eatshowandtell » Dessert Recipes

“This and That” Dessert, My Bistro CBD Experience

linda — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:58:46 +0000

Weeks of researching, planning, organising and countless sleepless nights later, now it’s all over. The food bloggers dinner hosted by Merivale was held on Wednesday night. What a night it was. For this post, I’ll give you a run down of my experiences working in a commercial kitchen and an overview of the initial planning process down to plating up our courses.

Fouad the mastermind behind a couple of secret dinners and SIFF dinners wanted to do something a little more challenging, so he enlisted the help of Billy, Karen and myself. We were told that the idea of the Food bloggers dinner would be each of us individually coming up with a meal to be served in a 5 course meal at Bistro CBD. With this in mind, we were instructed to have a meal plan ready by our next meeting/taste testing session.

Prepping in the Kitchen

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Strawberry Tres Leche cake

linda — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:17:23 +0000

“OMG Linda, my work mate brought a ridiculously ugly cake to work, but it was so good, I had 2 slices!” What a greeting I had from Minh last Wednesday morning, no “Hello” or even a “Hey”. Upon further enquiry Minh explained that the cake was called Mexican Milk Cake, Tres Leches ( 3 milk) cake. I was quite intrigued by this deliciously ugly cake, so decided to investigate. According to Google, Tres Leches cake consists of a cottony soft vanilla sponge cake made with milk that when cooled, is allowed to sit and soak up a mixture of three milk, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and thickened cream.

The description of the cake is something I think the whole family will appreciate, so I decided to give the cake a go. However, to spice it up a bit, I added a middle layer of caramel mousse and fresh strawberries, topped with freshly whipped cream, caramel web, more fresh strawberries and torched meringue.

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Black Forest Cake, MasterChef recipe

linda — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:13:18 +0000

Due to my current obsession with masterchef, it was only natural that the next thing I bake was another masterchef recipe. A couple of weeks back, we saw how by missing out two layers of Gary’s Black forest cake costs Dom his place in the competition.

I’m not a huge fan of black forest cake, if it’s there, I would eat it, if not, I wouldn’t go out looking for it. My brother on the other hand absolutely adores black forest cake, requesting one for his birthday every year. I decided to surprise him by baking his favourite cake.

Obviously the main component of a black forest cake are cherries, unfortunately, autumn is not cherry season for us in Sydney, so instead I opted for frozen cherries. All the other ingredients are readily available at the supermarket.

Gary's version : Image from masterchef.com.au

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Caramel Parfait Glace w/ Salted Peanut Caramel & Milk Chocolate Mousse, Masterchef recipe

linda — Sun, 09 May 2010 14:46:45 +0000

Yay Masterchef is back! With the return of Masterchef, means the return of baking crazy desserts, desserts which takes way too long to bake and complete, but tastes so damn good that it made all the blood sweat and tears worthwhile. Last week’s Celebrity chef challenge saw 20 year old Callum, pitted against one of Australia’s most popular pastry chef, Phillipa Silby Head Pasty chef of Circa the Prince in Melbourne.

Throughout the challenge, I watched in awe as Callum battled his way through the 6 different elements, all within 1 hour and 45 minutes. Profusely sweating whilst trying to beat the clock, I think he did a great job, and deserves to be commended for his efforts.

Since I love a great challenge, I thought it would be fun to also try out this recipe. Being super obsessed with Snickers Bar also convinced me to give it go. I followed the instructions exactly as on the Masterchef website , but how did it turn out compared to what they produced on Masterchef ? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Caramel Parfait Glace with Salted Peanut Caramel and Milk Chocolate Mousse

recipe adapted from Masterchef 2010, chef Philippa Sibley.

