CHERRY MACARONS

Posted in macarons by sallybr

And we are absolutely thrilled to have Prince ruling The Kingdom! Now, back to Cherry Macarons!

Shells were made using my default recipe, which you can find here. I added a mixture of red, orange and brown dyes, eyeballing everything, trying to get the color I had in mind. Never very easy to do with macarons, as the dye goes in the meringue component but then the almond mixture lightens it up a bit. Still, I am happy with the outcome…

CHERRY MACARONS
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

For the cherry compote:
(you won’t use the full amount)
1 pound sweet cherries, pitted and coarsely chopped
50g sugar (1/4 cup)
½ teaspoon almond extract
zest of 1/2 orange
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tablespoon of water

Cook cherries, sugar, almond extract, orange zest, and salt in medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until cherries release their juices, and mixture is visibly thicker, about 8 minutes.

Add the slurry of cornstarch and add to the cherries. Cook for a minute or two, transfer to a bowl and allow it to cool completely.

White Chocolate Cherry Ganache:
200g white chocolate (chopped fine)
70g Cherry Compote (made as above)
70ml heavy whipping cream
Red Food coloring (optional, but nice)

Melt the white chocolate very gently in the microwave at 50% power, whisking every 20 seconds or so. Bring whipping cream and cherry compote to a boil and mix well with the melted chocolate. Add a touch of red food dye if you like. Use an immersion blender to emulsify it all together, place it in the refrigerator covered with a plastic wrap until fully set (I made it 6 hours before using).

Use the cherry ganache to fill macaron shells made with your favorite recipe, or using the one I linked in the first paragraph of this post. Allow the filled macarons to sit in the fridge overnight before consuming them.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

To decorate the shells, I made a simple drawing of two cherries and a couple of leaves. I used food safe pens to color them. The easiest, fastest way is to use one color at a time, and just do them all as in a little factory line.

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6Jun2024

LEMON GANACHE MACARONS AND ROYAL ICING TRANSFERS

Posted in macarons by sallybr

Super thrilled by this technique! I saw it on Instagram shared by the wonderful Melinda (see her page here). Basically she used Royal icing transfers right on the piped shells before crusting, and they stand well during baking, do not affect the shells and don’t get burned in the oven either. This opens up so many possibilities of decorating, and also makes it super easy. Once the macs are baked, they are already dressed up for party!

The recipe used for the shells is my default that you can find here. Simply divide the batter in three portions and dye one portion with yellow, one with green and one you can leave plain. Bake as normally, but right after piping and banging the pan to release bubbles, place your Royal icing transfer on top.

LEMON GANACHE FILLING
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

250g white chocolate, chopped very finely
75g heavy cream
zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 tsp lemon emulsion (optional, I used LorAnn)

Place the chocolate in a bowl. Heat the heavy cream until almost boiling, pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for 5 minutes, whisk gently. If needed, place in the microwave for a minute at 50% power. Once the chocolate is melted, add the lemon zest and juice, and the lemon emulsion, if using. Whisk gently again, then place in the fridge for an hour or so.

Once the ganache is set, you can whip it with a handheld blender or use as it is. If you decide to whip the ganache, make sure not whip for too long or it will go grainy and hard. Use caution here.

Fill the macaron shells, and let them mature in the fridge overnight before serving.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

I don’t think I will ever get tired of baking macarons!

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23Dec2020

CRANBERRY WHITE CHOCOLATE TART

Posted in Desserts, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

I cannot think of a better dessert for Christmas or New Year’s Eve. Cranberries and white chocolate go very well together, as the former is so tart and the latter is often accused of excessive sweetness. Join to this pair a crust made from what is essentially a gingerbread cookie, and as you savor it, all thoughts of pandemics and politics and whatever else troubled 2020 will vanish in thin air. I promise you.

