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:
whisk together butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy
sift in the flour, almond and salt and mix until well combined
flatten into a disc on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 1 hours
roll out to ~1cm thick and return to the fridge for another 20 minutes
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:
puree raspberries in a food processor and simmer over medium heat until slightly reduced
whisk together butter and sugar then slowly add in the raspberry and whisk until well combined
Chocolate disc:
temper chocolate over a double boiler
spread onto a sheet of acetate
when slightly set, cut out 12 circles, around 5cm in diameter
apple chip:
place apple and lemon in a food processor
bloom gelatin, then drain and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water to melt the gelatin
add the gelatin and 40g of sugar into the apple/lemon then process until well combined
add the apple puree, remaining sugar and butter to a pan over medium-high heat and simmer until slightly reduced
spread the puree over a baking sheet (in different shapes) and baking at 150C for 5-10 minutes until lightly golden
Assemble:
for each sable base: place raspberries around the edges and fill the hole in the middle with some of the raspberry cream
place the chocolate disc on top of each tart then pipe another dallop of raspberry cream
top with an apple chip (or any other decorations) … i also tried decorating it with a chocolate leaf
shaping the apple chips before placing into the ovenAssembling the raspberry tartsThe finished raspberries tart, decorated with a chocolate leaf
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:
whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla and set aside
in a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and icing sugar
cut the cold butter into 1cm cubes and beat into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse sand. Careful not to overmix
mix the egg into the flour/butter mixture until just combined
roll into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least an hour
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
bake at 170C for 12 minutes until the edges of the biscuit base is golden
Blueberry gelee:
bring all ingredients to a boil and then simmer for ~5 minutes until the mixture thickens
place into a piping bag and then set aside in the fridge to cool as you prepare the lemon mousse
Lemon curd:
whisk together all ingredients except for the butter
place all ingredients (including the butter) into a saucepan over medium heat and continue whisking until the mixture thickens into a curd
place three quarters of the curd into the fridge to cool while leaving the remaining quarter at room temperature
Lemon mousse:
bloom gelatin sheets in iced water for 10 minutes
bring the lemon juice to boil then melt in the bloomed gelatin sheets
mix in the room temperature lemon curd and set aside while preparing the rest of the mousse
in a separate bowl, whisk the cream to medium peaks
whisk together the room temperature lemon curd with the cold lemon curd until light and airy
gently fold into the whipped cream to form the mousse
Meringue:
place sugar and water over low-medium heat to create a sugar syrup
meanwhile, begin whisking the egg whites in a large bowl
when the sugar syrup is ready, pour the sugar syrup in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking the egg whites at maximum speed
continue whisking until stiff peaks
To assemble:
pipe the lemon mousse into the round moulds 3/4 full
pipe in a blob of the blueberry gelee then top the remaining of the mould with more lemon mousse
Freeze the moulds for at least 3 hours, until they can be smoothly removed from the moulds
remove the mousse from the moulds then place each lemon mousse piece over a biscuit base
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 overmixtart dough – pressed into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least 1 hourtart dough – rolled out and cut into round discscircle moulds with lemon mousse and blueberry geleelemon meringue tart – decorated with blueberry and chocolateFinished: lemon meringue tart with blueberry gelee
Having recently watched the Zumbo Just Desserts tv show, I was inspired by some of the challenges the contestants faced … in particular the Franken-dessert and the Aussie Classics challenges. This is where the “Operington” cake comes in – the elements of an Opera Cake meet the flavours of a Lamington. I always enjoy making opera cakes because there’s so many layers and elements – which also allows for more creativity with flavours and textures
Elements for this cake:
almond coconut sponge
raspberry buttercream
raspberry jam
chocolate ganache
raspberry soju jelly, for plating
chocolate sauce, coconut and fresh raspberries, for plating
Ingredients:
Almond coconut sponge:
9 egg whites
100g caster sugar
300g almond meal
100g desiccated coconut
400g icing sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
100g plain flour
9 eggs
100g melted butter
raspberry buttercream:
200g raspberries
400g butter
