Italian Meringue Macarons

My kids loved macarons, I don't mind eating them, BUT I'm reluctant to make them because they takes a while to prepare. 

I had tried many times & this batch is the most successful batch that I'd achieved.

I'm glad that my friend, Cindy shared her lovely recipe with me.

Ingredients for almond mixture:
125g ground almonds
125g icing sugar
46g egg whites
food colouring

Ingredients for Italian Meringue:
125g sugar
31g water
46g egg whites

Preparation Steps for macaron shells:

1) Blend ground almonds & powdered sugar in food processor until fine and sift into a bowl. Add egg whites & food colouring to mix into a paste.
2) Start whisking the egg whites in the mixer and mix until until frosty. Meanwhile, bring sugar and water to boil until it reached 118 degree C. Start whisking the egg white and pour the hot sugar syrup slowly ( from the side ) into the egg white and continue to whisk until it is stiff peak & shiny.
3) Carefully fold the meringue into the egg white paste a little at a time gently. Fold the mixture until it flows down smoothly and form ribbons and transfer into a piping bag.
4) Pipe the mixture onto parchment paper or silicone mat. Tap the baking tray lightly to remove air bubble. Let it rest for half to one hour depending on temperature in different countries. Once it forms a "skin" on top of the shell, it is ready to bake in pre-heated oven of 150 degree celsius for 12-14 minutes. Let cool before removing from baking tray.

Ingredients for buttercream fillings:

1/2 cup salted butter soften

2 cups icing sugar

1/8 tsp of vanilla extract

Preparation Steps:
1) Beat the butter follow by sugar & vanilla essence. Add preferred flavouring into the mixture.
2) Put in a piping bag and store in fridge until it is ready to be piped onto the macarons.

Voilà! 

Chin's notes: 

1. Heat control & the waiting time for the "skin" to develop is important. My 2nd bacth right after the first was not successful because I did not wait for the "skin" to develop. 

Halloween 2015

Ahhhhhh spiders on my cupcakes!!!

Made these for my daughter to bring with  her to a Halloween party.

Cupcakes: Mini Egg cake 

http://fromchinshome.blogspot.com/2014/10/mini-egg-cake.html

Spiders were made from black fondant. 

Cream Puffs

I love cream puffs, this recipe was shared by my friend exactly 10 years ago when we were in Monterey CA.  I had tried a few times & did not manage to the choux pastry ( pâté à choux ) right. This time, I think I finally got them right. They are really yummy!!! 

Make the choux pastry, fill in the cream filling & voila ! Cream puffs !!!

Here are the recipes:

Pâté à Choux

Ingredients: 

1 cup water

110g butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 medium size eggs

Preparation Steps: 

1. In a pot, add water & butter.  Bring to boil. Quickly stir in the flour until you get a well combined dough. Remove from heat. 

2. Stir in the eggs quickly, continue until all the eggs combined & form a smooth dough.  Transfer to a piping bag that has attached round/rose tip. Pipe onto a baking paper to the desire size. 

Note: leave some gaps as they will swell during the baking. 

3. Bake in a preheated oven at 205 deg C with for 20 mins or until golden brown. 

Remove from oven & leave to cool. 

4. Cut the top & remove any soft dough. Fill with cream filling ( recipe below ). Put on it's top. Repeat until all done. Refrigerate until cold. 

Dough mixture, piped with large rose tip.

Cream Filling

Ingredients 

70g sugar

2 tbsp cornflour

2 cups milk

3 egg yolks beaten

15g butter softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation Steps: 

1. In a pot, add in sugar, cornflour & milk. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens and boils.

2. In another mixing bowl, add in egg yolks & pour 1/2 the hot milk mixture. Mix well then pour the yolk mixture back into hot milk mixture in the pot.  Stir well & remove from heat.  

3. Stir in butter and vanilla until well mixed. Leave to cool & refrigerate until the choux pastry is ready.

Chin's notes: 

1. The heat control is crucial. The speed in stiring the mixture to prevent lumps & get a smooth texture is crucial too. 

2. Reference to another recipe from Rasa Malaysia: 

http://rasamalaysia.com/cream-puffs/

Shell Pastry Curry Puffs

Curry puff is a popular snacks among the Singaporean / Malaysian. We have it for breakfast, we have it for tea with a cup of "teh tarik" - Yum!! These are easily available at the market or at the hawker's stall or at the mall in Singapore / Malaysia.

I'm glad that I tried this recipe.  I'm very statisfied with the pastry, they were very flaky. 

Pastry recipe adapted from Jane's Corner link below: 

http://janechew.blogspot.fr/2009/08/spiral-curry-puff.html?m=1

Mixing & folding the water dough & oil dough gives the pastry it's shell prints. 

Here is how the dough was folded. 

Wrapping the water dough with the oil dough.
Roll out and fold.

Fold and roll out and repeat.

After the dough been rolled & folded 3 times.
Tightly rolled the dough into cylinder.

Flatted the dough into a flat round dough.
Filled with desired filling, seal and pleat the dough.

Shell flaky potato curry puffs.

