Baking Adventures: Zumbo Macarons

Its been at least two years since I last made macarons, but this time I had the handy help of Zumbo packet mix which a friend so kindly gifted me.

Now I've always maintained that the beauty of macarons is partly due to the huge amount of skill required to absolutely perfect the art of making them. So much effort goes into making such a tiny little morsel and also such premium ingredients. Firstly you have the stability of the meringue to deal with, then consistency of the mixtures to ensure you crunchy but not dry shells which do not have hollows, have perfect 'feet', are not burnt or overworked and then a filling that complements that with all the flavours balancing perfectly. My first disclaimer is that having a packet mix really to me only assisted in saving time from having to separate egg whites and measure out ingredients. Ultimately a lot of love and time is required!

Anyway, I took a lot of photos along the way so you could see how they turned out:

You get three packets - one for the meringue (essentially powdered egg whites), almond meal mix and then the filling mix. The fourth item (bottom right) is two piping bags and the circle template.

I started by marking out my circle template on my baking paper. I've actually kept this template because its uber useful and cute! The outer ring is the exact spacing required between your circles so its really easy to use.

This was my final mix in the piping bag - I knew that my meringue mix wasn't stiff enough so I worked it for a lot longer than the directions implied. And then when I put my almond meal mix in, I knew not to overwork it so I didn't complete the last step. That said, I think mine was actually a little more runny than it should've been, but I am always a fan of underworking rather than overworking. I loved having the piping bags included because as you can see it was neat and easy to use and I just threw it away after!

So this might not be the best photo, but this is how many shells I was able to make out of my mix. Definitely more than enough for the '15 servings' implied on the box. Granted, they said it makes 15 so that you could pick out the best 15 pairs of shells.

The shells straight out of the oven. These did not 'feet' as much as the second tray as I didn't leave them out to rest long enough prior to baking (as I was being impatient).

And voila the end result! Keep in mind I didn't pipe the filling (too lazy) and I honestly don't think its necessary, unless you want perfectly evenly filled macarons.

So my verdict -
Are they easy? Indeed, yes they are definitely not difficult.
Are they failsafe? A resounding no here. I mean mine turned out well, but I can imagine a lot of people who think packet mixes would be easy would not appreciate that there are a lot of 'pressure points' to baking macarons as Zumbo points out which could make or break the end product. I have done a lot of research about making macarons so I knew what to do, how to fix potential issues, the temperature control of my own oven and how macarons bake out in that environment.

Ultimately, if you're an at home baker who really wants to try out macaron making then go ahead and use this packet mix as it definitely makes it more 'macaron for dummies' like, but do not expect them to turn out perfectly. Then again, I'm a bit of a perfectionist so others may be OK with how they turn out regardless!

Oh and were they yummy? Well of course, how can salted caramel macarons not be yummy? :)

One for the kitchen goddesses...

I love the Fine Dining Lovers website and blog, especially when they post awesome and cute infographics. This one has been one of my recent favourites, alongside the 'choosing the right type of pasta' and 'alcohol comparisons' ones.

I totally need to get back to my Baking Adventures, don't I? Click on the image to make it bigger :)

Pierre Herme 'Macarons'

If you couldn't already tell from my many mentions of macarons, I absolutely love Pierre Herme creations, especially his beautiful macarons. Whenever I'm in Paris, I just have to eat them everyday and this time I even indulged in London before heading home.

Anyway, his famous cookbook 'Macaron' is notoriously hard to get, being published only in French and Japanese in limited printruns. Well I was shocked to find out just recently that last November he finally released an English version! Yay!

Several years back I got my hot little hands on a French copy, but now I've added an English copy to my heaving bookshelf. Perhaps it is time I use the translation copy to help learn some French?

French and English copy side by side

So do any of you speak French and would you be brave enough to cook a French recipe? Can you believe I started trying to translate my French copy when I first got it (clearly I gave up soon after seeing as I never got very far with that).

Baking Adventures: Scones

Last weekend when I was procrastinating from studying, I decided to satisfy my craving for baked goods by making scones! I love warm fresh-out-of-the-oven scones with beautiful jam and freshly whipped cream and unfortunately so many 'High Tea' places just don't get the scones right, mostly because they're too busy concentrating on the dessert aspects.

Anyway I went for a simple Bill Granger recipe (because he is awesome and he is the King of simple cooking) which substitutes cream for butter so you avoid having to rub butter into flour. It was so simple and within 30 minutes I had fresh scones! (Well...maybe a bit longer because I took a while to get all my ingredients together because I was getting distracted).

Straight out of the oven

With requisite jam and cream :)

Apologies again but the next few weeks my posts will be few and far between as I'm ramping up to what will hopefully be my last exam (!). Stay tuned for my newest NAP shoe purchase though...ordered them on Friday so they should be here by next week!!

Baking Adventures: Anzac Day

In honour of Anzac Day, I decided to bake some Anzac Biscuits to bring to a friend's housewarming. I love store-bought Anzac Biscuits for an afternoon snack, but they still don't beat the homemade chewy crumbly equivalent. I just used a recipe I googled from taste.com because I couldn't find any of my other recipes, so I don't think it's the best recipe but they're still tasty (albeit a bit sweet for my liking). Nothing can beat the smell of freshly baked biscuits in the oven!

I don't get as much time as I would like to bake yummy treats, and really I probably should've been spending the long weekend studying and doing some work (yes, it never ends!) but I couldn't help myself so I also baked some Chocolate Caramel slice. Strangely enough, I really don't like caramel but I love caramel slice. Something about the crunchy base and the chocolate coating with a hint of sweet caramel just tastes so good! I'm used to eating it when friends' mothers make it (Mums know how to make it 'just-right') so it seemed about time to make it myself. They taste good, though they might not look so professional as they were my first go. Excuse my poor cutting skills too, I should've used a sharper knife!

Caramel slice with Anzac biscuits in the background