200ml thickened cream
200g caster sugar
9 egg yolks
raspberry jam:
200g raspberries
150g sugar
2 gelatin leaf
chocolate ganache:
500g dark chocolate
400ml thickened cream
40g butter
raspberry soju jelly (optional for decorating):
125g raspberries
1 cup water
1 cup soju (or other alcohol)
8 sheet gelatin
Instructions:
Almond coconut sponge:
preheat oven to 200C
whisk egg whites with caster sugar until stiff peaks and set aside
in a separate bowl, whisk together the almond meal, icing sugar and desiccated coconut
add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined
sift in the flour and mix
carefully fold in the egg whites
gently fold in the butter, careful not to remove all the air in the batter
spread evenly over four trays (roughly 15x30cm) lined with baking paper
bake for 8 minutes until just cooked
remove from baking sheet and set aside to cool
raspberry buttercream:
puree raspberries and place in a pot over low heat until the sugar melts
whisk the egg yolks with sugar until light and fluffy
slowly pour in the hot raspberry while whisking the egg yolks to gently heat up the eggs without scrambling them
return the entire raspberry/egg mixture to low head and continue to mix until it thickens
in a separate bowl, beat the butter. Gradually add the raspberry/egg mixture and cream alternating while whisking until well combined
raspberry jam:
puree the raspberries
place the raspberries and sugar over low-med heat until just boiling
add in the bloomed gelatin and set aside to cool
chocolate ganache:
heat cream over med heat until just boiling
pour over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes
stir the cream/chocolate until well combined then mix i the butter
raspberry soju jelly:
puree the raspberries
place the raspberries, water and soju over medium heat until boiling
add in the bloomed gelatin
pour into a container (depending what shape you’d like the jelly) and leave in the fridge to set (at least 3 hours)
To assemble:
place one slice/tray of the cake on a cake board or plate
spread over 1/3 of the raspberry jam
spread 1/3 of the raspberry buttercream then place in the fridge/freezer for 10mins to slightly harden
spread over 1/4 of the chocolate ganache
cover with the next slide of cake then repeat steps 2-4 another two times
when all the cake/buttercream/jam layers have been used up, pour the remaining chocolate ganache over the top layer of cake
leave in freezer overnight to harden before slicing the cake with a hot knife … freezing the cake results in cleaner edges when slicing the cake
defrost the slices in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving
Finished putting together all the layers of the opera cakePlating the opera cake for a dinner partyanother plating option for the raspberry opera cakeclose up of the Opera Cake for InstagramAlternate plating idea for the opera cake
Reading through Olivier Dupon’s book “The New Patissiers” (my current favourite book) I came across one page which had a really interesting flavour combination – it was a recipe for a chocolate mousse entremet with a lime panna cotta, coconut dacqouise … coated in milk chocolate mousse. I wanted to give the elements of this recipe a try, liking the idea of the tangy-ness of the lime mixed with creaminess of the coconut and the sweetness of the chocolate.
Elements of this cake from centre to outside:
lime panna cotta
coconut cream
dark chocolate mousse
coconut dacquoise base
coated in dark chocolate velvet spray
Although every element of this cake is very easy and quick to make, it does require preparation to make and freeze each of the layers before moving onto the next
Ingredients:
Lime panna cotta:
juice of 2 limes
90ml milk
90ml cream
45g caster sugar
2 gelatin sheets
Coconut mousse:
100ml coconut milk
150ml milk
150ml cream, whipped
1 sheet gelatin
Coconut Dacqouise:
3 egg whites
60g caster sugar
30g coconut flakes
30g almond meal
60g pure icing sugar
Dark Chocolate Mousse:
94g caster sugar
94ml water
1 egg
3 egg yolks
150ml cream
3 gelatin sheets
250g dark chocolate
300ml cream, whipped
Chocolate Velvet spray (I used a pre-made can)
Plastic moulds I used to create the dome shape
Instructions:
Lime Panna Cotta:
bring lime, cream and sugar to simmer for 10 minutes
remove from heat and mix in gelatin
pour into dome mould (~3inch in diameter) and freeze for several hours or overnight
Coconut Mousse:
bring coconut milk and milk to simmer
remove from heat and stir in the gelatin
once cool, gently fold in the whipped cream
pour into a dome mould (~3.5inch in diameter) and then push the lime panna cotta dome into the centre
place into the freezer for several hours or overnight
Coconut Dacquoise:
preheat oven to 180C and line a 8inch baking tin with baking paper
sift together coconut flakes, almond meal and icing sugar
in a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and caster sugar to firm peaks
gently fold the dry ingredients into the meringue
spread onto baking tin and bake for 15-20mins
Dark Chocolate Mousse:
whisk water, sugar, eggs and egg yolks together in a bain-marie
remove form heat and continue to whisk until airy
