Going Bananas for Brownies...

Every once in a while there comes a perfect meeting of ideas that leads you to finding something fantastic. I recently had one of those moments...

A few months ago Dear Hubby asked me to make him a carrot cake. Now to my shame I had to confess that I had never actually made a carrot cake before. I know, crazy that such a popular cake, and one that I'm also rather partial to myself, had never found its way into my oven and so I agreed to make one for him. He did have one stipulation...no sultanas.

Every carrot cake I had eaten until then had sultanas in it but it was by no means a deal breaker so I went hunting for recipes. It seems that the general consensus is that carrot cake should have sultanas (or raisins) in it. I did manage to find one recipe with no sultanas in Mary Berry's Baking Bible but unlike all the other carrot cake recipes I had found it did contain bananas. Ripe bananas in fact. Now I just happened to have some bananas in the fruit bowl. Very ripe bananas.

lovely ripe banana...perfect for baking

I am something of a sucker for a bargain when I am shopping, and I can't resist an offer in the supermarket and so for a while we found ourselves with more bananas than we could eat before they started going a little mushy. Luckily as it turns out, over-ripe slightly mushy bananas are perfect for carrot cake. I actually ended up making quite a few carrot cakes over the next few weeks. Yes, this recipe is that good. So good that I actually bought more bananas and let them get overripe on purpose so that I could make more carrot cake. Over the next few cakes I tinkered with the exact quantities of banana a little and added some spices to give it a bit of a zing and I prefer my frosting a little less runny than Mary Berry's but the original recipe was so good I have to give credit where its due and say that for now I'm not posting the recipe but you can find the original in Mary Berry's baking bible. When I've refined my tinkering (and taken some blog worthy photos) I will post my version, but for now I've made so many that carrot cake is temporarily off the menu...  but thats how I found myself here, with another lot of overripe bananas and no carrot cake on the menu. I had to find something else to use up the bananas.

One thing I had noticed during the great carrot cake frenzy was how the amount of banana affects the density of the cake. As Mary's original recipe asked for two ripe bananas but gave no indication of how ripe or how big the bananas should be I played around a little with the amounts of banana depending of how much I had available and I started looking into other recipes that used bananas. Of course banana bread was an option, and I found numerous recipes for banana cake, but I also found bananas listed in an article about substitutions for vegan baking. It seemed that banana is a great substitution for egg, for the most part bananas will do all the same jobs that egg does in a cake if not quite as successfully. Even though you won't get the same texture as a cake made with egg you'll still get a good cake but if you add a bit too much banana you do run the risk of the texture being a little dense. The carrot cake had both egg and banana in the mix and had a slightly dense texture which I rather liked, still retaining some of the lightness you get from an egg based cake but with the moisture that bananas bring. I realised that the perfect recipe to play around with swapping out some eggs for banana was brownies. Brownies are another thing that also passed me by in my youth, of course I enjoyed eating them but much to Dear Hubby's surprise I had never made them myself. Again, Mary Berry came to the rescue. I had previously tried the Chocolate Chip Brownies from Mary Berry's Baking Bible and they were an absolute hit, already quite dense and moist with an intense chocolate flavour which I thought would stand up well to the addition of banana. Let's face it, if you add a large quantity of very ripe banana to something the chances are that the end product will taste of banana.

Well what can I say...the Chocolate Banana Brownies were a total success. I've made a few batches and shared them around freinds, neighbours and work colleagues and everyone loved them. I've made some plain and some with additional flavourings such as peanut butter or speculoos spread swirled in and they were all amazing. And the best bit, they are super moist and gooey. The banana seems to stop them from drying out. I had one batch on the kitchen counter for almost a week, just wrapped in foil, not even in an airtight container, and they were still really moist and delicious. They also freeze really well so they're great to have on standby for unexpected visitors (or midnight snacks) just defrost them in the microwave on the lowest setting for 8-10 minutes, depending on how warm you want them, and they will still be wonderfully moist.

Chocolate Banana Brownies

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Brownies

This is enough for two 7" square tins
(I use the shallow ones with a slightly sloping side, they're 7" across at the bottom and 8" at the top)

makes 32 brownies, 16 each tin.

You will need:

3 large eggs

250g ripe bananas, mashed

412g unsalted butter, softened

562g caster sugar

150g self raising flour

112g cocoa powder

Optional:

160g dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan160C. Line the baking tins with foil backed baking parchment, foil side down. There is no need to grease the tins if you use this lining.

