adriano zumbo's salted caramel macarons

When Adriano Zumbo launched his bake at home range late last year, I swiftly acquired the entire range thanks to my lovely mum who knows how much I love to bake and how much I love Zumbo. In the past half a year, I've made 3 out of the 4 that were part of the original launch and lo and behold, there's another 2 which have launched in the past month! For those that follow Mashi, you would've read her post here as the two of us had a crack at the salted caramel macarons late last year.

A most pretty array of Adriano Zumbo's bake at home range.

Fun on a Friday evening.

Patiently piping our shells in the hope of some macaron feet.

Look at the determination in Mashi's face in this photo!

First batch that came out of the oven - some came out a little crackly but other's came out with feet. I did my happy dance at this point.

Not so great to start with...

But perfect macarons we have here!

Unfortunately these macarons look better than they taste. Despite leaving them to sit overnight in the fridge, they were airy to the taste and just didn't have the crunch and chewiness you'd expect of a macaron. And for salted caramel macarons, these came out rather orange!

Instructions are definitely easy to follow but you'll need to set aside a good 2-3 hours from start to finish to make this batch of about 20 filled macarons. Makes you appreciate the ones you buy outside; suddenly they don't seem so expensive after all when you consider all the effort that goes into making the two discs and a filling that comprise that one macaron. Anyway, have yet to try the Passionfruit macarons and I hear part of the new launch is one more macaron flavour; hopefully they work out a bit better taste-wise!

laduree @ sydney westfield

My love for Laduree means I have both their cookbooks, a book about their store (half of which I can't read because it's in another language), a Laduree shopping bag, a Laduree macaron keyring and of course a collection of Laduree photos from visiting the stores in Europe. Unfortunately I haven't quite made my way to the Sydney store to check it out so have to live vicariously through other food bloggers until I go. Was pretty chuffed though that mum remembered me and bought me a small box when she went; it was good half hour wait for her so looks like the queues haven't quite died down yet.

The signature Laduree bag in green.

4 macarons come in this pretty little pink box. And as you can imagine, I've eaten the macarons but kept both the box and bag. Couldn't quite bring myself to throw them out.

Flavours from left to right: Salted Caramel, Vanilla, Blackcurrant Violet & Coffee. My favourite being the Blackcurrant Violet which tastes like you're eating a dollop of blackcurrant jam.

So what do I think of Laduree's macarons? At $15 for a box of 4 macarons, it's a hefty price to pay but worth it (even if it's for that minute of bliss when you open up that box). Tastewise, the flavours are true to what they say they are which is not something I can say about other macarons where you end up just tasting a generic macaron shell. I continue to love everything about the brand; everything is just too pretty. Any gifts from the Laduree store for those who want to buy me something, they would be greatly appreciated!

zumbaron day - oct. 6th, 2012

For someone that's not usually a morning person, I made the exception for Zumbaron Day this year; promptly woke up by 7 to be in the queue at The Star store by 8am. Unfortunately there were a fair few more eager beavers than I'd hoped so where we were placed in the queue, it was still a good hour wait till we got to the counter when the doors opened. But you know what, Adriano was in the kitchen and whilst I didn't have my face pressed against the window (that would've been embarrassing), there was a slight spring in my step and the queue didn't seem so bad. Plus the boy and I made friends with the people that were behind us and they were just as excited as we were to be at our first Zumbaron Day.

A good ten minutes was sent perusing the 62 macaron flavours on the menu. Of the 62, 6 were only available at The Star store so that was a bit of a no-brainer; I'd be taking those for sure. And well, 10 minutes later, it became clear that I'd just order all the flavours; that way I wouldn't be missing out on any of them.  

So usually I'm the crazy one that takes all the photos but the boy couldn't help himself and whipped out his phone camera and took a few too. The macarons are so, so pretty! Almost too pretty to eat!

Here are the specialty macarons that were only available at The Star store (clockwise from top left): Custard fritter, Duck Pancake, Pork Belly & Fried Chicken.

And here are the other two (from left): Hamburger & Fried Doughnut.

Fried chicken macaron innards - and yes, it tasted exactly like chicken.

Didn't think Adriano could pull this one off by here you have it, a Duck Pancake macaron which tastes exactly like the real thing.

Pork Belly. Whilst in the queue, I actually watched them making this one. One very red macaron sandwiched with 2 pieces of pork belly in a bun. Baked in the oven so that the macaron turns into a sweet red sauce when you eat it.

