My Mind Patch

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

Strawberry Macaron 草莓马卡龙

This sweet and cold French macaron cookie with semi-sweet and tangy strawberry buttercream filling is most apt for a hot day.

No artificial colour nor flavoring is being used. The macaron shells were tinted pink using beetroot powder, while a teaspoon of strawberry purée rendered both colour and flavour to the buttercream filling 😋

Yield: 19 bite-size macarons

Ingredients

38g egg white 蛋白

38g fine sugar 细砂糖

45g superfine almond powder 超幼杏仁粉

51g icing sugar 糖粉

1/4 tsp beetroot powder 甜菜根粉

You may adjust the ingredient quantities based on your egg white weight by using the below converting ratio

Macaron ratio

By multiplying the egg white weight to the respective factors to obtain the individual weight of the other ingredients:

Egg white: x 1

Fine sugar: x 1

Almond powder: x 1.17

Icing sugar: x 1.33

Flavoring powder: 1/4 tsp

(E.g. Cocoa or matcha powder)

Directions

1. Give the almond powder a few short rounds of blitzing in a food processor.

2. Add in icing sugar and beetroot powder, and blitz a few short rounds using pulse actions to keep the mixture lump-free.

3. Sieve the mixture to ensure a finer texture powder.

Discard the coarser almond grains. This discarded quantity should not be more than 2 tsp. If more than 2 tsp of the coarser grains have been collected, you may need to re-grind the mixture again.

4. Whip the egg white in a dry, clean and grease-free bowl till soft peak stage.

Due to a small amount of egg white involved, I use a handheld blender for this recipe.

Add in the fine sugar, in a few batches, and beat the egg white at low speed. After adding the last batch of fine sugar, increase the mixer speed to medium high.

When the meringue is about to reach stiff peak stage, reduce the mixer speed and check regularly.

When the tip of the lifted whisk formed a stiff peak meringue, the meringue is ready.

5. Add the almond mixture in a few batches to the meringue.

Use a spatula to fold the almond mixture in. Towards the end of the folding process, try to get rid of air bubbles while you are folding the batter.

The batter is ready when it becomes smooth and glossy.

4. Pour the batter into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm round nozzle.

5. Pipe the batter onto a macaron mat or parchment paper. Give the macaron batters a few hard bangs against the work top to even out the batter surface as well as to raise the air bubbles to the surface.

Use the tip of a stick to remove air bubbles and the pointed tips on the macaron batter.

6. Let the macaron batter stands in a well ventilated place to dry the tops. It takes about 30 minutes to dry.

When the batter is dry, it appears matt and dry to touch,

It should be dry to touch.

7. Preheat the oven to 140 degree Celsius for about 15 minutes to get a constant oven temperature.

Bake the macarons at the lower rack of the oven for about 18 to 20 minutes.

Coming towards the end of the baking, you can smell the nice aroma of the almond.

8. Transfer the tray of macarons to a cooling rack to cool down completely before removing them from the baking mat.

Keep the cool macaron shells in an air-tight container till needed.

Strawberry Buttercream filling

Ingredients

30g salted butter, slightly softened 奶油

10g icing sugar 糖粉

2 tsp strawberry purée 草莓泥

1/4 tsp lemon juice 柠檬汁

Directions

1. Hull a strawberry and chopped it into purée.

2. Add about 1/4 tsp of lemon juice to the strawberry purée. Refrigerate till needed.

3. Whip softened butter for about 3 minutes, then add in the icing sugar and continue to whip till the cream becomes pale.

4. Add in strawberry purée and mix till light and fluffy.

5. Transfer the strawberry buttercream to a small piping bag and keep in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

6. Cut away the tip of the piping bag. Pipe a thick ring of strawberry buttercream over one of the macaron shells.

You can pipe more cream to cover the entire face of the macaron.

Place another macaron shell over. Press lightly to even out the filling. Keep the macaron shells in an air tight container and refrigerate them.

Take out the macarons about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Yumz 😋

Sunday, 5 July 2015

Sugar Corn Butter Bun 撒糖玉米奶油面包

Soft corn buns which have fine sugar sprinkled on the crust and melted butter percolated down the centre of it :)

Keep the corn cob and remaining steamed corns for a bonus soup recipe at the end of this post ^^

Use the leftover egg white to bake 15 bite-size choco buttercream macarons. Click the link at the end of the post for recipe :P

Bread dough

Ingredients

80g cold whole milk 冷b全脂牛奶

60g steamed corn kernels 蒸玉米粒

8cm pandan leaf 香兰叶 (optional)

1 egg yolk 蛋黄 (~16g)

15g condensed milk 炼乳

35g raw sugar 黄砂糖

1/4 tsp salt 盐

30g cold unsalted butter 冷无盐奶油

195g bread flour 高筋面粉

3/4 tsp instant dry yeast 即发酵母粉

Toppings & glazing

Some beaten egg as egg wash

Some salted butter

Some fine sugar to sprinkle

1/2 tsp honey

1/4 tsp hot water

Direction

1. Collect corn kernels from cob and steamed at high heat for 12 minutes. Or, steam in a rice cooker for 8 minutes, and let it stay in the rice cooker for 5 minutes.

You may want to add a pandan leaf to the corn while steaming to give it a sweet scent.

Allow the steamed corn kernels to cool down before use.

2. Blend 60g of corn kernels with 80g of cold milk in a food processor till creamy.

You may add 1/2 blade of pandan leaf to blend for additonal sweet scent.

3. Stir condensed milk to corn milk mixture in (2).

4. Pour corn milk mixture into the bread pan. Followed by egg yolk, raw sugar, salt and cold unsalted butter.

5. Pour in bread flour.

6. Dig a hole and pour in the instant dry yeast.

7. Place the bread pan into the bread machine.

8. Select "8" Dough Kneading function; and press "Start".

9. After the kneading and proofing process stop, let the dough sits in the breadmaker for about 15 to 20 minutes.

As the ingredients used are cold, the proofing process is slightly slow, so a longer proofing period is recommended.

10. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Flatten it with your palm to release the trapped air.

11. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions, about 53g each.

12. Roll up the small dough, pull down the sides several times to stretch out the dough surface, and seal at the bottom.

Lightly coat your index finger with some flour and "dig" a hole in the centre.b

Pivot your index finger in the centre, and swing the dough like a "hula hoop" to form a "well" in the centre.

13. Place the dough onto a non-stick baking sheet, spray some water over, and transfer to a closed oven to proof for about 30 to 40 minutes.

14. After the final proofing, remove the dough from the oven. Preheat the oven to 170 degree Celsius for about 10 minutes.

Apply egg wash over the dough, and place small pieces of salted butter over the "wells" of the dough.

15. Bake in the oven at 170 degree Celsius for 17 to 20 minutes at the lower shelf, or till the top becomes golden.

16. Transfer the tray of buns to a wire rack. Mix 1/2 tsp of honey with 1/4 tsp of hot water. Apply the honey water over the crusts of the hot buns.

Use a sieve to help you sprinkle fine sugar over the tops. Return the tray of buns to the warm oven, and let the oven remnant heat dry up the bun for about 3 minutes.