“@vindee yes! Deeba those are definitely feet. Twittdome so hear that?
It’s the patter of Deeba’s Mac Feet!”
Meeta @ WFLH via twitter
I’d written this virtual post in my mind over and over again. The search for elusive ‘FEET’ is where I almost met my Waterloo in baking. These elegant French cookies, the ultimate beauties, have eluded me too long. I have gazed endlessly at the most gorgeous macarons at Helen and Aran’s blogs. Seven attempts down & yet here I was, back again. Each time a mixed bag of emotions. Will there be ‘feet’ this time? 
Once I begin piping out the little circles, I am at a 100% level of confidence. Oooh they look so good; these are gonna be leggy for sure. All I’ve always ended up with was cracked tops, utterly disappointed. All I wanted was macarons that could stand sideways like Helen’s did! It was certainly becoming an obsession! 
Dating back to the 18th century, the macaron is a traditional French pastry, made of egg whites, almond powder, icing sugar and sugar. This sweet pastry came out of the French courts’ baker’s oven as round meringue-like domes with a flat base.
At the Versailles Court in Paris, members of the Dalloyau family, whose descendants later founded the gastronomy house of the same name, served macarons to royalty in the then ruling House of Bourbon. Marie Antoinette loved macaron from young age, she even named her cat Macaron when she was 5 years old. In the 1830s macarons were served two-by-two with the addition of jams, liqueurs, and spices. The double-decker macaron filled with cream that is popular today was invented by the French pâtisserie Ladurée.
Once I begin piping out the little circles, I am at a 100% level of confidence. Oooh they look so good; these are gonna be leggy for sure. All I’ve always ended up with was cracked tops, utterly disappointed. All I wanted was macarons that could stand sideways like Helen’s did! It was certainly becoming an obsession! Dating back to the 18th century, the macaron is a traditional French pastry, made of egg whites, almond powder, icing sugar and sugar. This sweet pastry came out of the French courts’ baker’s oven as round meringue-like domes with a flat base. At the Versailles Court in Paris, members of the Dalloyau family, whose descendants later founded the gastronomy house of the same name, served macarons to royalty in the then ruling House of Bourbon. Marie Antoinette loved macaron from young age, she even named her cat Macaron when she was 5 years old. In the 1830s macarons were served two-by-two with the addition of jams, liqueurs, and spices. The double-decker macaron filled with cream that is popular today was invented by the French pâtisserie Ladurée.We got together a challenge for ourselves on twitter, the group of wannabe mac bakers, yet a terrified bunch. Began with Aparna calling out to me, and me in turn daring my lovely friend, and over the top, talented Jamie. By the end of the first 2 days, we set twitter on fire. Our days were gone tweeting hysterically about macs, doing the headless chicken dance. Jamie, took the dare head-on, and produced macs upon macs with great aplomb, and was declared our gangs’ own Mac Queen. With her firmly in the drivers seat, there was no looking back. She’s still driving the express & there’s no way of getting off!! I went through dizzy spells, with the rest of the gang getting ‘feet’ one by one. (Just in case you are still wondering, FEET are the little ruffles the macaron develops at the base when it rises.)
Woe begone me… desperate times call for desperate measures & after lengthy consultations with Aparna, I found myself shivering at the back of the class with Monsieur Lebovitz! One look and you’re dead! He’s the no nonsense sort, calls a spade a spade, & is downright scary! I mean, did I ever want to go back to school? …Nah! But well, had a rep to protect, & it had a passion behind it. 
4th time with my failed macs in tow, I now proceeded very clinically. Trying to find logic in my feet. Was been helped beyond belief by the mac attack gang! Aparna offering me Indian baking advice from Goa…we share similar humid weather these days. Jamie, now royally pronounced the New Queen of Macs, royally discharged her duties, & cross questioned me from step 1! Helen, the original & revered Mac Queen, who patiently answered my dumb questions one after the other, & I had zillions. Hilda, who wasn’t a newbie mac baker, gave me endless advice, trying to get to the bottom of my debacle. Meeta, my partner in crime, the only other mac retard as she called herself, got feet on her first go. Even went on to suggest I shove the BOXES of failed macs under mattresses & behind sofas, & begin again.