2. Mash your bananas well in a small mixing bowl until no large pieces remain. If you have frozen your bananas you may find that some liquid has separated from the flesh. If this happens, use a hand mixer the beat the banana until the liquid is blended with the flesh.

3. Add the eggs to the banana and beat well, this helps ensure an even distribution of the banana in the final mixture.

4. Put the butter, sugar, flour and cocoa into a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, and pour the banana egg mixture over the top. This helps prevent a cloud of cocoa and flour escaping when you start to mix. Beat the mixture, slowly at first until the dry ingredients start to incorporate, and then keep mixing until mixture is evenly blended. If you are adding chocolate chips, add them to the bowl now and mix for a few seconds more until they are evenly distributed.

Divide the mixture equally between the two tins, ensuring that it reaches all the corners, and then level the top to ensure even baking.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until the brownies start to develop a crust on top. A skewer should come out clean. If the brownies start to get a little too crispy on top before they are baked through, cover loosely with foil for the final 10 minutes of baking.

...delicious spoonfuls of peanut butter peeking out of the brownie batter...

Leave to cool in the tin then lift out in the parchment lining and divide each batch into 16 pieces. The brownies can be stored in the parchment with a little extra foil wrapped around. There is no need to keep in an air tight tin as they will stay wonderfully moist for at least a week.

If you wish to freeze some brownies, divide into small portions and wrap in foil. To defrost, leave out at room temperature overnight or remove from the foil and defrost in a microwave on the lowest setting for 8-10 minutes.

You can omit the chocolate chips entirely if you wish or replace them with an alternative of your choosing. Why not try swirling salted caramel sauce or chestnut jam through the mixture once it is in the tins. Or maybe spoon small amounts of peanut butter or speculoos spread into the top of the brownie mixture. You could even pipe dots of peanut butter onto a tray and freeze it, then mix into the brownie batter instead of the chocolate chips. 

The Great Biscuit Bake Off...

Tiki's Bakehouse biscuits

I have to admit I am rather partial to a biscuit or two with my cup of tea or coffee, if it's a biscuit that will stand up to being dunked then even better.

Since being bitten by the baking bug a few years ago, after watching too many episodes of The Great British Bake Off, I have slowly been switching from buying in my sweet treats to baking them myself and it has to be said that home made really knocks the socks off mass produced where cakes are concerned so it made sense to apply the same theory to biscuits.

I hadn't really baked biscuits in many, many years. I remember as a kid I would raid the cupboards for anything I could find. Flour, oats, syrup, sultanas, milk...sometimes I remembered butter sometimes I didn't...my ingredient list was random and the quantities undefined but somehow I managed to bake something vaguely edible. Usually they turned out resembling something similar to a flapjack. Well they must have been ok as my two older brothers usually managed to eat most of them despite the faces that they pulled and the cries of "that looks disgusting" when I proudly took my creations out of the oven. Since then I've dabbled with an occasional gingerbread man at Christmas (and carbonised quite a few of them) and more recently, at Dear Hubby's request, I made a few attempts at finding a recipe for the perfect soft bake chocolate chip cookie (still not found the perfect recipe yet) but, despite owning more cookie cutters than I know what to do with, as far as home baking is concerned I hadn't really paid biscuits much attention.

Once upon a time I would have been happy with just a handful of McVitie's Rich Tea biscuits to accompany my cup of tea but nowadays I prefer something a bit more interesting. I had fairly recently discovered La Mere Poulard biscuits, my attention having been drawn to the oh so pretty tins, but the biscuits and cookies inside were absolutely delicious. Made to old French recipes they were flavourful without being too sweet. I was hooked. I just had to learn to bake my own biscuits. I pored over my recipe books trying to find the perfect recipe but I couldnt decide what to try first. Just so many recipes to choose from, and I had quite a few that were at the top of my list. Mostly recipes from my french recipe books. One in particular was the Petit Beurre biscuit, the picture in the recipe book looked so good I wanted to pluck one out of the page and eat it right there and then. It had to be the first one I would try.

So I finally got myself into the kitchen and had a go at making my own biscuits. Tiki's Bakehouse biscuits! I had not long before got my hands on some cookie cutters that you can put your own message in the stamp so I could really make these delicious biscuits my own. Well ok, I admit, it's not my own recipe but I've adapted the method a little to suit using a mixer. If like me you have rather warm hands, which melt the butter as your working the dough, then you might prefer this method. You can mix the biscuit dough by hand if you wish, in fact that's the method given in the recipe book, but I have particularly warm hands so I used a stand mixer. 

