to experiment taking pictures from my phone for a while. The fact that I can take pictures and share them immediately is sooo exciting!! Yes is know this has been around for ages -_-  Do not insult! Like I said let me bask in my good mood while it lasts :D

Chocolate Espresso Mousse in Chocolate Cups

Chocolate cups!!! I can't describe how excited I am that these worked out so well!
Edible cups :D
I don't think I'd ever eat mousse or ice cream in normal cups again!

Chocolate cups can be made by tempering chocolate or using candy coatings. I've read a lot of articles where people use balloons to create a more round bottom chocolate bowl but I used silicone cupcake cups instead. I would advice you to use silicone cups because they are ridiculously easy to use. From what I've read you can make these using normal foil cupcake cups. I don't exactly know how because it seems a bit more complicated.

Now I've worked with a Dr. Oetker's scotbloc chcocolate before and it was a lot easier to use than ordinary chocolate especially to make chocolate decoration. The scotbloc melts faster but it cools down and becomes solid in room temperature which works perfectly for the decoration. To be quite honest I know that scotbloc is chocolate flavored cake covering but I don't know the real difference between this and a bar of normal chocolate. So if you do know.. please do tell me.

I melted the scotbloc in the microwave and painted on the chocolate onto the insides of the silicone cups using a normal pastry brush. Put it in the refrigerator for a few minutes and tada! Chocolate cups, how simple and fun!

A chocolate espresso mousse went in next topped off with a cherry pie filling. I wish I could say that I was super duper awesome and made the pie filling from scratch, but I didn't. Cherries are out of season in Oman right now and the Harley's Black Cherry Pie Filling is really tasty!

Chocolate Espresso Mousse and Cherries in Chocolate Cups

For the chocolate cups

•  200g Scotbloc Chocolate Flavored Cake Covering 

In an microwave safe bowl break Scotbloc into square and microwave for 90 seconds. Ensure that you stir the chocolate every 20-30 seconds
Dip a pastry brush into the chocolate and cover the insides on the silicon cup (as if you were painting with chocolate)*
Place cups in the refrigerator for a minimum of 10 minutes. 
Take the cups out and slowly run your nail between one edge of the chocolate and the cup. Once you have divided one edge if should be fairly easy to run your finger around the cup freeing it from the silicone. 


*While you are painting on the chocolate make sure that there are no bits dripping off the top of the cup. If it solidifies in this way, it make cause the cups to break while removing the silicone. 


For the Filling

• 130g milk semisweet chocolate
• 50 g butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp espresso powder
• 1 tin Hartley's Black Cherry Pie Filling

In a glass bowl set over simmering water, melt together the butter, chocolate, espresso and milk. Remove from heat and let cool for about 10 minutes and whisk in the egg yolk. 
With an electrical beater whip the cream to medium peaks and fold into the chocolate mixture.


To assemble


Spoon a bit of the cherry pie filling (without the whole cherries) into bottom of the cup.
Fill cup with about 2 tablespoons of the mousse and refrigerate. 
Once the mousse has set top with remaining cherry filling. 
Refrigerate til served.