Modern entremets and a vanilla raspberries Charlotte…

Posted on April 9, 2012 in Favorites, Sweet | Tagged , , , , | Comment

Here are some of the latest delicacies we made in the last few months. I will add more photos and recipes in the coming posts.

The exam CAP is 2 months away and some of us are already looking for work. This is an exciting but also scary time, for we know it is not easy to set foot in a Pâtisserie.

I am doing my internship in a Pâtisserie in the area. We’re lucky to have a MOF (best craftsman of France) 20 kms away, Bruno Montcoudiol. I applied there before even leaving Berlin, I love his work, his cakes are deliciously fine and gorgeous. I am lucky I can work in his team, it’s friendly, it’s clean (not like some stories I hear from some of my girl friends) and well organised.
I broke my lens last week, but hopefully I’ll get to take some photos later this month.

For now…..
some pictures of these cakes and, because the Charlotte is easier to make at home and requires less material, I will give you its recipe below.

These are layers of Madeleine lime cake with a thin layer of blackcurrants puree and lemon custard.

An almond croquant base, topped with a dacquoise cake, a Morello cherries coulis and an almond cream.

Making a Charlotte:

This is the home made charlotte from scratch: lady fingers, vanilla cream, a raspberries crèmeux. If you don’t want to make it complicated, you can simply make the vanilla cream and place fruits in the middle. Also, you can buy your lady fingers at the supermarket, but it will not look as spectacular nor taste as good, I think…But, it saves you time and is also delicious. If you go for the supermarket version, you could soak your lady fingers in a rum-sugar cane syrup (that’s what my parents do).
You also may want to separate the “cartridge” lady fingers to the ring lady fingers, your oven will probably be too small to have everything on one baking sheet.

Lady fingers:

150g Egg whites
150g Sugar
100g Egg yolks
150g Flour (sifted)
2 baking rings, 18cm and 16 cm wide (16cm for the raspberries crèmeux)
Baking sheet on the edge of the 18cm baking ring

In the Kitchen Aid, whisk the egg whites until foamy. Add the sugar little by little until stiff and you can make pikes. Pour in the egg yolks, put on max. speed 2 seconds and then stop. Use a spatula to gently mix the mixture, then fold in the flour. Do not overdo it otherwise the mixture will “fall”. If that’s the case, you can start again. The texture should be firm and fluffy.

Make a cartridge: on a baking sheet, use a ruler to draw 2 horizontal lines, 6 cm apart and 2 circles using the 18cm ring. Transfer mixture to pastry bag and pipe out onto prepared baking sheet leaving 1-2 mm apart. (Place another baking sheet on top to see thru the first one and pipe your lady fingers).
Powder icing sugar once, then wait 1 min, and a second time.

Bake: 8-10min – 180°C

Raspberries crèmeux

100g Raspberry Puree/Pulp (frozen)
43g Egg yolks
Half an egg
25g Sugar
1,5g Gelatine soaked in water
37g Butter

In a sauce pan melt the pulp till it simmers.
Egg yolks, half the egg and sugar in a bowl: whisk until creamy.
Pour half the liquid pulp onto the egg/sugar mixture, mix well and pour that in to the sauce pan. Bring it to a boil (85°C).
Put aside in a bowl. Press the gelatin in your hands to get rid of the water and add to the mixture.
Put aside and let cool to 35°C.
Make a creamy butter weather in the micron wave, slightly melt and then whisk, or in a water bath, same procedure. Add the butter to the mixture.
Pour into a 16cm baking ring and place in the freezer.

Vanilla Cream

125g Liquid cream (35% fat)
125g Milk
Vanilla powder (according to your taste)
60g Egg yolks
50g Sugar
6g Gelatine soaked in water
200g Liquid cream (35% fat) in a bowl in the fridge

In a sauce pan bring to a boil: the cream, milk and vanilla.
In the meantime, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until fluffy and white.
Pour half the milk/cream on the eggs/sugar, mix well. Pour it in the sauce pan with the rest of the cream. Make the mixture thicken on low heat so that the eggs do not cook. If they do, strain.
Set aside in a bowl and add the gelatine after pressing out the water.
Let cool until cold (25°C). You can use ice cubes in a bowl and place underneath to cool faster. If it cools too long, the gelatine will take and it will be difficult to mix the whipped cream.
Once cooled whisk the cream until it gets thicker but not too thick (fromage blanc texture).
Add to the vanilla cream step by step.