The hub was now uber suspicious. What are these boxes of strange airy things lying all over the house? We’ve been eating faux tiramisu, ice creams with crushed failed macs, macs on their own … they are darned delicious though! Back to the role call, Hilda, sweet Hilda, who gave me many options – try Italian if French doesn’t work, and sent me links to another mac supremo, Mercotte. Deb called me to Umbria to relax – who cares if u didn’t make them, just get over here. Purple Foodie who said, I know you’ll be back again, I know you. She does…Scorpions of the world reunite!…And of course the Cooking Ninja, adding spirited words to my ordeal. She did a research for me on every tweet & updated me bit by bit on twitter. Thank you gang, you got me on my FEET!
So many people behind my mac endeavours, so I had to deliver. They’d all got ‘feet’ and were ready to dance, but the lovely tweeple waited with baited breath for me, wide eyed. “We’ll strut our stuff together”, they said.!! Sometimes I was scared of going onto twitter because they’d ask, hesitatingly, ” Any luck – got feet yet!”. 
Woe begone me… desperate times call for desperate measures & after lengthy consultations with Aparna, I found myself shivering at the back of the class with Monsieur Lebovitz! One look and you’re dead! He’s the no nonsense sort, calls a spade a spade, & is downright scary! I mean, did I ever want to go back to school? …Nah! But well, had a rep to protect, & it had a passion behind it. 4th time with my failed macs in tow, I now proceeded very clinically. Trying to find logic in my feet. Was been helped beyond belief by the mac attack gang! Aparna offering me Indian baking advice from Goa…we share similar humid weather these days. Jamie, now royally pronounced the New Queen of Macs, royally discharged her duties, & cross questioned me from step 1! Helen, the original & revered Mac Queen, who patiently answered my dumb questions one after the other, & I had zillions. Hilda, who wasn’t a newbie mac baker, gave me endless advice, trying to get to the bottom of my debacle. Meeta, my partner in crime, the only other mac retard as she called herself, got feet on her first go. Even went on to suggest I shove the BOXES of failed macs under mattresses & behind sofas, & begin again.The hub was now uber suspicious. What are these boxes of strange airy things lying all over the house? We’ve been eating faux tiramisu, ice creams with crushed failed macs, macs on their own … they are darned delicious though! Back to the role call, Hilda, sweet Hilda, who gave me many options – try Italian if French doesn’t work, and sent me links to another mac supremo, Mercotte. Deb called me to Umbria to relax – who cares if u didn’t make them, just get over here. Purple Foodie who said, I know you’ll be back again, I know you. She does…Scorpions of the world reunite!…And of course the Cooking Ninja, adding spirited words to my ordeal. She did a research for me on every tweet & updated me bit by bit on twitter. Thank you gang, you got me on my FEET!So many people behind my mac endeavours, so I had to deliver. They’d all got ‘feet’ and were ready to dance, but the lovely tweeple waited with baited breath for me, wide eyed. “We’ll strut our stuff together”, they said.!! Sometimes I was scared of going onto twitter because they’d ask, hesitatingly, ” Any luck – got feet yet!”. One more imaginary scowl from Monsieur Lebovitz later, quick discussions with Hilda, Aparna, & Meeta, I experimented for the 6th time that particular day. Two trays, 140C, a bowl at the bottom to absorb extra heat, resting time of an hour... and the Mr Levobitz’s Chocolate Macaron recipe finally found me my ‘feet’!
.
Pamela @ Cooking Ninja gave me my victory call in her tweets, constantly making me feel like I would get there, …
vindee U’ll get your feets dearie. Can see you jumping up & down in yr kitchen shouting ‘I got feets! I got feets!’ like u won lotto.
Pamela @ Cooking Ninja gave me my victory call in her tweets, constantly making me feel like I would get there, …
vindee U’ll get your feets dearie. Can see you jumping up & down in yr kitchen shouting ‘I got feets! I got feets!’ like u won lotto.
