Macarons with Pastry Nerds

Su has made a new friend;
he's kinda handsome, kinda funny, kinda friendly, kinda silly and very much a Pastry Nerd.
From our very first conversation to the most recent one I've shared with him; all we talk about is pastry. Techniques, styles, chefs, flavours, ingredients, supplies, tools, trends... pastry related clothing, toys, books, games, events... it's amusing. Really. I'm sure we are both fully capable of holding a conversation about other topics (weather, sport, music.... probably not politics or finance) haha but when we hang out; that's all he seems to want to talk to me about!
We share one thing other than pastry in common; Gym... he's a bit more of a junkie than I am; definitely more fit and disciplined than I am as well! haha i feel we both inspire each other in very similar ways.
We recently took our verbal pastry excitement one step further. I decided we should be doing more than talking about this whole PASTRY ordeal we both love so much.

His name is Ko wai. Some have come to remember him as BreadPitt. ... .... aHAahahah!..I know!.. *Laughs hysterically* it's ridiculous; he coined the name himself a few years ago; it's stuck since.

Ko wai is head pastry chef for a centralized kitchen and well; i do cakes @ Delectable. We both don't get to practice much of what we learnt from Pastry school at work. The routine gets a little boring after awhile. The fancier things like chocolates, pralines, sugar work.. macarons! I've lost touch with so much of the 'pastry' side of things since i've left school...and it made sense to be in exposed to and practice with a chef who was still very much involved.

Ko wai reminds me of the heap load of fun I had at Notter. Every Sunday; we gather at mine to 'Play' I call it.. we make a mess, photograph our product and feed the masterpieces to my parents and sis.. they love it; and we love it too!


I've not been successful with macarons since i got home to Malaysia and Ko wai happens to be a master at macarons! He was very willing to share his knowledge and spend some time to understand my many failed attempts. YAY! haha he's gone through a fair number of them himself in the past. It's just nice to have a friend you can confide your troubles n failures with; who completely understands and go's beyond laughing at your mistakes.. to helping you solve them of course.
Everyone's been asking us over and over again for a macaron recipe; and well.. i thought I'd just put up a blog post with the instructions etc.

Macarons with Ko wai:
PART A:
110g Egg white
300g Sugar
78g Water

- boil water and sugar till 116 degrees celcius; to form a syrup; lightly beat eggwhites to a soft peak, pour in heated syrup in consistent stream while beating eggwhites in mixer to form an italian meringue. Beat till glossy.

PART B: - stir into a paste and set aside
110g Egg white
300g powdered sugar
300g finely sifted almond powder

- Gently fold part A into part B in 3 portions.
- Fill piping tube with round nozzle and pipe 4cm dots of macaron paste 2 cm apart on silpat (or wax paper)
- Bake in preheated 180degree oven for approximately 6 minutes; bring down the temperature to 160 degrees for another 5-6 minutes. *this bit is very touchy; so you gotta just watch it; don't trust the timer ;) hehe
- Leave to cool and gently peel off silpat; match the shells ; fill with ganache or PB and Jelly like we have done. YUMS!
- *if you choose to use colouring; add the gel based colour into part B before mixing into a paste.

Ko wai; my little girl (xiao-ly) and I have been getting together to make fun projects ever since our first Macaron escapade. My icing on the cake is the photography sessions we have after! I haven't gotten many chances to practice my food photography since Delectable was born. Ko wai really likes how the pictures turn out, he gets overly excited and super enthusiastic to see the photos I take of our 'Play' dates.
I believe this to be the beginning of a sweet sweet friendship.