Rose, lychee & raspberry macarons

Oh no, I've accumulated quite a bit of a blogging backlog of the past month's bakes!  Not sure why, but lately I've been suffering from a bit of a block whenever I sit down to post.  Any advise?

Pink and girlie seems to be the common theme for this post and the one before on Hidemi Sugino's Mariee.  It was a pure coincidence.  Pink is such a lovely colour for macarons.  And yes, I have a thing for brightly coloured macarons.

This is another one from Pierre Hermé and is a combination of lychee, rose and raspberry flavours (he refers to this combination of flavors as ispahan).  As usual, PH recipes don't disappoint.  The only issue I had was the use of canned lychees as specified in the recipe - the lychee flavor wasn't as strong as I preferred and I'm not sure if using fresh lychees would make a difference.  Something I'll have to try to find out. 

Recipe below makes about 72 macarons, adapted from Pierre Hermé's "Macarons"

Raspberry jelly:

420g fresh raspberries

35g caster sugar

2 pcs gelatin leaves

Soak gelatin leaves in cold water.  Puree raspberries and sugar together, then strain.  Heat puree to about 45C and add gelatin leaves.  Pour into gratin dish lined with clingflim to a depth of about 4mm.  Leave to cool in room temperature then in freezer till set. Cut jelly into 1.5cm squares and return to freezer while working on the rest of the macarons.

Macaron shells:
300g ground almonds300g icing sugar
110g aged egg whites
approx 4g strawberry food colouring
approx 4g carmine red food colouring

For the Italian meringue:
- 300g caster sugar
- 75g mineral water
- 110g aged egg whites

Sift together icing sugar and ground almonds in a large bowl. Stir food colouring into egg whites, then pour into icing sugar and ground almonds but do not stir.

To make italian meringue, heat water & caster sugar to 118C.  At 115C, start whisking egg whites.  When sugar syrup reaches 118C, pour it over egg whites, whisking continuously till meringue to cools to 50C.  Fold meringue into ground almond-icing sugar mixture.  Spoon batter into piping bag. Pipe rounds of batter about 3.5cm in diameter, spacing them 2cm apart on lined baking trays. Rap baking trays on work surface to smooth out batter & remove any big air bubbles.

PH's instructions are to leave shells to stand for at least 30 minutes until they form a skin, then bake them in fan oven for 12 minutes at 180C.  From past experience this doesn't always work for me under Hong Kong's weather conditions, so instead I dry the piped batter for 15 minutes in the oven at 65C, then without removing the macarons, increase the temperature to 150C and bake for 14 to 15 minutes.  Either way, during the last 4 minutes of baking open and close the oven door twice to let out steam.  Once out of the oven, slide shells on to cooling rack and allow to cool completely before removing from silicon mat / parchment.

Lychee & rose ganache:
410g white chocolate, chopped
250g lychee puree
60g whipping cream

3g rose essence

Melt chocolate over bain marie.  Bring cream and puree to boil, then pour over chocolate in 3 batches.  Add rose essence and stir till smooth. Pour ganache into gratin dish and press clingfilm over the surface of ganache.  Set aside in fridge for ganache to thicken.

Assembly: 

Pipe a generous mould of ganache on shells and lightly press a cube of raspberry jelly into the centre.  Pipe a dot of ganache on top then cover with another shell.  Store macarons for 24 hours in fridge and bring out 2 hours before serving.

Pistachio & raspberry macarons (PH's Montebello)

I guess it's about time for another try of Pierre Hermé's macaron recipes. =D  This time, I really wanted to try one with a jelly insert.  The Montebello macaron caught my eye for its contrasting colours and the pairing of pistachios and raspberry flavors sounded so intriguing.

I was initially a little hesitant about the recipe after realizing how much colouring I had to add for the red shells - 11g worth compared to 3g for the green shells! I've never used up so much colouring on a single batch of macarons much less for half a batch.  Then I thought - its PH so I just need to trust it.  On hindsight I had nothing to worry about coz the red shells couldn't have turned out any better! 

The tanginess of the raspberry jelly really adds a lovely twist to the pistachio ganache.  Who would have thought pistachios and raspberry could pair so well?

There was a little hiccup was when I tried sprinkling some crushed pistachios on some of the green shells.  For some reason the ones with sprinkled crushed pistachios all had cracked tops whilst those without were fine, yet they all came from the same batch of batter.  Strange?

Have a good Easter everyone!

Recipe below makes about 72 macarons, adapted from Pierre Hermé's "Macarons"

Raspberry jelly:

300g fresh raspberries

60g caster sugar

2 pcs gelatin leaves

Soak gelatin leaves in cold water.  Puree raspberries and sugar together, then strain to remove pips.  Heat puree to about 45C and add gelatin leaves, stiring to incorporate.  Pour into gratin dish lined with clingflim to a depth of about 4mm.  Leave to cool 1 hr in room temperature then in freezer for 2 hours. Cut jelly into 1.5cm squares and return to freezer while working on the rest of the macarons.

