Fraisier

 I can't let go of strawberries just yet. I've been waiting  what seems like a lifetime for them.

Last strawberry season I made my first Fraisier but it wasn't mind blowing. I decided to give it a second chance. This time I used a Laduree recipe and it turned out incredible. 

 Fraisier is the classic French cake (a staple in every patisserie) made of Genoise sponge split in two and soaked with Kirsch syrup, cream of some kind and of course fresh strawberries. Often topped with a thin layer of almond paste. 

 

It is fairly easy to make and looks amazing. 

 

ALMOND GENOISE SPONGE

50g unsalted butter, melted

200g cake flour, sifted

6 eggs

200g sugar

50g ground almonds

 Set the oven on 170C/340F. Prepare cake pan ( I used a square 18"x18" plus 2 mousse rings 6cm).

 In a large heatproof mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar. Place the bowl over simmering water and continue whisking until the mixture reaches 50C/122F and triples in volume (it shouldn't take longer than 10min) Remove from the heat and continue to beat until eggs are completely cooled down.

Fold in the flour with a spatula little by little, then ground almonds and melted butter. Very gently mix together. Fill prepared cake pan (greased and floured) with batter. Bake about 30min. Allow to cool for a moment, remove from the mould and place it on a rack.

KIRSCH SYRUP
75ml water
50g sugar
40ml Kirsch
Bring the water and sugar to boil. Allow to cool and then add Kirsch.

PISTACHIO MOUSSELINE CREAM
135g unsalted butter, soft
270ml whole milk
3 egg yolks
75g caster sugar
23g cornflour
90g pistachio paste
 In a saucepan bring milk to boil. In a bowl whisk egg yolks and sugar together until slightly pale. Add the cornflour. Pour a third of the hot milk over the mixture to temper the egg yolks. Whisk together and pour the whole thing back into the saucepan. Bring to boil and keep it on the low heat continuously mixing for a while (2-3 min)
Remove from eat and when it is still hot incorporate half of the butter. Cover with cling film and allow to cool. When it reaches room temperature (18-20C/64-68F) whip it with electric mixer until smooth and add pistachio paste and remaining butter. Whip until emulsified. Transfer the cream into a piping bag (it is not necessary but very helpful when assembling the cake).

ASSEMBLY
Wash and hull the strawberries. Using a serrated knife slice the sponge horizontally in half (sometimes in 3 if it's unusually thick) to create 2 discs of cake 1cm thick.
Put the first disk back into a pan or mould, lightly soak with a syrup. Arrange a border of strawberries (sliced in half) around the inside of the mould (cut side out, against the mould). Pipe some mousseline cream. Try to push it in between strawberries, so every gap is filled.  Put more strawberries in the centre and cover with the rest of the cream. 

Now press gently second disc on the top. That should spread the cream even. Lightly soak with syrup. If you have some cream left, you can spread it on the top.

To garnish my Fraisier I ground some pistachios to very fine powder and sprinkled on the top. Enjoy!

Mango parfait with coconut sorbet

 Everything looks different in the summer. Flowers bewitch us, grass is finally vivid green and everlasting cold nights are no more. Everybody is cheerful and things are so much easier when you can bribe your children with a scoop of ice cream.
 Summer months are when the new ice cream flavour combinations see the real daylight.

This time is mango and coconut. The recipe I found on graetbritishchefs.com which is a goldmine of great ideas.

MANGO PARFAIT
6 egg yolks
100g caster sugar (bit less if you will make your own mango puree)
375ml double cream
250ml mango puree
Beat the egg yolks on high speed with 1tbsp warm water until pale and double in size. Whip the cream until soft peaks.
Warm sugar with 1tbsp of water to 121C and slowly pour down the edge of the bowl. Whisk until the mixture cools down (few minutes). Gently mix in the mango puree and then fold in whipped cream.
Place in the moulds and put in the freezer for 4h.

COCONUT SORBET
425ml sugar syrup
400ml coconut milk
half a cup desiccated coconut
Measure equal parts of sugar and water, bring to boil until sugar dissolves. That will be your sugar syrup. Add coconut milk and coconut and leave to cool. Strain and pour it into an ice cream maker. Churn. Freeze to set (few hours).

Did I mention that I love plated desserts already? Enjoy!

Rhubarb jelly with orange posset

 I wish my family could give rhubarb some credit. But I can hear only: Mummy, what's for dessert? ...Rhubarb?? Really? Blaaah...we hate rhubarb... it's sour...how can you even put rhubarb into dessert?  I think it is time to stop trying to convert them.

