Macaroon making

last night, my friend Sally and I attended a baking course with the Kent Cookery School at The Secret Garden in Ashford, to learn how to make macaroon’s! I have been to The Secret Garden a few times for tea and cake and have always enviously peered through the windows into the kitchen classroom, think Great British bake off / Mary Berry’s kitchen, heaven!!! So I was very excited to actually be taking part in a class.

I have never attempted to make macaroon’s before and after my last baking challenge of the fondant fancies I was wary to give these ago, as I have heard many baking horror stories from friends..... It turns out there are a few handy tips that will ensure you get the perfect macaroons.... So here goes

Handy tips (we learnt from our egg lecture)

medium egg should weigh between 53-63g

large egg shoud weigh between 63-73g

if freshly laid, do not use the eggs till they are about 7 days old for baking purposes (fresh eggs have too much carbon dioxide in them)

Eggs should NOT be kept in the fridge, store them in a cool dark place.

Recipe

Ingedients

Macaroon paste :

185g icing sugar

185g ground almonds

2 medium egg whites

Food colouring

Italian Meringue

50ml water

185g caster sugar

2 medium egg whites

(sugar thermometer)

Method

1 – Preheat oven to 180 degrees, place baking tray in the oven

2 - cut greaseproof paper to exact size of baking tray

3 – mix icing sugar, ground almonds and 2 x egg whites until a smooth paste, add food colouring for desired shade

4 – whisk 2 medium egg whites till they form firm peaks, meanwhile soft boil caster sugar and water in a saucepan till it reaches 120 degrees exactly (use a jam or sugar thermometer for this)

5 – whilst whisking the egg whites slowly pour the hot sugar syrup into the bowl and then whisk for 2 minutes

6 – carefully add meringue mixture to the almond paste, cutting and stirring, minimum amount of work possible

7 – fill piping bag with the macaroon mixture and pipe into circles  onto the greasproof paper (around 3cm diameter each 50 pence piece size)

8 – Carefully slide greaseproof paper onto the hot baking tray and cook in the oven for 8 minutes.

9 – allow to cool and then fill with your preferred fillings (cream, chocolate, lemon curd, jam...)

twelfth craft of christmas: christmas pudding semifreddo

i have the pleasure of making the dessert for christmas day this year, i don't know about you but after a huge turkey christmas dinner, I can never quite face christmas pudding as its too heavy, so I decided to give this recipe for christmas pudding semifreddo a whirl, having recently tried this at the union chapel in islington, i thought it would be a winner, i will let you know how it went down in the new year.....

ingredients

600ml double cream

300g creme fraiche

250ml cognac spiced cream

2 tsp cinnamon

2tsp vanilla extract

250g christmas pudding crumbled

9 egg yolks

250g caster sugar

topping

200g christmas pudding crumbled

50g demerara sugar

20ml brandy

method

1. whip double cream, creme fraiche, spiced cream, vanilla extract and cinnamon until soft peaks

2. whisk the egg yolks and caster sugar over a suacepan of boiling water till pale and thickened (4-5 minutes), then mix with electric mixer till cool

3. combine the cream mixture with the egg mixture and add the christmas pudding.

4.sprinkle christmas pudding crumbs with sugar and brandy and bake for around 10 minutes

5. line tin with christmas pudding crumbs and then fill with ice cream mixture, freeze for 6 hours minimum