Hong Kong Po Lor Pao ('Pineapple Bun')

One of the best selling buns in Hong Kong and simply in each and every Chinatown bakery in the Western Hemisphere. This bun is unique for its separate sweet crust top that is made up separately from the dough of the bun itself, and placed on top of the bread dough prior to the baking. The crack appearance which is also crumbly and crusty at the same time is a nice texture addition to the soft bun itself. Originally this bun is without any filling and is called the pineapple bun for the reason that the crust part looks like pineapple but has nothing to do with the fruit at all in its content. You can see trays of these buns around early mornings and afternoon tea time hours lining the glass display cases of Hong Kong's local coffeeshops and they are best eaten when freshly out of the oven.

I inserted luncheon meat into some of the buns for a different taste option. The crust itself contains sugar and the luncheon meat adds a savory salty taste to the whole of the bun. As there is already sugar mixed into the bread dough itself, I reduced the sugar amount by 2/3 of the amount required for the crust part in the recipe. I omitted the addition of the condensed milk as I don't think it is necessary and the amount stated in the given recipe was negligible afterall.

For the bun part, I used the same recipe as the Taro Bun which yields 14 buns altogether for this recipe. The weigh of the bread dough for each individual bun will remain the same at 40g each and the crust also 40g each as it must cover the top half part of the bun dough prior to baking and once baked, the bun will expand, hence pushing the top crust apart. For the original version without filling, the dough is shaped into balls while for the one that contained the luncheon meat, I roll it out a little to 1/2 inch thick and rectangular and placed the meat in the middle and fold the 2 edges together to enclose.

The luncheon meat takes more time to cook and bake, around 15 mins and the one without filling will take between 10 to 12 mins. Egg wash is applied to give the yellow browning. The sizes of these buns were intently made smaller than those found in the coffeeshops for easier eating, especially kids.

Recipe :

For Bun , refer to here omitting the taro filling ingredient:

Extra:

5 to 7 slices of luncheon meat/SPAM (1/3 inch thick)

Crust :
1 cup all Purpose Flour
1 tbsp butter softened (room temperature)
1 tsp baking soda
5 tbsp dried milk powder
4 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup vegetable or corn oil
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 egg yolk
1 egg, beaten

Method :
For Bun, refer here omitting the taro filling part

For Crust :

1)Place the flour, sugar, dried milk powder and baking soda into a large bowl. Stir with a fork to mix.

2)Beat in the egg yolk. Stir roughly with the fork to get clumps.

3)Pour in the evaporated milk and continue to mix. Stir in the vegetable oil and mix thoroughly.

4)Cut the butter into little pieces and drop randomly into the flour & oil mixture. Using your hands, knead and rub in the butter to form a soft mixture, resembling cookie dough. Do this for 1 min. Divide this into 14 balls of equal size and set aside.

Assembly :

1)When the bread dough has been rested, risen and kneaded twice in accordance with the recipe for the dough, divide the dough into 14 balls. Place 7 balls into a foil cupcake liner each. For the remaining 7 balls, roll each by using a small rolling pin to a rectangle of 1/2 inch thick. Place one slice of the SPAM onto one dough and fold up on 2 edges to enclose. Repeat with the rest and place on aluminum liner or greased baking pan.

2)Take one of the crust ball and flatten it slightly on a clean surface, slightly bigger than the top surface of the buns. Use a scraper to lift up the crust and place on top of the bun, overlapping the top part of the buns. Continue with the rest. When done , cover with cling film and let everything rest for a further 20 mins.

3)Preheat oven to 400F. Place the rack to the lower part of the oven. When ready, brush the beaten egg on the crust and the buns. For the plain bun, bake between 10 to 12 mins and for the SPAM bun, bake for 15 mins. Rotate pans half way.

4)Remove from oven and let cool or serve warm.

Makes : 12 to 14 buns

Taro Bun

I haven't baked bread for a long time and I am starting with a new recipe this year. There is a coffeeshop in my hometown of Sabah, Malaysia that sells these type of lovely buns with a crackling crust on the outside and a very soft velvety inner part. The filling is an option and any types of fillings, sweet or savory can be good for these buns.

I inserted the buns into cupcake foil liners before baking, hence only the top part was browned and the bottom part remained white. The dough for these buns were quite sticky and you will need to have extra bread flour for dusting when it is kneaded and let to rest and risen twice during the whole process before the filling is inserted.