in a separate pot, bring cream (150ml portion) to boil and stir in the gelatin
pour hot cream over chocolate and stir to combine
gently fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture
whisk the 300ml portion of cream, then gently fold into the chocolate/egg mixture
pour the mousse into the 8inch dome to around two-thirds full and drop the panna cotta/coconut mousse into the centre
fill the rest of the dome to almost to top, leaving a little space to place the coconut dacquoise on top
place in freezer for several hours or overnight until the dome is frozen
Chocolate velvet coating:
once the dome is frozen, unmould and coat the cake in a chocolate velvet spray
chocolate mousse domepre-made chocolate velvet sprayAll finished and ready to eatNutting to see here – loving my squirrel bookend
Having completed my practice croquembouche in Hong Kong several weeks ago, it was time to bake another croquembouche for family Christmas dinner. See earlier post for the full recipe and croquembouche made in Hong Kong.
For this croquembouche for Christmas day, I made several adjustments to the decorations – instead of randomly scattered profiteroles coated in coconut and crushed peanuts, this one contains layers of coconut and plain profiteroles.
My practice croquembouche also didn’t have any spun caramel as I wanted to keep the tower relatively neat. However, after several complaints about it not being a ‘real’ croquembouche without the spun caramel, I did manage to drape some caramel neatly around the profiterole tower. This caramel later melted due to the 35degree heat in Melbourne on Christmas day 😦
Overall, the family was very happy with Christmas dessert – from admiring the tower during dinner to eating the 80 leftover profiteroles several days after Christmas. The only bad feedback was from my sister-in-law who wasn’t too happy that I took the tower apart.
Now, to decide what to bake for Christmas next year …
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! 🙂
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:
whisk sugar and egg yolks until pale.
whisk in the cornstarch
heat milk and passionfruit over low-med heat until simmering
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
place back on low heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens
remove from heat and stir in the vanilla paste and butter
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
Preheat oven to 200°C
Place the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt into a saucepan over low heat
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)
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
Pour the dough into a bowl and mix with wooden spoon to cool slightly before adding the eggs
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
The mixture is ready when you lift the wooden spoon and the dough slowly falls off the spoon
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
Bake for 10mins at 200°C and then reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 20mins
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
set aside to completely cool before adding in the custard
Piped choux pastry ready to go into the ovenChoux pastry puffing up in the oven
Chocolate ganache:
Bring cream to boil and pour over dark chocolate. Set aside for 2 minutes
Mix in the melted chocolate with the cream
stir in the butter, and set aside to cool slightly
Assembling the eclairs:
once the shells have completely cooled, poked three holes evenly spaced along the top of the eclair
place the custard into a piping bag fitted with a long narrow tip and fill each eclair with custard through the three holes
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.
Eclairs coated in chocolate ganache
Meringue:
whisk egg whites until foamy
heat sugar and water over low-med heat until the syrup reaches 120ºC
while whisking the eggs, pour the sugar syrup in a thin stream down the side of the whisking bowl
continue to whisk the eggs until it form stiff peaks
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
Carefully piping the meringue onto the eclairsnom nom … all that delicious meringuetorching the meringue
To finish … torch the meringue and decorate the eclairs with raspberries and mint leaves 🙂
Finished eclairs!! Photo: IG __Salpal__ready to be eaten … so delicious :p … Photo: IG __Salpal__
Time required: 3 hours for the choux pastry, another 2 hours for filling and assembly
Difficulty: ★★★★☆ … Moderate to Difficult. Each step is relatively simple, however it takes time and patience to bring the whole thing together
Challenge:
After baking four cakes for Christmas dinner last year, I needed to bake something bigger and better for Christmas this year. However, an added challenge this year is that I am now living in Hong Kong and will only have one day to bake Christmas dessert once I arrive back home in Melbourne on Christmas Eve. This means I need something that can be baked in less than one day, can feed a family of 9 and also satisfies the requests I usually get from family: coffee, coconut, sweet, not too sweet … and of course it needs to have a touch of Christmas.