CRANBERRY AND WHITE CHOCOLATE TART
(recipe published with permission from Chef Eve)

for gingerbread crust:
178g all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
113g cold, cubed, unsalted butter (1 stick)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1⁄4 tsp. ground allspice
A pinch ground cloves
1⁄2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. molasses
1⁄2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp cold water

for white chocolate ganache:
340g white chocolate
170g (3/4 cup) heavy cream
2 tbsp. room-temperature unsalted butter, cubed
pinch of salt

for cranberry jelly:
3 cups (340g) whole cranberries, washed and picked through
1 medium-sized apple, peeled and grated
200g granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
shaved white chocolate and sprinkles for decoration (optional)

for a 9-inch tart pan

Mix dry ingredients together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle. Add in cold, cubed butter and ginger, and mix until crumbly, and butter is no larger than pea-sized. Mix together cold water, molasses, and vanilla, then stream into pie dough and mix just until dough starts to come together and no dry flour remains in the bottom of the bowl. Do not overmix. Chill the dough for 30 minutes, then roll into a 1⁄8-inch thick round. Use the tart pan to make sure the dough is big enough to come up the sides of the pan with a little overhand. Chill 30 minutes more (the dough is very soft, it needs the extra time in the fridge), then line the tart mold. Chill in the freezer for 10 minutes, then trim the edges of the pie dough using a paring knife. Reserve dough scraps in case you need to patch any cracks that form as the tart bakes.

Line the tart crust with a sheet of parchment paper (or plastic wrap, which is what I do) and fill with baking weights that come up to the edge of the tart. If using a plastic wrap, make sure to fold it over the top of the beans, so that the plastic won’t touch the metal pan. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes, then carefully remove the pie weights and bake another 10-15 minutes, until the crust is golden brown at the edges, and the center of the tart dough is completely baked. Cool to room temperature.

Make the chocolate ganache. Bring cream to a simmer. Put chocolate and salt in a food processor and pulse to break up into small pieces. When cream simmers, pour over chocolate and let sit one minute to start melting the chocolate. Pulse until smooth. When the chocolate is fully melted, add in butter cubes, and blend to incorporate. Pour into the cooled pie crust. Chill in the freezer to set for about 1 hour as you make the jelly. Make sure the tart is sitting nicely leveled.

Make the cranberry jelly. Put all ingredients except vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cook until all of the cranberries explode, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and press through a mesh strainer. Cool for 30 minutes at room temperature, then carefully pour over the very cold from the freezer white chocolate layer. Chill at least 30 minutes in the fridge for the layer to set.

Optional decoration: shave some white chocolate on half of the surface, add sprinkles and sugared cranberries on top.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: As some of you may have already noticed, this year there won’t be a Great American Baking Show. They could not make it happen with all the restrictions due to the pandemics. It was tough enough to produce the British show, but the American production had to be canceled. The producers decided that this month they would feature on their Instagram page holiday-inspired bakes from contestants of previous seasons. This was my contribution. You can browse through all the entries from other tent-bakers clicking here. Be ready to be amazed…

Back to the tart .The combination of cranberry jelly and chocolate ganache is superb but not the only thing I loved about this dessert. The crust is just perfect and quite different from any other tart I’ve ever made. Lastly, for my taste the proportion of crust and topping also hit the jackpot. When I make it again, I might use some gelatin to get the top layer a little more set, so that the sliced piece would have more defined layers, but it’s more a cosmetic point, not really that big a deal.

Chef Eve, thank you so much for allowing me to share your delicious recipe!

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20Sep2019

MANGO HAZELNUT ENTREMET CAKE

Posted in Cake by sallybr

It’s been a while since I made what is probably my favorite type of dessert. As far as entremet goes, this is a reasonably simple example, with a single insert in the center (mango gelée) and only two components in the base, a hazelnut dacquoise and a crunchy chocolate layer. I used the Silikomart Vague mold, I love its design and how easy it is to remove the frozen cake for final decoration, which involved chocolate spray and a few caramel-coated hazelnuts.

