Macarons - Takkan Pernah Bosan

Dah lama tak buat macarons. Walaupun saya suka sangat makan macarons dan sering baking di dapur tapi saya malas sangat nak buat sendiri. Sebabnya saya dah jemu dengan tekstur cookies/shell dia yang sama. Cheh... takkan pernah bosan konon!

Tapi betul saya takkan berhenti mencuba. Dan akan sentiasa mencuba resipi yang baru, membuat penambahbaikan. Sehingga saya puas. Sebelum ini saya guna resipi David Lebovitz untuk macaron perisa coklat yang sangat rich dan chocolatey. Serta resipi Deeba from passionateaboutbaking.com yang sangat perfect for beginners. Cuma saya agak kurang berpuas hati kerana untuk kedua-dua resipi ini menghasilkan shell atau cookies yang agak keras/terlalu rapuh walaupun selepas diperam dalam fridge selama beberapa hari. Susah nak mendapat tesktur yang crunchy diluar tetapi goey didalam dengan kedua-dua resipi di atas. Bukan maksud saya resipi itu tak bagus. Barangkali perbezaan tekstur bahan yang digunakan kerana kita bukan dari negara yang sama.

Kerana itu, setiap kali saya teringin makan macarons saya akan beli dari seorang adik manis ni yang sering berjualan di booth di Subang Parade setiap sabtu dan ahad. Malangnya sejak bulan puasa tahun lepas dia dah tak buka booth lagi. Dan beberapa kali saya tempah dengannya jodoh kami umpama belum mahu berjumpa lagi kerana terlalu banyak halangan. Akhirnya, saya berhenti mengharap. Sehingga hasil daripada blogwalking saya terjumpa resipi macarons oleh Heather Baird yang dipost oleh Rosie Alyea - a blogger, a mother of two very beautiful girls and a professionally trained baker with amazing talent! She is based in Canada and can be found at Sweetapolita.

Selain resipi david lebovitz dan deeba, saya pernah mencuba pelbagai resipi lain termasuk resipi-resipi yang biasa digunakan pembuat macarons tegar. Mengikut rekod saya hanya resipi lebovitz dan deeba saja yang berhasil di tangan saya. Kadang-kadang dengan melihat pada resipi saja naluri kita boleh beritahu sama ada outcomenya will be perfect or not. Dan resipi Hether Baird ini, sekali imbas, entah kenapa ada satu macam keyakinan, hati saya berkata saya tidak akan kecewa.

Resipi ini tekniknya mudah. Saya memang tak pandai teknik swiss meringue macarons jadi saya tidak akan buang masa mencuba. Sebaik memicit adunan ke atas baking sheet hati saya sudah berlagu riang. Saya menghentak loyang beberapa kali untuk mengeluarkan 'air bubble'. Adunan tersebar rata menipis kemudian mengering selepas direhatkan beberapa jam.

Cuma ada sedikit komplikasi sewaktu membakar. Suhu yang dicatatkan dalam resipi terlalu tinggi. Ikut pengalaman lalu, macarons biasanya dibakar pada suhu 160C ke bawah. Tidak pernah lebih. Loyang pertama saya ditongsampahkan kerana pada suhu 190C seperti dalam resipi, hasilnya macarons saya retak dan tiada 'kaki'. Saya rendahkan suhu kepada 150C sahaja untuk batch kedua. Dan Alhamdulillah... they have feet!!! 

Saya teruja dengan shell yang nipis dan kaki (feet) yang tidak terlalu tinggi seperti macarons saya sebelum ini.  

Rasa dia? Ummm... perfecto! Lapisan luar shell berkilat dan nipis. Bila digigit lembut didalam. Isinya juga padat. Tiada hollow. Kurang manis berbanding lebovitz dan deeba punya. Tapi masih lagi manis kerana itulah sifat macarons. Manis. ;-) This one is a keeper.

