Lychee Macarons

2014 year end had been a very busy period with lots of gatherings and a family trip with a few friends and their families, hence no blog posts then (yikes!). I have been baking a lot of macarons for the gatherings, mainly because macarons are very colourful and nice to look at and a lot of people, though find them too sweet, still cannot resist having one. In addition, macarons are individually portioned, unlike a whole cake. Hence that is often my no-brainer when coming to making something to bring to a party. I have been experimenting with different flavours of macarons, some are very "safe" flavours like chocolate mint, vanilla. Some are more exotic like honey + fig + red wine; I like to try out unique flavours since macarons are pretty much the only thing (at least for what I can think of for now) that I can play with flavours (I cannot imagine a salt & vinegar cake and yes, there are salt & vinegar macarons!). My friend O at The Kwoks gave me an idea of making lychee flavour macarons and so I went on to modify a basic buttercream to make it a lychee buttercream. I also have many friends who have asked me for my macaron shells recipe so I will be sharing the shell recipe in this post too.

   

For the shells, I did the unorthodox method of blending (instead of sifting) the almond meal and icing sugar together, simply because it is extremely tedious to sift the almond meal through the fine sieve. I use the Italian Meringue method for my macaron shells so you will need a candy thermometer for the sugar syrup. If you have no idea what I am talking about at this point, I advise you to watch a YouTube video on how to make an Italian Meringue; this is crucial in making the macaron shells so it is important you do all the homework before you start making! :)

It is also essential that your mixer bowl is made of metal instead of plastic because we will be pouring hot syrup into it.



Lychee Macarons!

 

Macarons (shells)

adapted from Zumbarons
makes about 100 pieces (i.e. 50 macarons)

Ingredients:

• 300 gm almond meal
• 300 gm icing sugar
• 110gm egg whites - in mixer bowl
• 300gm caster sugar
• 75 gm water
• 110gm egg whites
• food coloring of your choice   

 

  

Almond meal mixed with icing sugar

 

  

The blended almond and icing sugar mixture

  Method:  

1. Mix almond meal and icing sugar and put into a food processer to pulse it. If you have a small blender, do it in batches.
2. Put 110 gm egg whites into your metal mixer bowl. The bowl must be free of grease.
3. Put water and caster sugar into a deep but small base pot (so that the water level is not too shallow) and clip a candy thermometer to the pot. Bring the syrup to a boil until it reaches 118⁰C.
4. While the syrup is cooking, turn on your stand mixer on low speed and start to whisk your egg whites. Your syrup will be cooking while your whites are being whisked. The whites should be whipped to fine foamy stage when the syrup reaches 118⁰C.   
5. When the syrup reaches 118⁰C, remove from heat and slowly pour it down the side of the mixer bowl, with the mixer on medium speed. Take care not to let the hot syrup touch the whisk lest you get scalded. When all the syrup has been poured in, turn the speed up to medium high. Whip till the meringue reaches stiff peak and glossy and cooled to room temperature.        
6. Add the food coloring to the meringue and give it a final whip.
7. Add the remaining (un-whipped) egg whites to the almond and icing sugar mixture to a big mixing bowl and fold in your meringue.
8. Fold until you get a lava like consistency. Fill a piping bag (with #8 piping tip) with the macaron batter and pipe the shells onto baking paper lined trays.
9. Air dry the shells until they have formed a skin. The shells will feel dry to touch and do not stick to finger and they will look matt.
10. Bake the macaron shells at 140⁰C for 15min. I use the fan mode and bake 3 trays at a time for my oven.
11. Remove from oven and let the macaron shells cool down completely on trays before removing them. The shells will still be sticky while warm and might break and crack if you remove them before completely cooled.