I find this recipe relatively easy as long as you follow the steps of adding in the ingredients and aim for a slightly wet and sticky dough. During the kneading, release as much gas as possible from the built up inside the dough. I did these randomly without measuring the individual dough balls and each filling portion but for a first timer, I recommend some weighing to be done. Usually for buns shaped into a ball, the individual dough portion should weigh 40g and the filling around 30g, and if wet, rolled into a ball for easier insertion and shaping of the dough.

I used canned sweetened taro, around 400g in total to yield between 12 to 15 buns. I found it strange that the Taro filling from the Wei Chuan line of canned fillings is lightly brown rather than the light purple that fresh taro yields and its ingredients list has brown sugar and bean butter added. One thing about these buns, they brown very quickly and must be removed from the oven once the recommended time is up or else the color will be too dark and not appetizing. Ever since I moved to America, I am very comfortable using the measuring cups and spoons to do all the work and have converted this recipe from the original metric measurement to using the system here. Although most bread recipes require you to weigh the ingredients, I find it too much work for a housewife and mother like myself and if I can get the same result with using scoops, why not!

Recipe :

3 cups Bread Flour (extra for dusting)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp yeast granules
2 tbsp butter, softened to room temperature
2/3 cup warm water
1/3 cup warm milk
1 large egg
400 gm taro filling


Method :

1)Divide the taro filling into 12 to 16 balls, measuring 30g each.

2)Stir the bread flour, yeast and sugar together with a fork to mix.

3)Pour in warm water and using a spatula to mix into a rough mess. Next add in the warm milk and do the same thing.

4)Beat in the egg and stir in to mix.

5)Drop in bits of the softened butter and using your hands, knead and rub the butter into the flour & liquid mixture till combined. Dust with a little flour if it gets too sticky to knead.

6)Dust working surface with some flour, and knead the dough for 1 minute, folding at intervals and pushing down to knead again. Dust with a little flour as you go, the dough will get less sticky and still feel slightly wet in your hands.

7)Let the dough rest in a big bowl, covered with cling film and let to rest and rise for 1 hour.

8)Remove to the working surface and knead again for 1 minute, pushing out all the gas that has built up inside the dough. Shape into a ball again and throw the dough down a few times to release more gas. Let it rest and rise, covered again for 30 mins to 45 mins till double the size.

9)Divide the dough into 12 to 16 balls, weighing 40gm each. Using a small rolling pin on a dusted surface roll out each ball into a circle, to 1/2 inch thickness. Place 1 ball of filling in the middle and gather up the edges of the dough to enclose the filling. Put it down on the working surface and pinch the edges closed and gently roll it with your palm pressing down slightly to get the round shape. Place the bun in aluminum cupcake liner. Continue with the rest and let the taro buns rest for 30 mins, covered with cling film. Preheat oven to 400F and place rack to the bottom part of the oven.

10)Bake the buns for 10 to 12 mins, rotating the pan halfway. Remove from oven immediately, let cool a bit before eating. Filling may still be hot.

Makes : 12 to 16 buns

Chicken Pot Pie

What better comfort food than an individual ramekin chicken pot pie, piping hot and tucked into your palms on a cold autumn day. With a substantial filling consisting chicken meat, peas, potato, herbs and cream and a light buttery crust to cut and dip into the hot creamy filling, it warms you up instantly at the first bite.

For this pie, I made up a buttery dough for the crust and I find that working with vegetable shortening and butter requires different amount of water in the making of the dough. And I find that a butter based crust is much more easier to roll and doesn't break apart easily when being moved. Although vegetable shortening yields a more flakier crust, this butter crust has more taste to it and infact very light and airy.

I added baking powder to the flour so that the crust will puff up during the baking. Cream of mushroom is my favorite canned food to use and no matter what you cook with it, the end result is always good. For a better presentation, I sprinkled some white sesame seeds on the crust and it lends a subtle nutty flavor to the pie. The potato need not be boiled prior to adding it into the cream of mushroom mixture so that it will still retain its shape and not mushy after the baking.

Recipe :

Crust:
250g all Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
125g cold & malleable butter
5 to 6 tbsp cold water
1 egg, beaten

Method:

1)Sift the flour and baking powder together.

2)Dice the butter and drop into the flour mixture. Use food processor to pulse and combine the mixture. If using hand, rub the butter pieces into the flour till resembles coarse crumbs. Do not overmix.

3)Starting with 3 tbsp of the cold water, add in gradually to the butter and flour mixture till it comes together into a dough. The dough must not be too wet. Place in a plastic bag and flatten it and let it rest for 30 mins in the fridge.

