First of all, I’d like to apologize for my tardiness in replying emails the past few weeks. There’s been a sudden influx of requests and enquiries and I haven’t had the chance to sort through all my emails. Please bear with me for the moment!

This post is about another batch of macarons (and a local dessert). The common theme here is the colour purple (or lavender, if you like).

Flavour #4: Lavender macarons with honey vanilla buttercream. I’ve seen lavender used in macarons on several blogs, but haven’t tried it out myself. I wasn’t too sure about this flavour since lavender isn’t commonly used in food around these parts.

The macaron shells gave off a lovely floral scent and I loved the honey vanilla buttercream. But I was definitely too generous with the lavender flowers. Don’t get me wrong; I loved the scent, but once I’d bitten into the macaron, I found the taste too floral. Don’t be fooled by those pretty, tiny lavender buds; they pact a powerful punch flavour-wise. If I ever make these again, I’d definitely be more conservative.

Flavour #5: Violette macarons with cassis buttercream. I was more than happy to finally have an excuse to splurge on some Sevarome natural violette paste, although I wonder if I’ll ever be able to finish the entire 1kg tub. The cassis buttercream, made with pure blackcurrant purée, was wonderfully tart and completely delicious with the violette flavoured macaron shells. This flavour is a definite keeper!

Flavour #6: Ubi (yam) macarons with ubi paste. This flavour was first suggested by one of my students, Maggie. Thank you so much for the idea, Maggie! I hope your macaron adventure is going well.

This flavour is, without any doubt, my favourite of the lot. The yam paste filling was wonderfully fragrant and smooth. But it does have its “issues”.

First, there’s the extra step of preparing the yam paste. This same yam paste turned the macarons shells soft after a day. The filling is also a lot heavier than buttercream and one runs the risk of the delicate shells collapsing under the weight of the filling if they aren’t consumed within a day of being filled.

Still, I find these macarons irresistable and will certainly be making them again. Besides, I have another excusereason for making ubi macarons. I could never use up an entire yam for the macaron filling, which leads me to the perfect solution for all that leftover root: “or-ni” (dialect pronunciation) or yu4 ni2, 蓣 泥!

“Or-ni” is a local Teochew yam paste dessert. It’s made with yam, sugar and oil. The original version of this dessert is served with gingko nuts, pumpkin slices and sugar syrup, although I’ve also seen the paste served with creamy coconut milk.

The raw yam is first steamed and mashed up. It is then combined with sugar, cooked with oil in a wok or large pan until all the ingredients are well combined. By this time, the paste is completely smooth and no longer sticky. The yam paste is then steamed together with pumpkin slices and gingko nuts. Lastly, sugar syrup (boiled optionally with crushed water chestnuts) is poured generously over the paste and served hot. It’s definitely one of my favourite local desserts!

It’s been more than a month since I last made a batch of macarons. The grand macaron recipe revision plan is NOT going according to schedule. Progress is exceedingly slow; yesterday was only revision attempt #1. Verdict for attempt #1: improving these tough cookies (pun intended!) are going to take a lot more work than I thought!

On the bright side, I finally got to try a few macaron flavours that have been on my to-do list for some time now. The common element these flavours have is fruit ganache. The basic idea in fruit ganache is to replace some of the cream that goes into making a ganache with either fruit juice or fruit puree. The tricky part is getting the right ratios so that the ganache will still set and not be too soft.

Flavour #1: Chocolate macaron shells sandwiched with yuzu dark chocolate ganache. Since fresh yuzu is unavailable this time of the year, I went with bottled yuzu. I loved the citrus overtones and the slightly bitter taste of the yuzu peel in the ganache. Just for fun, I topped the macarons with homemade candied orange peels. I was more than happy to finally make use of the citrus peels that I’d bottled more than 6 months ago!

Flavour #2: Passion fruit macaron shells with passion fruit milk chocolate ganache. I’ve longed to try this combination since reading about it on several blogs more than a year ago. After eating Pierre Herme’s Tarte Mogador and milk chocolate & passion fruit macaron at Mezza9 last Friday, I knew I HAD to try this flavour combination at home.

I’d already bought a couple of passion fruits at the local market 4 days earlier with the intent to juice them and make the ganache right away. Except that I had absolutely no idea how to tell if the fruits were ripe. I’d picked darker ones with smooth skins over a pre-packaged bunch with deeply wrinkled skin. When I got home, I did a quick search online and found that if I wanted ripe ones that I could use right away, I should have bought the old and wrinkley looking ones!