Petit Beurre Biscuits

Petit Beurre...up close and personalised

These biscuits are very similar to a shortbread biscuit but are rolled out much thinner than the Scottish variety and have a creamier flavour. They are really simple to make and taste delicious.

(Adapted from a recipe in 'The Art of French Baking by Ginette Mathiot)

Makes approximately 18 biscuits

100g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed (plus a little extra for greasing)

250g plain flour (plus a bit extra for dusting)

50g caster sugar

Pinch of salt

100ml double cream

Preheat oven to 180C

Grease two baking trays with butter or line with non stick baking paper.

Put the flour and butter into the mixer bowl and mix on a very slow speed for approximately 5 minutes until the butter is thoroughly mixed in and the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

Make a well in the centre of the mixture and put the sugar and salt into the well first and then the cream. Putting the cream in last helps it mix with the dry ingredints rather than just coating the mixing bowl.
Mix on a slow speed until all the ingredients are evenly combined and the dough starts to bind together.

Take the dough from the bowl and knead just a little to make sure dough is smooth. 

Leave the dough to rest in a covered bowl at room temperature for about an hour. 

Dust the work surface with flour. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 5mm.

Cut out rectangles approximately 5cmx10cm, either by hand or with a cookie cutter, and place on the baking tray. 

Prick the surface with a fork to prevent them rising up and help them bake evenly.

Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, until pale golden brown.

Remove from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.

Once cooled, enjoy with a nice cup of tea or coffee.

Back to the beginning...

Guilty as charged.

 Well there's no denying I've been gone for a while, I guess I fell into the bloggers curse and for one reason or another I got a bit of writers block. My original plan was to document my ups and downs of learning to make macarons and encourage a few more people to get their hands sticky and have a go themselves but somewhere along the way I lost my macaron mojo. The big thing was really that my oven started playing up, and a temperamental oven might be still useable for cooking your dinner or even a nice fruit cake but for macarons its downright bloomin' irritating! Cracked or hollow macarons, undercooked on one half of the tray burned on the other...frustrating isn't the word. I was half way through writing my macaron basics tutorial and half way to giving up. I had lost all motivation to keep writing but I didn't give up baking!

The latest batch
...baked in my lovely new oven.

 I haven't given up on macarons but I have been up to all sorts of other adventures which you'll hear more about in time. In an attempt to get my mojo flowing again I actually took a class on macarons and I surprised myself how well I did and I learned a few things that set me off experimenting again, I even managed one half decent batch in my old oven. I've got a shiny new oven now so the tutorial is back on the shortlist of projects, I've had one successful batch of macarons from the new oven but I've got a few other things I want to try out before the tutorial is ready to be set free.

So what else have I been up to?

 A bit of everything really. I've been learning how to make bread, after watching far too many episodes of Great British Bake Off I finally ended up jumping in at the deep end and my first attempt at bread was the 8-stranded plait. 'Insanity' I hear you cry, and well it wasn't exactly what I would call a success but it was definitely a starting point and since then I've been learning a lot about Sourdough and I'm learning more and getting better all the time. I've been making and decorating fruit cakes for xmas and family birthdays and I've been getting more interested in cake decorating but that is something I've yet to properly dive into. I'm always on the look out for interesting recipes for tasty bakes and treats, I'll be sharing lots of these in my posts.

 I confess I've spend probably far more time than is good for me on Pinterest and stalking cake pages on Facebook. There are some fantastic cakes out there, from hobby bakers to professional cake designers, there is a world of amazing talent out there in the cake world. I've even met some amazing cakey friends on my travels around the internet, and it's because of their encouragement that I'm back here and after a bit of nagging (...you know who you are, lol) I've even set up a facebook page so hopefully you won't have to wait another two years to find out what I'm up to.

 Oh, and yes, I finally made it to Paris last year!
Patisserie on every corner? Pretty much yes! It was all I could do not to try something from every one I encountered, but I was on a special patisserie based hunt, and strangely enough not for macarons, so I was saving myself for that. I'll be posting more about this soon.

