Hello Hello

Good morning to you, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. It's been such a hectic weekend with all the Christmas fiascos. So many bright lights and so many people at the mall. Fortunately or unfortunately, there is no snow yet and I am a bit sad since Christmas day is just around the corner. Oh well, it will come.

For those of you who don't know me quite well yet, I am a huge fan of baking meringue. When ever I bring this baby out to the dining room table, I get all these stunned looks and questions about "what is that?!" Haha.

It was a recipe that I found off of Jamie Oliver that got me started. His way of baking meringue is so simple and leaves a lot of room for you to play with. He was the only person that I ever got around to believing that meringues don't have to be crunchy and can be a little bit gooey chewy on the inside.

Although no one really likes him, he was the first person that I ever bought a cookbook from. Probably because it was on sale or something. Haha. If you want to check out his book I would suggest "Cook with Jamie."  

I get a lot of questions regarding when to know when you meringue is ready for baking. The answer lies in the stiffness of your meringue. Turn your batter upside down, if it falls off then it is no good.

Happy Birthday Drew!

Here we go Ultimate Fruit Meringue:

Meringue:
6 egg whites
1 cup plus 5 tablespoons of sugar

Toppings:
500 ml 35% cream
2 tablespoons of icing sugar
10 ml vanilla extract
Handfuls of strawberries, blueberries and fruit of your choice.

Preheat 300F
Whip the egg whites till it starts to foam. Gradually add in the sugar until it starts to turn glossy white. Whip it for about 7-8 minutes until it is stiff enough for your to hold it upside down above your head and won't fall down (It never fell on me ever haha).

Optional:
You can add in any flavours you want to enhance the meringue taste by adding lemon or orange zest.

Pour the meringue batter on a prepared baking pan either as one big round blob or several blobs on the pan.
Bake in the center for about an hour until the outside is crispy and the inside is still a bit gooy and chewy.

Take it out and set aside to cool.

Whip the 35% cream, add vanilla extract and sugar until it starts to come together. Do not over whip or the cream would turn chunky and you do not want it to be like that.

Assemble your cake by putting the whipping cream on top, shower the cream with a handful of fruits of your choice. You can additionally garnish your cake by add crushed walnuts, small mint leaves and if you are feeling very fancy, caramelized sugar would be a great choice.

Eat immediately!

Ever experience a time period in your life where you just don't know what to do? Well, I think I got the right answer for you. Don't let it get to you and just start spending time in the kitchen. It's magical and it works. =)

For the past few weeks, I fell in love with macarons. Why? Because, A: it tastes way too good and you can get so creative with it. B: When you take it out of the oven and see that it is not cracked but in a perfect shell. You just feel this crazy warm and fuzzy sensation in your stomache that makes you want to jump for joy.

So here it is, another addition of macarons. Try to bare with me and not get bored of me just yet. I promise that I will bake something more innovative over the week. =) 

Here are the flawless shells I have been talking about. Later in this post I will share with you on how to bake these flawless shells. You can never go wrong with blue and white. =)

Gah, I need a new piping bag or better piping skills. You see the top of the shell? It has a little "dip" and it's not suppose to be like that, I think it's because I kinda fling it out after I pipe it down. I will make sure I fix this. =)

All packed up and ready to go. Hope you like it! =)

Heres what you need to make this:
 Shell:
75 g ground almonds 
115 g icing sugar 
2 large egg whites 
50g sugar 
food colouring of your choice

Filling:
55g unsalted butter 
115g icing sugar sifted 
2 tablespoons of coffee

Place the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor and process for 15 seconds. (Very important part and this will determine the smoothness of the shell)
Sift the mixture into a bowl.
Line baking two baking sheets.

Place the egg whites in a large bowl and whisk until holding soft peaks.
Gradually whisk in the sugar to make a glossy meringue.
Whisk in food colouring of your choice.

Using a spatual, fold the almond mixture into the meringue one third at a time.
Fold until it forms a shiny batter with a ribbon-like consistency.

Pipe the mixture onto the baking sheets. It should make 32 small rounds.
Leave at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325F ( I usually do 310F)
Bake for 8-9 minutes. Watch closely and make sure they don't crack.

To make the filling, beat the butter, add sugar and coffee until smooth and creamy.
Now make a sandwich with the macarons and dust it off with icing sugar.