Macarons part 4 - Hello Kitty Macarons

I had the whole sunday just to laze around, so i decided i would make the mini apple pies in the morning and macarons in the afternoon. Big plans for a sunday!! Phew..

Today- i decided to make some hello kitty macarons after seeing them on http://i-heart-baking.blogspot.com/2011/06/hello-kitty-macarons.html. I used to love anything and everything hello kitty when i was younger. My parents still remember me going crazy when we went to a shop selling hello kitty stuff in Tokyo..

Am aware that in my previous posts about macarons, i never detailed the ingredients or method, so here it is below.

First to make the macaron shells; i used:

125g ground almonds
107.5g egg whites
75g castor sugar
175g icing sugar

1. Sift the icing sugar

 2. Next, sift the ground almonds (check out the cool jar i bought!)

2. Beat just the egg whites in a bowl with an electric whisk

 It should become frothy and white..like this

3. Once peaks start forming, add in castor sugar

4. Continue beating till stiff peaks form

 5. To test if ready, you should be able to hold the bowl over your head (obviously, nothing should drop out!)

6. Next, add in the sifted ground almond and icing sugar

and start folding..

 Until you get a smooth consistency

Also, you should have a texture like lava..see below (And another tip that i learnt from macaron class, is that if you put your finger to touch the mixture, it should quickly dissolve back into the mixture..then you know its ready.

Get your nozzles and couplers out (i use 10 and 12 wilton ones) and a piping bag as well

  Assemble the piping instrument

and pipe!

(tip: if you have problem piping round shapes, i suggest pre-drawing circles on the parchment paper to make it easier and obviously your macarons would be quite consistent in size..it works, believe me!)

I felt that my mixture was a bit too grainy and after troubleshooting, i think its because either the ground almonds are too coarse (i.e. several websites recommend popping it together with the icing sugar into a food processor instead of sieving it) or because i didnt fold it enough.
Pop into the pre-heated oven @ 150 degrees for around 18-20 minutes.

The outcome...

There seems to be quite prominent peaks in the middle, despite me tapping the trays hard on the table top after piping. I believe its because the mixture was quite grainy and wasnt as smooth. It did have nice ruffled feet and it rose to good height as well though.

Leave the trays to cool, and once ready, carefully peel the parchment paper off the macaron (not the other way around, as you dont want to crack the macarons). Start matching the macaron halves together according to size, and then fill and sandwich them together. I chose a cream cheese filling as i love it. It is also very simple to make and keeps well.

Recipe of cream cheese frosting (from DC Cupcakes) (makes enough for 24 cupcakes):

1/2 stick (57 grams) of unsalted butter

6 ounces  (170grams) cream cheese

4 cups of sifted icing sugar

¼ tsp vanilla essence

1.    1. Put butter and cream cheese into mixer and beat until light and creamy

2.    2. Cream on medium high speed (about 1 minute) until light and creamy

3.    3. Add icing sugar 1 cup at a time, mix cup by cup until incorporated.

4.    4. Scrape down bowl before adding last cup to ensure all sugar mixed in

5.    5. Add ¼ tsp vanilla essence

6.    6. Whip on high speed (about 1-2 minutes) till light and fluffy

 I used edible pens to draw the eyes, nose and whiskers..

Practice practice practice! I personally think it would have looked quite nice if the tops were smooth though! However, it tasted really good. Will not give up..stay tuned for my second attempt.

Mini apple pies

Must be the season for apples! My dad brought back 6 huge cooking apples from his visit to his old schoolmate's house. Before i even managed to figure out what to do with it, we went to my sister's and her apple tree was blooming with apples as well! (havent figured out what to do with those yet!)

I scouted round the internet and decided to make mini apple pies, as they were easier to distribute to my colleagues tomorrow and just cause they looked so cute!

I used the recipe from http://www.food.com/recipe/mini-apple-pies-so-easy-not-much-hassle-286704.

Firstly start by preparing the filling. Peel the skins off the apples, core them and cut them into small pieces.

Next, add in cinnamon, plain flour and sugar

  And mix thoroughly..

As for the crust, measure the flour, butter and salt and start the food processor

The dough should start looking like this..

Remove and knead it once it looks like this..

 My dough was abit flaky, hence i put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes just for it to firm up. Roll out on a lightly dusted flour surface.

 Start by using cookie cutters to cut large circles, i used a 3

Place the mini apple pie base into the muffin tins

Once ready, fill up with apple filling.

Cut thin, long strips of pastry to create a lattice effect over the pies.

Place a small piece of butter on top of each pie

and bake at 220 degrees for 16-18 minutes

Result..

Ready to serve..