 I did sample one or two macarons while I was in Paris, it would be a crime not to. I even got to try some from Pierre Hermé...so many macarons to choose from it was difficult to decide what to get. Thankfully the lovely people serving me were very patient and all spoke excellent English which was awesome as the only French I knew I had learned in school 30-something years ago. I did learn a little more during my few days and by the end of the week I was buying bread like a local...at least that's how I'm choosing to remember it.

 Possibly my favourite sweet treat of the whole trip was discovered completely by accident. We were strolling along rue Mouffetard, it was our second visit after going there for the markets a day or so earlier. As we passed one of the many patisseries I looked in and my eye was drawn to a simple looking chocolate chip cake with a chocolate ganache top, then I saw they were called 'les Tigrés', well I just had to buy one. Back at home my little Bengal kitty Tigger, who we often call El Tigre, must have pricked up his ears thinking we were talking about him. So, yes, I bought one...actually we bought three...the first one was so delicious it stopped us in our tracks and I just had to go back and buy the two we had left behind!

Ladies and Gentlemen...may I introduce you to...les Tigrés

tiger in the wild...
as captured in Paris

 Well Paris is supposed to be the city of love but is it possible to fall in love with a cake? It must be because J'adore les Tigrés!

 When I got home I was like a woman possessed, searching online for more information about these lovely little cakes but it seemed that no one had heard of them. Almost defeated I started searching through all my recipe books trying to pinpoint what type of cake it might be. I had almost narrowed it down when Dear Hubby found this post by the fantastic Cowgirl Chef and that got me started making my own little tiger cakes. I've taken a few liberties and tinkered with the recipe since then and I even managed to find some cake pans that let me make cakes with the recess needed to hold the ganache. Since then I've made quite a few batches of tiger cakes, they are a favourite of Dear Hubby so he is always hanging around the kitchen when I'm baking them!

A sample of my homemade Tiger cakes

I am still surprised that les Tigrés are so unheard of, I've found a couple of other mentions of them around the web, mostly other people much like me who have accidentally found them in Paris and were also determined to make them when they got home but I have no idea where they originate from. Are they peculiar to a handful of patisseries in Paris? Why is there so little information out there? It's intriguing that such a delightful little cake has seemingly slipped under the radar so I decided that should change. I'm posting my recipe, which I think gets pretty close to the one we had in Paris, so that you can try them for yourself. I'd love it if you would take photos of your tiger cakes and share them on my facebook page, lets see les Tigrés get the admiration they deserve!

Tiger Cakes

Makes 24

Ideally you need to use a dimple cake pan so when your cakes are turned out (upside down) there is a recess to pour the ganache into. I use this one from Lakeland but you could also use a savarin mould or a plain silicone muffin tray and drizzle the ganache over the turned out cakes. These cakes taste great whatever shape they are. 

This recipe is written for using silicone cake pans/moulds. If you are using a metal cake pan rather than silicone you will need to line the recesses with paper cases or grease and flour your cake pan and you may need to adjust your baking times.

160g plain flour

1.5 teaspoon of baking powder

0.75 teaspoon of fine ground sea salt

75g ground almonds

80g chocolate splitters

240g butter, softened

240g caster sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

For the ganache

40g 70% dark chocolate 

40g milk chocolate

120 ml of cream

If you are using a lower % dark chocolate you may wish to adjust the ratio of dark to milk chocolate to suit your taste. 

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F 

2. Put the all dry ingredients (flour, ground almonds, baking powder, salt and chocolate splitters) into a bowl and stir with a balloon whisk until well combined and chocolate is fairly evenly distributed, this will help prevent the splitters clumping together in the final mix. Put this to one side.

3. In a stand mixer, beat the butter with the sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each one for about a minute, scrape down the sides of the bowl between each addition.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix on a slow speed until just until combined, scrape down the sides of the bowl and the mixer paddle and mix for a few seconds more, take care not to over mix, you just need to ensure all the dry ingredients are incorporated and the chocolate splitters are evenly distributed. 

6. Spoon the batter into the cake moulds. If you are using a scoop to measure then a 3tbsp scoop not quite filled to level should give you 24 even portions. The batter should approximately half fill your moulds/cake cases. 

If you are using a dimple cake pan and your cakes will be turned out upside down make sure you leave a dip in the batter to ensure your cakes bake as level as possible, if your cakes rise too much and are wobbly when turned out then the ganache will pour over the edges of your cakes. Also take care to make sure you get cake batter right into the base of the cake moulds, if you miss a bit there could be gaps in the top of the turned out cake and ganache will escape. 

7. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until the cakes are slightly brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the cake pan for a few minutes until the cakes start to pull away from the edges of the cake pan. Run a cocktail stick around edge of each cake to release any bits that might still be sticking and turn out onto a on a cooling rack to finish cooling. If using a dimple cake pan take care when turning out the cakes not to damage the delicate ridge around the cake, any breaks will be somewhere ganache can escape.

8. When the cakes are cool, make your ganache: 

Chop your chocolate into small-ish pieces and put it into a small, preferably glass, mixing bowl and put to one side. Warm the cream over medium-low heat, and when it is gently bubbling, pour it over the chocolate. Let the warm cream melt the chocolate, and mix well ensuring all the chocolate melts. Let your ganache mixture cool slightly and start to thicken a little before spooning onto your cooled cakes. If your ganache doesn't thicken you can add more chocolate, place your glass bowl containing the ganache over a pan of gently simmering water, just enough for the bowl to heat gently, add a little more chocolate (you may need 30-40g depending on the chocolate you used) and stir until the chocolate has melted. Remove from the heat and allow to cool and thicken before spooning over your cakes. Leave the cakes a few minutes to allow the ganache to set and then enjoy. 

You can eat your tiger cakes pretty much straight away, and who wouldn't they're delicious, but if you can manage to wait they are absolutely wonderful the next day!  

In the beginning...

Peanut Butter macarons

 If you are anything like me, the first thought you will have after deciding to learn how to make macarons will be 'What flavours shall I make?'.

 In most macarons the flavour comes from the filling, even the most brightly coloured macarons usually have a basic almond macaron shell, the colour being a hint as to the delicious flavour that hides within. I decided that until I had mastered the basics of making the macaron shells I would keep the filling simple. a basic buttercream or jam filling will do to start with, or you could do what I did... Cheat! I bought a couple of tubs of Betty Crocker 'ready to spread' buttercream, one chocolate and one vanilla, it is a little sweet but its good enough to use for your first few batches so you can get to sample your handiwork with a bit less fuss. To be honest, you can fill your macarons with pretty much whatever you like. If you know how to make Swiss meringue buttercream or a rich chocolate ganache then feel free to use that instead. Personally I'm a bit hopeless when it comes to much more than a basic vanilla buttercream, although I can make a fairly simple ganache style chocolate buttercream, so my macaron fillings will be something of an ongoing experiment!

 I had originally intended to start my macaron making adventure with a basic almond macaron but as anyone who knows me will tell you, if I am ever given a choice I will always choose chocolate, I just can't help myself! The recipe I started with came from 'Step-by-Step Baking' (published by Dorling Kindersley), it has four simple macaron recipes which I have used as a starting point for all my macarons so far. They are based on the less complicated French meringue method, I will attempt the Italian meringue method at some point but for now I am happy with the results I have been getting so far. 

the first attempt... 

First batch - before baking

 I should warn you not to be disappointed if your first, second, third or even fourth attempts don't turn out as well as you hoped. As you can see from the photos of my first attempt that it wasn't exactly a success, they tasted great but they didn't look like macarons should. Despite all my reading of blogs and recipe books I didn't really know what my macaron batter should look like when it was ready for piping, I was so nervous about over mixing that as you can see from the photos that I ended up under mixing instead. The batter was thick and didn't spread out after piping which meant that the macarons weren't smooth when they were baked and they were cracked and had no feet.

First batch - after baking

 I tried one or two of the shells once they had cooled and they tasted great, I filled them with some Betty Crocker vanilla buttercream and most of them went into the fridge to rest overnight, a few did get eaten straightaway but they were definitely much better after being left to stand in the fridge overnight. this is one of the most difficult parts of macaron making, holding back and not eating them all straight away. The resting time allows the filling to soak into the macaron and soften the inside giving that lovely gooey texture you are aiming for.

...not quite right...

 My next (unofficial) attempt was a bit of a disaster, at least as far as macarons are concerned. Just as I had piped the mixture on to the baking trays I realised I had forgotten to add the sugar to the egg whites before mixing in the dry ingredients. I decided to bake them anyway and see how they turned out. They certainly weren't macarons, as you can see from the picture. They had a brownie like texture but still tasted pretty good, in fact, they tasted so good they were all eaten up before they had even cooled! Tasty, but not what I was aiming for... Lesson learned, don't be in such a hurry and always double check I've properly made my meringue before I add the nut mix!

