Joy is....#2

....having a bowl of sweet soup in a hot afternoon.

Macarons

I finally had my first attempt of macaron making!

Been hesitating to bake these for the longest possible time partly due to all the horror stories and failed attempts I've read from food blogs. However, to throw away the egg whites left over from making lemon curd just seems so wasteful....I really had enough of baking and eating chiffon cakes :(

So last nite, I used excel spreadsheet to scale down one of the two macaron recipes I owned. Had decided to go with the italian meringue method as I'm pretty confident of cooking sugar syrup having gotten plenty of practice from making almond brittle. Besides, I just can't imagine myself whipping egg whites by hand which was called for by the second recipe.

The grinding and re-grinding of almonds was fine...so is the pouring of syrup into the beaten egg white. The only thing that really baffled me was the mixing of meringue into the dry ingredients. Every blog and recipe I've read called for the final batter to be smooth and flowing like magma. But how would I know how magma flows since I've never seen an active volcano?! Eh...maybe I could rely on the video recording my geography teacher had shown during lessons many many many many many years ago? Piping was pretty easy as I've drawn a template to be used under the silpat. The recipe didn't specify for the piped batter to be left to dry but I decided to do that since Singapore's weather can be pretty humid.

Not wanting to miss the action, I sat in front of the oven as the macarons formed their feet. It is such a sight to behold. The feet will gradually push the hardened cap upwards as it forms. Of the 30 macaron shells, 6 of them had uneven feet. I wonder if it's due to uneven heating in my oven. Will give it another go tomorrow to see if I can rectify the problem. Wish me luck.

Jamming Session

My first attempt at making strawberry jam.

The jam's colour is of deep ruby red and the taste of strawberries is so intense. It's thick but spreadable straight out of the fridge. I don't think I'll return to the store bought ones after tasting this.

If you're interested to make some of your own, I have modified a recipe from this blog by increasing the sugar to 75% of the strawberries' weight and added in 2 tablespoon of raspberry vodka. Try it, you'll love it!

Where's the sunshine?

Can one suffer from rainy days blues?

It's been raining and drizzling in the last couple of days. Not in the best of moods. Made a simple lunch consisting of brown rice, potato banchan and miso soup.

I wonder how I managed to survive winter time in Melbourne many years back.

I ♥ U

Made 40 of this cookie for my godson N's birthday celebration at the kindy. Had great fun baking and packing them in the wee hours of the night. Cookie man for the little boys and cookie lady for the little girls.

Joy is....#1

....two slices of savoury pumpkin cake, a cup of green tea and the aroma of cookies baking in the oven.