Macaron Notes

Much has been written and shared by other more experienced macaron bakers. Here are some tips/useful hints that I’ve collated for my own record.

General

• Use 24 hours aged egg whites in room temperature (cover with cling wrap and poke a few holes and let it sit overnight). You must age your egg whites to achieve a harder macaron shell that doesn't break easily. Alternatively age egg whites in air tight container in refrigerator for 4-5 days. Alternatively, microwave egg whites for 10-15 seconds or adding roughly 10 grams of dried powdered egg white to the fresh egg whites.
• Measure all your ingredients (using digital weighing machine helps) and shift your dry ingredients (ground almond and sugar) for a smoother and less lumpy texture.
• Whisk on low until foamy then gradually add sugar 1 tbsp at a time.
• Fold flour in quick folds then slow down (50 strokes max).
• For more even baking time and consistency of looks, outline baking paper with circles as a guide when piping. Alternatively, dust circle ring in cocoa powder and then imprint onto parchment paper.
• Batter is ready – when you pipe, the top will flatten down on its own. If there is still a small bleak, give a few more folds.
• Rest piped macaroons for 30 min – 1 hour until shells harden a bit on outside (dry and not sticky to touch).
• Use bottom fire with ban at low temperature, about 150 degrees or so that the top will not crack. Depending on oven, may have to stagger temperature downwards.
• Use powdered colouring not liquid otherwise result in soft mushy shell.
• For finer texture, pulse grounded almonds with icing sugar to avoid lumps.
• Can either fold egg whites to almond flour or vice versa. I tried both methods but personally find it easier folding almond flour to egg whites in batches.
• To stop baking paper from moving around, pipe small amount of batter at back of four corners of baking paper.
• If you want to sprinkle them with anything, you must do it right after piping while the batter is still wet.
  

Piping Macaron shells

If you like to watch a professional, click on the You-tube video here. Its pretty quick but at least you get the general idea. If you have more practise, you'll probably find a style that works best for you.

Removing baked shells

• Some people swear using slipat mat. For me I found it better using parchment paper (Glad Bake brand).
• If have trouble removing them from baking paper, pour drops of water under parchment paper while still warm or place entire parchment paper on top of damp cloth. But don’t leave them like that for too long otherwise will get soggy.

Storing

• Once baked, if not using right away, store cooled shells in air-tight container out of the fridge for a couple of days.
• Filled macarons can keep in the fridge for around a week.
• Ungarnished shells freeze well (wrapped well and store in a sealed container) and fill them (straight from freezer without defrosting) 1-2 days before serving.

Consumption

• Macarons are best eaten a day or two after making and filling them, the flavours continue to develop over this time. Freshly baked macaron shell (eaten straight from the oven) taste very sandy!
• Store filled macaron in an airtight container in the fridge. Let it warm up in room temperature for 15-30 min before eating.

Zucchini (B#306)

Since we have them grown from Cameron Highlands, zucchini seems to be a more common, available and affordable vegetable.

Didn't have cute-sy ideas so placed the zucchini on top of the rice. In this box consist of rice, zucchini, fried sweet potatoes, slices of stewed pork and cucumber.

Assorted veg-fare (B#305)

Dogs and cats - can they be friends?

These odd pair once were but had a fight. Both were too proud to make the first move to reconcile and forgive; which was a pity since they spent their remaining lonely days opposite side of a huge 'erupting' volcano!!!

Hope that provided some entertainment :p Lolz

This bento consist of scramble eggs with assorted vegetables, broccoli, stir fried long beans, some papadams and stewed brinjals.

Happy award

Thanks Lia Chen for this award, love your blog too - always inspiring and creative :)



Thanks also to Bento Zen, Sheri and Bento Pet for this award. It was great to know more about what made them happy aka joyful and satsified.

the rules for this award are as follows: copy the award image into a post; list 10 things that make you happy; tag 10 bloggers who brighten your day; link to their blogs; and notify the award recipients (who should link back to the sender’s blog).

