Wicked Sweet Indulgence

Green Tea Macarons

2009-12-13T22:47:00.001+08:00

The macarons craze started a couple of years ago. Just like any other country, the locals in Singapore were busy making these beauties. Macarons were given to be as Birthday presents and Valentines Day gifts. I loved how they taste and melt in my mouth but never thought I had enough courage or even time to attempt making macarons. It was only until recently in a conversation with a close friend W, who was making macarons for a charity event, that stirred my interest in creating them. W said macarons making were a true challenge and very much technique base. Unlike cupcakes and cookies, a good recipe does not necessary guarantee success for macarons. What I heard was enough to make me sit up in excitement.

So for the next few days, I rolled up my sleeves and prepared myself for some serious macaron baking. Day after day I researched on the Internet for recipes, websites, videos and blogs on how best to create the macarons. The basic recipe looks simple enough, it requires only 4 ingredients almond meal, icing sugar, egg whites and castor sugar. That seemed like a rather easy recipe to follow until I actually made them. To my horror, things were not as easy as it seems. My macarons were falling flat, they did not rise nor looked like a decent macaron. I was almost about to give up from frustration and about to get a 'macaron-phobia'.

I took 15 batches before I achieved a macaron look alike. When I saw those feet raising in the oven, I shouted out in excitement and my mum panicked as she thought the kitchen was in fire. All the hard work paid off when I figured out how to whisk the whites, fold the mixture etc. So to all those out there who don't get their macarons(or whatever you are trying to make) the first few times, hang in there! 3 great blogs that were truly amazing had lots of tips were David Lebovitz, Tartlette and Syrup and Tang. These 3 geniuses are only brilliant in their creations but also have a generous heart to share their recipes and tips.

To all know those familiar with Macaron making, there are several conditions to bear in mind that increase success in macarons. Aging of egg whites, further processing the ground almonds, using double trays, open oven doors midway etc etc. I have tested most of these and some I found to work while others not.

The Italian method of using sugar syrup is much preferred simply because simply they produce good stable results. Some say that ageing of egg whites are not neccessary in this method but I have found that it does make the macarons less moist. Further processing of almond powder does help make the macaron mixture more fine although it is not neccessary for a successful macaron. Double trays did not work for me as the macarons produced were wet and sticky at the bottom. I suppose this condition would depend on the type of oven used and the heat. Instead a tray was placed above the macarons so that they do not brown.

Finally folding is the key to sucess to be done in a circular motion. I tested the readiness of the mixture by scooping a tsp of the batter onto a plate. When the peak of the batter flattens down in less than 30s I stop folding immediately and get ready for piping. If the peak does not flatten, give the batter a few more folds. Under folding the batter can cause crack flat biscuits.

After several attempts, I present here Macarons with green tea cream. May I say Im very happy with my macaron creations.

Macaron making is really rather exciting simply because there are boundless variations you can conjure with a creative mind. Raspberry Macarons were the next that I made (simply because I am such raspberry lover). This time I made raspberry flavoured cream using fresh raspberries, although a simpler alternative was simply to use raspberry jam. I processed a bunch of raspberries, strained them to get rid of the seeds and added them to the buttercream. The raspberry ones were a hit with the family because the tinge sourness was refreshing to the otherwise sweet macarons.

Rasberry Macarons

Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

2009-12-13T22:08:00.000+08:00

Have always loved the taste of chocolate combined with coffee and liquor in cakes. This combination commonly found in desserts like Tiramisu and cappuccino cakes are almost always a big hit in our family. After all who can resist the taste of chocolate, coffee with an extra tinge of alcohol in it?

This cake is a simple Chocolate sponge added with roasted hazelnuts chopped coarsely. An addition of hazelnuts gave the cake a nutty fragrance with an extra crunchiness. As I had a bottle of Kahlua sitting in my liquor cabinet so I thought I would add a splash of it to the whipped cream. Trying to be health conscious (the cake was meant for family consumption), I spread only a thin layer of the kahlua cream on each layer. On hindsight, I definetely should have been more generous with the delicious cream. Lace the sides of the cake with generous coating of roasted almonds and top it off with cocoa powder.

