1 January 2011

New Year's Resolution 2011

Photo courtesy of @mredwardpuzon 

To my dear readers, Happy New Year to you and your family.  2010 has been a great year for me and my family.  It was a good year for eating, cooking and baking.  So many yummy experiences.  I'm looking forward to more good eats and I wish that upon to all of you too.

So... my New Year's Resolution.  To be honest, I was not planning on having one this year. All my previous resolutions did not see through the whole year so I thought it wasn't worth thinking about it this year.  That is until, I was deciding on what sweet to make for our New Year's Eve celebration at my parent's house.  I wanted to make something that I haven't made before.  It also had to be round.  We like to have round dishes on our "media noche" or "Midnight meal" table for good luck in the new year.  It was then I decided to make macarons.  I've made it a couple of times before but the whole process always intimidates me.  It's precise baking.  But I did it and I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

Because of that, I have decided that my New Year's Resolution 2011 is to cook or bake dishes and recipes that have intimidated me in the past.  


A while back I came across "macarons" by Berengere Abraham  The book has great step by step detailed instructions and it's easy to follow. I used the recipe to make the lemon macaron shell but I used AWW recipe for the filling.


I doubled the recipe to make 25-30 macarons depending on how accurate you size them.

Macaron shell:
4 large egg whites
120g ground almonds
220g icing sugar
40g fine caster sugar
yellow food colouring
2 tbl lemon juice

Filling:
80ml pouring cream
180g white chocolate chopped coarsely
6-8 tbl lemon juice (depending on how lemony you like it)

To make the shells
1.  Preheat oven to 150degC.  Finely grind the almonds and icing sugar in a blender or food processor.  Strain the mixture over a baking tin lined with baking papar and cook for 5-7 minutes.  Let cool.
2.  In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites till soft peaks using an electric mixer.  When it starts to stiffen, gradually add the caster sugar, beating constantly.  Add a few drops of food colouring and the lemon juice.  Mix to combine.  Strain the almond-sugar mixture over the egg white and fold carefully.
3.  Fill a piping bag using a round piping nozzle.  Pipe out 4.5cm circles onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.  Let it stand for about 1 hour until a crust forms on the surface.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Let the shells cool, then remove using a small palette knife.

To make the filling
1.  Bring the cream to the boil in a small pot then remove from the heat.  Add the chocolate and stir until smooth.  Now add the lemon juice.
2.  Let stand at room temperature until spreadable.  I found I needed to whip it a little and I also refrigerated it for a while.

When the shells and filling is both cool, spread the filling over half of the shells, then top them with the remaining shells.  Chill for 1 hour before serving.


Is your New Year's Resolution food related?

Bon Appetitie,
Cherrie

Macarons on FoodistaMacarons

10 comments:

/* */ Tangled Noodle said...

Happy New Year, Cherrie! Your macarons look so angelic. 8-)

I haven't actually decided on a New Year's resolution, except that I hope to be more productive and organized in any endeavor, whether it's cooking, blogging or whatever I am doing. Wishing you much success and happiness in 2011!

/* */ leaf (the indolent cook) said...

Your macarons look lovely. Perhaps attempting macarons should be my new year's resolution! ;)

/* */ cusinera said...

Ooohhh wow, beautiful macarons...*sigh* just thinking about making them 1st time makes me run the opposite direction from my kitchen...I should do macarons this 2011 and you inspire me to do it, but am worried with the humidity, does it really affect macaron making?

/* */ Biren @ Roti n Rice said...

Your macaroons look lovely for a first try. I haven't found the courage to try making these yet ;) Happy New Year!

/* */ msihua said...

CONGRATS!! AND I am so jealous if you didn't know already :( So happy that your macs turned out so well!!

/* */ Hannah said...

And you're off to a brilliant start! If I was to bake with a fear ingredient, it'd be yeast... eeep! Macarons might be tastier, though :P

/* */ Alisa-Foodista said...

Beautiful.I came across your site from the foodieblogroll and I'd love to guide Foodista readers to your site. I hope you could add this macarons widget at the end of this post so we could add you in our list of food bloggers who blogged about macarons,Thanks!

/* */ Emma @CakeMistress said...

Happy New Year!
That's a wonderful and brave resolution. And it looks like it's turning out pretty great so far! Can't wait to see what else you cook.

/* */ LadyMacaron20ten said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
/* */ LadyMacaron20ten said...

stuffed the last post so will try again... your macs look great:)

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