Macaron Giveaway

I'm so excited to share with you all an exciting giveaway. As many of you know, I LOVE eating and making macarons. So, this coming Mother's Day is a perfect time for me to share my love of macarons with you.

Half a dozen macarons similar to the one pictured above will go to two lucky winners; just in time for Mother's Day! Unfortunately, due to logistics this giveaway will only be limited to people who are able to pick up the macarons in Edmonton on Saturday. You must be able to pick them up on Saturday afternoon May 11, 2013 at Southgate Mall. 

Mandatory  To enter this giveaway follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter below! 

1. Leave a comment below answering the question: Which unique macaron flavour would you want to try? note: comment section is under the Rafflecopter widget
2. Follow me via Twitter (@beyondumami) (+1 Entry)
3. Tweet "Enter @beyondumami's giveaway to win some #macarons! http://bit.ly/11RzN5P #yegfood" (+1 Entry/Day/Tweet)

RULES

Giveaway ends on Friday May 10, 2013; 10pm MST. This giveaway is only open to residents of the Greater Edmonton Area. You must be able to pick up the macarons at Southgate Mall, Edmonton on Saturday May 11, 2013 in the afternoon. 

Allergy Alert: Please note that macarons contain almonds, eggs, sugar, food colouring and earl grey tea.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Salted Pistachio Macarons

Ingredients

• 100g of Aged Egg Whites (2-3 days in airtight container at room temperature)
• 225g of Powdered Sugar (also known as icing sugar)
• 125g of Almond Meal
• 5g of Dehydrated Egg White Powder (also known as albumen) 
• 28g of Granulated Sugar

Directions (this is the French Meringue Method):

1. Measure all ingredients with a scale
2. Start beating egg whites at low speed (2 on my Kitchen Aid)
3. Process almond meal, powdered (icing) sugar in processor
4. When egg whites are foamy (mousse-like) add in dehydrated egg white powder and granulated sugar combo
5. In order to get a green colour for the pistachio shells; add in 2 drops of green gel food colouring (I used Wilton Green Leaf) with 1 drop of yellow gel food colouring. If you want a darker colour add more now as the colour will lighten in the oven.
6. Increase speed on Kitchen Aid to 4. Beat egg whites until "soft peaks" form (stop, and tilt head back, look to see if egg whites form a small bird's beak)
7. Sift Almond Meal/Powdered sugar through a fine mesh.
8. Slowly add to egg whites using Chef Nini's method. Mixing in a clockwise rotation seems best. The process that she describes is slowly adding your almond mixture into the egg whites in a clockwise direction. She also split her almond mixture into 6 part.. Here's what I did: 1st part= 16 turns, 2nd part = 11 turns, 3rd part = 14 turns, 4th part = 11 turns, 5th part = 11 turns, and 6th part = 23 turns. Take a look at the video for a more detailed visual.  
9. Once mixture feels and looks like magma (flows slowly) put into piping bag
10. Pipe out small circles. 
11. Firmly rap tray on floor or counter to get rid of any air bubbles inside the shells
12. Use a toothpick to pop air bubbles on shells (this part is essential otherwise you get volcanoes instead of smooth macaron shells)
13. Let macarons sit for at least 30-45 minutes until a skin forms and is dry to touch (this is also an important step)
14. Preheat oven to 295 degrees Fahrenheit
15. Put one tray in the oven and bake for 8 minutes, then rotate tray (by now the feet should have formed!). Bake for another 11 minutes. 
16. Take out of oven, allow macarons to cool.
17. Peel from silpat/silicon mat, and get ready to fill with your buttercream!

Note: Since we moved and now have a new oven, calculations and oven temperatures have changed. After some experimentation, I've decided that the best temperature for this particular oven to bake the shells is 250 F for 20 minutes and rotating the pan and then baking for another 10 minutes. I hope to write a post about experimenting with a new oven for macaron baking soon!