Ingredients

For the caramel mousse
500ml thickened cream
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
135g liquid glucose
190g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter, cold
6 leaves gold leaf gelatine, soaked in cold water, drained
160g egg yolks

For the chantilly cream
250ml thickened cream
250g good quality milk chocolate

For the peanut caramel
200ml thickened cream
80g liquid glucose
150g caster sugar
50g butter
100g salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
¼ tsp sea salt

For the peanut dacquoise
140g salted peanuts
250g pure icing sugar, sifted
80g almond meal
160g egg whites
100g caster sugar
For the chocolate plaques
200g good quality milk chocolate

Step 1. Preheat oven to 180°C fan forced.
Step 2. For the caramel mousse, whip 200ml of the thickened cream to soft peaks, cover and refrigerate until needed. Combine vanilla, remaining cream and 115g of the glucose in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Set aside. Meanwhile, weigh out 140g of the caster sugar. Heat a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat and add 1 teaspoon of caster sugar. Once it has dissolved, gradually add the remaining, stirring constantly, until it has dissolved and turned lightly golden. Slowly pour the hot cream into the caramel, whisking until combined; whisk in the butter followed by the gelatine leaves. Strain into a bowl, set over another bowl half filled with ice and water and leave to cool, whisking occasionally.

Step 3. Combine the remaining 50g of caster sugar, 30ml water and remaining 20g of liquid glucose in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat the yolks on a moderate speed. Using a sugar thermometer bring the sugar syrup to 118°C. Remove from the heat and let the bubbles die down slightly. Pour the syrup down the side of the bowl onto the still whisking yolks. Turn up the speed and whisk until pale, doubled in size and cool.

Step 4. To finish the mousse, fold the two cooled mixtures together, fold through the whipped cream then pour into a 20cm x 25cm x 3cm Swiss roll tin lined with baking paper and place in the freezer until very firm.

Step 5. For milk chocolate Chantilly cream, melt the chocolate and keep warm to the touch. Whip the cream to soft peaks. Quickly whisk half of warm chocolate into the cream, to lighten the mixture. Immediately whisk through remaining chocolate and refrigerate.

Step 6. For the peanut caramel, combine cream and glucose in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Set aside and keep warm. Heat a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat until 1 teaspoon of caster sugar dissolves when added. Gradually add the rest of the sugar and stir constantly until it has dissolved and has turned light golden brown. Slowly pour the hot cream into the caramel, whisking until combined; whisk in the butter. Set over another bowl half filled with ice and water and leave to cool until slightly thickened. Fold through the peanuts and the salt and refrigerate until needed.

Step 7. For the peanut dacquoise, process peanuts until finely ground. Combine icing sugar, nuts, and almond meal in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Sprinkle sugar onto the whites and continue whisking until firm and glossy. Gently fold the mixture through meringue until combined, but not over-mixed. Spread onto a lined baking tray at a thickness of about 1cm. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the dacquoise is crisp on top but slightly soft in the centre. Remove from the oven and slide onto a cool surface. Place a piece of baking paper on top of the surface of the dacquoise and carefully flip it over onto a small flat baking tray. Remove the paper. Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes. Remove the mousse from the freezer and invert onto the slightly warm dacquoise. Press down lightly to ensure the two surfaces are lightly stuck together. Remove the tin from the mousse. Slide onto a tray and return to the freezer.

Step 8. For the chocolate plaques, gently melt the chocolate, no hotter than 45°C, in a metal bowl over hot but not boiling water. Pour 2/3 of the melted chocolate onto a cool, clean work surface and spread it around until it begins to thicken and feels cool to the touch. Return the cooler chocolate to the warm chocolate that remains in the bowl. Stir until completely combined. The chocolate needs to be about 26°C. The chocolate will feel cool on the side of your little finger. Spread the tempered chocolate with a palette knife over 3 x 4cm x 30cm strips of acetate plastic (stuck to the marble with sticky tape). When the chocolate is set to the touch but still slightly malleable, peel the strips off the bench and turn upside down so the chocolate surface is down. To portion the plaques, measure 10cm lengths, mark through the chocolate with a knife heated under warm water then cut the acetate with scissors. You will get 2 plaques per strip of plastic. Store plaques in the fridge until ready to use.

