Mocha Macaroons

Pictured with Pistachio Cupcakes (recipe below)

This recipe was taken from the winter edition of Donna Hay Magazine. Donna Hay is an Australian equivalent of our Martha Stewart. Maybe not as bling or as bitchy, but creates a similar magazine and makes similar T.V. appearances. I purchased this magazine at the Melbourne Food Show back in June after seeing Donna Hay demonstrate some of the recipes live.

1 1/4 cups icing sugar

1 cup almond meal

3 egg whites

2 tbsps caster sugar (super fine sugar)

cocoa powder for dusting the final product

Mocha Filling:

200g white chocolate

1 tbsp instant coffee

1/4 cup pouring cream

For the cream, heat the chocolate, coffee, and cream over low heat until the chocolate is melted. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 320 degrees F. Place the icing sugar and almond meal in a bowl to mix thoroughly.

Whisk egg whites with a hand mixer, and gradually add the caster sugar until soft peaks form. Gently stir in the icing sugar mixture until smooth. Best done with a medal spoon they say. Drop mixture onto tray with baking paper, and stand for 10 minutes. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until crisp on the outside and moist in the centre.

To assemble, spread the base of a macaroon with the mocha filling and sandwich together with another macaroon.

The lowdown:

1. The recipe says 10 to 12 minutes of baking time, but they needed at least 20 minutes and still didn't seem to be done. They may have lost a lot of height when I folded the mixture into the egg whites. Maybe too much folding? Not really good at this yet.

2. The middle stuck to the baking paper on the pan. I was still able to salvage them by just shoving the mocha cream into the crater created by the sticking macaroon. Not pretty but really did not affect the taste.

3. I have confirmed what I always knew......I do not like mocha-flavored anything. Not a mocha frapuccino and not a mocha cookie.

Warm Pistachio Cupcakes

There is an Australian-renowned restaurant named Vue de monde in Melbourne, and the restaurant's chef, Shannon Bennett, is very well-respected for his innovative culinary techniques. Recently Vue has opened up a more modestly-priced cafe next door, and the supposed hit of the cafe is these little, pistachio cupcakes.

I read this recipe in Delicious magazine, an Australian culinary magazine (one of the best I have ever seen).

130 g shelled unsalted pistachios, remove skins
100 g unsalted butter, softened
85g caster sugar (super fine sugar)
75g good-quality marzipan (The magazine says that the cafe uses 55g marzipan and 20g sweet pistachio paste.)
2 eggs
1 tbsp kirsch (Kirschwasser, from German "Kirsche" for "cherry", is a clear brandy made from double distillation of the juice of a small, black cherry)

2 drops vanilla extract

30g semolina

250g ready-made icing

2-3 drops of green food colouring

Preheat oven to 338 F or 170 C.

Place 100g of the pistachios in a blender and blend until ground. Reserve 1 tbsp ground pistachios and set aside. Transfer the remainder of the ground mixture to a bowl with the butter, sugar, chopped marzipan and a pinch of salt. Beat until lumps are removed and the paste is smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating continuously. Roughly chop the remaining 30g of pistachios and beat into the mixture. Beat in the kirsch, vanilla, and semolina until combined. Divide cake among muffin cases. Bake for 25 minutes.

Warm icing if solid and mix in the food colouring. Spread a little on each cake, along with a little of the reserved ground pistachio and one whole pistachio.

The lowdown:
1. The recipe says to only roughly chop the pistachios that you add to the mix in the final stages. They need to be chopped a bit more than rough, but not to a fine pulp. Mine had a little too much of a chunky texture.
2. I just mixed a few drops of green food coloring with a half of a tub of Betty Crocker Vanilla icing. That stuff is SO sweet and really too sweet. I would suggest making your own butter cream frosting and adding the green food coloring to that.
3. The texture of the cupcakes is similar to that of a carrot cake or italian cream cake. If you don't like that nutty texture, you won't like these.
4. All in all I did like the way they turned out. Much more of a savory base than I had expected.

5. I used one 12-hole mini muffin pan and a six-hole large muffin pan. My cupcakes only took 21 minutes to bake.

6. Don't forget the salt! I did. Also make sure the quality of the marzipan is good. Mine was not.

Raspberry, White Chocolate, and Macadamia Nut Muffins

Ingredients: 300g/11oz plain flour; 2tsp baking powder; 150g/5oz golden caster sugar; 1 egg; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 225ml/7½fl oz milk; 50g/2oz butter, melted; 100g/4oz fresh (or thawed frozen) raspberries; 75g/3oz chopped white chocolate; handful of chopped macadamia nuts

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Cut parchment or greaseproof paper a bit larger than the muffin pan circles and push into a muffin tin. 2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Crack the egg into a separate bowl and whisk in the vanilla extract, milk and melted butter. 3. Stir the liquid into the dry ingredients with the raspberries and chocolate, taking care not to over-mix. Spoon the mixture into the parchment cases and bake for 30 minutes or so until well risen and just firm.

The lowdown: Muffins turned out nicely, but they were a bit cakey and bland. I would increase the amount of raspberries to about 6 - 8 oz. and increase the white chocolate input to about 150g. I chopped the nuts too finely, so I would keep them chunkier to add a bit of texture. Baking for about 25 minutes would probably suffice. I also warmed a little apricot preserves and brushed the top of the muffins.