Earl Grey & Caramel Macarons

My third try making macarons. The first time - total disaster. The second time was better but I was so tired I didn't fill them. This time was okaaay. They're no TWG Macarons but after all that hard work I thought I should at least take some photos.

The hardest part - blending the almond pieces into almost powder consistency. WHY does no one sell Almond Flour in Malaysia??

Earl Grey tea leaves give the batter an interesting speckled look

I stopped shortly after this stage but I think I should have mixed more

Little blue pancakes resting before they get chucked into the oven

Yummy! Not too sweet thanks to the Earl Grey and salt in batter and caramel.

Results: Some of my macaron shells cracked and some did not develop feet. I think overall I was more successful using the Italian method. This time I wanted to try the French technique because it seemed easier but next time I'll definitely do the Italian. They weren't as temperature sensitive I guess. These macarons were baked at too low a temperature at first (around 125 celsius) and failed to develop much feet. The second batch I baked at 150 celsius and they were fine. By the last batch I'm thinking my oven had gotten too hot and almost all cracked.

Also, I suck at filling - gah! Next time I'm just going to pay for my favourite TWG macarons. 

I used a combination of these recipes:

Basic macaron recipe from The Macaron Diaries

Earl Grey Macaron recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover

Cuisinart ICE-21 Review

I got a new Ice Cream Maker!! About a year ago I bought a Kenwood IM280 Ice Cream Maker. It worked OKAAYY but it wasn't great. Almost every batch of ice cream came out looking like cold sludge instead of the soft-serve consistency promised on the manual. WHYYYYYY?! I concluded that the machine simply wasnt made for our weather and sought out a better one.

The Cuisinart is not available in Malaysia but I got my mum to bring one back with her from the U.S. 

It's amazing. Just amazing.

 

The machine is extremely simple. It has four parts: the base which houses the motor, a clear plastic cover, the plastic paddle and a freezer bowl. Basically the same as the Kenwood except that the freezer bowl on the Cuisinart seems to be made of a different material. The Cuisinart freezer bowl is filled with some kind of liquid that you can hear sloshing around when it's warm. The Kenwood on the other hand doesn't as far as I can tell. I don't hear any liquid sloshing around even when its been sitting out of the fridge all day. I suspect this is the crucial difference which allows the Cuisinart to freeze liquids quickly to an almost solid state versus sweet sludge.

The one problem with the machine is the need for a Step Down Transformer. Because American machines are made for 120 volts whereas our plug points discharge 240 volts (or something), I had to get a transformer from ACE Hardware which was expensive and looks completely hideous. Bah.

Anyway, I made a custard based ice cream beforehand. This is it after having been in the refrigerator over night. Its already very thick and has a mousse-y consistency. I dump this in the Cuisinart!

The ice cream is a dark chocolate malt flavour so I crush some Malteser balls and throw them into the machine too.

Scraping some frozen ice cream off the sides

15 minutes later-------Tadaa! Soft Serve ice cream that I had to scoop out with a spoon. YUMMM.

With the Kenwood, I almost always poured the soupy cream out directly into a bowl. I'm happy now.

Overall, the Cuisinart ICE-21 is a better ice cream maker for our K.L/Malaysian weather. 

Freezing

The freezer bowl is colder and can churn ice creams with low egg and fat content. The Kenwood worked well enough with custard style ice creams with loads of eggs and heavy cream but wasn't able to turn out a smooth ice cream which didn't have lots of heavy cream and eggs in it. The Kenwood also tended to melt very quickly and by the 20th minute, the bowl begins to sweat and if left any longer the ice cream actually starts to get softer rather than harder. The Cuisinart on the other hand stays frozen for much longer and may even be able to handle two batches back to back. 

Size & Capacity

Both machines have a 1.5 litre capacity which is more ice cream that my family can eat most of the time. But the Cuisinart bowl is actually more compact and so doesn't use up as much space in my freezer.

Speed

Because the bowl is colder (and maybe because the bowl and not the paddle turns) it actually freezes much faster than the Kenwood. My custard ice cream only took about 10 mins in the bowl. Using the Kenwood, it generally took at least 20mins to get to a stiff enough consistency.