In no particular order, things that make me happy.....

1. To wake up early, breath fresh air, hear the croaks from frogs as I do my morning walk – getting fit or being able to lose some extra pounds always makes me happy!! Ha ha
2. Gatherings with family and friends – chatting and just chilling out.
3. A good book or movie (especially those heart felt or soapy ones).
4. Ice cream, coffee and newspaper – not in that order but always welcomed.
5. Play with babies (other people’s babies) – there is something that makes grown adults talk and act like one big child.
6. Creating – be it baking or making something for someone. Its great feeling to be able to share.
7. Beating DH at air-hockey or other games/sports!! Don’t do it all the time but its great when I can.
8. Listening to my son telling me how he spent his day.
9. Local food, art & craft markets – just love stall-browsing, so many interesting things to see. (That’s how I end up with too much nic-nacks!!!).
10. Planning surprises - parties or otherwise for friends or love ones.

The other bloggers whom I'm tagging for this double award (unless they are already nominated) are - emily * mycreationbento * diana * happy flour * edith * kel * jacss * coffeencookies * peony * tona-mama * dailyaffairs

Happy feet?

If you are wondering about the slight discolouration at the tops - that's because I was experimenting at painting some shells with 1tsp of coffee + 1 tbsp water, not too successful - coffee solution must be thicker, next time :) But am very happy with the shape this time around.

You can read and read, probably deem yourself a ‘pro’ at making macarons but until you get your hands ‘dirty’ and make them yourself can you truly declare ‘I have made macrons!!’

Seem to be on a roll – its only January and I’ve finally managed to make two items sitting way-bottom of my long list: fortune cookies and now, macarons.

Must say that since I have made this, it is not as tedious as I thought it would be. Probably been put off by the long instructions and to-do and not to-do tips - too many things to remember!!

Funny as it may sound as lots of people have trouble with getting the all prominent ‘feet’ for macarons, for me – I was confident on getting them at word go but what troubled me more was my piping skills. Wasn’t sure how to pipe them out and its funny how all recipes do not really focus on this point too much – circular motion? from the centre out? getting tip off nicely at the end? How la…especially getting a nice even round smooth dome plague me. And taunt me they did. Finally pint point the cause and that is getting right batter consistency before piping! While I still feel a little uneasy piping them, I’d guess it’s a matter of practise and getting more confident with it.

Interestingly, found it more difficult to remove shells from silicon slipat mat compared to using parchment paper (use Glad Bake brand). Have always thought that nothing could ever fail the slipat mat, guess I was wrong!

Macarons are seriously sweet stuff. Though I love desserts, still find these sweet SWEET! So against advice from others (read from various blogs and sites), I reduced the sugar slightly and also use brown sugar instead. I’ve tried both normal and dark brown and manage to get the all important feet but do excuse the poor piping skills ya.

When you are new to making macarons, temptation to eat them straight out of the oven is too great to resist. Well, do give it a go but expect a sweet sanding experience – actually doesn’t taste nice at all. Don’t despair at this stage thinking you made a mess of it all as it takes time for the taste to develop and when you marry them with filling – m-mmm, yummy is all I can say. Of course a good cup of coffee/tea will help enhance the experience because even though sugar is lessen, it is still sweet.

Recipe adapted is from HappyFlour who I believe based hers from Tartlette (who I am sure everyone in the blog-sphere would concur with me that she is one of the gurus at making macarons). Anyway big thanks to Happy Flour for sharing her experience and tips which I found helpful.

Basic recipe

Ingredients (Swiss Meringue method)
80g egg whites (at room temperature)
55-60g soft brown sugar

80g ground almond
130g icing sugar
½ tsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Age 3 egg whites in a bowl covered with cling wrap poked with some holes and leave in room temperature overnight. Alternatively, kept in airtight containers and placed in the fridge for 4-5 days. Bring to room temperature before using them.