Shell Pastry Curry Puff

Ingredients :

Water Dough 

200g all purpose flour 

90g water 

1/2 tsp salt 

3 tbsp cooking oil 

25g sugar 

Oil Dough 

100g all purpose flour 

4 tbsp cooking oil 

Preparation Steps: 

1. Mix all the ingredients for the water dough & form a dough. Give a few good knead until the texture is smooth. Shape into a ball & set aside.

2. Mix all the ingredients for the oil dough until it form a dough. Make into a ball. 

3. Flatten the water dough & place the oil dough in the middle & wrap the water dough around the oil dough. Form a ball. 

4. Flour the working board & rolling pin to prevent sticking of dough. With a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a rectangular shape (pic 3). Imagine the rectangular is divided into 3 sections. Fold from the left 2/3 (pic 4), & fold the right end to meet the left folded end (pic 5). Rotate the folded dough 90 degree clockwise (pic 6). 

5. Repeat step 4, 2 more times. 

6. Roll the folded dough into a rectangular shape, tightly roll from the left to the right to form a long cylinder (pic 10&11). Trim of  the ends. 

7. With a knife divide the dough evenly (10 - 12 pieces) - (pic 12).

8. Dip into some flour & flatten with the rolling pin to get a flat round dough. About 6mm thickness. Not too thin as the dough will tear during the frying. 

9. Fill the dough with potato curry / mashed sardines / beef rendang. Seal & pleats the edges. 

10. Heat up enough oil in a wok for deep fying & deep fry the puffs  until golden brown. 

Bon appétit !

Chin's notes: 

1. Made a very simple potato curry with onions, potatoes, curry powder, salt & sugar to taste. 

Mooncakes Round 5 - 2015

Shanghai mooncakes, been wanting to try this recipe since last year.  I have some salted duck eggs in the fridge and a day without any activity.  Finally I managed to bake these and get it out from my to-do-list. :)

Shanghai Mooncakes with walnuts. Bon appétit!

The original recipe : 

http://www.delicacious.com/walnut-mooncakes-improved/

I replaced the custard powder with cornflour. The pastry turns out flaky & not too bad. 

Used ready made paste, white lotus purchased from Kwong Cheong Thye, Singapore. 

Rub the butter into all the dried ingredients & added the wet ingredients to form a soft dough.

Separated the yolk from the white. Cleaned.  Coated with shoaxing cooking wine. Baked at 160 degree C for  15 mins or until cooked.  Cut each yolk into 4.

White lotus paste (about 28 grams) with melon seeds and wrapped a piece of yolk in the middle. Roll into a ball.

Chin's notes:

1. I used 24 - 28 grams of paste and 26 grams of dough, made about 28 pieces of golf ball size Shanghai mooncakes.

2. Make sure the duck yolks are fully cooked. May required more than 15 minutes. I covered with an aluminium foil to prevent drying out.  Steaming is an alternative to cook the yolk.
3. Did not use the machine as suggested by the recipe, used rub the butter into flour method.

Pandan Chiffon - 18cm Baking Pan

Bought some small chiffon pans from Malaysia last August.  Decided to give it a try using the same recipe from my youngest aunt with reduced sugar.  This is an ideal size for me to give away as gifts. :)

18cm Pandan Chiffons

Pandan Chiffon Recipe

Ingredients:
Meringue -
6 egg whites
80g caster sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Yolk mixture -
6 egg yolks
80g caster sugar
100g all purpose flour (sifted)
50g vegetable oil
50g coconut milk
1 tbsp pandan essence/extract

Preparation steps:
1. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks into separate bowls respectively.
2. Add cream of tartar to the egg white, whisk until you see some bubbles forming add the sugar.  Whisk until egg white is stiff peak. Set aside.
3. In the egg yolk bowl, add sugar, coconut milk, vegetable oil, pandan extract and mix well. Add in the flour, stir well until a smooth batter is achieved.
4. Transfer the meringue into the yolk batter, gently and slowly fold the meringue into the yolk batter. Once it is evenly mixed. Transfer mixture to a chiffon pan,  I halved the mixture and transferred to 2 chiffon pans (18cm). Note: do not grease the chiffon pan.
5. Drop the chiffon pan on the table a few times to remove trapped air bubbles.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degree C for 55 minutes.
7. Perform toothpick test, it should come out clean when the cake is completely cooked.
8. Remove from oven, immediately tilt the chiffon pan upside down and leave to cool completely.
9. Use a sharp knife to slice the edges to un-mould cake from pan.

Bon appétit !

Just out from the oven.

Upside down for cooling

Chin's note:
1. Ensure that there is no traces of egg yolk in the egg whites.  If there are traces of egg yolks the egg white will not be stiff peak.

Mooncakes Round 4 - 2015

Piglet mooncake biscuits, normally sold in a "cage".  Today they comes in different design, size and shapes.  I did not manage to get the little cages when I was in Singapore / Malaysia.

This little piglet, 5th day after baked.

I used the same traditional mooncake's recipe with alkaline water : Mooncakes Round 1 - 2015

They need to be aged for at least 3 days, the texture of the biscuit will be better after the oil is "released".

Just after baked from the oven. Glazed 2 times with egg wash.

Wooden piglet mould purchased in KL, Malaysia.

22 September 2015
Added eyes ( black beans) to the piglet.