Happy as ever; me with the Choc Mallow Pop.

We haven't quite got through the entire haul yet but find that they're keeping well in the fridge (you know what, I actually think they taste better after they've been sitting in the fridge for a bit - they keep firm and some strangely retain their crunch). My favourite to date is probably the salted caramel. The strangest one had to be the Kimchi thought there's still a Wasabi and ginger one to try. Happy Zumbaron Day!

malted chocolate macarons

I can't wait till Easter! A bunch of us are going camping and I can't wait to get out my wellies out of the cupboard, pack my books and kick back by the campfire and just read away. One of my drunken friends will probably holler by my ear (that's if it's not the boy himself) but it'll be a great weekend away as always; always good fun and full of laughs.

So where did the last couple of weeks go? I had a weekend away, work has kept me busy, lots of catch ups and generally being busy out and about and if you haven't gathered already, I'm looking forward to the break coming up and it wasn't so long ago since my last break. Oh well, I'm getting old and I'm getting a tidbit lazy and holidays are good, I can rest and just maybe, I might have some time to whip up another batch of macarons (being my favourite things in the world at the moment).

Here are my piped shells for a batch of Malted Chocolate macarons. Recipe is as per my last post, instead of the cocoa powder, you replace with 2 tbsp malted milk powder (remember to sift all ingredients).

I recently discovered Green & Black's Organic Cocoa Powder and really, there's no turning back.

Lightly dust the cocoa powder over the piped shells whilst the tops are still sticky. Leave to rest for 15 minutes - 1 hour until a skin forms across the shells.

Feet!

These Malted Chocolate macarons had a chocolate ganache filling in them. To make the chocolate filling, put 150g dark chocolate into a small heatproof bowl. Put 150mL double cream and 1 tbsp light brown sugar into a small saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved and the cream has come to a boil. Add a pinch of salt and 1 tbsp malted milk powder to the cream and pour over the chocolate and leave to melt. Stir until smooth and leave to set and thicken before using.

I could've been a little more generous with the ganache filling but was trying to be good.

These macarons were looking much better to my last batch. The feet were slightly more uniform and contained. Tastewise, they're still a little chewy and talking to a few people now, they think I should try the Italian meringue method which is apparently more stable and produces better textured macarons. Thanks for one of the boys at work, I actually got a hold of an Adriano Zumbo recipe which I'm definitely trying.

Nonetheless, this batch of macarons got gobbled up very quickly after they were made. The recipe itself is also so easy compared to the Italian meringue method which makes it hard for me to give it up (especially when I'm getting feet so easily every time!), thumbs up to the lovely Annie Rigg and her lovely book. Chocolate & Cherry macarons is sounding rather tempting as does Banoffee - what flavour to make next?

chocolate macarons with peanut butter & raspberry jam

My fascination with macarons means that I have at least 6 cookbooks dedicated to making them, constant stalking of Adriano Zumbo to see what new macarons he's got in store and of course, a sizeable appetite for eating them. For awhile, I've been planning to do the course at Baroque Patisserie but after many unsuccessful attempts at booking myself a place, I ended up giving it a go at home and you know what, it actually wasn't too bad. Never has my fascination with 'feet' been so great that I actually squealed in delight watching the feet form on my macarons whilst they baked in the oven!

Start with 200g icing sugar and 100g ground almonds and blend thoroughly for 30 seconds in a food processer. For chocolate flavoured macarons, add in 2 tbsp of cocoa powder and blend.

In a large bowl, place 120g egg whites (approx. 3 eggs) and add a pinch of salt. Using a handheld electric beater, beat until they will only just hold a stiff peak. Continue to wish at medium speed whilst adding 40g caster sugar a little bit at a time. Keep in mind that the mixture should be thick, white and glossy. Add a  little red food colouring paste to boost the colour of the final macaron.

Using a large metal spoon, fold the ground sugar, cocoa and almond mixture into the egg whites. The mixture should be thoroughly incorporated and smooth.

Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe evenly sized rounds onto a baking sheet. Tap the bottom of the baking sheets sharply once on the work surface to expel any large air bubbles. Leave to rest for at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour until they have set and formed a dry shell. They should not be sticky to the touch. Preheat oven to 170 degrees.