2. Prepare ground almond ahead. Strongly recommend this as it will reduce your baking time considerably less. Store bought almond are not powdery enough, so sieve and pulse in food processor. If necessary, add some of the icing sugar so that ground almonds stay dry and fine. Note that if you process nuts too long this activates their natural oils and may get slightly lumpy which you want to avoid.

3. To maintain consistent macaron size bites, press round cookie cutter into some cocoa powder or flour to imprint onto silicon sheet. Note that you may need to twist the cookie cutter on the sheet for the imprint to be more visible.


4. Shift icing sugar and ground almond and set aside.

5. To save time and washing, pour egg whites and sugar into mixing bowl, place it over saucepan of simmering water and stirring constantly until sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm to touch (about 55 degrees C). Once mixture is ready, remove hot water and whisk mixture on medium speed.

6. If adding colouring (use coloured powder), add in when egg batter reaches soft peaks including the lemon juice.

7. Continue to beat until medium stiff peaks (but not dry).

8. Gently fold in the sifted mixture in 4 portions into the meringue. Do not over fold. (Batter should be slightly thicker then cake batter. Tartlette suggest not more than 50 folds.)

9. Final test is to place a dab of batter on a plate and it should slowly sink back without leaving peaks. If it does form peaks give the batter a few more folds.

10. Spoon batter into a piping bag and pipe it within the round imprint which had made earlier on. Bang tray down a few times to get rid of any bubbles remaining in piped batter.


11.Let the macarons to rest for about 30-1 hour. Depending on environment – hot, cold, humid, etc. timing may vary. Basically shells of piped macarons will dry out and not be wet/sticky to touch - lightly tap the top to check.


12. Preheat oven to 150C degrees.

13. Bake a tray at a time using lowest rack for 20-25mins, depend on individual oven. (Happy Flour shares her tip which I followed - For my table top oven, I switch to bottom fire with fan mode so my macarons are bake properly without any crack. After baking the 3rd tray, I leave the door of the oven eject for a while then I put in the 4th tray. This allow the temperature to drop slightly.)

14. Remove macarons and cool on a wire rack. If have trouble removing, pour drops of water under parchment paper while still warm or place entire parchment paper on top of damp cloth.


15. Store in air tight containers until ready to be filled. Can be kept at room temperature for few days. Once filled, keep in fridge. Can also be frozen in freezer.


16. Garnish macarons 2 days before eating. Keep them in fridge and bring to room temperature (15-30 min depending on type of filling) prior to serving.

To avoid this being a lengthy post – I’ll post up my summarized tips/advices gathered from other more experienced macaron bakers :)


For filling – Used whipped ganache as I wanted to offset the sweetness. Will probably give buttercream a try next time.

Chocolate Coffee Ganache recipe

50g whipping cream
1 tbsp instant coffee
150g whipping cream, cold
100g chocolate (used 40g white chocolate and 70g dark chocolate) – Note that white chocolate is sweeter so play with this combination depending on sweetness, colour and filling you prefer.

1. Heat up 50g cream. Do not boil.
2. Dissolve coffee.
3. Immediate pour into bowl with chocolate. Let sit for about 1 minute before stirring to melt chocolate.
4. Pour in cold 150g whipping cream and stir until well combined.
5. Refrigerate mixture overnight.
6. Whip until firm the next day.


Useful references/links:
Tartlette
Mercotte

macTweets

1st attempt – based on full recipe using caster sugar. ‘Super Wow’ on sweetness.

2nd attempt – testing with combination of soft brown sugar and dark brown sugar. Not as sweet, much better.

3rd attempt – used soft brown sugar only because dark brown sugar deepens colour of shells. Focus more on piping more even smooth shells. This time prepared proper filling and it was SUPER YUMS! Master Prince would give his two thumbs up if he was not too busy stuffing his face - also he was simply thrilled as he was allowed to have coffee (used decaf).

