Posts Tagged ‘almond extract’

Another Macaroon Recipe – this time from Betty Crocker

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

 

My mum has leant me a wonderful cookbook which is packed full of traditional, homely recipes from America.  It’s the classic Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book which was given to her by her German aunt on her engagement in 1965.  It has a lovely dedication which says “with this book you will really learn to bake marvellous cakes…”

 

On my current quest for the perfect macaroon recipe, I found a section on macaroons within this Betty Crocker book.  It takes some time as it does include 2 stages, including one that needs maturing for a few days, although you can get away with reducing that maturation period down to a couple of hours if you use an intense natural almond extract.

 

I have tweaked the recipes to convert it into metric units as well as including ground almonds rather than explaining how to make your own ground almonds.

 

Stage 1: make your almond paste

 

In a food processor, blend together 450g (2 cups) ground almonds with 185g (1.5 cups) sifted icing sugar.  Blend in 2 egg whites, unbeaten and 2tsp Steenbergs natural almond extract.  Pulse process until nicely blended together.  Mould into a ball and leave tightly covered in fridge for at least 4 days.

 

Stage 2: create your almond macaroons

 

450g     caster sugar (2 cups)

¼ tsp    sea salt

4tbsp    plain flour

85g       icing sugar (two-thirds of a cup)

5          egg whites, unbeaten but whisked together

 

1                        Preheat the oven to 160oC.

2                        Line a baking tin with silicone or rice paper, but the best is rice paper so you then don’t have to worry too much about them getting stuck to the bottom.

3                        Now kneed the almond paste until soft.

4                        Dampen your hands and form the mixture into small balls.  Space a good 2-3cm apart on the baking tray.  Press a large almond sliver onto the centre of each macaroon (Betty Crocker doesn’t put an almond sliver on the top but I think they need this flourish)

5                        Bake until lightly coloured, about 20 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack and dust, if wished, with icing sugar.

6                        Store in an airtight container.

Almond Extract – Recipe for Almond Macaroons

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

 

Sophie and I have an ongoing discussion with each other about the best macaroons.  I like the ones in our local farm shop The Smithy at Baldersby, which have been locally baked.  Sophie says these are nowhere near as good as the ones you get down South, which are more of a biscuit and don’t include pastry.

 

I Googled a recipe and came up with this from one of our great friends, Clarissa Hyman.  This comes from her book “The Jewish Kitchen” and it is much closer to what Sophie thinks of as a macaroon.  They are called a marunchinos (Sephardic almond macaroons).  Clarissa says that in Iraq they change the almond extract for rose water, which also sounds delicious, although a bit less like a macaroon.  They are reminiscent of amaretti biscuits but a bit harder, but in any case we wolfed down the lot in abut half an hour.

 

So to celebrate the fact that we’ve just launched a new extract – Steenbergs natural almond extract and an organic orange blossom water.

 

Ingredients

 

175g     Organic ground almonds

125g     Fairtrade caster sugar

Pinch of sea salt

1tsp      Steenbergs natural almond extract

1          Egg white

Almond slivers, to decorate (optional)

Icing sugar for dusting (optional)

 

Method

 

1                     Preheat the oven to 160oC.

2                     Line a baking tin with silicone or rice paper.

3                     Process the almonds, sugar and salt in a food processor until finely ground.

4                     Add the Steenbergs natural almond extract and egg white and pulse-process until the mixture forms a damp paste.

5                     Dampen your hands and form the mixture into small balls.  Space a good 2-3cm apart on the baking tray.  Press a large almond sliver onto the centre of each macaroon.

6                     Bake until lightly coloured, about 20 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack and dust, if wished, with icing sugar.

7                     Store in an airtight container.

Steenbergs’ June/July newsletter

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

 

Tasty treats from STeenbergs

A mixture of looking at new products and firm favourites for a delicious summer from Steenbergs.

We’ve also got some summer offers on as well as lots of new products and recipe ideas. Hope you have a wonderful July from us all here at Steenbergs.

Summer special offers from Steenbergs

We are currently offering 10 per cent off vitamins and supplements and as an introductory offer to cereals we are also giving 10 % off organic corn flakes and grape nuts.

So it’s a good time to stock up on old favourites or try something new.

