Pistachio Macarons With Assorted Cream

I guess I am really into French Macarons Craze..... Whenever I saw new macarons flavour from those blogger's site I will be very tempted to try it out. It is just like little kids having fun with the jigsaw puzzle. We can mix and match different kinds of macaron shells with different assorted flavour of butter cream which is very challenging and fulfilment when you do get a good result out of it.


Like those blogger who tried Pistachio Mcarons, we had to grind our own pistachio in order to have it as one of the main ingredients. And very surprisingly, ground pistachio do give a very nice colour and fragrant when making into macarons. This round I made a batch of about 15 Pistachio Macarons to pair with 3 assorted Italian Butter Cream which are: Coffee Butter Cream(reyon's flavour), Lemon Butter Cream and most stunning one which is the Pistachio Butter Cream. Out of the 3, I guess Pistachio Butter Cream goes very well with the Pistachio Shell because of it nutty flavour and crunchy bits.

Hazelnut Macaron With Durian & Coffee Butter Cream

This is the 3rd times that I have made successful macarons out of the 6 trials. Thing starts to get better each time when I gather more advices and tips from my blog pals. This round, I tried to make the Hazelnut Macaron using the ground hazenut rather than almond and it really taste great with it's nutty flavour.


For this batch, I managed to make the Italain Butter Cream with two different flavour. I divide the cream into two portions and added fresh durian flesh into 1 portion and coffee essence into another.

My dear son loves the Coffee Butter Cream macarons which I also added some extra instant coffee powder into the batter to make the shell fill with more coffee fragrant. Overall I am very happy with this bath of hazelnut macaron and I will continue to experiment with new flavour whenever I get some spare time off from work.

Lychee Charlotte Cheesecake

This is a very special fragrant fruity Asian kind of cheesecake that I had never try making before. The very first time I saw this cake is from a blog pal's flicker picture. Then after a few months later, my best pal Tracy make this for her cell-group gathering. Base on what she had told me and feedback from her cell-group members on the cake that she had made. I decided to make one using lychee preserved in canned syrup.


You can use any basic non-baked cheesecake recipe, and just include some chopped lychee in the recipe and reserved some whole lychee on top as decoration. To make your cheesecake more presentable you can used some ready bought sponge cake and cut it into half then soaked one side with some lychee syrup and stick it on the surrounding of the spring form or mousse tin then prepare the biscuit based on top.

I can said, this is a very nice and refreshing cheesecake compare to those that I had made or eaten before. It's neither too sweet or cheesy and with the added whipped cream, it made the texture of the cheesecake more smooth and silky......

Assorted Macarons

Wow.. it seems like I am getting Macarons CRAZY these few days. Just like what other bakers do, when you starts to get the hang of it, you seems to be addicted in making them. It like even though you use the same ingredients, but each time you will gets kind of different result for your macarons.


So far I only tried making 4 different Flavours which are Chocolate, Black Sesame and Green Tea. The 4th one which is the Rose scented I was not able to get it done correctly due to the batter consistency. It had spread too much and the end result was very bad just like those 1st few failure batches macarons that I had.

Out of all these assorted macaron, I still loves the Green Tea with Chocolate Ganache. Maybe it's because I love anything with green tea content. Em.... so maybe next weekend then I will try making other flavour if there is still volunteer who want to try. Actually I also love Coffee flavour, maybe I will try to experiment with it too.

Green Tea Macaron With Chocolate Ganache

Em... most of you all will be wondering why I also follow the trend on making macaron! Hahaha..... Actually I find it very challenging when you actually achieve something that you always want to make but failure after a few attempt. The moment when you gets the finally product right, the feeling of achievement is nothing that can be bought with. I had 3 total failure batches that can't even be eaten. Then 4th batch is at least something that is presentable and edible.(but I guess like some feedback I had, I might have overbaked it compare to this batch, cos it's very crispy and it won't turn soft even if you leave it in room temperature after sandwich it with cream)


Then finally after more research and gathering of tips from forum pal, I managed to find the Key to successful. The main issue is to DRY the macaron shell completely before baking, and the oven temperature is also very important. Too hot, the shell will crack and no feet develop.

From making these macarons I had tried 3 different recipes from over the blogs that I research which I think that had the easier steps and clear instructions to follow for beginner like me. I just use the normal macaron recipe without the Italian Meringue because I don't have a candy thermometer to measure the boiling point of the sugar syrup. So I won't be able to try out what's the different between a Normal Meringue and Italian Meringue. You might wonder why I don't stick to the same recipe instead of changing one after another, that's because I love to do experiment with my baking. I love to try out what's the different between each recipes even though they called for the same ingredients. Some one o two steps that are different from each recipe will end out having different result. This is the same philosophy as life, if you make a different decision in a matter the result will end up in different way. So why that's why some people will stick to one decision while other might like to change according to the situation.

