The Sainsbury's Macaron Kit

So at the weekend I managed to get hold of a macaron kit from Sainsbury's. I had a few people enquiring and asking me what the kit was like, so here is my post on the kit. I apologise to my international readers as this post probably isn't relevant to you, unless Sainsbury's have extended outside the UK. 

Sainsbury's have just brought this kit in. I can't remember the exact price, but it costs around £2 and is meant to make about 12 macarons. The kit is available in raspberry and chocolate. I chose the raspberry.

I found the box was very easy to locate down the home baking aisle, but this is what you are looking for. To make the macarons you will need this kit, 2 egg whites, a tablespoon of milk and 50g butter. Don't worry about buying a piping bag, because it is included in the kit.

The instructions on the box were written out very clearly. I found them very easy to follow. Unfortunately, we don't have an electric whisk, so we had to whisk the egg whites by hand. It took us forever to make it go stiff and form peaks. If you have ever made meringue before, you will know what I am talking about! Then after whisking the egg whites you add the macaron mix. The macaron mix is the bigger of the 2 bags inside the kit, which wasn't clearly marked, but with a bit of common sense I knew which one was which. As you can see from the picture, the mix goes a very florescent pink! 

Next came the piping...

I had a bit of trouble with this stage! When I cut the corner off the piping bag, I wasn't expecting the mixture to come out as quickly as it did. As you can see, some of my macarons turned out very messy. The piping takes a bit of practice and at least next time I will know how quickly the mixture comes out. In the end I made 9 macarons instead of the 12 stated on the box, but that was mainly because the mix came out too fast and some macarons ended up bigger.

I followed the cooking instructions, exactly as they are written on the box. A few of the shells did get a bit burnt around the edges. The majority of the shells came out fine, albeit a bit strangely shaped. The kit also comes with instructions to make a filling. You use the milk, soft butter and the other mix bag to make the filling. In my opinion, the filling really lets this kit down. I found that the filling mix kept curdling and splitting. I was expecting a soft, creamy filling but the end result was quite runny and slightly grainy. If I were to use this kit again I would make my own filling instead of using the packet one. I know I can make a nicer filling from scratch.

So how did they taste? The raspberry flavour is very strong. I don't mind having a very sweet macaron, but I definitely ate too much at once and felt a bit sick afterwards! Both the shells and filling are raspberry flavoured. I think the shell is flavoured strongly enough by itself and the filling didn't need to be so strongly flavoured. The texture was a bit too chewy. It tasted like a macaron but the texture is not quite right. Whether this is down to my baking skills or the kit, I am unsure. It was just a bit too heavy. Maybe I needed a bit more air in my whipped up egg whites.

I would give this kit a rating of 3.5/5. I think this kit is a good purchase if you are new to macaron making, as it eases you in gently. However, the texture is not quite right. The filling that comes with this kit is awful. It tastes very nice, but I would expect nicer. But despite this, the end product was still very enjoyable. I had no complaints from my husband or mother-in-law when they sampled them. The raspberry flavour really comes out well. So whilst my macarons may not look as pretty as Laduree ones, I don't think this has been a total failure. I would try the kit again but I think in the future I would like to try and make my own ones from scratch. But for about £2 for 12 macarons, this kit is worth trying at least once.

Items of desire- macaron maker

Sometimes I find myself getting a little too attached to fun but completely pointless gadgets. My birthday is in July and my husband usually likes me to make him a list around this time so I have been scrolling through lots of different websites. The other day I came across this-

A macaron maker! I am not entirely sure what this gadget does or whether it actually makes macarons any easier to make but it looks interesting. I am curious to see this kit in action.

It looks relatively simple. The instructions are in Japanese but it shouldn't be too hard to find a translation and the process looks straight forward anyway. Apparently a recipe book is included which also has some filling ideas. You will also need to find the ingredients which may mean looking online if your local shops do not stock them.

