Macarons can save your life: FACT.

Posted on April 17, 2012 by skreczmer

I’m not particularly sure when Britain got obsessed with Macarons but I’ve certainly noticed a lot of them about recently. A few years ago the only types of Macaroons I was accustomed to were the coconut English kind that my mum used to get from the bakery, sometimes they were dipped in chocolate and almost always were pressed onto edible rice paper on one side. Soon into gluten free life, these traditional coconut macaroons were presented as the sweet snack alternative that you could pick up at a café.

This blog post however will focus on the up rise of the other French variety: the ‘Macaron’.

Originally born in Italy, Macaron’s developed from a small sweet cookies which mostly consisted of almond powder, sugar and egg whites. They were ‘introduced by the Chef of Catherine de Medicis in 1533 at the time of her marriage to the Duc d’Orleans who became king of France as Henry II’ –(History of Macarons) hence their residence in France now.

The legend has it that apparently the granddaughter of Catherine was saved from starvation by eating these sugary treats. So yeah. Pretty remarkable discs of joy really!

Like the English ‘macaroon’ , French macarons are also mostly gluten free. That’s if the chef hasn’t done some crazy wheat based filling. (Hate when that happens), or like the Macarons in M&S they’ve added wheat and barley. Hmm.

Keep it simple. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, as they say. And although I’d love to have come up with my own magical recipe for macarons I just didn’t think it necessary. These delights are best made the same traditional way. There are different methods and ingredients added by other chefs such as sugar syrup, but as an amateur chef who has a mad kitten running about the place, I simply don’t have the right environment to play around with hot molten sugar and fast-paced washing up.

But really. You don’t have to believe me. They are easy to make. You just have to get everything ready to go before you start.

As I’m experimenting making these for the wedding I’ll add different fillings/recipes to this post when I can. If you don’t like the ‘curd’ texture, just try adding lemon zest and juice to a traditional buttercream.

Voila.

The Macaron I love, French Macarons

Makes around 15 macarons.

Adapted from a recipe in the The Skinny French Kitchen by Harry Eastwood

Macaroon shell ingredients

200g Icing sugar
100g Ground almonds
3 Medium egg whites
Pinch of salt
40g Fine Caster Sugar
Food colouring (paste is best)

Lemon Curd filling ingredients

Juice of 2 lemons
2 tbsp cornflour
40g caster sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
5g butter

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. and line a baking tray/s with very good quality non stick sheets. Mix together thoroughly the icing sugar and almonds in a bowl and give them a good sifting through- this will make sure you don’t get a bumpy lumpy macaron.

2. With an electric whisk or stand mixer, whisk the egg whites with the salt, until you get stiff peaks- you should be able to hold the bowl over your head without it falling on you!

3. Add in the caster sugar and whisk again until stiff and glossy white.

4. Add in the food colouring and whisk again. Make sure you add more than necessary – I found 4 -5 drops best – it may look nearly orange but the oven will pale the mixture quickly.

3. With a spatula, fold in the ground almond and icing sugar mixture gently into the egg whites, until the texture is uniform. Just be gentle and patient you don’t want to beat out any of the air you just whisked into it.

4. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a medium nozzle. If you don’t have a piping bag I don’t see any harm in using a spoon to plop on circular dollops!

5. Carefully pipe circles of mixture on to the baking sheet. Aim for little circles of around 3cm wide, leaving the same amount of space in between each. Tap the pan on the counter top (lift the pan up and let it fall from a little height) once you’ve piped all the discs on to ensure the air bubbles stay in.

6. Set aside for 30 minutes to dry out. When they are ready you should be able to touch the circles without leaving a fingerprint.

7. Cook for 12 minutes in the middle of the oven and leave to cool.

8. Meanwhile, make the filling. Pour the lemon juice in a steady stream over the cornflour, using a teaspoon to incorporate it as you go. When there are no cornflour lumps left, pour this mixture into a small saucepan along with the caster sugar and lemon zest. Bring the mixture to a slow boil, stirring constantly until thickened.

8. Remove from the heat instantly and whisk in the butter. Pour the filling on to a plate and leave to cool.

9. When all is cool, sandwich together two macaroon shells with one teaspoon (or more :P) of the filling. To remove discs off the pan easily you can add a tiny drop of hot water to the corner of the baking sheet to create some steam – which should ease them off.

Eat two, or four, or 15 with tea.

Let’s get ready to crummbbble.

Posted on February 19, 2012 by skreczmer

sultana, apple, crumble, crisp, dessert, gluten, free, stewed, apples, sultanas, what to do with, what to make with, easy, simple, nutmeg

Apples and Sultanas

Sometimes you just don’t have a good cooking week. Mine happened this week. I got all the ingredients prepared for a lovely lentil pasty recipe which I was going to write up for a mid week blog after testing and I was sure that it would turn out perfectly. I made the mistake of putting too much quinoa flour into my pastry dough and it turned out to not come together as I’d hoped, more of a crumbly mess. So there I was, about to fold dough around my wonderful pasty filling I’d prepared earlier and it just collapsed and to quote Eddie Izzard ‘Like a flan in a cupboard’.
Ash looked at me demanding attention (an hours prep time is just too long to last without cuddles) so I sat down, made a cup of tea and felt perplexed at my failed attempt. As with most things, kittens can usually make you feel better.