Macaron shells:
Green shells:
150g ground almonds
150g icing sugar
55g aged egg whites
1g yellow food colouring
2g green food colouring

Red shells:
150g ground almonds
150g icing sugar
55g aged egg whites
11g raspberry red food colouring

Italian meringue:
- 300g caster sugar
- 76g mineral water
- 110g aged egg whites
- 1.5 tsp egg white powder (added to second portion of egg whites.  PH doesn't use egg white powder in his recipes in the book but he recommends using egg whites that have been aged for at least a few days.  I tend to add egg white powder to my egg whites if I didn't have the chance to age them enough.  It helps to strengthen the protein bonds that form when you whisk the whites and gives the same effect as using aged egg whites.)

For the shells, sift together icing sugar & ground almonds in a large bowl. Stir respective food colouring into egg whites, then pour mixture into icing sugar & ground almonds but do not stir.

To make italian meringue, bring water & caster sugar to boil at 118C.  At 115C, start whisking second portion of egg whites (with egg white powder, if applicable).  When sugar syrup reaches 118C, pour it over egg whites, whisking continuously till meringue to cools to 50C.  Separate meringue into 2 equal batches and fold each batch separately into red and green/yellow ground almond-icing sugar mixture.  Spoon each batch of batter into separate piping bag fitted with plain nozzle.

Pipe rounds of batter about 3.5cm in diameter, spacing them 2cm apart on lined baking trays.  Rap baking trays on work surface covered with kitchen cloth. 

PH's instructions are to leave shells to stand for at least 30 minutes until they form a skin, then bake them in fan oven for 12 minutes at 180C.  From past experience this doesn't always work for me under Hong Kong's weather conditions, so instead I dry the piped batter for 15 minutes in the oven at 65C, then without removing the macarons, increase the temperature to 150C and bake for 14 to 15 minutes.  Either way, during the last 4 minutes of baking open and close the oven door twice to let out steam.  Once out of the oven, slide shells on to cooling rack and allow to cool completely before removing from silicon mat / parchment.

Pistachio ganache:
225g whipping cream
225g white chocolate
35g pistachios

Blend pistachios with whipping cream in electric food processer.  Melt chocolate.  Bring cream & pistachios to boil and pour it over the chocolate in batches.  Stir till smooth. Pour ganache into gratin dish and press clingfilm over the surface of ganache.  Set aside in fridge for ganache to thicken.

Assembly: 

Spoon ganache into piping bag fitted with plain nozzle.  Pipe a generous mould on either the red or green shells and lightly press a cube of raspberry jelly into the centre.  Pipe a dot of ganache on top then cover with another shell of different colour.  Store macarons for 24 hours in fridge and bring out 2 hours before serving.

Raspberry mousse & vanilla cream cake

We couldn't get enough of the Christmas and New Year celebrations.  Two long weekends in a row was a luxury.  Dragging myself back to work on 3 January was not a pleasant experience.  Thankfully, I have the Chinese New Year holidays towards the end of January to look forward to - that will be another 5 consecutive days of holidays.

I made these raspberry mousse and vanilla cream mini cakes for New Year's Day for some friends who came over for dinner.  We had a little make-your-own-pizza party.  I had the dough prepared in advance, but each pair had to roll it out and decide on the toppings.  It was a lot of hands-on fun and laughs, especially when the last pizza was improvised into a calzone.  A great way to celebrate the start of 2012.

 

I served these mini cakes at the end of the evening while we sat around the table for some green tea and black fruity tea.  It may not be quite the expected dessert after some home-made pizza, but the raspberry mousse and vanilla cream are both light to the palate and not heavy at all.  It was also not overly sweet so one could really taste the raspberry and vanilla flavour separately.  I also added mini crunchy chocolate balls into the vanilla cream layer for additional texture.

Wishing all of you a good 2012 ahead!

 Recipe below makes 12 pieces using 6-cm round cake rings

Butter génoise:

2 eggs

40g granulated sugar

40g plain flour, sifted

20g unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 180 C.  Hand-whisk eggs and sugar over bain marie till mixture reaches 40 C.  Using an electrical whisk, beat eggs and sugar on high speed till fluffy and peaks form.  Melt butter over bain marie.  Fold flour into egg mixture in 3 batches.  Be careful not to overmix. Add a scoop of egg & flour mixture into melted butter and mix well.  Fold butter mixture back into remaining egg & flour mixture and fold gently till batter surface is uniformly shiny.  Pour into 9-inch lined round cake tin and bake for 18 mins.  Invert cake onto a wire rack and let cool before cutting out 12 pieces of 5-cm génoise rounds.  Place génoise rounds at the bottom of 12 lined 6-cm round cake rings.  Set aside.