 Salted Pistachio Buttercream

• 80g caster sugar (superfine sugar)
• 25g water
• 1 whole egg (~60g)
• 1 egg yolk
• 160g soft butter (cut into cubes)
• shelled pistachios

 Directions:

1. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small pot.
2. Heat the sugar to 250F(120C), when it boils clean the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush.
3. In another bowl or the bowl of your KA whisk the eggs and egg yolks until it lightens in colour. 
4. Once the hot sugar mixture hits 250F (using a digital thermometer/meat thermometer will do the trick nicely), pour into the egg mixture. You may find turning down the whisking speed will help prevent flying hot sugar threads everywhere. However, it is imperative to pour the hot sugar mixture in quickly and then start whisking immediately. 
5. Continue whisking until it has cooled down completely.
6. Meanwhile, cream then whisk the butter until it has thickened.
7. Once the egg mixture has cooled, add the butter.
8. Continue whisking until the butter cream is smooth.
9. Blend the pistachios in the food processor until it forms a thick paste. It will look very dark as the oils from the pistachios will have come out and formed with the paste.
10. Add the pistachio paste into the buttercream and whisk until smooth. 
11. Immediately transfer butter cream into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle and pipe away!
12. Pipe a mound of butter cream onto each half shell.
13. Top with the matching shell to finish the macaron. 

Eating Notes:

• Macarons must be stored for at least 2 days in the fridge to reach its optimal flavour and texture.
• Take out of the fridge two hours before eating.
• Macarons can also be frozen in the freezer. To eat, defrost in a covered container for 2-3 hours in room temperature before eating. 

 

 

There two differences with these macarons: First, I used the Heritage Eggs for making the pistachio buttercream. I'm not sure if they were the eggs I used, but I must say that these macarons tasted very good. Secondly, there are many people that rave about salted caramel, this would be my twist: Salted Pistachio Buttercream! I was a bit uncertain when I first made these pistachio macarons as I should have used regular unsalted pistachios. However, the salt in the roasted pistachios added a nice saltiness to the macarons balancing with the sweet taste.

If you are in Edmonton, did you also participate in the University of Alberta Farm- Heritage Chicken Program? How are you using your chicken eggs? If you didn't have a chance to 'adopt a chicken' or not from Edmonton, what are some various ways that you eat your farm fresh eggs?

Participating in the U of A Heritage Chicken Program

 My husband and I first read about the University of Alberta (U of A) Heritage Chicken Program in The Tomato's All about the Egg issue. The idea is based similar to that of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where customers pay money at the beginning of a period to help a farm with seed capital and receive their investment in produce. The U of A - Poultry Research Centre, is interested in preserving five heritage chicken breeds in order to be a living genetic bank and for researchers to compare Heritage chicken productivity to modern chickens. Keeping Heritage chickens are expensive and thus, came into being a program where Edmontonians can "adopt" a chicken and in return get farm fresh eggs.

We adopted a Barred Plymouth Rock and named her "Peppa". Every two weeks for the next 5 months we get a dozen eggs from Peppa and the rest of the girls. Below is a picture of the different eggs we received.

 

Here are the various eggs that we received (Picture from Heritage Chicken Program)

What are the differences?

Like most of you, we had various questions and thoughts about the differences of a Heritage Chicken egg in taste, texture, visual presentation and the feel of the egg in comparison to the generic supermarket brand. I suppose the difference could also be between farm fresh eggs vs. the regular supermarket brand.

At first glance, there is certainly a visual size difference between the supermarket 'medium' brand and all of the Heritage Chicken eggs (the latter being slightly smaller). So, will the size of the chicken egg make a difference in better taste and overall quality?

In this picture we have the Barred Plymouth Rock
and the Light Sussex versus regular supermarket eggs. 

 What does it look and taste like?
To do a taste comparison we prepared the Barred Plymouth Rock egg and the supermarket egg in a sunny-side egg fashion. Right away you can see that the egg yolk for the Barred Plymouth is a dark golden yellow, whereas the other yolk is a pale daffodil colour. 

Sunny Side Eggs: Barred Plymouth Rock vs. Supermarket Brand

Cutting into the egg yolk, we first tried the supermarket brand. The egg yolk had a watery texture, and there didn't seem to be much flavour. In comparison, the Barred Plymouth's egg yolk was creamy; almost buttery. There was a nice smoothness to the yolk as well. It also had a smoky flavour to it as well; but this may have been due to the cooking process. 