Home baking gets some new additions

They’re here – natural bitter almond extract, and organic orange flower water. We’re very excited about these new additions to our home baking flavouring range. The almond extract goes wonderfully in sweet pastries, macaroons, marzipan and with apricots amongst many other things. The orange flower water works well with fruit and in madelaines.dsc_04543

This joins our very popular organic Fairtrade vanilla extract, organic rose water and organic peppermint extract to form the core of our home bakery range. Next month the flavoured sugars, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder will join them with colourful labels.

We stock a range of organic and ethical home bakery ingredients from organic sultanas, currants and raisins to organic flour (including gluten free versions) and unbleached baking paper and recycled aluminium foil.

Paprika – just arrived from Spain

7-recogida-de-pimientoOne of the lovely things about the fact that Steenbergs has now been going for nearly 6 years is that we have developed strong links with our growers. We’ve just had delivery of another delicious harvest of organic paprika and natural smoked paprika from our Spanish growers in Murcia, south-east of Spain. This family run company has been going since 1880 growing, drying and grinding this delicious wonderful paprika. They are a wonderful company to work with and their paprika is exceptional – intense in colour with a lovely sweet flavour.

Jams, chutneys and marmalade – Glenroyd give us the low down

glenroyd2Glenroyd Organics is Dean & Michelle (husband and wife) based in Barnsley in Yorkshire. They’re both complete foodies and when Michelle isn’t making Glenroyd’s delicious chutneys, mustards and jam, she’s reading recipe books and magazines for new ideas or watching foodie programmes. Dean is blessed with the enviable job of product testing and enjoying all the culinary delights!

They admit to always having been foodies and their best days and nights have been spent sharing great food and drink whether it be on fantastic holidays, with family & friends or simply chilling out together with some treats over the weekend.

The enjoyment of great food & drink and hectic professional lives naturally led to trying out recipes in the kitchen for those luxury weekend chill out treats and the beginnings of Glenroyd Organics was born…

Axel and Sophie’s favourite Glenroyd products – organic beetroot chutney, organic chilli jam, which the family can get through pots of – on the sweet side it has to be blackcurrant jam.

“Pots of gold” and other sightings

We were delighted to be listed in The Independent’s top 50 for Food websites this June – our first appearance on this list compiled annually where the Steenbergs jars were described as “pots of gold”. Whilst our Madras curry was suggested by that wonderful ethical cook – Rose Prince – in The Telegraph whilst discussing making the perfect coronation chicken.

Steenbergs jars were also spotted by one eagle eye fan being used by comedienne and actress Helen Lederer on BBC Celebrity Masterchef.

Lifestyle magazine continues its series using Steenbergs products.  Lifestyle issue 12 covers French cooking with our French box – go to pages 16-17, issue 11, page 34 – 35 gives some ideas on Thai cooking using our Thai box.

Many thanks for all the support.

Za’atar and sumach top sellers

Many of you have come to us because of the wonderful Ottolenghi  – the Cookbook - written by the Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.  This London based restaurant draws on numerous culinary traditions from Persia to California, focussing particularly on the Mediterranean. There are now 4 of these restaurants in Islington, Belgravia, Kensington and Notting Hill.  The book was kind enough to mention us in regard to buying sumac and za’atar. In the book, they are recommended as great garnishes for a plate of hummus or labneh – a type of Arab cheese. They also recommend them for salads and roasted meats.

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New products

At Steenbergs.co.uk we often introduce new products. Recently we’ve added cereals and cereal bars - this offers everything from organic mueslis (with or without raisins), the classic grapenuts and organic cornflakes. We’ve also pulled out our free from non Steenberg products – all Steenbergs blends are gluten free, dairy free and suitable for vegetarians and vegans – this new section includes gluten free bread mixes and chocolate cakes and dairy free chocolate drops and chocolate spreads. We’ve also introduced a number of Mediterranean items including olives, pesto, pasta and sun-dried tomatoes. We add to the shop regularly so don’t forget to check our What’s new section.

Blogs and stockists

Latest blog updates including a number of items about summer cooking including for delicious lunches in the office and the delights of home-made cooking.

We continually update our list of stockists - which grows daily – just tap in your postcode and find your nearest stockist. However, we also have a number of distributors, particularly on the home bakery range, so we don’t always know which shops stock us!