Chocolate Macarons

I have tried making macarons once before......it didn't go very well. This put me off making them for some time. But, recently, I felt the urge to try again. I used the same basic recipe from Tartlette (the macaron expert, in my opinion) and this time it was much more succesful! I can't wait to make these again and to try lots of different flavour combinations!

Chocolate Macarons
Makes about 30 macaron sandwiches

Ingredients:
For the macarons:
110g blanched, slivered almonds
200g minus 2 Tbsp confectioners sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
100g aged egg whites* (from about 3 eggs)
50g granulated sugar

For the chocolate ganache:
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp butter
6 oz dark chocolate, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract

*Age the egg whites on the kitchen counter if your kitchen stays at or below 80*F. To do this, seperate the egg whites and put them in a dish. Cover with clingfilm and then pierce the clingfilm liberally.

To make the macarons:
Pulse the almonds until finely ground. Add the confectioners sugar and cocoa. Pulse until fine and then sift. Pulse any remaining lumps until fine.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on a medium-high speed until foamy. Gradually add the granulated sugar and then whip on high speed until smooth and shiny with medium stiff peaks.

Add the amlmond mixture in 3 seperate additions, using a spatula to fold quickly after each addition. This part of the process is called macaronage and is crucial to get right. After folding in all of the almond mixture, there should be no streaks left and the batter should have a ribbon-like consistency. Do not be overly delicate with the meringue-you want to get rid of some of the air.

Place a silicon mat or parchment paper onto a baking tray. Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large, round tip. Pipe 1-1 1/2 inch wide circles of the batter about an inch apart onto the mat. Bang the tray firmly onto the counter a few times. Let the macarons sit at room temperature for about an hour, until the tops are matte.

Preheat the oven to 280-300*F. Bake the macarons for 12-15mins. Let cool before removing from the baking trays. Please note: when I was baking mine, the ones on the bottom shelf cracked from the heat of the electric oven. I found that if I placed an empty baking tray on the bottom shelf, it helped to shield the macarons above it and they didn't crack.

Let the macarons cool throughly before piping on the ganache.

To make the ganache:
Place the chopped chocolate in medium heatproof bowl. Heat the cream and butter over a medium heat until it simmers. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let stand for 2min before stirring well until the chocolate has melted. Add the vanilla extract and stir until combined. Let the ganache cool throughly before piping onto the macarons.

Pipe the ganache onto one macaron and then sandwich with another macaron on top. Try to match macarons that are similar in size. On some of the macarons, I also piped a small amount of creamy peanut butter into the middle of the ganache, making them chocolate peanut butter macarons. Very yummy.

Store macarons in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Macarons are at their best 3 days after they are made.

Macarons recipe from Annie's Eats and Tartlette
Ganache adapted from Annie's Eats

Strawberry Ice Cream

So, I have just done a transatlantic move. Sadly, this meant saying goodbye to my beloved Kitchenaid mixer. I thought I would be without a mixer for quite awhile, but my guy's mom kindly gave me hers! I was only without a mixer for a week but as soon as I got it, I couldn't wait to get back to doing what I love. My guy happens to be a HUGE fan of ice cream. So, we treated ourselves to the Kitchenaid ice cream attachment and as soon as it was frozen, I made my first batch of homemade ice cream.

I have to say, that I was dubious about homemade ice cream. Could it really be better than Ben & Jerry's? Why try to improve on something already so good? I am happy to say that my doubts were unfounded. Homemade ice cream is seriously amazing. It is creamier and the flavour is more intense than any store-bought version. I highly recommend investing in an ice cream machine-it opens up a whole new ice cream world!!

So, my guy's first ice cream request was strawberry. I decided to try a David Lebovitz recipe, since I've heard such good things about his book, The Perfect Scoop. After making this recipe, I bought the book immediately! It is the creamiest, strawberriest ice cream I have ever had! You can't taste the sour cream at all-it just adds an extra creaminess to it.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 lb. (450g) fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled

3/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp vidka

1 cup sour cream

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Slice the strawberries and toss them in a bowl with the sugar and wodka. Stir until the sugar begins to dissolve. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 hr, stirring occasionally.

Pulse the strawberries and their liquid with the sour cream, heavy cream, and lemon juice in a blender until almost smooth. It should still be somewhat chunky.

Refrigerate for 1 hr, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Recipe adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Salted Caramel Chocolate Hearts

The August 2011 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

This month's challenge was exactly that....a challenge!! We were required to temper chocolate and use it to make at least 2 different types of candies. It took me 3 different attempts to get a well tempered chocolate. The first candy I made was peppermint bark, using a much loved recipe that has appeared on my blog before. Although the chocolate wasn't successfully tempered, it was really yummy!

