Category Archives: almonds

mulled wine macarons

almonds, cinnamon, egg, food, meringue

mulled wine macarons

This photo is of easily the worst one of the bunch. I figured you can Google macarons and get a million results of perfect Parisienne treats. But I bet you’d struggle to find another that looks like Audrey.

I have been very lucky – expert tuition on how to make macarons, from the excellent Waitrose Cookery not once, but twice. This time Kenwood were laying on an event to promote their Boutique range. It’s a range of vivid and colour-themed small appliances. At the school each colour was arranged on a table with well-matching items which were very eye-catching.

They are gorgeous items, but here’s what else was eye-catching: the price. Each of these things are well made but I certainly can’t justify spending £55 on a kettle. Or £85 on a toaster. And when you have one item in the range, you’re going to want the rest… ouch.

I teamed with Helen to make macarons. The coloured cocktails had got to her a little, and she started piping little green nipples onto our pukkah pink blobs. We had a whale of a time.

mulled fruit juice waitrose

These macarons are made not with mulled wine, but mulled fruit juice from Waitrose. Heavy with spice and warmth, this juice made the perfect accompaniment to super-sweet and chewy macarons. The macaron recipe is Waitrose Cookery School’s, and I was inspired to make the mulled reduction by my previous trip to the macaron class.

Thanks to Z-PR for the fruit juice, and Clarion Comms for hosting the Kenwood event.

Mulled wine macarons (makes loads):

1 litre mulled fruit juice

1 tablespoon icing sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon cornflour

275g caster sugar

95g egg whites (approximately 3 egg whites)

½ tbsp red food colouring

275g ground almonds

275g icing sugar

95g egg whites (approximately 3 egg whites)

  1. Pre heat the oven to 145ºC. Cut out two sheets of parchment paper, the same size as the baking tray and set aside ready for piping.
  2. Boil the mulled fruit juice over a high heat with the cinnamon stick until reduced by half, and then add the icing sugar. Mix the cornflour with a splash of water and whisk into the fruit juice, and continue to reduce until thickened. Put aside to cool.
  3. For the Italian meringue: In a small saucepan, add the sugar and 100ml of water and mix until there are no lumps. Add the food colouring and place the saucepan over medium to high heat and place the sugar thermometer inside. The required temperature is 114C.
  4. In the electronic mixing bowl, add the 95g of egg whites with the whisk attachment. This will then be ready for the sugar syrup when the required temperature is reached.
  5. Once the sugar syrup has reached 110C, start whisking the egg whites on a medium speed and once the temperature has reached 114C, (the whisking egg whites should be frothy at this stage) lift the thermometer out and slowly pour the syrup down the side of the bowl ensuring not to splash yourself! Turn onto full speed and after approximately five minutes, the Italian meringue will become glossy and whipped.
  6. Meanwhile, whilst the meringue is whisking, we can make the paste. In a separate bowl, combine the ground almonds and icing sugar and add the other 95g of egg whites and mix with a wooden spoon until a paste has formed. The paste should be stiff.
  7. Once the Italian meringue is ready (soft peaks will form) this is combined with the paste in three stages. If it is over mixed the mix will become too liquid and the macaroons will become very flat once cooked. It is important to ensure a nice gentle mixing motion. The first addition of the meringue to the paste will be the most aggressive in order to ensure there are no lumps. The second amount of meringue must be folded in gently and the final addition of meringue must be extremely gentle.
  8. The macaroon mix is then ready to be piped. Using a spatula, fill the piping bag half way. Pipe some mix into each corner of the baking trays in order to stick the parchment paper onto the tray. Pipe in straight lines going from left to right leaving a 2cm gap in between each macaroon. These are now ready to be baked for 17-19 minutes at 145C.
  9. Once they are cooked, take the trays out of the oven and leave to cool. Pipe some of the sticky fruit juice inbetween two halves, before downing in one.
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heston blumenthal’s royal wedding trifle

almonds, amaretti, cream, meringue, saffron, strawberry, sugar

heston blumenthal's royal wedding trifle

As soon as I saw this article detailing Heston Blumenthal’s trifle made in celebration of the upcoming Royal Wedding, I knew I had to give it a go.

Following the runaway success of Heston’s hidden orange pudding during Christmas 2010, Waitrose commissioned the Dinner proprietor to create a refreshing Summer dessert in celebration of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. I can’t say I care a great deal about the wedding but I do appreciate the general buzz of excitement among people I speak to – rays of sunshine in these politically gloomy times are welcome. One thing definitely guaranteed to grab my attention however is a new Heston recipe.