4)Meanwhile, prepare and cook the filling.

Filling:

4 chicken drumsticks, remove bones and dice the meat

1 cup of chopped ham chunks

1 medium size potato, cleaned and diced

2/3 cup peas

1 shallot, sliced and diced

4 pips of garlic, minced

1-3/4 cup Cream of Mushroom

1 tbsp dried oregano (or any herbs of your choice)

1 tbsp cooking oil

2 tbsp cornflour

water

Method:

1)Marinate the chicken pieces with salt, pepper, 1 tbsp cooking oil and the cornflour. Let it marinate in the fridge for 1 hour.

2)Heat a large skillet with 3 tbsp cooking oil. Fry the shallots and garlic. Add in the chicken and potato pieces and stir to mix. Add in 1/2 cup of water and cover and let simmer for 5 mins. Remove lid and add in chopped ham. Stir to mix and cover and let it cook for another 5 mins.

3)Pour in the cream of mushroom and add 1/4 cup of water to dilute the sauce. Cover and let simmer for 10 mins.

4)Lastly season with salt, oregano and add in the peas. Cover and cook for another 3 mins. Turn off heat. Let the filling cool slightly.

5)Prepare 6 ramekins, measuring 4 inch in width and 2 inch in height.

To assemble :

1)Preheat the oven to 375F. Take out dough from the fridge, let it rest at countertop for 10 mins.

2)Dust countertop with a little flour and roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thickness. Using the largest round cookie cutter (3.5 inches), cut 6 rounds from the dough.

3)Scoop equal spoonfuls of the filling and divide into the 6 ramekins (roughly around 4 tbsp each).

4)Place the cut out round dough on top of each filling. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle each pie with sesame seeds.

5)Bake for 40 mins. Half time into the baking, brush the crust again with egg wash.

6)Remove and serve hot or warm.

Makes: 6 individual pot pies

Squash Cream Cheese Autumn Cookies

When the fall season starts, the cookies baking season gets started too! It is obvious that cookies serves the best purpose as small gifts or simply an indulgence in one's home. All sorts of cookie cutters are available now in line with the upcoming festivities of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukkah and New Year. One will have any reason to bake a batch of cookies this time of the year.

With no more scent of summer roses permeating the air, the best smell of autumn is spices. Cinnamon and nutmeg are the popular choices and I would love to incorporate cumin and fenugreek seeds one day. I made these cookies thinking of the fall flavors with squash added to the cream cheese filling and nutmeg and cinnamon made up the cookie dough. These cookies are crunchy and cut thinly. With its high content of butter and sugar, these cookies stays crunchy up to a week without the filling and surely can be made way ahead of time.

I seldom use canned pumpkin and when I tried to look for it, they were all sold out. Instead of getting a whole pumpkin, I opted for cut squash slices at the grocery which saves me alot of time in cutting and cleaning. Perhaps the color is not as bright as the pumpkin flesh, but the taste of the squash is equally as good as the sugar pumpkins. The squash pieces were firstly steamed for 20 mins till they are soft and then pureed in the blender and let cool before adding to the cream cheese and sugar mixture. As the cookies are sweet enough, I added only 1 tbsp of sugar to the cream cheese. Additional sugar can surely be added if the sweet tooth desires.

Recipe :

Cookies
1-1/3 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp Nutmeg powder

Method :

1) Sift the flour with the cinnamon and nutmeg powder. Set aside.

2)Cream the butter and sugar till well mixed. Beat in the milk.

3)Fold in the flour mixture and knead into a dough. The dough should feel slightly wet and heavy and if still dry, continue to add milk 1 tbsp at a time till the right consistency is achieved.

4)Place the dough in a plastic bag and let it rest in the fridge for 1 hour.

5)Remove the dough from the fridge. The dough is ready to be rolled and cut when it is malleable and still cold. Dust the surface lightly with all purpose flour and roll half of the dough out thinly (similar to the thickness of ham slices).

6)Preheat the oven to 350F. Using a 2 inch size fluted cookie cutter, cut out about 15 to 17 pieces. Place this group of cookies in one tray.

7)Roll out the other half of the dough into the same thickness and using the same fluted cookie cutter, cut out 15 to 17 cookies. Take a smaller cookie cutter of your choice of design or use linzer cookie cutters, punch out the middle of each cookie from this group. Place the cookies on another baking tray. Use up the cut outs to make up the numbers of cookies.

