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Weekly Goal Update – 17 February 2013

8:00:00 pm

Baking Partners, Food

A not-so-successful attempt at French Macarons :-( (Baking Partners Challenge #7)

1:09:00 pm

Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m really glad I joined the Baking Partner’s group. It has challenged me to make things I’ve never tried before – the first challenge I undertook was the first time I dealt with beating egg whites, the second one was the first time I made pie pastry and the third one (i.e. this one) is my first attempt at macarons.

To be honest, I have never seen or tasted a macaron in real life, though I’ve seen many pictures on the internet. The first time I heard of them was after I started visiting food blogs J. Anyway, I’ve always been in awe of the bakers who made them – round, colorful, shiny little things with yummy fillings and the legendary light texture.

When I got this month’s challenge, I was excited and scared. I did a lot of research – food blogs, tutorials, videos, troubleshooting tips etc. At a single glance, it appears deceptively simple – all you need is almond flour, sugar and egg whites!! Just beat the egg whites and mix in the almond flour-sugar mix, pipe into circles and bake!! And then fill them up with whatever catches so fancy. Real simple, right?

WRONG!!! Every step in macaron making is like walking a tightrope. Now I realize the amount of talent successful macaron makers must have! I tried everything to the best of my google-gained macaron knowledge, but they failed me nevertheless. I must admit, this is the most effort and research I’ve ever put into a dessert and because of that, it turned into the most demoralizing baking experience I’ve ever had as well L.

Well, people do say that you might have to try it 20 times to get it right, macarons are that temperamental. And this is only my first attempt, so I guess I should cheer up a bit. My second and third batches were certainly edible, although they were far too sweet for my taste. That is another reason I’m hesitating from trying this again. But for now, I’ll tell you exactly what I did, so novice macaron makers know what they’re getting into and seasoned macaron-makers can tell me where I went wrong J.

What I used:

125 g icing sugar

75 g whole almonds

60 g egg whites (used about 2 and a half medium eggs)

Pinch of Cream of Tartar

20 g superfine sugar

What I did:

1. I separated cold eggs, and then let the egg whites come to room temperature.

2. I poured boiling water over the almonds just to cover them. Let them lie for just 1 minute and then drained, rinsed and drained again.

3. I peeled off the almonds easily and then let them dry a bit.

4. Powdered the dry, blanched almonds with the icing sugar, so the almonds didn’t turn to butter. I whizzed in the small mixie jar twice, for about 15 seconds each time.

5. Sifted the almond sugar mix twice.

6. Pulsed the large almond pieces again, and sifted again.

7. Added cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat till nice and foamy.

8. Added the superfine sugar, 1 tsp at a time and beat till stiff peaks formed. At this stage, I turned my bowl upside down and the egg whites didn’t fall J.

9. Sifted and added the almond sugar mix in three batches, each time mixing with a spatula using a CUT-FOLD-ROUND motion.

CUT

FOLD

ROUND

10. Stopped when everything seemed mixed together. Tried my best to minimize mixing.

11. Drew 2 inch circles on parchment paper to make a stencil of sorts.

12. Placed another parchment paper on the circle paper on top of a baking tin and began to pipe.

13. Piped inside the stenciled circles and removed stencil sheet from under when done.

14. Tapped the baking tray a few times to remove air bubbles. Removed remaining bubbles with a toothpick and let it rest for an hour.

15. It didn’t form a crust or anything, but they weren’t sticky anymore.

16. Preheated oven to 160° C and put them to bake.

Result:

I put in the macarons in three batches. The first batch was baked at 160° C for 12 minutes. I let them cool and then tried taking them off the parchment. The paper stuck like glue and then the cookies started to break. I tried spraying the underside with water, but nothing helped.

First Batch Baked

They didn’t have flat undersides which according to the internet, means they’re undercooked. But they did appear to have some semblance of ‘feet’ so I was partly mollified.

I mixed the batter a little more before piping the second batch, so it was a little runnier and spread on the baking sheet. It went in the oven at 160° C for 15 minutes. This time, the parchment peeled off with little effort, but the undersides were still undercooked.

So the final batch was put in at 170° C for 20 minutes. The parchment came off easily, the cookies were a little browned with some cracked tops but the underside was still not flat.