But what to do when you grow rhubarb in your garden and you have constant supplies? The answer is simple: Eat it yourself :)
 I am calling all rhubarb fanatics, please do try this recipe. Orange infused sweet posset goes great with a tart rhubarb jelly. I was really happy that there was nobody to share it with :)
RHUBARB JELLY
250g rhubarb
1/2 orange zest
375ml water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
2 tbsp raspberry syrup
2,5 bronze strength gelatine leaves
Peel, trim and cut rhubarb into batons. Bloom gelatine leaves. Bring water, orange zest, sugars, syrup and all the trimming to boil. Leave it to cool, strain. Put the rhubarb batons and bring it to boil. Do not leave on the heat for too long, rhubarb overcooks very quickly. Take it of the heat and add gelatine. Pour it to the chosen containers.

POSSET
180ml fresh orange juice
3tbs orange zest
3tbsp sugar
500ml whipping cream
2 egg whites
Combine juice, orange zest and sugar until dissolved. Whip the egg whites and set aside. Whip the cream and when it starts to thicken, trickle in the juice. Fold in the egg whites. I used a piping bag to fill the glass but you may as well use the spoon.

 

If you want you can also bake some shortbread biscuits. The recipe comes from greatbritishchefs website and it is super easy to follow. You can half the ingredients and you will still have plenty leftovers for someone who is not so keen on rhubarb ;). Enjoy!

Divine Strawberry Tart

 

Winter in UK is veeeeeery long. It is mild most of the time, but way too long! Even now we have only 7C in the morning and it is already 15th of June!

I am a creature who shivers when the temperature falls down below 20C, so cold days are just not to my liking.  At all!

But there comes a time when you see light at the end of a tunnel. It is STRAWBERRIES time.

 

 

It is the most pleasant view I can imagine.

Celebration starts with countless recipes using freshly picked strawberries. This one is one of my favourite.

For the pastry you will need:

150g plain flour

50g ground almonds

30g icing sugar

100g chilled butter

1 egg

pinch of salt

You can use food processor or do it by hand. Just mix all the ingredients together to create the dough. Do not overwork it. Wrap in a cling film and put in the fridge for at least 1h.

When ready, roll it out to 5mm thickness and line tart tin, dock the dough  and bake in 160C for about 15min or until golden brown.

For the filling you will need:

6 egg yolks

120g caster sugar

20g plain flour

20g corn flour

450ml whole milk

2tsp almond extract

*100g unsalted butter*

Whisk egg yolks with sugar until light and creamy. Add flours, 50ml milk and almond extract to the mixture. Boil the rest of the milk and when it is ready pour it over the egg mix and return to hob. Now it is really important to boil it over a low heat for at least 1 min. constantly stirring. It must be heated to the temperature high enough to destroy the amylase enzyme present in egg yolks, which would otherwise break down the starch and make the pastry cream runny (before I knew the science behind this, I had a pastry cream pouring onto my table after slicing a piece many times!)

When it is nice and thick pour it over the tart shell and leave it to cool. 

* You can also add some butter to the warm pastry cream. It will be richer in taste and it will have creamier texture.

To finish you will need:

As many strawberries as you want on the top

Some roasted almond flakes

Mint leaves - not necessary but it is a nice colour contrast to red fruits.

Enjoy! ...... just remember to share. It will be difficult!

The recipe comes from one of the finest baking blogs I have ever seen - mojewypieki.com . It is in Polish though.

Super Quick Kiwi Sorbet

 When long awaited summer will knock on your door  (I can barely hear it though :)) and the temperature will rise rapidly, you will enjoy it even more with delicious sorbet made by yourself. 

Three basic ingredients are all you really need. Any kind of fruit, sugar and water

Few days ago I got lots of kiwis at a bargain price but how many of them can you eat at once? 

So if you have too much of these

You can turn them into that

 

You will need:

About 10 kiwi, peeled and diced

100g sugar

50g honey

lime juice of 2 limes

50ml water

Boil water and sugar for few minutes and levae it to cool completely. Diced kiwi fruits put into blender with lime juice and sugar syrup. Process it until becomes a smooth pulp.

You don't need an ice cream maker to make this sorbet but finished texture will not be as smooth without it.

To use an ice cream machine - simply pour it in and churn it into sorbet. Transfer it into the container, cover it and freeze until ready to eat.

 To use a freezer - transfer the mixture into the container, cover it and put it in the freezer until softly frozen. Now you have to mix the sorbet regularly with a fork or in a food processor whet it freezes. This will prevent forming big ice crystals.

To enhance the softness you can add a 2 tbsp of alcohol for 1 pint of liquid sorbet. A flavoured liquor perhaps?
Please take it out of the freezer at least 20-25min before serving.

Coffee Ganache Slice



 If you are a coffee and chocolate amateur, you will fall in love with this dessert. Ok, it is another multi-layer slice and it takes time to prepare but it is so worth it.
Chocolate shortbread, coffee ganache, milk and dark chocolate Chantilly and chocolate sheets. Sounds inviting?

