And finally...Macarons!!

My First Successful Macarons - With chocolate Ganache filling

It's been almost a year since I last posted. I do feel the shame! But at least, this time I am posting as a free woman.

I'm no longer a student. School term is finished and my days at ITS are over. My time is now divided between making cakes and desserts for customers, and testing recipes (as well as cooking for M. and cleaning... but who wants to think about that?). If that's not happiness, I don't know what is! :)

One recipe I've been wanting to test is that for Macarons. Ever since I tasted them for the first time at Ladurée in Paris, back in 2009, I have often craved for them and have been toying with the idea of making these beauties myself.

Pretty little Pink ones

It was our last day in Paris and were were supposed to visit the Louvre. We got there at 5:00pm and the museum  was closing down for the evening, so we could not get it. But did I care about not seeing the La Vallette sword or the Mona Lisa? I forgot about them as soon as I caught a glimpse of the prettiest display of confections ever. Ladurée!

Deciding which ones to choose... now that was a difficult task. But I left the shop with 10 different Macarons in hand. Such beautiful colours! I savoured them slowly, marvelling at the sheer delicacy of the taste and texture, whilst sulking a little because I had to share. That's when the love affair started. 

Macarons: Thin crispy outer shell, chewy inside, creamy ganache

Maybe you wondering why it took me so long to try making them myself. Maybe the ingredients were difficult to find? Maybe they're too time consuming? No & No! The only reason why I have been stalling for 3 whole years is that I have been reading about them... in books, on food blogs, everywhere! The list of troubleshooting tips is huge! Something could would obviously go wrong, wouldn't it? And I'm a coward that way...

The thing is, I just had to try. I pencilled them into my to do list, for next week. Right between "fix the magimix" and "pester M. to update my website". And less then 2 hours after they were in my list, a customer called. She wanted a cake, with macarons stuck on the side, and could I do it for tomorrow please?

Mini-Macarons on a Chocolate Gateaux

I was about to say no, but I knew that I could do them. So why postpone? Why not get it over and done with? I had just got a gentle nudge in the direction I wanted to go, and what perfect timing! 

So I went shopping, armed myself with enough ingredients for 6 batches of macarons and by the time everyone was in bed, I was prepared for a long night of trial and error in the kitchen.

Don't they look gorgeous?

It actually took 2 tries to get them right. The first time I had too many holes on top and no feet. A little research revealed that it was a problem which was easily fixed just by tapping the bottom of the baking tray and bursting those pesky little bubbles with a toothpick. I also needed to wait a little longer between piping them and baking them, for a shell to form. I had no patience the first time round, even though I knew I should have. 

The second batch was just what I was looking for! They were perfectly round, with thin smooth shiny shells and they had FEET! And they were chewy too! Oh the excitment! I was so pleased, I just had to wake up M. to show him, even though it was 2:00am :) (He was slightly less pleased, but hey! I had to share...) 
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Of vintage China and (almost!) impressing the hubby

Barratts Vintage Tea Set

I've been bad recently! And for a number of reasons too... For one thing, I haven't been updating this blog at all. My only excuse for that is that I started my summer internship, working 6 days a week in a restaurant. Not a very good excuse I know. Still, I'm sticking to it. I'm hoping it will get better once I'm back to school in a month's time.

Wedgewood Enoch and Adams Coffee Pots

I'm also using the same excuse for the second thing. I have not been taking any photos of anything I've cooked so far this summer. Moreover... the fridges are bare, the cupboards empty. I simply have no time or energy to go shopping. The hubby ain't too happy (more on that later!).

Royal Grafton Favourite trio

One thing about working in a restaurant till the early hours of the morning is that on getting back home you can't really go to sleep. Everyone else in the house is asleep. I had to find a way to pass the time... and I came up with online shopping.

That's where I've been awfully bad. No apologies either. I've been buying some beautiful vintage china. Complete sets, mismatched sets, teapots, coffee pots, cake stands. And today I received the last delivery. They're all here. My beauties :)

Some of the purchases

M. was as excited as I was... opening boxes and exclaiming on the beauty of the items. We took a few photos and then we got hungry. That's when problems began. I took out some noodles and M. gave me the "You're-a-chef-and-you're-feeding-me-packaged-noodles" look. I knew at that point, that reminding him that I'm still a student would be futile. I needed a better plan. So out came the grill pan and some chicken breast, the lonesome spring onion sitting in the bottom of the fridge, the tired carrot, two beautiful bowls. 

Turkish handpainted bowls

With not much of a selection of items, I chose to stick with the packaged noodles. I first dry rubbed the chicken and grilled it together with the spring onions. The noodles were cooked in a miso soup and I then added the chopped grilled chicken, the onions, carrot shavings and some frozen peas. One minute later we were eating a faux sort of ramen.

Grilled onions and sweet carrot shavings



For such little effort and for such a quick fix-up, this result was surprisingly good. I could see that M. was almost impressed, but not quite. I had still fed him packaged noodles, after all!

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Tiny figolla bites... with recipe

Anyone taking a look at my hands might think I've been dipping my fingers in paint of something of the sort... but all I've been doing is baking and decorating "Figolli"

Nice rows of "figures" ready to be popped into the oven

"Figolli" are a traditional Maltese pastry eaten at Easter time... apparently the name come from a corruption of the word figure (or figuri in old Italian) and usually in the shape of a lamb or something of the sort. Figolli are usually also large... about 7 to 10 inches in lenght (or width, depending on the shape :p )

So what's different about my figolli? Well they're small... tiny actually. Not more than 1 inch across. One bite and they're gone!

I made them by preparing two pieces of dough, on top of the other, separated by the almond filling in the middle, then used cookie cutters to cut out around 250 small figolli.

It did take some time... and patience... but the upside was that I had loads and loads of off cuts, which I baked seperately and we enjoyed even before the "pretty ones" were iced. YUMM!

I packed the figolli in packs of 3, a little ribbon and a home made tag and star.. and off they go, my little ones, on their own into the outside world.

The recipe I used for these figolli was given to me by one of my teachers, Mrs. Nathalie Barbara. I have to say I was not disappointed with the results. I particularly liked the dough, which resulted in a softer figolla than usual.

I made the dough by hand, and it was easy. I love rubbing the flour and the butter together... the smell reminds me of happiness. Maybe it's because it reminds me of my mother, making figolli, when I was a kid... and how happy and excited we were to eat these goodies.

Recipe is below. Let me know if you make it and what results you get.

In the mean time, Happy Easter to all!

 

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Off we go!

Good morning all!

It's Saturday and I woke up nice and early, with a spring in my step. And it's not just because it's the weekend. Oh no! Surprisingly it's been like that every day for the last 2 weeks... ever since I decided my job is to create and sell cards!

It all started when, after working for more than 10 years in IT, I decided it was enough for now. I needed something different. So I quit my job, but then what?

For around a month I had been working on the handmade Christmas cards I'd be sending to my family and friends... being really happy with my handiwork, I put some images online and started to get enquiries from friends. Can I order some? How much do they cost? So I setup my shop on Etsy to get me started.

And the last 2 weeks have been a flurry of finishing off some cards, creating custom orders or catering to requested changes, putting up items for sale on Etsy and setting up and updating my facebook fan page. So exciting!

Now, I don't know what will happen. I seriously doubt that I'll manage to make enough money to live by with this new "job"... but I'm taking it one stamp at a time, one card at a time, and oh boy, am I enjoying it!!

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