Lavender Macarons with Mango curd buttercream

There was a family gathering over at my sister's place last weekend. My mum and sis prepared lots of delicious food for everyone. To thank the generous host and hostess, I decided to bake something nice for everyone to enjoy. Since both my sister and her husband loves cheesecakes, I decided to make a simple no-bake light mango cheesecake that day. Since the cheesecake looks kind of plain on it's own, the idea of decorating it with some macarons came to mind. (Plus its AB macaron theme this month, hehe) As I didn't want to bake the usual flavors, I went with something slightly more "exotic"...Lavender Macarons! I bet some of you are going..."Ewww....potpourri flavor?! I know I know, it does sound a little unconventional, but since I did make lavender butter cookies before and they turned out wonderful, so I thought...why not?

To match the flavor with the cheesecake, I filled the macarons with mango curd buttercream. Eh...why not just mango curd, why with buttercream? Well, long story short, the curd was a little runny and it just didn't hold well in the macs. Why? Don't really know...even after I cooked it much longer then suggested. :P However the mango curd's taste was fabulous, a great recipe I got from Smitten Kitchen. Check out her link if you are interested to make the curd.

For the no-bake cheesecake recipe, please kindly refer to my previous post. As for the mac recipe, here it is:

Ingredients for Lavender Macaron Shells: (makes about 20 cookies)

100g almond meal (I ground mine from whole blanched and toasted almonds)
100g icing sugar
1 heaping tbsp lavender (I chopped mine into even finer bits)
38g fresh egg whites (about 2 egg whites)
pinch of salt
some violet food coloring (optional-I used Wilton's violet food coloring gel, a little goes a long way)

80g caster sugar
20ml water

38g aged egg whites (about 2 egg whites)

• In a blender, finely ground the almond powder and confectioner's sugar together till powdery like. Then pour it into a bowl and add in the lavender bits . Then mix in the egg white and salt. Stir and mix well. Mixture will be thick.

• In a saucepan placed over medium fire, heat up the sugar and water. Once the sugar has all melted, place your candy thermometer in and monitor it till it reaches ~108C. Once it reaches 108C, beat the egg white at high speed till it reaches soft peaks, which by then the temperature should be close to 118C.

• Slowly drizzle the sugar syrup into the egg white while the mixer is still at medium speed. Once all the syrup is in, continue to beat till the meringue is glossy.

• Fold in 1/3 of the meringue into the almond meal mixture. Since the almond mixture is thick, you'll need to stir harder to incorporate it well. Repeat the other 2 portions and fold in gently.

• Scoop the batter into a piping bag with an 10mm nozzle. Pipe out on a baking tray lined with baking parchment paper. Let rest for 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 150C with fan off.

• After 10 minutes, bake the cookies in the oven for 14mins.

• After baking, remove from oven and let cool completely before peeling off.

Note: You can dry the mac shells a little by using your oven if that day happens to be a humid/rainy day. Preheat oven to 80C, off oven and place piped mac shells in. When the shells are no longer sticky to your finger's touch, they are good to bake. Else wait for another 5 minutes to let it dry up a little further.

I was really happy my family loved this cake...and the macs. ;) Although most of them have no clue what flavor the mac was, they just happily chomp it down (before I can tell them), lol! I guess the mango flavoring might have been a little overpowering over the lavender, since I did only add 1 tbsp. I have reduce the sugar for this recipe and thank goodness it still turned out fine. *phew!!*  So the macs were not overly sweet, just to my liking. ;) However, the violet color didn't quite show...should add a wee but more coloring next time. :P

  

To my surprise, I actually like the faint flowery scent in the mac. No, not potpourri feel at all...just a sweet scent at the background to compliment the nutty flavor of the almond. :) If I would have filled it with plain vanilla buttercream, it's flowery scent would have stand out even more. But overall, I was really happy I tried something new! Being a little adventurous never hurts ya?

I am happy to submit my post to this month's Aspiring Bakers #17: March Macaron Madness! (Mar 2012) hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies.

Thanks Alan for hosting!

Okay, will end this post here. Thanks for staying with me!

Maple Syrup Loaf and Red Wine Yeast Bao (枫糖土司 & 红鞠包子)

Here I am again with another bread loaf recipe. Since I bake bread every week without fail, so inevitably I will post up a new recipe...I just hope I don't bore you guys out, lol! In fact I still have 3 more backlogs on breads which hopefully I will get the chance to post up soon. (^_^) Boring perhaps to some...but never to me! I'm always excited and haven't found an ounce of boredom in baking bread till now! (^o^) Anyway, uh-hum(clearing my throat)....today's bread, Maple Syrup Bread Loaf(枫糖土司) is again using pre-fermented dough technique, which to me is one of the more trusted method to yielding a good loaf.

