Macarons au chocolat

It has been on my list for quite some time now to make macarons au chocolat, because I only eat them when in France. So I found a basic macaron recipe and then gave it my own twist with my chocolate cream. And the result was quite good:-)

Macarons au chocolat

80 g egg whites (2-3), with room temperature

200 g icing sugar

20 g caster sugar

100 g grounded almonds

10 g cocoa powder

Mix together icing sugar, cocoa powder and grounded almonds. And sift into a bowl. Beat the egg whites until fluffy, add the caster sugar and beat then until totally stiff.

Mix in the almond mixture a little at a time with a spatula until an even mixture. Fill a pastry bag fitted with 11mm round tip with the mixture and pipe onto baking sheet lined with silpat into rounds. Let the macarons dry for 10-15 minutes before baking at 160 degrees celcius for 12-15 minutes. Let rest for 2 minutes before removing from the silpat.

The filling:

2 egg yolks

25 sugar

5 g vanilla sugar

150 ml whole milk

100 g chocolate, valrhona caraque 56 %

50 g unsalted butter, softened

Prepare a crème anglaise by bringing the whole milk to the boil in a pan. Whisk yolks, sugar and vanilla sugar together in a bowl until white and fluffy. Pour the hot milk into this mixture continuing to stir. Return the mixture to the pan and stir until the temperature is 85 degrees celcius. Pour the mixture into the bowl again and stir to cool down a little. Add the chocolate. Cool down quite a lot. Add the butter and stir until even and cool down completely. Sandwich the macarons with the chocolate cream. And place in the refridgerator for at least 24 hours.

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La glace à la pistache

I love ice cream and I love my machine:-) I try to make ice creams as often as possible. At first I always used recipes from cookbooks, but then I made my own base for ice cream, and this time I made it into an ice cream with pistachios. In France they have a fantastic "pâte à la pistache", but it's difficult to find in Denmark, so I used amaretto for flavour and then some fruitcolour. The pistachios give a crunch that I like in ice cream!

3,5 dl whole milk

1,5 dl cream

6 egg yolks

90 g sugar

10 vanilla sugar

25 g glucose sirop

4-5 tbs amaretto

green fruit colour

50 g unsalted chopped pistachios

Beat yolks, sugar, vanilla and glucose until pale and fluffy.

Bring milk and cream to a boil in a pan and pour over the egg mixture while stirring. Return to the pan and continue to stir until the mixture reaches 85 degrees celcius. Add fruitcolour and amaretto. Cool down in a bain marie and allow to cool down completely in the refridgerateur.

Put into the ice cream machine and add the pistachios when the ice cream is almost finished.. and voilà une belle glace à la pistache!

Comfort cakes with apples and lots of cinnamon

At this very moment I’m studying for my last French exam next Friday, alors il faut parler français!Pourtant je continue en anglais. When studying very hard I often get a craving for something sweet... well exams can’t really qualify as an excuse, because I ALWAYS crave for something sweet and delicious. I wanted to make something comfort-like, something from the good old days, so I decided to make the apple-cinnamon cake my mom always makes (and my grandmother used to make). Normally it recalls for apples from one of our apple trees, but it’s not really the season now. She makes the cake in a round cake tin, but I halved the recipe and made it in to 4 small individual cakes. I love them still a bit warm with a nice dullop of sour cream.

You’ll need:

125 g butter, softened

125 g sugar

2 eggs

125 g flour

Filling:

1 big apple, in thin slices

4 tbsp sugar mixed with cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Beat the butter and sugar well together and add the eggs one at a time. Fold in the flour. Now butter 4 small cake tins and divide half of the batter into them. Then put a layer of apples and drizzle with the cinnamon-sugar. Put the rest of the batter on top and bake for about 25-30 minutes.

Un petit financier delicieux

I’ve had a thing for financiers for many many years, and I know exactly how I want them. However I’ve not yet come across the recipe yet. Because you find the best financiers in the whole world in a little green bakery on a corner in the heart of Nice in Provence. If I go by I have to taste one...also if I’m on a diet... and I’m looking forward to trying some again in late January when I’m off to Nice.

I served these home invented financiers for New Years Eve and they are quite lovely, though they are far from les financiers niçois.

100 g almonds with their skin on, chopped, roasted in the oven at 150 degrees celsius and

grounded

75 g sugar

2 egg whites

35 g honey

12 g flour

70 g butter, ”made into beurre noisette”

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Heat almonds, sugar and egg whites over a bain-marie. Remove from the water and add honey and flour and the butter. Put into tiny financiermolds and bake for 7-10 minutes or until golden.