Put egg whites into a clean metal mixer bowl

     

Boil the syrup until it reaches 118⁰C

   

The whites should be whipped till fine foam when the syrup is ready

 

the meringue will be glossy when done

  

folding in the Italian meringue into the almond mixture

 

Drying the macaron batter before baking

 

pairing the macaron shells

 

 

Lychee Buttercream 

adapted from Les Petits Macarons

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 200 gm caster sugar
• 57 gm water
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 227 gm cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 tsp lychee essence
• 1 can of lychee (finely chopped, strained)

Method

1. Put the egg whites in a clean metal mixer bowl. Make sure the bowl is free of grease.
2. Place the water and sugar in a small base pot. Clip your candy thermometer to the pot. Bring the syrup to boil at 118⁰C.
3. While the syrup is boiling, turn the mixer on and start to whip the whites. The whites should reach a fine foamy stage when the syrup is ready at 118⁰C.
4. Remove the syrup from heat and slowly pour it down the side of the mixer bowl. Turn the speed to medium/medium high. Whip till meringue has cooled to close to room temperature.
5. Slowly add in the cubed butter and salt while whipping the meringue. The mixture might start to turn soupy and runny, that is normal, continue to whip at medium high speed.
6. When the buttercream starts to come together and looks smooth and spreadable, add the lychee essence. Stop the mixer from time to time to taste if the essence is enough. Adjust accordingly.
7. Add the chopped lychee bits into the buttercream and fold in with a spatula. It is important that the syrup from the canned lychee is strained from the lychee bits before adding the lychee into the buttercream; we do not want to introduce more liquid into the buttercream.

adding the lychee bits to the buttercream

Assembly

to assemble the macarons, simply pair all the shells first before you fill them with the lychee buttercream. Use a piping bag to pipe a dollop of buttercream in the centre of one shell and sandwich it with another shell. Give it a slight twist as you sandwich the cream. Ideally the cream should take up 1/3 of the whole macaron when you view it from the side. Just like a juicy hamburger! J

give your macarons lotsa filling!

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baking Basics - Equipment

Over the past recent years, there has been quite a big change in the roles of a mother; back in my mother’s generation, it is understood that you are doing a good job if you feed/dress/shower the kids well. Now that is hardly the case. The new generation of mothers is expected to be super multi-taskers: teacher, caregiver, nurse, chauffeur, cook, baker, cleaner, planner etc. Basically you are expected to know it all and do it all. That probably also explains why in each arena stated above, more mommies are getting more well versed in them. In my case, I have ventured into the baking and cleaning aspects. I’m far from an expert and I’m still learning but I’m always on the lookout for tips and tricks and the whys of stuff. Maybe because I was trained as an engineering student, maybe it is just me, I don’t know. :)

Many mommies like me, have ventured into baking too and a lot that I know are so good in it that they could probably bake for profits even if they didn’t receive formal training. More and more of my friends are also starting to bake for their kids and family. For me, my baking started when I was a teen. Back then, I didn’t really have proper equipment or reference resources as I was still a student and there was no budget. The library was my go-to place for recipes and information. Now the Internet and my baking kaki groups are my go-to places for my learning. I have learnt a lot from various sources and friends and will like to share with others the things I know. If you are a new baker and will like to know more about the basics, you will find the following entry useful. J

Basic Equipment:

Oven

I’m often asked for recommendations on a choice of oven but I’m really no expert in this. Yes, I did research and recce around before I finally decided on the choice of oven for myself but that’s based on my needs and budget and my needs might not be the same as others’. Hence my advice will be: get an oven that suits your needs and budget. If you have cabinet space constraints, get a countertop oven. If you need to bake large batches all the time, a built-in oven will be more suitable. Of course an oven with all the latest functions and add-ons will be good and fanciful but that also means costlier price tags. So take into consideration all these factors when shopping for an oven. Below are some factors that I find useful to note and my opinions on them.

Oven Capacity

This was one major factor I considered when buying my oven. I was so frustrated with the small capacity of the countertop oven I used to have at my parents’ place that I could not wait to get a built-in oven after getting my matrimonial home. I’m not updated re the countertop ovens currently available in the market but if you ask me, please make sure that the oven you are buying is big enough to fit the whole batch of bakes you are making. Do not be fooled into thinking that if that oven can fit 3 racks, it can bake 3 trays at a go, it doesn’t work that way. My oven has 5 racks but it can only bake max 3 trays at a time. Countertop ovens are not known to bake multiple trays at a time (the lower tray is often half cooked) but like what I have mentioned, I’m no oven expert and not very updated with current models, please check with the oven manufacturer if your choice can really bake multiple trays at a time.


