French Macaroons

Somehow I have been afraid of making French Macaroons. I love baking, trying new things and I have baked so many different kinds of cookies, cakes, dessert and so on. But I would always tell myself "French Macaroons...? That looks so difficult and I guess it's better to leave them to professionals".
Last Wednesday, I started craving macaroons. This was pretty unusual as I normally crave cookies and muffins. Also last week I had already baked blondies and made white chocolate truffles. So one of my friends response was "Is that what you are going to make today?". Then I thought, "why not?" Thus my adventure of macaroons began.
What I was afraid of is failure. But I found that if you strictly stick to the recipe and with proper tools, it was quite easy to make.

French Macaroons

Makes about 16 filled macarons


Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups plus 1 teaspoon icing sugar
• 1 cup ground almond or almond powder
• 6 tablespoons egg whites, room temperature(if you are using egg white from 3 extra-large eggs, separate eggs in advance and leave the egg white for a day at room temperature)
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup sugar 
• food colouring (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Shift almond powder. In a medium bowl, whisk together icing sugar and almond powder. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites with salt on medium speed until foamy. Increase speed to high and gradually add sugar. Keep whipping until stiff glossy peaks form. Add food colouring and keep whipping. With a rubber spatula, gently fold in the icing sugar mixture. 
2. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Fit a pastry bag with a 3/8-inch #4 round tip, and fill with batter. Pipe 1-inch disks onto prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. The batter will spread a little. Let stand at room temperature for 45 minutes, until a soft skin forms on the tops of the macaroons and the surface looks dull.
3. Bake, rotating halfway through, until macaroons are crisp and firm, about 8 minutes. Stick a wooden spoon in to keep the door of the oven ajar. Let macaroons cool on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Gently peel off the parchment.
4. Fill a pastry bag with the filling. Turn macaroons so their flat bottoms face up. On half of them, pipe about 1 teaspoon filling. Sandwich these with the remaining macaroons. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. 

The most important thing is to avoid over folding when you add icing sugar and almond powder mixture. Also if you under fold, your macaroons will look like baked meringues. Know where to stop. I would recommend around 55 to 65 folds. Trust your instinct, if the batter started looking shiny, smooth and creamy, you can stop.

Swiss Meringue Butter Cream

 

You can use anything you like for filling, caramel, jam, chocolate, etc. My favorite is this butter cream, since you have egg white on hand, why don't you try?

Makes 1 cups

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp egg white or 1 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 76g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces

Directions

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk egg whites and sugar. Set mixer bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water and keep whisking, until it feels warm to the touch and sugar is dissolved, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer bowl to the mixer, and fit with the whisk attachment. Whip on high speed until mixture  holds stiff, glossy peaks. Add butter, one piece at a time, and continue mixing until the butter cream is smooth.Add in any coloring, jam or flavors you like, and beat into the mixture for an additional minute.

For the macaroons in the picture, I used red food colouring, Kirsch jam and a little bit of rum.  Also yellow food colouring for macaroons. It is fun paring different colours and flavours!

Enjoy!

 

 

Liberty of London

I have been a big fan of Liberty of London since I was little. I found this bias tape, this will be fantastic with anything! Small purse, apron, oven mits(they have instruction video as well). Love the colour. Perhaps it's time to get a sewing machine :)

VSO

So I went to see the VSO and Stephen Hough yesterday. It was my first time to see an orchestra at Orpheum.
It was my third time there and I really love that theatre but I had not imagined  how it would be with an orchestra. I had just seen Tony Bennett and Renee Flemming.  Well, on the whole, the performance was pretty good, but I was not able to enjoy to the fullest. VSO needs a new home. I mean Orpheum is just too small for them. I cannot believe that such an international city doesn't have any big enough concert hall in downtown. I have seen Centre of Performing Arts, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vogue Theatre and Chan Centre but none of them are big enough for an orchestra. Orpheum is a beautiful theatre built in 20's and has the great interior that perfectly fits classical music. But come on, it used to be a vaudeville house, it's just tiny. It's like watching a school play.So after the first program, and the middle of the program, orchestra members have to stand up to move their seats to accommodate Mr. Hough's piano. It was just odd and painful to see. And sound and acoustic system are pretty bad. I was at back of the hall but the sound simply got stuck in front. It doesn't travel through the back of the theatre. So you feel like you are standing the hall way of a high school, in front of the closed door of the music room. It's would be too tough to compare with Tokyo, but I couldn't stop thinking of those amazing theatres there, like Orchard, Suntory, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space and Tokyo International Forum. All of them have great capacity to have major productions of opera and ballet. They were all sophisticatedly designed for maximizing the sound. I started missing those great theatres that I had taken for granted.
VAG doesn't need a new home. Let VSO and Ballet BC have the fund instead.

One more thing, it always surprises me when I see all those casually dressed audiences. It seems that there is nothing special about going to the classical concert or ballet in Vancouver. You wear jeans, sneakers, shorts, flip flops. Men don't wear ties. But girls wear beautiful dresses to go to Cactus Club. Guys wear suits to go to Joey's. What is special about Cactus Club? It's just a mini adult family restaurant. Sometimes it is very hard to get their concept of clothing. Maybe it's a good thing to make people feel much easier and more comfortable to go to theatres. But I sure miss Japanese people with the concept of Time Place and Occasion.

French Nail 4

Finally I got rid of French nails! Yay! What a relief. I cut them back short and got them nice pink. Actually I didn't go to the salon to remove, I did it myself. Just peeled them off. I knew it's bad for my nails but I really wanted to save money and time. It worked well. They seemed to get dry and rough a bit, I put some cuticle balm. Anyway having long nails has been so stressful, I am very happy now.

French Nail 3

OK, so I got this French last Saturday...they only had OPI at salon which I hate as it chips so fast. I told them about it and they recommended this UV nail, I decided to give it a try since the receptionist said I can remove it with my enamel remover. But after everything was done, I asked  the girl who did it again to make sure and she said I have to come back to remove it!!! What a liar! I hate having no freedom of changing colour or fixing. It just sucks if you have to make an appointment and a trip to the salon every time you want to fix or remove it. Plus you have to pay for it!!! Anyways, it has been only 5 days and it has already been chipping! And the girl did a pretty bad job, some of them are no shiny and she missed the most of the side parts of nails.
I can't stand this stickiness as well. I can't stand having long nails anymore...so I called the salon just now and made an appointment to remove them all. Can't wait to cut them back short again! And I might put the nice pink this time :) Bottom line is I will NEVER have UV nail again. It's just not worth. Sigh.

French Nail 2

I have not cut my nails for two weeks! Yay! Actually I made an appointment for mani & pedi this Saturday so that I can force myself to keep my nails long. They are quite long now... So I have been fighting with this yearning to cutting them short, looking at some getting moisturizer stuck in. But I am so looking forward to getting French! Hope Jason likes it too. Well after French, I will definitely go back to short nails! I am planning to get mint green enamel of Essy. It's so beautiful and I think  it will surprisingly go with any clothes.

French nail

Yeah, so I clipped my nails short again. I had been hoping to go to a salon and get French, I couldn't stand them any longer. Longer nails are really annoying when you cook, clean rooms and put facial moisturizer. You end up getting minced onions, mushrooms, facial moisturizer, etc. under your nails. Ewww. I always wonder how those girls survive cooking and putting moisturizers or hand cream. Perhaps they don't cook and they don't care about hand cream stuck under their nails. Hmm. I should learn how to ignore and not to care about them. Plus how to overcome the fear of getting nails caught somewhere and ripped them off.

Or maybe it is time to admit that French is not for me.