Tag: french dessert

Food For Thought, Recipes, Travel

My take on the French chouquette

by AudreyLeave a Comment on My take on the French chouquette

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After a month-long break, I am back with one of the prettiest posts I have shot in a long time. Let me introduce you to the chouquette, a light, airy pastry that can be decorated any way you wish.

These pastry bites use the same dough as the cream puff, only instead of filling the pastry with cream, you top them with pearl sugar or chocolate to add sweetness and texture. In this post, I wanted to treat them like doughnut holes so that I could offer you guys a healthier alternative to the breakfast staple.

These pastries are a one pot wonder – and they bake up in a flash for those who are impatient bakers. For those starting to look for handmade gift options this holiday season, this is a great option as chouquettes are easy to make and can be decorated quite lavishly. In this post I have created four options for you: the traditional version that is topped with a crunchy homemade pearl sugar, a chouquette topped with chocolate chunks, a cinnamon sugar dusted version, and my personal favorite: a green tea chouquette topped with black sesame.

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Ingredients:

  • 1/2 c. flour
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
  • 4 tbs butter
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 eggs

Toppings:

  • Cinnamon sugar (about 1/4 cup should work)
  • Pearl sugar – you can make this by mixing a cup of sugar with a teaspoon of water and then pressing it into a heated saucepan. Leave it to cook on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring and re-pressing a couple times while waiting. It will harden into lumps as it cools.
  • Green tea icing: 1/4 cup powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons water, 1 teaspoon matcha powder
  • Black sesame seeds
  • Dark chocolate chunks

Step 1: Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt the butter in a pot with the water until it is entirely liquified. Bring the butter/water mixture to a boil.

Step 2: Add the flour, nutmeg and salt. Stir until the mix forms into a lump. Keep the pot on the heat and stir the dough vigorously for a minute to evaporate any excess water. You want to create a very thick paste.

Step 3: Remove the pot from the heat. Stir the dough vigorously for a few minutes to help cool the dough down. You want it to be cool enough that you can touch it and not be burned. (If it is too hot or your arm gets tired, you can let it sit for a few minutes to cool off.)

Step 4: Add the eggs one at a time. The dough will become lumpy at first, so you will not want to add all the eggs at once. Beat the egg into the paste until it becomes homogenous before adding the next. When all of the eggs are mixed in, transfer the batter to a plastic bag. (You can easily do this by inserting the bag into a mug, and inverting the mouth of the bag over the rim of the cup.)

Step 5: Cut a centimeter sized opening into the corner of your plastic bag – this will be a makeshift pastry bag. Pipe 1 inch-sized mounds onto the sheet, leaving an inch of space between each. Using a dampened finger, lightly tap on the top of the batter to even out any pointed tips. For those making the sugar or chocolate versions, press the sugar or chocolate chunks into the tops of the dough. Bake for 15 minutes.

Step 6: For those making the cinnamon sugar version, while the pastry is fresh out of the oven and steaming hot, dump the pastry puffs into a bag filled with cinnamon sugar. Close it, and shake to coat evenly. For those making the green tea version, mix the powdered sugar, matcha and water until you have a thick paste. Dip the tops of the pastry into the icing and then top with black sesame seeds.

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chouquette animation

 

Recipes

Apple tart with oil based, vegan crust

by AudreyLeave a Comment on Apple tart with oil based, vegan crust

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I’m back guys! Sorry for the minor delay. In this post, I am going to show you guys a simple, but beautiful apple tart that uses an oil-based crust.

I made this tart with the idea that it would be similar to a French alternative, the tarte aux pommes. In the French version, there is a layer of apple compote that glues the apple slices to the crust. However I didn’t like how mushy it could be. So I mixed the French and American style pies to make this result. Similar in appearance to a tarte aux pommes, this recipe has the texture of traditional apple pie. Crunchy, chewy and juicy, this is a pretty dessert to make if you have a few spare apples on hand.

Also, in case you guys have never used an oil-based crust, it is very similar to the traditional alternative. Only this one is more on the crumbly side. If you want an easier crust recipe – this is a good option since you just press it into the mold. (Original crust recipe from King Arthur flour.)

Ingredients

Crust

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I threw a little whole wheat flour in too)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 to 4 tbs water

Filling

3-4 apples, sliced thinly with the skin on (the skin helps give visual interest/texture)
3 tbs sugar
2 tbs butter, cubed (optional)
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Glaze

1 tbs orange marmalade or apricot preserves
1 tsp lemon juice, orange liqeur or water

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Mix all of the crust ingredients in a large bowl until you achieve a large ball. Press into an ungreased pie dish or tart pan. Prick the bottom of the pan with a fork to create vent holes.

