M: Macaro(o)ns

 

I left Edinburgh on May 15th and have been travelling to a few different places in Europe ever since.  So far I have been to Lisbon (check out the photos here), Porto (further north in Portugal), Madrid, Barcelona, and Berlin (photos to come soon). I am halfway through with my trip before I head back to Toronto on June 15th. 

I have family here in Berlin and have finally had the chance to spend a little extra time in front of the computer--you can always feel people breathing down your neck in the hostels, waiting for you to get off. Before leaving Edinburgh, I actually made two different recipes, but with work, packing and saying my goodbyes, I never got the chance to post them on the blog. This macaron recipe is the first of the two I made. About a week before, I cracked and bought a new cook book (my weakness). I'm travelling and don't need to lug anything else around with me but I was about to start letter 'M' for the blog and Irresistible Macaroons by Jose Marechal was indeed so irresistible with all of its pretty pictures!  I was also really inspired to try making macarons (which is what the French call them...I think they just call them macaroons in the UK but I know that at home those are something else..) after my friend Hilda visited me in back in February and brought me a box of them from Paris.

These definitely are not the easiest treats to make.  In order to end up with the perfect result, everything needs to be meassured (and weighed) exactly. There are also certain tools that should be used such as a scale, piping bag, food processor, thermometer, a good oven (I was using a tiny electric one..) and specific kinds of food colouring. The main reason why I picked this recipe for double chocolate macarons was that it was the only one in the book that did not require the use of gel food colouring. I did not know where to find this and it wasn't really a purchase I wanted to make if I was only intending on using it once.  I didn´t have a scale either so I ended up using a conversion chart to help me make the most precise measurements possible. 

I think for a lot of the recipes I have made since I have been overseas, I often did not have ALL of the recommended equipment and tools but I usually came up with some sort of solution. The basic macaron recipe is probably not the best to try and be inventive with. I do think that the result I ended up with was still so delicious although less delicate and perhaps slightly more "rustic".  The cookies were a bit flat and there was no consistency to their shape. Some of them were cracked but more from the later batches were smoother and I think that this was because they had a little longer to dry before being baked.

Although the macarons were very time consuming, I am definitely going to try making them again (perhaps a different flavour) once I get home to a better equipped kitchen!

A taste of Lisbon

A taste of The Netherlands

L: Lemon and Blueberry Cloud Tartlets

I have less than a week left in Edinburgh before I continue on with my travels. I will be making some stops in different places for a month and then I will fly back to Canada. That being said, I am going to try to push myself to produce as many recipes as possible before leaving the comforts of my apartment here..

This recipe once again comes from Tarts by Maxine Clark. Stupidly I didn't look at the recipe closely enough before scanning the page in Toronto. It refers to other pages in the book for making pate brisee  (for the crust) and also to explain how to "bake blind" which is just baking the pastry without the filling; it usually involves parchment paper and beans. These instructions can all be found on the internet but quite frankly I still don't have a food processor and just couldn't be bothered to make pastry so I bought some ready-made shortcrust pastry. Instead of using parchment and beans for "baking blind", I hung a little bit of the pastry over the edge of each ramekin so it wouldn't shrink when I baked it. I baked the crust on its own for approximately 5 minutes but a few more wouldn't have hurt.  For presentation, you can gently saw off this extra crust from the edge once it has been baked with the filling.

Luckily I was able to find ramekins that were quite cheap. If I didn't have any I probably would have used a larger baking dish and I would have baked the dessert at a slightly lower temperature and for longer. If you do have smaller individual dishes, they are much nicer for presentation and I'm not sure how well the tart would fare once sliced otherwise. 

All of my flatmates were very fond of the dessert. The result is an almost mousse-like, yet slightly more solid, texture...kind of like a soufflé. It tastes great no matter the temperature but serving it straight out of the oven is probably better for presentation.  As it cools, the filling sinks and starts to separate from the crust a little bit. 

On a slightly different note, I treated myself to a new camera lens (a Canon EF 50mm f 1.8) which is a bit of an upgrade from the one that came with the camera. It's ideal for portraits and still life so I hope you enjoy all the pictures below!

K: Key Lime Pie

Holy hiatus! I realize it has been a while since I last posted a recipe. My excuse is that I had projects and exams due, I was working, and friends and family were visiting (which was sooo nice).  However, I would like to say that I have tried to prove my dedication to this project by making this key lime pie twice!  I got the recipe from 200 Delicious Desserts by Sarah Lewis. The book was a gift from my friend Hilda who visited back in February. It is compact with lots of great recipes and suggestions for alterations.  The citrus notes of this particular pie really complemented the current transition into spring and summer.  It was really popular with my house mates the first time I made it and there were a couple of tiny tweaks I wanted to experiment with the second time around.

The thing that bothered me the most about my first attempt was that I over whipped the double cream that goes on the top. It looked a bit lumpy and porous and I thought that for presentation it would be nicer if it was smoother. If I were to make it again, I would probably whip the cream for even less time. As long as it is not liquid, it is probably good to go. The other difference is that the first time I did not have any lemons so I just put in extra lime juice. Adding a bit of lemon juice the second time helped balance out the flavours and I think it was a nice subtle touch (that was the general consensus from the flat mates). 

The pie needs a minimum of three hours to chill before adding the cream topping. Both times I made the main part of the pie the night before, let it chill overnight, and then added the topping the following morning. It is probably one of my favourite recipes I have made on Alphabake so far. It is quite easy to execute so if you get a chance to, definitely try it out! 