My fiancé Rob text me and asked me what I’d made for him that was yummy today, and my heart sank-; this is how much I care about my cooking. I was so determined to get something done before he got home (and for own self belief). I immediately put together a crumble, without a recipe at hand, but a note pad incase I came up with something interesting for the blog. I also managed to get some last minute jam tarts in the oven too ☺

Sometimes you have to say to yourself, why make so much effort for something that tastes just as good as a crumble on a cold day?
Voila. Here is my –If everything else goes wrong, store cupboard Apple and Sultana crumble. Perhaps not an inspiring recipe but undeniably, a savior and essential to most of the British.

Apple and sultana crumble

Crumble

50g of plain gluten free flour

40g of gluten free rolled oats

50g of unsalted butter (and a knob extra for topping)

Pinch of nutmeg

Filling:

400g of cooking apples, cored-peeled and quartered.

2 tablespoons of Manuka honey

2 tablespoons of water.

Couple of handfuls of sultanas

4 Cloves

Tablespoon of caster sugar (optional)

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Chop up your cold butter into cubes and rub this into the flour, oats and nutmeg until it forms a crumble. (I must add, that i am terribly lazy and that I’ve found a better crumble is actually made in a mixer or food processor as the butter is distributed evenly; but hey I like to stick to traditional methods, when I haven’t had a disaster previous.)

Pop the prepared apples into a saucepan with the honey, water, cloves and sultanas. Leave to stew for around 15 minutes on a medium to high heat. If you wish this to be slightly sweeter, and more of a caramel, add a tablespoon of caster sugar now.

Place the stewed apples into a pie or appropriate dish and top evenly with the crumble mixture.

Put dots of butter over the top of the crumble mixture to produce a golden finish.

Cook for 30-40 minutes dependent on how golden you like it.

Serve with cream, and more cream.

Brownie stands for comfort.

Posted on February 1, 2012 by skreczmer

I’ve been feeling a bit down lately. Don’t worry it won’t be one of those blog posts, I promise.

My IBS has been giving me a lot of stomach trouble, terrible pains and the worse digestion skills in the world. This is all alongside a lot of stress and worries of finding a job, and fast before I consider myself worthless to the world. Naturally stress and worry makes all forms of IBS worse; it just comes hand in hand.

I sat down today rethinking my whole mental strategy and how I could make this week go any better and although I can only eat them in moderation, I can always feel reassured from a brownie.

There are several reasons why making brownies is good for you.

Lots of mixing involved. I won’t get all scientific on ya’ but all the energy released is good for the ole stress. Plus any aggressions you have at the world you can determine on the strength needed for what your mixing; for example mine tends to go in a rather, Simon Cowell, Unemployment, David Cameron, kind of way. THUS, If I’m mixing together the butter and sugar by hand this is the perfect opportunity to pretend it’s a politician’s brain.

They are adaptable in every kind of way.

From the ingredients you add into them and to the frosting or flavours you put in them. For me this is where my creative energies are released and if the recipe succeeds, even better.

For this brownie recipe I chose to use Macadamia’s, and a peppermint frosting. I just find that when you bite into a macadamia it’s got such a smooth texture, which isn’t at all grainy like a walnut or pecan. The peppermint was a decision I chose to somewhat aid my stomach, as I normally drink peppermint tea after meals which often settles my pains I thought that somehow psychologically it would work in this way too.

For me, one is a good amount.

To satisfy, a good brownie should be very dense and very sugary. One is perfect with a cuppa, firstly for my IBS and secondly for my weight.

So yes, brownies do stand for comfort. You must always abide by this rule however…

Never eliminate chocolate

Dark chocolate and macadamia nut brownies with a peppermint frost.

[Substitution and additional notes: One word of warning, the larger you chop your macadamia nuts the more likely the brownie mixture will break (I found out the hard way, but managed to salvage a good few squares), so although in my pictures they are quite large-give them a chop once more. Flour I would substitute the almond for more all purpose gluten free blend, as it’s a dark chocolate recipe flours such as millet are slightly worthless really as you can’t taste it’s flavour; but by all means if you have nothing else!]

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter

150g coarsely chopped good-quality dark chocolate

40g unsweetened cocoa powder

45g gluten free all-purpose flour

45g of almond flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

½ a teaspoon of Xanthan gum

100g of finely chopped macadamia nuts (use 20g for the topping)

1 teaspoon salt

100g dark brown muscuvado sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Frosting

Cream cheese 100g

40g of soft butter

1tsp of peppermint extract

300g icing sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Butter a loaf tin thoroughly and set aside.

Put butter, chocolate, and cocoa in a heatproof medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until butter and chocolate are melted. Let cool slightly.

Mix together flour,, xantham gum, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl; set aside.

Put sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl and mix.

Add in the chocolate mixture, beat until combined.

Add flour mixture; beat, scraping down sides of bowl, until well incorporated.

Add nuts.

Pour the mixture into the loaf pan. Bake for about 25 minutes but check at 20mins with a toothpick.

Leave it to cool and prepare the frosting!

Peppermint Frosting

Beat the icing sugar and , peppermint essence and butter together until the mixture comes together. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat quickly. Don’t overmix otherwise it will become wet.

Serve whenever you need to feel better again.

Wuthering Bites

Tag Archives: sugar

Macarons can save your life: FACT.

Let’s get ready to crummbbble.

Brownie stands for comfort.

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