‘Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony

Better than your average hobbit, been there and back again, oh so manieth time this year. Finland, I think I’ll make it once more this year. Still six unused holiday days, but if my luck doesn’t work it’s wonders, I think it will be yet another Christmas in Germany. But let’s get over with Halloween first, before we start thinking about Santa. Well, kinda did that already, or why else would there have been so many pumpkins?

Came back with cranberries, and in no time had they turned into a cake. Was too impatient with the layers, though, and everything mixed into a lovely pink mess. Waah, I may never learn.

Many other cakes have appeared, too. Today I met one, actually four small ones, with kiwis and butter-cream inside them. I was too impatient once again, though, as I used fridge cold butter for my butter-cream. But at least I had the patience to let the custard cool properly this time. Maybe next time I’ll do it all properly.

Macaroons worked out. Well, spite the air-pockets inside that do bug me. Even if I banged the tray against the table a dozen times. But otherwise, quite nice. Filled with blackberry jam, yum yum.

Bread has been baked, too. Some archipelago loaves and one with quite a bit of quark. Everything works.

Marika~

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Macaron bakings

At the moment I’m very keen on baking macarons and therefore would love to have recipe here as well. Guess I’d better post it then! But I shall only post the recipe for the shells ’cause you can actually fill macarons with anything from olive oil to rhubarb or peanutbutter. Or at least so is described in the book where I got this recipe from, “Macarons – délices et gourmandises” written by Sylvie Aït-Ali (can be found in Finnish under the name “Pariisilainen macaron-leivos”).

Note! More pictures of the process are displayed on the Gallery-page

Dough, makes about 50-60 macaron shells (also 25-30 bakings)

100g          Egg whites (it’s said to give a better result if you separate the egg whites already a few days before baking, store them in the fridge and then take them out in room temperature about an hour before baking)

25g             Sugar

110g           Almond powder

200g          Powder sugar

(powdered food coloring)

1. Add a little bit of the sugar into the egg whites and start mixing them. When the eggs start foaming add the rest of the sugar in little batches. Mix untill the dough becomes shiny and forms peaks when lifted. The dough shouldn’t be too stiff or crumbly either.

2. If you want to color your macarons, add the powder into the beaten egg whites now. Tip of a dining knife should be enough.

3. Mix the almond powder and powder sugar well together and pour on top of the beaten egg whites. Mix well by using a rubber spatula. The dough should be well mixed and spreadable, but not too runny.

4. If possible, put the dough into a piping bag with a round tip (⌀ 8mm). I’ve had couple bad experiences using awful piping bags with too small tips or otherwise too broken, and it has made the macaron baking quite difficult.. So use a good bag, or then just work with a spoon. With spoon your macarons might not end up as round but otherwise the result should be as good.

5. Prepare two oven trays with baking paper. You can put a little bit of the dough into the corners of the tray in order to help the baking paper stay down.

6. Make circles (or hearts etc.) into the covered tray. They should be about the size of a 2€ coin (⌀ 3cm). Once done, knock the bottom of the tray a bit so that your macarons set nicely. Then let the macarons rest on the table for about 20 minutes, so that they become a nice crunchy top when baked.

7. Heat up the oven to 150°C degress.

8. Place the macarons to bake into the middle level of the oven. They should bake for about 12-14 minutes and it’s recommended to turn the tray around in the half way. Take them out, and bake the next tray.

9. Let the macarons cool properly before touching them.

10. Mmm.. and now you just have to figure out, how you would like to fill them! Unless you end up eating them just like that..

Marika~

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