Step 9. Remove the tray from the freezer and peel off the paper and discard. Using a long knife heated under very hot water, cut the mousse into 10cm logs, taking care to keep the edges clean and straight.

Step 10. To serve, smear a small amount of the peanut caramel in the middle of the plate. This will stop the dessert from sliding around. Then place the bar on the plate dacquoise side down. Now peel the plastic off a plaque and carefully place, shiny side up, on top. Using a teaspoon dipped in hot water to form small quenelles and evenly place three on the plaque. Fill the two spaces with peanut caramel then place another plaque on top. Be careful not to get fingerprints on the chocolate. Serve immediately on a cool plate.

OMG that is one heck of a dessert. Out of all the desserts that I’ve baked, this is by far my favourite. Each components just work so well together. Starting from the deliciously chewy slightly salty dacquoise to the rich and creamy yet fragrant caramel mousse, topped with the refreshing chantilly cream contrasting salted caramel, all held together by a couple of melting dark chocolate plaques. YUM! As usual, the boyfriend and family were taste testers. All in all, it was unanimous, this dessert is worth the 2 hours of cleaning up.

Finally, here’s a monthly update of Max. He’s grown considerably in the last month, he’s always learning new tricks, but remains cheeky.

Traditional Pudding, Daring Bakers Challenge

linda — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:30:53 +0000

I have to admit, I’m a little bit obsessed with the DBC, these days my favourite day of the month is the 1st. It is on the 1st of every month, a new challenge is revealed. The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Suet?? For those who don’t know, suet is the solid fat surrounding the loin and kidneys of animals, with suet from beef and lamb predominantly used. My initial reaction at the thought of incorporating raw animal fats into my dessert was one of disgust, only because I don’t eat meat. Unfortunately, it appears that many other participants of DBC felt the same way, so Esther was very accomodating and allowed us to use any substitute that we were comfortable with, provided we stick to either steaming or more traditionally boiling our pudding.

The best choice for me was to substitute the suet for butter. However the most difficult part was to figure out what type of flavours or fillings to use. As bananas are currently in season in Sydney, I decided to go with a steamed banana pudding.

Esther was kind enough to provide us with the recipes for variations of puddings, I’ll post the recipe for the one I used. If you’re interested in other options, check out Esther’s blog.

Steamed Banana Pudding

100gm plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1.5 teaspoon baking powder

100gm breadcrumbs

75gm caster sugar

75 gm butter

1 large egg

6-8 tablespoon cold milk

2 mashed ripened bananas

Sift flour, salt, baking powder in to a bowl
Add breadcrumbs, sugar and butter
Using a mixer, beat to a soft batter with egg, milk and ripened banana
Pour in to a spring form baking tray or a pudding bowl. Cover securely with baking paper or foil.
Steam for 2-3 hours.
Turn out on to a plate, and serve at room temperature.

I’ve only started experimenting with burnt butter, because of the fragrant nutty flavour that burnt butter oemitted, I decided to make burnt butter ice cream to serve with my pudding. Overall, I served my banana pudding with caramelised banana pieces, freshly whipped cream, cocoa chips, burnt butter ice cream and chocolate powder.

With all products of my DBCs my brother and boyfriend are usually the guinea pigs, they would usually have a bite, then either walk away or stay to eat the plate clean. Luckily this time they both absolutely loved it, with my brother declaring it “the best DBC ever.” With such statements, I couldn’t help but sample it myself. OMG the banana pudding was so moist! The smell of the banana just permeates the sponge cake. The freshly whipped cream helped balance the caramelised banana, while the cocoa chip added that much needed crunch. The superbly rich and creamy burnt butter ice cream really tied everything together.

As previously mentioned, the thing i love most about the DBC is that it encourages you to step out of your comfort zone, to do things that you never thought was possible. Thank you Esther for choosing such an interesting challenge for this month, now I have another accomplishment under my belt.