Rasberry white chocolate cheesecake

2009-12-13T21:20:00.000+08:00

A good friend D, loves my blue berry cheescakes. I used to make her these cheesecakes on special occasions like her birthday but have stopped making these cheesecakes for awhile. Recently at the super market, I saw some delicious looking raspberries sitting in their boxes. They seem to be calling out "buy me!" I am a huge fan of raspberries, I love their taste and how they never fail to decorate a dessert. Cold storage sells them at $9.90 per box of ard 200gr. They I remember when I lived in Australia, these beauties were much cheaper. (Shld have eaten more of these then).

I had heaps of ideas on how I could use these raspberries. Finally after much deliberation, I decided on a non bake raspberry white chocolate cheescake because I felt that if I used a recipe that calls for raspberries puree then that would be such a waste! D's birthday was coming, I figured I could bring that to her party.

A non bake cheesecake as most know, is rather simple to make. Firstly, the crust of the cheesecake made by tightly packed crushed sweet marie biscuits or digestive biscuits. A right amount of butter is neccessary, too much makes the mixture wet and soggy and too little is insufficient to hold the biscuit crust together. The other important thing is to tightly pack these crumbs together, this can be done with a metal spoon or the base of a bottle. I learnt that if the crusts are not tightly packed together, they soon break when they are cut.

Cream cheese is typically used. Cold storage sells Philadelphia cream cheese or even Phoon Huat sells them. In this case I melted some white chocolate and beat them together with the cream cheese. Finally I top them with the raspberries.

D loved this new addition and so did her guests. She thought it was a nice variation from the typical blue berry, lemon cheese cakes. I was surprised to hear from the others that the raspberries gave it a refreshing taste and it wasnt too sweet and creamy like the typical cheese cakes. Most importantly, desserts decorated with raspberries somehow always looks impressive to others.

Cookie Treats

2009-08-03T16:16:00.000+08:00

Cookies are one of those things I find irrestible. I can sneakily finish up a whole bottle of cookies by one afternoon (such bad habits). Have always wanted to try mixing spices into cookies but yet was worried about having it turn out overpowering. Hence when I chanced upon the nutmeg cookie with apricot recipe I got rather excited and curious. Initially I was rather skeptical of the combination of the nutmeg and the apricot, surprisingly they turned out rather delicious and I already have afew orders on them.

To make the cookie, I used a basic cookie dough and added some nutmeg powder. After mixing all the ingredients, the dough turned out rather soft and difficult to manage. I rolled the dough out on plastic sheets then cut them out with the stars before chilling them. I found them easier to remove from the plastic sheets when they are chilled. Fresh from the oven, the cookies were crispy and fragrant with a tinge of nutmeg taste. Most importantly it did not musk off the buttery flavour of the cookie.

The apricot filling was slightly sourish but it compliment the sweetness of the cookie.Finally finished off with a sprinkle of icing sugar. Overall thumbs up for the nutmeg cookie! Perhaps next round I will experiment with other kinds of spices.

Decorative Cupcakes

2009-07-13T15:52:00.000+08:00

Made these "fashionable" cupcakes when I engaged in baking therapy on the weekend. There used to be a huge craze on and Ive stopped making these for quite awhile. Recently I made some of these colourful beauties and was surprised by how much fun I had decorating them. Found it fascinating how one can play with various colour and patterns to achieve a new cupcake design!

Was in the experimental mood and tried out some new ingredients. The cupcakes themselves were in lemon flavour, white chocolate rasberry, chocolate and orange. Also added less sugar in the batter so that the whole cupcake would not taste too sweet. My personal favourite is the lemon cupcakes added with lemon rind and juice to give it an extra zest.

Will continue making more variations of these cupcakes in time to come!