Macrons with chocolate coffee and hazelnut filling.

Simply delightful, really taste like a ferrero rocher macaron!!

Snap shot

Especially during Chinese New Year, lots of arrowroots (aka nga ku) are available and sold at shops and markets. Tasty deep fried like chips - very addictive lightly salted with chips.

But there is another way to 'appreciate' nga ku.

Yep, they can also be a beautiful green ornamental plant (mine still growing) - perfect for CNY decorations!!! Just need a little luck and patience.

note: Need to change water everyday to keep it from 'smelling' and also the possibility of mosquitoes from breeding!

Tip - buy 10 just in case some are 'duds' and can't grow, hopefully then you will finally end up with 8 lovely & lucky plants to decorate around the house :)

Pork chops (B#304)

Much to our surprise, Master Prince's intake has increased. Of course there are days when he would be pecking like a small bird (that's because he had a nice big snack or celebrated some friend's party earlier during recess or just too tired or gulped down 3 glasses of water right before food).

While I think girls tend to appreciate more cute-sy, MP (being a boy I presume) is not easily impressed. All he wants to do is eat and go watch tv!! Sigh, my boy is growing up all too fast.

Anyway back to today's bento comprising of pork chops on top of some rice, broccoli, sauteed potatoes and braised chicken with black bean sauce and bitter gourd.

Another cook-out

Yes, over the weekend, we invited another group of friends who have been impatiently dropping 'heavy and no so subtle hints'. Lolz

DH was keen at catering (since they are all good & seasoned cooks themselves) but stubborn me refused to listen as I was keen to try out some new recipes. Yes there is about something extra mouths to feed (aka 'guinea pigs' – but ssssh, don’t tell them OK) that gets me all excited – strange I know! Didn’t manage to do everything on my list and there were some disasters but on the whole things went pretty smoothly.

Come to realize that it must be a local Malaysian custom to not only bring something (ie. not to visit peoples home empty handed) but actual people as well, yes extras.

It seems to be a trend but, for some strange reason, our aim to keep adult numbers to a nice comfortable “8” somehow always spills over to “10”!!! Sigh, again we didn’t have enough chairs and so played a little cosy game of ‘sharing chairs’ - now you know what you need to bring if you ever visit me! Ha ha ha

Go with the flow – that’s the best advice I can share, including a quick big gulp of drink (preferably alcohol); somehow the scene would be much calmer and enjoyable – especially with a bunch of kids - can’t avoid the inevitable noise, running, shouting, mess and some crying.

Anyway, back to the topic of food. Had some difficulty planning for this particular group of friends because we had one ‘Datuk’ who prefers Asian food (specifically the must ‘eat rice’ type, you know what I mean right) and well, I am not really apt with cooking Asian food. To top that, we also have children who seem to prefer Western so you can imagine my dilemma.

Finally opted with something that I was comfortable serving adding one or two Asian dishes and notforgetting some kid friendly food. Can’t please everyone so decided not to try!!

Here are some quick snaps as I didn't manage to grab pictures of everything.

Entrees and Mains

Dips (baba gounash, hummus* and pepperoni*) with crackers and thick slices of baguette

Palmier with olive tapenade filling*


Fresh garden salad



Roasted tomato caprese with mozzarella*


Oven baked chicken wings

Char siew (aka BBQ pork)

Baked beef macaroni

Ham quiche

Yam rice

* * *

Desserts


Baked cassava cake (aka Kuih bingka kayu)

Brownies with Brazilian nuts

Homemade fortune cookies

Macarons with coffee and hazelnut chocolate filling*

Fresh fruits

Some personal thoughts....

Finger-food are great fun to serve and leftovers so much more yummier!! Loved best all the dips especially the olive tapenade (which I will be making again very soon). The rest….well, a little rusty and dusty – fortunately they turned out OK. Will share recipes & tips for some of them. So if interested, do check back later.

