christmas this year is rather disappointing coz i didn't manage to make any x'mas goodies. i was up to my elbows with orders even until the eve itself and these peppermint dark chocolate macarons you see here were specially requested by a customer, else i wouldn't hv anything festive to post. i had lotsa things in mind to bake actually - panforte, stained glass cookies, two-toned peppermint marshmallows and white choc rum truffles coated with four different toppings but in the end, i made none.
i feel extremely honored to be given the opportunity to bake for discovery travel & living and their clients this x'mas. 45 boxes of assorted bakes, 3 days of non-stop baking (minus very little rest & sleeping time), i suddenly feel very accomplished. while i'm not really a stranger to big orders, this one must be the biggest yet! very challenging indeed. planning started weeks ago and it was fun to jot down the massive amt of ingredients used (i used close to 30 blocks of butter & 200 eggs) and go shopping for packaging and ingredients.
gnocchi must not like me very much, coz i tried making it twice and failed. first time i mashed the potatoes using the hand blender and they turned out too watery. second time i added too little egg and the gnocchi separated upon boiling! and with the sage leaves already bought (planned to make potato gnocchi with burnt sage butter initially) i had to think of something else.
