Beginner's Macarons

Beginner's Macarons This story begins, as so many of my stories do these days, with the Wiggle. At 11 months of age, the Wiggle is well into 'solid' foods and enjoys a small but considered range of lovingly prepared homemade goo including leafy and root vegetables, fruit, and dairy.

Attempting to get the Wiggle to eat meat, however, is a different story. I don't know whether it's because I'm missing something or because meat's just not meant to be pureed, but all my attempts at creating meat dishes fail miserably and she refuses to eat them.

And I don't blame her. I certainly wouldn't eat them myself. So until I find a good way to puree meat - or until she grows enough teeth to chew - she gets all her protein from eggs. Specifically, egg yolks - apparently egg whites contain allergens or some such and you're not supposed to feed them to small babies. It's probably fine but I'm a 'by the book' kind of gal when it comes to things like that. Anyway, the moral of the story is that she only eats the yolks of her eggs so I am accumulating a very large number of egg whites and although I have started to throw them away, I can't bear to waste perfectly good food like that.

The proliferation of egg whites in little plastic baggies in my freezer led to a desire to finally learn to make meringe-y foods, which have been the focus of my kitchen experiments for the past few weeks. This week I decided, finally, to try my hand at notoriously difficult and fiddly but melt-in-your-mouth delicious macarons.

First: the difference between a macaron and a macaroon. They're pronounced the same, but fairly different. A macaroon is a sort of coconut biscuit. A macaron is a glorified meringue made with almond meal. Very different. Macarons need to be handled gently and they require a lot of rest, but they are worth it!

To make this dish you will need a bit of special equipment: a large metal bowl (very important that it's metal or your egg whites won't beat properly) and either a standalone kitchen mixer or electric beaters (otherwise you'll be there for hours and get RSI in your elbow).

Ingredients
3 egg whites, strained and aged (leave them on the bench, in a sealed container, overnight)
2 tbsp castor sugar
100g almond meal
1 cup icing sugar
nutella

Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.

You have two options with the almond meal and icing sugar: you can either sift it all together, or put it in a food processor to get all the lumps out. I recommend the latter because it took me ages to sift. Once that is done, beat your egg whites, gradually adding the castor sugar, until you can turn the bowl upside down and they stay put. Carefully fold in the dry ingredients. This is a pretty delicate operation because if you go too fast and just 'mix' then you will lose all the air that you've beat into your egg whites. Rest for 10 minutes.

Spoon or pipe into little circles of the mixture on to baking paper in trays. Try to get them all as even as possible because you will have to go and match them all up with partners later on. Rest for 10 minutes.

Bake for 12 minutes then allow to cool thoroughly on trays. Gently remove from paper and find each shell a partner of the same size.

Get a generous dollop of nutella (or a filling of your choice!) on the end of a knife and put it in the middle of one shell. Get the 'partner' shell and gently 'screw' them together. The filling shoud squish out to the edges and look beautiful. Do this with all your pairs until they are finished - you should get about 20 macarons.

Chai Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting

One of my girlfriends is in the Army, so when she says "I'm in Sydney for a week!" we all drop whatever we're doing and go to see her. Last visit we were all being merry at a restaurant when I discovered that she was free the following Saturday. Before I knew it, everyone was coming around to my place and I had promised to make cupcakes in whatever flavour my Army friend wanted. She chose Chai.

If you are someone who thinks that Chai is a type of flavouring syrup which gets added to lattes, stop right where you are. Chai acutally just means tea in most South Asian countries but in Australia it specifically refers to Masala Chai, an Indian blend of spices and black tea commonly consumed with milk and sweetener. The mix of spices in Masala Chai varies but most of them will contain cloves, nutmeg, star anise and cinnamon at the very least.

When Saturday rolled around, Husband and Wiggle were both deathly ill with a cold so I made some hasty phone calls and got morning tea moved to a friend's house. Fortunately I'd organised it as a 'bring-a-plate' affair so it was easy to move.

The cupcakes were a big hit and my choice of Vanilla Bean for the frosting, which I had agonised over, turned out to be spot on - flavoursome enough to complement the cakes but not overpowering. These ones I will make again!

Ingredients

1/2 cup hot water
1 tbsp Masala Chai
1/2 cup milk
125g butter
1tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon chinese five spice

100g butter
1 vanilla seed pod
2 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp milk

Method

Put Masala Chai and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil 2-3 minutes and reduce to a simmer. Add milk and simmer a further 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add flour, ground spices and 1/2 cup of your freshly brewed chai and mix thoroughly. Spoon batter into patty pans and bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 mins or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Beat butter until very pale. Split seed pods and scrape the beans out into the butter. Add icing sugar and continue beating. Add milk, a little at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Spread over cooled cupcakes and enjoy!