Hello

Before you ask me where I have been and why I haven't been posting. I just want to come clean and say I have been busy with life. I know, I know, I always open with I'm so busy with this and that but it's true. =( But I am happy to be back with a new post.

Since I have been baking so many meringues for parties and birthdays I wanted to extend the idea of meringue and fish for some fresh techniques on how to be a bit more creative with it. I was looking through my cookbooks and came across a recipe by the guys at Oliver & Bonacini. They always have a good sense of taste and lifestyle of food that I love.

 

I came across this meringue with ice cream and marinated strawberries recipe that I really wanted to try.

Here how it goes:
Meringue
4 egg whites
3 drops of lemon juice
2 ml vanilla extract
300 ml sugar

Strawberries
4 cups of strawberries cut in half
125 ml sugar
5 ml lemon zest
50 ml vodka of choice

Served with ice cream or yogurt.
Pre heat at 220F

Place the egg whites, lemon juice, and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Whip until stiff and gradually add sugar. Continue beating until it forms peaks.

Then use a pastry bag and pipe the meringue into 2 inch squares on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake until it is dry and set aside. (Around 20mins)

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and let the strawberries sit for 10 minutes.

After when the strawberries are marinated, place a meringue square on each plate and top it with a scoop of ice cream or yogurt. Press gently to create a cup and fill it with strawberries. Cover with another square and then repeat the process.

The beast within. *gasp

I hope you enjoyed my last post on macarons, I am still trying to adapt to a new book that I got. The macarons are tough, I still need to practice more and get use to the macaronage stage. I will continute to update you guys when I get the chance but for now, thanks for stopping by. =)

Cheers

Hello Hello

It brings me great joy to share with you my findings for the week. But I need to come clean and tell you guys that I have been very busy and frustrated for several reasons. First, I was trying to come up with a system to bake macarons and second after trying several times and failing, I was very embarrassed and was about to run a marathon to relieve my stress level. I'm kidding but in all honesty, I was very mad at myself for not getting this down right the first time.

I swear I attempted this 7 times before I learned the main reasons why it wouldn't work. Sometimes, I over folded it and other times, I over whipped it. The thing is I baked it way back before I made a design flip to this blog and never had any troubles until now. My sister blames the temperature and current state of this nasty dry weather we are having in Toronto but I blame the techniques but she could be right.

Thanks to numerous food bloggers such as eatlivetravelwrite, food52 and Lisa from jordanwinery. They have really helped me a lot during this journey of mine by providing tips on what to do and what not to do. Anyways enough with the introduction, I have much to say but I will try to keep it short and simple.

First let's start off with a basic recipe that I have been using. It's from a macaron book my friend got from the U.K.

Meringue Shell:
2 egg whites at room temperture
50 ml sugar
75 ml ground almonds
115 ml icing sugar
a pinch of cream of tartar

Put the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor and process it for about 4 seconds 4 times. This will ensure that the ground almonds and icing sugar is at its finest state. This will help your cookie looking smooth and shiny.

Sift the dry ingredients twice and set aside.

Whip the egg whites on high until it starts to foam a bit. Add the cream of tartar and whip it for about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and continue whipping until it forms a soft but stiff peak. You can tell by taking out the whisk and checking the tip of it.

Fold in your desired food colour of choice.

Macaronage Stage:
Take your dry ingredients and add half to the egg whites. Folding ever so gently because you want the egg whites to hold in a bit of air. Fold the rest in and what you want to aim for is a shiny, smooth but not runny texture.

To test if your batter is ready for pipping, spoon some batter on a plate, a peak will form and if it falls back down and melts in with the batter then it is ready.

Piping:
Pipe the macarons on a prepared baking tray with parchment paper already set and cut. This recipe should make 15-16 whole macarons depending on how big you pipe your shells.

Waiting stage:
Let it sit at room temperture for 30-40 minutes. What happens here is it will form a skin on the top of the shell. This will help you form feet at the bottom of your macarons.

At the mean time, set your oven to 325F.

Bake:
Pop it in the oven for 5-8 minutes and watch carefully. For me, it only took 5 minutes and the feet was already formed with no browning at the bottom.

Filling:
50 ml butter
115 ml icing sugar
a splash of vanilla extract

This is one of the most basic fillings there is for the macarons. I just wanted to whip up something quick and end the night.

You can pipe it on the cookie or use a knife and spread a generous amount.

The macarons should be kept in a freezer if not being served. It can be kept in there for up to 3 months. Just take a out and let it sit at room temperture for 20 minutes before serving.

Any questions don't hesitate to message me. =)