Sunday Baking - Macarons, those delicious little enigmas. I've got some tips here to demystify their process

Macarons it turns out are not that hard! You just need to follow a few simple methodical steps to achieve a convincingly professional result. I've made this recipe at least 3 times now and always a consistent bake, so feel free to give it a go ♥

Ingredients:

3 Egg whites (always at room temp - never from the fridge)
35gms Caster sugar
Sift together: 200gms Icing sugar +
110gms Ground Almonds
Few drops of food coloring (optional)

Method:

Beat egg whites in a stand mixer until foamy then while beating, gradually add caster sugar until firm peaks form. You're pouring slowly so as to dissolve the sugar. Optional: In a food processor blend your ground almond and icing sugar to a fine powder, almond meal often has bigger chunks of almond in. If you omit this step you may have some chunks of almond.
Fold in your Sifted almond and icing sugar (and food coloring if you like) until combined, about 30 turns. The batter should fall off the spatula in blobs and hold its shape in the bowl for approximately 30 seconds before melting in.
Spoon into a piping bag and pipe out rounds onto parchment/silicone mat lined baking trays and leave out to set - I get my fan out and fan them for half an hour. This stage is important as you want the skin to form on the outside so that when you bake you get the little "foot" along the bottom.
Bake in pre-heated oven at 140 Celsius for approximately* 10-20 minutes rotating the tray halfway through. 

*time really means NOTHING to macarons, what you need is for them to lift off the parchment paper WITHOUT sticking. Depending on your oven (we have a fan forced oven) you're going to want to watch these, they shouldn't brown or color. Do not remove from the oven until they lift off their parchment.

Now to ICE/frost! The best part!

Ganache:


For The Green:
100gms White Chocolate (always eating, never cooking!*)
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
Zest of half a Lime

For the Pink:
100gms Dark chocolate (eating please)
1/2 cup heavy cream
tablespoon Raspberry Jam

Heat cream until scalding. Pour over chocolate and sit aside for a few minutes. Add flavouring and stir until smooth and shiny. Refrigerate until the consistency you desire then sandwich matched up cookies together.
*To make it stable while melting and so you don't have to temper Cooking chocolate doesn't contain ANY cocoa butter - that special fat that gives chocolate that melty, silky mouth feel without sticking to the roof of your mouth. Cooking chocolate is gross, don't go there

Have you ever made macarons?
Do you have any further tips I may have forgotten?
Happy baking everyone.

♥ Paula Shoe Fiend.

Sunday Baking - Melting moment Cookies - With a hint of ginger and Raspberry Buttercream icing.

Melting Moments with a hint of Ginger

Raspberry buttercream Icing

Ingredients - Cookies

200g soft butter

73g icing Sugar

1t Ground Ginger +

210g flour, sifted together

Ingredients - Icing

120g softened butter

200g icing sugar, sifted

25g raspberry Jam

Method - Cookies

Cream butter and sugar together until creamy and soft. Add ginger and flour sifted together and stir until a smooth batter forms. Don't overmix as your cookies will flatten when baking.

Now, you can either put into a piping bag and make pretty rosettes with a star nozzle or just form into balls on lined baking trays and flatten with a fork (as I have done here in the picture)

Bake cookies low and slow to encourage a melt in your mouth tender result.

140 Centigrade for approx 20-25 mins. Cookies should smell delicious but not be coloring just yet. Cool on tray for 5 mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make Icing: 

Beat/whip butter and icing sugar together until light and creamy.

Stir through jam.

Use icing to sandwich cookies together.

Try not to eat them all in one go!

This recipe for melting moments is so endlessly adaptable, 

you can really try any flavours with it.

Lemon Melting Moments - Coming soon to a blog post near you

Happy Baking all!

♥ ♥ ♥ 

♥ Paula Shoe Fiend.

Instagram Catch up - Baking, Shoes, selfies and the cat. I've got Mondayitis - which IS a real thing

 GORGE shoes... that I DIDN'T But - what's WRONG with me?

 Chocolate Foodgasm Brownie Cookies

Recipe Here

 Pak Choy from the garden - Look at the DETAIL

Charlie's Straight up Cola - tastes like Cola lollies. SO. Good.

Me and Amy getting ready Saturday night to hit the TOWN 

Danced till 3am when the club closed and the lights came on!

Oreo and Dark choc stuffed blondies...

Recipe coming soon to a Sunday Baking segment here!!!

And finally, Norman the cat giving me a particularly dirty look.

I love that his head in ON the pillow - SO LAZY.

Feel free to follow me on Instagram @paulashoefiend

Have a great week all ♥

♥ Paula Shoe Fiend.

Sunday Baking - Foodgasm Fudge brownie..... COOKIES, for when you want something a little more portable/single serving

These are REDDICK! My BF asked me to make brownies but I am SICK of the same old recipe so thought I would try making a brownie cookie...

then just sort of went mental and threw anything in there.

Result: the most moist, fudgy, chocolatey, gooey, foodgasm cookies you may ever EAT

Big statement but I'm very confident. 

Ingredients:                                                     

175gms Butter                                                    100gms Dark chocolate, melted                  

100gms White caster sugar                               60gms Cocoa Powder

110gms Brown sugar                                         170gms flour

1 egg                                                                    1t Baking Powder

1t Vanilla                                                            120gms dark choc, chopped

Method:

Cream butter and sugars until pale. Beat in egg then vanilla. Stir through melted chocolate. Sift dry ingredients together twice to really incorporate the cocoa powder through the flour. Fold into the butter mixture. Fold through the chopped chocolate.

Drop tablespoons of mixture onto parchment lined baking trays and bake in a preheated oven for 10 mins.  They will be setting up on the outside but still squidgy in the middle - this is good. The cocoa powder helps the cookie bake faster and overbaking will mean a bitter result.
LEAVE them on their trays for half an hour then use a spatula to transfer them to a cooking rack. They are very fragile while fresh and hot but over a few days will crisp up... IF they last that long.

These are SUPER FUDGY on the inside and the chocolate never quite sets... in other words

#FOODGASM

I REALLY hope you guys try this recipe - it really is super yum and not at all sweet.

Happy Sunday baking all

I went shopping yesterday to get an outfit for dinner and clubbing.
Ended up buying a purse, shoes and a necklace... and wore none of it out!
#facepalm.

♥ Paula Shoe Fiend.

Sunday Baking - Cashew & choc drop cookies

Cashews + White choc + milk Choc = HEAVEN

I adapted this recipe from the trusty NZ stalwart of baking "The Edmonds Cookery Book'.  Their one had peanuts and no chocolate - obvs a serious oversight.

Ingredients:

125g Butter

1T Golden Syrup

110g Brown Sugar

1t Vanilla extract

1 egg

192g All Purpose Flour

32g Cornflour

1/2C Cashews Chopped

1/2C Chocolate (I used White choc and milk choc)

Method:

Gently melt butter and golden syrup.  Stir in sugar and vanilla.  Allow to cool.  Lightly beat egg and stir into mixture.  Sift dry ingredients together and add to syrup mixture alternatively with nuts and chocolate.  Allow mixture to cool completely then roll into balls and bake on lined trays at 170 Celsius for 12-15 mins until golden and crispy.

These cookies are soft and chewy and so yummy.  A little different to your usual choc chip cookie method.

Sure to rise

Other baking exploits you may like to re-visit:

Choc Drop Shortbread

Spice Crisps

Happy baking peeps

♥ Paula Shoe Fiend.