Florek bought me a book by Michel  Roux called “Eggs”, a nice little book that changes my idea of what a good crepe should be, how to posh up scrambled eggs, a few good desserts that I’ll surely try etc.  And a recipe for macaroons,  which was about a quarter of the length of the one I normally use. I read it with disbelief, I thought it was far too simple; no Italian meringue, an ordinary one instead. No drying time. No weighing egg whites. But for scientific purposes I had to give it a go, especially having some leftover blackcurrant curd. So I did. It was a refreshing method, but I’ll be sticking with more fancy Italian meringue. It seems to make the mixture a lot more stable and the texture of a ready macaroon thicker, more enjoyable to eat. Not to mention that the absolute majority of them cracked in the oven, while with another method it’s a sad few that do it.  Having said that, we’ve just had 5 between us with Izzie, who now says “more cake please”, so they will certainly not go to waste.

I used 180 g of icing sugar, 100 g of ground almonds, 3 egg whites which I whipped with 40 g of sugar, added food colouring and that was all.  Piped them onto the trays and shoved into the oven warmed up to 160 degrees. Michel recommends baking them for 7 minutes, mine were not baked after 7 minutes, mine took about 11.

Nice little experiment, but next time back to fancy stuff. 🙂

I still have a headache after making those.  I thought this morning that if I want to have a go at making them for a living, I better get practising.  Made the shells the same method as always, but instead of 150 g of ground almonds I used 105, the remaining 45 g were ground hazelnuts. And no food colourant, 115 g of icing sugar, 35 g of cocoa.

It’s the freaking filling that was a pain in the butt. If I kept it simple, mascarpone + very strong instant coffee, it might have worked hours ago. But I diluted it with Baileys and spent forever waiting for it to thicken. It didn’t.  Gelatine didn’t help.  Freezer didn’t freaking help. At last, the cornflour did, but before I discovered it did, I was heading for the fridge determined to send it all down the bog, if still runny.

It will be stressful, having to make them perfect for a customer, but I will perfect macaroons. Is the plan.

My brother came over for a weekend couple of weeks ago and brought a loaf of his home made bread. Lovely, dark, with crispy skin, lots of sesame seeds on it, we finished that loaf within 2 hours and that wasn’t the only thing we had to eat that evening.  Mariusz gave me the recipe and I tried it this morning. First I thought it was a bit too simple to work, but I followed it and we ended up with a lovely loaf for lunch.

I used 115 g each of spelt flour and plain flour, a pinch of salt, a tbsp of olive oil, around 15 g of fresh yeast, crumbled onto it. Then 240 ml of warm water with 2 tbsps of runny honey dissolved in it. A handful of sunflower seeds. All combined briefly in kitchen aid, then transformed into the tin, which was buttered and sprinkled generously with sesame seeds.  Left to prove for about 45 minutes in the oven, which I keep at about 30 degrees. Then baked in 200 degrees for 20 minutes, 180 degrees for another 30-35 minutes.

The best bread I’ve ever made. 🙂

Just as I’m entertaining an idea of maybe baking these things for a living, today they were less than perfect. They cracked in the oven( too hot oven, according to Dorota), so I reduced the temperature and added 3 minutes to the baking time. And the filling spilled out, though I was confident it was thickened enough to hold.

Macaroons made usual way with a Wilton colourant ” leaf green”. 100 ml of double cream brought nearly to boiling point, 1 tsp of good quality green tea added. 240 g of white chocolate, in, well combined after 2 minutes of melting in the cream.  Chilled in the fridge till thick enough to pipe onto the macaroons.

The taste brings to mind green tea Kit Kats from Japan, really nice. Not too sweet. If only they looked as good as they taste, I’d be happy.

After the recent experience with croissants, instead of picking a recipe for a traditional English scones from a Brit, Mary Berry or maybe Hollywood boy, I didn’t. 🙂 I went to Dorotka’s again and followed her recipe. The result? Nearly perfect scones. I’d have them a touch sweeter maybe, but they’re soft, slightly crunchy on top, delicious and will be enjoyed with coffee tomorrow morning.

I used 400 g of plain flour, 100 g of cold butter, 3 tsps of baking powder, half a tsp of salt, 50 g of sugar and let Kitchen Aid mix it all nicely. 70 g of raisins, 30 g of dried cranberries, 2 eggs beaten and topped up with milk to make 250 ml of liquid. Once added the liquid to the mix, I went to combine the dough by hand, as lots of wise people say that once the scone dough is overmixed, they get tough. Quickly rolled to 1,5 cm, I cut out the scones, brushed them with a bit of egg and sprinkled a touch of cinnamon on. They baked in 220 degrees for 10 minutes.

Had to restrain my child -who was due to have her tea- from scoffing down the whole scone at once. I guess that means she liked them.