Now for the egg white. Was there a difference in taste for the egg white? I was surprised how much of a difference there was! The supermarket brand didn't seem to have much flavour and the egg white quickly fell apart as you chewed it. On the other hand, the egg white on the Barred Plymouth was firm and fleshy. There was also more body to the egg white. 

We also had both eggs on a piece of toast to see if there was a difference.
Here the yolk on the Barred Plymouth appears to be thicker in comparison to
the runny texture of the supermarket egg yolk. 

We also did a comparison test of the Light Sussex and the Supermarket brand with scrambled eggs. 

Scrambled eggs: Light sussex vs. Supermarket brand

Overall, there is a significant difference between the Heritage Chicken eggs in comparison to the supermarket brand in taste, egg white texture, the darkness of the egg yolk and even in the feel of the egg itself. The supermarket egg shell seems slightly thinner. The Heritage eggs appear to crack more cleanly in comparison.

The cost to participate is $75 for five months, this works out to be $15 / month for approximately 2 dozen eggs or $7.50 / dozen. This is expensive for eggs, however, the point of the program is to preserve the genetic diversity of chickens and the eggs you receive are a by-product. If you wanted farm fresh eggs you could always check out the farmer's market which run about $4 a dozen from various vendors.

We have enjoyed participating in this pilot program and look forward to more uses of our Heritage eggs. The program is currently in full swing with their initial 200 participants. If you are interested in the program for the Fall, you can visit the Heritage Chickens website for more details.

Here are a few links about the program:

Edmonton Journal Article 

CBC Edmonton News Clip  

Heritage Chickens Website

Florentines using a pâte sucrée crust.

Another french baked good that I thoroughly enjoy eating are florentines. Florentines are fragile biscuits that have a nutty, caramel flavour, that sometimes include fruits and of course a thin layer of chocolate. They are also extremely addictive!

In order to start the process of florentines, you need to first make the dough - the pâte sucrée  As mentioned previously, this florentine recipe is based on Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery. To see how to make the pâte sucrée click here for my previous blog post.

Making the base
1. Once the pâte sucrée has chilled in the fridge for 2 hours, roll the dough out into a rectangular pan.  

2. Press the dough into the rectangular pan. Patch up any spots with extra dough. Using a blunt knife or pizza cutter to cut off any extras.

3. Place a piece of parchment paper over the dough, and fill the pan with baking beans or baking weights. This is called "blind baking". Bake the dough for 350F for 15-20 min or until golden brown.

4. Once the dough has baked and the sides begin to turn a golden brown, take the pan out of the oven. Allow to cool. 

Nut Layer

Ingredients:

• 52g whole milk
• 79g granulated sugar
• 42g glucose
• 42g honey
• 105g unsalted butter @ room temp.
• 126g almonds
• pinch of salt

notes: I used corn syrup for the glucose, and 1% milk instead of whole milk. 

1. Combine milk, sugar, glucose and honey into a small pot. Cook at medium heat stirring continually.

2. Stir continually to dissolve the sugar. Cook for 8 minutes or until you reach 248F (120C). 

3. Remove from heat, add in butter and salt. Stir in the almonds.

4. Slowly pour the nut-sugar mixture over the cooled down pate sucree. Use a spatula to reach all surface areas.  

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 325F. Rotate the tray around 15 minutes to ensure even cooking. It is done baking when you see the mixture bubbling and turning golden brown. 

6. Allow to cool (approx. 20-30 minutes). Then, flip the tray over onto a piece of parchment paper.

7. Spread melted chocolate (mixed with whipping cream) over the back of the florentine. To make cool patterns on the chocolate use a fork and draw an "s" shape into the chocolate. Have fun!

Once the chocolate has cooled, cut into squares. You can store these delish items in your fridge in a covered container for up to a week. It probably won't last that long as they are so good! If I had to describe how these taste I would say they have a hint of caramel, combined with the nut layer and then chocolate. There is also some almond meal in the pâte sucrée (sugar) crust which makes the entire florentine smell even more amazing. One friend said that it tastes like a mix of a turtle chocolate and skor toffee bar. What do you think it tastes like? Try making these and you will find out. 

Macaron Day with Chai Macarons (March 20)

I am super excited for this post! First, because I finally have a working computer and access to all my photos (which means I can blog again) and secondly because today is MACARON DAY. Last year, I blogged about these beautiful Pierre Herme Ispahan Macarons. 