Enter croquembouche: makes ~80-100 profiteroles and can feed 15-30 people, it can be decorated to resemble a Christmas tree and you can make a range of fillings to meet every request … AND they look SPECTACULAR.
Inspiration:
I first saw croquembouche as an Adriano Zumbo challenge on Masterchef Australia several years ago. Touted as a very difficult challenge on Masterchef, I never even thought about making a croquembouche until several weeks ago when I was desperately thinking up Christmas ideas.
Having never baked profiteroles before, I read several blogs, watched a range of youtube videos and viewed countless Instagram photos in search of inspiration for decorating to make it fit the Christmas theme.
I decided to use my eclair recipe for the choux pastry. As for decorating, I went for a ‘cleaner’ croquembouche without the caramel strings and added pops of texture by coating some profiteroles in coconut or crushed peanuts. I also found some lovely ribbon at the Eslite Bookstore in Hong Kong to top off the croquembouche.
This post details my ‘practice’ croquembouche … I will be making the real one on Christmas Eve and will upload an update post-Christmas 🙂
Ingredients:
Choux Pastry (makes ~100 profiteroles):
310g bread flour, sifted
250ml water
250ml milk
250g butter
30g caster sugar
8-10 eggs
2tsp salt
Custard filling:
950ml milk
8 egg yolks
120g caster sugar
80g corn starch
30g unsalted butter
2tsp vanilla bean paste
For decorating:
500g sugar to assemble the croquembouche
200g crushed peanuts
100g shredded coconut
Note: you could also use sugar crystals, pearls or anything else you would like to decorate the individual profiteroles
Instructions:
Choux pastry:
Preheat oven to 200°C
Place the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt into a saucepan over low heat
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)
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
Pour the dough into a bowl and mix with wooden spoon to cool slightly before adding the eggs
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
The mixture is ready when you lift the wooden spoon and the dough slowly falls off the spoon
Place dough into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain round nozzle and pipe balls around 2-2.5cm in diameter
Dip a fork into water and slightly flatten the piped circles. The fork indents also reduce cracking in the oven
Bake for 10mins at 200°C and then reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 20mins
Custard filling:
Whisk together egg yolks and sugar until pale
Add in the cornstarch and whisk
Place milk over low-med heat until it comes to a light boil
Remove milk from heat and pour 1/3 of the milk into the egg mixture while continually whisking
Pour the egg mixture into the remaining 2/3 of the milk and place back on low heat. Continue to whisk until the custard thickens
Stir in butter and vanilla
Transfer this to a bowl to cool – at this stage you could also break the custard into smaller batches and create several flavours by whisking in melted dark chocolate, fruit puree or coffee syrup
Cover in glad wrap (with the glad wrap touching the surface of the custard) and refrigerate until it’s time to assemble the croquembouche.
Ready to go into the oven
Puffed up in the oven
decorated with caramel + crushed peanuts and coconut
Construction begins
Assembling the croquembouche:
Transfer the custard into a piping bag fitted with a long piping tip and fill each profiterole with custard. Be sure to poke the piping tip through the side of the profiterole which will be facing the inside of the croquembouche
Melt sugar over low heat until all the sugar is melted and is a light amber colour (you could also make a sugar syrup by adding water). Carefully dip the bottom of each profiterole and place the toffee side up on the tray to dry – at this stage I also coated around half of the profiteroles with either shredded coconut or crushed peanuts
Trace a circle template on a sheet of baking paper
Construct the croquembouche by carefully lining the profiteroles around the circle; sticking each profiterole together using the toffee ‘glue’
The finished product!!
Tips for serving:
The profiteroles can be cut away from the tower using a pair of scissors
I also pulled together a bowl of dark chocolate ganache (150g dark chocolate, 100ml cream) for guests to dip the profiteroles into while serving
Whatever it bakes 