Macaron Bear in Ondeh-ondeh Choux Pastry

 I discovered a baking studio near home and decided to give it a try. For my debut, I will be sharing how to make two genres of bakes in simple but cute form: macaron bears in ondeh-ondeh choux au craquelin!

Just in time for dinner dessert on Father's Day too!

If you don't look too closely, you may mistake the choux pastries for actual ondeh-ondeh balls!

Perhaps what may be different about this studio as compared to others I have worked with is the number and range of facilities they have. Baker's Gym where I will be teaching this, has the most number of ovens available, has a blast freezer and their teaching principle is to let everyone do individual work. This teaching principle happens to be my preferred way as well because you learn more when you have hands-on practice by yourself from start to finish.

Please refer to this link for more details of class content and to register.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Ondeh Ondeh Logcake Choo Choo Train

How do you like our Favorite Yummy Ondeh Ondeh Cake transformed into a cute Christmas Logcake Choo Choo Train with wheels? =)

I was inspired to transform the boring Logcake into a Choo choo train! And being a fan of Ondeh Ondeh cakes, I was inclined to transform the flavour into a Logcake version too =p.

I designed this recipe specially for LG's Logcake Class last month. It's a special recipe that you can whip up in less than an hour using the freezer and convenient new products like the gula melaka syrup (took a picture in the recipe below). The flavour and also cute train idea was a hit at the class! If you try out the idea, do tag me! =)

I have also made a Recipe Video on making the Ondeh Ondeh Logcake Choo Choo Train using LG's Neochef. The Youtube video below is an extended and more detailed version of the short video I posted on Instagram and FB. It was quite a lot of work to make the video =p. Hope that you will find it very useful! 

Full recipe below:

Ondeh Ondeh Logcake Choo Choo Train by Susanne Ng

Pandan Chiffon Rollcake (10-inch by 10-inch) 

3 egg yolks
20g castor sugar
41g vegetable oil
39g water (*you can substitute with pandan juice)
¾ tsp pandan paste
¾ tsp vanilla extract
60g cake flour, sifted

Meringue
4 egg whites
45g castor sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 170°C.

2. Egg yolk batter: beat egg yolks with castor sugar before stirring in oil, water, pandan paste and vanilla extract.

3. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till firm peaks, mixing in caster sugar gradually.

4. Gently fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in 3 additions.

5. Pour the batter onto the prepared baking pan. Give the pan a few taps to remove bubbles. Bake at 170°C for 22-24 min, or until skewer comes out clean.

6. Pour the leftover batter into 2 mini and 2 medium cupcake liners. Bake these at 170°C for 20-22 min.

7. Prepare the whipped cream and filling while the cakes are cooling.

*Tip: Highly recommended to roll up the sheet cake before it is fully cooled to prevent cracking (see youtube video tutorial).

Whipped Cream (for 2 5-inch logcakes)
120g heavy cream
80g whip topping
10g icing sugar

Combine the heavy cream, whip topping and icing sugar and whip with an electric mixer till stiff peaks (less than a minute). Place in the refrigerator until you need to use the cream.

*Tip: I combined dairy cream with whip topping to enhance stability so that it is easy work with, without compromising the taste too much. This helps in cutting the time to work too =).

8. Prepare the Gula Melaka-Dessicated Coconut filling. 

This is great! But you can also melt your own using Gula Melaka!

Gula Melaka-Dessicated Coconut filling (for 2 5-inch logcakes)
104g Gula Melaka syrup
10g boiled water
Pinch of salt
120g dessicated coconut

In a bowl, gently mix the dessicated coconut with Gula Melaka syrup, water and pinch of salt till well-mixed.

9. After the sheet cake is cool, unroll the cake and remove the baking paper on top. Spread on the whipped cream, followed by the gula melaka coconut filling, leaving around 1.5 cm from the sides. Roll the cake up with the filling.

10. Allow to the roll cake to chill (freezer around 10 min) for the cream to set. Slice the roll cake into two to make 2 Choo choo trains!

Yummy and soft rolls!

11. Decorate and assemble the logcake trains.

Decoration
80g-100g dessicated coconut
Christmas logcake décor

(a) Lightly coat the roll cake with leftover whipped cream. Roll the cake over dessicated coconut (or steamed grated coconut).