When the fruits were finally ripe, I strained the yellow pulp. I was surprised by how a small amount of juice could impart such a deep passion fruit flavour. This ganache is definitely my favourite out of the three!

Flavour #3: Peanut macaron shells sandwiched with banana dark chocolate ganache and a peanut butter centre.

This flavour was made on a whim, inspired by a dessert created by Amrita for her stint at House @ Dempsey. Her inspiration, in turn, comes from Elvis’ (yes, THAT Elvis) favourite dessert of peanut butter and banana sandwich. In my opinion, it’s a combination of flavours that’s completely American (think Reese’s peanut butter cups and banana muffins). I doubt I’ll make this flavour again, although I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the shot glass version that Amrita made!

Next up, purple macarons: lavender, violet and ubi! I do hope the shells turn out better …

It’s been more than a month since my last post and I’ve received several e-mails from concerned readers, asking if everything’s fine. I’m extremely grateful for your concern and am glad to report that all is well!

I’ve just been a little pre-occupied with other matters and haven’t had much time to bake something interesting enough to blog about this past month. I’ve also been revising my macaron recipe, which is why they are currently off the menu, but more about that later on in this post.

The main topic of this post isn’t entirely baking related, but it is food-related, even though it’s not the sort of food that’s edible.

Ever since I read about food miniatures on Carol’s (Paris Breakfasts) blog, I’ve been fascinated by them. When they started popping up not long after on several other food blogs, I knew I had to own a set (or more) of these adorably diminutive toys.

Too impatient to order them online and wait for shipment, I did a little research online and found several shops in Singapore that carry Japanese anime products. Most of these shops also sell Re-ment and MegaHouse miniatures.

While I got my hands almost immediately on the Re-Ment ones, the widely-coveted MegaHouse Pierre Hermé Collection seemed to be out of stock at every store I called. Fortunately, I found a local online seller and I have my own set now.

I have to say that I prefer the Re-ment miniatures over the MegaHouse ones. I think it might have something to do with the fact that the novelty of owning cute tiny food toys had already worn off by the time I received the MegaHouse ones in the mail. I also found the miniatures in the MegaHouse PH Collection much smaller than the Re-ment ones, making them difficult to handle.

As for macarons, I haven’t had as much time to spend on the recipe revision as I’d hoped. So far, I’ve only had time to make peanut macarons sandwiched with dark chocolate and jelly. I preferred the ones with jelly, but I found that the filling tended to turn the macaron shells soft very quickly. Many thanks to S for the peanut and chocolate suggestion!

Other flavours, several of which are courtesy of Pierre Hermé, on my experiment list include passionfruit (with passionfruit milk chocolate ganache), chocolate (with dark chocolate yuzu ganache), violet (with cassis), lavender and ubi. I’m also contemplating the white truffle and hazelnut combination as well, but I’m not convinced yet.

I’m pretty excited about these flavours! I just hope I’ll have enough time for all of them.

While on vacation last month, I had this grand plan to bake Valentine’s Day themed cookies when I got home: hearts, roses, butterflies, the works. But Chinese New Year celebration (and of course, the mandatory recovery period from all the over-indulgence festivities) got in the way and Valentine’s Day has come and gone with no cookies in sight.

To make up for the slack, I decided to try baking heart-shaped Ispahan macarons, something I first saw on Flickr (at Pierre Hermé) and then again at Carousel at Royal Plaza at Scotts. I also wanted to try out the age-old flavour combination of strawberries and cream with this Pierre Hermé inspired dessert.

In keeping with the original PH Ispahan flavours, I paired fresh raspberries with raspberry cream (instead of the usual rose cream) and lychee bits. For the experimental version, I used fresh strawberries with vanilla cream and buttery shortbread pieces in the middle and assembled this combination with both 3″ heart-shaped and 3.5″ round shells. I even managed to put together a small heart-shaped macaron.

I’m completely thrilled with the results; the visual impact of both raspberry and strawberry versions is undeniable (in my opinion anyway)! I’m also very glad to report that both versions are equally wonderful tastewise! Afterall, how can one go wrong with strawberries and cream?

I definitely won’t be waiting for Valentine’s Day to roll around before making these gorgeous little desserts again!

With Chinese New Year baking completed and no baking schedule for Valentine’s Day, I finally had some time to make caramel fleur de sel, something that I’ve been wanting to try for the longest time.