Though the built-in oven can bake multiple trays and have lesser probability of hot spots compared to smaller countertop ovens, if you do not have a space in your kitchen cabinet for a built-in, then a countertop one will be your only choice. A built-in oven will also be costlier so do consider your priorities.

Electronic Controls (Temperature & Timing)

Given a choice, I will prefer an oven with electronic controls on temperature and timing as that give me better precision but these of course come with a price. Currently my oven has only electronic control on the timing and the temperature control is mechanical but this works just fine for me. Electronic control on temperature allows you to set temperature to the nearest 10⁰C (i.e. 175⁰C) while a mechanical one only allows you to have a rough gauge between the 2 marks (10⁰C intervals) on the dial.

I currently own a Bosch HBA23B550J.

Mixer

For most bakes, we often need a mixer to mix the ingredients together. This is particularly true if you need to cream the butter or if you are beating up a meringue. If you have the budget and if you intend to take your baking to a serious level, a heavy duty stand mixer with a stainless steel bowl will be a very good investment, especially if you need to deal with hot boiling syrup (e.g. when making an Italian meringue). Otherwise, a small size stand mixer or a handheld electric mixer will suffice. I will not recommend using a balloon whisk or spatula to mix your ingredients by hand as that can really be tedious and it is very hard to yield the same results as that with an electric mixer. Experience has taught me that if a process proves to be tedious or yields unsatisfactory results, it will often kill the interest in the bud before it gets any better. Currently I'm loving my Kenwood kitchen machine Titanium Chef KMC030.

Kitchen Scales

The accuracy of the measurements of your ingredients before baking can make or break your final products. If your measurements are way off from the recipe, you can be sure your end products will be way off the mark too. So do invest in a reliable digital kitchen scales. You do not need one with fanciful functions; you only need the TARE function and it is better if your scale can measure up to 5kg (yes, you probably won’t be making a 5 kg cookie dough but don’t forget the weight of your mixing bowl and most scales sold often have a max capacity of 2kg or 5kg.).

I especially like my old Tanita KD811 until the ON/OFF button died on me. Currently I’m using a Mayer Health Diet scale which a friend has bought for me at a sale (I think I only paid $20 for it! J). The only con for the Mayer one is the idle time it allows before it auto switches is too short!

If you can, please avoid using those cheap mechanical kitchen scales. Yes, I did use them for the initial years of my baking but I didn't know better then. These are very often not accurate and they get spoilt easily over time, making readings erratic and inconsistent. Besides a good digital scale cost between $50 to $90 and can last you many years. Just skip a good dinner at a restaurant and you will have the budget for this. If you really have to buy the mechanical scales, make sure that you weigh your items twice to check that it gives you the same readings for the same item. Please also calibrate it by making sure it gives you the correct reading of a known weight item.

Measuring Cups/ Spoons

For the same reason as the kitchen scales, get good quality ones that give you accurate readings and it will be advisable to have both cups(tsp) and ml readings on your measuring cups and spoons. Do take note that measuring cups have different definitions on the volume of a cup. Some are only 236ml while others are 250ml per cup. I always buy the set which gives me 250ml per cup.


I also prefer stainless steel measuring cups (though I also have a Pyrex glass 500ml cup) over plastic ones. For measuring spoons, I have a set of magnetic ones that clipped together for easy storage. I think the brand is Progressive.

My measuring spoons that are magnetic and can be clipped together for easy storage. It can also be clipped onto the fridge for easy retrieval.

 Spatula

A good quality silicone spatula will serve you many years before needing a change. Get one that can be easily cleaned without needing to get into nooks or gaps in the handle or between the handle and the silicone. Don’t forget to take apart the silicone flap and the handle when washing! Personally I do not like those white plastic ones as these tend to crack and tear after a while because they are not as flexible as the silicone ones. Besides I am pretty paranoid re dipping a plastic spatula into a hot liquid compared to a heat resistant silicone one.