So after much hard work and failure. Finally I am able to come out of my own macaron. But I still need to practise to perfect on the shape and "feet". Really thank a lot to all those members who provide me with all the valuable information from Imperial Kitchen and my blogger pal Evan.

My Without Feet Macarons

Wow..... finally after so many tried and error, I managed to get my macaron a decent look and sandwich it with cream and give it a bite. Although I still have not master the perfect macaron with those little "feet" that original macaron had. I still already very happy with my end result, at least it's getting better each tried.


This round, I used another recipe that is different from the previous 3 unsuccessful macaron. I got this easy and well explained recipe from Tamami's blog through a forum. I have half her recipe and managed to come up with about 8 macarons which measure around 1.5". I had pipe the macaron batter on a Silicon Baking Sheet instead of the normal baking paper as from some comments it shows that Silicon sheets do give better "feet".

I bake these macaron at 160 degree for about 10 minutes then removed, leave it aside to cool then sandwich half of them with chocolate cream and the other half with peanut cream.

My son and mum loves both the favour but their find that the peanut cream goes better with this almond macaron shell. I guess it because of the almond taste. The case is very crunchy and chewy and I am very happy with the end result. So I will continue to carry out the experiment until I find a good way to develop the "feet" so that I can make a perfect macaron too......

Double Chocolate Chips Cookies With Nestum

This is Reyon's favourite Chocolate Chips cookies that had a mixture of Black and White Mini Chocolate Chips together with Nestum. The texture of this cookie is very crunchy due to the adding of the Nestum. You use any kind of chocolate chips, chopped dark chocolate or even with some extra nuts to create different favour and texture.


The recipe is introduce to me by my best blog pal Tracy, but I had used only half of the original recipes to make and add in some extra RUM for some extra fragrant.

Ingredients: (make about 30 - 35, 3cm cookies)
90g Light Brown Sugar
90g Unsalted Butter, cubes
95g Plain Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
50g Nestum(instant cereal)
50g Mini Chocolate Chips
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
Pinch Of Salt
1/2 Egg, Light Beaten

Methods:
1. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set aside for later use.
2. Cream butter and sugar till pale, beat in egg, vanilla essence and RUM(if using) until well combined about 1 minute on medium speed.
3. Fold the flour mixture into the ready butter mixture.
4. Next stir in Nestum and Chocolate Chips with wooden spoon or spatula.
5. Drop teaspoonful of dough onto baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 15 - 20 minutes at a preheated 180 degree oven till slightly browned at the edge.



Notes:
a) I added about 1/2 Teaspoon Of RUM liquor to give the cookies an extra fragrant.
b) Nestle Nestum can be found in most local supermarket under the cereal or coffee/tea session.

My Unsuccessful Macarons

A Macaron is a traditional French pastry, made of egg whites, almond powder, icing sugar and sugar. This sweet pastry came out of the French courts' baker's oven as round meringue-like domes with a flat base. I had eaten beautiful and tasty Macarons from one of my blog pal Evan(for those who are interested can take a look at her blog atBossacafez) And after seeing a lot of macaron fans making different favour of macarons from all over the blogsites, I began to love them deeply.......there is one site that I love her Macs too is Karen's(Mad Baker).


From all those wonderful and drooling photo of macarons, I starts to develop my interest in making them. I knew it's pretty difficult to handle these macs in term of all the ingredients measurements and the whipping of the meringue and folding of the dry ingredients and even to the temperature of the oven. All those little details will cause either a success or failure of baking a perfect macaron.

So based on those macaron recipes that I had research from the websites. I decided to try out 1 which most people had succeed making in it. But unfortunately out all the 3 tried that I had are all failure. I can't get the macaron to bloat up and stand with a feet like the normal one. Mine are just flat, round and feetless piece of cracker. I knew I have not did well in whipping the egg whites as well as the folding portion. And I guess my oven temperature are far too hot to cause the macaron to be burnt. But I will not give up on that, I had already seen improvement of the 3rd batch with smooth shiny surface and some feet form. So I shall continue experiment on these with those advice and guideline that I had gather.

Durian Cheesecake With Chocolate Fudge

My family had always being a Durian Lover. Especially my brother and my aunty's family. So I decided to come up with this special durian cheesecake using a basic non-bake cheesecake recipe.

Em... maybe you will ask me or wonder how does the taste like when you have a mixture of dark chocolate fudge with creamy durian cheese filling? I can tell you, it's a very special combination. As if you can have 3 different taste and texture within a cake itself. The crunch of the Oreo Biscuit, the smooth and creamy Durian Cheese Filling and lastly top with chewy Dark Chocolate Fudge. It's really heavenly match....


Although you need a few more ingredients and steps to make this Non-Bake cheesecake but it's really worth it and you can interchange the main ingredients with other fruits like: Mango, Strawberry, Blueberry or etc instead of Durian.

