Blood Orange Pate de Fruit

Savour Chocolate & Patisserie school recommend that you practice your new learned skills soon after acquiring them so this weekend I decided to make Blood Orange Pate de Fruits.  The only difference, however, is that this time I experimented with the use of NH Pectin instead of Citrus Pectin.  Apparently, with Citrus Pectin you need an acid to start the setting process but with NH Pectin you don't.  

If  you'd like to try making these yourself the Les Vergers Boiron Fruit Puree website has the ratio's of fruit puree, sugar/pectin, apple juice, caster sugar, glucose and tartaric acid.  Click on the pdf file relating to Confectioners and select the type of pate de fruits you'd like to make with the specified quantities, then follow the recipe below.

Boiron Pate de Fruits - Defrost the fruit puree.  Place the fruit puree and apple juice in a pan and bring to the boil.  Slowly sprinkle in the pectin and caster sugar mixture.  Heat gently, stirring constantly until the mixture comes to the boil.  Add the granulated sugar and glucose.  Add the tartaric acid if necessary.  Cook to 107 degrees celsius.  Cool by adding spirits (if desired).  Pour into a frame.  Note: Try to use a non-sterilised 100% apple juice without added acid or simply replace the apple juice with water.

Organic Blood Oranges

Blood Orange Zest

Blood Orange Juice

NH Pectin & Sugar

Glucose & Sugar

Orange Juice, Zest & Water getting ready to simmer

Bubbling away

Waiting for the Pate de Fruit to set

In the absence of a guitar a pizza wheel and ruler will have to suffice

Orange Jewels

Just Perfect!

Zumbo's Strawberry Bubblegum Macaron

This Teaberry Gum Stand is perfect to display Hubba Bubba Bubblegum, French brand 'Malabar' would work just as well

Pop Rocks

The biggest tip that I've got when you make some of Adriano Zumbo's recipes in his new book Zumbo is to prepare as much as you can in advance so that it makes your job easier.  There is nothing worse than learning a new recipe and trying to tackle too much, spending hours in the kitchen and getting stressed.  Who wants that... nuh uh not me!  So I've bought my ingredients and all's good.  I plan to make these beauties on the weekend and although I haven't planned when, I've already started on the pop rock insert.  This recipe is going to be a bit like your progressive dinner party in that I'm going to do a bit of this and a bit of that then update this post. And, by the end hopefully it'll be an explosive hit!  

Zumbo's strawberry bubblegum macaron comprises of the basic macaron recipe, the strawberry bubblegum ganache and the pop rock insert.  

Day One - I decided to prepare the pop rock insert, turned the music up loud and had an awesome time consuming  Blue Raspberry Pop Rocks whilst I worked.  This part of the recipe is easy peasy lemon squeezy! 

Slowly microwave the cocoa butter

When it cools to 32 degrees celsius add the pop rocks and combine

You can get colour coated pop rocks or plain from Melbourne Food Ingredients Depot

This dim sum rolling pin I bought in Hong Kong worked wonders 

Roll out until a couple of mm thick and allow to set 

Work really hard to feed your face whilst concentrating

Day Two - I followed  Zumbo's basic macaron recipe instead of my own.  I made the shells with fresh egg whites and 2 grams of egg white powder just to see how they would turn out.

mmmm, not bad at all

I also smooshed up the strawberries and popped them in the fridge ready for when I need to make the ganache.  

I used 2 punnets of strawberries to get 150g of strawberry puree

Strawberry Pureee done and dusted

And, I  broke up the pop rock insert.

Day Three - Today, I made the strawberry bubblegum ganache and assembled the macarons.

First I heated the strawberry puree and bubblegum

As soon as it reached near boiling point I blended it with a stick mixer

The ganache is made of white chocolate,  cocoa butter,  butter, strawberry puree & bubblegum - there's a link to Zumbo's recipe at the bottom of this post. 

I poured the strawberry puree & bubblegum mix over the chocolate.  When cool I added the butter and cocoa butter then mixed it with a stick blender.

Bubbalicious

After I made the ganache I popped it into the fridge to set.  Then when ready I piped a very small blob onto each macaron to fix the pop rock insert.

Very posh Hubba Bubba indeed!

OMG - I'm still in shock that I made these with FRESH egg whites

These were a lot of fun to make and since its Pinktober I had to absolutely positively enter my Strawberry Bubblegum Zumbarons into this months Mactweets challenge.  Please support Breast Cancer Awareness Week.  And, remember gorgeous girls don't forget regular pap smear tests and mammograms!  

I also had to add this cool photo of a psychedelic strawberry bubblegum macaron made with leftover shells stored in my freezer.  You can see the pop rocks in the middle.  My daughters couldn't get enough of these and thought that they were AMAZING! 

For the full version of Zumbo's macaron recipe and strawberry bubblegum ganache click here.

Update: As at 19 June 13 'The Wrigley Company' confirmed to me via email that Hubba Bubba Original Gum has been discontinued.  I'm very sad :(

Floriade 2011 - A Feast for the Senses

Every year, Canberra's Commonwealth Park transforms into Floriade, a flower and entertainment festival that celebrates spring.  Floriade is in its 24th year and the theme this year is "A Feast for the Senses".  Floriade runs from 17 September to 16 October 2011.  The garden design is inspired by flavors that stimulate the senses such as chocolate and chilli and was certainly a smorgasbord of colour and a feast for the eyes.  I took some wonderful photo's and couldn't help but share them. The dazzling designs highlight how food influences art and art influences food.  It was impossible to photograph the full scale of the gardens including an aerial view so I included some of the designs just so you can get an idea of how beautiful it looked.