That bottle of maple syrup was purchased while I was in States last year. It is really thick and has a fine woody scent which I think is the real stuff! The bread it has mild maple scent to it. ;) But no worries if you can't get really good maple syrup from where you stay, the bread loaf will still be equally good. :) And who says maple syrup is only good for topping over pancakes/waffles?

Ingredients for Maple Syrup Bread Loaf (Makes one 9x5x4 loaf)

270g bread flour

30g cake flour

70g pre-fermented dough (refer to here for recipe)

3g salt

12g milk powder

15g brown sugar

40g maple syrup

6g active dry yeast

80g beaten whole egg

8-ml fresh milk

35g unsalted butter

• Knead all ingredients of the main dough together, except the butter. Add pre-ferment dough piece by piece. Knead after each addition until soft and smooth. Add butter. Knead until stretchable and pass the window panel consistency.
• Put the dough into a big bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for 30minutes till double.
• Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Flatten each portion with your hands to drive the air out. Roll it into square shape, cover and let rest for 20 minutes before shaping.
• Flatten the dough to drive the air out. Roll each out into a rectangular sheet with a rolling pin. Fold about 2cm from both sides towards the center and roll it out again. Roll the dough up like swiss roll (the width should be the same as the tin) and out them into the mould. Repeat for the rest of the dough portions. Cover with cling wrap.
• Let it prove for about 45 minutes or until the dough has risen to 80 to 90% of the depth of the loaf tin. You can either cover the lid or bake it open top. I omitted the egg wash to make it pure vegetarian version. Bake in 175C for 30 to 35minutes.

The texture of the loaf did turn out pretty good...soft and bouncy and even stays so the next day. :) Day after? Probably, but the bread was all gone by then. (^o^)

Just to show you the nice texture of the bread...to convince you a little bit more, heehee. (^_^) If you have maple syrup sitting at the furthest corner of your fridge....you know what you should do with it now. :)

Another recipe I want to share today is 红鞠包子. I have actually come to know about this 红鞠(red wine yeast) pretty long ago through a Taiwanese cooking show. The chef was using it to stew a piece of roast pork and it looked so goooood! Since I didn't know how to get my hands on the red wine yeast..it just got forgotten. Until recently......I saw Sonia using it for her chiffon! I was so excited and found out it was Lena whom got it for her. And guess what? Sweet Lena sent me a bottle! Thanks Lena! I wanted to try it on something simple and found a decent recipe from Carol's cookbook: 红鞠馒头. But since I'm not too fond of plain buns, I went ahead and modified the recipe to baos with fillings, heehee. :D

The baos turned out with a light salmon color, quite pretty and festive in color. ;) Although I did worry that the strong wine aroma might be evident in the bao....so I reduce the amount of red wine yeast used...but in the end I can't smell or even taste it in the baos. :P

Here is the recipe I came up with:

Ingredients for Red Wine Yeast Baos(红鞠包子) (makes about 8)

20g brown sugar

110ml warm water

3/4 tsp active dry yeast

50g starter dough (see here for recipe)

370g plain flour

50g cake flour

80ml red wine yeast (I used 60g only and added 1 tbsp more water to compensate)

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp shortening

1. Place everything in a large mixing bowl except the butter and knead till it comes together. Once it forms into a dough, add in the shortening and continue to knead for a good 5 to 7 minutes on the mixer or 10 minutes by hand till it is elastic and smooth.
2. Place the dough in a greased bowl and let proof till double in size. Punch out the air and divide the dough into 40g each.
3. Take a dough portion and flatten it into a disc, making sure the center is thicker then the edges. place about 2 tbsp's worth of red bean / black sesame paste filling in the center. Seal up and roll round. Place on a greased proof paper and put the bun into the steamer (already prep with water) to further proof for about 40 minutes. Repeat.
4. Once proved, start the steamer and steam at medium high for 10 to 15 minutes. Note that do open the lid completely after steamed, open partially with a small gap for 15 minutes to let the buns cool slowly to prevent them to deflate.

I am actually quite excited about trying more recipes, even savory dishes with the red wine yeast. Hopefully will post them up soon. Thanks again dear Lena for taking the trouble to send it to me!

Showing off the fluffy texture of the bao, heehee! :D If you are lucky enough to access to red wine yeast, do try this recipe out...you'll not only be eating healthy, you'll enjoy it very much too! ;) If you are interested to read more about the medicinal values of 红鞠, please visit this link....but it's in Mandarin. :P

Hope this post had inspired you to bake some bread and steam some healthy buns! The weekend is just around the corner...make use of it and make something yummy! Hope you all have a great one!