I may be 22 but I don't think I ever grew up! I still get suckered in by cute gimmicks. I just think the kit would make a fun addition to the kitchen.

Source- http://www.strapya-world.com/products/40238.html

Hummingbird Bakery cookbook

About a year and a half ago, I was having a random browse in the cookery section of WHSmiths. I was looking for some interesting and different cake recipes. Out of all the books, the Hummingbird Bakery one stood out the most. I was very excited about making some of these cakes. If you don't feel like making your own, the Hummingbird Bakery has branches in Notting Hill and South Kensington in London. I must warn you though that buying from these bakeries is a lot more expensive. With this in mind, I went and purchased this book. Now I think I have made enough cakes to review the book.

To start with I decided to try a more simpler recipe. As nice as some of the recipes sounded, my cooking is not brilliant. So I started with the pecan pie. I actually cheated a little and used pre made pastry. I didn't have much time so I didn't really want to make my own. The resulting pie looked almost identical to this picture-

The one problem I had was that I had to substitute dark corn syrup for golden syrup. Although Hummingbird have stores in England, the people who started this bakery are actually American. Dark corn syrup is hard to find in the UK but if you have dark corn syrup it is meant to taste more authentic. I was a little worried when I first took the pie out because the pecans all floated to the top and the syrup bit resembled jelly. It turns out it is meant to turn out like this. This pie definitely tasted better hot and served with ice cream. This is winter comfort food. You can really taste the pecans. I want to make this again sometime when the weather gets colder.

For my next venture I decided to make marshmallow cupcakes like these-

To look at these you may be wondering what is so special about them. Hidden inside is a marshmallow filling. This recipe is fiddly but a lot of fun. The best bit was melting the marshmallows. I deliberately made too much so I had some warm marshmallow fluff to snack on (and it was totally worth it). The recipe was quite simple. It is a bit like making butterfly cakes but with marshmallows instead of butter icing. However, there was a problem with the frosting. The book has 3 frosting recipes at the front which are used throughout the book. For these cakes I made the vanilla frosting and I was very disappointed when it turned out runny. I kept adding more icing sugar but it was hopeless. So my cupcakes had runny frosting. I was a little disappointed. Also I would recommend not using extra marshmallows on top because these are sweet enough already. I added extra marshmallows and the cakes ended up making me feel a little sick afterwards.

Then I decided to make 2 batches of cupcakes. I used the vanilla and chocolate cupcake recipes. Sadly I had a lot of problems with the vanilla cupcakes. Some of the ingredient measures in this book are definitely not right. This problem seems to affect a few of the recipes whilst others work fine. A good example of ingredient unbalance would be the traditional brownie recipe. You expect brownies to be slightly runny but mine ended up being melt in the middle chocolate pudding. No matter what I did, the brownies would not set in the middle. It was very messy. Admittedly my husband enjoyed eating the failed brownie goop and I managed to rescue the edges which had set to an acceptable brownie standard. I also made a batch of Blondies which are a white chocolate version of brownies. Mine ended up looking like cake instead of brownies. I am not sure if this is how it is meant to turn out or not. The picture in the book suggests that I did get it right but I wouldn't call it a brownie. The white chocolate brownie/cake tasted amazing. This is a good recipe for those who like chocolate but don't want something over the top.

This book also features other recipes such as strawberry cheesecake cupcakes, lavender cupcakes, Brooklyn blackout cake (which is a bit like a death by chocolate cake recipe), sweet and savoury muffins and raspberry cheesecake brownies.

The pictures look amazing but don't expect yours to turn out as well as the pictured ones. Some recipes work and others may need adjusting. Although some of the recipes are simple, beginners may struggle with some of the recipes here. The books appearance is very appealing and some of the pictures will make your mouth water. If all of this sounds like too much hassle, then maybe visit the actual stores or try a different recipe book. Apparently celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow are Hummingbird fans. I am curious to visit the shop just to see what it is like.