Tag: macaron

Mousse-a-cotta with Macs in the Air!

“Women are made to be loved, not understood.”
Oscar Wilde

Mousse-a-cotta with Sesame MacaronsAs usual a fight to the finish! Another month almost gone; one would think the New Year had just begun! MacTweets time again. Over at our mac-obsessed kitchen, it’s time to share some special mac love . Jamie and I called for just that this February to honour St Valentine.  Even though  I’ve had loads of mac luck the past few months, this time the feet proved elusive.

Mac Attack #16 – MACS ARE IN THE AIR … With Chet Baker crooning My Funny Valentine, take your romantic heart and scurry into your kitchen and bake a batch of French macarons for that special someone, the lover, the spouse, the best friend, the children, the one whom you want to offer up something special, the one whom you want to make smile.

Create something new, something exciting, something wildly romantic! Nothing says I Love You like a sweet little something, the size of a kiss, the flavor of your wildest desire, the macaron.

My black sesame valentine macarons struggled at high sea, after 2 batches of failure, I managed one with a little success. My fault as I tried stupid tricks. Thermomix experiments with 1 egg white=FAIL. Sesame and almond meal with lofty dreams also failed, well almost. Thankfully got a few feet in a tray, the pop macs didn’t work, so I had to be happy with 2 pairs! I think I overworked the sesame seeds while grinding.My mac experiments coincided with another experiment, an attempted fast track dessert. The teens diet has had severe repercussions on our sweet life. Desserts have been reduced to pitiable levels and the lad is whining all the time. Couldn’t take his pressure the other day, and in a hurry whipped up some eggless chocolate mousse of some sort. While Mr PAB enjoyed it oodles, the kids were a little iffy as in some parts the melted chocolate became grainy as I didn’t whisk it in too fast.I had some left and decided to redo it for the starving dwarfs. Mousse-a-cotta or panna-mousse is what eventually found its way back into the goblets, and found its way into the dwarfs tummies at express speed too! They loved the second fast track attempt, one that I added a dash of espresso to as well. I served them with my pair of precious feet, the failed ones vainly trying to fly the flag on sticks! Posting these now, with hope for a brighter mac future!

Do you want to join us making MACARONS?

If you do, you are most welcome to join us  for this challenge, or the next. You can find all the information at our dedicated macaron blog MacTweets. We generally post the round-up by the end of every month, following which a new challenge is posted!

Black Sesame Macarons with Nutella
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup powdered almonds
1 tbsp black sesame seeds
1 large egg white, at room temperature
2 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp egg white powder
Method:
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond powder and sesame seeds so there are no lumps; use a blender or food processor since almond meal that you buy isn’t quite fine enough.
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes.
Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding.
Using a teaspoon, or piping bag, drop / pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1″ circles evenly spaced one-inch apart.
Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then rest for about an hour.
Preheat oven to 140C. Bake them for 15-18 minutes.
Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet. Sandwich with Nutella.
Mousse-a-cotta
Serves 4
250ml low-fat cream
100gm dark chocolate
1/2 tsp espresso powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 sheet of gelatin
Method:
Soak gelatin sheet in cold water for 5 minutes, until soft.
Put cream, espresso powder, sugar and chocolate in a pan and simmer for 5-7 minutes until the chocolate has melted.
Squeeze out the gelatin sheet and stir into hot cream mixture. Take off heat and stir till the sheet is completely dissolved. {Don’t let the cream come to a boil}
Cool slightly and pour into goblets. Chill for at least 4 hours. Serve chilled.

