Eat Your Veggies!

My parents never had to force me to eat vegetables when I was a kid. I always loved them, and there are several types that I can devour a few bowls before I can stop.  So it's very foreign to me when I heard parents complaining how difficult it is to force their kids to eat vegetables.

Ok, maybe these little cuties aren't replaceable to the real vegetables, but I bet you won't have problems forcing your kids to finish them off in no time. (and maybe their parents too)

Will you feel less guilty eating these macarons if I tell you there's real tomatoes and olives in the recipe? Awesome!

Preparation - Dehydrated Tomato Paste:
Preheat your oven to 170C. Line a piece of parchment on your baking tray. Using a palette knife, spread a thin layer of tomato paste on the parchment paper. You probably need half a can for a tomato paste for a 20cm by 30cm baking tray. Bake for 1 to 1.5 hours until the paste is dry and can peel the whole thing off the paper. Take it off the paper, flip it over, and put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes, or until it is completely dry to touch. Let cool, and process in a coffee grinder. This should yield about 20 grams.

Tomato Macarons with Basil Buttercream
Macaron shells:
20g dehydrated tomato paste, grinded
95g ground almonds
130g icing sugar

90g egg whites
45g caster sugar
Burgundy and yellow food colouring

Basil Buttercream:
about 1 cup Swiss meringue buttercream
1/16 teaspoon of finely chopped basil, or to taste*

*The key to this combination is to only slightly flavour the buttercream with basil. It point of the added basil is to enhance the flavour of tomato, to make it a fresher taste. You should not be able to recognize that there's basil in the buttercream. I would imagine mascapone cheese will be a good substitution to buttercream as well. I just didn't have mascapone cheese handy in my fridge.

You can check out the method and recipe of the olive balsamic macarons here.

Take Two

Since the good praises from my friends about the olive macarons, I had more confidence in making these french delicacies. Since I had some balsamic buttercream left, I thought why not create some strawberry macs to pair with the balsamic? So here you go!

I had used these freeze dried strawberries to make the macs. It's the same recipe that I have shown in my last post, just measure 20g of freeze dried strawberries, ground it up in a coffee grinder / food processor, and replace the olives in the recipe. Pass the grounded strawberries through the sieve with the icing sugar and ground almonds.

I didn't use any food colouring in this batter, although I probably should've. You can see from the above picture that the batter looks really pink but the pink hue turned brown in the oven. However, the flavour is bold and intense.

I had a few other macaron flavours in my mind that I want to try but I ran out of ingredients. Time to go shopping!

Try It If You Dare

My friend loves olives. When we were in Spain back in the days, where olives are huge and juicy and different from what we can get in North America, every time we eat out she could eat the whole plate all by herself.

I was looking at my recipe books for baking inspirations the other day, and I came across a picture of olive macarons. Olives and macarons? Really? Sure enough, the recipe describes as olive macaron with olive white chocolate ganache. Unlike the typical use of olive oil in olive tasting desserts, this recipe actually calls for dehydrated olives. I thought of my olive loving friend and decided to give it a try.

The recipes from that particular book is quite advanced and my success rate has been low. Therefore it's time to whip out my I Love Macarons book, and adjust the flavouring accordingly.

I couldn't estimate how salty the olives will be, and therefore didn't adjust the amount of sugar. It was a little bit on the sweet side to my liking. I was afraid the white chocolate ganache will make the macs way too sweet.  Then my bf C walked by the kitchen and dropped me an idea: can you fill it with balsamic vinegar?

So there you have it, olive macarons with balsamic buttercream. I was skeptical about the result, but turns out a very interesting combination. My guinea pig actually came back for seconds.

Olive Macaron with Balsamic Buttercream
Olive Macaron
(adapted from I Love Macarons)

Ingredients:
85g ground almonds
150g icing sugar
3 large egg whites, room temperature
64g granulated sugar
10g dehydrated olives, minced (see note below)

1. In a food processor, grind almonds and icing sugar together to a fine powder. Sift the mixture to fully incorporate. Add minced dehydrated olives. Mix and set aside.
2. In a stainless steel mixing bowl (or copper bowl), beat egg whites on high speed until they are foamy. Gradually add the granulated sugar to the egg whites and beat until the meringue is stiff and glossy.

3. Add the sifted almonds and icing sugar to the meringue in two batches. Fold it in with a spatular while scooping it up from the bottom of the bowl.
4. Fold mixture lightly until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated. Then keep folding slowly, one stroke at a time, until you get to the right consistency. The batter should be firm and drips slowly from the spatula. Do not over mix or the macarons will be flat or have no feet.
5. Using a piping bag, pipe the batter on a parchment lined tray. Let dry until the top is dry to touch, about 20 to 30 minutes depending on the humidity.
6. At the mean time, turn on your oven to 300F.
7. When the batter is dry to touch, put the tray in the oven and bake for 18 to 20 minutes. (All ovens are different, please adjust accordingly. The book recommends 375F, 15 to 18 minutes with a double tray. For my oven, I put the tray at the lowest rack in a 300F oven and they are fine.)
8. To check if the macs are done, it should be firm to touch and not jiggle. The macs should be easily peeled off from the parchment paper. If it sticks to the paper, give me a few more minutes in the oven.


Note: to dehydrated olives, put drained, sliced olives on a single layer on a parchment lined baking tray. Put them in the oven with the lowest setting (mine was at 170F) for 3 hours. Toss twice during dehydration.

Balsamic Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(adated from Swiss Meringue Buttercream from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)
1 large egg white
1/6 cup sugar
pinch of salt
0.2lb butter
4 to 6 teaspoons of balsamic glace


1. Combine egg white, sugar and salt in a heat proof bowl over simmering water. Whisk constantly by hand until mixture is warm to the touch and sugar has dissolved.
2. Take the bowl off the simmering water and beat with a hand held mixer until stiff peaks form. Continue mixing until the mixture is fluffy and glossy, and completely cool.
3. With the mixer running, add the butter a tablespoon at a time, mixing well after each addition. Whisk until fully incorporated. Add Balsamic glaze to taste. It should taste slightly tart with vagrant balsamic smell.