The second type of candy I made was a chocolate covered honeycomb. Again, I wasn't successful in tempering the chocolate, but the results were still delicious! I might blog about that another day because in this blog post, I want to focuse on the successfully tempered chocolate candies I made. From my numerous attempts at tempering, I can say that the key to my success was patience..... something that I don't tend to have a lot of. Waiting for the chocolate to cool down to the appropriate temperature is a long process. And it is imperative that you raise it back up to working temperature veeeerrrryyy slowly, taking it off the heat often to ensure that the chocolate doesn't get too hot.

Ultimately, this was a great challenge and I was very proud of my chocolates. I will definitely be making more chocolate candy now that I have achieved the elusive tempered chocolate!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Hearts

Ingredients:

For the salted caramel:

2 cups sugar

1 2/3 cups heavy cream

2 Tbsp salted butter

1/2-3/4 tsp coarse sea salt or fleur de sel (to taste)

For the chocolate:

600g extremely good quality dark chocolate (at least 60%)

Method to make the caramel sauce:

1. Spread the sugar in an even layer in a large metal dutch oven or casserole, at least 6 quarts. Set over a moderate heat and cook without stirring, until the sugar near the edge just starts to liquefy.

2. Use a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula to begin gently stirring, encouraging the melted sugar around the edges toward the centre, delicately stirring up any sugar melting on the bottom as well. The sugar will start to look pebbly as it cooks, but keep going until it is melted completely and an amber colour.

3. Continue to cook until the sugar turns deep brown and starts to smoke. The darker you cook the sugar without burning it, the better the sauce will be. It's ready when it's the colour of a well-worn penny and it smells a bit smokey. Do not allow the sauce to burn!

4. Remove from the heat and quickly stir in about a quarter of the cream. The mixture will bubble up quickly, so you may wish to wear an oven mitt. Continue to whisk the cream, stirring as you go to make sure it's smooth. Stir in the butter and salt. Serve warm. This makes a lot of sauce, which can be stored for up to one month in the refrigerator.

Method to temper the chocolate:

1. Break up the chocolate into small, almond size chunks. Place 2/3 of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, and place over a saucepan with a small amount of barely simmering water. Ensure the bowl does not touch the water and be very careful not to get any of the water in the chocolate.

2. Using a rubber spatula, gently stir the chocolate so that it melts evenly and very slowly. Use a chocolate thermometer and keep a close eye on the temperature of the melting chocolate. Once it reaches 45*C-50*C (113*F-122*F)*, remove from the heat.

3. Add small amounts of the remaining 1/3 unmelted chocolate chunks and stir in to melt. Continue to add small additions of chocolate, stirring frequently, until you have brought the chocolate down to 27*C/80.6*F.

4. Put back onto the double boiler and bring the temperature, very slowly, up to 32*c/89.6*F. This is the crucial stage so watch the thermometer carefully and do not let the temperature go over 89.6*F! Once the chocolate reaches 86*F, I would recommend taking it off the heat every time it raises by 1*F and giving it a stir, just to be on the safe side. The chocolate is now tempered and ready to use.

To make the chocolate hearts:

1. Holding the chocolate molds over the bowl of chocolate, pour the tempered chocolate into heart molds (I used silicone heart molds). Knock the mold against a heard surface to remove bubbles, then turn upside down over the bowl to let the excess chocolate drip out. Turn right side up and drag a bench or plastic scraper across so that all the chocolate in between the wells is scraped off cleanly, leaving only chocolate filled wells. Put in the fridge to set for 5-10 mins.

2. Remove from the refrigerator. Fill a pastry bag with cooled caramel sauce and use this to fill each of the chocolate coated molds with caramel. Do not fill all the way to the top, as there needs to be room left for the chocolate. Place in the refrigerator to set for 5-10mins.

3. Finish the molds with a layer of chocolate, using the same method as before. Allow to set fully in the refrigerator. Once set, carefully unmold the chocolates.

Salted caramel recipe adapted from the Sweet Life of Paris by David Lebovitz.

*Please note: the temperatures given are for tempering dark chocolate only.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

I think that the summer strawberries in England must be the best in the world. They aren't the biggest, but they are the sweetest and juiciest strawberries. I love using them in desserts throughout the summer to make the most of them at their best. I made this pie for our 4th of July celebration (I know, I'm very late posting!!). Everyone loved it-be sure to make this with summer strawberries before the season is over!!