MANGO HAZELNUT ENTREMET CAKE
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

For the hazelnut dacquoise:
75 g egg whites, at room temperature
50 g sugar
70 g hazelnut flour (I processed toasted hazelnuts)
50 g sugar
20 g all-purpose flour

Heat oven to 350F.

Beat the egg whites (with whisk attachment) until you can see a trail forming as the beater moves through them. Add the sugar slowly and beat until firm peaks form, but do not overbeat or it will get grainy (and ruined). Add the hazelnut flour mixed with remaining 50 g of sugar and the flour, folding delicately. Pour or pipe the mixture in a circle about 8-in diameter over parchment paper. Cook for about 10 minutes, let it cool on a rack, while still a bit warm cut a circle of the exact dimension of the mold you’ll use to make the dessert (if using Vague mold, that will be 20 cm or 7 and 3/4 in).

For the mango insert:
150 g mango puree (I used frozen mango chunks)
25 g sugar
5 g gelatin in sheets (230 Bloom)

Soak the gelatine cut into pieces in cold water for 10 minutes.

Bring the puree together with the sugar to 120F, add the drained gelatin, mix and pour in a 6-inch ring, covered on the bottom with film and placed on a tray. Remove a small amount (about 2 tablespoons) for the decoration on top.

for the chocolate-crisp:
113 g Lindt milk chocolate with hazelnuts
10 g pistachio paste (or add 2 tsp coconut oil)
10 g puffed quinoa (or rice crisps cereal, or crumbled corn flakes)

Toast the puffed quinoa in a 350F oven for a few minutes, until fragrant. Melt the chocolate gently and mix it with the toasted quinoa and the pistachio paste. Spread as a thin circle on parchment paper, with dimensions a bit bigger than the bottom of the dessert mold. Once it cools slightly, cut it to fit exactly on top of the hazelnut dacquoise (20cm or 7 and 3/4 in).

For the white chocolate mousse:
175 g whole milk
35 g sugar
70 g egg yolks
7 g gelatin in sheets
175 g white chocolate
1/4 tsp vanilla paste
350 g cream

Soak the gelatin in cold water for 10 minutes. Break up the chocolate and place it in a bowl with the vanilla paste.

Bring the milk to a simmer in a saucepan. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar by hand in a bowl, pour over a bit of the simmering milk to temper it, then transfer the whole mixture to the pan and bring the temperature to 180F. Remove from heat, add the squeezed gelatin, pour into the bowl with the chocolate and emulsify using an immersion blender or a whisk. Make sure it is all very well combined and smooth. Allow it to cool.

Meanwhile whip the heavy cream to a consistency of melted ice cream. When the custard is around body temperature or just a bit warmer, fold the cream into it. Pour about 1/3 of the mixture into the Vague mold , place the frozen mango insert, pour chocolate mousse almost to the top, allowing just enough room for the crunchy chocolate layer and the dacquoise. Add them, and fill any gaps on the sides with mousse. Wrap with plastic and freeze overnight.

for the chocolate spray:
300 g white chocolate
200 g cocoa butter

Melt together and place in sprayer at 90 F (I use a normal paint sprayer dedicated to chocolate only).

Turn out the frozen cake and spray immediately with a light coating of white chocolate suspension. Melt the reserved mango gelatin very gently, and spoon some in the center of the mold. Keep in the fridge for at least 4 hours before serving. Decorate with caramel-coated hazelnuts.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I am very happy with the flavors and textures of this baby. The tricky part of this type of dessert is assembling it, because it’s a process that is a bit “in the dark”, so to speak. With a regular layered cake, you can visualize the layers well, because you either bake them individually or cut slices from a bigger cake. As the cake is assembled, it is also easier to judge how much filling to add so that the layers end up as uniform as you want them to be. In mousse cakes like this one, it becomes a bit of a guessing game. For instance, how much to allow the insert to sink in, how to make sure it is properly leveled, how to prevent large air bubbles to form, or to make sure the sides are smooth. Small details can go wrong, but you may not realize until unmolding the frozen cake next day. Talk about cake-anxiety… 😉

You can see that part of the mango insert got a little wavy. That happened because when I first made the insert and set it in the fridge overnight, the pan got a bit tilted and I had to melt the layer again and re-freeze it, not an ideal situation. Lesson learned. It is crucial to have space in your freezer that allows all components to lay flat and absolutely leveled.

The most fun part? Making the hazelnut with the pointy caramel bits. I followed the method described in Martha Stewart’s site, and it worked like a charm. My only advice is that you make more hazelnuts than you need. Some end up cracking as you stick the skewer, so it’s better to start with more. Also, some might roll a bit as the caramel drips compromising the shape of the drip. It is very important to let the caramel rest before coating the hazelnuts, but once it reaches the right viscosity, you must work fast. It is possible to re-warm the caramel briefly to continue using it, but it’s a bit of a hassle. I prefer to hit that magical point and work with it right away.

Finally, don’t let the lack of a Silikomart mold stop you from making this dessert. A simple ring or springform pan will work, as long as you have a second ring with smaller diameter to form the insert. And the velvet coating is also optional (although you can also buy a spray can with the suspension ready to use; be ready for sticker shock!). The surface is very smooth to start with (see the large photo in the composite picture), so you could leave it as it is, or melt some white chocolate and drizzle it all over the top, in a Pollock-manner. You could dye the chocolate orange and then add the hazelnuts here and there.

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23Feb2019

BERRY REBELLION TARTS BY KIRSTEN TIBBALLS

Posted in Desserts, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

Fantastic, terrific, outstanding, phenomenal, impressive, superb. Those are some of the adjectives I must use to express how I feel about Savour online classes, particularly those taught by the founder of the site, Kirsten Tibballs. I found Savour by accident about 6 months ago, and decided that a monthly subscription to have access to the hundreds of patisserie videos (260 at the present time) was more than worthy it. They add new videos on a regular basis, but in my opinion, even if they did not, the material already available is mind-blowing. Yes, yet another adjective joined my party. Kirsten Tibballs’ CV is quite impressive, you can read about her in this recent interview. Plus, she is a perfect teacher, going over every detail in the recipe, making sure you know what is absolutely important to pay attention to and why. I learn a lot watching her classes. And the icing on the cake? She always has a nice smile and a calm, serene demeanor that makes even the most complex recipes seem doable. Well, except when she performs her magic tricks with tempered chocolate. The doable component goes out of the window, and it goes real fast. Today I share a recipe she offered on her youtube channel, and show you another tart (without the recipe) that is part of the Savour school. They were both spectacular, but I am particularly thrilled by the first one: Berry Rebellion Tarts. We had them for our Valentine’s dinner dessert, and they closed the evening with a golden key. Maybe it was more a ruby-red key?

VALENTINE’S BERRY REBELLION TARTS
(slightly modified from Kirsten Tibballs youtube channel)

For the pastry shells:
225g all-purpose flour
125g unsalted butter
75g superfine granulated sugar
1 egg (about 60g)
2 teaspoons of water

Heat the oven to 350F. Combine the sifted flour and butter to form a crumb; you can do this either in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, food processor or rub the butter into the flour by hand. It is important that you do not over mix at this stage and ensure that all the butter is combined without forming a paste.

Combine the sugar, water and egg in a bowl, stop the mixer and add this to the crumb mixture. Mix until it just comes together as a dough. Press the dough into a flat square, cover in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for 1 hour. Once the dough is firm, remove from the fridge and cut in half. Roll the pastry out to 3mm thick on a surface lightly dusted with flour. Cut out discs slightly larger than the tart rings (mine are 8cm in diameter). Place the rings on a lined baking tray and line them with the pastry. Place the tarts in the fridge and repeat the process with the remaining dough.

When the pastry has firmed up, trim the edges with a small sharp knife. Cover the tarts with plastic wrap, fill the tarts with uncooked beans or rice, pressing them into the base firmly to make sure it is filling all the corners. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, remove the rice and plastic lining and bake for a further 4-6 minutes or until a light golden brown colour. Remove the rings while the tarts are warm and allow to cool.

For the crunchy layer:
20g freeze-dried strawberries
13g puffed rice cereal
62g white chocolate
20g grapeseed oil

Melt the white chocolate in a plastic bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time on high until it is half melted. Stir vigorously to melt all the chocolate and add in the oil. Mix to combine then add the strawberries and rice bubbles and stir. Spoon a thin layer onto the tart shells, followed by a thin layer of compote, made as described below.

For the strawberry compote:
200g strawberries, hulled and cut in pieces
50 g granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
120 mL water (about 1/2 cup)
pinch of salt

Place strawberries in a saucepan with sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Divide the water into two – pour half with the fruit and combine the other half into the cornstarch.

Heat the fruit on low to medium until sugar is dissolved shaking the pan to cook evenly. Add the well-mixed cornstarch mixture into the bubbling fruit. Continue to cook on low – the mixture will thicken and looks glossy. When thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon or spatula it’s ready. Let cool completely. It can be prepared a couple of days in advance.

For the Chantilly topping:
150 ml fresh cream 35% fat (A)
15g liquid glucose
1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
105g good quality white chocolate
220 ml fresh cream 35% fat (B)

Boil the cream (A), glucose and vanilla in a saucepan. Pour the boiling mixture over the white chocolate in a bowl and whisk together by hand. Add in the cream (B) and whisk again. Place in the fridge for 6 hours prior to whipping. To whip, whisk it in a stand mixer or by hand to a piping consistency.

Place a generous spoonful of the white chocolate Chantilly cream on top and smooth into a dome shape with a knife. Freeze for 1 hour minimum. Proceed to make the chocolate coating.

For the chocolate coating:
500g white chocolate
50g grapeseed oil
10g red oil soluble colour (I used only 4g)

Temper the white chocolate by melting it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until half melted. Add in the grapeseed oil and combine. Portion out one-third of the chocolate and sieve in the red colour. Stir to combine then fill a paper piping bag halfway with the chocolate. Place the white chocolate in a smaller bowl and pipe the red chocolate in a grid pattern on top. Holding the tart shell, dip the cream coating into the chocolate and twist the tart as you remove it. Let it drip for a few seconds before turning it upwards and leave at room temperature to set. Pipe red chocolate over the grid pattern each time you dip a new tart, until you coat the six of them.

Allow them to fully set, place in the fridge to defrost for at least one hour before serving.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: When I coated the tarts and placed them on the rack to set, I said to myself “did I make these? did I really make these?” Nothing beats the thrill of pulling a recipe that seems a bit too complex and that takes me out of my comfort zone. More often than not, I have small issues with it, but not this time. They turned out better than I expected. I spread the preparation over three days, because with Valentine’s falling on a Thursday I had no choice. The tartlets were made on Tuesday evening, the compote on Wednesday evening.

I urge you to watch Kirsten video on youtube. Her method to shape the dough in the tart rings is wonderful and if you follow it closely you’ll have tartlets with a perfect sharp angle at the bottom, instead of a rounded-up edge that makes spreading the filling a bit tricky. Small details matter. The addition of a tiny amount of water in the dough makes it easier to roll out. A pleasure to work with. I used regular saran wrap to cover the tarts before filling with beans (or rice, if you prefer that). Just make sure to crumble the plastic on top, so that it dos not touch the ring during baking. Once the tarts are cool, you are ready to move on to the two-component filling…

Mis-en-place is everything, and BogeyQT™ definitely approved the way I handled that step. A crusty base with puffed rice cereal, freeze-dried strawberries and white chocolate gives these babies intense flavor and a perfect contrast to the creamy topping that is added later. I changed the recipe for the strawberry compote, because I felt that just simmering the fruit in water and sugar resulted in a very loose mixture. I was afraid it would leak all over the place when I cut the tart. So I used a strawberry compote slightly thickened with cornstarch. It maybe depends on the fruit available to you, Kirsten made them in Australia at the peak of the summer. Lucky lucky woman, I am in the desolate tundra of Kansas freezing my tropical bones. Once the compote is added, all you have to do is crown it with some seriously awesome white chocolate Chantilly cream.

Not to repeat myself, but still doing it, you MUST watch her youtube video for this step (around minute 18). I was a bit worried about sculpting the top in a nice mountain-shape, Chantilly is not the most forgiving substance in patisserie world. But Kirsten, knowing that this step has the potential to induce hyperventilation, holds her spatula and with a very sweet smile says, eyes straight to the camera: I know you can do it! I got faith on you…. Well, let’s say I would not allow cameras to show my performance, but somehow I managed to do it, a few blobs of cream finding the counter top, but not really that bad. And that final step? Swirling the top of the frozen tartlets in the white chocolate pool? That is THE coolest thing ever! Dip it right to the level of the tart shell, and then control your nerves and lift it as you turn. Don’t over-think it. Go for it. I tell you, it was almost as much of a thrill as crossing the finish line of a marathon back in 1986. Yeah, that’s about right.

The tart is simply amazing. The white chocolate-Chantilly cream is quite likely one of the most luscious toppings I’ve ever made, and all the components work together well: the extra crunchy layer with the freeze-dried strawberries is full of flavor, the compote sweet-and-tart, and then the creamy top. OMG-type of dessert. Trust me. You could change the color of the swirl component, maybe even add two different colors for a cool effect, adapting it to Easter, Christmas, Mardi Gras… One of the tastiest things I’ve made in a long time.

Now, time for a teaser recipe, which you can find at Savour.com. Kirsten’s Crown of Savour is a single tart with some similarities to the Berry Rebellion. A tart base (slightly different recipe), a crusty layer made with pistachios, slivered almonds, puffed rice and white chocolate. Fresh raspberries spread on top, all covered with a superb vanilla cream perfumed with rose-water. To crown it, a disc of tempered chocolate showered with a dust of freeze-dried raspberries. It was a labor of love, but worth the effort.

I think the trickiest component of this tart was the tempered chocolate disc. Kirsten is undoubtedly the Queen of Chocolate. She is able to spread the tempered suspension super thin, so the result is a much more delicate topping. The decoration she chose for the tart is also totally different, she baked little sticks with meringue and stuck them in a nice pattern all around. You can marvel at it here. I could not bring myself to go for those, as all my energy had been depleted in a certain chocolate tempering adventure. I decorated the edges with pieces of tempered chocolate I had played with. Kirsten’s Crown of Savour is a real masterpiece of patisserie.

The flavors of this tart were also quite amazing, Kirsten is big on contrasting textures. In the video, she points out that you can potentially simplify things by omitting the crunchy layer on top of the crust, but I do think it adds a lot to the dessert. If you spread preparation over a couple of days, it’s all pretty doable. Of course, the chocolate component a bit of a challenge. Savour has a few tutorials on tempering chocolate using different methods like tabling and microwave, so it’s actually all there for you to learn. I need a lot more practice, my chocolate decorations are always a bit “heavy”, not enough finesse, because evidently I don’t have the “chocolate skill.” Not yet, that is…

As I mentioned, Savour right now has 260 videos. Most are 20 to 40 minutes long, some are shorter, some slightly longer. They show every single step to make the desserts, no matter how complex. You have access to the full recipe, as well as links to special items used (baking pans, silicone molds, piping gadgets). Finally, you also have access to a forum to ask questions to moderators and other bakers. If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I only recommend things I love, and never accept any requests to review books or products. I am absolutely in love with Savour and feel that anyone with a passion for patisserie will profit from their online classes.