Macarons - Fourth time is the charm

I tried and tried, three times - first I did not have the equipment needed, then I did not whisk the egg whites long enough, then I whisked them too much... I felt I'll never get the macarons look as they should but did not give up. After all, they tasted good so nothing was wasted (not in our house with 3 boys that love anything sweet - not to mention the mum)

Fourth time did the charm - I had bought new batteries for my kitchen scale and paid attention to timing. This time they were just perfect, on my home standards anyway. Great way to use the rhubarb curd as well.

Macarons 

175g icing sugar
125g ground almond
3 big egg whites
75g sugar

Whizz the icing sugar and almond together. Whisk the egg whites with the sugar until peaks stay up - not too hard though. If you want to colour the mixture, this is the time.

Mix the almond to the meringue mixture untill you get it falling ribbonlike from your spatula.

Put the mixture into a piping bag with a nozzle 1cm round. Pipe small rounds on the baking paper you've put on top of a baking tray. Once finished, knock the baking tray against the table a couple of times to remove all possilbe air bubbles.

Let the macarons wait about 20-30min before putting them to the oven. They need to form a skin on the top.
Put to oven 150 degrees for 15min, until they are set hard on the top. Let cool.

Fill with the rhubarb curd.

The not so successful

Yes, the name says it all : Chocolate - coconut - pistachio - muffins

 

One of the recipes that caught my eye in the magazine pile was a new take on chocolate muffins. Chocolate-coconut- pistachio sounded exotic and decadent to a point where we just had to try the recipe. And yes, these were delicious, although a bit dry - probably as we did not follow the recipe to the letter due to lack of some of the ingredients. You may want to halve the amount of desiccated coconut in the recipe below... 

Chocolate-coconut-pistactio muffins

75g unsalted, peeled pistachios
150g dark chocolate
75gbutter
3 eggs
150g sugar
150g flour
1tsp baking powder
50g desiccated coconut flakes  (only half of this if you like them moister)

Preheat the oven to 200C. Crush the pistachios and mix with the coconut flakes.

Melt the chocolate and butter together. Mix evenly and let cool.

Whisk the eggs and sugar to form a pale foam. Mix with the flour and baking powder. Add the chocolate mixture and half of the pistachio-coconut mix.

Divide the mixture into cupcake tray. They don't rise just as much as many of the other muffins mixtures so fill the wholes well.

Bake the bigger ones for 20min and the small ones 10-12 min. Let cool for 5 minutes in the tray and move then on a rack.

Delicious with coffee. 

Hazelnut chocolate meringues

Whenever I have some eggwhite leftovers, I seem to make meringues. This time I also had some hazelnut crush and when I hear "hazelnut" my brain immediately thinks of chocolate.

So, there was no way around it. This is what we had for dessert yesterday.

Valrhona is the preferred dark chocolate brand in our house. This time we opted for the fruity Manjari (64%) which was melted and spread on the meringues with a little silicon brush.

What chocolate brands do you find the best to use ?

Meringues are so easy to make and the variation possibilities are endless. Look here for the basic recipe and one of our latest taste experiments.

This is what I wanted for my birthday this year

Traditionally it should have been a cake with cream and candles (more than I care to count), but this year I opted for a lemon meringue tart. And not just any lemon tart. Over the years I've tried numerous recipes but have always returned to this one. My favourite, by far...

I hope you'll like it too :-)

As you can see, my birthday was close to Easter this year - thus the chocolate eggs in the decoration. I tested tempering the chocolate myself, but the conclusion was simply that more practice will be needed on that front. I'll probably come back to it at some later date.

Minna's favourite lemon tart

Base :
250g flour
40g (icing)sugar
175g cold butter in cubes
1 egg yolk
2-4 tbsp cold water

Filling :
3 dl water
1 dl sugar
zest and juice of 2 lemons
4 tbsp Maizena
3-4 egg yolks
20g butter

Meringues : all the spare eggwhites + 2 dl sugar

Rub the flour, sugar and butter into a sandy texture. Add the egg yolk and enough water to quickly form a pastry. Cover in clingfilm and put to the fridge for 15min.

Roll the pastry, fill the tart case (24cm diameter) and put back to fridge for 15min more. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Put the tart case into the oven for 10-15 minutes until it is slightly browned. Leave to cool.

Make the filling. Mix water, sugar, lemon and Maizena into a casserole. Put on a medium heat and stir all the time with a wooden spoon. Once the mixture thickens, let it still cook for a couple of minutes. Take off the heat and quickly whisk in the egg yolks one by one then the butter in cubes. Leave to cool.

Increase the heat of the oven to 250. Spread the filling on the cooled tart base. Whisk the egg whites with the sugar until they form stiff peaks.  Use the piping bag or two spoons to spread the meringue on the tart. Put it to the oven and keep an eye on it for a few minutes, until the meringue is nicely browned.

Decorate the cooled lemon meringue tart as you wish and enjoy.

Salted liquorice meringues - anyone ?

Some time ago we made a cake with the boys.  You know, marzipan butterflies, glitter and all. To change from the normal cream and jam filling, we actually filled it with lemon curd chantilly and salted liquorice. So delicious.

To those who love the salted liquorice I mean. The taste for it seems to be somewhat Finnish. I don't think I know anyone non Finnish who enjoys the black sweets. At least the Husband seems to have some kind of a gagging reaction just by the sight of them.

Anyways, as we had both the egg whites and the salted liquorice leftovers, I decided to make some meringues with black spots.

Nothing is easier to make than meringues. I know, everybody thinks they are difficult, but really - it's just patience you need - and of course a clean bowl, whisk, sugar and eggwhites with no traces of yolk in them. Not being of the patient kind myself, I actually succeeded in making meringues only after I got the kitchen mixer. Now I can just forget it on for a while and do other things.

Minimeringues with salted liquorice

Put the egg whites (3 in this case) to the mixer bowl, install the whisk and put the machine on for a few minutes. You can add a couple of drops of lemon or lime juice if you want. Helps the whites to foam. Empty the dishwasher to keep you occupied.

Add sugar (2-3 dl) and put the machine on. Put the oven on (130 celsius - no fan) Fill the dishwasher with everything in the sink and lying around in the kitchen. Check on the kids (shout from the kitchen - not a good idea to leave the machine alone). When the egg whites have formed stiff peaks the meringue is ready.

You can mix the salted liquorice (Turkish pepper crush here) to the eggwhites now - or just sprinkle it on them before putting them to the oven. You decide.

Use a piping bag or two spoons to get the meringues in the form you want. Put them to the oven and leave for about 30min. Turn the oven off and leave the meringues in to dry for the night.