Bake Bake Bake

Been baking in bigger batches this week, no where near a professional bakery level of production, but enough to make me question my judgement.

First thing I baked this week was macarons. I haven't baked them in a while, the last time I did was when I was still working in the bakery and decided to bake some for my friends, that and also because I was using the bakery's supplies so no monetary losses on my part. 

Raspberry Macarons.

Since I had some Raspberry Puree left over from my previous baking attempt, I thought it would be good to use them and make a Raspberry flavored macaron. 

The last time I tried to make a raspberry something, I didn't really go over so well, but I am glad to say, this time, the final product did not meet it's end in the rubbish bin.

The shells aren't really in the right shade of pink because I over baked them a little and they started browning, so it became more beige than pink, which was really quite ugly because it looked like skin, a very smooth skin. 

No hollow shells!

But look... an interior that doesn't have a giant air pocket, an issue I always had with macarons in the past and probably will have again in the future, but for now, no hollow shells!  These ones were actually pretty good if I do say so myself because I used real raspberry and none of that artificial flavoring nonsense which are really disgusting in taste... using artificial flavoring is the same as eating mock meat... it's not the real deal.

Oh, and I bought a whole liter of whipping cream just to make the ganache which only called for 150g, so now i have 850g of whipping cream left in the fridge waiting to get moldy.... should probably start making some creme brulee soon and let my little blow torch shine.

Whole box of Raspberry Macaron

I really did bake a lot, normally I will half the recipe, but after owning a stand mixer, trying to whip up just 25g of egg whites is pretty much impossible, so now I have quite a fair bit of raspberry macarons stashed in the freezer for moments when I crave for a raspberry macaron, which doesn't happen very often because that's a very specific craving to have.

Today, I baked Brownies. Doubled the batch so I could do 2 flavors.

Brownie Batter

This is my favorite brownie recipe because it produces a brownie that's more cake than fudge, which I like and really, all the other brownies recipe I have gotten online so far always end up tasting like burnt chocolate, which is really nasty.


The brownie batter is really thick so it's really nice to just run my spatula through and create brownie batter swirl, looking at those swirls is oddly calming for me.

Hazelnut Brownie Batter

Before baking, first pump some Nutella into the batter and then scatter a shitload of toasted crushed hazelnuts and chopped up white chocolate. I was actually a bit worried that the toppings were a little too much, but decided to fuck all and just pile it on.

Hazelnut Brownie with a shitload of stuff on top.

 And pile on I did because look at the brownie, nuts were falling off from the brownie as I was removing it from the baking pan. I ate the nuts that fell off so no wastage there.

Tray of Peanut Butter Brownies and Hazelnut Brownies

I'm too lazy to take a separate picture of the peanut butter brownie, which is the other flavour I made, so instead, here's a tray of both flavors.



For the peanut butter brownies, I replaced Nutella with Peanut Butter and scattered a generous amount of chopped up Dark and White Chocolate on it. Personally, I prefer the Hazelnut version for it's crunch.



There were actually a lot more slices of brownie on the tray, but my Mother decided to give some to her friends since I am hardly meetup up with any of my own friends.




The brownies will probably be finished soon because my family actually eats the brownies, the macarons on the other hand, only I eat them so I am not sure I can finish, guess I can always give some of it to my neighbor.


Update on my Driving Lesson.


Failed my Final Theory Evaluation on Saturday because I didn't study and because I don't see why I should be sitting a test that's asking me questions that aren't related to me.  Mainly questions that are meant for Manual Car drivers..


For example, they would ask a question like...

"You are driving up a hill and your vehicle stalls, what should you do..."

....and as someone who's taking lessons to drive an Automatic Car, my answer would probably be "Step on the brakes, put the vehicle to Park and pull down the parking brake."



But no, instead the answer is...


"Press the brakes and depress the clutch pedal, change your gears to Neutral and apply the handbrakes." (not accurate because I don't actually know what I should do in such a scenario)



...I don't deal with clutch pedals or have to worry about which gear I should use when I am driving up a slope, the whole reason I am learning how to drive an Automatic Car is so I can avoud all that Manual Car crap, and now I am expected to learn them for my theory test even though it won't even remotely be applicable to me in the future. So fucking stupid.




I will be having my 2nd practical lesson on Tuesday though, looking forward to that, but just the thought of having to go for my Final Theory Evaluation again is just a huge bummer... maybe I should just brush up on my skills and learn how to study again.... something I haven't done in a very very long time.