My MacInspirational Brown Sugar Cake - Balsamic Roasted Fig Macarons

I was so inspired to make something more for this months Mactweets Challenge, after finding firm 'feet' with my Green Tea Macarons. I had to try some new flavour so I roasted some fresh figs (that I bought for 4 quid) with some good balsamic vinegar, pulsed them with the almonds,Icing sugar and Voila..it worked like magic. I then sandwiched the cakes with a luscious mascarone frosting & roasted figs. It was so lovely with a drizzle of balsamic-honey reduction I made.

The MacQueens asked us to combine or integrate macarons into any dessert, making it a new part of an old favorite, or turn them into a favourite dessert; inspired in flavor, texture, colour.

I have to share this beautiful sunset scene that I captured the other day making these Raspberry Macs (pictured above). How can one not find inspiration in such beautiful surroundings? I have to try making macs in each of those colours!! At least I got the pink right.

Brown Sugar Cake - Balsamic Roasted Fig Macarons
For the Brown Sugar Cake (makes two 8" cake)
Ingredients
175g self raising flour
175g unsalted butter
175g muscaovado sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp baking powder
3 eggs
2tbsp sour cream
Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line 2 8" pans. Sift all the dry ingredients twice. Beat the butter and sugar till light. Add eggs one by one and beat well after each addition. Stir in the sour cream & vanilla. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture in two additions. Pour into the prepared tins and bake for about 25-35 min or until skewer inserted to the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.
For the Roasted Balsamic Fig Macarons
Ingredients 1 cup fresh figs sliced
1 heaped tbsp good balsamic vinegar
Method:
Preheat oven to 125C. Place the figs on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Oven dry it for about 45-60min. Reserve about 1/2 cup.
For the Macarons
Ingredients 1 aged egg white (aged for 2-5days)
10g caster sugar
65g powdered sugar
35g ground almonds
1/4 cup of roasted figs
1/2 tsp egg whites powder

pinch cream of tartar
1/4 tsp Organic beetroot powder for colour
Method:

Preheat oven to 160C.
Line a baking sheet with silpat. Pulse the powdered sugar with the almond powder, colour and roasted figs in a processor. Sift them twice.
Beat the egg whites until foamy and add the granulated sugar, whites powder, cream of tartar. Beat until very stiff and firm. Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding. The mixture should be thick and fall in ribbons when lifted. Fill a piping bag with this and pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1″ circles evenly spaced apart. Tap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then rest to form a skin for about an hour. Bake them for 12-15 minutes depending on size. Once done, transfer them to a cooling rack.

For the Mascarone icing
Ingredients 1 tub of mascarpone
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup icing sugar
Method:
Whisk the mascarpone, icing sugar and cream till you get soft peaks. Chill if not using immediately.
Assembly:

Place one layer of the brown sugar cake and spread a generous portion of the icing. Lay some roasted figs on top and sandwich with the other layer of cake. Cover the cake completely with the mascarpone icing, using an offset spatula.
Decorate with the fig macarons as desired.
Note
You could just make the macarons, use just half the icing. Pipe the icing onto the shells, place some roasted figs and sandwich them.

Head over to Mactweets and see what everyone else has been up to this month!

BISCUIT JOCONDE IMPRIME/ENTREMET

Baked out from the holidays or not I was not ready for the Daring Bakers Challenge at all! As soon as I read the post I was ready to turn away and run away, but could not hide for long from my twin…yes I have a "crazy baking" twin! So I started off by scheduling the work:
Day1: Make the Joconde (Trial 1)
Day 2: Make the Joconde (Trial 2) just in case Trial one hopelessly failed.
Day 3:Make the Chocolate Ganache, Chocolate-Coffee Ganache, Mocha Bavarian Cream and Pistachio Mousse.

Luckily for me the Jocodne worked brilliantly the first time…I piped the Décor paste onto the silpat creating a free hand design. Left it in the freezer for 2 hours, while I shopped for the other ingredients. Made the Joconde sponge and baked it for just over 5 minutes.