Pandan Macarons

Lepas buat kek span pandan last week tiba-tiba I got hooked up with pandan aroma and taste pulak
terus datang idea nak buat pandan macarons
saya memang suka aroma segar pandan, rasanya apatah lagi
saya suka selitkan daun pandan dalam almari baju, dicelah-celah lipatan baju
dalam beg telekung, dalam kereta pun sama because I can’t stand bau car perfumes yang ada kat pasaran

tapi untuk macarons ni saya guna artificial pandan aroma paste cap kopoe-kopoe
saya letak dalam ½ sudu kecil je dan tambah pewarna serbuk apple green
terasa lah juga pandan tapi agak mild
saya tersilap percaturan sebab pandan aroma paste tu sebenarnya lebih sesuai ditambah for colouring bukan untuk perisa
I should have add few drops of star brand pandan flavor


I give my pandan macs combination of cinnamon cream cheese filling and choc ganache.
Umm ummmph memang sedap
Tapi lebih sedap lagi kalau letak cinnamon flavoured cream cheese filing semata-mata
Cinnamon gives the macaron a little bit of local touch

I also made strawberry flavoured macs last weekend. Tau jelah anak dara saya ni kan hantu strawberry on top of hantu pulut dan hantu durian.
I bought fresh strawberries almost every week now since Australian strawberries are on season
Esok bila dah off season baru berehat beli strawberries, tunggu Korean one come back on the shelf pulak
But these strawberry flavoured macs tak letak fresh strawberries pun, melainkan guna strawberry paste semata-mata
Saya ada buat white choc strawberry ganache few weeks ago tapi rasa tak menepati selera

Jadi yang ini saya letak filing choc ganache
Cuba teka bila pandan macs dan strawberry macs duduk side by side begini which one yang diserbu dulu?
You are right! Tak kiralah kanak-kanak ke orang dewasa ke, we are attracted by colours. So the red ones goes first. My children and anak-anak buah semua habiskan the red ones.

I put them nicely in a box sebab nak kirim kat my brother dia pun suka macs!

Strawberry, Green Tea & Lemon Curd Macs

I am mad mad about macaron
and I blame david lebovitz for it
the success with his recipe has renewed my passion for macaron
if it is not for his fool proof recipe I don't think I would give macaron another try so soon
and now I seems couldn't stop myself from keep making macarons!

I wanted to see if I can play around with his original recipe, adding flavours to it
I replaced the cocoa powder with orange food colouring but it didn't turn out good
it lacks solid - a mere pinch or orange powder colouring is no match to replace 3 tbs of cocoa powder
adding up almond meal also doesn't seems to work fine
my maths if failing me (siapa nak mengaku dia fail maths ;-) he he he)

I search again for another fool proof recipe
and 1 recipe caught my eyes mainly because it comes in small portion
you only need 1 egg white and the rest of the ingredients are measured by cup
siapa yang tak suka recipe yang sukat pakai cawan terutamanya bila my digital kitchen scale is failing me (yeah keep on blaming others - saya yang failed to read the warning signs, battery pun ada jangka hayat juga okeh!)
less hassle, less kitchen aid required and makes life simplified
this is one recipe that's going to bring my passion for macarons to greater heights!

and voila!
I made 3 variations from the recipe posted by deeba of passionateaboutbaking.com
again it is a fool proof recipe, you don't need to alter anything
just follow through and success is waiting for you
2 things I did differently - I omitted the egg white powder sebab I don't have any and couldn't find any from bagus yesterday
I bet egg white powder is similar to meringue powder produced by wilton but I won't try to subsitute it
Saya berani to omit the egg powder because most other recipes tak pernah guna pun and still ok, so I cross my fingers and took my chance
Alhamdulillah my meringue turns out OK without the egg white powder - strong, stiff and firm
then because my oven is big I have to let may macs in the oven for a little bit longer by 5 mins
I baked them using upper and bottom heat and after 10mins in the oven I changed to bottom heat only to let the mac cook through
I found that it is OK to put back your macs into the oven bila dah keluarkan tapi the middle masih basah
sebab the outer shell dah cukup keras takdelah dia akan mengecut, in fact macs ni takkan mengecut pun

green tea macs, strawberry macs and lemon curd macs (blue)

cik Yaya nak sangat saya buat strawberry macs, I don;t dare to add liquid strawberry paste in to the batter so saya buat strawberry filing aja lah
as for the lemon curd macs pula saya letak half a teaspoon vanilin powder into the batterkemudian warnakannya biru sebab teringin saya cuba powder colouring yang saya baru beli
i skimmed down sugar usage in the lemon curd because I like my lemon curd less sweet and tart
the green tea macs pulak kurang rasa green tea, next time kena letak lebih
it gets its colour dari kombinasi warna serbuk green tea dan apple green colouring
I give them chocolate ganache filing, ni pun sebab cik Yaya suka makan coklat

French Macarons For The Dummies

Yesss! Yessss!!!
Finally I did it!