...the second attempt...

...top tray in the oven...

 I had a bit more success with the next batch, although I did learn that I should only bake one tray at a time. I tried to bake two trays at once and although the top tray turned out perfectly, the bottom tray wasn't such a success, the macarons were badly cracked and had no feet. I'm still not entirely sure it wasn't just luck that the top tray turned out so well, despite having several successful batches with other flavours the chocolate macarons still trouble me. I'm fairly sure its all down to technique, having at least one (partially) successful batch makes me think the recipe is sound, I think its just going to take a lot of practise before I can say I've definitely mastered them. I have a couple of things I want to try when I next make chocolate macarons, I will be testing different amounts of cocoa in the macaron mix, maybe even eliminating the cocoa altogether with the filling being the sole source of the flavour. I will also test double panning, placing an extra baking tray underneath the one I am baking to see how that affects the baking process. Some macaron makers recommend double panning and this would explain why the top tray of batch#2 turned out well while later single trays turned out much like batch#1. 

...bottom tray in the oven...

 The important thing is to keep trying! Even 'ugly' macarons still taste good, as much as we all want to make the perfect looking macaron we really make them because we want to eat them! So, if at first (or second) you don't succeed, make another batch! Make notes, take photos, learn how to recognise an undermixed/overmixed macaron batter. Even if you realise you messed up somewhere, bake it! Every batch will teach you something new!

 Batch#1 was the only one so far where I used whites from fresh eggs. The eternal dilemma for all macaron enthusiasts is what to do with all the excess egg yolks. Theres only so much lemon curd you can eat so you need quite a repertoire of recipes that will use up all the egg yolks, so I was delighted to discover carton egg whites on the supermarket shelves. I wasn't sure how well the carton egg whites would work as it has added guar gum (to stabilise the whites and aid whisking) but I thought I would at least give it a try.

 

Carton egg whites

 I have had some really good results with my later batches (more about these in future posts) using the carton egg whites so I actually prefer to use these if I can get them. Check out here to find a stockist near you. I will try fresh eggs again, I've been building up a collection of recipes for egg yolks so as I try them I will experiment with fresh eggs and try ageing the whites to see if there is any major difference to carton egg whites.

 After my semi-successful second batch I was filled with enthusiasm and just wanted to make more to see if I could replicate the results I got from that one good tray, unfortunately my cupboard was empty of almonds...so I got a bit experimental! Remembering Brave Tart's advice that you can make macarons from just about any nut you like I set about grinding up some walnuts and pistachios I had in my cupboard. The pistachios ground up really well, because of the oil content the walnuts ground up into a smooth mush. I pushed the nuts through a sieve to make sure they were ground finely enough, the pistachios were very finely ground and, despite the mushy consistency, the walnuts perfectly ground!

walnut macarons
 ...fresh out of the oven

 Any worries I had about the walnuts soon disappeared, once mixed with the icing sugar in a food processor the consistency was pretty similar to the consistency of the almond sugar mix. I didn't have any suitable food colouring so I knew the macarons would turn out quite pale but I was really only interested in how well the macarons would bake. I wasn't disappointed, both batches turned out looking amazing.

pistachio macarons

...pale but delicious

 Both had smooth tops and lovely little feet, although the walnut ones were slightly mottled in appearance and were slightly hollow inside. I'm not sure yet whether this was a consequence of the oiliness of the nut or because the nuts themselves were a little old, I had them in the cupboard since making xmas cakes a few months before. They were delicious though.

walnut macarons

...filled with coffee buttercream

 I filled the pistachio macarons with a little vanilla buttercream with ground pistachios mixed in, the walnut macarons I filled with buttercream with a little ground up instant coffee mixed into it. I was really pleased with how well these two batches turned out, much better than I could have hoped. I have to admit I did a little happy dance when I took them out of the oven! I've done a bit more experimentation with other nuts and I've also been playing around with different food colourings and different flavours for the fillings which I will write more about later. 

I think its safe to say I am slightly obsessed with macarons now. I have lots of ideas for flavourings and I'll write about my experiments as I go.

 Coming soon... 'If I can do it, so can you!'...my macaron recipe and a step by step guide in how to get started making your own macarons!

Where to begin....?

 my first successful batch of macarons

 I had heard of macarons quite a while before I actually managed to taste one. Mostly what I heard was how difficult they are to make, how utterly delicious they are and got the impression that to be able to succeed at making macarons you had to be a truly talented pastry chef. It was all quite intimidating. And mostly wrong, apart from the bit about them being delicious!