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Strawberries & Cream Mac-O-range Cake … Macinspirations

“The power of imagination makes us infinite.”
John Muir

It was definitely inspiring and a great wrap on 2010. I’m talking about the Donna Hay Strawberry & Vanilla Macaron Trifle I made over Christmas. It made me look at the endless charm that macarons offer with wonder. Having won sort of won the battle with feet, or rather managing the frills on the fiddly macs more often than never {100% success is yet to land on my platter}, I wanted to explore different ways of incorporating macarons in dessert.Laduree in Paris might have introduced some delicious made in France cupcakes, and the tables might look to be turning around once again making cupcakes the new macarons! Been hearing that sort of mild buzz on the net recently; also that these cupcakes are ‘out-of-this-world‘ good. They do look novel, creative & pretty, but then that’s Laduree for you! Nothing but the best!!However, in my mind,  I’m not ready to give up my macaron ‘fascination bordering on obsession’ just yet. Feet still give me endless joy; each batch popped into the oven still a heart-stopping adventure. The kids walk by nonchalantly exclaiming, “Oooh pretty, you got feet! Can I have one?” So many failed batches later and we are a well versed mac household who know the importance and the mood swings that come with the failures & success of the pitter patter!I made this cake, inspired by mac thoughts for a sweet old lady who lives near by. She’s over 80, sprightly as can be and bursting with positive energy. Two days without seeing me and she’s at my gate with her walking stick checking  if all is well, filling me up on the neighbourhood happenings, telling me that the lime tree is full of fruit etc. She sends me tangerines from her tree each year to make Bitter Orange Marmalade … one of my absolute favourite pass-times. It gives me as much joy, well almost, as finding feet! Seeing translucent pretty marmalade take shape from the very tart tangerines is in my mind, priceless!It was her birthday a few days ago, and I knew the cake had everything she would love … strawberries, cream and orange. I added macarons around and on top for effect as I was elated to have found enough feet to go around a cake! Gosh, it isn’t often that I find so much mac-success, so mac-inspiration was in order.

Mac-Inspiration is our theme for our monthly macaron event on Mactweets this month … STARTING THE NEW YEAR WITH THE OLD AND THE NEW : MACINSPIRATION! You can combine or integrate your macarons into any dessert, making it a new part of an old favorite, or turn your macarons into your favorite dessert, inspired in flavor, texture, color.

What dessert would you be inspired to see recreated in macarons? I continue to be inspired by fruit in season, the colour palette that nature amazingly offers, textures … and of course macarons! Ever since sweet Jamie & I got together and launched MacTweets {a blog dedicated to making macarons}, there has been no dearth of inspiration! This time, my macarons are inspired by strawberries & cream, a simple dessert that we love to love. I made vanilla bean macarons, and filled them with slices of strawberries and cream {also did a few with candied orange slices and cream}.

Do you want to join us making MACARONS?

If you do, Jamie & I would be happy to have you join us  for this challenge, or the next. You can find all the information at our dedicated macaron blog MacTweets. We generally have the round-up by the end of every month, following which a new challenge is posted!