I used Chef Pang’s recipe, found on Chubby Hubby’s blog, but found the resulting caramel way too salty on its own. It might have something to do with the accuracy of my digital weighing scale (I rounded up the amount of fleur de sel from 3.75g to 4g), but the next time I make this, I’m definitely cutting the sea salt down to 3g or maybe even 2g.

I really couldn’t bear to throw all that caramel away and turned it into a buttercream filling for macarons instead. I also used vanilla flavoured macaron shells made with hazelnuts instead of almonds.

I have to say that I loved the resulting flavour; slightly savoury with a deep caramel flavour that still shone through the buttercream. I included them in a box of macarons I’d made for a dinner party at WL’s and they quickly became the most sought-after macarons, beating even the ever popular dark chocolate and opéra flavours!

These are definitely going onto the menu!

Caramel Fleur de Sel Recipe (adapted from Chef Pang’s version)

Ingredients
200g sugar
Sufficient quantity water
1/2 tsp pure vanilla bean paste or 1 vanilla pod
200g whipping cream, warmed
3g fleur de sel
140g unsalted butter, well-chilled and cut into cubes

Method
1. Place the sugar in a heavy-bottom saucepan. Add just enough water to dampen the sugar.
2. Cook the sugar to 160 degrees C without stirring. The sugar syrup should take on an amber hue.
3. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir in the vanilla bean paste or the scrappings from the vanilla pod.
4. Add in the warm cream a little at a time - be very careful here as the caramel will foam up and sputter. I recommend wearing an oven mitt.
5. Add the fleur de sel and stir to make sure that all the caramel has dissolved.
6. Allow the mixture to cool to around 40 degrees C.
7. Add the cubes of butter and blend in the butter using an immersion blender until you have a smooth glossy paste.
8. Line the surface of the caramel with cling wrap to prevent a layer of skin from forming and chill in the refrigerator until needed.

When I received my first enquiry back in August about Christmas baking, I thought it’d be a great idea to come up with limited period macaron flavours just for the Christmas season.

I was pretty excited about the new flavours I’d dreamt up, but the steady stream of orders for macarons and cakes meant that I never had the time to actually try them out until this week.

All three new flavours have a hidden centre, which I thought was wonderfully appropriate for Christmas; biting into the macaron to find a hidden surprise in the middle would be like opening up a beautifully packaged Christmas present to get to the gift inside. Well, almost…

Peppermint Shells with Mint Tea White and Dark Chocolate Ganache

After all, what would Christmas be like without peppermint candy canes? While I love mint, I didn’t want the flavour to be overpowering and decided to go with chocolate as a filling. Even my husband who isn’t a great fan of mint likes the occasional After Eight thin chocolate square. For a subtler mint flavour, I went with mint tea infused white chocolate ganache as the main filling and a dark chocolate ganache in the centre. For those who don’t fancy white chocolate, there is also a mint tea dark chocolate ganache only version.

Christmas Spice Macaron with Ginger Rhubarb Buttercream and an Almond Paste Centre

I’ve always associated the smell of freshly baked gingerbread cookies with Christmas. It was easy to come up with just the right mix of spices for the macaron shells, but the filling was a little more difficult. I finally settled for a mildly tangy ginger rhubarb buttercream and a wonderfully aromatic homemade almond paste centre. Inspired by the deeply coloured macarons offered by Pierre Hermé and Ladurée, two of the finest pâtissieries in Paris, I went with a deep pink (almost red) colour for the shells. It wouldn’t be Christmas in a box without a touch of red now, would it?

Ginger Macarons with Ginger Rhubarb Buttercream and Candied Ginger (pictured in the first photograph above)

My sister had told me many months ago about a ginger flavoured macaron that her colleague had tried. While I was mildly intrigued, I wasn’t too sure if it’d be well-received. Then I remembered those blistery cold winter nights in Sweden and how wonderful that cup of firey hot ginger tea I’d shared with WL and SH had felt then. While Christmas in Singapore isn’t quite as cold, there are days when it’s cold enough to make me wish for that extra bit of warmth. I suppose it was worth a shot.

The results were surprisingly good. I kept the ginger flavour in the shells and buttercream on the mild side and added candied ginger to the centre for a stronger flavour. It made for a mildly tangy macaron until you hit the slightly spicy candied ginger centre.

The downside of having waited so long to make these Christmas macarons is that I only have a few slots left for anyone wishing to try them.

Available for Purchase: Christmas in a Box @ a Price of S$45. Includes 28 macarons (3 Christmas flavours or any other flavour you fancy from the list here) in a long glossy red custom made box with fat green or gold ribbon.