CHOCOLATE SHORTBREAD You can prepare that a day in advance.
65g caster sugar
70g unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
85g plain flour, sifted
2g baking powder, sifted
5g cocoa powder, sifted
pinch of salt
Cream butter and sugar together. Add the egg yolk and combine. Now add dry ingredients and mix until the dough is formed. Roll the shortbread out on a lightly floured surface to fit the baking pan. I used 8"x8". Bake in 185C for about 25min or less. It is very easy to burn it because you cannot see browning moment on chocolate dough. Keep it in the pan until  ready to use.

MILK CREME CHANTILLY Day before
160g whipping cream
125g milk chocolate
Bring cream to boil, remove from heat and pour over milk chocolate. Leave it for 2 min, when the chocolate starts to melt stir it until incorporated. Cover it and refrigerate over night.

DARK CREME CHANTILLY Day before.
160g whipping crème
125g dark chocolate
Same process as milk Chantilly.

COFFEE GANACHE
140g whipping cream
200g white chocolate
7g instant coffee
40g unsalted butter, softened and broken into pieces
Bring to boil cream and coffee. Remove from the heat and pour it over white chocolate. Stir until completely melted. Add butter and blend together. Use it immediately.

 To finish. Pour it over cooled shortbread base and refrigerate until firm. When ready, gently remove the ring and smooth the sides.

Take the milk Chantilly and whisk it until stiff peaks. Place mixture into the piping bag and pipe balls along the sides. Top this with the layer of chocolate sheet. And repeat the process with dark chocolate Chantilly. Finish with another chocolate sheet on the top.

Ok, I'm getting another slice.....;)



3 layers, 3 different textures

 There are days when I day dream all the time. Mostly about running my own little patisserie :) What it would look like inside? What kind of pastries I would sell? What would be the customers favourite? You know, the usuals :)

This tart would be definitely there!

 It has three layers. The bottom one - chocolate sable pastry (shortcrust, solid but crunchy), middle one - milk chocolate ganache (melts in your mouth) and on the top sits Creme Chiboust (light as a feather).

Ideally both sable pastry and creme chiboust prepare one day in advance.

CHOCOLATE SABLE PASTRY 

250g unsalted butter

125g icing sugar

1 egg yolk

60g cocoa powder

320g plain flour

1 lemon, juice and zest

I used 25cm tart ring and had some leftover. You can store it in the freezer or make some cookies.

 Place the butter and icing sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Bring them together so they become homogenous mixture but do not cream or aerate. Add the egg yolk. Sift together the cocoa powder and flour and add this to butter mix along with zest and lemon juice. Combine all the ingredients with as little mixing as possible. Wrap the dough and refrigerate it for few hours before rolling.

Roll out the pastry to 2mm  thickness and line the tart ring. Blind bake it for about 18 min. in 180C. 

CREME CHIBOUST

250g whole milk

1 vanilla bean

120g egg yolks

75g caster sugar

20g custard powder

8g gelatine powder

40g water

150g egg whites

200g sugar

75g water

Bring the milk to boil with vanilla pod (slice it in half and take the seeds out first).

In a little bowl sprinkle the gelatine powder over a 40g of water.

In a separate bowl mix the egg yolks and the custard powder. When milk boils pour it over the yolk mix, whisking when its added. Return it to the saucepan and bring to boil, stirring continuously. Remove from heat and add gelatine. 

In a bowl of electric mixer whisk the egg whites on medium speed. Boil the sugar and the water in a saucepan. When the temperature reaches 112C add that syrup to the whisking egg whites by drizzling it down on the side of the bowl. Now increase the speed and whisk until cold. About 10 min. Fold the custard mixture into Italian meringue. Fill the 25cm ring and freeze it overnight.

GANACHE

280ml cream (I used whipping cream)

150g dark chocolate

125g milk chocolate

100g unsalted butter

30g honey

Bring the cream and honey to boil. Immediately pour it over the chocolate (milk and dark) a little at a time.Stir with spatula very gently slowly adding the rest of the cream until all is combined. Allow the mixture to cool to 45C and start adding softened butter, litlle at a time. Use a stick blender to smooth it. Pour the ganache over baked tart form to fill it to the top. Refrigerate until firm.

To finish the whole thing, take Creme Chiboust out of the freezer and remove the rings. Take the ganache tart from the fridge and also remove the ring. Take the frozen Chiboust and place it directly over the tart. If you have a pastry torch you can caramelize the top ( I have done this with general purpose blowtorch. It looked rather scary but it did the trick).
Allow 1h in the fridge before serving.

I used AAron Maree's recipe from the book 'Arabian Dreams'.