Strawberries & Cream Mac-o-range Cake
Serves 6-8
Orange Sponge
1/2 cup plain flour
1/8 cup cornflour
1/2 + 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 large eggs, separated
1/8cup oil {I used sunflower oil}
3 tbsp water
Rind of 1 orange {I used kinnow, a mandarin orange/citrus hybrid, like a satsuma}
1 tsp orange extract, or pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C. Line a 7.5-8″ round tin; grease and dust with flour.
Mix together the cornflour, plain flour, baking powder, salt and1/2 cup powdered sugar in a large bowl {I used a balloon whisk}.
Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cream of tartar and beat till droopy soft peaks form. Reserve.
With a whisk, lightly mix the oil, water, yolks, rind and extract together. Stir into into the dry ingredients.
Beat with an electric beater on low speed until smooth.
Gently fold the beaten whites into the yolk mixture.
Turn into the prepared tin and bake till well risen and golden brown, about 45 minutes/until done. Check if it is done with a wooden pick. {Slide a sheet of foil lightly over the top if it begins to brown too fast}.
Leave in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on rack.
Once cool, cut into 2 layers.
Filling
200ml low fat cream
2-3 tbsps powdered sugar
200gms strawberries, chopped
Method:
Whip the cream and sugar to medium peaks. Fold in the chopped strawberries.
Whipped Buttercream Topping
Method:
200ml low fat cream
1 tbsp melted butter
2-3 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp strawberry extract {optional}
Beat the low fat cream, sugar and extract, and pour in the melted butter in a steady stream while beating. This will reintroduce the fat back into the low fat cream and allow it to be whipped to stiff peaks.
Assemble
Sandwich the cake with the filling
Frost the sides and top of the cake with the whipped butter-cream.
Garnish with sliced strawberries, candied tangerine slices and macarons
Vanilla Macarons
Macaron Batter
1/2 cup powdered vanilla sugar
1/4 cup almond meal
1 large egg white {30gms}, at room temperature
2 1/2 tbsp granulated vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp egg white powder
Method:
Preheat oven to 140C.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond meal briefly so there are no lumps. Don’t over work, else you might get oily almond butter.
In the bowl, beat the egg whites until they become frothy. Beat in the granulated  vanilla sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes.
Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding. {If you draw the spatula through the macronage, the line drawn should disappear to the count of ten.}
Using a teaspoon, or piping bag, drop / pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1″ circles evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.
Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons and get rid of trapped air bubbles, then rest for about an hour.
Bake them for 15-18 minutes, watching carefully. {I bake mine on the highest shelf, as my oven functions on just the lower element}
Let cool completely, then remove from baking sheet.
Sandwich with some whipped buttercream and strawberry and candied orange slices.
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May I share with you my 5 minutes of fame which made me do the Happy Feet dance?

I was featured in the January 2011 Indian edition of ‘Better Homes and Gardens’ with an interview and 4 recipes in a 3 page feature.

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Strawberry and Vanilla Macaron Trifle … Joyeux Noel!

Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Bo Nada …or Merry Christmas! I’m beginning to get notorious with temptation. Things that draw me a point of no return are colour, texture, visual appeal … all magical in my eyes! Of course I’m talking food porn and all these beautiful food blogs are awash with sensational stuff these days. One such post I saw a short while ago was this Strawberry & Vanilla Macaron Trifle at Trissilicious, the very talented and sweet food blogger from Down Under. One look and I was sold. The dessert had me hypnotized. I HAD TO MAKE IT!

It had MAGIC in it, a combination of some of my favourite things. Tell me dear readers, does this happen to you too?

I knew this was going to be constructed in my kitchen within the next few days, so great was the temptation. Strawberries √, Macarons – find feet {had to}, Vanilla bean √, Cranberry juice √. Intriguingly enough, winter in North India spells season 2 of strawberries in the year. We get a bounty in the summer months, and then again come January, we see fresh juicy red strawberries entering the market again. Lucky? YOU BET!!

This time we are luckier and they’ve entered the market a little early, in December, a bit steep yet, but firmly there. Red, ripe, juice and full of taste. So there was no question in my mind and I was thanking Triss for the wonderful idea. It’s a Donna Hay recipe, and is visually delightful and full of charm like all her recipes. I love the fresh look she introduces to cuisine, seasonal variations and great platings etc.

You can make this in one large bowl like Donna Hay did, or in single servings as Triss did. I am a sucker for single servings, where I love to dress up the dessert individually and pass it around, so everyone can take in the whole picture. For me that in itself offers quintessential charm, the dream of a dessert which lingers on for long.

Made this as Christmas dessert after the BBQ we had last night. In India, Christmas day is referred to as Bada Din {Big Day} by the natives, a legacy left behind by the British Raj. It’s our adopted favourite festival too. Each year we have a BBQ on Christmas eve for the family & extended family, and the hub takes over the BBQ. This year was no different and we had chicken tikkas, paneer/cottage cheese tikkas in 2 variants, lamb curry, biryani, garlic butter naan … and then these little red, green and white delights to wrap it up.

Dinner was delicious. Nothing like hot tandoori food straight off the grill, cooked to perfection, smoked flavours enticing the palette. Dinner may have been Indian cuisine, but my dessert had been planned forever! It had to be in red, white & green, the spirit of Christmas and the holiday season served in some style. MACARON TRIFLE! I was unsure about whether I could pull it off. So I made the cranberry jelly a day in advance, and the macarons 3 days in advance. My jelly didn’t set in 2-3 hours as the recipe said, and needed some more gelatin too. It was a simple dessert to make.

