And the Macaron War Begins...

Today was my first attempt of making macarons after many, many days and months of being a lazy ass. I used a basic recipe for the macarons and made some dulce de leche for the fillings. The result, as you can see, is not too satisfying but nevertheless, I am proud to have finally tried making these buggers. Just compare my job to these lovely ones from Paulette...

Whipping up the meringue was easy, I just had to make sure there were no traces of oil in my utensils or else the egg white won't rise. The baked macarons looked like they wanted to grow feet (really, they looked so promising, but still, I get no feet, only a few almost had feet). They tasted great, however, but I had a hard time removing them from the parchment paper. I ended up eating all the broken ones in my attempt to remove the little devils.

Now if anyone of you readers want to join me in this war, I'm leaving the recipe here, in this post.

Basic Macarons

3 egg whites (make sure they are at least a day old, that's what I was told)

1/4 cup of caster sugar

1 cup icing sugar

1/2 cup ground almond

1. Whisk the egg whites like you're making a meringue until it turns foamy.

2. Then add in the sugar and whisk again until the egg whites become glossy with soft peaks forming.

3. Add the icing sugar and the ground almond to the meringue and fold together to mix. The batter should be very thick now and flattens if you dropped a dollop of it on a surface.

4. Pipe circles of the batter from a piping bag onto a parchment paper placed on a baking sheet, leave them out for an hour at least and then bake them at 315F for around 10 minutes, till you see the feet form, then lower the temperature to 300F and bake for further 3 to 4 minutes with the oven door slightly ajar.

5. Let cool and remove from parchment paper and serve with the dulce de leche filling sandwiched in the middle.

The name dulce de leche may sounds a bit daunting, but really, it's easy and it's just made of caramelized condensed milk. Ahah! So don't fear, believe me, the making of the macarons are what anyone should be scared of. 

Dulce de Leche Filling

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

1. Boil the can of milk in a pot of boiling water for an hour. Always make sure the can is always immersed under water all the time. (And remove the paper label outside the can, before you dunk it in water!)

2. Cool the can before opening or else the condense milk might spurt into your face. Whip the milk in a small bowl until smooth and keep refrigerated till you're ready to use it.

There's another way of making this, but I'm telling you the easiest way of making it. My dulce de leche went well but it was a little too runny to hold up between the macarons. Maybe I should just settle for some ganache or buttercream the next time.

So, good luck to you and to myself too. Till my next macaron war, I reckon I'm gonna be successful the next time around.. Tata!

My Traditional Quiche Lorraine

This, I made about a week ago. Quiche is a good way to use up leftovers and most importantly, it's economical.

To make it you will need :

1 1/4 cups plain flour
90 g butter, chopped
2-3 tablespoons iced water

For the filling :

3 smoked chicken slices, chopped
6 button mushrooms. sliced
1 teaspoon oil
60 g grated gruyere cheese (you can use mozarella if you can't find gruyere)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1. First of all, sift the flour and add the butter to it. Rub butter into the flour until the mixture is fine and crumbly. Add almost all the water and mix it to a firm dough (add more water if necessary). Then, roll the dough out and line a medium size tart tin. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

2. Prepare the oven and cut a sheet of greaseproof paper, big enough to cover the pastry-lined tin. Take out the pastry and line it with the paper and spread a layer of dried beans or rice over it. Bake for 10 minutes and then remove the paper and grains. Put the pastry back in the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes.

3. For the fillings, lightly cook the chicken slices and mushrooms in a tablespoon of oil. Drain them and spread over the pastry. Sprinkle with the cheese.

4. Combine the eggs, cream and milk and pour into the base. Finish it with a sprinkle of nutmeg.

5. Bake for 30 minutes, until the whole quiche is set and golden.

So here's the quiche. You can serve it hot or cold.