better pic :)

Location:If you are chilly, here take my sweater

How old is your soul?

I spent the whole day making green tea macarons!





Filled them with raspberry lemon curd but the filling is a little too runny :(

recipes after my baking partner in crime uploads pictures for me to steal!

waking me into my favourite dream

Do you know what a Macaron is?

Have you seen it?

Have you had one?

Well if you answered yes to all three to the questions above, you know exactly that the rave of Macarons is all about! There is a huge debate over whether Macarons originated from Venice or Paris. Wherever they come from though, they have been made popular by French chefs and is the signature of French pastry. Lately their charm has spread all over the world and now everyone is crazy over Macarons the way they used to be with cupcakes!

Macarons are naturally gluten-free and require only four ingredients: almond flour/ ground almonds/ almond meal, powdered sugar, castor sugar and egg whites. What about that sounds complicated?

Do not be fooled, my friends.

Macarons have deceptively simple, quick steps. But they are known as one of the hardest things in the world to make and bake (for good reason too, these babies are precious and must be mastered for their worth) and there are countless books, websites, forums toward learning to make a Macaron that can be called a Macaron at all! Never mind perfection, I just want my babies to have feet! Yes, Macarons are known for their signature feet, or frilly edges on their bottoms. if your Macarons have no feet they are not Macarons at all.

There are two methods to make the Macaron: the French and Italian. I have tried both and have failed at both. so badly! so badly I swore never to make them again. But I had to try again!

Macaron pre-bake. Resting stage

Macarons are finicky, temperamental, diva things. one wrong step and the whole is GONE. any change in temperature, humidity and timing can alter the results drastically. This time I didn't dare do it alone. Armed with my friend Kat who has also failed twice at making macarons, we decided, on one Friday evening in the library, that we would make it the next day. We did all our research, read countless blogs, troubleshooted (YES! THERE IS TROUBLESHOOT FOR MACARONS!), saw various videos on both methods, compared notes with making them and finally decided to adopt the Italian method. I guess for us, they came from Venice then. haha.

The Italian method is more complicated than the French. But it produces a more stable batter during macaronnage (the single hardest thing to do in the world) and we thought it was less risky. These are various traits of an Italian method:

i. Sugar syrup - The French just mix in castor sugar while whipping egg whites. The Italian creates a sugar syrup to a specific temperature of 118C (or soft ball stage) to be poured into the whipping meringue. This is the tricky part - the sugar must come to the temperature at the SAME TIME the egg whites have been whipped to stiff peak. While Kat handled the sugar syrup, I made the meringue and it was the one of the most stressful times of my life (more stressful than when I realised I may have poisoned my boyfriend with kaya)!!!!

ii. Meringue - the meringue in the Italian method is shinier and glossier. Before the sugar syrup is poured in, the meringue must be whipped to stiff peak. when it reaches stiff peak, the syrup must be poured in at the right temperature and then the mixture becomes (to the horror of horrors) more liquid, and you just gotta have faith in your mixer to keep mixing it till it gets to the right consistency again.

iii. Thick to Runny - the egg whites are split into half, with half being mixed into powdered sugar and almond powder. this produces a thick paste that the meringue is the folded into. This is where it becomes hard to do because overmixing will lead to the worst consequences. Eventually you will get from thick batter to runny batter. The French is the opposite. They start with runny, trying to get it thick.

"Our babies have feet!"

Making Macarons were hard because we had a small kitchen and did not have the right utensils. We lost the sieve on the day we needed it! We invested so much into the process - had to buy a digital kitchen scale and a digital cooking thermometer for this - and we were terrified that all our investment will only end up in wasting money, time, effort and worst of all - heartbreak. Kat said to tell ourselves that we were bound to fail so even if it didn't turn out right we wouldn't feel so bad about wasting a sunny, warm afternoon indoors. we didn't even pick out flavouring or a colour because that would make us feel more attached to the success of making them.

at one point during the process it got so stressful because the electronic scale kept turning off before we had finished measuring the egg whites! and you know meringues, any single drop of yolk or oil or impurity will ruin the whole batch! and there we were, trying to measure 75 g of egg whites out when they definitely were not one or two whole egg whites. it was probably 2.5 egg whites. how in the world do we do that properly?! and with the scale going off, we often had to do our own additions and subtractions with the scale to get the exact measurement. at one point we were faced with 83 - 17 and could not come up with the answer! Kat got so stressed, she stomped her feet, threw her fists down and said, "I CAN DO THIS!" to eventually come up with 66. trust lawyers to forget simple maths. We used 10 eggs to make 30 pairs of Macarons, although we needed only 5. It was because we kept messing them up with the separation.

i said, "God, this is a silly cause but please let our macarons have feet!"

