Since beginning this blog, I have discovered a plethora of suppliers and resources that exist online, for a list of sites I recommend, have a look at my links page. One of the sites that stands out is Sous Chef, this is my go to site for the majority of patisserie ingredients and supplies that I use on this blog. I’ve used their ingredients in my Jaffa Cake Entremet and the pastry cutters and pastry brushes they sell are excellent too. They cover a number of different areas of cooking, but for me the Baking & Patisserie section is invaluable.
The kind people behind the site Sous Chef, sent me a selection of their own brand products to try for free at home and this coincided nicely with a bake sale that was taking place at my office. I chose a Lemon Madeleine recipe from Edd Kimber’s new book Patisserie Made Simple because I enjoyed the Honey & Vanilla Madeleines I made so much. I also thought the freeze-dried raspberry powder I’d been sent would work really well with the lemon glaze on the madeleines.
For my second recipe I selected Salted Caramel Macarons decorated with Feuilletine Wafer, I got the inspiration for this from the recipe section on Sous Chef, I did adapt the recipe and my version is included at the end of this post.
I’ve been looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of Edd Kimber’s latest offering Patisserie Made Simple, it was released on 16th October and I actually approached the publishers to see if there was any chance of getting an advance copy to review on this blog. Sadly they never responded to me, so I had to go out and buy my own copy!
This new book looks amazing, the equipment needed to execute a lot of the recipes is minimal, which is great when making patisserie in a domestic setting. I have a number of tins or pastry rings that I’ve bought and used only once and they’re lurking at the back of my cupboard. I daren’t throw them away as I know I’ll need to use them again the moment I do.
The Madeleine recipe is the first thing I have made from this book, it’s a great recipe. The inclusion of a lemon glaze makes them zingy and refreshing and stops the madeleines from drying out, which can often happen with these delicious little cakes, they are best eaten on the day you make them. They’re really easy to throw together, but the batter is best made the night before, so that when you come to cook them, you can be sure you’ve got the classic madeleine hump. The freeze-dried raspberry powder, is sprinkled on top to give them a striking finish and a burst of rich raspberry flavour.
Freeze-dried raspberry powder can be used in a number of ways, sprinkled on top of macarons filled with a raspberry ganache, or mixed into meringues before cooking to give a burst of flavour and a decorative look, it can also be mixed into creams and ganaches to give a raspberry punch.
LEMON MADELEINES with Freeze-dried Raspberry Powder
Ingredients
- *****MADELEINES****
- 2 Large Eggs
- 100 g Caster Sugar
- 100 g Plain Flour
- 1 Tsp Baking Powder
- 100 g Unsalted Butter melted
- ****TO DECORATE****
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 160 g Icing Sugar
- Freeze-Dried Raspberry Powder optional
Instructions
- Put the eggs and sugar in a large bowl and using an electric mixer, whisk until thick and pale, about 6-8 minutes.
- Put the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and stir together to combine. sift a third of the flour mixture into the egg mixture, carefully folding to combine, then add the remaining mixture in two additions in the same way.
- Take a large spoonful of the batter and add this to a small bowl along with the melted butter, mixing them together to lighten the butter.
- Pour the butter mixture into the batter and gently fold together to combine. Press a sheet of clingfilm onto the surface of the batter, then put the mixture in the fridge and leave overnight for at least 8 hours (the batter can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days at this point).
- To make the lemon glaze, put the lemon juice and sifted icing sugar in a medium bowl. Mix together using a wooden spoon until you have a smooth pourable glaze. Press a piece of clingfilm onto the surface of the glaze until needed - this will help to prevent it forming a crust.
- Grease a 12-hole madeleine pan and dust with a little flour, tapping out the excess.
- Preheat the oven to 220C (200C fan oven)/Gas 7. When the oven is up to temperature, spoon the batter into the madeleine moulds, a teaspoon should be enough, don't overfill the moulds. You don't need to spread the mix out, this will happen as it cooks.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges have started to go brown. Remove from the oven and immediately turn onto a wire rack. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, before dipping in the glaze, coating fully.
- Allow the excess to drip back into the bowl before setting on a wire rack over a piece of parchment to set.
- Taking a pastry brush, dip it in the frozen raspberry powder and using your hand tap the brush so that the powder falls onto the wet glaze.
- These are best served as close to baking as possible, they are great the day they are baked.
I make no secret about how much I love salted caramel and macarons, these are probably the two recipes that I end up making the most. Not only do they both taste so amazing, they are both so versatile. The macarons can be filled with a huge range of ganaches, jams, curds and creams. Whilst salted caramel compliments so many recipes and foods, from ice-cream to a filling in chocolate tarts or a centre for your own homemade chocolates.
