Eric Kayser's Normandy Apple Tart

Fall is all about warm desserts. This is when the serious craving starts......

Im still upset that i didnt get to visit Eric Kayser's bakery in my last paris trip a month ago. I wouldnt be visiting paris anytime soon because of the amount of work that needs to be done before spring.... Research is just like Love. While so many people are happily in love and there are always a bunch of others struggling with it. Yeah... the experiment that im running didnt go well, im heart broken.

To heal a broken heart here comes the warm Normandy Apple Tart from Eric Kayser's Sweet and Savoury Tarts. Im pleased with how simple it is to prepare. As T. prepared dinner, I prepared the tart and popped it into the oven just before dinner was served. Of course, it was perfect timing to serve as a desert.

Macaron.... i dont think so!

Its been a bad baking week... after the first success with pineapple buns and Rose macarons, things have gone down hill ever since. The dough for pineapple buns didnt rise property or macarons turned maca"lone" (a new term for failure macarons accroding to T.). Macaron with loads of "holes" = maca-lone (in chinese).

What could possibly went wrong and turned macaron-to-macalone? Thinking back they were all silly mistakes that should not be happening...

1) The tray position. For my first successful batch, i placed the baking tray on the level just below the middle of the oven. This failure batch was placed right at the middle because T. set up the position and i didnt check it carefully. (damn). After 5 to 6 mins, some show the signature feet so i was happy. But not long after that, like 2 mins, most of the macaron tops started to crack open so as my heart. Nothing could be done to rescue them. I blame myself that i should do a temperature check before i put the whole tray in. For the second tray, i lowered the position to just below the middle level, a more "happy" tray of macarons were made. I wasnt happy with them still, most of them had uneven top and some of them had "half-feet" only, like half of it had feet and the other half didnt. It seems to suggest that it was something to do with temperature that caused the uneven distribution of heat.

2) Icing sugar - while supermarket is selling loads of xmas cake stuff and they have several icing sugar types on the shell. I was in a hurry and picked the "all-in-one" Royal icing sugar which contained egg white powders; whereas the normal icing sugar doesnt! I thought that "egg white powders" would help to balance the moisture in the batter, maybe it does, but not when it is mixed in with the icing sugar.... i really dont know if the icing sugar contents affect the consistency of my failure batch.

3) Oven temperature was not right. At 155C, it took at least 20 mins to bake a tray of small macarons, it was way too long. Most of the resources that i looked at state that it would take around 15 mins... I really need to run a test on temperature.

I could call these Macarons right!

My first attempt to make macarons was more than 2 years ago, without actually tasting one and reading much about it, it was a complete failure. I produced dome-shaped meringue biscuits that were too sweet and no almond taste (because of the almond powder from the shop). Ever since my paris trip last month, i spent all my spare time (okay... and even office hours) obsessing about macarons. I really couldn't wait anymore to give it a go in my own kitchen, even though i got home like 8:30pm with an empty stomach. T. was very nice fixing a quick dinner so that i could start "macaroning"! The second that I saw the little "feet" popping up, I almost broke down in happy tears..........

The Basic macaron batter and Pierre Herme's rose butter cream.

For the Macaron shells

- 125 g almond, preferably whole/sliced almonds

- 225 g icing sugars

- 100 g 48 hours "aged" egg whites

- 25 g granulated sugar

- 3.5 g natural beetroot powder or other powdered food colouring of your choice

- pinch cream of tartar

1) Grind whole/sliced almonds in a food processor to "poppy seed" size or even smaller, then add the icing sugars and process for further 2 minutes or until fully combined. The shop-bought almond powder are simply tasteless, do avoid using it.

2) Sifted almond powder and icing sugar twice.

3) Add the cream of tartar to the "aged" egg whites and beat at medium speed. The cream of tartar might seem difficult to incorporate at first, but keep beating until the "aged" egg white is foam, then add the granulated sugar slowly. Continue beating the whites to medium peaks and it should be glossy.

4) Add food colouring to the egg white, then continue to beat to stiff peak.

5) Add dry ingredients all in once to the meringue. Fold the mixture slowly to start with, then gradually speed up and fold quickly to deflate the air in the meringue. If you think the batter

consistency is right, do a test by spooning a small lump onto the parchment paper, it should flatten slightly to form a nice round disk in 3 to 5 seconds. If its flattened too early, it means the batter is overmixed and it becomes too runny; or if it has a pointy top that holds its shape, it means the batter is undermixing, you probably need maybe 5 more strokes. ... or if you're not sure.. just do a test every few folds.

