Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Green Tea Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache!


It's been a while since I made macarons...The last time I made them thty were after about 17 ++ failed attempts. I went over this in my Pistachio Macaron post so I won't get into it again. Nevertheless, my love and respect for the mighty macaron remains. What hasn't remained is my oven. I used to own a tiny gas cooker/oven that I've had for 3 years now. The oven was great don't get me wrong, but since my interest in baking has grown tremendously, my tools had to adapt to this. I have space for a 90 cm free-standing cooker and the one I had for 3 years was only 60 cm. So there was about 15 cm of empty space on either side that was just gathering dust and home to all of our BBQ and grilling utensils. So UGLY! So finally, after putting up a bunch of items for sale on an Ebay-like site, I finally had enough cash to buy my new bad boy. It's an electric fan-assisted multi-functional oven, with a gas stove on top. I hate cooking on electric stoves and so I when I found this dual function cooker I fell in love. I've had it for a month now but never tried to make macarons with it. I thought that would be the ultimate test...and guess what? It passed!!
The only downside is...that one side of my marble counter changed color from all the heat because the people who installed it have it jammed against one side more than the other...so there was an advantage to having that smaller cooker after all...oh well...the price we pay for those macarons feet is way too high if you ask me...
The recipe can be found here, simply mix in two tablespoons green tea powder (I don't have matcha powder so I just used ground green tea leaves). I also sprinked some of the leaves onto the macarons before I baked them. I also used a tiny bit of green food coloring (add it to the meringue).

The white chocolate ganache recipe is similar to any dark chocolate ganache recipe but obviously using white chocolate, after the ganache cools completely, whip it in a stand mixer using the whisk attachment until it holds soft peaks.

6 comments:

Cannelle Et Vanille said...

They are perfect!!! You should be so proud of yourself!!! Gorgeous photos too!!!

Bakerette said...

Thanks! That's truly wonderful coming from you :)

Cannelle Et Vanille said...

Seriously... I wasn't trying to be polite. Those macarons are wonderful! I could never tell the difference between those and the ones sold in a patisserie!

Also, regarding giving up blogging... I think every blogger has thought about that at some point. We all have good days and bad days. Sometimes we don't feel other bloggers' "love" as much and we think no one is reading or interested in what we are writing... This is what I think and how I approach blogging.... As long as you are doing it for yourself and from your heart, you will be ok. As long as it is a creative outlet for you, you will be ok. The moment you start thinking about what people want to read or what might make you more popular... you will not be happy. I am not implying by any means that you are trying to please others, not at all. I'm trying to say that you should look within yourself to see what it is that you want to convey with this outlet that is your blog.

That's how I see it. the moment I don't get any more satisfaction from it or that it starts to get too complicated and frustrating, I will give it up.

Some other bloggers have commented that what I do is too complicated, too showy... etc.. Well, I'm a professionally trained chef so I am not trying to compare myself to others. I'm just trying to create what comes from my heart and my soul.

Sorry about the long comment... this was meant as encouragement. You do wonderful work so if you still have the enrgy to continue, I will be here to read!

Thank you!

Helene said...

Aran and I agree on a lot of things and exchanging emails with her when she was starting as the highlight of my day. Blogging is also about giving back, sharing information but above all sharing passion. I don't blog for ratings, you can tell when somebody is, I blog because I want to share my love of baking and nudge other to drop the cake mixes and enjoy some time playing with food and opening their senses. It is hard to comment on everybody's blog which makes it hard to know for you how others respond to your post but people read, trust me and you touch their lives. Come on! Your pictures make my mouth water since I found your blog!
Bake and show us what comes from your heart...let yourself speak and you will be peachy!

Anonymous said...

that looks yummy! i tried making macarons and it ended up looking like splatters of chocolate. and they break easily T_T.

Anonymous said...

You write very well.