Merry Christmas...not.

It's Christmas day today. Although it's the season of joy and giving, however, my Christmas this year started out on the wrong foot. I lost my mobile phone just two days ago (an iPhone 3G) while out shopping in town. My girlfriend had asked if I could help her bake some macarons for some Christmas parties that she was attending. I was more than happy to help her out cos my mind was full of reds and greens...

The lovely girlfriend of mine treated me to lunch, I passed her the macs, and then we decided to take a short walk around the mall. My suggestion (it was a mistake). I should have gone home instead of dawdling around.  She left first after accompanying me for a while as she had dinner plans, so I walked around on my own for like ten minutes. After which when I realised my phone was gone. It was either carelessness on my part, or a pickpocket. But either way, my phone was gone. Sigh. It all happened within minutes. I immediately retraced my steps and got a shop employee to help me ring my mobile. It was switched off already. :(

I had to report to security, rushed home to locate the serial number, then head down to the police station to report the loss. Sigh. My dad was furious, so I doubt I'll be getting myself another iPhone soon...And to think I was so dependent on it. I used it for checking mails, tweeting, facebook-ing, the games apps for entertainment and the camera apps for fun's sake. It was even my alarm clock. It's only an object I know, but I really feel a pang of loss for the phone, which I've had for all of say a year? Sigh.

Boxes of macarons

Christmas macarons

Anyway, enough of my unfortunate loss, talking about Christmas, since it's the festive day today, I decided to post up these colourful macarons I made. I made two flavours - Salted caramel and Christmas ones. And what are Christmas macarons exactly? My definition was coloured red and green shells, with a rich buttercream filling laced with some Bailey's. After all, what's a Christmas like without some booze? ;) The girlfriend later tweeted me that they were a hit at the party, at least the news were cheerworthy and made me smile in spite of my down mood.

I've been experimenting with buttercreams lately for macarons. I've tried out a recipe for French buttercream twice so far, this being the second attempt (my first will be posted after Christmas...). I used the same basic recipe, but tweaking it by adding flavourings to it. The flavour was really yums. I like that French buttercream uses yolks, cos that means I get to use up the leftover yolks from the whites used for the macaron shells. However, that also means that it's a really rich filling compared to Swiss or Italian buttercream.

I used the Italian meringue method of making the shells (as shown here) had no problems making the Salted caramel ones, but when I was heating the sugar syrup for the Christmas ones, I kept encountering a layer of sugar crystallisation that formed in the saucepan. I had to redo my syrup like say three or four times before I succeeded? I wonder what went wrong. It's weird cos there are times like these when the sugar doesn't dissolve properly but forms a crystallistion layer instead. 

My girlfriend was over at my place when I was making the macs, and she Googled that you are supposed to stir the sugar vigourously into the water first before the mixture boils to dissolve the sugar. After which, you shouldn't stir it anymore. We tried that out and it worked so I'm not too sure the reasoning behind it. I always thought that stirring was a no-no. Weird. Is there anyone that can shed some light to this?

Anyway, Merry Christmas folks! I hope that you guys enjoy your own Christmas too...I'm off to Korean tuition, after which I'll be having dinner with my two of my close girlfriends. Loves.