8)Bake the cookies at the middle rack of the oven for 15 to 17 mins, rotating the pans once after half time of the baking. The cookies are done once it starts to brown slightly and browns faster on the bottom than the top. Remove from oven immediately.

9)The cookies may still look soft but it is done and hardens after the cooling period. Remove immediately to the cookie rack to cool. If not used immediately, place in an airtight container.

Cream Cheese Squash Filling :

Recipe:
8 oz squash
4 oz low fat cream cheese
1 tbsp sugar

Method :

1) Set up a steamer and cut the squash slices into smaller chunks. Steam for 20 mins till the squash is very soft.

2)Drain the water and place the squash into the blender and puree it.

3)Beat the cream cheese with the sugar till thoroughly mixed.

4)Slowly add in the squash puree using a tablespoon and stir to combine. I used about 6 tbsp of the puree.

5)Using a butter knife, spread the squash cream cheese lightly onto one whole cookie, with more in the middle part. Using a cookie that has a cut out, place it on top of the filling to complete the cookie.

6)Serve or store in fridge for 3 days.

Makes : 15 to 18 cookies (2 inch sizes)

Meat & Cabbage stew

This is a Japanese inspired dish. Cabbage is a very popular vegetable in Japan and is eaten raw with any deep fried dishes or braised with meat till soft. It is also high in vitamins and very cheap in terms of price compared to seasonal vegetables.

Japanese dishes tastes sweeter than Chinese versions as they use sugar and Mirin, a type of sweet cooking wine in most of their cooking. Other than Miso, a soy based paste, I seldom see alot of cooking using soy sauce and the gravy and soup base are normally clear in color and emphasis is more on the original and basic taste of the meat or vegetable ingredients.

I used low sodium chicken broth for this dish which goes well with the pork shoulder meat. I always purchase pork shoulder/butt with the least fat for stew. The presence of a little marbling fat makes the meat more juicy and succulent after cooking. In total, this dish requires 35 to 40 minutes of cooking with medium heat. The cabbage and carrots were added in the last 15 mins so as to retain a slight crunchiness and yet soft enough to complement the tender cooked meat.

Recipe:

1-1/2 lb pork shoulder butt meat

1/2 of a medium size green cabbage

3 carrots, cut to chunks

1 large red onion

1 thumb size knob of ginger, sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 tbsp Mirin/ Japanese Sweet Cooking wine

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp white pepper

2 tbsp corn flour

2 cups chicken broth

Corn starch: 1 tbsp corn flour mixed with 4 tbsp water

Method:

1)Cut the pork meat into chunks, similar to thumb size. Marinate with the Mirin, salt, pepper and sugar. Sprinkle the corn flour all over and mix throroughly. Let sit for 1 hour in the fridge.

2)Peel off the outer green and tough leaves of the cabbage. Position the cabbage with its sides down on the chopping board with the stem part facing to the left/right of your cutting hand. Cut it into half. Lay this half on its cut flat side on the chopping board. Cut & slice vertically from top to bottom into thin piles. Loosen the leaves and wash and soak in cold water.

3) Position and cut the red onion in exactly the same way as the cabbage.

4)Heat 3 tbsp of cooking oil in a braising pot. Saute the onion, garlic and ginger for 2 mins.

5)Add in the meat and mix thoroughly. Cover with lid and cook for 10 mins. Pour in the chicken broth and let simmer for 15 mins, stirring occasionally.

6) Using the spatula, shift the meat to one side of the pot and drop in the carrots and lastly, the cabbage leaves on the other side. Close lid and let simmer on medium heat for 10 mins.

7)Stir the contents of the pot and slowly pour in the cornstarch mixture. Stir to combine and cover lid and simmer further for another 5 mins.

8)Turn off heat and garnish with shredded omelette. Serve with rice.

Serves: 4 persons

Rosemary Tomato Chicken

This dish is a tweak from the French dish Chicken Chasseur. I omitted the mushrooms and added olives instead and the grape tomatoes added color and extra taste to the gravy. This dish is very homey and I love the gravy over rice, although I served this with pasta instead.

The good thing about making dishes like these is that I don't have to use much effort and the oven does everything. The idea is to slowly cook the chicken till tender and succulent while still retaining the juiciness of the grape tomatoes, that adds to the richness of the gravy. The presence of a little paprika gave the gravy a redder hue and very subtle.

I roasted some zucchini with grated garlic and salt and pepper to go along with this dish.