My fridge is overflowing with a huge giraffe cake (more about that in a later post) and you’ve guessed it, macarons! Some of these miniature confections were my own, but some were from various famed pâtisseries around Europe, brought back by very generous friends who’d travelled there recently.

3 weeks ago, my husband and I met up with a friend at a party. He mentioned that he was leaving for Zurich on a work-related trip the following week. We suggested that he visit Sprüngli in his spare time there and try at least one of their popular luxemburgerlis. 2 weeks went by and I’d completely forgotten about the conversation that we’d had about Sprüngli, which was why I was completely surprised to receive a message from him last week, telling me that he’d got us a box of (close to 40) luxemburgerlis! Thank you, CR! We really enjoyed them.

Today, I met up with another friend for lunch. She’d just got back from Paris on a work trip last week and had bought me a box of beautifully packaged macarons from Ladurée! I was really touched that she’d gone out of her way to get me these “cookies”. Thank you so much, HL, for the macarons and for everything else that we’ve shared in the last few months!

I feel really blessed to have such wonderful friends! Wouldn’t you?

Today I delivered my last macaron order for the next 4 weeks or so. Thank you all for your very generous support! While I do have a lot of fun baking and sandwiching macarons, sometimes it does get a tad stressful, especially when there are back-to-back orders on consecutive days. My apartment is also in need of some tidying up - a chore that I’ve barely found time for in the last month. This is why I’m taking a short break from taking macaron orders.

I’ll continue baking during the break, of course. In fact, I still have a couple of cake and muffin orders for August. Just no macarons for sale for the next month or so. I intend to use this time to try out new cake decorating techniques (specifically, royal icing and sugar gum paste) and maybe dream up new macaron flavours.

I couldn’t have found a better way to end my macaron baking frenzy this week than with a special request for Ispahans. I don’t usually make them for sale, but I really couldn’t say no to a really nice customer who put in a request for macarons as well an Ispahan macaron as a wedding gift for a friend who loves “anything Ispahan”. This time, I even made tiny sugar droplets for the rose petals. Sadly, these don’t hold up too well in our humid climate.

Inspired by the Ispahan order, I decided to make a few more Ispahans yesterday and made another trip to the supermarket. There, I found Indonesian raspberries on the shelves! I had no idea that it was possible to cultivate raspberries in Indonesia’s tropical climate.

I also found some time this weekend to experiment with new colour combinations. I liked the combination so much that the white shells and pink filling colour combination will be the new look for raspberry macarons from now on, instead of the old pink on pink.

I’ll still be baking, so do stay tuned, especially if you’re hoping to read about something other than macarons here!

While I’m estastic about the overwhelming response to the macarons I’ve put up for sale and grateful beyond words to my repeat customers, I have to admit that I’m completely exhausted. I’ve just come off an entire week of doing not much else besides baking and sandwiching macarons.

I don’t know how other bloggers selling their macarons are managing, but for me, making 6 different flavours per day is no mean feat. It’s especially challenging when I have to make various flavours of buttercream, nut pastes, nut praline and chocolate ganache for the fillings, all in a single day. This is made all the more difficult by the fact that I’m not a fast worker in the kitchen.

In order not to end up with less than perfect macarons due to having to churn out too many flavours each day, I’ve had to turn away potential customers, something which I’m loathe to do since I really don’t want to disappoint anyone who’d like to try them.

This is why I’m toying with the idea of a baking schedule. This amounts to offering 4 fixed flavours (e.g. chocolate, rose, opera, green tea on Mondays, apricot, raspberry, black sesame, hazelnut chocolate on Tuesdays etc) for each day of the week from which customers pick the 3 that they fancy. This way, customers get well-made macarons while I get to preserve my sanity.

I think this could be a win-win situation, no? Feel free to let me know what you think and which flavours you think would work well together!

Incidentally, based on the responses I’ve received about how much filling you like in your maccies, all of you like your maccies the same way I like mine - with a huge dollop of filling!

This is the new and improved black sesame macarons with black sesame paste filling. I’ve swapped the white sesame seeds for black ones in the filling because of its slightly bitter aftertaste. I’d also thrown some decorative seeds on some of the shells before baking as an experiment. I’d put the seeds on only after baking in my previous attempt as I was worried that they’d burn in the oven.

I loved the fragrantly nutty flavour of this macaron. It’s now my second most favourite flavour after the dark chocolate ones.

These were some extras from a batch I’d baked for an order. Since I’m completely addicted to these little confections, it’s quite obvious where these maccies ended up and no wonder that my waistline is expanding these days!