Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Chicken Farm Special Project: La vie n'est pas toujours en rose.. O-La-La.. Macaron: Macaron au chocolat avac caramel

As the name suggests, I really had a hard time while making macaron for this project, T T. Well, it's all my fault haha, because as I told you before, the keys for successful macaron are egg whites and the temperature.

Not, that I try to do anything harder then before, I just too tried to think clearly ^ ^". I made 4 batch of macaron before making this one.
First and second, I made pistachio macaron, and both of them are weird. Actually the first one is not bad at all, but I made some mistake, so I had to try again before posting the recipe. I forgot to put the sugar into the egg white (all of them went into the almond powder, >*< , I made French meringue), but it came out very good. So I think I need to made it again more properly, and the second batch turned out to be the disaster. So I made it again, the third and forth are coffee macaron. The third, I just set the wrong temperature, and the forth one, the egg was not old enough. So, you can see that I really had a bad time (well, la vie n'est pas en rose, haha, it's true). Anyway, I never wanted to give up, I started collected the egg white again, and waited. I just made this macaron today, and yes, I can make it and I feel very good now. This recipe is very easy to make, and if you never make the macaron with Italian meringue method before I suggest you should try this one. Because the chocolate in the base will make save the macaron from cracking easily.

Macaron au chocolat et caramel
Makes 30


For the macaron base

68 g
almond powder
68 g
icing sugar
25 g
egg whites
27g
Chocolate 78% cocoa mass


For Italian Meringue

75 g
caster sugar
17 g
water
25 g
egg whites


Caramel filling
70gsugar
30gwhipping cream
50gsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Mix the macaron base:

Melt the chocolate.
Sift together almond powder and icing sugar into a bowl, put the color, melted chocolate and egg white into the bowl. Use a pastry scrap or spatula to bring everything together. Set aside.

Make the Italian meringue:


In a sauce pan, put the sugar and water and bring to boil over medium low heat.
When the syrup reaches 114°C, start whisking the egg whites.
The syrup is ready when it reaches 120°C; pour it over the egg whites and continue whisking until cold.
Make the macaron:

Mix together the base and Italian meringue.
The mixture should be softer and very glossy, a little stiffer then cake batter..
Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 5mm nozzle. Pipe or spoon mixture into 2.5cm rounds onto baking paper-lined (or Silpat) oven trays. When you’ve pipe out all the macarons lift each baking sheet with both hands and then bang it down on the counter (you need to get the air out of the batter).

Bake for 10 minutes (can be longer, depend on your oven). Remove from oven and cool on trays. Slide a knife under each macaron to release.
Make the caramel filling:


Put the sugar in a heavy saucepan, place the pan on medium heat and cook undisturbed until the sugar begins to melt and caramelize-you’ll see a few wisps of smoke coming out of the sugar. Reduce the heat to low and stir occasionally so that the sugar melts and caramelizes evenly. While the caramel is still very pale add cream to the caramel at arm’s length, averting your face—the caramel will boil up and may splatter out of the pan.

Add the butter, and stir slowly until smooth.


Spoon the filling into a piping bag fitted with a 5mm nozzle. Pipe the filling into the macorons
Sandwich macarons together.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour for filling to firm.
Chicken Farm Special Project: La vie n'est pas toujours en rose.. O-La-La.. Macaron:
Chocolate macaron with caramel filling

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Marshmallow cup cake: Lovely sweet cake!

Well, I have to say before you want to try this cake, this one is sweet. Not only the look (yes, the look of this cake is so tempting, I want to try it when I saw it in the book).


Most of the sweetness of this cake comes from the frosting (even I use only half of the amount of the sugar from the original recipe), both from the frosting and the marshmallow.
The cup cake, itself, is very good, moist and soft (and not too sweet), So, I decided to publish this recipe, because if you don't use the marshmallow frosting you will have a good simple vanilla cup cake, anyway.

For the filling, I use raspberry jam, because I find the marshmallow filling is too sweet so raspberry jam will be far better.

But I think you will have the same thought as me, this cake is very good looking ^ ^, so, if you don't afraid of the sweetness ,(I know that sometimes, we all need real sweet cake, haha, or you make cakes for someone who love there cake to be sweet), I suggest you to make this recipe and you will be happy with this lovely sweet cake.



Marshmallow cup cake
Makes 12



120g
All purpose flour
140g
Sugar
¼ teaspoons
Baking powder

A dash of salt
40gunsalted butter, at room temperature
120ml whole milk
1Eggs
¼ teaspoonVanilla extract


For decorating

Raspberyy jam
1 quantity Vanilla Frosting (recipe below)
180gmini mashmallow (for the frosting)


Prepare: 12-hole cupcake pan, lined with paper cases
Preheat the oven to 325°F

Whisk the egg, vanilla, and half of the milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, set aside.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.

Then pour the milk and egg mixture into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the batter is smooth. Do not overmix.
Spoon the batter into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20—25 minutes, or until light golden and the cake bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the center should come out clean. Let the cupcakes cool slightly in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Cut the top of the cake and spoon the jam into the hole.
Cover with the top of the cake.

Vanilla Frosting

125g
Icing sugar, sifted
¼ tsp
Salt
80g
Unsalted butter
½ tsp Vanilla extrac
25ml Whole milk



Beat the butter until soft, then add the milk and vanilla together beat to combine, add the sugar and beat until fluffy.

Mix the marshmallow into the frosting, then spoon over the cake.


-Marshmallow cup cake: Lovely sweet cake -

Friday, September 25, 2009

Mini Chocolate Cake with Ice cream: super easy dessert for any busy day!

Hello everyone, are you missing me?
Well I have to tell you that I really miss baking and posting my blog haha. Anyway there are many things to do in the last 3 weeks, I really have no time at all. (And, I have to say "Sorry" for all the people who posted the questions and comment on my blog, because I didn't have time to answering you).

So, today I need an quick desserts (we all need it, right?, something easy when we have so little time but still want a homemade dessert,^ ^). I found this dessert in ...................

This cake is seriously easy haha, and the ingredient list is super short, ^ ^, but the taste is not bad at all!
So, when your life is very, very busy, and you feel you need some comfort from the warm and delicious cake that serve with creamy ice cream (that turn out into delicious sauce when it touch the warmness from the cake).

I made this cake and served it with the Double honey ice cream, you can use any flavor that you like, and it'll be great anyway.



Mini Chocolate Cake with Ice cream
Make 4


50g
Cake flour
¼ tsp
Baking powder
50g
Unsalted butter
2 tbspCocoa powder

A dash of salt
50g
Caster sugar
1
Eggs
½ tspVanilla extract



Ice cream to serve

Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together, set aside.

Prepare 4 - 200ml molds.


Cream together the butter and sugar. With the mixer still on the lowest speed, add the vanilla and egg then beat until fully incorporating. Pour the flour mixture and mix, when combine, stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl.

Pour the mixture into the molds, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from the molds, and place the ice cream on top then dust with cocoa powder.
Serve immediately.

Mini Chocolate Cake with Ice cream: super easy dessert for any busy day!

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