Recipe:
4 large chicken quarters (include drumstick & thigh)

1 sprig of rosemary, chopped

12 black olives (each cut into half)
12 grape tomatoes
1 large red onion, halved & sliced thinly
4 pips of garlic, minced
3/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tsp sweet paprika
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil


Method:


1)Remove the fat and sinew from the chicken quarters and cut them into 3 parts each. Wash and pat dry. Marinate with the rosemary, paprika, salt & pepper and 1 tbsp of olive oil for 2 hours in the fridge.

2)Preheat oven to 350F. Heat a big skillet with olive oil, about 4 tbsp. Put in the chicken and spread out to cook evenly for 5 mins on each side. Remove to a casserole dish and arrange to sit besides each other.

3)Using the same skillet, add in the onion, garlic and white wine. Stir in the tomato paste to combine and let simmer for 5 mins. Add in chicken stock, tomatoes and olive and stir and simmer for another 10 mins. Turn off heat.

4)Pour the contents of the skillet into the chicken meat inside the casserole dish and distribute the contents all over the chicken meat. Cover with lid or foil and put into preheated oven and cook for 1 hour and 15 mins.

5)Remove and serve hot or warm over rice or pasta.

Serves: 4

Almond Strawberry Cream Cookie

Currently I am hooked to Martha Stewart's Cookies Cookbook. Perhaps it is the big pictures of the cookies or perhaps the many types and shapes that I haven't made or tried out yet, I simply cannot leave that book alone. Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook was out recently and having checked through it, I still prefer the Cookies one.

I adapted 2 recipes from this book and tweaked them a little to make these cookies. Besides Macaron, this is my first time using almond flour in another cookie. Added to the all purpose flour, it kind of produced a crumbly and sandy cookie which is firm and yet melts away in the mouth. I used a drop of almond extract to boost the taste and smell of the cookies. The sugar content for these cookies is very little, hence the filling must be sweet to make up for the taste.

Instead of the raspberry cream suggested by the book, I made up a strawberry version, using 1 cup of pureed strawberry with a little sugar added to it and melted the white chocolate over a double boiler before adding heavy cream to it. The color of the cream turned out the perfect pink and it firms up in the fridge after at least 45 mins.

These cookies baked really quick and must be removed from the oven as soon as the 15 mins is up or else it browns quickly and the speckled effect created by the almond flour will not be noticeable. A small flower cookie cutter can make an ordinary cookie looks so much nicer and the lovely pink filling simply oozes through the flower pattern to fill it up and create a flower motif. As much as I wanted to pile up on the filling, this was not a good idea as the cream filling must only fill up to 3/4 full of the flower pattern or else overflowing will occur and affect the appearance of the cookie.

Cookie Ingredients :

1-1/4 cup all Purpose Flour; 1/2 cup almond flour; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 cup butter, r.temp; 2 tbsp sugar; 1/8 tsp almond extract

Filling Ingredients :

1 cup fresh strawberries (yields 3/4 cup pureed); 2 tsp sugar; 5 oz white chocolate; 1/4 cup heavy cream

Method:

Cookies :

1)Sift the all purpose flour together with the almond flour and salt.

2)Beat the butter and sugar till pale and light. Add in the almond extract.

3)Fold the flour into the butter mixture in batches.

4)Mix into a flat disk and wrap up with cling film and let dough rest in fridge for 30 mins.

5)Take out and roll the cookies out to 1/4 inch thick on a floured surface. The dough tends to get wet and slightly sticky, apply flour sparingly to the roller. Cut out with size 1-1/2 inch fluted round cutters, makes 35 to 40 cookies. Take half of the cookies and punch with a smaller cookie cutter for the center part.

6)Place all cut out cookie dough on lined baking sheet and let them rest for another 15 mins in the fridge. Preheat oven to 350F.

7)Bake for 12 to 15 mins. The cookies will look pale and sandy. Remove from oven immediately and let cool completely on cookie rack.

Strawberry White Chocolate Filling :

1)Puree the strawberry with the sugar. Pass the puree through a sieve to get rid of the seeds.

2)Simmer some water in a pot and break the chocolate bars into pieces and place them in a separate bowl, that is bigger than the rim of the pot. Place the bowl of chocolate on top of the pot and turn down the heat so water continue to simmer. Stir the chocolate till melted.

3)Remove from heat and slowly stir in the heavy cream. Lastly, stir in the strawberry puree and stir till wholly blended. Cover with cling film and let the cream set in fridge for 1 hour.

To Assemble : Spread a tsp of filling onto the whole round cookies. Top them with the cookies that have been punched out in the middle. Serve within 1 day or contain in a container and keep in fridge for 3 days.

