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 - 'Mothers' day' macaroons

Mothers' day is a lovely day, we get to spend it with our family, do family-friendly activities and there are copious amounts of spring flowers.

This year my mum, my godmother and I had a picnic at Standen, one of my favourite national trust properties. As a child I had a friend that lived in one of the on-site cottages so we used to play in the beautiful gardens.

I made a big picnic and slightly over did it on the baked goods but one of the things I made that went down the best was the raspberry ripple macaroons. 

Ingredients

6oz icing sugar

5.5 oz ground almonds

120 ml egg whites – about 4 eggs

5.5 oz granulated sugar

1 tbsp raspberry puree

50ml water

Filling

4 oz butter

8oz icing sugar

A few drops of raspberry ripple cupcake flavouring

Food colouring -  add to your desired colour level

Method

Sift the ground almonds to get out any large lumps and put it into a food blender with half of the egg whites and the icing sugar. Blitz with about 15 pulses.

Put the water in a saucepan and add the granulated sugar, heat until it reaches a gentle boil. Use a sugar thermometer to measure and it will be ready when it reaches 110°. Whisk up the rest of the egg whites in a clean bowl. It would be easier to do this with a kitchen aid style mixer because once the egg whites are beaten to soft peaks slowly start to add in the sugar syrup, with the whisk on high. The mix will become smooth and glossy, keep whisking until it is cool.

Fold in the almond mixture, take care not to over fold. A pattern of mixture poured over the top should sink back into the rest of the mixture within 30 seconds. Fold in the raspberry puree at the same time. The mixture will turn a dusky pink but add in more food colouring if you want a darker colour.

Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe onto sheets of baking paper. I found the technique that works the best is to draw a circle of about 2cm diameter and then hold the bag in the centre and squeeze out a dome of mixture. This seemed to be the best way to make sure the circles are even. 

Leave the mixture out for at least 30 minutes at room temperature so that the circles form a skin then bake at 170° for 14 minutes. 

 Whisk the butter and the icing sugar to make the butter cream and add the flavouring and colouring to taste.

Sandwich two of the cooled macaroons together with the buttercream filling and serve with a cup of tea and family laughs.

Thank you Mum for another wonderful year.