Chocolate MACARONS, October 2009 The Daring Baker's Challenge

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

It's been a long time since I made my last macarons, and it's about time to make this delicious treat again. My sister came to visit and I decided to get her involve in the process. She was in charge for the filling and I think she did very well. We really had a lot of fun and of course couldn't stop to eat them as well.

Want to make this macarons? You can find the recipe here.

The challenge?

• My piping technique still need lots of improvement, but I think with lots of practice I can easily fix the problem.

• I made chocolate macarons, by reducing the amount of confectioner's sugar by 3 tablespoon and added 3 tablespoon of Dutch process cocoa powder. I wasn't really sure how it would turn out, but as you can see, it turned out fine.

• The filling was fresh heavy cream (whisk) and good quality chocolate (melted-cooled), then mix the them with rubber spatula. Simple!

Note:

Since I've been successfully making macarons using a more simple (French)? technique, I should really challenge myself to make it using Italian meringue. Especially after I saw how smooth and shiny the macarons using Italian meringue technique. You can check out this post, I am sure you'll agree with me. This will be a lot more challenging for me, we'll see if I can do it!

Thank you to Amy S for hosting this month challenge. I had so much fun and couldn't be more happier with the result. I also want to thank Lisa and Ivonne who created the wonderful Daring Baker's Challenge.

Update:

Dear all,

I apologize if I can not visit your blog asap, as I am on vacation in Italy and Israel for couple of weeks. As soon as I have a change to open my laptop, I'll try to visit each one of you. Cheers, elra.

Simple and Easy Quark Bread

This little bread is so perfect for breakfast for the weekend. Make the dough on Friday night, bake it on Saturday morning. Best eaten while they are still hot or warm with butter and jams.

No yeast this time!

Instead, I use baking powder, you won't notice the different. The texture it almost similar to brioche. Really!

This dough yield about 20 (2 inches) round bread

Ingredients:

10½ ounces quark, pass it through a sieve

2½ cups/300 g flour

5 teaspoon baking powder

1¼ cups/300 g butter

generous pinch of salt

1 egg yolk for glaze

• Sift the flour and baking powder. Make a well in the center, add the quark, butter, and salt and mix them together. Knead the dough until smooth, gather into a ball, refrigerate at least 2 hours.
• Roll out the dough into a long rectangle, fold both of the shorts end inward to the center, then fold together down in the center (like closing a book). Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Then repeat the process one more time, chill the dough for another hour, or leave it to chill overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 400F
• Take out the dough from the refrigerator, roll into 1/4" thickness, score the surface in both directions, cut into 2" rounds. Transfer to a greased baking sheet, brush each pastry with egg wash, and bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Caramelized Apple Strudel

I am a very patient person, especially if I know that at the end everything I waited for is worth more then anything. I have been rewarded to many unbelievable delicious baking and cooking for my patient. For example I have waited for 3 days before I served my Pain d'epice to my family. It was the most delicious pain d'epice we've ever tasted. Pandoro, Panettone, Columba, Tarte tatin, these are few of the many example. I teach my family to wait patiently, before we enjoy them. And of course, many more of my cooking, that I cook for long hours, and serve them the next days. So if you are patient like me, this apple strudel is another example of how rewarding the wait can be. Good thing happen to those who wait... indeed!

Since I have too much puff pastries in my freezer, I thought of using some of it for this caramelized apple strudel. Unlike the traditional apple strudel, this one is my own version, using caramelized apple for the filling. I couldn't believe how delicious, and I was utterly speechless after tasted a piece. Can't convince you more...

Ingredients:

6 - 8 medium Golden Delicious apple

1 cup sugar

2 tbs butter, cut into pieces

1 sheet homemade or store bought puff pastry, thaw if frozen

• Peel and core the apples, then cut into quarter. meanwhile, prepare a large pan over medium low heat. Add sugar to the pan, scattered butter evenly over the sugar. Add the quartered apple, arrange them in circular motion, pack them as tightly as possible. Cook until soft and caramelized, then turn them over, so that the other side is caramelized as well. The whole caramelizing process will take about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the heat of the stove. Cool completely, then let rest in the refrigerator over night up to 24 hours. Bring to room temperature before assemble.
• Preheat oven to 375⁰F. Position the rack of the oven in the middle.
• Floured your work surface area, roll out puff pastry as thin as possible, add the caramelized apple in a single layer at the edge closer to you. Roll it as you would to roll swiss roll. Transfer to a baking sheet.
• Bake for 45 minutes, until the pastry is nicely brown. Cool completely. Serve with crème Chantilly if you prefer (like in that movie, Inglorious Bastard).

ANNOUNCEMENT!

Dear reader,

I will be posting my cooking temporarily in this site as well. I will alternate between the two, and most likely will be posting them once a week on Monday. Unless, if there is some emergency going on. But, I think I can manage to post once a week. It will still going to be delicious cooking and baking.

Cheers,

elra

Green Figs Stew

This fig stew is pretty simple and easy to make. I used green figs from the market since I only have the black variety in my garden.

No need a recipe here, all you do is boil some water and sugar (as much, or as little as you wish), then add the green figs. Cook until soft. Done! Cool before serving. It is delicious on its own, or serve with your favorite ice cream. Mine was pretty nice, a bit chewy like candy.

I know, this photo is misleading because it is not a green type of fig. But, I just want to show you that this type of fig I have it my back yard. I picked some this morning especially for this post.