*N*pple Blossoms*

For Sunday 29 November at Potato Head Bistro & Bar in Jakarta, Indonesia.
www.ptthead.com
RSV 021 5797 3322

Flavors:
Star of the Day *Nipple Blossom*: jasmine

Hazelnut Rose
Lavender white chocolate
Black Sesame dark chocolate
Chestnut
Mint Chocolate

Macaron Overdose 23.11.09

Yes I overdosed on macarons this morning...a result of crazy baking from 4am-6am. But I loved it!

Flavors:
Hazelnut-rose (pink)
Chestnut-dark chocolate (yellow 1)
Black sesame (yellow 2)
Pineapple w kafir leaves (aqua-violet)
Black sesame - jasmine (black dots)

Sesame Noir et Jasmine Blanc Macaron

Macaron Paradis

My first day off all for myself! and what did I decided to do..well well well of course I need to start baking again after a two week hiatus. I actually felt a bit pessimistic cos lately I haven't been making great macarons like I did when I was in Melbourne. I'm sure it's the oven's fault, nothing to do with the local eggs, almonds or sugar but it could all been an excuse. That and also my mental state of mind has been running at 100mph lately...adjusting to a demanding job that's fast pace and requires my a lot of street smart..I'm sure that's what my dad would say. But today I kinda get the whole trick adjusting to my oven and producing good-enough macarons, texture wise but many practices goes a long way. Not to mention I have a weeding order for 27th November for 250 macarons, yellow and peach is her theme colour so I'll do a lemon curd/buttercream and a peach ganache.

Back to my job...well it's PR or Public Relations, it's definitely not that hard...but it's not an easy job too...I swore to myself I would never work in PR, but I swore many things and ended up doing them and been pretty good so I'll see how it goes. Plus I'm broke after my three months trip to Paris and I kinda need any job to get me started. I work in my brother's restaurant here in Jakarta, called Potato Head, it's fun, cool and it's a great office, I have a little corner where I sit and sometimes the smoke gets to me so I move outside. I hope this is not turning into a diary...

Anyway back to macaron business...I'm going to have my first macaron article in a local magazine called AMICA, an Italian magazine now available in Indonesia as a franchise. Can't wait to get the new edition and will post it soon here. Alrite I've got a few dvds to end the night so goodnight and keep it real y'all!

xoxo
lady macaron

Thursday Macaron Bake

Today I found the almost-perfect macaron recipe after trialling the first recipe in the Pierre Hermé Macaron book which I received express from Paris! Le Mogador is a brightly yellow macarons sprinkled with chocolate powder filled with passionfruit infused in dark chocolate ganache. Monsieur Mogador as I prefer it to be a masculine  has many followers around the world in various patisseries, I have seen this often witty flavour in Lindt cafe, in various macarons bakeries in New York, in Sydney and also other noted macaron establishments in Paris. And I say why not, it proved to be a popular signature flavour  and  who would've thought of mixing passionfruit and chocolate. The mogador is filled with thick dark chocolate mix with fresh passionfruit syrup. Even after the first bite, the passionfruit sweet sour taste is very strong.

Though I have not made the filling yet, the shells is as fat and happy as it could be. What amazes me is that I have been following the almost exact macaron recipe with italian method yet a slight difference in the process from the book changes everything. I learned from my macaron class and from another popular bloggist and countless of other web recipes with italian method to mix the first half of the egg whites with the tant pour tant (almond powder and icing sugar mixture) first to make a paste, then proceed to whip the other egg whites with the cooked sugar. However PH showed in his book that he only poured the egg whites to the tpt and left it there until the italian meringue is ready. Everything is folded together at the same time and that process I believe is essential in developing a high feet and fat shells. At the end of it, it does makes sense because when you fold the tpt with the egg white first to make a paste, it sort of deflate the airyness of the tpt and you are folding the batter twice instead of in one go.

I might need to post a mini recipe soon, it's a great feeling when you've achieve something pretty good and it's also great to share it with others and learn that they've succeeded too! Sooon readers :)