Last week, I tried my hand at macaron making to make sure that the previous time wasn’t just a one time fluke. I was pretty happy at how they came out and noticed an improvement from the last batch. My friend Cheryl came over to help out too, although she had to leave before getting the chance to taste one. Next time right? :)
It’s Mother’s Day this upcoming weekend and this is the perfect culinary gift for any mother with a sweet tooth. My mum’s been harping on about these for a while, so my plan is to make a batch for her this weekend when I go to visit. I’m still undecided as to which flavour to make, please help me decide! At the moment, I’m thinking coffee or caramel flavoured, what do you think?
You can find the recipe for these lemon macarons after the jump! Note that for the shells, I used pretty much the exact same recipe as the one I used for the lime macarons, just a difference in food colouring. Note that they’re also about half the size as the lime ones, which is why you’ll make about double in this recipe below. The filling however, is a completely different recipe, translated from the same French book I used for the shells.
Lemon Macarons Recipe
Makes approx. 40 macarons
Time: 2.5hs
Preparation:
Using something with a round base, around 3mm diameter, trace around it several times onto paper, making sure you leave some space between each circle (approx. 2cm). Place this under your baking paper so you can use it as a template when you’re squeezing out the mixture.
Mixture:
- 200g almond meal
- 200g icing sugar
- 4 egg whites
- 200g caster sugar
- 75ml water
- Yellow food colouring
1. Mix the icing sugar with almond meal until well mixed. Set this almond/icing mixture aside.
2. In a saucepan, bring the water and caster sugar to the boil. Using a cooking themometer, ensure this liquid mix does not pass 115°C.
3. Meanwhile, beat the 2 egg whites, increasing speed once the liquid mix passes 105°C.
4. Turn off the heat of the liquid mix once it reaches 115°C and pour gently onto the egg whites and continue beating everything together for approx 10 minutes more. We’ll now refer to this as the ‘meringue mixture’.
5. Mix the almond/icing mix together with the other 2 egg whites, until you achieve a smooth well mixed paste. Add in a drop or two of yellow food colouring to get the colour you require.
6. With a spatula, mix a third of the meringue mixture in with the almond/icing mix, then gradually mix in the rest.
7. Pour the mixture into a piping bag and pipe out onto your baking paper. Using the traced circles as a guide, pipe from the centre of each circle. The paste will come out smoothly and spread out equally from this centrepoint.
8. Dab some mixture onto each corner of the baking paper so it sticks to the tray. Leave aside at room temperature for 30 minutes. This is the trick to create the “feet” of the macarons.
9. Preheat the oven to 150°C.
10. Bake for 14 minutes and once done, move the baking paper and macarons off the tray and onto a surface that will enable it to cool down fast.
Filling:
- 100ml lemon juice
- 2 eggs
- 3 egg yolks
- 55g butter (room temperature, diced)
- 40g caster sugar
- 60g white choc (diced)
1. In a saucepan, simmer the lemon juice on a low heat.
2. Beat together the eggs, yolks and sugar. Once the juice is well heated, pour the mixture in with the juice and keep on a low heat until it starts to thicken. Continue stirring for about 3 minutes.
3. Pour the mixture into a bowl and add in the diced butter and white chocolate. Mix well until everything has melted and uniform in texture.
4. Store the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour to cool.
5. Pour the mixture into a piping bag and pipe the macarons.
Bon appétit!
Let me know how your experience goes, I’d love to see any photos of your own macaron-making journeys. While they are time consuming, I consider to be well worth the trouble, particularly if you’re surprising your Mother!
It’s just came to my realisation today that I’m a bit of a foodie (I know, I know… all your comments make sense now). I LOVE taking photos of my food, your food, really anyone’s food as long as it looks great (and I expect, tastes good). Eating and trying out new food digs are also high on my list of things to do. I really enjoy cooking and baking, as long as I make the time for it and naturally, sharing recipes.