(b) Unmould the cupcakes by peeling off the cupcake liners. Similarly, lightly coat the cakes with whipped cream (except the base) and roll them in dessicated coconut. Use more cream to adhere the base of the cupcakes onto the base log to form the train chimney and driver seat.

(c) Add wheels using Oreo cookies and some cream. Alternatively, you can use chocolate sheet cakes! In my first version, I used sheet cakes actually.

(d) Insert and add in other Christmas logcake décor.

*You may refer to the Video Tutorial on Youtube to fully understand the steps.

Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance!

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Pulut Hitam and Purple Sweet Potato Chiffon Sponge and Pudding Cake

My mum has diabetes so I have to be creative in coming up with birthday cakes that are tasty but yet low in GI. It is my preference to use wholesome natural ingredients without resorting to artificial sugar and so I came up with this cake that you most probably can't find elsewhere :)

Pulut hitam (black glutinous rice) chiffon cake with purple sweet potato pudding and topped off with sweet potato Ondeh-Ondeh! Absolutely no artificial colouring is used.

I used only Gula melaka or coconut palm sugar as the sweetener in the chiffon cake, and the pudding is adapted from here with only 20% of caster sugar that the original recipe suggested. You may think that this cake will be bland tasting but far from it, it is really flavourful from the harmonious blend of black glutinous rice, coconut milk, pandan, Gula melaka and sweet potato, but yet it is not too sweet!

This cake may appear simple but it is made from scratch with a lot of love. I began by cooking the black glutinous rice porridge. You may refer to this post for the recipe for the porridge. Although I provided the recipe for the pulut hitam chiffon sponge in that post, I tweaked it to make it suitable for baking in a chiffon tin as it needs to be more structurally stable than when you bake a flat layer cake. You may choose to use a recipe that uses black glutinous rice flour but the flour as not as easily available as the raw black glutinous rice grains and I find the flour sold in Singapore isn't as fragrant as the ones from Indonesia that my friend gave me a few years ago. Personally I prefer the version baked by using the porridge. I also usually sneak a bowlful to eat as it is one of my favourite Asian desserts!

Recipe for pulut hitam chiffon cake
Ingredients (for one 17cm chiffon tin or one 15cm chiffon tin + one 7" square sheet cake):
3 egg yolks
33g Coconut oil
180g black glutinous rice porridge
15g coconut cream or coconut milk
80g cake flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp charcoal powder (optional)

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g granulated coconut palm sugar (use more if you have a sweet tooth as mine is not a very sweet version)

Steps:
1. Set oven rack to second lowest position. Place a tray of water at base of oven (optional). Preheat oven to 150℃.

2. Whisk egg yolks until pale and thick. Add oil and whisk until well combined. Add coconut cream and porridge and whisk until well combined. Gradually add in sifted flour, salt and charcoal powder and whisk until no trace of flour is seen.

3. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form, gradually adding in Gula melaka once the egg whites are foamy.

4. Quickly but gently fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in three additions. Pour into the prepared chiffon tin (and square tray if you are baking a sponge cake to cover the hole of the chiffon cake). Use a chopstick to run through the batter to pop any trapped air bubbles

5. Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 130℃ and bake for another 30 min. Reduce the temperature to 110℃ and bake for another 10-20 min or until skewer comes out clean. Bake the sheet cake for 15 min or until skewer comes out clean.

6. Invert immediately when removed from oven to cool. When completely cooled, carefully unmould the cake from the chiffon tin by hand.

7. Slice the chiffon cake horizontally using a long serrated knife into two, three or even four slices as you wish. I use a ruler and toothpicks as markers to indicate where to slice horizontally. Keep the sliced cake in airtight container while you prepare the pudding.

Recipe for purple sweet potato pudding
Ingredients:
A)
400g pandan water (boil a several torn up pandan leaves in water for 10 min)
16g Caster sugar (please use more sugar if you prefer it sweeter)
1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp agar powder

B)
147g purple sweet potato puree (steamed and mashed)
180g coconut milk

C)
40g cornflour
67g fresh milk
1 and 1/3 tsp coconut oil (optional)

Steps:
1. Place all ingredients in A) in a saucepan. Mix together B) ingredients in a bowl. Mix together C) ingredients in a jug.

