Macarons

Ahhh....macarons, sweet wonderful macarons. :) I remembered clearly the first time I had my first macaron, it's like love at first bite. It was at this really (really really) nice French restaurant in Sonoma, the wine country in California, call The French Laundry. It was quite long ago, almost 8 years now, but it was THE best french restaurant I had so far. But perhaps that will be another post if I do go back there again!

Back to macarons, yes, the moment I bite into these little morsels, the exterior is very slight crunch like a meringue and inside is soft and slight chewy texture. It usually sandwich with some rich ganache filling and the combination is really good....that is if you ate one that is well made. :)I have been wanting to make macarons like forever now and recently have been tempted to go attend a macaron baking class too! Well I've heard so much failure stories about how difficult it is to make them etc etc. But after much consideration and advice from some good friends (thanks ladies), I decided to take up the challenge and make some myself.

Whenever I look at the ingredients to make macarons, I tell myself, how hard can it be, just sugar, egg white and almond powder. But I was rather wrong when I finally get my hands on it! There's so much things to watch out for when making these little cookies. I did some online research and reading up and found these 2 great websites that shows really detail steps and explanations on how macarons can be made; My Food Geek & Syrup and Tang. The latter even troubleshoot the mistakes if you happen to encounter one, cool!I have decided to follow the recipe in My Food Geek. But I did add 20g of cocoa powder into the batter to make it into chocolate macarons....but the color was not dark enough, looks more like coffee huh?! :-P One thing I might change in the recipe next time will be to reduce the confectioner's sugar by perhaps 40 to 30g.... the cookie is a wee bit sweet for my taste buds. :)Okay, you must be going like, not bad wah...besides the piping not too good, the cookies look fine. But the truth is, the 2 earlier trays that I baked, 80% of the cookies cracked on the surface! I was going "O man, why?" I did try not to over mix and also left the piped batter out for 10 minutes before baking them...why is it still cracking.

Desperate times calls for desperate measures. So my later 2 trays, I decided to try something new, something that wasn't mentioned in the 2 websites I found. I added a water bath in the baking process, something like for cheese cake...to prevent the cracking! Hahaha, and it worked! Of course I did not add water in the baking tray with the cookies but a separate baking pan in the lower rack with some water in it. But it did take more time to finish baking...perhaps the extra moisture lowered the baking temperature. Anyway, I was so glad that my last 2 batches came out nice...but I still have alot of room to improve, that is for sure.

For the fillings, I made chocolate ganache and strawberry cream cheese. Did not have time to make other ganache, might try passion fruit cream later since I have some in my fridge. The tart taste might be a great combination to it! ;)

Anyway, I was glad to have finally baked macarons, the taste and texture is satisfactory but I will make better next time. If you have made macarons before, do share your views with me!

Yam (Taro) Milk Buns

There is this bakery store here in Malaysia call Lavender, that sells this really delicious buns with yam filling. Whenever we go there, I will always buy one of them...without fail. :) The bread is super soft and the filling is fragrant and just sweet enough to go with the bread....mmmm!. :D Perhaps you have already noticed, after reading my posts, that I'm a "yam-lover". ;) And especially when it appears in deserts, I will always opt for it over red beans or certain fruits.

Now that I have this Yam Milk Bun recipe...there's is really no holding me back from making it, haha! Although I know my buns cannot be compared to those in Lavender, and I know I will still be buying the yam buns from them. But I guess being able to make these buns myself is an accomplishment for me and tasting my own baked bread is another kind of enjoyment that only home bakers like me can truly appreciate.Ingredients for Yam Milk Buns:
Yam Dough:
20g mashed yam
10g bread flour
50ml water
Bread Dough:
210g Bread flour
20g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3g Instant yeast
95ml water
15g unsalted butter, rm tmp
Yam Filling:
150g mashed yam, preferably still hot from steaming
15g unsalted butter, room temperature
20g brown sugar
Sweet Crumb Topping:
5g milk powder
30g confectioner's sugar
15g cake flour
40g cold unsalted butter

Method:

• For the yam dough, place all ingredients in a pot over fire and stir constantly till the mixture comes to a thick paste. Let cool and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 60 minutes.
• Place all ingredients of the bread dough in a mixing bowl and add the yam dough in. Mix well till it becomes a soft dough.
• Knead the dough till it is not sticky and add the butter in and continue to knead. To test if dough is ready, stretch a small piece using the finger tips of both your hands. If you can pull the dough to almost see through texture without breaking it, it's probably done.
• Place the dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let proof for at least 80 minutes.
• For the yam filling, mix everything together when the mashed yam is still hot from steaming and let cool before refrigerating it.
• To make the crumb topping, mix all ingredients together using your finger tips and rub in till mixture resembles bread crumbs. Refrigerate till needed.
  
• After proofing, punch out the air in the dough and divide the dough into 8 equal parts.
  
• Roll each dough out into a flat disc using rolling pin and place 1/8 of the filling in the center. Fold and seal the edges and roll it to make buns round.
  
• Repeat with the rest of the dough & filling and place buns in muffin tins line with paper cups. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let proof for at least 60 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• After 2nd proofing, brush buns with egg wash and sprinkle crumb toppings on top of buns.
  
• Bake in oven for 20 minutes or till top is golden brown. Like the picture below:

In this recipe, be sure to use a good and fresh yam. Reason being that the buns' taste & fragrance depend heavily on it. Lucky for me, local yam is in season now and getting one was not hard. I have been told to avoid using China's yam...it's harder (won't mash easily after steaming) and less fragrant.
A close look of the creamy sweet yam filling....and the soft fluffy bun. Me and my husband really enjoyed it! I think I will make it again for our parents next time...I'm sure they will like it too. :) BTW, the buns are still really soft the next day. :)