Rolling Pin

Any kind of rolling pins is fine. Get one that is sized for your frequent bakes; big ones for rolling big pie pastry, small ones for rolling fondant etc. Given a choice, I will prefer stainless steel material over wood because of the ease of washing. A rolling pin with thickness guidance rings is very useful if you are not good at gauging the thickness of the dough manually. I like my Joseph Joseph rolling pin for this. As I bake different sorts of pastry, I have a collection of various sized/material rolling pins.

Baking Paper

I am a big fan of baking paper over silicone baking mats, not just because of easy clean up but because baking paper does yield better results for most of my bakes, even for the fussy macarons!

Cling Wrap

Now you must be wondering why is the cling wrap even mentioned here? Yes, I use it to cling wrap my cookie dough before chilling and covering my custard to prevent a skin forming but most important of all, I use it to cling wrap my work station! I often use my dining table as my baking station and for hygiene reasons and ease of cleanup, I cling wrap the table top before doing any mixing or rolling of dough. Trust me, this will be a life saver.

Other Tools:

I have received suggestions from friends to post my take on some other tools not mentioned above and the following are some of it.

Oven Mitts

Oven gloves are not on the top of my list when it comes to baking effectively; as long as it can protect your hands from being scalded, any kind of gloves will do. Personally I prefer the good old cotton gloves more than the silicone ones and they must be long enough to cover at least up to half of my forearms. This is to prevent any burns on my inner forearms when retrieving my trays from the hot oven. Recently when I was doing some minor organizing in my kitchen I started to make sure my gloves have some style too.

My new double oven gloves!

Cooling Rack

It will be good if you have a cooling rack to cool your bakes while you reuse your baking trays for the next batch of cookies but it is not a must to have them. Sometimes when I get lazy to use the racks I just let my cookies cool on the trays. However, there is a minor pro in using cooling racks over dinner plates or the baking trays: cooling racks allow the baked goods to cool on the bottom and prevent moisture from being trapped. This is especially important for cookies and sometimes even some cupcakes.

Disclaimer:

The above are my own opinions and preferences on the basic tools needed for baking and I do not receive any remuneration for the specific items mentioned; I am just sharing for those who are curious and will like to know specifically what tools I am using.

Cranberries + Macadamia Oatmeal Cookies

In the next few posts, I will be sharing a couple of my favourite cookies recipes, mostly the ones that I will make again and again and again for myself and my family. Today’s recipe is one of such; Oatmeal Cookies, except that today’s batch has some variation: Cranberries Oatmeal Cookies instead of the usual Raisins Oatmeal Cookies. The reason is simply because I ran out of raisins! LOL! Disclosure: I’m not the author of the original recipe. The original recipe was noted down by me many years back but I cannot remember where I got it from. The following recipe has been modified by me based on the original recipe.  

 

Makes about 50-60 pieces

Ingredients:

·       100 gm caster sugar

·       50 gm brown sugar

·       115 gm unsalted butter, softened

·       ½ tsp vanilla extract

·       1 egg (60gm)

·       110 gm plain flour

·       ½ tsp baking soda

·       ½ tsp cinnamon powder

·       ¼ tsp sea salt

·       180 gm raw rolled oats¹ (for this particular entry, I used baby oats. See note at the end for my review)

·       100 gm dried cranberries

·       100 gm chopped macadamia nuts 

I love eating these oatmeal cookies, knowing that compared to most cookies, these are full of healthy goodness!

 

Butter and sugars are creamed till light and fluffy

 

The dough will be stiff after all the ingredients are added in

 

Method:

1.     Preheat oven to 190^°C (fan on).

2.     Cream the sugars and butter till light and fluffy.

3.     Add vanilla extract and lightly beaten egg and mix well.

4.     Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into the butter mixture. Fold lightly to distribute the flour mixture.

5.     Add oats, raisins and nuts and fold in. I usually use my Kenwood stand mixer at the lowest speed, with paddle attachment, to fold this as the mixture will be very stiff and folding by hand might be tedious.

6.     Using a cookie scoop (size 70), drop dough on lined baking trays.  Flatten² the dough balls with a spatula.

7.     Bake at 190°C for about 9 minutes. Monitor closely towards the end.

8.     Cool the cookies on the trays for about 1-2 minutes before transferring to cooling racks to cool off totally. Cookies will harden further and turn crispier upon total cooling.