This year, to celebrate Macaron Day 2013 I'd like to share some gorgeous and super tasty Chai Macarons. My friend Michelle over at The Tiffin Box made a delectable Chai Ice cream over the summer. It was so good, that I wondered if I could infuse the same flavours into a macaron. So, I set about grinding up several pouches of her chai spice mix (with my magic bullet) and infused it into the shells and the butter cream filling.

First, make the chai spice mix:

• 6 cloves
• 6 cardomom pods
• 1 star anise
• 5 peppercorns
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger

Notes:

*I use a Magic Bullet to chop up all of these spices. Your kitchen will smell amazing! 

*When I grind up all these spices it ends up being about 5g. I use half of the mix in the shells and the other half in the buttercream

*I often make several bags of chai spice mix so I can always have one available for making macarons, chai ice cream or even for drinking 

Chai Macaron Shells

Ingredients

• 100g of Aged Egg Whites (2-3 days in airtight container at room temperature)
• 222g of Powdered Sugar (also known as icing sugar)
• 125g of Almond Meal
• 1 tsp chai mix (3g)
• 5g of Dehydrated Egg White Powder (also known as albumen) 
• 28g of Granulated Sugar

Directions:

1. Measure all ingredients with a scale
2. Start beating egg whites at low speed (2 on my Kitchen Aid)
3. Process almond meal, powdered (icing) sugar and chai spice in processor
4. When egg whites are foamy (mousse-like) add in dehydrated egg white powder and granulated sugar combo
5. In order to get a deeper brown for the shell colours; add in 2 drops of brown gel food colouring (I used Wilton Brown) . If you want a darker colour add more now as the colour will lighten in the oven.
6. Increase speed on Kitchen Aid to 4. Beat egg whites until "soft peaks" form (stop, and tilt head back, look to see if egg whites form a small bird's beak). You don't want them too stiff.
7. Sift Almond Meal/Powdered sugar/chai spice mix through a fine mesh.
8. Slowly add to egg whites using Chef Nini's method (described in my lemon macaron post). Mixing in clockwise rotation seems best. The process that she describes is slowly adding your almond mixture into the egg whites in a clockwise direction. She also split her almond mixture into 6 parts; with each section taking about 11 turns. Here's what I did: 1st part= 16 turns, 2nd part = 11 turns, 3rd part = 14 turns, 4th part = 11 turns, 5th part = 11 turns, and 6th part = 23 turns. Take a look at the video for a more detailed visual.  
9. Once mixture feels and looks like magma (flows slowly) put into piping bag
10. Pipe out small circles. 
11. Firmly rap tray on floor or counter to get rid of any air bubbles inside the shells
12. Use a toothpick to pop air bubbles on shells
13. Let macarons sit for 45 minutes until a skin forms and is dry to touch
14. Preheat oven to 295 degrees Fahrenheit
15. Put one tray in the oven and bake for 8 minutes, then rotate tray (by now the feet should have formed!). Bake for another 11 minutes. 
16. Take out of oven, allow macarons to cool.
17. Peel from mat, and get ready to fill with chai buttercream!

Chai Buttercream

• 80g caster sugar (superfine sugar)
• 25g water
• 1 whole egg (~60g)
• 1 egg yolk
• 160g soft butter (cut into cubes)
• 1 tsp chai mix (~2-3g)

Directions:

1. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small pot.
2. Heat the sugar to 250F(120C), when it boils clean the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush.
3. In another bowl or the bowl of your KA whisk the eggs and egg yolks until it lightens in colour. 
4. Once the hot sugar mixture hits 250F (using a digital thermometer/meat thermometer will do the trick nicely), pour into the egg mixture. You may find turning down the whisking speed will help prevent flying hot sugar threads everywhere. However, it is imperative to pour the hot sugar mixture in quickly and then start whisking immediately. 
5. Continue whisking until it has cooled down completely.
6. Meanwhile, cream then whisk the butter until it has thickened.
7. Once the egg mixture has cooled, add the butter.
8. Continue whisking until the butter cream is smooth.
9. Add the chai spice and whisk until smooth. You can add as little or as much chai spice as you want for varying flavour intensities. 
10. Immediately transfer butter cream into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle and pipe away!
11. Pipe a mound of butter cream onto each half shell.
12. Top with the remaining shell to make the macaron. 