The macaron Gods seem to be shining goodwill on me these days. I found feet yet again; but never underestimate these fiddly creatures. Of the 3 trays I baked, only 1 gave perfect feet!  Why? Ask ’em Gods! Who knows, but I was glad to get 15 perfect feet, and I used 1 crackled top for the 16th! I also had success a few days ago with my savoury macaron experiment for MacTweets, but I have to admit that I love the sweet ones…savoury, alas, are not for me!

That recipe post follows soon…We were really STUFFED, yet once dessert was served, there was magic in the air. The goblets looked like ‘Santa was stuffed into each glass‘ in Mr PABs words. So befitting for the Big Day, and such an absolute delight!  The colours, the flavours, the textures…all in perfect harmony. The cranberry jelly and suspended strawberries beautifully balancing the macaron and the lightly sweetened vanilla cream. Light yet ever-so-satisfying dessert!

Donna Hay’s Strawberry and Vanilla Macaron Trifle
Adapted minimally from Donna Hay’s Recipe
The trifle can be served individually or in a large trifle bowl.
Serves 6–8.
16 pieces plain macarons
1 vanilla bean, scraped
300 ml low fat cream
2 tbsps powdered sugar
200 grams strawberries, halved

For the Jelly
3 1/2 teaspoons gelatine powder {original recipe uses 2 1/2}
750 ml cranberry juice
110 grams caster sugar
200 grams strawberries, quartered
Method:
Jelly
To make the strawberry jelly, place the gelatine and ½ cup {125ml} cranberry juice in a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes or until the gelatine is absorbed. Place the remaining cranberry juice and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, add the gelatine and stir to combine. Set aside to cool for 20 minutes.
Vanilla Cream
Whip cream, scraped vanilla bean and sugar to soft peaks.
To assemble
Arrange the strawberries in the base of the serving glasses/bowls and pour over the jelly mixture. Refrigerate for 2–3 hours until set. {Mine took almost overnight to set}.
Set a macaron each in the glass/bowl on the jelly. Layer the cream over the macarons. Top with strawberries to serve.

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Baking | PINKARONS – MACARONS FOR PINKTOBER

“We’ll drink a drink a drink
To Lily the pink the pink the pink
The savior of the human race.
She invented medicinal compound.
Most efficacious in every case.”
Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales

The MacTweets time again, and this time we’ve gone PINK in support of Breast Cancer Awareness for Pinktober. Through the month of October, I tend to think a lot of PINK. Often, the first song that comes to my mind is this funny pub song. Have you heard it before? I’m not sure if we were taught it in school {a pub song seems somewhat  inappropriate to be taught in school}, but I can sing it out loud, along with the ‘Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree’, and of course Ob-La-Di-Ob-La Da ! Hmmm, hail the human mind – complex, intriguing, and connected; and this month, musically inclined to sing PINK too!

Jamie and I thought we’d go PINK this month, as October is officially the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and October every year is kicked off with a PINK cake on Mr PABs birthday. We were sure the mac gang would rise to support the challenge {Lori, you put words into my mouth}, and would be more then happy to strut their PINKS. Cancer has touched so many of our lives, a 6 letter word that can create havoc in a small space of time, can turn the world upside down … yet it throws up amazing survival stories and celebrates the human spirit.

About my macaron saga … when you least expect it, you will see the mountain move! FEET, the bane of my baking life. Feet that have the power to bring me to my knees with ingredients as few as sugar, nut meal and egg whites repeatedly. Who was to know I would find feet? Sigh, I cannot but tell you of my woes of the lack of feet,  the trials and tribulations, reading, tweeting, silently trashing the failures after sugar overdoses of every sort. Looking at yolks and weeping, yet not having the courage to make a batch larger than a single white. Quite unbelievably, I found feet on one batch, and that too baked out of a new oven!

