Day One of Week Long Macaron Challenge

For a while now I have been planning to carry out a macaroon challenge during my mid-sememster break from university. I'm spending the week at College and I thought the challenge would be a good way to keep me motivated on my studies, you know positive constructive breaks. Well the week has now begun and I am proud to say I started the challenge!!

I won't type out the recipe I am following today as I am taking an unschedualed break from study. Hmm maybe macaroons aren't quite so positive and constructive break after all :). But suffice it to say I am following the italian method.

My first attempt took about 2hr to complete, which is not accectable from the point of view of the study schedual, today I have schedualed 1hr (plus an extra half hour to make and eat lunch). So hopefully the process is quicker now that I'm familliar with it. I'll certainly waste less time carrying utensils to the oven and then running back and forth (two flights of stairs, across two builidings) when I forget things as I've left my tools outside Zuko's room (only one flight of stairs away from the oven).

I also managed to waste time sieving my icing sugar and almond meal through a tiny little stainer, but by the end I figured out a nice little trick with a pestle so that should go faster today. Another waste was the panic I expended over the simultaneous egg whipping and sugar syrup. I thought that I was supposed to have the egg white whipped when the sugar reached 110oC, which is not the case one starts whipping at 110 and combines ingredients at 118. Ahh, that explains how the sugar reached 110 at a rate impossible to whip. 

What about this infamous "lava" tecture the batter should have pre-pipping? Well mine wasn't spot on. My recipe said to "keep mixing until the paste is supple and shiny" I mixed for quite a while, finally thinking that I need more information about this step and pipped it irrespective. The result was better then I expected, flat but there were little feet on a lot of the cookies. YAY!

Caramel butter cream macarons

Of course I then hit the internet looking for information on the mixing step. I found that my paste had been over mixed and that while there is no need to be gentle it is possible to mix to long. So today I am going to follow the 30sec check method of julia and tania and the second mixing method they describe. 

I filled my 'macarons' with a salted caramel butter cream and they were delicious. Thank goodness failed macaroons are still edible. 

Stay tuned for Tuesdays efforts!

Pulse

As to the success of my macarons I was plesently surprised with my first attempt. They

If I summarise my day in food photographs it hasn't been that awful...

...Let’s start with Drama dropping in for afternoon tea. She came by to see the rest of the photos from my trip to North America and luckily came supplied with caramel tarts to share. When I woke up this morning my mind had started worrying trying to figure out if I could make GF Madeleine without eggs (as I don’t have any). I am so very glad I did not try, what was surely an ill-advised idea.

Drama tells me these tarts are the simplest to make:
Flour, butter and salt for the pastry,
Condensed milk, golden syrup, butter and for the caramel,
Chocolate and Butter for the topping.

We've all agreed its best not to think what’s in them. Drama's recommendation for GF flour is F.G. Roberts.

It was directly after this afternoon tea that my day took a turn for the worst. That is, a turn straight for the ground.

I was playing dodge ball, not my favourite sport, and sidestepped two throws then became aware there was one coming from above. I dove for the ground, except that my sidestepping had unbalanced me and I face planted, ungracefully. I didn't even dodge the ball!

At first I thought that I'd got a nose bleed, but it turned out to be a cut along the bridge of my nose.

So I've spend the late afternoon and evening feeling sorry for myself. I would like to complain that I had no one to keep me company but I can't call Bilbo Baggins, Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Glion, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur and Thorin no one.

Despite their prodigious appetites, and Bilbo's endless imagination regarding the culinary arts, it took a long conversation with my mom to start me thinking about dinner. When I opened the cupboard, which I expected to be bare I came across a bottle of preserved pears that I had been saving.
 

While taking the pictures I wished that that was cream not light milk thinned out with pear syrup. But it was delicious to eat and I don't think my stomach could have handled anything heavier. It was like a light cold soup with nuts and pears floating in it.
 

With food like this I can't complain.