Macarons and what went wrong

Although previous attempt of making macarons has been successful, I later realized it was however not repeatable. Been trying to troubleshoot by different recipe, folding methods, oven temp adjustments, aged egg...whatever I could think of, I have tried. Including reading and reading all trouble shooting guide about macarons that bloggers and expert shared online. But still, success was not always with me...until I came across something new that I had never read of O_O . A new method of playing with oven temperature to bake those shells that I read from Butter,Flour & Me blog. I felt all hopeful again and my first trial result turns out like that......

Those were green tea macarons ...well I was jumping with joy when feet appear on all of the shells 5 minutes into baking and on both trays that I baked one after another.
Things I did to ensure success was
1. Using egg whites that is aged for 2 days
2. Beat egg white till stiff peak
3. Folding the batter and pressing out those air when the batter is ready and ensuring it is not over folded
4. Tip tap those shells after piping
5. Letting the shells rest for 30 mins till a shell forms
6. Follows exactly the oven temperature settings as instructed in the recipe

I was totally thrilled and damn excited...
Yet I was worried if it was repeatable or was it just pure luck.
Well, I was not totally contented as I did not know which factors contributed to my success and was this repeatable?

So.....here comes my repeat trial and I did some changes
1. Use fresh egg white that is at room temperature instead of aged egg white
2. Popping the shells into the oven without letting it sit to allow shell to form

Apart from the above, I follow the oven temperature steps diligently
Feet develop 5 mins into baking on all shells ^_^

As the original recipe and method is in Chinese, I had it translated to english for benefit of English readers :)

Original Macarons

Makes about 18 to 20 Macarons

Ingredients for Shells
A. Egg white at room temperature 45g, Fine Sugar 50g, Lemon juice Few drops (I omit this)
B. Almond Flour 65g, Icing Sugar 60g


Fillings
Nutella (I made my own chocolate genache)

Methods

1.  Using medium speed, beat egg white till formy, add lemon juice and half of the fine sugar
2. When soft peak begins to form, add rest of the sugar and beat at high speed till stiff peak
3. Meringue should be glossy and when you turn the bowl over, it will not drop
4. Sift in the dry ingredient B in 2 addition, folding gently with a spatula
5. Be careful not to overfold, batter should drop in ribbon stage yet not too runny
6. Press batter using spatula against mixing bowl to release air
7. Transfer batter into pipping bag, cut about 1cm hole at tip of bag
8. Pipe batter onto parchment paper *(I bang tray to release trap air after this step)
9. Allow shells to rest for 15-20mins to spread to its natural round
10. Preheat oven to 200degree C for 15mins, switch off oven and let tray sit in oven with oven door ajar with thick cloth for 3-5 minutes
11. Set oven to 140degree C and switch on oven, remove cloth from ajar oven door
12. Once feet develop (approximately 5 mins), adjust oven temperature to 120 degree C and bake for 3 mins
13. Adjust oven temperature to 100 degree C and bake for another 5 mins  *(I let the temp. stay at 120 degree c and bake till bottom of shells can be easily remove from parchment paper)
14. Leave shell to cool
15. Repeat from step 10 for the next tray of shells if applicable

Pandan Kaya Chiffon Cake

Finally found my long dreamed of tube pan yesterday, and bought it without having any second thought. I felt like a child eager with nothing but just wanna play with my new toy.