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge is hosted by Astheroshe from the Blog, accro. Astheroshe chose Joconde imprime /entremets as the challenge for the month. Her challenge recipe is based on recipe from Chef John O, from The International Culinary School in Atlanta, Georgia USA.

The mandatory part of the challenge was to make the full biscuit joconde imprime, cut & fit into a dessert mold and Complete entremets.

JOCONDE: an almond sponge cake. This biscuit is named for the Mona Lisa (La Joconda in French). In addition to containing almonds, it differs from other sponge cakes by having whole eggs (rather than just yolks) beaten with sugar and ground almonds before the meringue is folded in. Joconde is baked in thin layers on baking sheets. Joconde is used to make linings for the outsides of charlottes, a traditional French raspberry mousse cake, and other Bavarian mousse cakes. (source)

Joconde Imprime with Pistachio Mousse & Mocha Bavarian Cream
For the Joconde Imprime
Ingredients
85g almond flour/meal
75g confectioners' (icing) sugar
25g cake flour *
3 large eggs
3 large egg
10g white granulated sugar or superfine (caster) sugar
30g unsalted butter, melted
*Note: How to make cake flour: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/09/how-to-make-cake-flour/
Method: 
1. In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later.
2. Sift almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, cake flour. (This can be done into your dirty egg white bowl)
3. On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light.
4. Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.
5. Fold in melted butter.
6. Reserve batter to be used later.
Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste 
Ingredients
200g unsalted butter, softened
200g Confectioners' (icing) sugar
7 large egg whites
220g cake flour
Food coloring gel, paste or liquid
Method: 
1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously.
3. Fold in sifted flour.
4. Tint batter with coloring to desired color.
For the Mascarpone-Ricotta Pistachio Mousse (slightly adapted from Tartlette)
60g ground pistachios
120g mascarpone
120g ricotta
100g sugar
3g gelatin
375ml heavy cream
Method:
Soak gelatin in 3 tbsp cold water. Whisk the mascarpone & ricotta with sugar. Add the ground pistachios to this. Whip cream till soft peaks form. Microwave the gelatin for 10 sec and fold into the cream. Gently fold the cream into the pistachio mixture. Chill until needed.
For the Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
80gms dark chocolate chopped
1/4 cup cream
Method:
Bring the cream to a simmer and pour over chopped chocolate and whisk till smooth. Let cool slightly.
For the Mocha Bavarian Cream (follow this recipe here)
For the Espresso Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
80gms dark chocolate chopped
1/4 cup cream
1-2 tbsp freshly brewed strong coffee
Method:
Bring the cream & coffee to a simmer and pour over chopped chocolate and whisk till smooth. Let cool slightly.
Assembly:
1. Start with a large piece of parchment paper laid on a very flat baking sheet. Then a large piece of cling wrap over the parchment paper. Place a spring form pan ring, with the base removed, over the cling wrap and pull the cling wrap tightly up on the outside of the mold. Line the inside of the ring with a curled piece of parchment paper overlapping top edge by ½ inch. Cut the parchment paper to the top of the mold. It will be easier to smooth the top of the cake.
2. Trim the cake of any dark crispy edges. You should have a nice rectangle shape.
3. Decide how thick you want your “Joconde wrapper”.
4. Once your height is measured, then you can cut the cake into equal strips, of height and length.
5. Make sure your strips are cut cleanly and ends are cut perfectly straight. Press the cake strips inside of the mold, decorative side facing out. Once wrapped inside the mold, overlap your ends slightly. You want your Joconde to fit very tightly pressed up to the sides of the mold. Then gently push and press the ends to meet together to make a seamless cake. The cake is very flexible so you can push it into place. You can use more than one piece to “wrap “your mold, if one cut piece is not long enough.
6. The mold is done, and ready to fill.
7. Spread a thin layer of the chocolate ganache and leave to set in the fridge while you make the pistachio mousse.
8. Spread the pistachio mousse on top of the ganache and leave to set in the fridge for a couple of hours.
9.Spread a thin layer of espresso chocolate ganache on top of the pistachio mousse and leave to set in the fridge while you make the mocha bavarian cream.
10. Pour the mocha bavarian cream to fill the mold, smooth tops and place the cut-out joconde on top to cover. Leave to set for a few hours.
11. Loosen the spring form tin and serve.