2. Bring A) to boil, stirring frequently. Make sure that all the agar powder is dissolved.

3. Add B) to A) and bring to boil while stirring.

4. Stir C) again as the cornflour would have settled to the bottom. Slowly pour in a small and steady stream into the saucepan while stirring the contents in the saucepan. Continue stirring while heating over medium-low heat for another 2-3 minutes. The mixture will thicken.

5. Pour the contents of the saucepan through a sieve to remove any lumps that may be there.

Assembly
You may use a springform pan or flexible clear cake plastic rings like what I used. If using the plastic rings, make sure that you prepare the bottom layer of sponge on the cakeboard with the plastic ring secured before you make the pudding.

1. Place a layer of sponge on cakeboard with the cake plastic ring. You may cover the hole with a round sheet cake cutout from the sheet cake if you wish.

2. Use a ladle to scoop some pudding to cover the sponge. You may layer it as thick or thin as you want.

3. Place the second layer of sponge on top of the pudding carefully. Gently but firmly press it down such that the pudding comes into contact with the sponge.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have the desired number of alternating layers.

5. Cover the top of the assembly with cling wrap. Refrigerate for 2h or overnight. Carefully remove the plastic cake ring.

I chose to decorate with some purple sweet potato pudding flower cutouts and sweet potato Ondeh-Ondeh. You may refer to this post for the recipe for Ondeh-Ondeh.

This cake is really lovely for those of you who love pulut hitam and coconut milk combi but want something not so sweet. My friend who took some extra cake that I made let her parents-in-law try. They loved it so much that she wants me to bake that for her father-in-law’s birthday!

Needless to say, my family enjoyed the cake too! Here's a peek at the cross section of the cake

Update: this is the cake I made for my friend's father-in-law. I put the pudding on top instead of the sponge 😊

The freshly baked chiffon cake looks so inviting I just had to take a photo of it!

I made a bigger 17cm chiffon cake.

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Pandan Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake 'Ondeh Ondeh'

I have been dreaming about oozing chiffon cake "ondeh ondeh" for some time, ever since my previous Nyonya Kueh Chiffon Cake with chiffon "ondeh ondeh". It's not easy though, I had many countless failed experiments with exploded "ondeh ondeh" before I finally arrived at a model that can sort of work. Basically Gula melaka is heavy so it sinks to the bottom easily, so most of it usually comes out of the cake. There is an optimum amount and type that you can "encapsulate" to succeed.

This recipe was specially commissioned by and designed for LG Neochef last year in October 2017. I gave several demos on this chiffon cake "ondeh ondeh" cake pops with the LG Neochef then. It's super yummy and reviews for this Gula melaka chiffon "ondeh ondeh" cake pop were very good!

Currently the detailed printed recipe of this chiffon cake "ondeh ondeh" comes free with every purchase of the LG Neochef. LG was so generous that they allowed me to share on the blog now too! I'm happy more people can get to try this yummy recipe =).

Pandan Gula Melaka Chiffon “Ondeh Ondeh” (makes 12)
(by Susanne Ng, written for LG Neochef)

14g egg yolk (1 egg yolk)
26g gula melaka (in cubes)
14g coconut milk
1-2 pandan leaves, knotted
2g pandan juice
1g vanilla extract
15g coconut/vegetable oil
20g cake flour, sifted
Tiny pinch of salt
1/4 tsp pandan paste
20g grated gula melaka

60g egg whites (around 1.5 egg whites)
8g castor sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

1. Cut 26g gula melaka into cubes. Dissolve the gula melaka in coconut milk (with pandan leaves to make more fragrant) to make the gula melaka syrup. Leave to cool. Makes around 40g gula melaka syrup.

2. Preheat oven, or LG Neochef microwave convection oven to 140 degrees celsius.

3. Whisk egg yolk with oil till well mixed.

4. Add in the gula melaka syrup, pandan juice, vanilla extract and pandan paste, whisk till well combined.

5. Whisk in sifted cake flour (with pinch of salt). Mix well and ensure no lumps are formed.

6. Using an electric mixer, whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till frothy, in a grease-free and dry bowl.