You see, with the kitchen finally remodeled, a few weeks ago Mr PAB decided it was time for a new oven. This followed a rather alarming in depth ‘interrogation’ about macarons and those evasive feet. He is super confident of my baking skills, but is majorly perplexed at my repeated macaron failures. He sits and takes in the Mac Tweet round up month after month & wonders why I am still so foolishly footless!So off we went oven shopping, with loads of advice from all quarters, market researches done to the hilt, models, price ranges, everything. We barely entered a store, and he said “That’s the one”.  All the research  fell to nought. “This is the one”, he insisted. I whispered, “It’s out of budget, it’s imported and I’m not sure if it’ll work”. The guy who owned the shop sang  the virtues of the ‘model‘, and Mr Man suddenly turned to me, “What about feet?“.  I didn’t know whether to answer him, or try not to laugh at the shop owner who couldn’t figure out what ‘feet’ had to do with all this! Whatever… but we came back with THAT one!

So here are my feet this Pinktober … Pinkarons with some degree of success. Will fine tune the macarons in the days to come. This month has been far too busy, so I haven’t had the time to try more batches. I added the ‘pink ribbon‘ on top after the shells were baked and  had cooled. It’s pink royal icing which I let dry for a day.

I had some fun on the side with origami. Clearing my files I found some old print outs of origami boxes I used to make ages ago. The lad loves origami and is constantly making complex storks and inter-locked stars, so I invited him to make star boxes with me. One disdainful look and he exclaimed, “From a print out? No!! I can only make them from you-tube!’ Ugh, the sign of the times to come. I sat in solitude and made my own boxes, and used one for my pinkarons!

Do you want to join Jamie and me making MACARONS?? If you do, you are most welcome to join the ‘Attack’. You can find all the information at our dedicated macaron blog MacTweets. The rules for can be found here. You can always join us next month too. Just drop us a mail or tweet.

CHOCOLATE MACARONS
Recipe & inspiration from Northside Kitchen
For the Macarons:
recipe from Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess
1 2/3 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of ground almonds
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
4 large egg whites
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 baking sheets
1/2 inch plain pastry tip and pastry bag
For the ganache filling:
6 tablespoons of heavy cream
5 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Sift together the powdered, ground almonds, and cocoa powder
Whisk the egg whites until half stiff, and sprinkle the granulated sugar into the egg whites.  Continue to whisk until very stiff, but not dry.
Fold the sifted ingredients into the stiff meringue in increments using a silicone spatula.
Fit the piping tip into the bag, sit it in a tall glass, turn the bag back to form a cuff, and fill with the macaroon mixture.
Pipe out 2-inch rounds on the baking sheet and leave to stand for 15 minutes (will form a skin).
Bake for 12-15 minutes.  The macaroons should be dry on top but chewy underneath.
Remove the macaroons from the oven and let them cook on a wire rack.  When they are cool, spread the ganache on the underside of one, and stick another (right side up) on top to create a sandwich. Should make around 18 macaroon sandwiches.

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CHOCOLATE & CHERRY POTS de CREME … the yolks head home!

“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”
Stephen King

If you know a little about me, you might figure out where the egg yolks came from. No mystery here! Of course they came from my quest for feet, and the failure associated with them! And in case you haven’t stopped by before, feel at home, grab some coffee, and join me in my footless saga! In a nutshell, it’s about finding feet in macarons, and then finding a home for the yolks! 

Macaron madness hits us this time every month and the theme for MacTweets, the macaron obsessed blog that Jamie and I host, this September, is childhood memories! Mac Attack #11 – Long ago & far away … CHILDHOOD SUMMER MEMORIES.