Vanilla cream layer:

6 tbls milk

2 vanilla beans

2 tbls sugar

2 egg yolks

1 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp custard powder

4.5 gelatin sheets

90g heavy cream

70g granulated sugar (for the italian meringue)

13g water (for the italian meringue)

45g egg white (for the italian meringue)

around 100 pieces of mini crunchy chocolate balls (optional)

Soak gelatin leaves for a few minutes in cold water till bloomed.  Split vanilla beans lengthwise and scrape the seeds into milk.  Heat milk in a small saucepan but do not bring to boil.  Whisk yolks, sugar, cornstarch and custard powder together, then mix in a little of the heated milk, mixing till well blend.  Pour mixture back into saucepan with remaining milk and simmer slightly, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add gelatin, mix well.  Set aside to cool.

Whip heavy cream till soft peaks form.  Set aside in fridge, covered.

Prepare the italian meringue: Whisk egg whites using an electric mixer till soft peaks form.  At the same time, heat sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium to high heat.  Use a thermometer to measure the syrup, cooking the sugar syrup till it reaches 118C.  Carefully pour the sugar syup into the mixer bowl with egg whites while running the whisk.  Continue whisking till stiff peaks form and the meringue has cooled down and is glossy.  

Fold italian meringue into milk mixture, then fold in the whipped cream to finish the vanilla cream.

Pour vanilla cream over génoise rounds placed at the bottom of 12 lined 6-cm round cake rings.  The vanilla cream should properly cover the sides and top of the génoise rounds.  Optional: divide the mini crunchy chocolate balls evenly between the cake rings, pressing them into the vanilla cream.  

Leave cake rings to chill in fridge till the vanilla cream has set before removing them from the cake rings (using hot towel or flame torch). 

Raspberry mousse dome:

1 1/2 pieces gelatin sheet

135g raspberry puree

140g heavy cream

55g sugar

25g corn syrup

20g water

50g egg whites

Soak gelatin leaves for a few minutes in cold water till bloomed.  Heat half of raspberry puree in a small saucepan, stirring.  Do not bring to boil.  Remove puree from heat and add gelatin, stirring to dissolve.  Add remaining puree and mix well.  Set aside to cool.

Whip heavy cream till soft peaks form.  Set aside in fridge, covered.

Whisk egg whites using an electric mixer on high speed till soft peak forms.  At the same time, heat sugar, corn syrup and water in a small saucepan over medium to high heat.  Use a thermometer to measure the syrup, cooking the sugar syrup till it reaches 118C.  Carefully pour the sugar syup into the mixer bowl with egg whites while running the whisk.  Continue whisking till stiff peaks form and the meringue has cooled down and is glossy. 

Pour cooled puree over meringue and fold in using a spatula. When the puree has been incorporated, fold in the whipped cream till mousse is just blended evenly.

Pour mousse into 12 pieces of 6-cm dome molds and leave in fridge till set. 

Assembly:  

Gently remove raspberry mousse from dome molds one at a time (by carefully dipping bottom of molds in hot water, taking care not to allow water into the mousse, and rotating the mousse out of the molds), and immediately place mousse dome on top of the vanilla cream layer.  Repeat for remaining 11 pieces.  Wrap exterior of individual mini cakes with dark chocolate decoration and top with pistachios if desired, as shown in photos.

A quick approach to raspberry cheesecake

We had some guests over for dinner last Saturday evening and I didn't have time to start working on any sort of dessert till about 3pm in the afternoon...  I had a fresh tub of Ben & Jerry vanilla ice cream in the freezer which could certainly pass off as dessert, but I think my guests expected much more out of me.  At least i would... 

So what do i do??  I know most cheesecake recipes advise the need to refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight, but the preparation itself is almost too quick & easy... it was all I could manage in the 1.5 hours before my guests were due to arrive... After some consideration I decided to take the risk! After all, if the cheesecake is not ready in time, I will still have the B&J ice cream as back up.

I used a fairly common baked cheesecake recipe that I've tried before (http://www.marthastewart.com/340227/raspberry-swirl-cheesecake).  My preference is always the water bath method which eliminates the chances of cracks and cooks the cheesecake gently.

There are tons of tutorials and guides available out there for cheesecakes, but here's three points I personally feel is most important:

1) Rely on the water bath method

2) Beat the mixture as little as possible once adding the eggs, as excessive beating will cause the eggs to trap air, thereby increasing the chance of cracks

3) Leave the cheesecake in the oven for another hour or so after turning off the oven.  This allows the cheesecake to be further "cooked". 

Was my cheesecake done in time for serving?  After cooling it for about 1 hour at room temperature, I popped it into the freezer for about 2.5 hours throughout the entire time we had dinner.  Once we were done with dinner I removed it from the freezer, removed the cake ring and served it straightaway with some left over raspberry puree that was also chilled in the fridge throughout dinner.

The cheesecake was perfectly fine even though it hadn't been refrigerated for 6 hours or overnight.  A couple of my guests took a second serving!  Given a choice, I wouldn't try something this last minute again, but it was good that everything turned out right just in time... Whew! 

I took this shot below of the entire cake before it was cut and served.  The rest of the shots above I took the day after with a few leftover pieces.