Macarons

Finally, I made my first macarons. I used the recipe from a French-German blog called franzoesischkochen.de

 

The recipe states that it is very important to measure the ingredients very exactly to achieve the desired result. Furthermore, the egg whites should be some days old, which means you have to separate the egg one to five days in advance. Do not forget that the whites should have room temperature when used. 

So, what you need is:

36 g 'aged' egg whites
10 g sugar
45 g finely ground almonds
75 g powdered sugar

and time...

First, place the powdered sugar and ground almonds in a food processor and process until very fine. Then, sieve the sugared almond flour at least once, better twice. 

Then, beat the egg whites until soft peak, add the sugar and go on beating until stiff peak. I mean really stiff peak. If you think it is enough, go on for another minute. In three parts add the powdered almonds and fold under thoroughly, but carefully. 

Pipe the dough unto lined baking trays with a round nozzle. I only had a very fine round nozzle, so what I piped looked rather odd at first. 

Leave the macarons to set for 15 minutes (a bit less if the air is very dry, a bit more if it is rainy outside). Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150°C. Then, bake them on 140°C (yes, you have to reduce the temperature then) for 12-14 minutes, each tray.

Pull the baking paper with the baked macarons onto a cool surface and let them cool down completely. Do not try to remove them before, they will stick to the paper.

When all shells are cooled down, search for matching ones. Now, decide what filling to use. For these, I used a crème fraîche chocolate filling.

For the filling, I mixed 200 g crème fraîche with 110 g melted chocolate and one tablespoon of sugar. This was way too much, but this mixture is delicious on fresh bread or rolls as well :) 

Place a dollop of the cream onto a shell and cover with the matching one.

Yummie :) I will definitely make them again. Maybe with another flavour/colour/filling? We'll see...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

I had to have another go at fudge again and I wanted to do 'something with peanut butter'. Well, here it is: Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge :) 

What you need is:

200 g marshmallows
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup condensed milk
250 g white chocolate
50 g peanut butter
250 g milk chocolate

First, chop the chocolate and put each one into a bowl (two bowls in total). Add the peanut butter to the white chocolate.

Place the marshmallows, condensed milk and sugar into a pot and heat, stirring constantly. Be careful not to boil the mixture. Mix until all marshmallows are melted.

Pour half the mixture into the bowl with the milk chocolate and the other half into the one with the peanut butter.

Pour the chocolate mixture into a carefully lined (aluminium foil) form and spread carefully. On top, spread the peanut butter mixture. Then, cover with peanuts and cookie bits.

Refrigerate over night. Wrestle with the aluminium foil to remove it and cut the fudge into squares. Chocolaty, fudgy, yummie :)

21th of December

And next again...

Rooi tea again, but this time with little pieces of almonds. Yummie :)

20th of December

Finally, the next one...

Rooi tea, sea buckthorn blossoms and safflower blossoms. Because of the cream flavour, I thought, I would not like it, but on the contrary: I loved it!

Tiramisu Cake

For the whisky tasting I was ordered to make tiramisu. :) 

Yes, people already told my that tiramisu looks different and that THIS could not be something as simple as tiramisu... Well, they are right. Somehow. This cake contains strawberries, so it is no ordinary tiramisu :)

What you need is:

200 g cookies (simple sugar cookies, lady's fingers,...)

125 g butter (melted)

500 g mascarpone

200 g cream cheese (e. g. philadelphia)

100 g sugar

2 egg yolks

Kahlua

400 g raspberries

lady's fingers (I needed 11)

cocoa powder

Crumble the cookies a finely as possible and add the melted butter. Spread the mixture onto the base of a spring form (24cm) and press it into an even crumb crust. 

Mix mascarpone and cream cheese until combined. Add sugar and yolks and stir until all ingredients form an even mass. Stir in some Kahlua if desired.

Cut the lady's fingers in half and line the spring form with them (see picture). Fill in the strawberries, then fill in the mass and refrigerate until needed. 

Finally, strew cocoa powder over the 'cake'. Ready :)

19th of December

Next, next, next...

This wild cherry tea is composed of several black teas (India, China and Ceylon) flavoured with cherries and red cornflower blossoms. Very cherry-y :) Yummie...

18th of December

Next...

Today's tea is called 'Karl-Heinz'. Karl-Heinz is composed of different black teas (from Ceylon, China and India), fennel, cloves, orange peel, lemon peel, cinnamon and anise. On the one hand it is a very strong tea, but a very little bit herbal and fruity as well. Love it :)

Oh, by the way, when I remembered taking a photo, the tea pot was already almost empty, thus the tea in a glass today (none of my tea cups is made of glass, so I chose the glass...). 

Non-edible Cupcakes

Oh, what's this?

This was a Christmas present. Actually, it is a soap :) People really must think I'm a baking maniac :)

Christmas

Some Christmas impressions at our home. 

The Christmas tree. His name is Bert. He is our second Christmas tree. The first one  was called Eduard. Sure, you are asking why our trees have got names. Well, after having bought our first Christmas tree, my husband said, 'May I introduce you to Eduard?'

 The table.

 

The main course. (No pictures of the soup though...) Napkin dumplings, zander and brussel sprouts.

 

 The dessert.

17th of December

Time for the next one...

Today's tea is called 'Winterzauber' and consists of rooitea, cinnamon, almonds, cardamom and flavours. It tastes of autumn/winter, as do all the cinnamon teas I had before, but this is a rooitea instead of fruit or black, as has been before, so it is a bit different than the others. Like it :)

Cheese, Whisk(e)y and Stew

Lately, my husband invited some friends for a whisk(e)y tasting. I made Irish Stew and Tiramisu (recipe will follow in another post) for a start and then served cheese for the tasting.