I went to Far East Flora to do a spot of flower shopping after having not gone there since the last events I did in Dec. I wanted to get some nice spring flowers since Mar 20 is supposedly the first day of spring. After looking at the rather dismal selection at Far East, I finally settled on some of my favourite ranunculus in orange and canary yellow tulips. Bought some assorted wild flowers for fillers, and added on some more creamy yellow ranunculus that I came across later. I also bought some alliums, which are those round ball flowers with long thick stalks, but don't have a photo as they're still blooming into their full round glory. Boy do they smell strongly of onions!
Next up, I attempted another batch of macarons. This time, I decided to have fruit-flavoured ganache. I settled on the combinations of strawberry + white chocolate and my fave banana + chocolate, and correspondingly the pink and yellow colours :) Since my last attempt at the Italian meringue method was not very successful, I decided to persevere in my determination to master it. And of course, having bought a small saucepan and candy thermometer to boil sugar syrup, I must make full use of it! My brand new food processor was also finally taken out from its box and made to do some work - first to grind the tant-pour-tant and then to puree the fruit.
Firstly, the macaron shells. I think I overmixed it during the macaronage as the batter spread a little bit more than I liked, hence I ended up with quite big macaron shells. Or it could also be due to my bad estimation per blob of batter. However, my sizing was at least more consistent this time so I had consistently big shells that at least matched each other (important for sandwiching). The batter was also a bit too sweet for my liking, as the italian meringue sure had a lot of sugar syrup. It might also be that I overcooked the syrup. Whatever it is, I'm not sure if it would break the recipe if I lower the sugar content.
After piping the shells and letting them rest to dry, I baked 3 batches of macarons using 3 different oven settings. The last time my shells were undercooked (or too much sugar) which resulted in them sticking to the paper and being annoyingly hard to peel off. This time, I baked at 150C convection for 13 min, 150C convection for 15 min, and 160C conventional for 15 min. For the convection settings, I pre-heated the oven at 180C first before lowering it. I was doing extensive research on the net prior to baking to determine the best settings but alas, oven temperatures and settings are just so temperamental (pardon the pun!) and everyone seemed to have their own little trick like pre-heating at high temps, or sticking a wooden spoon to keep the door ajar etc. I gave up and decided to just experiment. Both the 150C@13 min and 160C@15 min gave me similar results although the 13 min one was a little bit sticky still. at 150C@15 min it was dry, but the shells were a bit burnt. I like the idea of convection setting so I think I'll try 150C@14 min or 140C@15 min next time.
And then the fillings. I followed the recipe for a basic ganache i.e. equal parts of chocolate and cream (but I didn't add butter) and added pureed fruit to it. For the white chocolate though, because of the high cocoa butter content, I used much less cream. The trick is to get a thick enough consistency to pipe when set. While my consistency was more or less ok, the fruit flavourings were not meant to be. Despite adding more fruit than was called for in the recipe I was following, neither the strawberry nor banana came out strongly in the ganaches, with the taste being overwhelmingly chocolate. I think next time I will add fruit flavour to bring out the real fruit. Or not do ganaches. Ahh, so many new permutations.
Since this foray was quite successful, I will go back to the french meringue method to see if that can be made less sweet. And of course experiment with oven temperatures, and new filling flavours. Till the next time (I wonder when that will be?), I leave you with these pretty pictures.
1 comment:
That's gorgeous! I think you should persevere in your baking AND your food photography :) You have talent!
As for cutting rosemary, wherever you cut it, the stalk won't grow back, instead little side stalks will grow below the cut. So people normally advise to cut back quite a lot, cos if you cut only the tips, say the central stalk is like 30 cm tall, you'll end up with a lanky, leggy plant instead of bushy. I usually try to prune back to 10 cm lengths (not always possible) so it tends to bush out. The more you cut the more it grows cos each stalk cut produces more than one side shoot, see? Good luck!
Post a Comment