Thomas Keller’s Lemon sabayon tart

linda — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:15:31 +0000

I’ve previously made the lemon sabayon tart many times before. Whether it be friends or families, people seem to be quite impressed by the tart, often asking for the recipe. To understand the reason for its success, look no further than the man behind it, Thomas Keller.

Prior to ever baking this tart, the thought of baking a French Laundry’s dessert used to scare me, this is a 3 michelin starred restaurant we’re talking about. So imagine my surprise when I finally got the opportunity to bake the tart, not only were they super dooper easy to bake, but the fluffy lemon sabayon filling combined with the buttery pine nut crust made this dessert worth while.

Lemon Sabayon Tart

Adapted from French Laundry, available from Epicurious

Pine Nut Crust (Recipe is adequate for making 3 tarts)

283gm (2 cups) pine nuts

1/3 cup sugar

453gm (3 cups) all-purpose flour

230gm unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place the pine nuts in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the sugar and flour and continue to pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.
Add the butter, egg, and vanilla extract and mix to incorporate all the ingredients (the dough can be mixed by hand or in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment).
Divide the dough into three equal parts. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before using.
The extra dough can be frozen, wrapped well, for up to 1 month.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Generously butter and flour a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and refrigerate it while the oven preheats.
Remove the tart pan from the refrigerator. Use your fingertips to press the chilled pine nut dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Trim off any excess dough.
Bake the crust for 10 to 15 minutes, then rotate it and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until it is golden brown. Remove the crust from the oven and let it cool while you make the filling. (There may be some cracks in the crust; they will not affect the finished tart.)

Lemon Sabayon

2 large eggs, cold

2 large egg yolks, cold

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

6 tablespoons (85gm) cold unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces

Bring about 1 1/2 inches of water to a boil in a pot that is slightly smaller than the diameter of the bowl you will be using for the sabayon. Meanwhile, in a large metal bowl, whisk the eggs, yolks, and sugar for about 1 minute, or until the mixture is smooth.
Set the bowl over the pot and, using a large whisk, whip the mixture while you turn the bowl (for even heating). After about 2 minutes, when the eggs are foamy and have thickened, add one-third of the lemon juice. Continue to whisk vigorously and, when the mixture thickens again, add another one-third of the lemon juice. Whisk until the mixture thickens again, then add the remaining lemon juice. Continue whisking vigorously, still turning the bowl, until the mixture is thickened and light in color and the whisk leaves a trail in the bottom of the bowl. The total cooking time should be 8 to 10 minutes.
Turn off the heat and leave the bowl over the water. Whisk in the butter a piece at a time. The sabayon may loosen slightly, but it will thicken and set as it cools. Pour the warm sabayon into the tart crust and place the pan on a baking sheet.
Preheat the broiler. While the sabayon is still warm, place the tart under the broiler. Leaving the door open, brown the top of the sabayon, rotating the tart if necessary for even color; this will take only a few seconds, so do not leave the oven. Remove the tart from the broiler and let it sit for at least 1 hour before serving. Serve at room temperature or cold.

After tasting the lemon sabayon tart, I now understand why Thomas Keller is reviered as the chef that he is. How could someone turn soemthing as simple as a lemon tart into something so light and fancy. I found that the addition of the pine nut, rounded the tart as a whole off well. With it’s slightly more noticable flavour as compared to almond, the crumbly crust helped balanced the tanginess of the lemon.

I don’t often enjoy any form of citrus in my dessert, however I can honestly say, this tart is the only exception. I served the lemon tart with a dollop of honey mascarpone cream and a crunch of praline.

Pecan pie with rolled oats crust

linda — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 03:06:26 +0000

I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but now I’m back.

Since my last blog, besides the monthly Daring Baker’s Challenges, I’ve been quite busy with work, going overseas, spending time with friends before they move overseas, and playing/teaching my puppy new tricks. I purchased Max as a Birthday gift for myself, I know it’s quite strange, but just within the week that I’ve had him, he has filled my days with so much joy and happiness.

He’s just too cute.Please say hi to Max.