Matcha Madness # 2 - Matcha Chocolate L4yer Cake

Matcha –Chocolate Layer Cake

For the Matcha Sponge

Self Raising Flour 135 gms

Unsalted Butter 175 gms

Cocoa - 40 gms

Caster Sugar 125 gms

Light Brown Sugar - 50 gms

Large Eggs 3

Baking Powder 1 tsp

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm spring-form tin. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Beat the butter and sugar on high for about 5 min until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and beat well. Fold in the sour cream & food colour.  Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture in 2 goes, gently folding and making sure not to knock off the air incorporated.

For the Chocolate Sponge

Self Raising Flour 88 gms

Unsalted Butter 88 gms

Caster Sugar 88 gms

Large Eggs 2

Baking Powder 1/2 tsp

Matcha Powder 1 tbsp

Sour Cream 2 tbsp

Few drops of green food color
Method:

Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Beat the butter and all the sugar on high for about 5 min until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and beat well. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture in 2 goes, gently folding and making sure not to knock off the air incorporated.

Assembly of the cake

Spread the Matcha sponge batter onto the greased tin. Spread the chocolate sponge batter on top of the Matcha layer. Using a skewer swirl the batter to create a marble effect, if desired. Bake for about 35-40 min or until skewer inserted comes out clean. Dust the top with cocoa powder.

Matcha Madness # 1 MacTweets #15 MacInspirational

After indulging in a season of high calorie desserts over the holidays, contributing to the ever increasing waistline and weighing scale, the only thing that comes to my mind is health food. So for the past week I have been trying hard to eat sensibly, with Green tea being one such favourite. Green Tea, rich in antioxidants, taken regularly boosts metabolism and reduces cholesterol levels  (Source). 

Jamie and Deeba challenged the Mactweeters to create a macaron inspired by a favourite dessert. My creation has my all time favourites, green tea and chocolate, perfect simple treats you want when you are tired of all the fancy desserts. So here I present to you the healthy & hearty Matcha Macarons.

Matcha Macarons with Chocolate Ganache

Egg Whites – 2 (aged for 5 days)

Icing Sugar – 100 gms

Ground Almonds – 60 gms

Caster Sugar – 4 gms

Matcha – 1 tbsp (You could cut this down to 1-2 tsp depending on taste)

Egg Whites Powder – ½ tsp

Cream of Tartar – ½ tsp

Green food color – few drops or a pinch if using powder

Preheat oven to 160C.

Line two baking sheets with silicone sheet.

Pulse the Icing sugar with the almond powder, food colour and Matcha in a processor.

Beat the egg whites until foamy and add the granulated sugar, whites powder, cream of tartar. Beat until very stiff and firm. Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding. The mixture should be thick and fall in ribbons when lifted. Fill a piping bag with this and pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1″ circles evenly spaced apart. Tap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then rest to form a skin for about an hour. Bake them for 12-15 minutes depending on size. Once done, transfer them to a cooling rack.

Chocolate Ganache

Dark Chocolate chopped – 90 gms

Heavy Cream – ¼ cup

Butter – 1 tbsp

Heat the cream and whisk in the chocolate and butter until smooth and glossy.

Assembly

Using a piping bag, pipe a tiny amount of ganache on the flat side of the macaron, and sandwich with another of the same size. Sandwich them, squeezing gently. Leave to set in fridge for at leasts 24 hours for flavours to work together.