Macarons must be stored for at least 2 days in the fridge to reach its optimal flavour and texture. Take out of the fridge two hours before eating. Macarons can also be frozen in the freezer. To eat, defrost in a covered container for 2-3 hours in room temperature before eating. 

These macarons taste AMAZING, it captures the essence of the hand made chai ice cream into the macaron. The shells themselves have a great flavour and aroma of chai and the chai buttercream is a perfect complement.

So there you have it! Hope you all have a fabulous Macaron Day 2013! Come back soon for my  post on the Pistachio Macaron!!

Easy Cranberry & Raisin Granola bars

Easy Flapjacks/Granola Bars

Today's post comes from my desire to make a relatively healthy granola bar at home.  Many times I was tempted to just buy a box from the store, but the one I had in my mind was filled with oats, cranberries, raisins and topped with chocolate! Plus, I wanted to make mine less sweet in comparison to store bought bars. Another instigator of wanting to bake 'something' is because I purchased an absolutely gorgeous Emile Henry baking dish recently - as can be seen in these pictures.

These bars were first introduced to me by my mentors P&R on sunday nights in London, Ontario when Pam would bring out what looked to us like Granola bars, but what she called 'flapjacks' in Britain. Needless to say they were delicious! 

Ingredients

• 1/3 Cup of Sugar
• 1/2 Cup butter 
• 1/3 Cup corn syrup
• 4 1/2 - 5 Cups oats
• 1 Cup raisins
• 1 Cup craisins
• dark chocolate or milk chocolate bars or chips (your preference)

Directions

1. In a heat proof bowl,  mix sugar, butter, and corn syrup together. Melt in the microwave until it forms a consistent mixture.
2. Mix oats, raisins and craisins into the bowl.
3. Once all ingredients are mixed together, spread the mixture into a rectangular pan. Use a spoon to flatten.
4. Bake at 325F for 20-30 minutes.
5. Take out of oven. 
6. Spread chocolate on top as it will be warm enough to melt the chocolate.
7. Allow to cool.
8. Cut into slices before it completely cools and hardens.
9. These flapjacks/granola bars can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. 

Pâte Sucrée for Florentines

Making Pâte Sucrée from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery Book

Ingredients:

375g All purpose flour

46g powdered sugar

94g powdered sugar

47g almond flour/meal

225g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (I used 1tsp of pure vanilla extract instead)

56g eggs

Tweets and Pictures from the entire process of making pate sucree. This is in preparation for making Florentines based on Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery. I am trying a new method to capture all of my tweets while I am baking. Hoping that this will be a quicker way to get recipes onto the blog. Let me know what you think! :) 

1. 

   Researching on making Bouchon Bakery's Florentines. First the Pâte Sucrée http://instagr.am/p/V4zA_iBtrf/

   
   

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   Sifted mixture of flour, powdered sugar and almond meal for Pâte Sucrée http://instagr.am/p/V441ZgBtiw/

   
   
   

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   Creaming butter until it holds a peak and looks like mayonaise. http://instagr.am/p/V45qpdhtjj/

   
   
   

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   Sifting powdered sugar into creamed butter. Pulse to incorporate. http://instagr.am/p/V459d4htj1/

   
   
   

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   Adding 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and mix in http://instagr.am/p/V46rsAhtks/

   
   
   

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   Add dry ingredients (sifted flour,almond, powdered) in two batches to butter mixture http://instagr.am/p/V467X4htlM/

   
   
   

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   Add 56g of egg (1 large egg) to mixture and mix on low speed for 15-30 seconds http://instagr.am/p/V47Opthtlo/

   
   
   

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   Place pâte sucrée dough on work surface. http://instagr.am/p/V47wjuhtmZ/

   
   
   

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   Use heel of hand to spread out dough http://instagr.am/p/V47-hghtmq/

   
   
   

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    Working the dough from front to back is called 'Fraiser' http://instagr.am/p/V48bv2BtnU/

    
    
    

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    Divide dough into two portions about 3/4 inch thick and chill for 2 hours. Need 325g for Florentines. http://instagr.am/p/V49FJ9BtoG/

    
    
    

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