Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Mac Attack Entry - Macaron de saison






Oh, time flies~~ really it does, in a blink of the eye the end of September is approaching and today is the last day of summer.

To me the summer seems to already end a week ago, chilling winds and temperature, my skins starts to itch and lips start to crack from the dry air... The season that is certainly not my favourite is IN! How I just miss the tropical weather and can just pop down on the street without having to check the temperature to get dress accordingly.

A hot pot of ginger tea with dark sugar is cooking in the kitchen to warm me up - even my nose is cold! Oh well, guest all I will do now is start counting down until winter ends.

Macaron de saison, I first wanted to create macaron with some seasonal fruits or nut, but second thought, what is the very one thing I cannot live without in every season? The answer has to be CHOCOLATE!!! Chocolate is great to work with and the versatility is endless.

So I have decided to create 4 flavours based on dark chocolate theme but adding a little something different for each season.

May I present you

Spring Lime Chocolate Macaron :
Green - Colour of first sign of spring is coming.


Summer Rose Chocolate Macaron :
Red - Full bloom roses and the smell of summer.



Autumn Ginger Chocolate Macaron :
Yellow - Colour of autumn, ginger to warm up the spirit and mind!



Winter Spiced Chocolate Macaron :
Blue - Cold air & snow, cinnamon and cardamom to chase away the winter blues.



Hope you enjoy the entry :)



For the shell

Ingredients (for each colour)

1. 40g egg white
2. 30g almond powder
3. 50g icing sugar
4. 30g castor sugar
5. 1/2 tsp of green / yellow / red / blue food colouring

Methods:

1. In a blender, mix up the almond powder, icing sugar and food colouring (use one colour), sieve it and set aside

2.Beat the egg white until frothy, add in half castor sugar, keep beating till you get a soft peak and then add in the rest of the sugar. Beat to stiff peak.

3. Add the blended dry ingredients to the stiff egg white.

4. Keep folding until you get a mixture that flow slowly like lava. This should take about 50 folds. The mixture should be uniformed, shiny and when lifted it should flow down and form a thick ribbon.

5. Put a piece of baking sheet over a baking tray, pipe the mixture.

6. Let the macaron sit until a shell is formed and it's nolonger sticked to the fingers when touched. Depanding on your room temperature, and air humidity this should takes somewhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour.

7. Pre heat the oven on 160 C with only top heating.

8. When the oven is heated up, put in the piped macarons, bake for 8 mins, the feet should already start forming at this stage.

9. Change the heating to bottom only, bake for another 6 minutes. To know if your macarons are baked, you could try it by gently touching the shells, when it's baked it should nolonger slide against the feet.

10. If the macaron shells are not well baked, extend the baking time by 1 minutes and recheck.

11. Let macaron cooled before removing them from the baking sheet. You could speed up the process by lightly wetting your working area with a sponge and drag the baking sheets over.

12. Match up all the similar size shells, and get the ready for filling.





Spring Lime Chocolate Macaron Filling

Ingredients:

1. 1 organic lime (wash, dry well, grate rimd - set aside)
2. 1 tbsp lime juice
3. 50g dark chocolate
4. 45g fresh cream

Methods:
1.Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over water bath to melt it

2. In a small pot, over low heat, warm up liquid cream, lime rind and lime juice.

3. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat. Pour over chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth, shiny ganache is obtained

4. Let sit in room temperature for 30min and place into the fridge for at least 1 hour for it to harden up. Place a cling wrap on top touching the ganache prior putting it into the fridge to prevent any crystalisation on the chocolate ganache.

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Summer Rose Chocolate Macaron Filling

Ingredients:

1. crystalised rose petals (optional)
2. 1 tbsp rose water
3. 50g dark chocolate
4. 45g fresh cream

Methods:
1.Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over water bath to melt it

2. In a small pot, over low heat, warm up liquid cream and rose water.

3. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat. Pour over chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth, shiny ganache is obtained

4. Add in crystalise rose petals if used, let it sit in room temperature for 30min and place into the fridge for at least 1 hour for it to harden up.

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Autumn Ginger Chocolate Macaron Filling

Ingredients:

1. 1-2 strips of candied ginger (cut into small slices)
2. 1 tsp ginger powder
3. 50g dark chocolate
4. 50g fresh cream

Methods:
1. Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over water bath to melt it

2. In a small pot, over low heat, warm up liquid cream and ginger powder.

3. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat. Pour over chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth, shiny ganache is obtained

4. Let it sit in room temperature for 30min and place into the fridge for at least 1 hour for it to harden up.

5. To fill macaron, simply pipe the choclate ganache on one shell then top up with a slice of candied ginger before closing up with another shell.

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Winter Spiced Chocolate Macaron Filling

Ingredients:

1. 2 cardamom seed
2. 1 cinnamon stick
3. 50g dark chocolate
4. 50g fresh cream

Methods:
1.Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over water bath to melt it

2. In a small pot, over low heat, warm up liquid cream, infuse cinnamon stick and cardamom seed. Set aside for 15 mins. Remove the spice before reheating the cream again.

3. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat. Pour over chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth, shiny ganache is obtained

4. Add in crystalise rose petals if used, let it sit in room temperature for 30min and place into the fridge for at least 1 hour for it to harden up.

I'd like to introduce my new family member - Papy Nestor, prince charming of Miss Evil Eddy :) He had been here for about a week now, he is old and abodoned on the road side to fend or himself before the shelter found him. He spent close to a year in the shelter and is getting depress because noone is interested in him. I am glad that he is here now to spend his golden year with us, he is surely one very intelligent bunny.


Miss Evil Eddy with Papy Nestor

HAPPY MAC-BAKING!

24 comments:

  1. homy your bunnies look so so cute - papy nestor does look intelligent and ohso serious!

    i was just wondering about the oven timings - if i don't have an oven with top and bottom heating choices, for how long and at what temperature should i bake the macs at? I only have a choice of fan-assisted and top&bottom heating.

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  2. Heheh thanks.

    For the oven,if you do not have the option to choose top or bottom, try fan setting and use 150C (depand if your oven really heat up a lot or not)

    Mine one if used 2 heating top and bottom i have to put 150 C and once the oven is heating up i have to monitor closely. I usually have to open the door for 10-15 seconds to let some air circulate and to cool down the oven. cooking time would be the same

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  3. thanks for the fast reply kim! about the 'shell' forming - i understand you're in singapore as well, how long does it take for a shell to appear for you? do you switch on the air-con or fan? cos i've tried keeping the shells out for hours and no shell forms!

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  4. I am not in Singapore, i am in France. I did bake macaron once for my wedding in Malaysia. It took about 45 mins with aircon. other wise i have baked most of my macaron without letting them forming shell and to me there's no difference

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  5. oh sorry, I got you confused with another blogger for a moment! Ah okay thanks for the info. So the 'shell' bit doesn't affect the appearance of the foot?

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  6. that's ok, nop, not for me i read in book saying unless u're using cacao powder or a lot of colouring for the shell the step is unnecessary. i tried both, they work just fine. Although i find the shell doest help the macaron to rose up faster

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  7. ahh okay thanks so much for your help, i feel more confident in my 6th attempt now :D

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  8. No worries, good luck and let me know how it turns out :)

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  9. What a wonderful selection and great idea on the macaron seasons. Love all your macs! Love also all the chocolate flavours - all my favourites, esp the chocolate-ginger and cardamom. You know, the bit when you talk about your cold nose? I had exactly the same just as I read it and needed to reach for some ginger... and a kleenex. Oh, I'm not from the tropics but don't particularly like the cold, damp atmosphere, either.
    Gorgeous photos and what a bunny. He does look so clever!

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  10. Your four seasons macarons are fantastic. I love each and every variation of the chocolate fillings. I don't even have words for how cute your bunnies are. Just darling!

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  11. Thank you Jill, seems like cold nose is here to stay, more ginger!!! Thank you Lora, I am glad you guys like the macs :) Papy Nestor is very skinny and need to put on weight but he's very picky eater when it comes to his hay. Evil Eddy is too fat and need to lose weight - don't they make a lovely couple? Next post I am going to post up Myrtille and Reglisse photo lol

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  12. Fabulous idea for our Mactweets seasonal theme... perfect. I love the four seasons colors and flavors. Your macs are perfect and the flavors so intriguing and... inspiring! Thrilled you baked along and came up with such a unique angle. Beautiful!

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  13. Wow--what an ambitious post with all lovely 4 season macarons! The colors, flavors and fillings really reflect each season. Your bunnies are so cute, too!

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  14. Thank you Jamie &Hi Cookery :) Glad that you guys like it :)

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  15. These are beautiful picture perfect works of art! Ai love the characters in the upper left corner of the photos for each season. But even more so ai love love the well thought out macarons for each of the seasons. I will have to try some of the ginger flavor macarons : )

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  16. Thank you. let me know how you like the ginger filling when you have a chance to try out :)

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  17. I love the concept for your seasons and think that your macarons are stunning! Great photo's... and, omg those bunnies are just too cute.

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  18. This is an awesome post! I love that you've gone for all four seasons...and that you had to use chocolate. When thinking up my flavour, I knew I had to use chocolate of some kind too - it's just so good in macarons! Your photos are absolutely beautiful too :-)

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  19. Absolutely gorgeous! I love how you touched each season so beautifully, and perfectly of course! WOW!

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  20. What a fabulous collection of "seasonal" macarons! Love your photos and season/flavour pairings. Ginger and chocolate are exquisite together!

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  21. Hi Kim,I've tried making recipe for few times.but I always get d fail macaron there is crack and no feet :( can guide me what's wrong actuallly?thanks :)

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  22. Thank you Deeba & Francoise for your kind compliments :)

    Joanne, cracked shell usually means either your oven is too hot or your batter is underfold. try lower the temperature down by 10 C for your oven and make sure you have shiny, smooth batter that holds up a ribbon and flows slowly when lifted.

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  23. Thanks for reply..the batter is shinny and smooth but result still the same..what's make macaron mo feet?

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  24. when you liften the batter does it goes down slowly in the bowl? when the macaron is cracked it wont have feet because the humidity escape from the top and not from the side.

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