Now on to other important things. For my Birthday a couple of weeks ago, Howard purchased me a couple of Kitchen tools, namely a Kitchen Aid and a Food Processor. What better way to make use of my gift then re-ignite my flame for baking. It appears that the hottest name in the food industry right now is David Chang and his Momofuku restaurant and Cook book. Everything this man touches becomes an instant phenomenon, with nothing more popular at this stage then his “crack pie.” I’ve had the pleasure of sampling a couple of food blogger’s interpretation of his pie, and both time have been addicted to the rich buttery crust. Upon reading Squishies post on South Restaurant, I’ve been quite intrigued by the Pecan Pie. To enjoy the best of both worlds, I’ve decided to combine a pecan pie filling with the rolled oats crust.

Pecan pie with rolled oats crust

Crust Recipe – Adapted from Los Angeles Times

The recipe is adequate for making 2 pies. Cookie for crust

2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (85gm) flour

Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking powder

Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter

1/3 cup (71gm) light brown sugar

3 tablespoons (35gm) sugar

1 egg

Scant 1 cup (100gm) rolled oats

Spread the mixture onto a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking sheet and bake until golden brown and set, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to the touch on a rack. Crumble the cooled cookie to use in the crust.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy.

Whisk the egg into the butter mixture until fully incorporated.

With the mixer running, beat in the flour mixture, a little at a time, until fully combined. Stir in the oats until incorporated.

Pie Crust

As I’m using the crust for a pecan pie, I’ve adjusted the original recipe a little. To the LA times recipe, I’ve added 1 cup of plain flour, and 60gm of butter.

Crumbled cookie for crust

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 1/2 tablespoons (21gm) brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

Set the prepared crusts aside while you prepare the filling.

Divide the crust between 2 (10-inch) pie tins. Press the crust into each shell to form a thin, even layer along the bottom and sides of the tins

Combine the crumbled cookie, butter, brown sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse until evenly combined and blended (a little of the mixture clumped between your fingers should hold together).
Divide the crust between 2 (10-inch) pie tins. Press the crust into each shell to form a thin, even layer along the bottom and sides of the tins
Set the prepared crusts aside while you prepare the filling.

Pecan Pie filling

Adapted from pioneer woman cooks

2 cup White Sugar

4 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

1/2 teaspoons Salt

2 cup Corn Syrup

2/3 cups Melted Butter (salted)

6 whole Eggs Beaten

1/2 teaspoons Vanilla

2 cup (heaping) Chopped Pecans

Mix sugar, brown sugar, salt, corn syrup, butter, eggs, and vanilla together in a bowl.
Pour mixture into the crust
Liberally scatter pecans over the top of the mixtures, cover the top with a piece of foil before baking.
Bake the pies in a 190 degrees celsius pre-heated oven for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes.
Dip a clean knife into the pie to check if it’s ready. Filling on the knife should be thick and caramel like texture. If mixture is still cream like, return to oven and check every 5 minutes interval.
When done, remove and leave to room temperature, serve with freshly whipped cream.

I was very pleased with the result, the gooey rich filling, combined with the toasted pecan nuts and the buttery crust was just perfect. So much so that my mum who absolutely dislikes desserts that are overly sweet has requested that I bake her a couple more for her friends to try. If you’ve never had pecan pie before, I’d recommend that you give this recipe a go, the rolled oats crust just gives it a bit of a decadent twist.

Just before I go, here is another picture of Max who’s had enough for the day.

Macha Sables

Minh — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:00:59 +0000

There’s something so childishly appealing about green food. All my life I’ve been drawn to the green stuff, be it food colouring or natural vegetables I’ll eat it all. That said, it’s not really surprising that Green Tea is my favourite drink and flavour – I’ve tried everything from Green Tea Kit Kats to Green Tea Chai Lattes (the latter is definitely not recommended!), so when I kept seeing recipes for Matcha Sables (or Diamants) I decided to roll up my sleeves and give them a go.