Have coconut milk sitting in the fridge which was left over from my previous bake and thus thought I might as well bake another Pandan Chiffon. But a bottle of kaya caught my eyes while I am digging my fridge for the left over coconut milk, and I thought might as well be adventurous. Thus I end up with a Pandan Kaya Chiffon Cake. ^_^

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

Egg yolk batter:

120g coconut milk
20g kaya (would reduce to 10g next time)
40g canola oil (will increase to 50g next time)

1 tsp pandan paste
110g cake flour

5g corn flour

1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
6 egg yolk

30g castor sugar

Meringue:

6 egg white

1/2tsp cream of tartar

50g caster sugar   

1. Preheat Oven at 170°C
2. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar till foamy and add in sugar (50g) gradually.
3. Beat till stiff peak. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, mix coconut milk, kaya, canola oil, pandan paste together
5. Using another separate bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar (30g) till white and fluffy.
6.  add liquid mixture in #4 into egg yolk batter in #5. Mix well
7. Sieve flour, salt and baking powder into batter. Mix well.
8. Add 1/3 of the Meringue to the batter and mix well using low speed
9. Fold in the rest of the Meringue using spatula.
10. Pour batter into a 9" tube pan (do not grease pan)
11. Bang pan on surface twice or more to release air bubble.
12. Baked for 45mins, or when a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.
13. Remove cake in pan from oven and bang pan on surface twice to prevent too much shrinkage.
14. Invert cake in pan to cool to prevent cake from deflating.
15. Remove cake from pan when cool and serve. 

 

 

Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake

Went through few recipes online before I decided to try on happyflour recipe with very minor changes to the method and adding more cream cheese and reducing the amount of butter, also realized I run out of fresh milk and simply added a bit of soya milk as replacement instead. The cake turns out well though :)

 

 

 

Ingredients

Egg yolk batter:

70g milk (I added 50g milk and 20g soya as I run out of milk)
70cream cheese
25g butter
75g cake flour

5g corn flour

1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 egg yolk

40g castor sugar

Meringue:
4 egg white
1/4tsp cream of tartar
40g caster sugar
   

1. Preheat Oven at 170°C
2. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar till foamy and add in sugar (40g) gradually.
3. Beat till stiff peak. Set aside.
4. Using double boiler method, melt butter and cream cheese with milk.
5. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar (40g) till white and fluffy.
6. Strain milk mixture in #4 and add into egg yolk batter in #5. Mix well
7. Sieve flour, salt and baking powder into batter. Mix well.
8. Add 1/3 of the Meringue to the batter and mix well using low speed
9. Fold in the rest of the Meringue using spatula.
10. Pour batter into a 8" tube pan (do not grease pan)
11. Bang pan on surface twice or more to release air bubble.
12. Baked for 40 to 45mins, or when a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.
13. Remove cake in pan from oven and bang pan on surface twice to prevent too much shrinkage.
14. Invert cake in pan to cool to prevent cake from deflating.
15. Remove cake from pan when cool and serve. 

Rosette Peach 2 Tier Cake

This peach cake with peach whipped cream and slices of peaches filling, and frosted with peach cream cheese frosting was a delight.
The vanilla sponge recipe was adapted from here (the best white cake recipe), while the cream cheese frosting was adapted from allrecipes. I must say the white cake n the cream cheese frosting recipes will be the recipes I am gonna sticked to now on. ;)

Oh...the rosette was piped using Wilton 1M tip. 

 

 

 

White Coffee Chocolate Chiffon Cake

 This cake is my son's favorite with the rich aroma of coffee and chocolate.

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

Egg yolk batter:

4 yolks

25g sugar
90g Cake flour

7g corn flour (optional)

10g unsweetened Chocolate powder

pinch of salt
1tsp baking powder
50g canola oil
100ml white coffee (boiling water + one packet of 3in1 white coffee, I use ah huat brand)

 

Meringue:
 4 whites
 50g sugar
 1/4 cream of tartar
  

1. Preheat Oven at 170°C
2. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar till foamy and add in sugar gradually.
3. Beat till stiff peak. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar till white and fluffy.
5. With another separate bowl, mixed canola oil and coffee together.
6. Add liquid mixture in #5 into egg yolk batter in #4. Mix well
7. Sieve flour, chocolate powder, salt and baking powder into batter. Mix well.
8. Add 1/3 of the Meringue to the batter and mix well using low speed
9. Fold in the rest of the Meringue.
10. Pour in batter into a 8" tube pan (do not grease pan)
11. Bang pan on surface twice or more to release air bubble.
12. Baked for 40 to 45mins, or when a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.
13. Remove cake in pan from oven and bang pan on surface twice to prevent too much shrinkage.
14. Invert cake in pan to cool to prevent cake from deflating.
15. De-mold when cake is cool

Pandan Chiffon Cake 2

 

Baked Pandan Chiffon Cake again after trying a bite of Bengawa Solo's version of the cake, and decided to baked it my way as I do not really like the hassle I went through for my first Pandan cake nor does it taste as ideal as I want it to be.