Strawberry Pie

Ingredients:
For the pie crust:
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
8 Tbsp (4oz) cold butter, cut into small pieces
3 Tbsp very cold water

For the filling:
4 pints (3lbs.) fresh strawberries, rinsed and dried, hulled
3/4 cup jam sugar*
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 baked 9-inch pie shell

For the whipped cream:
1 cup cold heavy cream
1 Tbsp sugar

*Please note, I have used jam sugar in place of normal sugar and Sure-Jell in Annie's recipe. We don't have Sure-Jell in England, so I thought this would be a good substitute-it worked really well, and I lengthened the amount of boiling time slightly to account for the different ingredient.

Directions:
To make the pastry, combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Rub in the butter pieves until the misture resembles coarse sand and the largest butter pieces are no bigger than peas. Add cold water and mix until the dough just comes together. You may require extra water.

Roll the pie dough into a circle, and line a 9-inch pie dish with it. Trim and crimp the edges. Refrigerate for 30mins. Preheat oven to 375*F. Line the chilled pie with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Bake until dough no longer looks wet, about 20mins. Remove the weights and parchment paper adn continue to bake 10mins more until the crust is lightly golden. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

For the filling, select 6oz misshapen berries, halving the large ones. This should be about 1 1/2 cups. In a food processor, blend into a smooth puree. You should have about 3/4 cup of puree.

In a medium saucepan, combine teh sugar and pureed strawberries. Gently warm until the sugar is completely dissolved. Then bring up to a rolling boil. Boil for 4-5mins, scraping bottom and sides of pan constantly. It should be starting to set. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in lemon juice. Cool to room temperature.

Pick over the remaining berries and measure out 2lbs of attractive ones. Halve extra-large berries. Add the berries to the bowl of jam and fold gently with a spatula until the berries were evenly coated. Scoop the berries into the pie shell, piling into a mound. If any cut sides face up, face them down. Referigerate the pie until chilled, about 2 hrs. Serve immediately and within 5hrs.

Make the whipped cream just before serving. Whip the cream and sugar on medium speed until small bubbles form (30 seconds). Increase to high speed and beat until medium peaks form. Serve wedges of the pie with whipped cream.

Recipes adapted from Williams-Sonoma and Annie's Eats

Strawberry Cupcakes

This weekend we celebrated my friend's birthday. It has become a tradition for me to bake whatever my friends request for their birthdays. So, this weekend my friend requested something fruity. I really wanted to make some kind of cupcakes because it feels like ages since I have. So, I decided on strawberry cupcakes. After some time spent on food blogs, I chose this recipe and I'm glad that I did!

The cakes were really moist and the strawberry pieces in them really gave them a great texture and flavour! The strawberry meringue buttercream frosting was ok....but not my favourite. I had never made SMBC before and I was excited to try this out! I knew that this frosting would be really rich and creamy and not too sweet. But, I wasn't prepared for just how rich and creamy it would be! It was so silky smooth. After trying this frosting recipe, I think I prefer a normal buttercream. This one just wasn't sweet enough for me (and I don't like ultra sweet frostings). But, my friends loved these cupcakes and said that they preferred this frosting over a normal buttercream....I guess it's just down to personal preference!

Strawberry Cupcakes
Makes about 18 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups chopped strawberries

For the Frosting:
1/2 cups fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled and coarsely chopped
4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a medium bowl. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until combined. Add buttermilk, oil and vanilla and beat until combined. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in chopped strawberries.

Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter. Bake for 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the frosting: Place the strawberries in a food processor or blender. Purree until completely smooth. Combine the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Heat, whisking frequently, until the mixture reaches 160*F and the sugar has dissolved.

Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form and the mixture has cooled to room temperature, about 10 mins (the bowl should be cool to the touch.)

Reduce the speen to medium and add the butter, 2 Tbsp at a time, adding more once each addition has been incorporated. If the frosting curdles, continue to beat on medium-high speed until thick and smooth again (3-5 mins or longer). Change to the beater attachment and beat for about 2 mins, until frosting is smooth and creamy. Blend in the strawberry puree until smooth and completely incorporated.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a frosting tip. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.

Cupcake recipe adapted from Annie's Eats. Frosting recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

Baklava

Erica, of Erica's Edibles, was our host for the Daring Bakers' June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly daring by making homemade phyllo and then to use that homemade dough to make baklava.