7. Add in castor sugar gradually and whip till firm peaks form, i.e. peaks point upwards but not totally stiff.

8. Spoon gula melaka batter into cake pop molds. Leave a well, and then add a sprinkle (coffee stirrer size) of grated gula melaka into the well. Cover with more batter.

9. Bake at 140 degrees celsius for 28 min, or until skewer inserted into cake pop come out clean.
*I actually had some "controls" cake pops without filling to check for doneness as those with fillings will be wet.

10. Leave cake pops to cool on wire rack.

11. When cake pops are fully cool, unmould from the cake pop mould by flipping the mould over.

12. Roll in desiccated coconut (or freshly grated coconut steamed with some salt).

As I shared earlier, it is not easy to encapsulate the filling, I actually made a table of the amount and type to be encapsulated lol. For this experiment, those on the left 1st column had the most fillings, and subsequent columns had decreasing fillings, with "controls" - no filling- on the most right. Here's sharing what happens when you are too generous with fillings =p. Still (or even more) yummy of course! I had also tried liquid version (which didn't work), as well as gula melaka in cubes and grated. Oh and one last important point! Do not knock the batter in the cake pop molds to release air bubbles after you have added the fillings, they will sink and explode too =p. Finally, if you like even more fillings than the cake batter can handle, you can inject some gula melaka syrup using a piping tip or syringe, there will already be a "hole" in the middle of the cake from the gula melaka that was baked and melted.

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Ondeh-Ondeh Pandan Gula Melaka Mini Cakes (sweetened only with Gula Melaka!)

Have you ever wondered what kind of cakes are more diabetic friendly without resorting to artificial sugar and yet still tastes awesome? I have considered this question because my mother has diabetes and I always keep in mind how to create such cakes for family birthday celebrations. I made one such cake that was so well received last year that I decided to teach this at ToTT, but a smaller version here. Presenting my Ondeh-Ondeh Pandan Gula Melaka mini cakes!

Why do I highlight the use of Gula Melaka as the only sweetener used here? Because coconut palm sugar or Gula Melaka has a glycemic index of about a third of refined white sugar. This makes the whole dessert more diabetic friendly without compromising the flavour, unlike some artificial sweeteners which may leave a chemical taste in the mouth.

In this class, you will learn how to bake Pandan Gula Melaka chiffon sponge without using white sugar at all. Only Gula Melaka is used as the sugar. The chiffon sponge layers have Gula Melaka pudding layers in between them that breaks the monotony of the chiffon sponge and adds that extra moisture and smoothness to the dessert. You will learn how to make this pudding that's so good you can even eat it on its own, and how to assemble it with the sponge cake. This delectable and fragrant cake is topped with sweet potato Ondeh-Ondeh, all naturally coloured and flavoured too! You will learn how to make plain and checkerboard patterned Ondeh-Ondeh in this class.

This is essentially a class for learning how to make two separate desserts combined into one, so the class is a longer 4-hour one. Please click on this link to sign up at the ToTT website.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Ondeh-Ondeh with Pandan Kaya Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake (sweetened only with coconut palm sugar!)

I have wondered about baking chiffon cakes without relying on caster sugar or artificial sweeteners for quite a long while but didn't get to try it until this bake for my dad's birthday. Presenting my pandan kaya Gula Melaka chiffon cake made using only coconut palm sugar as sweetener! I paired the cake with a simple and yummy deco of Japanese and purple sweet potato ondeh-ondeh balls, making the whole dessert absolutely free from white sugar :)

Gula Melaka or coconut palm sugar has a glycemic index that is about a third of white sugar, making it a more diabetic friendly choice while being from a natural source. This doesn't mean that diabetics should then binge on desserts made with Gula Melaka. Everything is still best taken in moderation. But it does mean that I am able to bake a birthday cake for my parents, who have to watch their direct sugar intake, more guilt-free.

I hid more Ondeh-Ondeh balls in the hole of the chiffon cake but accidentally cut a hole in the hidden ball when cutting the cake...Oops! :P...

...Or maybe not so oops! The oozy, delectable Gula Melaka from ondeh-ondeh is soaked up by the Pandan Gula Melaka chiffon sponge below so the yummy stuff is not wasted. Needless to say, that part of the cake was delicious!