Disaster. So much pain for nothing. I had some ganache leftover from my valentine cupcakes, so I tried to sandwich the cookies together. The texture of the cookie itself wasn’t that bad, but it was altogether horribly sweet. Like I said, I’ve never tasted a macaron before, so I don’t know if it is supposed to be that sweet.

After screaming internally for a while, I sat and thought about what I did and where I might have gone wrong.

Where I think I went wrong:

1. My almond flour was probably not fine enough. I should have pulsed a few more times in the mixie.

2. I should have mixed more – many blogs show a slightly runny batter – mine was quite thick and a little grainy.

3. 2 inch circles were too big. Should have stuck to 1 inch.

4. Something was wrong with my temperature setting and how long I baked my cookies.

Experienced bakers, please, please tell me what I did wrong. I’m not sure I’m going to try this any time soon, but I’d like to know for future reference J.

Check out other bloggers' macarons here!

Food

Recipe for the Week – Devil’s Food Cupcakes

6:57:00 pm

You know there are some things that you keep coming across and you always feel like you’ve got to try it out someday. Like a particular dress, hairstyle, craft, recipe, place to visit etc. I have many recipes in my ‘Got to try one day’ list. You can see Brown Eyed Baker’s ‘bucket list of kitchen conquests’ here, which includes many in my list too J

One dessert that always makes me drool is Devil’s Food Cake. Ever since I saw Nigella Lawson effortlessly bake her way to what must be heaven on taste buds, I was hooked. My eyes went rolling round and round in circles and I wanted to taste it then and there. (Just a small example to describe the effect Nigella can have on you from continents away).

Anyways, I love anything to do with chocolate and was wondering what chocolate recipe to post as a Valentine’s day special. All the more, since Foodelicious is hosting an event ‘Cooking for my Valentine’, which..wait for it….is also accompanied by a giveaway by Cuponation!! The winner of the event gets a Flipkart voucher worth Rs. 1000. Isn’t that awesome!!

So then I thought why not Devil’s Food. However, though Nigella Lawson’s recipe is my inspiration, I went with Martha Stewart’s recipe and shamelessly adapted it to make it slightly easier and less sweet. The basic elements of a Devil’s Food Cake – cocoa instead of chocolate and hot water to mix – were present, so I didn’t deviate much J. The result was more than satisfactory. A moist, chocolaty cake, ideal for chocolate fanatics like me. If you ever try this, don’t you dare skip the ganache – makes all the difference!!

Note1: With the quantities mentioned below, I got 12 small cupcakes and an 8” cake. You can go with more cupcakes or make a double layered 8” cake (Yum!!!).

What you’ll need:

3/8 cup of unsweetened cocoa

90 ml of hot water

1.5 cups of flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp coarse salt

3/4 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature (see alternative below)

If you don't have sour cream, use the following recipe to substitute for 1/2 cup sour cream:

1/2 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice

90 ml of milk, at room temperature

40 ml of melted butter, at room temperature

Add the vinegar to the milk and let sit for about 5 minutes, till it starts to curdle.

Add the melted butter and mix well.

What you’re going to do:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.

2. Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

3. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium-low speed, till creamy.

4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

5. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined.

6. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just combined after each.

7. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three quarters full.

8. Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating tins halfway through. Test by inserting a toothpick in the centers and see if it comes out clean.

9. Cool in tin for 15 minutes, then turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely.

10. To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting.

Frosting:

125 g dark chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup cream

Heat the cream and turn off the heat as soon as it starts to boil. Pour over chocolate pieces and stir till completely melted and glossy. Cool and spread on cupcakes/cake with a spatula. If you spread while still a little warm, they’ll drip down the sides. If you want it to stay put, refrigerate for some time. Either way is yum!!

Note2: For a cake, the baking time will increase considerably. It took me about 40 minutes for the cake and 20 for the cupcakes.

Garnish to your heart’s (pun intended) desire!!

These cupcakes keep well overnight at room temperature. If refrigerating, take them out in advance and allow to come to room temp. I’ve tried this and trust me, they taste just as luscious J. I am so glad I made these – I’ve now found my go to recipe for chocolate cake!!

Do try this out and let me know how it turned out for you. Is there any dish that you’d really like to try out someday??

This recipe is a participant in the following events:

'Celebrate Love' event hosted by The Mad Scientist’s Kitchen from the 'Series of Celebrate' organized by Jagruti’s Cooking Odyssey

'Cooking for My Valentine' event at Foodelicious

This also includes a giveaway by Foodelicious and CupoNation, with Flipkart Vouchers to be won!