 My first taste of macarons was while on holiday in South Africa, we stumbled upon a tiny cake shop hidden away in a corner of Cape Town, we were treating ourselves to some delicious cakes when I saw I display of macarons on the counter. There were six rows of brightly coloured little macarons and they looked so perfect! As I was stood there drooling the lovely lady in the shop asked me if I wanted to try one, well how could I say no! It was delicious! I'm still not sure how I ended up still buying cake instead of clearing the shop of their supply of macarons! It was a while again before my next taste of macarons, a tiny chocolate example which was part of a delicious chocolate dessert I had at Michael Caines restaurant at ABode in Manchester. All the desserts on the menu had looked delicious but when I saw the chocolate dessert had a macaron I just knew that was what I was going to have and it didn't disappoint. In fact the macaron was the best part of the whole dish and was quite possibly the start of what is likely to be a life long love affair with macarons.

 At first my interest bordered on obsession, trying to find anywhere in Manchester that sold these little delights. Not an easy task! I can tell you now that if you don't fancy making your own there are one or two places to get your fix. Marks & Spencer currently have 'macaroons' in their dessert range and to be honest they're not bad, they even had a special jubilee edition pack which was particularly tasty. Even better though are the macarons I have tasted from 'English Rose Bakery' based in Manchester. You can get them from Selfridges in the Trafford Centre, although the quality is a bit hit and miss, I suspect more down to Selfridges handling of the macarons than anything in the macarons themselves. One thing I have learned from my search for a macaron fix was to be wary of anything too 'packaged', mass produced macarons with long sell by dates and, in my case, a packet saying 'made in Belgium' roughly translates to macarons made a lot longer ago than the day before and macarons are best eaten a day after being baked and filled. 
The best macarons I have ever tasted, and most macaron lovers would agree I think, come from Ladurée. I was lucky enough to find myself in London recently and being near Covent Garden I just had to try some Ladurée macarons. Oh my word, they are awesome! The only ones I have tasted that I don't really mind the expense of buying them, they are definitely worth it. I'm off to London again later this year so you can bet I will make sure I get a quick trip to Ladurée to treat myself to some of their more exotic flavours! One day I hope to go to Paris, I'm ashamed to say I've never been, and hopefully try at least one from every patisserie I can find! Until then...


 I got to thinking about having a go at making macarons myself. I did a lot of reading, searching out recipes in books and online, and the more I read the more intimidated I became and the more convinced I was that I would never be able to tackle the tricky little macaron. Then I found 'BraveTart', a blog about the amazing Stella Parks and her baking antics. Her posts about macarons are truly inspiring as you can see from the many comments on her posts, these two posts http://bravetart.com/blog/MacaronMyths and http://bravetart.com/blog/TheTenCommandments are particularly helpful to any want-to-be macaron baker. As you can see in this post http://bravetart.com/blog/EatMacarons, I'm not the only one that finds Stella truly inspiring! I'm not going to repeat all of Stella's advice here but I do recommend that everyone read her macaron posts before having a go, you'll find yourself feeling quite liberated!
So, with an armful of cookbooks in hand, including Pierre Hermé's 'Macarons', and all of the advice and recipes on 'BraveTart', I decided it was time to have a go!

It's probably important to mention that there are two methods for making macarons, the more complicated Italian meringue method which involves hot sugar syrup being whisked into the egg whites, and the simpler French meringue method which involves whisking granulated sugar into the egg whites. I decided to keep things simple at first and chose a recipe from Dorling Kindersley 'Step-by-Step Baking', there are four macaron recipes in this book, all of which use the french meringue method. being a complete chocolate addict I decided to give the chocolate macarons a try! I had a whole weekend to play with macarons so I had a few attempts, half expecting the entire weekend to be a total disaster but on my third attempt I felt like I had hit the jackpot, one tray of macarons came out absolutely perfect. Smooth tops, perfect little feet and so tasty! Just take a look at the photo and you will see!

 I'll write more in detail later about the ups and downs, and what I learned in those first few batches later. I plan to make a lot of macarons, I have a lot of ideas for flavours and themes. In each post I will give you the recipes I used and the little tweaks I made so you can try the original recipe yourself as well as my version. I like to bake lots of other sweet treats too so don't be too surprised if the occasional cake or pastry finds its way on here too!