 

 Notes:

1.     I usually use raw rolled oats for my oatmeal cookies but this time round I decided to try baby oats, thinking that the more broken up oats might give me a “softer” cookie compared to regular oats. It’s a big mistake: In fact the baby oats seem to absorb moisture more hence it gives me a drier dough. Nevertheless, it still yields yummy cookies but the regular oats give me even yummier cookies!

2.     As mentioned, baby oats will give me a drier and hence stiffer dough so when using baby oats, you have to flatten the uncooked dough on the tray as it will not spread much during baking. I didn't realise that until the cookies were baked, that's why you see the round round cookies here. LOL! On the other hand if you are using raw rolled oats, the spread will be quite a lot during baking. In fact I think I will skip the flattening the next round I make this with regular rolled oats.

Cinnamon Apple Pie Pops

Wow wow wow! It’s has been a good 3 years since I last had an entry into my then newly created blog! Talking about lack of perseverance and not following through with things, I must have topped it all! Yikes! Ok ok, for all my dear friends who have been active on Facebook, I’m pretty sure you are aware that I am very active on Facebook, given that it is the main platform that I get to connect with the “outside” world from my SAHM world at home. And of course not forgetting the big advancements that the smart phone apps have made during the past 3 years, which make posting and viewing on Facebook a breeze.

For those who know me, you will know what I have been up to. For those who don’t, I went on to have 2 more kids which made me now a mom of 3 very young kids! That’s what I have been busy with the past 3 years. During these years I have also went on to further explore my all-time hobby of baking and much to my pleasant surprise, received good feedbacks from friends and family who are daring enough to be my guinea pigs. J So much so that I decided to restart my blog and have entries on my bakes. On top of that, I have also discovered that the numerous house-keeping shows I have been following on the cable channels have created an interest in me on the search for more tips and hacks of cleaning and housekeeping. So today I’m picking up where I left off and my first post shall be a recipe post.

Not long ago I made my first cake pops using the cake pops pans from Nordic Ware and was pretty excited to create pretty pops for upcoming parties but to my great dismay that didn’t really turn out well; Baking the pops was easy, it was meddling with the candy melts to coat the pops that proved to be a pain. It certainly wasn’t as easy as you see in YouTube. Maybe I overheated the candy melts, maybe there wasn’t enough shortening added, I don’t know. In any case after a couple of failed attempts, it killed my enthusiasm in making cake pops again. Besides those cake pops tasted horrible when coated with the candy melts. In the end I was left with 2 Nordic Ware cake pop pans and a bunch of unused lollipop sticks. That was also when I found out I can make pie pops with those sticks! (Yes, my pop pans will still be white elephants until I find another use for them) Hence, the idea of making pie pops! I bought a set of heart and star shaped pie pop molds from Tovolo and today I used the star to make my first pie pops!

I needed a pie recipe simple enough (read: less risky) to get me started on pie pops and I decided to use a sweet pastry dough recipe from Martha Stewart and the filling comes from Divas Can Cook.

I started off with the dough because that requires chilling. I mixed all the dry ingredients together and unlike my usual SOP, that wasn’t any sifting as we will be using the blender to blend all ingredients together.  

Sweet Pastry Dough (adapted from Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts)

makes 9 pie pops

Ingredients:

• 188gm plain flour
• 25gm caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 113gm unsalted butter, cold and cubed
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tbsps cold water

 

 

 

1.       Mix all the dry ingredients together

2.       Cut chunks of cold hard butter and toss it into your flour mixture. There is no need to bring the butter to room temperature for this recipe. We want the butter to be cold.

 Anchor is my current favourite brand of butter

 

3.      Put the whole mixture into your blender or food processor if you have one, I didn’t have one so I used my small blender. Pulse the mixture till you get coarse breadcrumbs-like texture. DO NOT over mix. Add the yolk and water and pulse till the dough comes together.

 

 Crumb-like texture is what we want before adding the liquids
 

 

Cling wrapping your dough properly is important to ensure that it doesn’t dry out in the fridge

 

4 .    When the dough comes together, stop the mixing, transfer to cling wrap, make a disc and chill it for minimum of 30min.