6) Pipe the batter into 1 or 1.25 inch disks... any bigger than that would need to increase the cooking time! My disks were about 1.5 inch after they have flattened a bit, it took about 15-18 mins to cook through! As a rough guide,

1 or 1.25 inch would take 12 to 15 mins. If the shells are not cooked through, the centre would be sticky and very difficult to remove from the paper, so make sure you check that its cooked completely. You could also lower the temperature to 140F after 15 mins, otherwise the surface might brown slightly.

7) Let the disks rest for at least 30 mins before baking.

8) Macarons are baked at 155° C. "Feet" would be visible after 5 mins... woooo... yeah... look at those beauties!

9) Remove the parchment paper from the tray and place on a table. Let it rest for 15 mins then remove macaron shells from the paper.

10) After filling the cream, keep refrigerate macarons overnight before consumption.

Im having one as im typing along.... yumyum!

My obsession of Roses & Macarons

Ever since i got back from the paris trip, my mind was all about Rose Macarons. I wasnt a big fan of the idea of flowers in cooking, for some reason i thought they were too fragrant and probably because the they tend to be over-dosed in cooking in order to let the flavours to come through. Who likes drinking perfumes anyway!

In chinese tea culture, beautiful rose buds are added to green tea to make Rose tea. Its not just beautiful to look at, but its very good for the health. Im familiar with the taste of rose tea, so my initial guess of the taste of Rose Macarons wouldn't be too far off from ... Rose tea.

Okay, i was totally wrong and the role of roses in tea has nothing resemble its role in Macarons. Roses brewed in tea water not just bring out the fragrance but also the harshness of the rose. But when its made into Rose buttercream.... all the harshness is removed and what is left is the pure goodness of roses that is really creamy. The centre of the pink Macaron shells fused with rose buttercream... it was truly a bite to the girly heaven.

To make Rose Macarons from Pierre Herme's recipe, pink macaron shells are combined with rose buttercream. Obtaining a recipe is rather straightforward, as there are plenty of resources on the web, but the biggest challenge is to 1) get the right colour powder for the pink macarons; 2) get the Rose syrup from the NATCO brand and Rose essence for the buttercream.

I think in Britain, food colouring doesnt normally come in the powder form, I read that powdered food colouring is recommended as it doesn't add more moisture to the meringue. There are some recipes state that liquid form is also okay...... hmm.... i will try to search for the powder! After searching for days on the internet, I came across the beetroot powder from Steenberg organic shops. I spoke to a lovely lady over the phone and was told that it is a specialist product so shops do not stock them but they do home delivery in a very reasonable price. I was very happy that i found the powdered food colouring and they also have the organic Rose water...... i placed the order immediately over the phone and the products arrived the next day in a very well packed box and a couple of organic teabags! Bless the lovely lady and the shop.

Organic Beetroot powder from Egypt

Rose Syrup.... i read that Pierre uses the syrup from the NATCO brand for his rose flavour. But apparently this NATCO Rose syrup is out of stock everywhere on the internet. I settled with an Atkin and Potts Rose syrup which i ordered from Lewis and Copper... oh and i also ordered a jar of Rose confiture (jam) to indulge myself after all the handwork of searching!

Also the new electric scale has arrived from amazon... im totally ready to get into the kitchen! Oh.. and T. is getting me an inferred thermometer for baking! I really hope that i could make something nice out of all these efforts.

It did happen... the cutest pineapple buns

Bread making was a nightmare! I've always have a love and hate relationship with bread making... and most of the time i hate it because the bread never comes out the right texture (i meant rock hard), or the dough simply refused to rise (I blame the miserable cold weather in the UK), and it takes bloody long to find out that something has gone totally wrong with the dough! But all these come down to my inexperience with bread and dough! Okay, the "love" experience is... i normally go feed the ducks in the Lake after making breads, and they LOVE my breads!

When the Kenwood boy (oh.. its Kenwood chef the stand mixer... T. has a habit of calling the big machinery items as boys and girls... and my Nissan car is refereed as Nissan girl) arrived last week, i just wanna tested out the machine and make something that involves heavy mixing! I came across a simple pineapple bun recipe on the youtube and with the Kenwood boy... oh... mamamia....it was like magical! The buns turned out so lovely! Okay..... the dough could be mixed for another 3 mins to improve the texture, but they were the most bread-like buns I've ever made! Couldnt be more happy with them! oh yeah.. a dozen of pineapple buns for breakfast!