Juanita's Almond-free Macarons

I must be one of the last people to jump on the homemade macaron bandwagon judging from how many of the food blogs around have posted about exactly this.

One great thing about macarons? They're gluten-free!

Two bad things about macarons for me? The icing sugar available in South Africa necessary to make macarons contains corn flour (I'm allergic) AND you use almonds (I'm intolerant).

SO what to do, what to do.....

Find a recipe which I can adapt to my allergenic needs (Wasabimon! and her rosewater/vanilla recipe acted as the base), try it, and bloody well get them right on the first try because it's so friggin' time consuming.

Truth be told (as you'll see from the pics below), my version doesn't look like the picture perfect, pristinely smooth finish some people get
BUT
they taste the same...crunchy as you bite into it and chewy as you hit the inside.

Now, tell me - unless you're working as a food editor for some glossy magazine, isn't it the taste that counts?

Juanita's Coconut-Macadamia Macarons
with Dark Ganache filling

The Necessaries:

• 100 grams egg whites, divided (that's 33.3g per egg white)
• 100 grams raw macadamia nuts
  
• 90g caster sugar + 10g potato starch
  
• 120g sugar
• 60g water
• 1 tsp coconut essence
• ganache (see Martha Stewarts guidelines)
  

Method for the shells:

1. Using a food processor, grind the macadamias, caster sugar and potato starch till very finely ground.
   
2. Use a spoon to stir one egg white and the coconut essence into this mixture.
3. In a seperate (and very clean) stainless steel bowl, beat the remaining two egg whites till soft peaks are reached. Set aside for the moment.
4. Put sugar and water in a small saucepan, and gently heat using a thermometer to tell you when your syrup has reached 90°C, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
   
5. Carefully put the sugar syrup in a small pouring jug (hot syrup burns are nasty), and then resume beating the egg whites while slowly pouring the hot syrup into the mixture, drizzling it down the side of the bowl while mixing. The meringue is ready when it's shiny and puffy, reaching the stiff peak stage.
   
6. Fold the macadamia paste and meringue together slowly, till an even consistency is reached. Don't over-fold! Keeping the air in the mixture is important to getting a good end result.
   
7. Transfer the mix to a piping bag without a nozzle, and pipe circles of approx. 4cm diameter with 5cm between circles onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
8. Leave the baking sheet sitting on your counter for 30 - 40 mins to allow a crust to form on the macaron shell, while your oven pre-heats to 150°C.
9. Bake the shells for 12 mins or so. They should be easy to peel off the baking paper.
10. Allow the shells to cool and then fill them with ganache or a buttercream of your choice.

Voila my pretty ditties!

Chocolate Cupcakes

When I was little, my mom baked cupcakes like crazy - for birthdays, for bible club, for sunday school, for scripture union, for school, for friends, etc. They were delicious little vanilla things, to be sure, but the problem was that I have always been a chocolate lover of note.

Enter celiac disease, and my taste for chocolate grew even more rapidly because, before there were fantastic gluten-free flour mixes (the correct ratio of gf flours is paramount for a successful outcome), there were excellent Lindt chocolates that were gluten-free.

Times have changed in recent years, with a greater variety of finely-milled gf flours available in South Africa. Therefore, more and more often, I find myself turning my hand to baking as a weekend hobby, as well as a healthier option to store-bought sweeties (I figure, at least I know what I'm putting in it and how much!)

It was with great joy that I stumbled upon a blog called He-Eats while googling for chocolate cupcake recipes, and boy did I hit the mother load! Obviously, I had to de-gluten them, but nevertheless, these cupcakes came out so moist and chocolatey that it's difficult to do them justice in terms of a description (and they get even yummier if stored in an airtight container overnight in the fridge).

So now I get to have my (gf) (chocolate) (cup)cake and eat it too!

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
Gluten-Free:
Adapted from an online Martha Stewart recipe
(made 21 cupcakes)

Cupcake Ingredients:

• ¾ cup (187.5ml) cocoa powder
• ¾ cup (187.5ml) flour (Nature's Choice GF Cake Flour works reliably)
• ½ tsp (2.5ml) baking powder OR ½ tsp (2.5ml) bicarb (acidity of sour cream/yoghurt is sufficient to activate the bicarb)
  
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¾ cup (1½ US sticks = 169.5g) unsalted butter at room temp
• 1 cup (250ml) caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract
• ½ cup (125ml) sour cream OR full-cream yoghurt (I have made a batch using each option, and the change to yoghurt does not affect the moistness of the final product)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350F / 175C. Line 12-Cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
• Sift together the Cocoa, Flour, Baking Powder and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.
• Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• With the mixer on low add the flour mixture in two additions alternating with the sour cream .
• Divide the batter into cups filling about 1/2 full. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean (original recipe says 20-25 mins, but mine only took 15 mins at 175 degrees Celsius!)
• Cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer the cakes to cool completely, on a wire rack. Ice the cupcakes with ganache or your icing of choice once fully cooled. Typically, ganache is dark chocolate (50 - 70% cocoa solids) and cream in a 2:1 ratio, slowly melted over a very low heat, sometimes finished with a dot of butter for a nice sheen.

Pre-icing...

Post-icing & dusted with cocoa powder...

Chocolate Cake is SO 2009

"Time is a companion

that goes with us on a journey.

It reminds us to cherish each moment,

because it will never come again.

What we leave behind is not as important

as how much we have lived."

~ Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: Generations ~

Chocolate Cake Recipe
(gluten-free)

It sank in the middle but it tasted yum and that's all that matters to me!

Ingredients for cake:

• 3 eggs
  
• 220ml sugar (I substitute 220ml honey)
• 60ml oil (I use cold-pressed sunflower/olive oil)
  
• 1 cup cake flour (I use Nature's Choice gluten-free cake flour)
  
• 60ml cocoa powder (I use Nomu cocoa powder [90ml if using honey instead of sugar to compensate for the extra liquid])
  
• 125ml hot water
  
• 10ml baking powder (I use 1/2 tsp bicarb + 1 tsp creme of tartar)
• 2ml salt
• 5ml vanilla essence (I leave this out entirely)
• P.S. For a never-fail, moist cake; stick to the original ingredients. If you don't mind a cake that sinks slightly in the centre but prefer not to use sugar, then use the substitutions).
  

Method:

• Whisk eggs and sugar (or honey) together.
  
• Whisk in oil.
  
• Melt cocoa powder in hot water and allow to cool slightly. Then whisk it into the sugar (or honey) and egg mixture.
• Add in the vanilla essence if you are using it.
  
• Mix in flour, salt and baking powder (or bicarb + creme of tartar).
• Bake in a buttered oven dish for 25 - 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Ganache Icing Ingredients:

• 100g dark chocolate (at least 50 - 70% cocoa solids)
  
• 2-4 Tbsp cream
  
• 1 Tbsp honey
  
• 1 tsp butter

Ganache Method:

• Melt the dark chocolate into the cream on low heat.
• Add honey if you'd like a sweeter taste.
• Add butter once off the heat to give the icing a nice sheen.
• Sprinkle with almond nibs to decorate.
  

Born-up-a-tree, thanks for reading/commenting in 2009
and have a fun (but safe) New Year's Eve!
xxx