Macaroons with peanut butter

As i mentioned last time, I've been planning on baking macaroons for a while. I was hoping that they would look perfect but, as with everything in baking, this was unfortunately not the case. It appears that something is missing, although I applied all of the hints and tips I could find. Admittedly, I was ignored the suggestion to  keep the egg whites for up to 2 days in the fridge- because I'm too inpatient ;p Despite this, they look closer to real macaroons and taste delicious.

Ingredients:

200 g icing sugar

3 egg yolks

125 g ground almonds

pinch of salt

3 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons icing sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Measure all igredients.

Beat eggs whites with a pinch of salt.

Add icing sugar and mix until smooth.

Gradually add almonds.

Stirring gently.

Optionally, add some colouring- I chose red.

Add the mixture into a piping bag.

Holding the piping bag vertically, and gently squeeze the mixture into circles of roughly the same size.

Preheat ovent to 170 in celsius scale. Leave the macaroons to rest for 30 minutes.

Cook for 14 minutes.

Whilst waiting for macaroons to cool down, prepare the peanut butter filling. Add peanut butter, butter...

... and icing sugar.

Mix together until smooth-although mine isn't as I used crunchy peanut butter.

Apply peanut butter filling to macaroon.

Geantly push together with another macaroon.

Watch them disappear immediately from the plate ;p

The List of Sweets

Do you remember that I wrote before about a list of sweets that I wanted to make to make myself more accomplished? There's still a lot of things left to do on it- like usual I went a bit crazy with the amount ;p Anyway I'm still trying to complete my resolution (if I'm not to busy finding even more new, interesting recipes ;p)

I would like to prepare a few basic things like marzipan and halva or Canadian pancakes with maple syrup- recently I'm going crazy with Golden Syrup and Maple Syrup.
I'm planning to get to grips with new recipes from the English cuisine, like Red Velvet Cake, Treacle Sponge, Ginger and Pear Sponge, and Banoffee. I also have had a crack at my first praline, soufflé and yeasty cake.

On my list there was also a place for recipes that I have struggled with in the past. I want to prepare them again to get them right this time - Some of these include my luckless macaroons and crème brulee...

Unfortunately part of my resolution includes waiting for proper accessories for creating good recipes. Nevertheless I hope that with a bit of free time I will be able see my enterprise through. Luckily, spring is coming, which means more sun, energy and a lot of fresh fruits

Have you got any advice for me, especially about macaroons? What are your thoughts on recipes such as this?

Wish me luck ;P

Apple and Rasberry Crumble

Today I'm returning back to English cuisine and also one of my healthier puddngs i.e. fruit crumble. In Great Britain it is quite popular dish served in a sweet or savoury version. Personally I prefer the fruity variants - In fact you can use different mixes of fruits- apple and blackcurrant, apple and rhubarb, apple, plum and cherry or just apples. For my first crumble, I chose apples and rasberries ;p

Ingredients:

about 200g rasberries
one apple
60g unsalted butter
55g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
75g sugar (I used brown)+ some sugar for fruits
55g almonds
1 teaspoon cinamon
1 tablespoon honey

Wash and dry fruits. Peel apple and slice into cubes. Preheat oven to 180.

Mince almonds.

Place fruit into ramekin (you will need about 4 of them).

You can add some sugar to the raspberries - mine were a bit sour ;(

Mix flour with butter to make crumble.

Add almond, sugar...

... cinnamon and honey. Mix well.

With a tablespoon add the crumble on top of fruits.

Put into the oven for about 25 minutes- until golden.

Serve crumble hot, sprinkle with icing sugar. it tastes great with ice cream or custard :)

Cranachan

Today I was extremely excited to learn about a Scottish dessert- Cranachan ;] It's a mix of raspberries, whipped cream, oat flakes and of course whisky; it sounded quite intreguing. So intreguing that I couldn't stop myself and during my free time I didn't hesitate to try this quick pudding. One of the traditional recipes says that you mix together whipped cream, raspberries, oat flakes, alcohol and honey, but I thought that it wouldn't look that great. That's why I decided to prepare it like an Eton Mess. Traditionally it is served with fresh raspberries, but in winter they are a bit hard to get ;p

Ingredients:

300 ml double cream
2 tablespoons whiskey
aprox 250 g raspberries from syroup
50 g sugar
120 g oat flakes
running honey
vanilla sugar

Put sugar into pan, add 2 tablespoons of water and simmer.

In the mean time put oat flakes into a hot fryingpan and fry until golden. Put the golden flakes into a glass bowl- it will stop them from continuing to fry ;p

Stir flakes with ready caramel, and put them on some baking paper until they cool down.

Whip double cream with one tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of vanilla sugar.

At the end add whiskey.

Layer all of the ingredients in tall glasses.

Put honey on flakes.

It tastes the best served straight after being prepared ;]