Here's a close-up view of a slice of cake...

Super yummy!

I am not kidding when I said everyone finished the cake and Ondeh-Ondeh in less than 10 minutes with second helpings included. That's after a buffet meal too! Cake is soft and spongey but very moist so hubby loved it even though he doesn't like chiffon cakes in general. The Ondeh-Ondeh still remained soft despite being kept overnight in the fridge due to the use of sweet potatoes. Overall very satisfying :).

Recipe for Pandan Gula Melaka chiffon cake (white sugar-free)
Ingredients (makes one 15cm chiffon cake):
2 egg yolks
15g Gula melaka, chopped (more if you prefer sweeter and stronger flavour)
23g coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
13g pandan juice
21g coconut milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp pandan paste (optional)
40g cake flour
Pinch of salt

3 egg whites
33g fine coconut palm sugar*
1/5 tsp cream of tartar

*Here's the coconut palm sugar that I use for the meringue. It is as fine as caster sugar so can be easily used as caster sugar substitute. If you can't find it, you may chop Gula Melaka from the block as finely as you can. It doesn't matter if there are small lumps of Gula melaka. They will turn up as little pools of delectable stuff in the cake ;).

Steps:
1. Place coconut milk, pandan juice and chopped Gula melaka in a small saucepan. Heat until all the sugar is dissolved. Set aside to cool. Add vanilla extract and pandan paste.

2. Set oven rack to second lowest position, place a tray of water at the base of the oven (optional. For steam baking). Preheat oven to 160℃.

3. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks until thick and pale. Add coconut oil and whisk until well combined. Add coconut milk mixture and whisk until combined. Gradually add in sifted flour and salt and whisk until no trace of flour is seen.

4. Prepare the meringue. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form, gradually adding in sugar once the egg whites are foamy.

Palm sugar meringue

5. Quickly but gently fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in three batches. Pour the batter slowly into the chiffon tin to allow any big air bubbles to pop. Gently tap the tin on the table a few times.

6. Bake for 5 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 140℃ and bake for another 30 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 120℃ and bake for another 15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean and top of cake bounces back when lightly pressed. Note that oven temperature and time is a guideline as every oven is different. Steam baking time is also longer than without steam. Invert immediately to cool. I mould by hand.

Freshly baked chiffon!

I sliced the cake into three portions of equal thickness.

Recipe for Gula Melaka pudding
Ingredients:
A)
120g coconut milk (may replace with evaporated milk)
63g pandan water
31g Gula Melaka, chopped
1/2 tsp agar powder
A pinch of salt
1/8 tsp caramel essence (optional)
1/8 tsp vanilla extract

B)
13g custard powder
65g pandan water

Steps:
1. Mix ingredients in B) in a jug. Set aside.

2. Place all ingredients in A) in a small saucepan and stir while bringing to a boil.

3. Stir B) again and slowly pour into A). Keep stirring the mixture over medium low heat until it boils again. Stir and boil for another two minutes before removing from heat.

4. Sieve the pudding mixture into a bowl. Assemble with cake immediately.

In order to retain the hole in the middle so that I could hide some Ondeh-Ondeh inside, I used flexible plastic meant for wrapping around sides of cakes to create two rings. One outer and one inner ring as shown below. Alternate cake and pudding layers. I used a spoon to carefully pour pudding in.

5. Chill in fridge for an hour or until firm. Carefully remove the plastic pieces.

Pandan kaya Gula melaka chiffon cake!

The sweet potato Ondeh-Ondeh can be found in this blog post. I will just highlight how to create the swirl design here.

Stack the different coloured dough together and roll until about 12cm long. Roll it up.

Cut the roll into half with a knife of bench scraper.

Place cut side down and flatten slightly. Place a compacted ball of chopped Gula Melaka in the middle

Wrap up the Gula melaka and pinch seal. And there you have Ondeh-Ondeh balls with swirls!

Boil the assembled balls and coat lightly with some shredded coconut.

I let the Ondeh-Ondeh cool before hiding two of them in the hole

Look what's hiding!

