Throughout my 3 years of cooking experience, I didn’t need to use any electrical equipment for mixing, whisking, beating, blending or kneading. Instead, I used my hands and my beater. Actually, if you’re making cakes, muffins or cookies, you don’t really need an electrical mixer. But when it comes to beating egg whites, it is such a painful job for your hands. And why the egg whites are so important? Because of the macarons of course!! I am quite obsessed with making macarons. Couple of months ago, I had a disappointing macaron trial, and only 5 out of a batch of macarons came out clean. Only 5! Why? Because I whisked the egg whites using my hands! And as far as I observed, making perfect macarons moves you to the next level in cooking:) So, I decided to buy a KitchenAid stand mixer, and move to that next level. I was also hoping that it will help me save a lot of time making cakes and other pastry. But, I was such a fool to assume that KitchenAid will solve all my problems. Well, here is the result:
What is that? I mean, they are as bad as my first macarons. I couldn’t create the “perfect foot”, although the consistency is okay. I managed not to crack them by resting the meringues for 1.5 hours to harden its shells, but what about the foot? It is not evenly distributed. The macarons were also stuck on the baking tray, and I couldn’t pick the macarons off the tray. I thought I didn’t bake them enough, but when I rebaked them, they started to crack, so I stopped. And by baking heat was OK too, it was 160 degrees C (325 degrees C).
This picture is from my first time:
It seems I created some good feet in my first time, without having an electrical mixer. Actually, these macarons look better than these:
Anyways, I’m done with all this drama.. Let’s move on to the good news. 10 out of 25 macarons came out clean this time. What a success! Well, it’s at least better than the last time. And what’s more, these macarons taste SUPERB!!
Thick Crust Whole-Wheat Pizza
Woaaa! Long time, no see my dear blog. I don’t know what happened to me, I just want to sleep all the time. I actually made this recipe about a week ago, but I was so lazy to post it. But that’s enough. From now on, I am focusing on my blog. So, I’ve promised to make some savory recipes, and this is one of them.
For New Year, I bought myself a lot of cookbooks, and one of them is called “Cooking Light Way to Cook”, and it’s really an interesting one. It’s just the book I have ever wanted. All kinds of recipes (from salads to desserts) in a healthier way! And I found the pizza dough recipe from that book.
About the sauce, it is a recipe that I made up myself. It is actually another version of the sauce in my bruschetta pizza recipe. This time, I added some flaxseed to it (I always find something interesting in the kitchen and if appropriate, add it into my recipes).
Thick Crust Whole-Wheat Pizza
adapted from Cooking Light Way to Cook
1 big or 2 small pizzas
Ingredients:
dough:
- 2 ¼ cups whole-wheat flour
- ¾ cup warm water
- 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons honey
- salt
- any other herbs you want
sauce:
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon pepper paste (optional)
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1-2 tablespoon water, depending on the thickness
- 2 tablespoons flaxseed
- 1 clove of garlic
- black pepper
- salt
topping:
- 150 gr. (5.3 oz.) mozzarella, or any kind of cheese that can melt
Directions:
Mix honey, water and yeast and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Knead 2 cups of the flour with the yeast mixture. Add the remaining flour after 3 minutes.
Coat the dough with some olive oil (not to make it dry) and rest it for about an hour in a warm place.
Using your hands (it doesn’t have to be in a perfect shape), form 2 circles (or 1 big circle). The thickness depends on you, but mine was about 1 cm (½-inch) thick.
In a food processor, mix all the ingredients for the sauce and spread it over the top of the doughs. Be sure to leave some empty space on the edges (I actually made the dough a bit thicker on the edges). Sprinkle the tops with grated cheese.
At this stage, you can wait for 30 minutes to make your pizzas more spongy (that’s what I did). Bake the guys for 10-15 minutes in the preheated oven (250 degrees C – 500 degrees F).