Well...my own improved version is definitely far far better in taste, texture compared to my first, minus all the hassle of blending pandan leaves or squeezing fresh coconut milk.

 

 

 

Ingredients

Egg yolk batter:

4 yolks

50g sugar
100g Cake flour

7g corn flour

pinch of salt
1tsp baking powder
 40g canola oil
100ml coconut milk (I use Heng Guan fresh natural coconut milk)

1.5 tsp of pandan paste (Do not use Pandan essence)

 

Meringue:
 4 whites
 35g sugar
  

1. Preheat Oven at 170°C
2. Beat egg whites till foamy and add in sugar gradually.
3. Beat till stiff peak. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar till white and fluffy.
5. With another separate bowl, mixed canola oil and coconut milk and pandan paste together.
6. Add liquid mixture in #5 into egg yolk batter in #4. Mix well
7. Sieve flour, salt and baking powder into batter. Mix well.
8. Add 1/3 of the Meringue to the batter and mix well using low speed
9. Fold in the rest of the Meringue using a spatula.
10. Pour in batter into a 8" tube pan* (do not grease pan)
11. Bang pan on surface twice or more to release air bubble.
12. Baked for 40 to 45mins, or when a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.
13. Remove cake in pan from oven and bang pan on surface twice to prevent too much shrinkage.
14. Invert cake in pan to cool to prevent cake from deflating.
15. De-mold when cake is cool

* If you do not have a tube pan and is using a normal baking pan, use 5 whites 4 yolks to help the cake rise better.

Macarons

I can never understand why macarons were so much loved by most until I tasted one myself not long ago. My journey of baking macarons has not been an easy one, but I have never given up either as I do have a motivating factor to perfect them. Hehehe...and until only severals attempts do I finally managed to bake a batch yesterday night with those proud 'feet'.

Macarons shell recipe was adapted from joy of baking and I added red gel coloring to the recipe, while pistachio white chocolate ganache recipe was from Byron Talbott youtube channel and website here.

 

Green tea chiffon cake

Have a bottle of green tea powder sitting in the kitchen cardboard for a while, what better way to use it than on one of my cakes. ^_^

The result was really unexpectedly awesome,  loves the taste and the scent of green tea with each bite.


 

 

 

Ingredients

Egg yolk batter:

4 yolks

50g sugar
90g Cake flour

7g corn flour

10g Green Tea Powder

pinch of salt
1tsp baking powder
50g canola oil
100ml milk

 

Meringue:
 4 whites
 40g sugar
  

1. Preheat Oven at 170°C
2. Beat egg whites till foamy and add in sugar gradually.
3. Beat till stiff peak. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar till white and fluffy.
5. With another separate bowl, mixed canola oil and milk together.
6. Add liquid mixture in #5 into egg yolk batter in #4. Mix well
7. Sieve flour, green tea powder, salt and baking powder into batter. Mix well.
8. Add 1/3 of the Meringue to the batter and mix well using low speed
9. Fold in the rest of the Meringue.
10. Pour in batter into a 8" tube pan (do not grease pan)
11. Bang pan on surface twice or more to release air bubble.
12. Baked for 40 to 45mins, or when a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.
13. Remove cake in pan from oven and bang pan on surface twice to prevent too much shrinkage.
14. Invert cake in pan to cool to prevent cake from deflating.
15. De-mold when cake is cool.