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Showing posts from July, 2013

Celebrating the Cherries

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Chocolate Cherry Ensemble Cake For the cherry purée: 300 g stoned cherries 50 g sugar 30 g water 5 g lemon juice Boil the water and the sugar in a heavy bottomed pan. Leave to cool. Process the cherries in a food processor. Add the sugar syrup and the lemon juice. Store in the fridge until needed. For the cherry compote: 200 g stoned whole cherries 35 g sugar 100 g cherry purée Combine the cherries and cherry purée in a pan and bring to the boil point. Stir in the sugar and cook over low temperature for 2-3 min. Cool. Take out the cherries from the purée and reserve separately. For the chocolate ganache: 110 g dark chocolate 120 ml heavy cream Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to a simmer and pour it over the chocolate. Let the mixture rest for 10 min.  With a handheld whisk, stir the chocolate cream mixture until smooth and shiny. Leave it to res

Caramelized Apple Tartelettes

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for the tartelettes' shells :  (using tartelettes pans with diameter 9 cm) While the dough is chilled in the refrigerator, prepare the filling. for the filling: 1 kg apples (about 5 medium sized apples) 140 g unsalted butter I 1 g ground cinnamon 200 g granulated sugar 50 ml cognac "Courvoisier 120 ml heavy cream 20 g unsalted butter II Slice the cleaned and peeled apples, dripping few drops of fresh lemon juice after slicing each apple. This will prevent the fast oxidation of the fruit which could cause a unpleasant dark colouring.. Melt the 'butter I' in a wide pan. Add the apples and cook at medium for a few minutes. Add the mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Cook the apples just enough to  achieve the very light caramelizing flavour and colour. The fruit should stay firm. Add the cognac and cream and cook until the sauce thickens. Take off the heat and remove the apples from the sauce, let them cool.  Take the dough out from the refrigerator.

Strawberry Sensation

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for 8 cupcakes: have all the ingredients at room temperature 130 g flour 6 g baking powder 70 g unsalted butter 130 g sugar 65 g eggs 4 g vanilla extract 80 g milk 230 g strawberries chopped Combine the flour and the baking powder in a bowl. Mix well. Beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar beating continuously. Have the buttery mixture pale and light. This will aerate the batter enough for achieving light and melting cupcake texture at the end. Beat in the eggs into the butter. Add the vanilla. Reduce the speed of the mixer and add one third of the flour. After absorbed, add half of the milk, mixing on low, the second third of the flour and the last part of the milk. Fold the last third of the flour. Adding the flour and the milk shouldn't take longer than 2 min. Add the strawberries at the end mixing by hand. Divide the batter into eight cupcake liners. Fill them two thirds. (see the Note!). Bake at 170C for about 20-25 min

Celebrating the Strawberries

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Strawberry Meringue Torte with White Chocolate Mouse Topping (makes one cake with diameter 17-20 cm, height - 9 cm) For the bases: 240 g egg whites 160 g custard sugar 170 g confectioner's sugar 2 Tbsp cornstarch Whip the egg whites and the custard sugar until stiff. Sift the confectioner's sugar and cornstarch into the meringue and fold gently. If you are using a cake ring with a certain diameter, draw three circles with that size on a parchment paper. Turn the paper with the drawings upside down and pipe the bases.  A pastry bag with a plain circled tip could be used or just a cut bag. It is not necessary perfection to be achieved on that. However, the meringue batter will be more than enough for the bases. Attach a star tip to another pastry bag and pipe rosettes for the cake top decoration. If a different decoration is preferred and no need of small confections like the meringue rosettes, draw and pipe more circle bases. The last could be

Pear Upside-Down Cake

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Pear Upside-Down Cake Ingredients:  (for 21 cm/ 9" cake pan) 5 pears (about 1,5 kg) 170 g unsalted butter I 130 g light brown sugar the following ingredients should be at room temperature: 100 g unsalted butter II 130 g granulated sugar 90 g eggs 7 ml/(1/2 Tsp) vanilla extract 230 g flour 12 g baking powder 110 ml milk 100 ml heavy cream Poaching Syrup: 600 ml water 300 g granulated sugar 1/2 lemon, cut into wedges 5 ml/ 1tsp vanilla extract Poaching the pears: Combine all the ingredients for the syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Peal the pears, cut in quarters and core. Each pear should be placed in a bowl and few drops lemon juice should be squeezed over. Depending on the pears used, poaching will continue in two different ways: 1. for firm and not well ripped pears: Add the pears to the boiling syrup and boil for 3-4 min. Reduce the heat and simmer slowly until the fruit becomes tender. Remove from t