I’ll never be the baker that Linda is, she seems to live and breathe desserts while mine tend to deflate in the oven after much swearing and destruction of the kitchen. I’d seen the Matcha recipes on various blogs and had fair to medium success, but it was with the last variation found on Evan’s Kitchen Ramblings that I finally hit paydirt.

Success! My dough was beautifully buttery with a brilliant green shade that made me grin. My rolling pin kept getting stuck to the dough as I rolled it out and so I simply rolled it all by hand, resulting in the somewhat haphazard appearance of my sables, but the taste definitely did not suffer in the least. The sables are an almost soft texture, readily crumbling apart with a faint aftertaste of Green Tea.

What better way to enjoy some Green Tea Sables than with… you guessed it, Green Tea!

Opinions were split on the deliciousness of the sables. Sibling A simply declared them ‘Good’ but wasn’t shy in demolishing the box, Sibling B on the other hand scrunched up his face at the bitter Green Tea, ‘YUK!’.

The dough resulted in so many that even with the power of 3 we had no way of finishing them all off. Instead I pulled out some of these nifty little boxes I brought back from my last trip to Japan and proceeded to hand out cookies to friends and family.

Green Tea Sables
Recipe adapted from Okashi by Keiko Ishida

240g cakeflour (chilled)
15g green tea powder (matcha powder)
150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g icing sugar
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks

Makes approximately 24 – depending on your slicing skills.

Sift together the flour and green tea powder twice, put this aside.
Beat together the butter, icing sugar and salt until creamy then add the egg yolks and mix well. Fold in the flour and green tea mix with a spatula. Fold the dough up in cling wrap and let it chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Your dough will be sufficient to create 2 portions. Take each portion and place on a piece of baking paper, then shape the dough into a log shape about 3.5cm in diameter. Chill these in the fridge until firm (I waited about 30 minutes for my first batch).
Pre-heat the oven to 150ºc.
Slice the log into 5mm rounds (optional – using the egg whites left over, brush the sides of the logs and roll them in granulated sugar for a sugary coating).
Place the sables on the baking paper – bake for approximately 25mins. Be careful when baking as the sables can turn brown quite quickly.

Daring Baker’s Challenge, Cannoli

linda — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:00:06 +0000

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

My problem is that I tend to leave things to the last-minute. Unfortunately my daring baker’s challenge was no exception. From the day that Lisa revealed the challenge, procrastination took the better of me, until it was the weekend before the reveal date. The conditions of the weekend allocated for the DBC couldn’t be any worse. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the average temperature of Sunday was 41 degrees Celsius (106 F). Essentially what that meant was I’d have to make something that I’ve never made before, then deep-frying it and filling it, all on the second hottest day ever recorded in November here in Sydney, Australia. That will teach me not to leave things to the last-minute again.

My first experience which soon developed to an obsession (yes I know, another one) with Cannoli started precisely 4 years ago. It was 4 years ago, that I started a new job at a shop which was directly opposite to a beautiful Italian patisserie. Each morning, my request would be a ricotta filled cannoli with a medium cappuccino. I can remember how the cannoli tasted, with its crispy shell encasing an airy mixture of ricotta cheese, doused in a little sprinkle of icing sugar, seems like it was only yesterday. Regrettably, I left that job 2 years ago, and was forced to leave the cannoli behind. Imagine my joy when I found out that this month’s DBC is cannoli, another thing that I absolutely adore eating, but never had the courage to try.(...)
Read the rest of Daring Baker’s Challenge, Cannoli (1,322 words)

Bacon Macaron

linda — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:37:11 +0000

For me, Bacon alone symbolises everything that’s good about this world. With its versatility and impossibility of being cooked incorrectly, I’d dare say it’s a fail proof ingredient. Further to its advantage is obviously the way it tastes. Salty, fatty goodness, all packed in a single strip. There is actually a point to my random babbling about bacon. Sometime last week, I spoke to Billy who mentioned he wanted to try making Macaron with bacon somehow incorporated into it. Macaron and Bacon, sweet and salty. Soft and crispy, what a genius combination.

