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