I think this year is definitely one of the best year that ever happened to me. Its the year when I daringly challenged myself with macarons, trying out recipes that I would never had dreamt of baking (more of that later) and formed a strong bonding with egg whites.
When I first started baking I was super scared of anything that is even slightly meringue based. I think I've said this before, but I assumed my kitchen is not suitable for beating egg whites and you need those really fancy standing mixers to whip up a batch of meringues. Until one day, I don't know what overcame me but I just went on to bake a chiffon cake... successfully with my Kenwood handheld mixer. Since then, beating eggwhites has became one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen.
Here is another breakthrough for me this year, Swiss meringue buttercream. Its a little time consuming, requires a little bit of effort and patience. To be totally honest with you, I was whisking away with my hand on the stove for at least 15 minutes. But I think if you do want some improvement in your kitchen life and do have substantial amount of greed to motivate you, then do it. Especially when you have a dark past with one of the ingredients (egg whites in my case), you'll feel exceptionally triumphant when you taste the cream afterwards. Not to mention I finally have another better option than the usual icing sugar buttercream.
No I am no kitchen goddess (yet, I hope) But perhaps this walkthrough will convince you a little... if you faced the same problems as I did.
Start with whisking 2 egg whites with 100g or 1/2 cup of caster sugar over a bain marie. That is, placing the mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water on low heat and whisk. I thought by turning the heat up will help everything along faster but hell I was wrong. Everything turn sticky really fast and I wasn't in time to whisk so, seriously just keep the flame low.
As you whisk, the mixture will start to thicken up a bit and has the texture of thick glue. You may feel the sore on your arm and start getting a little annoyed, but just treat it as a little mental trashold exercise.
Continue whisking and the mixture should look somewhat like this. Thicker than ribbon stage and stiff, somewhat like marshmallow fluff but only shinier. The sugar should have all been dissolved by now, and it's time to get the bowl out of the bain marie and start whipping with an egg beater.
whipping.... it took me about 10 minutes to get to...
This stage. Please note that at this point, as sore as your arms might be you'll feel extremely proud of yourself and totally mesmerized by the solid bright white.
But the beauty doesn't last long... yet. It's time to turn that beautiful thick and lush meringue into buttercream!
Add butter bit by bit (I cut them into cubes while they are still cold and leave them to soften to room temperature) and I have to tell you, you'll will be slightly disappointed by the dirty tinted yellow and think the stupid butter has ruined everything, but hang on... just keep going.
And then... it will pick up and everything will be right on track again! Beat till all 165g of butter has finish up and add in a good splosh of vanilla or other flavorings you are after. The end product, should be a thick, creamy, smooth and firm cream and light cream white.... unless you tint the cream with food colorings of course.
Not that hard right?
What I really love about this recipe is how smooth it really is and that you don't bite into sugar granules like normal buttercream. Also because it's really firm and stable yet smooth, it's perfect filling for macarons as it doesn't soften the macaron shells with too much liquid. Yes it's a little time consuming, but hey it only consist of 4 ingredients... and a bit of arm exercise. Fair trade right?
I've faced a few of my demons in the kitchen... how about you? :)
