Yum yum!
I used to love macaroons when I was a child. They came in a papery-plastic wrapper and for some reason, even in Scotland, they were not always easy to find.
I still remember Mrs. Sinclair, my teacher when I was seven, who made macaroons with us at school. Why we did that, I have no idea, but because of that day she has a place in my personal hall of fame.
After that, I spent the rest of my childhood (umm and some of my adulthood..) insisting that they are made with potato. They really are. Don’t laugh, I now have the proof. Test it and see:
Ingredients:
One small potato
APPROX 500g/20z icing/confectionary/powered sugar – have more just in case (this is not an exact science!)
Chocolate for melting and dipping the macaroons in.
Two big handfuls of dessicated coconut in a bowl (toasted if you wish – more authentic)
Boil the potato so it can be mashed. While it is boiling, sift the sugar into a dry bowl. When the potato is soft, mash it with a fork and then gradually add sugar while beating the mixture with an electric mixer. You know it’s ready when the mixture is very stiff. Make shapes out of the mixture, bars, balls or whatever takes your fancy and pop them in the fridge.
Melt some chocolate in a bain-mairie or a thick bottomed pan over a very low heat (you can turn the v. low heat on and off to lower the average temperature). Roll the chilled shapes in the moulten chocolate and then in a bowl of coconut and place on a sheet of aluminium foil. Pop in fridge when the shape is hard enough to move without damaging it.
Try not to eat before the chocolate completely hardens!
If the bars end up too big after the chocolate and coconut, break them up into ‘bites’ – they last longer that way.
It’s past Christmas, it’s even past New Year’s Eve, and the gingerbread house is still standing. It shall end up in the hands of the son of the bowab (concierge/security man) next door, but before it does, a little momento.
It didn’t last the season totally unscathed: first I knocked the chimney off, breaking it into a thousand pieces on the floor, and then I got the munchies and picked some of the sweets off!
Yes, that’s right: ladies. I was looking for gingerbread men recipes on line. To my utter astonishment, we apparently do not have gingerbread men any more. We have gingerbread people. People? Do we ladies feel so inferior that we feel undermined by gingerbread shapes taking a masculine, not feminine name? Hmm. Right. Well. I made gingerbread ladies: they’re wearing dresses and skirts.
In case any men are offended that they were left out, I also made some gingerbread men. They’re just not pictured, because ladies are, naturally, prettier to look at.
Oh dear! Perhaps I’m guilty of a lack of inclusivity too. Scratch gingerbread ladies. They’re gingerbread transvestites.
Mr S needed some cake (yes, needed, Mr S needs cakes). I, however, didn’t need something in the fridge that would make me feel a bit guilty as I cut yet another sliver. A moment of ponder and hey presto, the healthy cake. Viccy sponge* filled with 0% fat yoghurt, sliced apples and pomegranate seeds and topped with the same yog and seeds with some sliced juicy mango added (Mr S also needs mangoes in the summer).
This was two days ago.
Now there’s none left.
*Ok, so it would be healthier without the cake bit, but as cakes go, it could be worse, right?
There is a strange stock control system in operation that can see one shelf of every shop in Cairo choca-block with one product for a week, after which, it disappears for months. So when you find something you want, grabbing as much of it as possible is essential. Today, after looking for tartlette cases (just because I thought they’d be good to have) and a coffee grinder for a good six months, I stumbled across both of them when I was looking for, wait for it, shelves!
Of course, there was only one coffee grinder left, so following a mad dash home in 42C to get more money, the six month search was over. Rather coincidentally, Mr S has been dropping not so subtle hints over the past couple of weeks about how he really wants a fruit tart. A French fruit tart. Since we are yet to find a fruity tart here up to the specifications of my cute, but gastronomically demanding, Frenchman’s taste buds, it involves me making said tart – entirely from scratch. No nipping out to M&S for pastry shells, chopped fruit and custard here, no siree! And I must fess up to not being the best pastry chef.
So, whether it was out of love, or excitement at finding the tartlette cases, I’m not sure, but I embarked on pastry making (in hot weather – not advised), creme patissiere making and pitting cherries…
The French taste buds were, thankfully, very happy. More importantly, I’m over the moon that I managed to not burn anything, not undercook anything and get 6 out of 7 tartlettes out of the cases without breaking them!
Occasionally I go away and leave Mr S. Only occasionally. When I do though, I always leave him a treat. His favourite are lemon curd cupcakes. A crunchy dark chocolate coating a lemon sponge filled with lemon curd.
Sometimes I make a count down. It isn’t Mr S’s favourite option though, because he’s limited to one a day! More liked are the (more chocolatey) chocolate lemon hearts.
And yes, no doubt they are hand made – that piping needs some more work!
