Sunday bakes - 'Little treat for the train' lemon macarons

The weekend I made these treats was the weekend of the wedding of one of my best friends. It was a beautiful day, full of happiness and love. Congratulations Ruth and Dave, I hope you have a wonderful future together and I look forward to seeing you enjoy all the good times you have ahead. 

Now for the train ride home, and the extra train ride down to Cornwall, because after the wedding I was also off on holiday. 

So here's a little treat I made for the train to get me through the long hours of travel. 

Ingredients
6 oz icing sugar
5.5 oz ground almonds
120 ml egg whites – about 4 eggs
5.5 oz granulated sugar
2 tbsp fine lemon zest
50ml water


Filling

Lemon juice and zest of about 4 lemons
3.5 oz butter
7 oz caster sugar
3 eggs, plus 1 extra yolk

Method
After sifting the almonds to get rid of any larger lumps, put into a food blender with half of the egg whites, the lemon zest and the icing sugar and blend into a paste with about 15 long pulses. 

Put the rest of the egg whites into a mixer and whisk up until the egg whites hold soft peaks. At the same time put the water and the sugar into a saucepan and heat gently. The sugar will dissolve and when the water starts to boil. Use a sugar thermometer and the mixture will be ready when it reaches 110°. Keep the mixer whisking as you pour the sugar syrup into the eggs slowly. Once you have finished pouring, keep the mixer going as the mixture gets glossy and slightly stiffer. Keep whisking until it is cool.  

Fold the almond, lemon mixture in together with the egg whites until you have a smooth mixture. Place this into a piping bag and pipe evenly onto a greased baking paper sheet. I add a little more grease because the paper does not seem to be quite enough. Draw a circle with the piping bag about 2 cm diameter and then hold the bag in the center and pipe out to make a small dome. 

Leave the disks out on the side for a couple of hours to form a slight skin and then bake at 170° for 14 minutes. 

In the meantime you can make your lemon curd filling. 

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and place over a saucepan with boiling water. Heat the mixture until the butter has all melted. Whisk up the eggs and yolks together a little before adding to the melted butter mixture. Heat very gently, stirring every now and then until the mixture coats the back of the spoon. Leave the curd to cool. 

Choose disks that are a similar size and spoon some curd onto the flat side and sandwich the two together. 

Eat these little disks of sunshine while on a train, with a good book, on your way to a great holiday.

Sunday bakes - 'bribing people to like me' buns

It's been a while since I made some choux pastry and so this weekend I cracked out my wooden spoon and gave it another shot. 

This time instead of the usual chocolate topping I wanted to try something a bit brighter and opted for a speedy raspberry jam. 

They went down pretty well in the office, I might make another batch ready for project 'make my boyfriend's parents like me'. 

Ingredients
Pastry
200ml cold water
4tsp caster sugar
3oz margarine
4oz plain flour
3 beaten eggs

Cream
500ml cream whisked to stiff peaks with a little raspberry-ripple flavour

Jam
100g frozen raspberries
5tbsp caster sugar

Method
Put the water, margarine and sugar into a saucepan and heat until the margarine melts. Pour the flour into the saucepan in one go and stir vigorously until the dough has a slight gloss and is in one consistent ball off the sides of the saucepan. Put the dough into a bowl and leave to cool for ten minutes before slowly beating in the eggs, little by little. Once the dough is combined pour into a piping bag and pipe into balls on a sheet of baking paper. Tap the tray a little to knock out any bubbles of air. Pre-heat the oven to 180 and place a tray of water in the bottom of the oven to build up steam. Once the oven is at temperature put the buns in and bake for 25 minutes, when they will have puffed up and become golden brown. 

Put the raspberries in a saucepan and heat, one they start to breakdown add the sugar and continue to heat. Breakup any lumps of raspberry left and reduce the mixture until it is sticky and thick. 

Once the buns are done leave until thoroughly cool, snip a small hole in the side, pour the cream into a piping bag and fill the buns one by one. 

Top with the jam and definitely wait before trying one, because the jam will essentially be molten hot sugar. You will burn your mouth.