Mount the Charlotte

In the 18cm ring, place baking paper or Rhodoid plastic film on the edges so that the lady fingers don’t stick. Cut the most ugly part of the biscuits (top or bottom) so that one side is even. Place them carefully in the ring and cut the extremities if needed so that it fits.
Take out the raspberries crèmeux.

Place the bottom lady fingers circle in.
Then vanilla cream / place the raspberries crèmeux or fresh fruits/ vanilla cream / lady fingers circle / vanilla cream. Place in the fridge or freezer. Decorate before serving and enjoy!!

PS: If in the freezer, make sure you take it out and place in the fridge 2 hours before serving. You can make it the day before hosting your dinner.

Food design – Meat for dessert?

Posted on March 16, 2012 in Uncategorized | Comment

If you are into food design you should have a look at this food design website. They featured a photographer, Jasmin Schuller, who made this great series:

Photos by Jasmin Schuller  via

TO Stories and Algonquin: new on my website

Posted on March 13, 2012 in Favorites, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comment

As some of you may know, baking is not the only thing that I do. I also photograph.

I have flown to Toronto a few times since my sister lives there. This is a great place to be and as for photography, it provides you with an amazing light and subjects like architecture, patterns and people. I added TO Stories and Algonquin to my website.
TO Stories looks at contemporary solitude.
Algonquin documents an unusual space: Algonquin Park. Frightening, magical and wonderful.

 

Lemon Meringue Tart

Posted on January 8, 2012 in Quick and easy, Sweet, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comment

First of all, Happy 2012 everybody! Hope you had a nice holiday, and if this year has been said to be the last one, then enjoy it as much as you can….. on these words of wisdom… start it with a sweet tingly tooth.
This tart has become one of my favorite ones, for it is not too sweet and has a slight tingly taste.
I made it, among other things, for New Year’s Eve and even though most of the family members do not like lemon meringue tart, they all loved this one.

Make the dough:

188gr Flour (T55)
112gr  Unsalted butter
75gr    Icing sugar
15gr    Almond powder
38gr   Eggs (scrambled)
Pinch of salt
20 cm tart ring

With your hands “sand” together the flour, butter, icing sugar, salt and almond powder.
Once you don’t have chunks of butter left in the mass, add the eggs and mix well until you can form a ball.
Wrap with a cling film and set aside in the fridge for 30min.
After 30 min, take it out of the fridge and spread it in the form or ring. Because it is harder it is also easier to use in the tart ring.
Bake on 150°C for 20 min. Set aside.

Make the cream:

125gr Lemons, grated and the juice  (around 2,5 lemons)
125gr Sugar
135gr Egg yolks (8 egg yolks)
3gr     Gelatin
100gr Butter

Pour the lemon juice and zests in a pan, bring to a simmer.
In a bowl whip the eggs and sugar until they turn into a white, creamy texture.
Once the lemon juice has simmered, pour a third of the liquid into the sugar/eggs mixture, mix well.
Then pour this preparation into the rest of the lemon juice in the pan. Bring to a boil so that it thickens a bit.
Once it has boiled, put aside in a bowl and add the gelatin.
Mix well until it cools down to 35°C (or once you can touch the preparation with your finger, it should be lukewarm).
Add the butter and mix well.
Pour the custard in the dough and place in the fridge.

Make the Italian meringue:

This meringue requires more attention with the temperatures than the french one. You add a syrup to the egg whites. I would recommend you use a thermometer if you are not a pro at knowing when the syrup has reached which T° just by looking at the bubbles.

125gr Egg whites (5-6 eggs)
250gr Sugar
90gr Water

Make the syrup: water and sugar in the pan on the stove.
Pour the egg whites in your Kitchen Aid or bowl (not plastic, it gets hot) and use a whisk.
Watch the T° of the syrup: once it reaches
110c° – start the KA or the blender on medium speed.
118c° -  turn on the blender’s to maximum speed.
121c°  – stop the syrup and pour it slowly in the white eggs on the edge of the bowl. Whip until it gets cool /room T°. Don’t stop whisking or the meringue will “fall”.