The only thing that didn’t actually make it to the table was the focaccia bread, sigh – will need to review and perhaps look for a more reliable recipe. Brownies was a last minute addition as I wasn’t too happy with how the baked cassava cake turned out – not familiar with fresh grated cassava, as the last time I used frozen grated cassava instead - logically the difference should not be too great but somehow this time it turned out different. Glad some people like it though. So in the end there was a little something for everyone, hopefully it was a fun and interesting culinary journey. The company was good though!

Snap shot

Another batch of fortune cookies this time using melted butter instead of vegetable oil. Not much difference. (And yes my kitchen and house is a little cleaner.)

For tried & tested recipe, click here.

Side comments - Not sure whether it is the recipe but the commercially bought ones have better texture, could it be the preservatives????

Panda to the rescue (B#303)

If not the panda picks, this would be quite a 'dull' bento.

Trying to lower my carb intake (every bit helps especially since Chinese New Year celebrations are just around the corner) - this bento contain leftover Assam fish, broccoli, stir fried baby spinach, roasted pumpkin and chicken bites.

Odd flower bento (B#302)

Been away for training. This was what I fixed for Master Prince over the weekend - some fish fingers, bread, tomatoes and cucumber sticks. Also acting as a divider or baran is a tomato sauce packet.

Cheesy bacon & Herb Gougères

Was a little curious about these bites. Saw them first here and decided to try it out. The end product was nice and light crusty bite, flavoured with our favourite ingredients bacon, cheese and herbs – wow, taste delicious even before I started baking them!! Great for snacking or served as an appetizer and can just imagine, perfect dish for superbowl - especially with a few cold beers or wine.

The only problem I encountered was making the choux pastry, the final cooked dough was a little dry and after adding the egg it resulted in one lumpy mess. To salvage everything, finally sieved it to a more respectable batter.

Ingredients
(makes slightly more than 12 petite bites, if you managed to pass the choux pastry successfully)

1.5 bacon strips, cooked and chopped into small bits
1/4 cup water
1.5 tbsp butter
pinch salt
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
1/4 grated cheddar cheese
1 tbsp chopped chives
2 tsp parmesan cheese

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

2. In a saucepan, combine the butter, milk and salt and bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and add the flour all at once.

3. Using normal hand whisk mix the ingredients together and then return the pan to the heat and continue whisking to dry the paste out slightly.

4. Remove the heat from the pan again, switch to a wooden spoon, and mix in the egg.

5. Stir in bacon, cheese and herbs.

6. Using a teaspoon, drop spoonfuls onto baking tray. Alternatively you can pipe out the batter.

7. Sprinkle more cheese on top if you wish (I didn’t).

8. Bake at 170 degrees for 15 min and cut slits on the top to let the steam out and continue cooking at reduced temperature of 150 degrees for another 10 min until golden brown.

9. Serve warm. They freeze well too, just reheat in the oven before serving.

Bench notes - They are a little addictive so double or triple the recipe, otherwise it might just not make it out of the kitchen!!

Chocolate pots, not for the weak

This is the last recipe I am sharing from our lunch party. It is also the yummiest!! Let's just say that for a good 10 min there was almost total silence as we all indulged on this dessert. Think I ate mine rather quickly as each spoonful was just too heavenly - yep, taking pictures was the last thing on my mind then!! - it ended all too soon as I scrapped every last bit from the the bottom of the cup and almost eating the spoon itself, darn and to think I ALMOST had 2 leftover servings!! ha ha ha....oh well, can make more again.

Make them in small portions otherwise they might feel rather sinful.

Think when my mum got these face espresso cups I was frowning inside *of course I didn't say anything other than - 'cute', wanna die or what!!* But am eating my words thoughts now since they were the prefect 'ramekins' for my chocolate pot. And to think I nearly bought some ugly espresso cups - it was white with an ugly flower on it, thankfully they didn't have sufficient cups and ended up not getting any. More grateful is that I didn't waste money getting something I didn't really like and also save cupboard space since I got to borrow those cute cups from M instead!!!



