OUR 'MACA-RIGHTS" YAY!!!

We had a blogger friend, Pei Lin of Dodol Mochi come to spend the first day of Hari Raya with us this year.  If you have been my readers, you will know, I have tried to make French macarons some time ago but FAILED mercilessly!! Instead of getting macarons, I got a batch of ugly flat MACA-WRONGS! LOL!  I had to scrape them out from the parchment paper to eat them.  Oh yes, I ate them all by myself, over a few days because I find it very hard to throw away food. Honestly, the taste was good but no one would believe that looking at them.  So, to cut the long story short, I asked Pei Lin to teach me the right method. She came on Hari Raya eve and stayed the night at my house. Early next morning, after we both had our coffee, we started with our baking adventure. I am sure both Pei Lin and I will never forget how we, like little girls, squatting in front of the oven waiting anxiously for the macarons to grow legs, and then both screaming and laughing so hard when they did! LOL!  It was a fun and joyful ride for us. OMG!! I can't believe our macarons got their LEGS and tasted AWESOME!! YIPPEE!!

Pei Lin, being a perfectionist, was not extremely happy with the result because she thought they didn’t look as pretty as she would have wished. For me? Hahaha, I was estatic!! The fact that the macarons have legs and could be lifted off the parchment paper easily, had already sent me to the moon! Furthermore, they tasted perfect with the roasted chestnut filling. I truly cannot ask for more, can I? To tell you the truth, I am feeling VERY excited even now while writing this post. I can’t wait to do this on my own with a different flavor of fillings.

Just curious: Do you spend a lot of time “perfecting” your work, so everything comes out the way you want it to?  You know, in my opinion, being a perfectionist has its pros and cons . One of the pros is, we set high bars for ourselves and try our best to achieve it, which is good. On the flip side, one of the biggest negatives is that it can prevent us from having fun and being happy more easily. Let me hear your views. Do you kick yourself or are you quick to say "good enough":-)

A big THANK YOU to Pei Lin for all the goodies she brought us (German chocolate cake, American macarons and the moon cakes her aunt baked). Delicious!  MUAX!!!  Don't forget our next project is making pasta together. Does anyone want to join us?

This recipe was featured in Asian Food Channel Official Facebook Page

on 3rd November 2013

Vanilla Macarons shells
Make about 15 to 16, 1 1/2 inches diameter shells

Ingredients

83 grams icing sugar

64 grams ground almonds

53 grams egg whites (about 2 small eggs), aged for 48 hrs at room temperature

28 grams granulated sugar

coloring

½ tsp vanilla extract

Method to make the shells:

Sift almond flour and icing sugar into a mixing bowl and set aside. Please ensure the mixture is dry is entirely dry. After it is well mixed, add in coloring and blend in.

In a large clean, dry bowl whip egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Increase the speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar. Continue to whip to  ALMOST stiff peaks like in the photo.

With a flexible spatula, gently fold in almond and icing sugar mixture into egg whites until completely incorporated. The mixture should be shiny and 'flow like magma.' When small peaks dissolve to a flat surface, stop mixing.

Fit a piping bag with a 3/8-inch (1 cm) round tip. Pipe the batter onto the baking sheets and try to have equal size circles. If you want to have uniform size of shells, drawn circles before you pipe.  Tap the underside of the baking sheet to remove air bubbles. Let dry at room temperature for 1 or 2 hours to allow skins to form or when you gently touch the top of the batter, it does not stick to your finger.

Bake, in a 210°C oven for 2 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 150°C and baked another 10 to 13 minutes.

Remove macarons from oven and transfer parchment to a cooling rack. When cool, slide a metal offset spatula or pairing knife underneath the macaron to remove from parchment.

Ingredients for  Roasted Chestnut rum fillings:

50 grams roasted chestnut , puree

½ tsp milk

50 grams butter at room temperature

rum to taste

Method to make the filling:

Puree the roasted chestnut, butter and milk till smooth. Add in rum according to your taste.
(I added no sugar and the balance was perfect. Even my sweet toothed "lo kung" thought so. Nevertheless, some of you may want to add sugar to taste in the above.)

Assembling the macarons:

Pair macarons of similar size, and pipe about 1/2 tsp of the filling onto one of the macarons. Sandwich macarons, and refrigerate for one day to allow flavors to blend together. Bring back to room temperature before serving.


Advice from Pei Lin
1) It is important to let the egg white out in room temperature to age for 48 hours
2) Make sure when you beat the egg white it is NEAR stiff peak and not STIFF peak. This take practice to know what is near stiff peak. One way to know is that the peak form is like a small hook.
3) Remember not to over fold or under fold the batter.
4) Remember to let the batter dry for 1 to 2 hours before sending them for baking. This will prevent the shell from breaking and also to get a higher legs.
5) Don't forget to reduce the temperature to 150°C from 210°C after 2 mins.
6) When doing the piping, stop in the center so that the macaron shells will be balance in shape.
She said different people follow a different method and it is best to try a few and use the one that suits you best. 

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