Ingredients For Crust:
225g - 250g Chocolate Oreo Biscuit, finely crushed
150g Unsalted Butter, melted and cooled

Methods:
1. Use a large sheet of aluminum foil to wrap the base of a 7" x 7" square cake ring.
2. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter into the biscuit cumbs then stir till the mixture it's almost combined(you might not need to add in all the melted butter) and press into cake ring and chill in the fridge until firm. (about 20 mins - 30 mins).

Ingredients For Durian Fillings:
250g Cream Cheese
70g Caster Sugar
250g Durian Flesh
1 Tablespoon Gelatine Powder
50ml Warm Water
125g Plain Yogurt
200g Non-Dairy Whipping Cream

Methods:
1. Double boil or microwave the gelatine powder with 50ml warm water until dissolved and set aside.
2. Beat the cream cheese and sugar until creamy and light, then add in the durian flesh and continue to beat until well combined.
3. Next pour in the melted gelatine mixture and yogurt then stir till combined.
4. Lastly pour in the whipping cream and slowly stir till the mixture is creamy and well mixed.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared biscuit base tin and chill for at least 3 hours or overnight then proceed to the chocolate fudge.

Ingredients For Chocolate Fudge:
150g Semi Bitter Dark Chocolate
100ml Whipping Cream
30g Unsalted Butter

Methods:
1. Put all the ingredients in a pan/glass bowl over boiling water(or use double boiler).
2. Whisk the ingredients for 5 minutes or so until the fudge is smooth and glossy.
3. Let the warm fudge cool down to room temperature before pouring into the firm cheesecake top and tap the cake a few times to release any air bubbles.
4. Put it back into the fridge and let the chocolate fudge set for about an hour or so before cutting into slices and served.

Notes:
a) When making this cheesecake, try to make it in square tin so that the layer will not be too tall or else you will end up with a thick layer of durian cream cheese filling.
b) I suggest a 7" x 7" square tin or 8" round tin will do a great job.

Green-Tea Cream Puffs

The original recipe comes from Evan's Macha Eclairs. But instead of making an Eclairs which I am not good a piping the pastry. I had change the recipe slightly a bit to make these cute little Cream Puffs. And most important it's easier for Reyon to eat and more addictive to pop one puff at time.


You can refer the Eclairs recipe from Evan's blog. But this cream puff recipe that I used is different from her Eclair, if you prefer you can also use this recipe to pip the Eclair. As for the Green-Tea Creme Patissiere(just follow the creme recipe and add 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of green-tea powder as your preference), I follow what is given by Evan's on her blog.

Overall this Green-Tea Cream Puff/Macha Eclairs has a very special and unique taste. It's very fragrant because of the green-tea powder and the cream is smooth just having the right texture. If you do like cream puff or eclair, give this recipe a try. You can even change the cream to Mocha, chocolate, mango or etc depend on what you prefer.

Ingredients For Choux Pastry:
120g Butter
120g Flour
185ml Water
3 - 4 Eggs

Methods:
1. Chop the butter and put in a pan with the water. Stir over low heat until melted, then bring to the boil.
2. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and add the flour all at once, beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Return to the heat and continue to beat for about 2 minutes until the mixture forms a mass, thicken and leaves the side of the pan.
4. Remove from the heat and transfer to the bowl of electric beater; leave to cool for about 5 minutes.
5. Add one egg at a time, beat well between each addition at medium speed until the mixture form a thick, smooth and glossy paste. You may not need to add the egg.(for this recipe i used 3 1/2 eggs, each egg about 55g)
6. Spoon 2 heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto the tray at 5cm interval.
7. Sprinkle with water and bake at a preheat 210 degree oven for 10 minutes, reduce the heat to 180 degree and bake for another 12 - 15 minutes or until the dough is puffed and golden brown.
8. Remove from the oven, cut a slit in the base of each puff and leave it to cool to room temperature before filling it with creme.
9. Spoon the green-tea creme into the piping bag and cut off 1 cm from the end and fill the puff.

Fondant Glaze:
4 Tablespoons Of Icing Sugar
Dash Of Green-Tea Powder
1/2 - 1 Tablespoon Of Water
1 Teaspoon Of Lemon Juice

Methods:
1. Mix the icing sugar, green-tea powder(add more if u want a darker colour) and lemon juice together then slowly stir in the water until you get a thick and spreading consistency.(you may want to add more lemon juice if you don't prefer a too sweet glaze.

Evan's Assorted Macaron

I guess by now a a lot of people or blogger know what is a Macaron. It is actually a french cookies which is light and elegant. The cookies part of a French macaron is slightly domed with thin top crust that is fragile like eggshell and an internal that is sandwich with different assorted cream.

You can get macaron from a few branded bakery in Singapore or you can pay a homemade price at about $1.40 each from Evan at Bossacafez. Her macaron as just as good as those sold in the store. You can click on the link to check for more other assorted favour.