Step 2: Mix the sugar, apple slices and cinnamon in a bowl. The apple slices should be a couple millimeters thick. Layer them in a flat, even spiral around the base of the tart pan. Place a few cubes of butter on top of the apple slices. Bake around 40 minutes until the crust is flakey and the apples start to shrivel up and soften. If the crust browns too fast, cover it with a layer of foil.

Step 3: When the tart is fresh out of the oven, rest it on a cooling rack. While it is cooling, microwave the orange marmalade so it liquifies, then add the juice/liqueur/water to thin it out. Using a pastry brush, dab the marmalade mixture over the surface of the apples. This will keep the tart from drying out.

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Recipes

Matcha île flottante with roasted soybean powder and Japanese black honey

by AudreyLeave a Comment on Matcha île flottante with roasted soybean powder and Japanese black honey

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I first thought of this recipe a few months back when I did the chocolate almond meringues. I had put the first batch in the oven and found that I still had a cup or two of the whipped egg whites left. Since I tend to do a lot of midnight baking sessions and I didn’t want to have to bake again late into the night, I decided to make a simple île flottante recipe with the leftovers. Unfortunately I didn’t have the materials to make the cream sauce, so I didn’t bother photographing it.

However I decided to revisit the recipe again, only with an Asian twist. Matcha is a type of green tea that takes the leaves and grinds them into a flavorful, bright green powder. I incorporate that into the egg whites in this recipe. In the cream sauce, I use kuromitsu as a sweetener. Roughly translated into black honey in English, kuromitsu is a syrup made from a special black sugar. It has a flavor very similar to molasses.

I first tasted the stuff in a restaurant in Dallas. They topped a serving of ice cream with the kuromitsu and a dusting of kinako, roasted soybean flour. It was delicious. So, I decided to play with the dessert’s flavors. (For those that have never had kinako, it tastes a lot like ground peanuts, though more nutty.)

Enough with my mini story time, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

Meringue:

  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon matcha

Crème Anglaise, recipe partially inspired from one from Epicurious

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup milk, any type
  • 1/2 cup whipping cream
  • 2 tablespoons kuromitsu, or extra dark brown sugar if not available
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Toppings:

  • kinako to taste
  • kuromitsu to taste

Step 1: Whip the egg whites until they have soft peaks. While the whites are whipping, mix the matcha with the sugar. Make sure there are no lumps of matcha powder or there will be bitter lumps of color in the meringue. Matcha is too strong a flavor when eaten straight.

Step 2: With the mixer on low, or stirring slowly, add the sugar mix in slowly. Wait until the sugar is mixed in fully before increasing the speed to avoid a cloud of matcha floating out of the mixing bowl. Whip the mixture until you achieve stiff peaks that are sturdy and hold their own in structure. Set aside.

Step 3: In a small sauce pan, heat the milk and cream while stirring occasionally. In another small bowl, mix the egg yolks and sugar until combined. When the milk/cream mixture starts to steam, remove from heat. Add a tablespoon or two of the liquid into the egg yolks. Mix to combine. This will thin out and warm up the yolks, preventing them from cooking in the next step.

Step 4: Add more milk mixture into the yolks until they create a thin liquid. Add them back into the warm milk in the saucepan. Return the pan to the heat. While stirring constantly over high heat, continue to cook the milk/egg mix. You will notice the bottom of the pan will start to accumulate a thicker cream as the crème Anglaise cooks. This is the beginnings of the sauce forming. Continue stirring, and cook until you create a homogenous mixture that coats the back of a spoon. You know you are done when you can swipe a finger across a sauce-coated spoon and the liquid keeps the trail open. Set the sauce aside.

Step 5: With a spoon, scoop a quenelle of meringue. You can do this by making repeated, sweeping wrist movements against the rim of your mixing bowl. This will make an almost egg-like shape.  (This video does a good job describing the motion, however meringue will not move as uniformly as whipped cream, so no stress if it isn’t perfect at first.)

Step 6: Place your spoonful of meringue onto a plate, this will not be your serving plate. Add a teaspoon of water onto the base of the plate, try to avoid it touching your meringue too much. Microwave for 15-20 seconds. (Props go to Sorted Food for showing me this technique, I swear they are like my mini cooking school.)

Step 7: Pour some of the crème Anglaise into a shallow bowl. Place the meringue into the sauce. (This is where the name of this dish comes from. Île means island, flottant means floating. So the meringue is an island floating in a sea of crème Anglaise of sorts.) Sprinkle the kinako over the meringue and drizzle with kuromitsu.

*Last note, I strongly urge you guys to go to your local Asian grocery store and find kinako. It may be tempting to skip it as it is not a common ingredient, but that topping is what makes this dish. The nuttiness pairs well with the flavor of green tea.

 

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