White Bread

Other people do have guest bloggers on their blogs and websites. I have a guest baker.... my father in law! I always insist those bread making books available in HK are always better and he bought me a new one this year. As much as I wanted to get my hands on trying out the new recipes, I didn't have time and perhaps a bit lazy during the summer months. And so, he went ahead and made the first bread from the new book and indeed very good bread.

This bread was made up of 2 dough, the first one was made earlier and let rest in the fridge overnight to slowly rise and the second one made on the day itself. Both were then mixed together using the Kitchenaid Mixer, rested and rise again before shaping into desired moulds. The only setback in making these breads were that they needed a lot of rolling to release the built up of gas inside of them. And perhaps my father in law is a bit slower than me, it seemed to me that he took the whole day to make these breads.

Since I played no role in making these, I cannot blog more except to click some beautiful pictures!

Dango

One look and these looks like chinese Fish Balls!

I saw these type of Wagashi when I was living around the area of Kyoto, Japan but never got around to try them. Kyoto is a beautiful place, blending the old and new with serene temples, back streets full of old traditional shops selling potteries, ceramics and also food, traditional sweets or modern horseradish/Wasabi flavored ice cream.

There is no flavor in these balls itself which are made of brown rice flour together with glutinous rice flour and the black sauce which is made up of equal parts of soy sauce, sugar and mirin (Japanese sweet seasoning) imparts the hint of dark heavy syrup sweetness into it.

The addition of brown rice flour to the glutinous flour reduces the chewiness texture and produces a firm middle with a slight chewiness on the outside layer of the dango. The making of the dango balls took only 10 minutes and the cooking of the sauce around 10 mins too. The only thing is the coating part which got a bit messy as the sauce thickens when it cools. Overall, these dango were fun to chew on as a light snack with no trace of fat at all but I would buy a daifuku if both were available.

Macaron: Green Tea & Pink

Made these Macarons for CrazyMommy and a playdate. Now I understand what was the big thing about making these little cookies about. At first, it didn't attract me but once I started making it and after a failure here and there, the determination to get it right was so great that I am very eager to make it every week for any reason possible. Perhaps it is the psychological feeling on mastering the art of handling the egg whites or the temptation of so many possibilities of colors, flavors and fillings that makes these French pastry cookies so exciting to make, enticing to the eyes and of course delectable to eat if the fillings are good!

I am a die hard fan of all things small and individually sized and these macarons sure fit into my baking interests. Making Macarons is something that needs practice on a constant basis and at this time, I have failed 3 times and succeeded 3 times too! I think I have passed the first hurdle and most definitely the one that determines whether the Macarons succeed or not which is the beating of the egg whites. My 1st attempt, the egg whites were still a bit runny, hence the cookies spread but didn't rise. And then the 2nd failure was when I added too much green tea powder to underbeaten eggs resulting soft cookies that didn't rise and finally the last failure was because I overbeaten the egg whites to stiff peaks and the cookies rise, and was firm like meringue cookies and had no feet!

The first successful one was the Black Sesame flavored macaron with Cream Cheese Filling of which I proudly paraded in my other blog. I managed to reduce the content of the powdered sugar and still got the cookies rising with little feet. Using the same recipe, I substituted with green tea powder and the cookies were disastrous! No kidding, making Macarons has its time and mood and I must have been too excited over the first success.

I made the green tea version 3 times and I find that green tea must have an effect on the Macaron as my successful one didn't rise as much as I wanted. Whereas the pink one, rose beautifully without any hitch. I am still unable to get a very firm outer shell and mine were easily cracked if I didn't handle them carefully. Perhaps it is the heat of the oven or period of baking that resulted this or even the way I pipe the Macaron which is yet to be mastered to a consistent size and quantity.

All I can say is that I like the challenge of making these cookies. Tartelette is the best website for Macaron recipes and her picture illustrations published in Macaron 101 in the Dessert Magazine gave me full insight into making a Macaron successfully. Hopefully mine gets better everytime and gives me more prospect into concocting new flavors for the fillings.

For the green Tea Macaron, I whipped up fresh cream and added red bean paste to get red bean cream filling. As with all my other baking and cooking, I love Asian ingredients and this Macaron is very Japanese in nature! For the Pink Macaron, I pureed strawberries and cooked it with sugar and added gelatin and whipped cream to make a mousse like filling. These type of cream filling will perhaps be more appropriate during the cool months and a firmer buttercream type will be better for spring and summer weather.