Old Town Italian Restaurant in Clapham

My dad's request to have italian tonight prompted the search for a good italian restaurant that was quite nearby as he had some luggage with him. Immediately i think of La Trattoria Mooli's located near Clapham Common tube station! My husband and i have gone there several times and enjoyed the food there. We have even brought my cousins there. I call and turns out they have had a change of Management and now the new restaurant (still serving italian food) is called Old Town Italian Restaurant. Hmmm..I cant find their menu online but recent reviews made by others led me to believe that the menu had changed as well and the food offered was more "adventurous". I wasnt fully convinced so the search continued. In the end, i decided to try it anyway as i hoped the food was still good. So off we went.

We were warmly greeted by staff and promptly given the menu. There wasnt much choice of pasta dishes (which was what my dad wanted to have) and when the waitress came by to ask if we had any questions on the menu, i jumped at the chance to figure out what was what. The menu was filled with fancy italian which was abit daunting.

For starters, my dad ordered the homemade pate de foie gras and coppa di parma with tropea onion marmalade  (which was a special for the day)

served with a piece of bread marinated with olive oil

and ordered a wholemeal tagliatelle, veal sweetbread, raddichio trevigiano porcini mushrooms, naturale truffle oil as a main course.

I skipped starters as i had a heavy lunch earlier that afternoon (See post on Thai Square) and just ordered a portion of black ink bauletti filled with cuttlefish livernese valderama saffron vellutata (you see now why i had to ask the waitress) which when it arrived it look very similar to a chinese dessert that my grandma loves.

We were also given bruschetta with tomatoes with compliments from the chef. The bruschetta was a tad dry compared to what i am used to. It wasnt anything to shout about.

We also ordered some homemade bread for the table which consisted of bread with mozarella, with ham and the large flat piece is from Sicily.

For dessert, we both had the cheesecake with honey which came recommended by the waitress. In the end, i was quite disappointed as it was in effect a dollop of mascarpone cheese on top of some biscuit crumbs and decorated with a flat piece of chocolate and a flat piece of sugar..? It was not sweet at all except for the parts with honey drizzled and of course by eating that flat piece of sugar. I personally prefer the usual types of cheesecake.

Personally, both my dad and i though that the food was just ok, and the price wasnt really justified.

Roasted duck rice @ Four seasons Leicester Square

Leicester Square is the chinatown of London. Here you can find rows and rows of chinese restaurants, oriental grocery shops, and its also close to most of the London theatres.

I was there last night with my dad as we were going to catch "Yes,Prime Minister" showing at the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue http://www.yesprimeminister.co.uk/ (based on a BBC hit TV series). We opted for a quick dinner at Four Seasons restaurant in Gerard Street (the original one is based in Bayswater) http://www.fs-restaurants.co.uk/. We ordered 2 roasted duck (de-boned) on rice

and a plate of Kai Lan (a type of chinese green vegetable) with garlic.

And there is nothing like a cup of hot chinese tea to wash it all..mmmm

Verdict: Duck was tasty, but i would still trek down to Bayswater to my favourite Chinese restaurant i.e. Goldmine instead.

P/s oh yea, the play was ok..but my dad says the tv series was funnier..

Cupcake for cupcake

Another weekend gone by too quickly..and here we are on another Monday -Back at work

I brought in some of the oreo cupcakes i made for my husband on saturday for my colleagues. As i handed them round in an attempt to brighten up the mood, one of my colleagues says that he made me a cupcake as well.

Look!

I was in disbelief as i never figured him to be able to bake cupcakes...pretty ones with glitter too!

Turns out, it was his cousin that made them over the weekend and he was present when it was being made. Plus he brought it in for me.... haha

Oh well, at least i got a pretty cupcake out of it! What a nice way to start a week off..

Korean food

A craving for good (and nearby) Korean food, brings me to start my search on the internet. I find loads of Korean restaurants in London but went through reviews to narrow down those located in South London. Turns out New Malden is full of Korean restaurants and it was quite closeby for us if we drove. Quite a few of them were shut on Sundays though. Found one that was opened and had good reviews i.e. Jee Cee Neh http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/venue/2%3A1095/jee-cee-neh.

So we called our friends to join us, and off we went. 

Upon arriving at Burlington road, we noticed that there were loads of korean restaurants and grocery shops..

Walking into the restaurant, we spot quite a few koreans...JACKPOT! 

We ordered the korean pancake (very tasty, and served piping hot)

The condiments.. Think this was some sort of barley? 

  Kim chi cabbage

  Pickled carrots and radish

We also ordered a portion of sol bul go gi (i.e. marinated beef) ...

 A portion of marinated pork

 Giant cabbage in our kim chi soup

 Kim chi soup boiling...

 Mmmm... kim chi soup READY!

The food was very nice, and food was served quite fast. Service was abit slow, and it was quite hard getting their attention for refills of tea as we were sat behind a pillar. I enjoyed the tea which had a distinct flavour to it which was quite different to the japanese green tea we were used to. Mmmm...very nice dinner all in all. It cost around gbp16 per person.Will definitely be back for more..

I did pop into the Korean grocery shop just next to the restaurant to get myself some korean tea though, just to tie me over till our next visit!