I don’t have a huge collection of regular food-related blogs that I read, but I always conscientiously save recipes that I actually would want to make one day. That’s grown into a decent collection and I regularly add to it whenever I trawl through my favourite feeds. Here’s four that are part of my saved collection, and ones that I seriously can’t wait to try myself.
Since I can see myself doing this kind of post again, I’m just going to pre-state that Nommm… will be a featured column here on Helarious. Oh, I can see you all salivating in joy over all the foodie goodness to come - it’s okay, I know how you feel!
1 | Watermelon Slushie by Liz of Say Yes to Hoboken
Super refreshing and simple to make - can’t wait to try it in summer!
2 | Fig Vanilla & Sour Cream Popsicles by Jerry of Bay Area Bites
What an exquisite ice cream combination, perfect for fig lovers like me.
3 | Matcha Green Tea Donuts by Emma of A Beautiful Mess
Still need to find a donut pan but once I do, I can’t wait to try these pronto.
4 | Ethereally Smooth Hummus by Deb of Smitten Kitchen
This is already at the top of my to make list for my next dinner party!
So, seriously who are your favourite foodie bloggers?
Image credits: Say Yes to Hoboken, Bay Area Bites, A Beautiful Mess, Smitten Kitchen
Sometimes, it’s just nice to stay out of the kitchen and let someone else do the baking. Especially when cheesecake (my favourite type of cake) is on the agenda.
Okay, so now secret of the day - you ready for it? Gareth’s a far better cook than me in every way! He’s probably gloating right now but he knows that I’m okay with this fact. This cheesecake is the last thing he baked, months ago using our new Breville processor. He adapted this recipe from Taste and simply replaced the raspberries with blueberries!
How did it turn out? Mighty fine and incredibly delicious. The only thing he wasn’t completely happy with was how crumbly the base and sides were, as they should have been more stiff. Even with that, I didn’t care and had a slice for dessert each night for nearly a week and still we had around a quarter left which we ended up throwing away! I wish he’d make another one sometime soon… or maybe I should just give it a go?
Have you baked cheesecake before and how did it turn out? If anyone has any tips about how to make the base/sides more solidly compact and less crumbly, I’d love to know!
Who wouldn’t want to hang around fresh produce, manly men and a floral wonderland? The only con is that you’ll need to get up super early on a weekday or Saturday morning for all three! But it’s worth it - I promise.
The markets at Flemington are one of my favourite places in Sydney. Next door to Homebush, these markets are also a five minute walk from my favourite asian restaurant in Sydney: Pho Toan Thang. So head early to the markets and then have an early lunch at this joint… you’ll be jumping for joy in no time.
The main markets at Flemington are seriously sensational:
- Produce Market for mainly wholesale fruit & veg. If you’ve got a massive banquet/party coming up that you need to cater for - go here!!
- Growers Market for a smaller scaled fresh produce market from growers from local Sydney. As an individual, I’d recommend coming here to stock up, particularly if you have a large family!
- Flower Market for all the freshly cut flowers you could ever need. Since coming here, I now know where my first stop will be for a bouquet (if not from my own garden!)
My photos above were taken from all three markets. Luckily they’re all within walking distance from each other, so I hopped from one to the other. You can probably tell that it was a whole lotta fun not only for me, but for the buyers and sellers (that were mostly men) there!
If you’re planning to go, here are some tips from my own trip:
- Bring enough cash - not all places provide card facilities
- Have an idea of the type of flowers you want to buy - or you’ll get swept away by all the colours and prices! $5 for a bunch of roses? Are you kidding me - I’ll take one of EVERY colour!!
- Go as early as you can make it. The opening times change depending on the day of the week and the specific market (i.e. no flowers on Sunday) so make sure to check online or call up.
- Bring a wheelie bag or some kind of bag that will make it easy for you to walk around with and hold your goods. And don’t worry about looking like a granny with the wheelie bag - everyone does it there!
So… have you been to the Flemington markets - they’re great aren’t they? Which one’s your favourite and when do you tend to go?