 

 

Cinnamon Apple Filling (adapted from Divas Can Cook)

Ingredients:

• 2 green apples
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• ½ tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp cinnamon

 

Then I went on to mix the filling. The filling is rather easy given that no pre-cooking is required. Just skin the apples, cut into TINY (you will need these to be really tiny in order to fit into the pops) cubes and soak them in water to prevent oxidation. Get ready your sugars and drain the water from the apples.  Sprinkle the sugars and corn starch on the apples and set aside.

 

 

   

  

Assembly

 

Things you will need:

• Rolling pin
• Cookie cutter
• Lollipop sticks
• Flour, for dusting
• Pastry brush
• Beaten egg
• Brown sugar
• Baking tray and
• Parchment paper

For this, you will need to prepare your table or workbench for rolling the dough. Get ready a small bowl of flour for dusting and a beaten egg for egg wash and dipping the lollipop sticks. The lollipop sticks must be set on the table too.

 

 

 



A rolling pin with thickness guides is a very handy tool, especially in rolling pie dough

  

1.     Preheat oven to 180C.

2.     Flour your countertop generously (trust me, this one you want to avoid the dough from sticking to the bottom).

3.     Roll out to desired thickness. For this recipe, I rolled it to 4mm. Yes, it is on the thicker side but I want to play safe for my first pie pops.

4.     Cut out your pie pops. I’m using a pie pop mold from Tovolo but if you do not have one, any round cookie cutter will do. Use an offset spatula to lift the cutouts if the dough sticks to the bottom. Dip your spatula in flour if needed.

5.     Place one cutout of the pie pop onto your lined baking tray. For my case I put it into my floured mold.

6.     Dip your lollipop sticks into the beaten egg and place it on top of the 1^st cutout, with the tip in the middle of the cutout. Press lightly so that the stick sinks into the cutout but not too deep till it cuts through.  

7.     Spoon your apple filling onto the dough.

8.     Cover with 2^nd cutout and use a fork to crimp the edges.

9.     Repeat till you finish the dough and filling

10.  Brush beaten egg on the pie pops and use a toothpick to poke a few holes on the top. Sprinkle brown sugar on the tops.

11.  Bake at 180C for about 15-20min or until golden brown. Let cool on tray before holding the pops upright.

 

 

 

 

Dipping the stick in egg before placing it in the pie pop ensures that the pop does not slip off easily after baking

 

 

The end result is a buttery crumbly pie crust that melts in your mouth! The filling is a bit on the tangy side more than sweet so for those who has a sweet tooth, you might want to add more sugar. I will also mash some of the apples the next round to make some applesauce and mix it into the filling.
 

New Hobbies & Old Hobbies...

I had recently made my 1st sock toy after getting a book titled "Stray Sock Sewing" by Daniel Lin... was a little disappointed when I realised that the instructions on making a sock toy was not shown for one of the creatures which was featured on the book cover... Nevertheless, I decided to be ambitious and guess my way thru making that creature... and Voila! I did it! I posted a photo of the finished toy on Facebook and was surprised that most of my friends found it nicely and 'professionally' done! 

I had also just made a pouch for keeping my wet wipes (inspired by the Skip Hop wet wipes holder) so that I can hang on my stroller or in the car behind the front seat... took me a while to figure out the sewing steps to get all seams hidden... I was very pleased with myself because this time round, it took me much lesser time and effort in getting the sewing all nicely done up. I guess practice does help after all. However, I still missed a couple of steps and the measurements for the opening was estimated to be too big, hence there is still pretty lotsa room for improvements!    

Past couple of weeks was an arty and crafty period for me; I had also gone back to my old love of acrylic painting. I finally finished painting a kiddy stool for home use and now it lacks some final coats of varnish before it is deemed finished. Also went on to continue on a canvas on frame piece which was left half (no, 1/5?) done for the longest time! At the same time, while I'm almost done with the kiddy stool, I also started on another stool which I owed my dear friend since donkey years/months ago??? Glad that things are moving concurrently and I feel so much of an accomplishment to be able to finish off some of these projects.

I am also on the way to starting an online shop... selling mummies/children related stuff and hope that in addition to manufactured products, I can sell my handmade or painted items! :)