So give this cake a try if you are looking at making a yummy birthday cake that uses no white sugar. You may bake the chiffon as thin layer cake and cut into a few pieces if you wish, instead of a tall chiffon cake. Baking time will be shorter of course.

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Snorlax Ondeh-Ondeh Giant Macaron Cake Topper

This was a last minute request that I accomodated along with my Ondeh-Ondeh sheep macarons. Snorlax Ondeh-Ondeh cake topper!

As mentioned in my sheep macaron post, the surface of the shell is rougher due to the addition of dessicated coconut. But the taste of the macaron is awesome and I dare say, my Ondeh-Ondeh macaron recipe is one of the best macaron flavour that I have made.

This cake topper is about 10cm in size. Baking time for such large macaron shells is usually about 40-50 minutes, with the first 10-20 minutes at a higher baking temperature of 130-140℃. Reduce oven temperature to 110℃ after 15-20 minute mark onwards. Always use the lowest rack for baking to prevent browning.

Just to share some pictures of the process...

Piping top and bottom shells

Checkout the awesome feet on freshly baked shells!

Filling the macaron with Pandan caramel whipped white chocolate ganache and oozy Gula Melaka.

This is one big "Ondeh-Ondeh" for the birthday kid to enjoy!


With love,
Phay Shing

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Ondeh-Ondeh and Pulut Hitam Sheep Macarons (New recipe!)

I have the privilege of baking for Victoria's little girl's first month celebration. I am a fan of Victoria's bakes and am really happy and excited for this chance to bake for her! She requested for sheep macarons as the little one is her little lamb given by God, and her name is Love :)

Ondeh-Ondeh and Pulut Hitam flavours!

Victoria challenged me to make macarons with these two unique Asian flavours and I think I rose up to the challenge :p. I have made Ondeh-Ondeh macarons before but using the French method, and it was delicious! For a larger batch, Italian method would be better so this is the first time I adapted my original recipe for this method. Pulut Hitam (black glutinous rice) on the other hand was totally new. But I am so glad the experiment turned out fine!

In order to create macarons with these flavours, it is only fitting that I use some coconut to replace some almond meal in the macaron shells. The resulting shells are not as smooth looking as my regular macarons but they are so fragrant with a slightly chewy coconuty bite! The ratio of dessicated coconut: almond meal could do with some refinement but it's more for cosmetic purposes because the taste and texture is still awesome with my current recipe!

Note
Do scale the recipe accordingly as I was catering for a large batch of macarons. During this macaron mania, I catered for a few other smaller requests concurrently. My recipe is reduced sugar as well so if you don't want the hassle of using rice flour and corn flour, simply replace those items with icing sugar.

The sheep templates can be found in my Creative Baking: Macarons book.

Recipe for coconut macaron shells
Ingredients (makes about 65-75 macarons, 130-150 shells):
Mass
170g superfine almond meal
70g dessicated coconut, sifted (I would reduce to 60g next time)
10g coconut cream powder (you may replace with dessicated coconut. I added to enhance flavour)
4g cornflour
13g rice flour
233g icing sugar
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
100g egg whites, preferably aged
A few drops of colourless Pandan flavouring (optional)
1/2 tsp Dutch processed cocoa powder

Meringue
240g caster sugar
96g egg whites, preferably aged
88g water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

Steps:
1. Prepare baking tray with template and baking paper over the template.

2. Prepare the mass. Sift almond, dessicated coconut, coconut cream powder, corn flour, rice flour, icing sugar and salt. You may choose not to use some of the dessicated coconut bits that are coarser or grind the dessicated coconut before sifting. Add egg whites and Pandan flavouring (if using). Mix well to form a thick paste.

3. Prepare the meringue. Place caster sugar and water in a small saucepan. Stir a little to wet the sugar thoroughly. Heat the sugar and water until 115℃ on the candy thermometer. In the meantime, beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Reduce mixer speed if necessary. Once the temperature is reached, increase the mixer speed to high and carefully pour the syrup into the egg whites in a thin stream. Keep beating on high speed for another 15 minutes or until cool (about body temperature).

4. Fold the meringue into the mass in two additions until the batter flows in a slow-moving lava-like way. You may refer to this post for video tutorials on how to fold the batter and how to test the consistency of the batter. Scoop out about 2-3 tbs of batter and add sifted cocoa powder. Mix well.