After 3 futile attempts
3 recipes - all from reputed sources, throughly tested/experimented and proven success by the creators,
which all went into my garbage bin!
I finally did it on my 4th attempt yesterday using a very simple, no fuss and straight forward recipe
from another reputable pastry Chef turn blogger - Mr David Lebovitz
he is the writer of My Sweet Life in Paris
where the recipe I experimented with yesterday originally comes from

On my first 3 attempts I played around first with a French macaron technique similar to the one I made yesterday tetapi measurement bahan-bahan dan pantang larang yang berbeza
Ramai orang cakap buat macaron ni banyak pantang larang
You have to get the right temperature for your oven, kalau panas sangat macs pecah (cracks)
You have to stop beating your meringue at the right time if not menjejaskan your mac, tak keluar feet!
Your almond meal, icing sugar and egg whites have to be the correct amount kalau your batter tak boleh hold its shape - pecah keluar berair masa bakar
You have to let your macs dry betul-betul sama form shell baru bakar if you don't want your macs turn runny nanti
Jangan terlebih fold the almond mixture lah
Haiiishhhh 1001 pantang larang yang can drive you crazy
Punyalah frust bila 3 kali buat tukar method from French mac to Italian mac pun result tetap sama
Straight to the dustbin!

The things is that saya ada banyak egg whites leftover daripada buat kek lapis.
I stored them in the freezer and they are piling up
I don't know what to do with them
Nak buat macs dah 3 kali failed
I still have plenty and my maid dah bersuara minta izin nak buang sebab nak clearkan ruang freezer to store benda lain
Saya tak bagi buang, sayang
lagipun deep down saya masih simpan impian nak buat macaron sampai berjaya
I think finally my silent prayers have been answered
I stumble upon David Lebovitz recipe by chance while bloghopping
The lady who gave lebovitz recipe a try cakap it was so easy and it was her first attempt terus menjadi!
When she describe the batter as stiff sampai nak picit pun susah I have a feeling that this one is going to be a success
Sebab all my 3 batter dulu a bit runny - barangkali saya overbeat or underbeat the meringue - sebab semua banyak pantang larang don't do this don't do that kita pun jadi keliru

But this time around, the recipe tersangatlah ringkas
A no fuss recipe - nothing says like you don't do this or that
Just beat the meringue until stiff, like really stiff pun tak kisah
I fold the almond, cocoa powder and icing sugar mixture with spatula entah berapa kali pusing ikut suka hati janji dia well blended
Almond meal pun saya tak sift campak je masuk janji jangan berketul
The batter tak runny, saya dah separuh happy... I can see success at the end of it

I don't care lah kalau my macs bertanduk
Yes orang kata macs bertanduk tu because batter too stiff
Lantaklah... janji menjadi, I need it to happen this time
after 3 futile attempt saya perlu sangat untuk boost balik my morale
And voila!
While the macs were in the oven saya isi perut
And heyyy... dari ekor mata saya perasan kenapa macs saya macam naik tinggi sikit
Saya pi renung dekat-dekat whooaaaa ho!
My macs have feet! They have feet!Ada yang feet muncul sebelah je sebab saya paip batter menyenget, batter tinggi sebelah hence the senget feet
Menjerit-jeritlah saya panggil Yaya show them to her (she is a mac addict now)
Dia pun menjerit "Yeayy ada kaki!"
Erpp... dia pun pandai cakap ada kaki... agaknya terdengar saya describe tempohari kat maid

The feet rise perfectlyLantaklah bertanduk pun bukan boleh cucuk orang pun :-)

Terus Yaya buat dance apa? Alah yang kalau you hit something right you buat this dance yang lenggok tangan in circle sambil goyang your hips tu
Haaa that dance... she thought me how to do that dance in my kitchen!
Nasib incik hubby takde, kalau tak mampus mother & daughter kena sembur

Terus dia ajak saya buat filing ganache. Tapi tak yah buat pun sebab ada baki coffe flavoured ganache tinggal lembutkan ajaShellnya were so hard and crunchy tapi ditengahnya hollow...hmmm not so good sign but I'm content at the moment ;-)

Seronoklah cik Yaya pipe the filing... dia nak terus ngap tapi saya pujuk suruh simpan dulu
Days old macs taste lebih sedap sebab the flavour dah comes together

So, my verdict is - I now declare david lebovitz recipe is a fool proof recipe for dummies (like me!).

Owh please go to David Lebovitz page for recipe ye.