Heston seems to have a bit of a thing for trifles, as In Search Of Heston has previously noted. His In Search of Perfection version is particularly mental, with typically absurd amount of stages involved. It did come in handy for one section however – the strawberry compote, which here serves as the “jelly” layer of a Seventies trifle. I incorporated fresh strawbs in with the compote, as I know Heston is fond of mixing the cooked and raw version of an ingredient together. In place of custard there’s a particularly intriguing saffron cream, topped with fragrant, crisp amaretti biscuits. The supermarket version is laced with Marc de Champagne brandy – well I checked my cupboard and I was fresh out (!) so I plumped for my old favourite dessert spirit, Marsala. Finally there’s a meringue topping, and a garnish of candied almonds and dried strawberries.

heston blumenthal's royal wedding trifle layers based on Waitrose recipeThere’s a few stages involved to be sure but none of them are particularly taxing and involve a bit of letting the ingredients sit about. I have no idea how close my version has come, as it isn’t in the shops yet at the time of writing, but I was very pleased with it. It’s creamy, fruity and the saffron sends in a festive, spiced note out of left-field, yet it’s somehow warming and comforting.

I’ll be fascinated to try the real thing when it’s around to see how I did but either way, I think it’s a lovely dessert with a lot going for it.

Heston Blumenthal’s Royal Wedding Trifle (serves 6 – 8):

For the strawberry compote:

1kg strawberries, hulled and diced

100g caster sugar

  1. Place the strawberries and sugar (reserving 4 for later) in a saucepan and gently heat, stirring occasionally. Cook down for about 15 minutes until you have a sticky puree.
  2. Pass the puree through a sieve to remove all the bits and crush well with the back of a spoon to get the most out of it.

For the saffron cream:

500ml double cream

About 20 threads of saffron

8 tablespoons caster sugar

  1. Pop the cream in a saucepan and add the saffron. Bring to a gentle simmer then turn off the heat and allow to cool. The saffron will infuse and colour the cream, turning custard-yellow.
  2. When the cream has cooled whisk, gradually adding the sugar. Keep going until you have a stiff cream.

For the amaretti:

150g crushed amaretti biscuits

4 tablespoons Marsala wine

  1. Mix the amaretti with the Marsala but don’t let it sit around too long – you still want them to have some crunch.

For the meringues:

5 egg whites

300g caster sugar

1 teaspoon cornflour

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 150°C. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually incorporate the sugar. Once all that’s in add the cornflour and vinegar. Keep whisking until the mixture is stiff.
  2. Pour into a piping bag and pipe 5cm blobs onto a lined baking tray, then bake for 1½ hours until firm but not browned. Turn off the oven and leave to cool in the oven for a further oven, then peel off and store in airtight containers until needed.

To garnish:

30g almonds

2 tablespoons caster sugar

2 large strawberries, finely sliced

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 100°C. Dust a baking tray with icing sugar and lay the strawberries out on the sugar. Pop in the oven for about half an hour, until the strawberries are slightly shrivelled and sticky. When cooled peel off the tray gently.
  2. Put a small pan over a high heat and add the almonds. Shake them around for a couple of minute until toasted all over.
  3. Add the sugar, a pinch of salt and a tiny splash of water. Keep tossing the mix around in the pan until the sugar starts to turn golden brown, then turn out onto a ceramic plate to cool.

To assemble:

  1. Place the strawberry compote in the bottom of a serving dish (a nice glass one would be traditional, try and use a prettier one than mine). Finely slice the last 2 strawberries, top with a small twist of black pepper and stir into the puree.
  2. Spoon the cream over the strawberries. Top this with the amaretti biscuits.
  3. Arrange the meringues on the top, and scatter over the almonds and dried strawberry slices. Serve with bunting.

albondigas with patatas bravas

almonds, chorizo, food, pork, potatoes, tomato

Tapas excites me. There, I said it. What other eating style allows you to order half a dozen dishes each and survey them like a greedy child? A dizzying array of little terracotta pots sit before you, deep with spice, wine and aroma.

I had a craving for this the other day so boshed together a couple of tapas style dishes, a meaty, sweet meatball dish and some pokey, chewy patatas bravas.

Albondigas in almond sauce:

500g pork mince

½ nutmeg, grated

Parsley, roughly chopped

½ teaspoon paprika

Lemon zest, grated

Flour

1 onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

Chicken stock

2 tablespoons ground almonds

  1. Combine the mince, nutmeg, paprika, lemon and half the parsley in a bowl. Wet your hands and form into small meatballs, about the size of a ping-pong ball. If you have time leave in the fridge for half an hour to firm up.
  2. Roll the meatballs in a dusting of flour, and fry in butter until lightly browned all over and put to one side.
  3. In the same pan fry the onion and garlic. When softened add the chicken stock and simmer briskly to reduce and thicken. Add the almonds and stir well.
  4. Reduce the heat, add the meatballs back to the pan and continue to cook for a further ten minutes. Serve with parsley.

Patatas bravas:

1 large potato, diced

1 chorizo sausage, diced

1 tin tomatoes

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. In a large baking tray add the chorizo and potato and cook for twenty minutes. At this point the chorizo will start to leak it’s peppery juice, so toss everything together well to coat.
  2. Add the tomatoes and continue to cook for another twenty minutes until the potatoes are tender. Check for seasoning and garnish with parsley.