A taste of Edinburgh

J: Jalapeno-Cornmeal Bread

So I have to admit that I was not really looking forward to making a recipe that starts with the letter 'J'.  All I could find in my collection were things with jam or jalapenos, and I just was not feeling either.  In the end I decided to make this jalapeno-cornmeal bread because most of the entries on Alphabake so far have been for desserts and I thought it was a good idea to place a savoury option into the mix. The recipe once again comes from my Williams-Sonoma Baking Book: Essential Recipes for Today's Home Baker --usually a reliable source with lots of choices. The recipe was originally for muffins but I did not have the proper tin so I made a loaf instead.  I did not alter the oven temperature or the baking time and it still cooked thoroughly.


I think the bread turned out quite nicely but, like all cornbread I have tried in the past, I think it needed some sort of accompaniment whether it was soup or chili or butter (my room-mate recommended mayonnaise).  The jalapeno really gives it a spicy kick but adding a bit of cheese to the batter might give it an even nicer flavour. 

I: Ice Cream Sundae Brownies

I had a very lovely Valentine's Day this year. I got to spend it with my boyfriend whom I've been with since forever. His name is Stomach. We went on our traditional Valentine's double date with our two best friends, Ice-Cream and Brownie.  This year those two had some big news: THEY GOT HITCHED!!!

What actually happened was that I made a lovely 'singles' meal with my roommates.  The menu included a hearty salad and pasta dish with a scrumptious batch of Ice Cream Sundae Brownies ( la pièce de résistance ) for dessert. And please understand that these are not regular brownies with a scoop of ice cream on the side--the ice cream gets included in the batter, creating an even more fudgilicious and decadent texture...AMAZING!!!!!!!!!    

This week I opted to not make the letter 'I' recipe I had previously selected from one of my cookbooks. I did not find it particularly interesting and it was not as fitting for Valentine's Day as these brownies.  Instead I decided to adapt a recipe I found on another food blog called Picky Palate. It is a really easy, time saving recipe because it uses brownie mix from the box which was great since I was planning on making multiple dishes that evening. I made a few changes from the blogger's original recipe:

1) Her recipe requested more oil and an extra egg than the instructions on my box of brownie mix. At first I was not sure if we were using a different type of mix or if she made these changes in order to adapt the recipe to the inclusion of the ice cream. She also did not include any water (because of the ice cream) but I added a little bit otherwise it would have been impossible to mix.

2)   I chopped a block of chocolate into big pieces instead of using chocolate chips. The chocolate doesn't really melt in the brownies so it was nice finding big chunks of it when taking a bite.  

3) I didn't add any chocolate fudge sauce. I didn't have any available and although this might have been a tasty addition, the brownies were so fudgy and barely baked on the inside as is.

4) She used Ben and Jerry's Phish Food ice cream. I used a triple chocolate flavour but I think you can really play around with that if you want to.

5) I topped them with a sprinkle of icing sugar--do it!

These were so amazing paired with raspberries. They are the perfect comfort food for winter and I suggest you don't wait until next Valentine's Day to try them. Enjoy!

A taste of Glasgow

At the moment I am really lucky that I have four-day weekends and that I am somewhere in the world where the distance between destinations is relatively small.  I hope to do a bit of travelling while I am in Europe and I thought I would experiment with a section on this blog that would be a photo diary dedicated to the things I see.  This post has very little to do with food and might be a bit off topic for Alphabake, but there is a lot I want to share, including these photos from my day trip to Glasgow. I hope you enjoy them!     

 

H: Hazelnut Dacquoises

Last weekend I had a lovely time in Manchester where I was visiting my friends Ailsa and Dave. It was so nice catching up and just taking it easy. They were also pet sitting so there were lots of cuddles to go around from Monty the cat and Mia the dog. I didn't get a chance to do any baking that weekend but thankfully I have a recipe and evidential photos for the hazelnut dacquoises I made a few weeks back when I was still in London. 

Once again I paid a visit to the pages of The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book: Essential Recipes for Today's Home Baker for this recipe. It is a really good book with a diverse selection of dishes (that all start with a variety of letters in the alphabet--perfect!) so it will probably be featured on here a few more times.  In this version of the recipe the dacquoises are prepared like cookies but there are recipes around where single tart-shape is formed; I am not sure which version is more traditional.
 
A more detailed description of this version is that it is a sandwich of two meringues with a hazelnut flavoured pastry cream in the centre. The yield is only 8 cookies (16 meringues) and although they were delicious, a lot of effort went into making them. One has to roast and de-skin the hazelnuts, bake the meringues, cook up the pastry cream, and then put everything together. When I copied down the recipe before I left home, I forgot to record the recipe for pastry cream that's at the back of the book.  Luckily I was able to find a recipe on the Williams-Sonoma website but I am not sure if it produces the same amount as the recipe in the book.  I am only mentioning this because there was A LOT of filling leftover. One is supposed to add extra ingredients to the pastry cream. It didn't seem like it was lacking in flavour but maybe it would have been better if the 'pastry cream' to 'extras' ratio was a bit higher on the 'extras' side.  So if you were to make these you could either halve the pastry cream recipe or keep it as is and just use what is leftover as topping for..say..pancakes? (mmmmmm...) Also, the recipe says to keep the dacquoises refrigerated but another option is freezing them. They are generally quite chewy but using the freezer gives them a bit of an extra crunch which is nice too.

I made these around New Year's Eve which I think was a very fitting occasion. They are decadent yet delicate and would be perfect for a holiday party. I am just a bit ashamed that I have taken so long to create a post for them. I promise that from now on I am going to try to tighten the gap in between the baking and posting processes just in case anyone in the nearby vicinity wants to try any of the leftovers. :-)