Lo and behold, they came out perfect, batch after batch. we jumped for joy, screamed, laughed, everything - because we finally made Macarons! all this for a simple cookie?!

So I wish you all the very best with experimenting and trying - practice, practice, practice!

A few tips we employed (actually we employed every tip we could) and observed:

• Baking at the right temperature - we baked our first batch at 160C, and some had cracked tops. we turned it down and the subsequent batches came out perfect at 140C. I think my oven is a little strong, so I would recommend 150C. Preheat at a higher temperature, turn it down to 150 the moment your Macarons go in. I baked for about 12 minutes.
• Macaronnage - the stage of mixing is crucial. Overmix and it will be disastrous. What you are looking for is a thick, flowy magma like texture. It must flow thickly from your rubber spatula to form a thick ribbon that does not disappear fast. If in doubt, it is better to have an undermixed batter than overmixed. The batter will also thin out when resting and when piping anyway. Use a large, flat bowl for this process. Using a tall, tapered bowl will make it difficult to get to the bottom, making you mix more, making the batter prone to becoming runny.
• After your pour the sugar syrup into the meringue, whip it on high till the meringue is stiff but medium peak.
• Pat, pat, pat. After piping your rounds, be sure to tap the tray on the counter quite strongly a few times. This is to remove air bubbles and prevent hollow Macarons.
• Double tray! And use good, even baking trays
• GREASEPROOF PARCHMENT PAPER! I do not recommend removing the Macarons from the paper with a spatula. Just lift the paper and press the Macarons from underneath to dislodge them.
• REST! you need to rest the Macarons till they have hardened or formed a skin. This varies with the humidity. I would say about 30 minutes. They would be ready when they don't stick to your finger when you touch them. For all of you making this in KL, PUT THE AIRCOND on and let rest for at least 1 hour. sometimes it takes two. just use the finger test!
• Bake one tray at the time, on the centre rack. It is ok to leave the others resting.
• Storing: Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Best eaten a few hours after baking.

so without further ado; the Macaron recipe:

recipe:

Macaron Shells:

150g egg whites, divided into two portions

200g almond powder

200g powdered sugar

50g water

200g castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

Filling:

1/2 cup single cream

100g dark chocolate

1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Line your baking trays.

2. Measure out all the ingredients.

3. Using 75g of egg whites, whip on high till you get a stiff peak.

4. Meanwhile, make the sugar syrup by combining the castor sugar and water in a saucepan and boiling over high heat. Let the sugar boil till it reaches 118C.

5. In a slow, steady stream, pour the sugar syrup into the meringue while beating on low

6. Turn the mixer speed up and beat till medium peak and glossy.

7. In another large, flatish bowl, mix the remaining egg whites and vanilla essence with the powdered sugar and almond flour. Sieve the flour and sugar TWICE before this. If you have a food processor, processing it once beforehand will be good. We didn't have a sieve, so the Macarons had lumpy tops as a result of not sieving.

8. Take a bit of meringue to loosen up the paste you will get with the egg whites and sugar and flour. Slowly, firmly but gently fold in the meringue into the paste in 3 more batches. While you fold, be careful to ensure uniform mixing. Stop the moment you get a uniform mix.

9. Pipe into rounds and let rest.

10. Preheat oven and bake for about 12 minutes till the Macarons have puffed up and formed feet.

11. Heat the cream in a saucepan just till bubbles appear from the sides. Take off heat and break the chocolate in. Mix in the vanilla essence and stir till thoroughly mixed. cool completely before piping in.

Good luck!

edit: some other memorable baking moments:

• we started out at 4 to buy ingredients, finished the night at 11. none of our friends wanted to come over to take some macarons with them!
• while on the hunt for cheap parchment papers and spatula, a shopkeeper told me he thought I had come from Heaven. Kat said i cautiously inched away from him.
• While measuring the ingredients, we realised that we did not buy confectioners sugar. out we go in the winter cold to run and get some. in my frenzy i went out in an oversized hoodie and sleeping shorts, running (i don't know why i was running. i think it was to get warm), getting honked at because i look pantless. and then we ran UPHILL to get the sugar.
• BUYING A 12 POUND THERMOMETER! damn it that's one dress right there.
• during the most stressful part of baking, my housemates kept looking over my shoulder (justin saying, what's that one million times; faye stifling her laugh when i compared myself to adrian zumbo for extra motivation) that we ruined the meringue once! we had to redo it!
• Kat and I, crouched over my oven, saying "ARE THOSE FEET?!" and "OUR BABIES CAN WALK!"
• Justin coming home to our display of macarons saying, "that is the most beautiful thing in the world!"
• Faye, texting at the end of the night, saying, "IT'S THE BOMB!" and "IT'S LIKE LADUREE!" (wow did i just get compared to laduree?)

I'm ready, ready to run free

Wait for it.... :)