 
Memories I had many – of nature, of flowers, of pressed flowers, of endless summers hanging upside down from mango and tamarind trees, of purple stained teeth from cramming sweet jamuns into our little mouths, of sneaking a spoonful of malt from the jar when I thought no one was looking, of my first  and only pea pod that grew on pea plant…
I tried to weave all those into my macs, and failed miserably. Got macarons, delicious macarons, but no frills or fancy feet. There were some vanilla macarons, with pressed dried edible flowers on top, and others with malt. I hurriedly sandwiched them with Nutella! I think the weather was just too humid and I had to fix a small something which I couldn’t lay a finger on. By the time I counted my failures, I had wiped my memories clean!
It was time to look at the yellows in life, as the whites were being fiddly again! I had 4 yolks on hand and didn’t want to make an ice cream with the family on the flu express. Googling through images, I picked the one that caught my eye, and I knew it had to be a Canelle et Vanille recipe. Simple Chocolate Raspberry Pot de Creme, very Aran, gorgeous pictures. I didn’t have raspberries, those not being native to India, so my next best bet were preserved cherries from my summer slavery! I have 2 jars of brandied cherries preserved and refrigerated, and I thought they’d do well here! Did I tell you that chocolate and cherries are a marriage made in heaven? They are!
What are pots de creme? Pots de Creme refers to both the custard dessert as well as the small lidded pots this dessert is served in. Pot de creme, or pot-au-creme translates from French to English as “pot of cream”. The French do not have a word for “custard” the dish is simply referred to as “creme”. The pots may also be referred to as “petits pots“.   Technically the pots de creme is a lightly set, baked custard.  The “traditional” proportions for this dessert is one whole egg to every five egg yolks for 2 1/2 to 3 cups of liquid.  A dessert made with these basic proportions will yield a barely firm custard.  This is why the custard is best served in small pots (or ramekins). You can read more about it at Pots de Creme. 

Feedback on these divine pots was obviously good, what with the luscious chocolate, cherries and cream! sharing space! The 3C’s together got me a 5/5!! The son asked, ‘Mousse? No? Well it’s really nice and chocolaty!’ Having just watched an episode of Master Chef moments ago, he charmingly added, ‘You would have won it if you were there. They made some really bad looking stuff today!’ Funny fellow he is! The teen who lives in the clouds also graciously mentioned that they were ‘VERY NICE’, and continued to spoon it into her mouth saying,’Fatty too huh?’ Didn’t seem to deter her though!!

For those of you who might wonder about the eggy aromas, I can assure you there were none. The vanilla bean took care of that, and chocolate in there must have appropriately masked the rest. It was a smooth, silky, deep mousse like potful! Good to the last scrape! I’ve heard lots about this delightful dessert, and I’ll have to say it’s one of the best dessert in the world, really is! Now that the weather is warming up, I’m thinking pumpkin pots de creme next!

Mr PAB bought me a new oven recently, and I finally found a patch of positivity in the PAB feet saga. I did try yet another desperate batch of macs this morning, and met with some degree of success – see some kind of  feet above? Life is looking up, and this new oven might just help me find feet. Maybe it’s significant too that the monsoons have finally stopped here, and the sun is out again! Just in time thankfully, because Mr PAB was beginning to show signs of utter despair, and asked me yesterday if I thought I should buy another brand of oven! The obsession with feet is clearly infectious!

Chocolate and Cherry Pots de Creme
Adapted from Canelle et Vanille
200ml whole milk

50ml full fat cream {top of the milk cream}
200ml low fat cream {Amul 25% fat}

1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
40gms vanilla sugar
4 egg yolks
160gms bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 cup preserved cherries {or raspberries, fresh or frozen}
Method:
Bring the milk,both creams, vanilla bean and half of the sugar to a boil. Pour this over the chopped chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely melted.
In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the other half of the sugar. Temper the hot chocolate mixture into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. Strain the custard through a fine sieve.
Place some preserved cherries into ramekins and pour the custard into them. Place the ramekins on a sheet pan and bring this to a preheated 160C oven.
Place the sheet pan in the oven and pour hot water in the sheet pan. Bake the pot de creme in the water bath until center is set, mine took about 45 minutes since the oven is new. Do check after 30 minutes. Refrigerate until completely cooled.

