Team JJ's Bakery: Guillaume Nicoli

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Raspberry Macarons with Seedless Raspberry Jam & Freshly Whipped Cream!

Decided to give Guillaume's strange french method recipe another go last night. Strange because he doesn't incorporate sugar into the whites at all. Doesn't that make it very unstable? Since the italian method is supposed to be stable because it binds the sugar with the whites... Food chemistry... let's not go there!

I didn't age my whites... Big NO NO for french method. Sounding like a recipe for disaster yet? hehe!

So here is my over coloured whipped egg whites...

Pretty rose colour

Macaronage

French method plus Silpat I find always results in wetter feet, but fret not! Nothing a 2 minute "blast freeze" won't fix say the pros! Obviously I don't have a commercial blast freezer so I used the fast freeze option on the freezer. Give it a go if you get sticky feet, it'll come right off.

Silpat lower, Parchment further away - again not much difference in feet

Made some seedless raspberry jam. Much more enjoyable to eat without seeds!

Sieving out the seeds

Filled them with freshly whipped cream and jam. Unconventional filling because it's too moist~ Eat straight away (french shells don't need maturing imho) or store in the freezer so that the cream doesn't turn the shells to mush :)

I won't be using this recipe again as I find it results in a rather coarse exterior. Guillaume uses commercial almond meal so perhaps his grain is much smoother and it works for him.

Was contemplating blogging straight away...

The photo just above reminded me of my favourite brand Q Pot. Such a pity I didn't manage to find a store during my flying (3 short days) trip to Tokyo. I hope they still have this design when I next visit!

Q Pot!

Speaking of Q Pot, when I saw Laduree's latest strawberry cupcake design last week, I thought it looked inspired by Q Pot's design!

Laduree Strawberry Cupcake- the swirl, the strawberry and sparkly accent

Q Pot cream ring :)

With JJ's birthday this Wednesday (just baking a simple lemon cake), my birthday this Thursday and our anniversary as well, parties and dining out are in order so I think I'll take a well deserved hiatus from baking!!!

Ciao bella!~

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Macaron class with Guillaume Nicoli!!!

Guillaume Nicoli most recently featured as guest judge on New Zealand's MasterChef 2011 macaron tower challenge in the finale. Guillaume has previously worked for French maestro Thierry Mulhaupt in Strasbourg and at Fauchon in Paris. He has also been a dessert chef at a number of Michelin star restaurants. This macaron master currently has his own brand Ma Cherie in Auckland.

Team JJ went along to class at Farro Fresh on tuesday evening to be inspired...

Ma Cherie's piece montee

First we got to taste the vanilla macaron with a glass of champagne

Then Guillaume, whom by the way is very entertaining with his jokes and french accent, whipped the egg whites- aged one week in the fridge.

Whites are done when you can hold the bowl upside down

Unfortunately I'm not a note taker or dedicated photo taker so....I'll just show random photos I took on the iPhone :P

Obtaining macaronage while I eat my lemon macaron...opps forgot to take a pic...

Raspberry macaron with a lovely Semillon

Close up of raspberry macaron...look at the feet!!

Strawberry macaron...oh oh...i see some hollow on the left!

Tray of piped shells for everyone to touch

Unfortunately time, humidity and temperature were not our side tonight, so it was decided we would put the not yet ready shells in the oven and make MACAWRONGS! or we wouldn't be done by 9pm!