'Sweet Luv' event at Cook’s Joy

'Valentine’s Treat' event at Cuisine Delights and Spotlight at Recipe Junction.

‘I Must Make That’ event at A Cook @ Heart

This is also a recipe contest, where you can win Flipkart Vouchers from CupoNation!

Fashion

Pre-Ban Haul and Some News :-)

5:48:00 pm

So, you must be wondering where I disappeared off to. I didn’t disappear anywhere but had a few health issues to deal with, so I decided to take some time off to relax.

I had been feeling really lethargic and tired for some time, and I was finding it hard to complete my workouts. I was sleepy ALL. THE. TIME. And I wasn’t feeling up to doing anything at all. So after some tests, my thyroid levels were found to be high, i.e. hypothyroidism. That explained a lot, including my stubborn weight gain J. And then I went and banged my head against a wall (accidentally, I’m not psycho) and then went and got a scan for it. Sigh!!

So, I’ve started medication for my thyroid and am feeling better now. I had stopped my workouts because of all this, but I might restart them next week, albeit slowly.

And some news from my family – my brother is getting engaged this weekend!!! It was actually kind of sudden, which was another reason I was occupied the past week J.

For those of you who don’t know: my brother is a doctor, currently doing his Post Graduation in Surgery at Kozhikode, Kerala. His bride-to-be is also a doctor, a House Surgeon at Mangalore, Karnataka and she’s also a distant relative. The wedding date is not fixed yet, though it’ll probably be in the latter half of the year. Boy, I can’t describe how excited I am!!

Anyway, coming to the present. I had an okay time during the sales, didn’t go crazy or anything. Cub and his Dad actually did most of the shopping. Reading about Tanvi’s shopping ban, I was mentally already cutting down!!

So I’ve decided to join the shopping ban along with Tanvi and many others, and I start from today, Feb 1^st, and plan to continue till March 31^st. I’m planning to follow Tanvi’s rules with two exceptions:

a. I’ll probably get new specs

b. I’ll have to get my sis a birthday gift next month

Also, I have a couple of orders pending delivery, so I’m not counting them. Considering the ban, I got myself some basic stuff from the sale season:

Pair of black jeans from Lee:

I love the stretch material – so soft and comfortable. I honestly think a pair of black jeans is a must in everyone’s wardrobe!

A traditional wooden bangle stand to organize my bangles:

If you have the space for it, this is another must have in my opinion. After stacking up my bangles, I was shocked at how many I have!! After this exercise, I still have a box full!

Some dull metal bangles and shiny stone earrings from Sweet Meat Street (S.M. Street or Mittai Theruvu) in Kozhikode:

Mittai Theruvu is a cool place for street shopping in Kozhikode, you get pretty stylish accessories for half the price as in stores!! There are loads of Anarkali-type salwar suits too, but the footwear isn’t much to write home about.

I also got some cotton tunics for the coming season:

These two from Westside:

And this floral one from the online store Koovs:

Koovs has some pretty decent stuff at extremely affordable prices. They also ship quickly and the product arrives well packed. The sizing is a bit off, however. This top was almost two sizes too big for me and I had to get it altered. Along with all this, I got a pair of comfortable black sandals and a pair of beige wedges.

So I’m all set for the shopping ban J. I’ve made a list of outfits I would like to try with the clothes already in my wardrobe. If you’re planning to do the same, Imogen’s FABruary challenge might help. There are themes for every day of February, starting with ‘Arm Candy’ for day 1. This is a great idea to start thinking creatively about our clothes!!

Another helpful hint is to organize all your stuff – yes, every single thing – clothes, bags, jewelry, watches, makeup. You’ll be surprised at how much stuff you own, like I was after getting my bangle stand!! Not to mention the joy of rediscovering old, forgotten pieces J

Any of you participating in the shopping ban?? Tanvi hosts a weekly link up on her blog, so you can read about how others are faring too. Don’t forget to grab her ‘Shopping Ban’ Button!!

Newer Posts

Older Posts

Outfit Post – New Navy!

Weekly Goal Update – 17 February 2013

A not-so-successful attempt at French Macarons :-( (Baking Partners Challenge #7)

Recipe for the Week – Devil’s Food Cupcakes

Pre-Ban Haul and Some News :-)

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