5. Transfer batter into piping bags and pipe away! Bang the tray on the table to release trapped air.

Piped shells

6. Dry the shells in air con room or under the fan until you are able to slide a finger across the shells without feeling any stickiness.

7. Bake in preheated oven at 140℃ on lowest rack for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 115℃ and bake for another 10-12 minutes or until the feet does not appear wet. Cool completely before carefully removing the baking paper away from the shells.

Freshly baked!

Checkout the awesome feet!

Fluffy, soft and chewy interior!

Victoria requested for no artificial colouring to be used at all so I coloured the pink parts of royal icing with a natural source of food colouring from PME.

The heart-shaped pendants were made by piping royal icing on baking paper with heart template under it. I dried the icing overnight and gently peel it off the baking sheet.

Charcoal powder was used to colour the icing black for the eyes. I used edible marker for the nose.

Decorated shells!

I made the black glutinous rice porridge and froze it earlier on ahead of this macaron mania. Do note that I omitted coconut milk (so as not to have an overpowering coconut flavour as the macaron shells already have coconut, and to improve the shelf life of the filled macarons) and reduced the amount of gula melaka in the porridge to cater for macarons.

Recipe for black glutinous rice porridge
Ingredients:
150g black glutinous rice
750g water
3 Pandan leaves, knotted or cut into big pieces
75g gula melaka, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp coconut flavouring (optional)

Steps:
1. Wash the rice and soak for 2hours. Drain the water and wash and drain again.
2. Place rice, water and Pandan leaves in a saucepan. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring now and then. Remove Pandan leaves.
3. Add gula melaka , salt and coconut flavouring (if using). Stir until sugar dissolves.
4. Continue to simmer and stir until the porridge is thick.
5. Remove from heat and blend until as finely as you can. You may cool and freeze this porridge. Simply thaw when you want to use it.

I use a less sweet whipped white chocolate ganache as the base for these macarons. The ganache will taste weird on its own but paired with the sweet shells, it will be just right. The Ondeh-Ondeh filling is flavoured with extra Pandan paste and the pulut hitam filling has a substantial portion of the porridge added in.

Less-sweet whipped white chocolate ganache recipe
Ingredients:
168g White chocolate, chopped
84g Unsalted butter
84g Vegetable shortening
105g Heavy cream
3/4 tsp Fine sea salt
1.5 tsp Caramel flavouring (or vanilla extract if you prefer)
1 tsp lemon juice (to counter the sweetness)
1/2 tsp coconut flavouring

Steps:
1. Place white chocolate, shortening and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat on medium power for 20 seconds and mix well. Repeat until mixture is smooth and melted.

2. Heat cream, lemon juice and flavourings in a small saucepan on low heat until it starts to bubble. Pour over melted chocolate. Mix well with spatula.

3. Add salt and mix well.

4. Freeze the mixing bowl with the ganache for 2 minutes. Mix well with spatula. Repeat until mixture starts firming up. You may switch to electric mixer and beat until creamy.

Whipped white chocolate ganache

Pandan caramel ganache
Add 1/2-1 tsp Pandan paste for every 200g or whipped white chocolate ganache

Pulut Hitam ganache
Use a ratio of 1:1 for whipped ganache : black glutinous rice porridge. I used a ratio of 2:1 for this batch and feel that the flavour is a little understated so you may want to increase the proportion of pulut hitam. Gradually add the porridge into the ganache and mix well.

Whipped Pulut Hitam ganache

Assembly
Pulut Hitam:
Pipe a ring of pulut hitam ganache. Fill the center with the porridge. Place top shell on.

Ondeh-Ondeh:
Pipe a ring of Pandan caramel ganache. Pipe a thin layer of ganache in the middle of the ring to coat the base shell. Fill the "well" with gula melaka syrup. Pipe some ganache over the syrup. Place top shell on.

These Asian flavoured macarons are truly yummy and fragrant! So give it a try if you are fans of Ondeh-Ondeh or pulut hitam!

Here's a sneak peek of the inside of the Ondeh-Ondeh macaron. Forgot to take photo of the pulut hitam one 😅.

Yummy!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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