Chocolate Macarons with Pistachio Buttercream
as adapted from David Lebovitz’s recipe
( I made half this recipe )
Macaron Batter
1 cup (100 gr) powdered sugar
½ cup powdered almonds
Macaron Batter
1 cup (100 gr) powdered sugar
½ cup powdered almonds
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
Method:
Preheat oven to 140 degrees C.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about 1/2-inch, 2 cm) ready.
Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond powder and cocoa so there are no lumps; use a blender or food processor since almond meal that you buy isn’t quite fine enough.
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes.
Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you’re alone).
Pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch (3 cm) circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.
Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then bake them for 15-18 minutes. ( I rested them for over an hour because it was humid).
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
Method:
Preheat oven to 140 degrees C.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about 1/2-inch, 2 cm) ready.
Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond powder and cocoa so there are no lumps; use a blender or food processor since almond meal that you buy isn’t quite fine enough.
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes.
Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you’re alone).
Pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch (3 cm) circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.
Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then bake them for 15-18 minutes. ( I rested them for over an hour because it was humid).
Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet.
Pistachio Buttercream
Double the ingrdients if you are making the whole recipe above.
Ingredients:
3 tbsps butter, soft
1/4 cup pistachio nuts
1/8 cup granulated sugar
Few drops green food colour
Method:
Run the pistachio, sugar and colour in a nut/coffee grinder till well ground.
Whisk the butter till smooth for a minute, add the nut mix & blend.
Pipe onto cookies & sandwich. Store in refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Could write a thesis. Read up Helen’s Macaron 101 and her online tutorial at Desserts Magazine, David Lebovitzs macaron instructions, Lemonpi’s macaron posts, Mercotte’s beautiful pages of Desperately Seeking Macarons, Veronica of Kitchen Musings Macaron Chronicles from back to front & all around … unbelievable!
The original Mac Queen, Helen of Tartlette still rules our twitterverse, supremely, & we could never had gotten anywhere without her! Thank you!! 
As time is going by, we’ve had more & more folk join our twitter gang. Rachel, Shelley, Deb, Pamela, Erin, Ilva, Ria, Barbara, Megan, Paula, Reene, Finla … and a few more as we get closer to the 15th of September, ’09. That’s the date for the round-up at Jamie’s blog @ Lifes A Feast …
So if you still want to join, do drop us a tweet (or comment/mail). We’ll be happy to have you on board!
One blog that I often attempt to stop at is Heidi @ 
Should have known better, because nuts are nuts after all, but she had me chopping the nuts of my bookmarked recipe at a frantic pace the next morning after the kids left for school. The recipe itself is simple & ‘packed with nuts’…very jewel studded indeed, like the Queen’s crown. However, it wasn’t as simple to slice thinly as the jewels had a mind of their own. I managed fairly well, but didn’t get anywhere close to the thin, gorgeous slices that Heidi did. 
Maybe it was because I added raisins too, or my knife wasn’t good enough, or the loaf was undercooked, though it tested done. As Helen says in the recipe “Bake for 45-50 minutes – or until the loaf tests done. If you under-cook the loaf at this stage, it makes slicing difficult.” I shall definitely give this a try again as it was deliciously studded & very YUM! Healthy & hugely successful with the kids too. 
NUT, SEED & RAISIN 
Saffron & pistachio compliment each other perfectly, in colour & in soul! It was more creamier than I imagined it would be, it did have a slight tartness of yogurt which added to it’s refreshing taste. The chopped pistachios folded in towards the end gave added texture to this lively & low fat ice-cream. I created a saffron caramel sauce to go with it. It had a delicate saffron fragrance, & paired with it beautifully.
This post is out for International Women’s Day today. For all those wonderful bloggers who make our world better everyday. For the men too, but today, especially for the women. I can name a few to begin with, & could go on & on. A few who come to my mind as I write…
SAFFRON PISTACHIO YOGURT ICE-CREAM
Method:
