Category: pastry

Recipe: Raspberry tart with apple chip

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Makes: 12 mini tarts  (~6cm in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Most of the time my baking ideas come while walking through the supermarket to see which fruits are available. One of the (many) great things about Hong Kong is that we get fruit imported from all around the world which means that fruits like raspberries are available throughout the year and usually at a reasonable price. Given raspberries are super cheap at the moment, I decided to make a dessert bursting with raspberries. The elements of this tart are:

  • Sable base (my first time making a sable and it was super buttery and delicious that I was hoping some of the bases would crack so I could eat them straight from the oven)
  • raspberry cream
  • fresh raspberries
  • chocolate disc
  • apple chip

Ingredients:

Sable base:

  • 150g butter
  • 70g icing sugar
  • 70g almond meal
  • 100g plain flour
  • 10g salt

Raspberry cream:

  • 300g butter
  • 200g raspberries
  • 150g icing sugar

Chocolate disc:

  • 200g dark chocolate

Apple chip:

  • 1 green apple
  • 20ml lemon juice
  • 40+100g caster sugar
  • 1 gelatin leaf
  • 10g butter

Instructions:

Sable base:

  1. whisk together butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy
  2. sift in the flour, almond and salt and mix until well combined
  3. flatten into a disc on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 1 hours
  4. roll out to ~1cm thick and return to the fridge for another 20 minutes
  5. cut out 12 circles around 6cm in diameter and bake  the circles inside the rings at 160C for 15 minutes, removing the rings after around 10mins in the oven

Raspberry cream:

  1. puree raspberries in a food processor and simmer over medium heat until slightly reduced
  2. whisk together butter and sugar then slowly add in the raspberry and whisk until well combined

Chocolate disc:

  1. temper chocolate over a double boiler
  2. spread onto a sheet of acetate
  3. when slightly set, cut out 12 circles, around 5cm in diameter

apple chip:

  1. place apple and lemon in a food processor
  2. bloom gelatin, then drain and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water to melt the gelatin
  3. add the gelatin and 40g of sugar into the apple/lemon then process until well combined
  4. add the apple puree, remaining sugar and butter to a pan over medium-high heat and simmer until slightly reduced
  5. spread the puree over a baking sheet (in different shapes) and baking at 150C for 5-10 minutes until lightly golden

Assemble:

  1. for each sable base: place raspberries around the edges and fill the hole in the middle with some of the raspberry cream
  2. place the chocolate disc on top of each tart then pipe another dallop of raspberry cream
  3. top with an apple chip (or any other decorations) … i also tried decorating it with a chocolate leaf
raspberry tart - apple chips
shaping the apple chips before placing into the oven
raspberry tart 1
Assembling the raspberry tarts
The finished raspberries tart, decorated with a chocolate leaf
The finished raspberries tart, decorated with a chocolate leaf

Recipe: Lemon Meringue Tarts with blueberry gelee

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Finished: lemon meringue tart with blueberry gelee

Makes: 16 small round cakes (~5cm in diameter)

Time required: 2 hours over 2 sessions (~2 hour at a time)

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

One of the things I love about entremets is that you can take different desserts, flavours and textures and layer them into a small delicate cake. For this cake, I wanted to “recreate” a lemon meringue pie – have all the elements of a normal lemon meringue pie (buttery crust, lemon curd, meringue) but create it in a different form. To add a twist … I included a bluberry gelee which oozes out when you cut into the cake – the sweetness (but also subtle flavour) of the blueberry is a great contrast to the sour lemon curd.

Elements of this cake:

  • buttery biscuit base
  • lemon curd mousse
  • blueberry gelee
  • meringue
  • blueberries and chocolate leaf to decorate

Ingredients:

Tart base:

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 150g plain flour
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 70g pure icing sugar
  • 120g butter, cold

blueberry gelee:

  • 125g blueberries
  • 30ml water
  • 70g caster sugar

Lemon curd:

  • 200g caster sugar
  • juice from 3 lemons
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 whole eggs
  • pinch of salt
  • 50g butter

Lemon mousse:

  • lemon curd made above
  • 2 gelatin sheets
  • 450ml whipping cream
  • juice from 1 lemon

Meringue:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 40ml water

To decorate:

  • blueberries
  • tempered chocolate leaves

Instructions:

Tart base:

  1. whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla and set aside
  2. in a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and icing sugar
  3. cut the cold butter into 1cm cubes and beat into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse sand. Careful not to overmix
  4. mix the egg into the flour/butter mixture until just combined
  5. roll into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least an hour
  6. once all the other elements of the cake have been prepared roll the dough to 0.5cm thickness and cut out 16 circles just slightly larger than the round moulds
  7. bake at 170C for 12 minutes until the edges of the biscuit base is golden

Blueberry gelee:

  1. bring all ingredients to a boil and then simmer for ~5 minutes until the mixture thickens
  2. place into a piping bag and then set aside in the fridge to cool as you prepare the lemon mousse

Lemon curd:

  1. whisk together all ingredients except for the butter
  2. place all ingredients (including the butter) into a saucepan over medium heat and continue whisking until the mixture thickens into a curd
  3. place three quarters of the curd into the fridge to cool while leaving the remaining quarter at room temperature

Lemon mousse:

  1. bloom gelatin sheets in iced water for 10 minutes
  2. bring the lemon juice to boil then melt in the bloomed gelatin sheets
  3. mix in the room temperature lemon curd and set aside while preparing the rest of the mousse
  4. in a separate bowl, whisk the cream to medium peaks
  5. whisk together the room temperature lemon curd with the cold lemon curd until light and airy
  6. gently fold into the whipped cream to form the mousse

Meringue:

  1. place sugar and water over low-medium heat to create a sugar syrup
  2. meanwhile, begin whisking the egg whites in a large bowl
  3. when the sugar syrup is ready, pour the sugar syrup in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking the egg whites at maximum speed
  4. continue whisking until stiff peaks

To assemble:

  1. pipe the lemon mousse into the round moulds 3/4 full
  2. pipe in a blob of the blueberry gelee then top the remaining of the mould with more lemon mousse
  3. Freeze the moulds for at least 3 hours, until they can be smoothly removed from the moulds
  4. remove the mousse from the moulds then place each lemon mousse piece over a biscuit base
  5. pipe on the meringue, torch the meringue then decorate with blueberries and chocolate
Tart dough - mixing the butter into the flour. Be careful not to overmix
Tart dough – mixing the butter into the flour. Be careful not to overmix
tart dough - pressed into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least 1 hour
tart dough – pressed into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least 1 hour
tart dough - rolled out and cut into round discs
tart dough – rolled out and cut into round discs
circle moulds with lemon mousse and blueberry gelee
circle moulds with lemon mousse and blueberry gelee
lemon meringue tart - decorated with blueberry and chocolate
lemon meringue tart – decorated with blueberry and chocolate
lemon meringue tart with blueberry gelee
Finished: lemon meringue tart with blueberry gelee

 

Instagram: Whatever_It_Bakes

Recipe: Passionfruit & Meringue Eclairs

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passionfruit chocolate meringue eclair recipe

Makes: 15 eclairs

Time required: 2 hours

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Since moving to Hong Kong in February this year, I have been baking using a portable oven (besides my trips back to Melbourne). For those of you who haven’t lived in Hong Kong before … the apartments are small and most apartments have tiny kitchens without ovens. Although this portable oven (around the size of an Australian microwave) is great for cooking and basic cakes, the temperature isn’t very even or reliable so I haven’t been brave enough to try baking macarons in Hong Kong. But I am dying to bake some sort of pastry … so I decided to try a choux pastry!

My favourite eclairs are the salted caramel ones from Chez Dre in Melbourne and the world-famous eclairs from Sadaharu Aoki in Tokyo. Having no prior concept of what makes choux pastry puff, I’ve always marvelled at how patisseries manage to fill the eclair with custard without cutting the eclair open. Turns out it’s quite simple! 🙂

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My portable oven in Hong Kong – great for basic baking but I haven’t been brave enough to test macarons in this

Ingredients:

Passionfruit custard:

  • 200g passionfruit, seeds removed
  • 350ml milk
  • 2tsp vanilla been paste
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 50g cornstarch
  • 20g unsalted butter

Choux pastry:

  • 125g bread flour, sifted
  • 100ml milk
  • 100ml water
  • 10g sugar
  • 1tsp salt
  • 100g unsalted butter
  • 4 eggs

Chocolate ganache:

  • 200g chocolate
  • 150ml cream

Meringue:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 180g caster sugar
  • 65ml water

Instructions:

Passionfruit custard:

  1. whisk sugar and egg yolks until pale.
  2. whisk in the cornstarch
  3. heat milk and passionfruit over low-med heat until simmering
  4. pour 1/3 of the milk/passionfruit into the egg yolk mixture whilst whisking, then pour the entire mixture back into the rest of the milk/passionfruit
  5. place back on low heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens
  6. remove from heat and stir in the vanilla paste and butter
  7. cover in glad wrap with the glad wrap touching the surface and set aside to chill in the fridge while making the eclair shells

Choux pastry

  1. Preheat oven to 200°C
  2. Place the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt into a saucepan over low heat
  3. Once the mixture just comes to a boil, take off the heat, pour in all the flour and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon (it should now look like mashed potato)
  4. Place the mixture back on low heat and continue to mix for another 2-3mins until the dough forms a ball and comes away from the sides of the pan
  5. Pour the dough into a bowl and mix with wooden spoon to cool slightly before adding the eggs
  6. Add the eggs one at a time and ensure each egg is well incorporated before adding the next egg. This allows greater control over the amount of egg to ensure the mixture doesn’t become too runny from too much egg
  7. The mixture is ready when you lift the wooden spoon and the dough slowly falls off the spoon
  8. Place dough into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle lines around 10-12cm long. Be sure to leave enough space between for the eclairs to expand in the oven
  9. Bake for 10mins at 200°C and then reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 20mins
  10. once removed from the oven, use a toothpick to poke a whole through each meringue to let the steam out. This prevents the eclair shell from becoming soggy or sinking
  11. set aside to completely cool before adding in the custard
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Piped choux pastry ready to go into the oven
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Choux pastry puffing up in the oven

Chocolate ganache:

  1. Bring cream to boil and pour over dark chocolate. Set aside for 2 minutes
  2. Mix in the melted chocolate with the cream
  3. stir in the butter, and set aside to cool slightly

Assembling the eclairs:

  1. once the shells have completely cooled, poked three holes evenly spaced along the top of the eclair
  2. place the custard into a piping bag fitted with a long narrow tip and fill each eclair with custard through the three holes
  3. coat the top of the eclair in chocolate ganache using a spatula

Many blogs tell you to poke the holes and fill the eclairs from the botton of the eclair shell however I prefer to pipe it through the top so I can cover up the holes with ganache.

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Eclairs coated in chocolate ganache

Meringue:

  1. whisk egg whites until foamy
  2. heat sugar and water over low-med heat until the syrup reaches 120ºC
  3. while whisking the eggs, pour the sugar syrup in a thin stream down the side of the whisking bowl
  4. continue to whisk the eggs until it form stiff peaks
  5. place the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a petal tip and pipe the meringue onto the eclairs. you could also use other piping tips to create other patterns
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Carefully piping the meringue onto the eclairs
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nom nom … all that delicious meringue
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torching the meringue

To finish … torch the meringue and decorate the eclairs with raspberries and mint leaves 🙂

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Finished eclairs!! Photo: IG __Salpal__
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ready to be eaten … so delicious :p … Photo: IG __Salpal__

 

Instagram: Whatever_It_Bakes