These macarons are smaller than I normally make, I used a guide for piping that I found online, whilst the macarons look cute at this size, I much prefer them 4-5cm in diameter. They are much more substantial at this size and the cake-like texture of the macarons taste fabulous. I think that the feuilletine decoration looks really striking on top of these macarons and they give a nice crunch to the shells.
Feuilletine is generally only used in professional kitchens and is a caramelised wafer that is spread thinly and cooked as a sheet before being broken into tiny pieces. Feuilletine can be used for a number of things, mixed with melted chocolate and hazelnut praline paste to form a crunchy layer in an entremet, or mixed into ganaches and mousses to provide an extra layer to the texture.
Salted Caramel Macarons
Ingredients
- 200 g Ground Almonds
- 200 g Icing Sugar
- 50 ml Water
- 175 g Granulated Sugar
- 150 g Egg Whites approx 3 eggs
- 25 g Feuilletine Wafer
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line four baking trays with baking parchment. You can use these macaron sheets as a guide when piping out 5cm circles.
- Add the water and sugar to a pan and stir over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
- Put half of the egg whites into a stand mixer and whisk them on a medium speed until frothy.
- Bring the syrup to a boil and heat until it reaches 118 degrees.
- Pour the syrup in a slow steady stream into the egg whites as they are being whipped on a high speed. Keep whipping until the meringue forms a stiff peak, about 5mins.
- Grind the ground almonds and icing sugar together in a food processor and then sift them into a clean bowl.
- Add the remaining egg whites to this mix and beat it, until it forms a paste.
- Add a third of the meringue to the almond paste and beat it in thoroughly.
- Fold through the remaining meringue, ensure the ingredients are mixed thoroughly.
- Put the macaron mix into a piping bag and pipe out 72 macarons.
- Tap the bottom of the tray to remove any bumps or air pockets, then sprinkle the feuilletine wafer onto all of the macarons, then put the macarons in the oven for 12mins per tray. Turn the trays halfway through cooking to ensure an even bake.
- Let the cooked macarons cool completely before trying to remove them from the tray.
- Gently make a small indentation with your thumb on the flat side of the macaron and then pipe salted caramel onto one side of the macarons and sandwich them together.
- Place the macarons in an airtight container for at least an hour, but if you can wait, they'll be much better the next day. They should last for 2-3 days in the fridge.
SALTED CARAMEL
Ingredients
- 280 g Granulated Sugar
- 130 ml Double Cream
- 200 g Salted Butter diced and chilled
Instructions
- Put one third of the granulated sugar into a saucepan and place on a medium heat, when it dissolves add the next third of sugar. Once that has melted, the final batch of sugar can be added.
- Heat the sugar until it turns a golden colour.
- Turn the heat down to low and add the cream in small batches. Take care as the mixture will bubble up, so you will need to stir quite quickly.
- When all of the cream has been added, take the pan off the heat and stir in the butter, this stops the caramel from cooking any further.
- Finally use an immersion or stick blender to mix the caramel until the butter and caramel are combined.
- Pour into a bowl, cover with cling-film and put it in the fridge to chill.
- This caramel can be used for lots of things, a filling for Macarons, to add to the base of a banoffee pie, used as a filling in chocolate truffles or even just spread on toast or eaten with a spoon.
- The caramel will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.
This is only a selection of the wonderful ingredients that I have been sent by Sous Chef and I’ll be featuring more on my blog in the coming weeks, along with more recipes from Patissiere Made Simple by Edd Kimber.
If there’s anything you’d like me to feature from Edd’s new book, or if you have any recipes you’d be interested to see made using the cacao nibs, hazelnut paste or caramel chocolate chips that I have received from Sous Chef, please let me know in the comments below.
As always, thanks for reading.
Angela
Jodie Dodd
those little macarons are so cute! looks like you’d have to pop 2 or 3 in your mouth to really get a taste though. i often wondered where you buy most of your ingredients, didn’t think you could just walk in to the local grocer’s store to pick a lot of it up. i love how handy the internet is! 🙂 x
patisseriemakesperfect
yes Jodie, they are so hard to stop at 1! A lot of the ingredients are expensive and it does end up governing what I’m going to make sometimes.
Laura
Oh the macaroons look ridiculously good. Such a great recipe! x
Heroine In Heels
PatisserieMakesPerfect
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Emma @ Fork & Good
These are great! I LOVE the look of those macaroons…
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thank you Emma! They are really tasty, the feuilletine adds a lovely crunch to the shells.