Adapted from Baking from My home to yours by Dorie Greenspan
(makes about 10 espresso cups, maybe 11 if I was more careful and didn't spill)

150g dark chocolate
1.5 cups whipping cream
1.5 cups whole milk
1 large egg
5 egg yolks
45g caster sugar (more if you have a sweeter tooth but all adults thought the sweetness was just nice. MP wished it was sweeter so the scoop of ice cream helped.)
pinch of salt

Alternative flavourings - 1 tbsp coffee or 1 tbsp baileys irish cream (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees.

2. Line roasting pan with 2 layers of paper towel and place ramekins into pan.

3. Bring 1/2 cup cream to a boil and immediately pour over chocolate and let sit 1 min before gently stirring until you get a smooth ganache. Set aside.

4. Combine remaining 1 cup cream with milk and bring to boil.

5. Whisk egg, yolks, sugar and salt until pale and slightly thickened. Whisk in small amount of hot milk to temper the eggs. Slowly whisk in remaining hot milk. Then gently stir in egg mixture into ganache. Use an ordinary hand held whisk and not machine otherwise you will end up with too much froth/foam.

6. Gently pour custard through a sieve into cups and skim foam from surface (if any).

7. Cover tightly pots with Glad wrap, poke 2 holes in opposite corners and bake them in pan filled with hot water for 35 - 40 min until centres barely jiggle. But discovered it was much easier to cover with a loose aluminium foil on the top while baking them.

8. Remove from oven and allow custards to rest for 10 min before peeling plastic wrap and removing the pots from water bath.

9. Let cool to room temperature. Keep covered with plastic wrap in refrigerator and chill overnight or up to 1 day.

As you can see from the 1st picture, I served these with a light dusting of icing sugar (optional), scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream and chocolate dipped strawberries. Highly recommend this combination as it made this rich dessert lighter, more refreshing and enjoyable (not overly gelak).

Bench notes - This dessert actually took a little more effort - always gets a little messy cooking with chocolate. Best to use hot water to wash up.

Duchess potatoes

They are basically mashed potatoes that have been piped out into a 'fancy' swirl and then baked until the tops are lightly brown.

Followed recipe from here.

4 potatoes

2 tbsp butter

1 egg

2 tbsp milk

1/2 cup grated cheese

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp paprika

cracked black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees.

2. Boil potatoes until tender, drain and mash them until you get a smooth mixture.

3. Mix in butter, egg, milk, cheese, paprika, salt and pepper.

4. Pipe potato mixture into ramekins or baking tray. They expand a little while baking so make sure you give them a little room.

6. Bake on middle rack at 180 degrees for 30 min or until edges are evenly brown.

Bench notes - Will probably not make these again unless (i) decide to deep fry them as they were not as crunchy as fries and (ii) if I have a lot of time. Don't get me wrong, it was tasty (MP loved them) and did look really pretty but somehow didn't justify the extra effort taken - should have just serve mash potatoes as is - unless of course the duchess herself or some other royalty is coming for dinner, that would be a whole different scenario!!

These can be prepared ahead of time and then baked before serving. Much easier to pipe them whilst mash potato is still warm.

No frills bento (B#301)

With all the festivities, over eating and indulging, its back to basic everyday wholesome food.

This bento consist of rice, fried omelet with onions, chicken bites and stir fried baby spinach - a quick pack, no frills but still good :)

Lemon Herb Roast Chicken

Piping hot from the oven - talk about chicken butter essence!!

Was suppose to use a whole chicken but M was a little concerned that our guests would not be too keen on breast meat. Also none of us are able to decently carve meat off the bone - when dinning with just family, we normally use pair of scissors to cut up the meat or tear them off almost like barbarians that'd been starved for a week!! Ssssh....but since we have guest, need to behave a little more 'refined' lar, ha ha. So that is how we ended up with chicken leg or chicken maryland (ie. both drumstick and thigh), deboned for easier consumption.

