Rose Macarons & Matcha Green Tea Macarons

Been on a macarons baking frenzy again.

This weekend,  I churned out Rose Macarons (inspired from Laduree),

and Matcha Green Tea Macarons (Colleague S's favorite)

H took photos of the process (:

Must give him credits for always taking such awesome photos!

 Notice the little peaks?

Nope, the macaronage isn't undermixed.

I just have not started on the "knocking process"

Once I do that, the peaks will disappear. 

Rose pink macarons with little feet rising in the oven!

The pain of baking macarons is that they tend to brown.

Somehow the browner macarons give off a nice almond scent,

but aesthetically wise, they aren't as pretty as their non-brown counterparts of course.

Completed macaron with rose buttercream ganache.

Was initially worried about the buttercream being too oily and buttery.

But the italian meringue method worked wonders.

The buttercream was light and gave off a nice rose scent after adding the rosewater.

 Pardon the lighting. 

But the matcha powder was really good.

Could taste the green tea from just the shell itself. 

 Waiting for them to dry and form a skin

 Matcha Green tea with white chocolate ganache that turned out really well.

Had thought the white chocolate would be too sweet,

but the bitterness of the matcha powder could balance the sweetness. 

 H helped me to pipe the ganache unto the shell while I was pairing the shells (:

Tadah! Completed matcha green tea macarons

Hope J and S will enjoy them tomorrow ;)

Salted Caramel & Dark Chocolate Macaron

It was a dear colleague, C's birthday, and I decided to bake some macs for her (: 

She had loved the mint chocolate macaron I gave her previously,

So I was thinking something chocolately would do the trick again. heh.

So on Good Friday (hoorays to Public Hols!), 

I baked up a batch of Chocolate and Salted Caramel macs.

The shells were a shade of pastel pink, 

which were a nice contrast to the dark chocolate peeking out from the shells.

If you're wondering where was the salted caramel,

there was actually a huge dollop of it in the middle. 

Glad she liked them!

Recipe : Salted Caramel Cookies

Salted caramel has always intrigued me,

with that slightly burnt sugar taste with a rich aftertaste of butter.

It's not difficult to make, but it's highly encouraged for you to have fleur de sel (french sea salt) at hand.

And in the event where salted caramel is overcooked,

you can always have toffee sweets thereafter (:

(This is speaking from experience. haha)

And so, I tried my hand at Salted Caramel cookies yday,

as it's a favourite with a girlfriend at work.

I was careful not to overcook the caramel this time round.

And this was my final product:

 Lusciously creamy salted caramel sauce:

I did my cookies thumbprint style.

One lesson I learnt is that as much as I want to fill the entire cookie with a huge dollop of salted caramel,

I can't and I shouldn't.

The caramel will drip off the cookie while baking,

and that doesn't make the cookie look pretty anymore.

In all, I have baked about 100 cookies in a single batch,

and I still have leftover salted caramel...

Mm, perhaps I will make macarons this weekend with those leftover salted caramel sauce.

The cookies turned out buttery, crisp, and melts in the mouth.

The salted caramel didn't become too hard after baking in the oven.

But the next time, I might consider to undercook the salted caramel first,

and to further bake it in the oven as it sits on the cookie dough.

H couldn't keep his hands off the cookies!

For a person who doesn't have sweet tooth,

this cookie seems to have hit the right spot with him.

Alright, here's the recipe to share

(adapted from My Lovebites: My Fav cookie shop in Sg) 

INGREDIENTS
For the salted caramel
150g granule sugar
1 tsp salt (fleur de sel / fine sea salt)
50g salted butter (I use Lurpark brand)
½ cup double cream or whipping cream with at least 35% fat (I used President brand)

For the cookie base
190g unsalted butter, cut into pieces (Lurpark brand)
225g plain flour
125g granule sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. To make the salted caramel, melt the sugar and salt over low heat in a wide and deep pot, until the sugar melts and the mixture is a light brown – about 5-8min. You don't have to get a sugar syrup mixture here. It should be a pot of light brown sugar mixture instead.
2. Add the butter immediately and whisk. Add the cream and continue whisking until the mixture bubbles and expands to three to four times its original volume.
3. Boil the mixture for another 5min until it is thick. It should look like the caramel in picture above.
4. Transfer it into another pot to cool for 2 hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C.
6. To make the cookies, rub the butter into the flour to form a soft dough. Add the sugar and knead into a large dough ball.
7. Roll the dough into small balls. Place them on baking trays lined with greaseproof paper.
8. Make a small hole in the middle of each ball and fill them with the caramel mixture. Bake for 15min.

Recipe: Pierre Hermes' Chocolate Sables Cookie

Salted caramel has always intrigued me,

with that slightly burnt sugar taste with a rich aftertaste of butter.

It's not difficult to make, but it's highly encouraged for you to have fleur de sel (french sea salt) at hand.

And in the event where salted caramel is overcooked,

you can always have toffee sweets thereafter (:

(This is speaking from experience. haha)

And so, I tried my hand at Salted Caramel cookies yday,

as it's a favourite with a girlfriend at work.

I was careful not to overcook the caramel this time round.

And this was my final product:

 Lusciously creamy salted caramel sauce:

I did my cookies thumbprint style.

One lesson I learnt is that as much as I want to fill the entire cookie with a huge dollop of salted caramel,

I can't and I shouldn't.

The caramel will drip off the cookie while baking,

and that doesn't make the cookie look pretty anymore.

In all, I have baked about 100 cookies in a single batch,

and I still have leftover salted caramel...

Mm, perhaps I will make macarons this weekend with those leftover salted caramel sauce.

The cookies turned out buttery, crisp, and melts in the mouth.

The salted caramel didn't become too hard after baking in the oven.

But the next time, I might consider to undercook the salted caramel first,

and to further bake it in the oven as it sits on the cookie dough.

H couldn't keep his hands off the cookies!

For a person who doesn't have sweet tooth,

this cookie seems to have hit the right spot with him.

Alright, here's the recipe to share

(adapted from My Lovebites: My Fav cookie shop in Sg) 

INGREDIENTS
For the salted caramel
150g granule sugar
1 tsp salt (fleur de sel / fine sea salt)
50g salted butter (I use Lurpark brand)
½ cup double cream or whipping cream with at least 35% fat (I used President brand)

For the cookie base
190g unsalted butter, cut into pieces (Lurpark brand)
225g plain flour
125g granule sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. To make the salted caramel, melt the sugar and salt over low heat in a wide and deep pot, until the sugar melts and the mixture is a light brown – about 5-8min. You don't have to get a sugar syrup mixture here. It should be a pot of light brown sugar mixture instead.
2. Add the butter immediately and whisk. Add the cream and continue whisking until the mixture bubbles and expands to three to four times its original volume.
3. Boil the mixture for another 5min until it is thick. It should look like the caramel in picture above.
4. Transfer it into another pot to cool for 2 hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C.
6. To make the cookies, rub the butter into the flour to form a soft dough. Add the sugar and knead into a large dough ball.
7. Roll the dough into small balls. Place them on baking trays lined with greaseproof paper.
8. Make a small hole in the middle of each ball and fill them with the caramel mixture. Bake for 15min.