So this challenge felt pretty daunting at first. I have attempted baklava before-about 5 years ago and it was NOT good! I have been planning on trying again-with a recipe from my friend's mother. So, when this challenge came up, it seemed the perfect opportunity to try her recipe. Although the phyllo dough seems challenging at first, you quickly get used to working with it and it gets easier as you go. It did take me over an hour to roll out the dough and assemble the baklava....but it was worth it! The end result was great. However, my syrup didn't thicken up enough. I have no idea why this is, since my friend's mother is very successful with the recipe. Anyway, I'm including a different syrup recipe here that I haven't actually tried but that will hopefully be thicker and more gooey.


Baklava

Ingredients for the pastry:
4 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 cup water (or more if needed)
1 cup melted butter (for assembling)

Ingredients for the filling:
1 cup finely chopped pistachios
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 cup finely chopped almonds
3 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp cinnamon

Ingredients for the syrup:
3 cups caster sugar
2 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1 cinnamon stick


To make the syrup:
Put the sugar, honey and cinnamon stick in a small pan and pour in the water. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer without stirring for 5min. (It should be somewhat thickened-it may require more simmering time). Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature (using the syrup slightly warm is OK).

To make the dough:
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Make a well in the centre and add the eggd, oil and water to this. Slowly work in the flour with a fork. Do this until the dough sticks together. Knead the dough for approximately 15 mins. It should be smooth and supple. (At the kneading stage, I found I needed to add quite a bit more flour to get it to the right consistency. The dough still turned out perfectly-so don't be afraid to add more flour!) Cover and put in the fridge for 30mins.

To make the filling:
Mix together the ingredients for the filling and set aside.

To assemble:
Preheat the oven to 180*C. Grease a 9x9 in baking tinwith melted butter. (I used an 8x8 in. tin as it was all that I had and it seemed perfect)

When rolling out the phyllo, be sure to keep your work surface and rolling pin very well floured. Tear off a golf ball size piece of dough. Roll it out a little and then wrap around your rolling pin and roll very quickly. Rotate and repeat. (Note: you do not have to use this method of rolling out the dough. Just be sure to get the dough as thin as possible-you should be able to see through it.) Put the rolled out phyllo into the tin and brush it with melted butter. Repeat this 5 times, ending with butter.

Sprinkle 1/2 of the nut mixture on top.

Continue layering and buttering the phyllo dough, repeating 4 times. Sprinkle the remaining nut mixture on top. Layer and butter the remaining phyllo sheets (there should be about 7 layers on top). Tuck the edges in to give it a nice appearance. Butter the top and let stand for a few mins to harden slightly.

Using a very sharp knife, cut the baklava into 16 equal squares and cut each square into 2 triangles.

Bake for approximately 30 min, until golden.

Remove the baklava from the oven and immediately pour over the syrup. The syrup should be visible, but not completely covering the baklava.




Allow to cool to room temperature and sit overnight to absorb the syrup. Serve at room temperature. Baklava can be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks (but it won't last that long!!) Apparently, it is freezable, but I have not tried this.

Shortbread

So, it was my guy's birthday at the start of the month. I offered to bake him any treat he liked for his special day. I was thinking of a new cupcake flavour....or a beautiful layer cake...something like that. He asked for....shortbread. Yeah....shortbread. A cookie! This didn't quite fit with my idea of what a birthday treat should be, but I did promise to bake him whatever he wanted, and he was insistent.

So, shortbread it was. He also wanted me to choose a recipe with a very high butter content (he has an unhealthy obsession with butter). And, here it is-Williams Sonoma's Scotch Shortbread recipe. This really is the most buttery thing I have ever eaten. In a good way. It tastes like cookie dough but absolutely melts in your mouth. I think this will be a repeat request!!

Scotch Shortbread (makes 27 pieces)

Ingredients:
16 Tbsp (2 sticks) butter at room temperature ( I would recommend using a really good butter as it is such a big part of the taste)
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 Tbsp for sprinkling
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300*F.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the beater attachment, beat the butter on high speed until fluffy (about 3-4 mins). Add the confectioners' sugar and 1/4 cup granulated sugar and continue beating until the mixture is no longer gritty when rubbed between your thumb and finger (mine never got to this stage despite excessive beating-I don't think this made it any less amazing). Beat in the vanilla.

Over a sheet of waxed paper, sift togther flour and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter and mix on low speed until just blended.

Using floured fingertips, press dough into an ungreased 9-in square baking pan (I used an 8-in one because it was all I had and this was fine). Sprinkle evenly with the tablespoon of granulated sugar.

Bake until the edges are golden-about 1 hr. Remove the pan from the oven and immediately use a thin, sharp knife to cut the shortbread into strips 3 inches by 1 inch. Use a toothpick or the tines of a fork to decorate the shortbread with a pattern of dots. Let the strips cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 mins before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Williams-Sonoma