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Posted by Deeba @ PAB

{Baking} NO FEET, PRAY, LOVE …Oooops I mean EAT, PRAY, LOVE Chocolate Macarons

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do!”
John Wooden

What’s not to love about the name of this much awaited film that is being released today on Friday the 13th – Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. The film is a 2006 memoir by American author Elizabeth Gilbert. The memoir chronicles the author’s trip around the world after her divorce, and what she discovered during her travels. The film doesn’t seem to have very great reviews, but I love the title. A now clichéd phrase which seems to embody the essentials of life, a set of words I imagine everyone can connect to in their own little way!

What does it have to do with me and my blog? Well, I am no different and seem to have got caught  in it’s hype. So, I chose this summer flick to fit the theme for this months MacTweets, a monthly event co-hosted  by Jamie and me – Mac Attack #10 – A Summer Flick.
Our call…

Create that perfect macaron inspired by a movie: whether old or new, comedy or drama, black & white or in glorious Technicolor, let that movie inspire, fire up the ideas and pull you into an imaginary world of cameras, lights, costumes and scenery. You are the screenwriter, the director, the cast and crew… now to produce an award winning cinematographic macaron!

My mind was set on this film, that was partly shot in India. The title Eat, Pray, Love reflected everything I felt about macarons, maybe not in that order though, so seemed the natural choice! I L♥VE macarons, it’s probably one of the only things I would PRAY for feet to appear, and EAT? Oh YUM YUM,  these little creatures make for absolutely delightful mouthfuls! Pure indulgence and a joy to feast on, feet or no feet! Well, I dressed them up in costumes!!

So my story this month is … Look Mom, NO  FEET!! Call me cynical, call me persevering, call me silly, obsessed or whatever, but I continue to try month after month, and am so prepared for the lack of feet that it doesn’t seem to bother me anymore. The way I’m going, I’ll probably faint with joy if feet showed up in the near future. That’s not to say I don’t brainstorm my faults. I do, I do! I read every written word I find about macarons, I analyse, I take the help of mac masters, I get help from friends like Bina who send me egg white powder, I play around with oven temperatures, I try different recipes … Oh well, to cut a long story short, maybe they just don’t want to grow feet in the humid UGH temperatures of North India as yet. But since I am a co host, I can’t say I didn’t try {several times actually}!
So here we are. My EAT, PRAY, L♥VE macarons for MacTweets this month, feetless but certainly delicious. They got their nice deep brown colour from Valrhona cocoa that Shayma recently sent to me as a gift. Using this fabulous cocoa, paired with David Lebovitzs recipe, I was pretty convinced that this time I would win my battle with feet! After all, David’s Chocolate Macaron recipe had found me feet in the past. Not this time though. All such convictions were Gone with the Wind within 5 minutes of baking, and I was staring at The Good, the Bad and the Ugly! Talk about themes … teehee, I did love the call we sent out this month because I knew I would find so many perfect fits!

Eat, Pray, Love didn’t help me find feet, but did give me some darned delicious macs that were cute like buttons. Also gave me a chance to dress ’em macarons up in some royal icing. The feetless characters made for very yummy mouthfuls, sandwiched with a milk cum dark chocolate ganache. I added some  light olive oil to the ganache once it was made as I had eyeballed the cream and it was slightly less. Olive oil gave the ganache this super shine, wonderful texture and taste. It’s always a fun journey trying to find feet, and to there’s always something new waiting to be discovered.

Do you want to join Jamie and me making MACARONS?? If you do, you are most welcome to join the ‘Attack’. You can find all the information at our dedicated macaron blog MacTweets. The rules for can be found here. You can always join us next month. Just drop us a mail or tweet.
You can find my earlier successful Chocolate Macaron recipe here
The ganache is also similar to the recipe here, the only difference being that I used a combination of milk and dark chocolate, and added 1 tbsp of light olive oil after it was made, and whisked it well to incorporate the oil.

♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India

Posted by Deeba @ PAB
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