Marinade
160g soften butter
3 tsp thyme (used both dry and fresh)
1 tsp fresh parsley
2 tsp chives
salt and pepper (to taste)
Zest of 2 lemons
And also added a dash of other dry herbs – sweet basil and mint

8 chicken leg or chicken maryland, washed & cleaned

Method:

1. Mix all everything up until you get a nice butter paste.
2. Rub onto chicken including under the skin. Stuff 2 sprigs of fresh thyme under the skin.
3. Marinade overnight for deeper flavour.
4. When ready to roast, take chicken out of refrigerator at least 30 min.
5. Cut lemon into slices and stuff in between skin and meat.
6. Lay on baking tray and add rub additional butter marinade (if there are any leftovers) on top of chicken skin (Found I had plenty marinade left, next time will reduce the amount of butter required by at least 20g). Otherwise brush with a little olive oil or melted butter before baking.

7. Bake in preheated oven at 200 degrees for 30 – 35 min or until juice runs clear.
8. Rest chicken for 10 min before serving.
9. Before serving, remove under chicken skin the earlier stuffed slices of lemon and sprigs of fresh thyme.

Gravy sauce
10. Drain (please do not throw this down the drain, best to pour into smaller plastic bags with a few paper towels in them to absorb the liquid) all but 2 tbsp of drippings (that will be the chicken butter essence) on the tray.
11. Heat tray up, stirring the base of the tray and stir in about 1.5 – 2 cups your preference of milk, stock, water, cream, juice or wine (you can opt for half and half pairing) until boiling.
12. Stir in 2-3 tbsp of cornflour mixed which has been diluted with some water to thicken the gravy.
13. Season to taste with some salt or pepper and pour into serving jug.

Back bentoing

Wow, when you have look and hunt for your last bento, something is definitely amiss!! Ha ha. Yes I know that I have taken a long break, unintentionally at first and then well, it quickly formed into a permanent break I suppose - the many excuses I could list out.

So here's my bento for the year. A bit 'rusty' and dusty but am glad to be bento-ing again.

Could two faces make up a 'Gemini bento'??

Not too sure myself but was all excited about was testing out my new face punchers. They are much bigger than I envisaged.

In this box is some fried noodles, fish cake, fried sweet potato and stir fry mixed vegetables.

Cheesy herb puffs

Surprisingly these turned out to be D and M’s favourite dish at our little lunch gathering. Little did they know that they are actually quite easy to make.

They could also be known as dumplings in the UK or biscuits in the States. Well whatever you wish to call them, they were very fragrant, have a light texture and can be pretty addictive too.

Ingredients
(yields about 16 small balls, less if you make larger ones)

1.5 cups self raising flour
90g butter, cold and cut into smaller pieces
5-6 tbsp of cold milk (or more to bind the flour into a dough)
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tbsp chopped fresh chive
1/3 cup grated cheese
2 tsp parmesan
¼ tsp paprika
pinch of salt
If you prefer with more herbs, can add additional dash of dried herbs – sweet basil, mint and thyme.

1. Shift flour into bowl.
2. Rub butter into flour until resemble small breadcrumbs.
3. Mix in cheese, herbs and rest of seasoning. Add sufficient milk to bind everything into a soft dough.

4. Lightly knead dough for about 2 min until smooth.
5. Divide dough into small balls.
6. Brush with milk.
7. Bake in pre-heated oven of 180 degrees for 15 to 20 min until nice and golden brown in colour.
8. Cool on rack before serving.


Bench notes - Can prepare dough ahead, keep them covered and refrigerated before baking them. If preparing ahead, best to divide and shape the dough first. Otherwise remove dough out of refrigerator at least 3o mins to soften a little before shaping them.