Whilst the piped macarons were resting, I made my peanut butter filling. To make the filling, put 75g skinned and unsalted peanuts in a roasting pan and toast in the oven for  minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 2-3 minutes before finely chopping in the food processor. 

Add in 1 tbsp icing sugar, 3tbsp condensed milk, 2 tbsp unsalted butter and a pinch of salt and pulse again until the mixture turns to peanut butter. 

Bake the macarons for 10 minutes. Recipe recommends that you do this one tray at a time (as the bottom of the oven is oven hotter than the middle of the oven). I take risks and look, my macarons have feet!

After 10 minutes, you should leave the macarons to cool on the tray. On the RHS is a macaron disc which I hurriedly pulled off the sheet as soon as it came out of the oven. With 5 minutes rest, the macarons actually come off the sheets much easier (see the one on the LHS).

Once the macaron shells have cooled, fill with your choice of filling. 

I had mine with peanut butter and jam. The peanut butter recipe could've done with a bit of tweaking - ending up being a little hard and chewy.

I guess not bad for my first proper go at making macarons! I'm very much in love with macaron feet as bizarre as it sounds. I've learnt my lesson to sift every ingredient that I use - the main problem I had was clumps in the batter which meant I was trying to pull these out once they were piped (hence why you see the uneven surfaces on my macarons). Admittedly it's a lot of work to make a small batch of these little things but very worthwhile and satisfying throughout and at the end!

adriano zumbo @ MidCity

Thursday night shopping last week was met with a most pleasant surprise - the much sought after cake genius, Adriano Zumbo was at MidCity doing a demonstration of sugar flowers. I think I pinched myself a couple of times to convince myself that I wasn't dreaming...yes, it was Adriano Zumbo in the flesh standing just a metre away from me and hey, I think he just looked at me!

And to prove that I was there, here's a handful of photos from the night. I love that macaron tower!

Ok, here he is and he's looking my way :)

Adriano's rather cheeky smile whilst he's busy at work.

They were handing out a selection of macarons and cakes on the night. I had my eye on this one and strategically placed myself near where they were coming out of the kitchen and grabbed one straight away when they came out.

Cake innards! Yum!

I was actually in the city doing some shopping (not stalking him) so grabbed another photo from the other side as I was walking back to go down the escalators.

My friend M happily joined me in my craziness as I took the above snaps. The boy wasn't as pleased; he stood at the back, tapping his feet and the initial amusement was quickly replaced with a snarl on the face. Apparently I lurked around the demonstration for too long, taking too many photos and giggled a bit too much at the mention of Zumbo. It's been a good while since I've blogged about Zumbo here...I hadn't forgotten about him, I think I've just found myself falling in love again! Haha...just kidding. I do think he's a cake genius though and would absolutely love to learn how to make his cakes and macarons!

lindt cafe macarons

Since Adriano Zumbo's macarons featured on Masterchef, it seems like everyone can't quite get enough of them! The other week, we were doing the Bay Run (or in my case, the walk), we stopped by Adriano Zumbo's patisserie and the queue extended 20m down the road! Thankfully we bumped into one of my friend's brothers who was in the queue and said he would get some for us when he got to the head of the queue which saved us the wait. I have friends at work who live in the area and they tell me that the queue is always there; it's almost impossible to get into the shop! (not happy!!!)

Thankfully, there's a few more places offering macarons and one place which I think offers a consistently a good one is Lindt Cafe. Lindt calls them delices but really, they're macarons through and through. The flavours available are probably not as interesting as the one's that Zumbo offers but the thing is they're consistent and you can get your hand on a dozen without the 20m queue!

Mum has been scouting out macarons for me in the city. This is a box she brought back home one day.

I like my macarons with a cup of green tea (and well, sat in front of the TV watching the Food Channel on Foxtel, feet up of course!)

I've been trying to explain to my friends what the 'feet' is on a macaron - it's that rough bit at the bottom of each disk. See pic below. 

The salted caramel macaron is well worth trying at the Lindt Cafe. What came across as a surprise and which I now love is the lusciously pink Rose Macaron - give it a go!

And let me end this post and just say, I thought there was a difference between macaron and macaroons. I've had a go making both. Macarons use ground almonds whilst macaroons use coconut, and well that was how I understood it to be. Yet when I refer to my almighty Larousse Gastronomique, it calls macarons 'macaroons'! How very confusing! It's no wonder the topic of macaron and macaroons comes up so often at the dinner table!