Paul Hollywood has got a nice, new series on Food Network, where he travels cities and tastes/makes all sorts of good bakes. Since he visited a place in Paris, where croissants are made daily, I got excited. I thought I must try, it’s not like I have no time for  16 hour bake, right?

Obviously, I chose Hollywood’s recipe. This one:

http://paulhollywood.com/recipes/croissants/

I started yesterday, followed all the instructions, did as I was told. This lunch time there were going to be fresh croissants. I realized they might  not be as spectacular as I’d have hoped when they failed to rise, when the recipe said they’d double in size within 2 hours. After 3 I still placed them in hot oven. They then rose alright, but nowhere near doubled. Lots of butter melted out, the smell was great.  In the end they tasted ok, but they were not light and puffy, like they should have been. Crispy on top, buttery, but not the real deal. I immediately thought- the yeast. Hollywood boy always maintains in his recipes, that dry yeast is BETTER, more convenient, easily. Sorry, Paul,  in my view it’s not better.  Fresh yeast makes doughnuts like clouds, fab pizza dough and probably awesome croissants. I was still chewing on mine, while immediately checking what did Dorota from mojewypieki.com had to say. A lot, she did, she tried 3 recipes and then settled on one from some posh French boy, who recommended FRESH yeast. Which is exactly what I’ll be doing next time I’ll make croissants. Thumbs down Hollywood!

More macaroons. Red food colouring this time and inside a mixture of mixed berry coulis mixed with a touch of cornstarch, cooled and combined with mascarpone and a slosh of cassis.  The shells turned out so good, that I saved and froze 10 and decided to decorate Izzie’s birthday cake with them next weekend. Is the plan. 🙂

An only and obvious choice for Florek’s birthday. We’ve just tasted it, as the recipe said best the next day, but I must say it didn’t benefit from a night in the fridge. We’ll leave it outside in the room temperature till the evening and I’m sure the texture will improve big time.

Small round cake was made out of 100 g of dark chocolate and butter, melted together plus a single espresso and a splash of water( that’s my replacement for a tsp of instant coffee, which I don’t use, so didn’t have any), half a tall glass of plain flour mixed in a bowl together with a touch of soda, 0,5 tsp of baking powder,  2 tsps of cocoa,3/4 glass of muscovado. 2 whole eggs beaten with 35 ml of buttermilk.  All this stirred in together with a spatula, plus a tbps of hazelnut vodka- replacement for rum, either way couldn’t taste any.  Finally about 60 g of raspberries.

It baked in a lined tin for about 50 minutes, 140 degrees.

When baked, glazed with a double cream/milk chocolate mixture, plus extra fresh raspberries.

Happy birthday Florek! 🙂

I think it’s fair to say that I now enjoy baking more than I enjoy eating what I bake.  But time comes during the day, when I’m craving something sweet and then I head straingt to mojewypieki.com, have a look through the page and I always find something I want and something I have all the ingredients for. This one was with  hazelnuts, still one of my top ingredients and although I had no dark chocolate, I decided to chop up an Easter bunny from Ewa, made of milk chocolate.  It all worked, I made half a portion and we’re half way through it and Masterchef hasn’t even started yet. 🙂

50 g of butter, melted and cooled. 2 eggs, separated, whites whipped with a pinch of salt and 50 g of sugar.  Yolks added.  In a separate bowl 50 g of ground hazelnuts, 0,5 tsp of baking powder, 4 tbsps of plain flour and 50 g of grated( or, in my case, taken care of by food processor) chocolate, 0,5 tsp of cocoa- all this mixed and added into the egg mixture, folded gently with spatula. Baked in 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. Finished with a simple glaze, double cream and milk chocolate. Very moreish. 🙂

I liked the look of it on Dorota’s blog (where else), chocolate and matcha is always a winning combo, what do people pay for chocolate bento box in Nobu? That reminds me I haven’t made matcha ice cream in a long time, time to do something about it.

My cake this afternoon is made of half a portion, so that it was enjoyed and not wasted, good decision, there is now half left. Florian seems to be starved of chocolate cake, as he destroyed a large chunk of that half. 🙂 But that’s what makes baking so rewarding, we’ll see if Iz likes it tomorrow.

I used 110 g of butter, creamed with half of my tall glass of sugar, 2 egg added one at a time. A glass of plain flour with 1 tbsp of potato flour, less than 1 tsp of baking powder, a touch of vanilla paste- needn’t have bothered, can’t taste it-and about 1/4 a glass of milk. This mix I then divided in two, added 2 tbsps of cocoa to one and 3 tsps of matcha to the other.

Baked in 150 degrees for about 45 minutes, till the skewer came out clean.

Glazed with a simple chocolate ganache, 50 of dark chocolate melted in 20 g of butter. My own personal touch were a few chopped hazelnuts on top. It is going. Quickly.