Bacon Macaron with maple syrup buttercream

On one of the hottest days ever recorded in November I gave the bacon Macaron a go. As Minh, Squishies and Howard looked on with sweat dripping down their face I felt a little pressured. Standing there in the heat are my 3 photographers/taste testers, if I screw this up I know I’d be hearing about my failures at all our future EST outings. Determined not to embarrass myself, I used the recipe that has so far worked for me each time, Black sesame and green tea macaron.

Macaron Recipe

Recipe

110gm almond meal
200gm icing sugar
3 egg whites
30gm caster sugar

Piped macaronage- pre baking

Method

3 days prior to baking the macaron, separate the white from the egg yolk. Allow it to age in the regrigerator by covering it with a cloth or paper towel. On the day of baking, remove from the fridge and allow egg white to reach room temperature before whisking.
Whisk egg whites till it reaches a soft peak, gradually incorporate the caster sugar while beating. Whisk till a stiff peak is achieved (about 3 minutes of medium speed).
Add 1/3 of the previously sifted almond meal and icing sugar into the egg white. With a spatula, mix the mixture, adding the remaining 2/3 of the mixture as you go. Continue mixing until the mixture is well incorporated and is of magma consistency.
Pipe the mixture onto baking paper, leaving a gap of 2.5cm between each circle.
Allow the macaronage to sit for half an hour, this dries out the outer layer- thus when baked forms a crispy shell.
Pre-heat fan forced oven to 120 degrees celsius.
Upon lightly touching the top of the piped macronage, the mixture should not stick to your finger. Once this has been achieved, bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Piping maple syrup buttercream with my Macgyver piping bag

For the bacon sprinkle, I placed to pieces of bacon in the oven at 100 degrees celsius for 10 minutes on each side, or until it’s dried. The bacon is then broken up in to pieces and placed in a spice grinder.

After piping the macaronage, the bacon pieces is liberally sprinkled onto the surface.

Assembling the macaron

When I’m eating something with strange flavours, I love the accompaniment to be simple, as to not overwhelm the flavours of the main dish. As I’m at the stage of experimenting with macaron shells, I prefer the filling to be simple, so I tend to use vanilla buttercream. This time, I instead used Maple syrup buttercream. The smell of maple syrup I feel, always goes hand in hand with bacon.

Upon completion of the macaron, I couldn’t help but dig in to it immediately. At first, you can’t really taste the bacon, however you can tell that the macaron is not as sweet as it usually is. The maple syrup in the buttercream wasn’t immediately detectable either, however upon consumption there was an after taste, just enough to detect the bacon and the maple syrup. Whilst Minh was helping to photograph my Macaron, I couldn’t help but spy Squishies downing the macarons from the corner of my eye.

If you like bacon (who doesn’t), I think you should give this combination a go, I think you’ll be surprised how well the salty bacon goes with the sweet macaron.

eatshowandtell » Dessert Recipes

“This and That” Dessert, My Bistro CBD Experience

Strawberry Tres Leche cake

Black Forest Cake, MasterChef recipe

(...)Read the rest of Black Forest Cake, MasterChef recipe (1,116 words) © Linda for eatshowandtell, 2010. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags:

Caramel Parfait Glace w/ Salted Peanut Caramel & Milk Chocolate Mousse, Masterchef recipe

Caramel Parfait Glace with Salted Peanut Caramel and Milk Chocolate Mousse

Traditional Pudding, Daring Bakers Challenge

Steamed Banana Pudding

Thomas Keller’s Lemon sabayon tart

Lemon Sabayon Tart

Pine Nut Crust (Recipe is adequate for making 3 tarts)

Lemon Sabayon

Pecan pie with rolled oats crust

Pecan pie with rolled oats crust

Crust Recipe – Adapted from Los Angeles Times

Pecan Pie filling

Macha Sables

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Read the rest of Black Forest Cake, MasterChef recipe (1,116 words)

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