Once it is cool, you can either put the meringue in a piping bag using a nozzle (size 10) or use a spatula or spoon to spread the meringue onto the tart.
Cool the pie in the fridge and when ready to serve, slightly put under the grill until it gets brownish or use a torch to darken it.

If you don’t have a thermometer, follow a french meringue recipe:

125gr Egg whites (around 6 eggs)
250gr Sugar

Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl with an electric whisk until they form stiff peaks. Whisk in the caster sugar, a spoonful at a time, whisking well and at a high speed between each addition. Transfer the meringue into a piping bag (with a plain nozzle, or not) and pipe the meringue on top of the lemon curd.


Place the cooled dough into the ring. A way to cut the borders is to roll the baking roll on the top of the ring and finish with a knife. I’ll write a next post about that.


Put the gelatin in the custard while hot.


Bring the syrup to a boil and pour it into the egg whites, which are in the bowl. Pour it on the edge of the
bowl to avoid burning yourself if it lands in the whisk.


The meringue should be shiny and creamy.


If you decide to decorate the tart using the piping bag, cover the tart with meringue first and cool it in the freezer for 5 min so that it sticks to the custard and you have a nice layer to work on. It also hides the yellow custard, looks nicer.


The pattern on the left was made with a spatula and put under the grill. On the right with the piping bag
and using a torch.

A Foodies Dream – Part Three: Food Camp in Cilento, Italy. The wrap up.

Posted on December 11, 2011 in Events, Favorites | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comment

The Food Camp Cilento was a great experience, with many interesting people sharing the same passion, cooking together and hanging out. I’m very much looking forward to a Food Camp 2012!!! Cheers Florian!

Here is a quick roundup of the remaining events


Radicchio braised in balsamic vinegar and honey. As it became quite bitter we added butter.


Some of us cleaned the squid…


Appetizer, grilled bread and lard.


The table was set every evening. A group went truffle hunting and came back with a whole bag full and crazy stories… Right: eggs with truffle.


Stevan Paul from NutriCulinary made a roast and stuffed it with truffles and pine nuts.


Torsten Goffin and I made a tart using figs in red wine, wild fennel, ricotta cheese, honey and lavender.

Visit at the Olio Torretta

Buffalo Mozzarella at the Barlotti Farm

We had lunch at the farm, then were shown how to make buffalo mozzarella, which wasn’t as I expected it to be. Very superficially explained, they add rennet (enzymes) into the buffalo milk, which coagulates it; then slice the coagulated milk, put it into a machine, then into hot water to melt it into the mozzarella texture and shape it using their hands.”

Encounter with Giuseppe di Martino in Gragnano at his pasta factory


Giuseppe di Martino moved us all with his passion for pasta. His pasta brand “Pastificio dei Campi” is the preferred pasta of some of the top chefs in Italy and increasingly in the whole world. We won’t see pasta the same way ever again!


The pasta box shows the farmers who cultivated the wheat, the people who packed the pasta and where the wheat field is located, thanks to GPS coordinates on the box. Giuseppe is revolutionizing the production of pasta giving it a personal touch, with a highly qualitative production chain.


The pasta on the left, prepared with meat, vegetables and mozzarella. On the right with sea food.

The last evening, the pasta fiesta

The last evening was a pasta night. We made Tagliatelle, Farfalle, Orrechiete, Gnocchi and Raviolis.


Truffles and handmade Tagliatelle.


Handmade raviolis on the left. On the right, Torsten Goffin from Glasklare Gefühle prepared a truffle-buffalo butter.


Tasty fluffy gnocchi. Parmesan tiles.


We made Orecchiete and some mixed the ink into the dough and made black Farfalle.

If you wish to have more insights and impressions about the Food Camp and you speak German, check out the following blogs:

Paul Fritze from Einfach Lecker Essen
Stevan Paul from NutriCulinary
Torsten Goffin from Glasklare Gefühle
Nata from Pastachiutta
Ina from Little Jamie

Fabàtable in SISTER Magazine

Posted on December 8, 2011 in Favorites, Quick and easy, Sweet | Tagged , , , , | Comment

Still from the Rose Bakery book “Breakfast. Lunch. Tea”. You should try making the pistachio cake. Look at the recipe on SISTER Magazine.  It’s so delicious it’s hard not to take another piece. But once you know how much butter there is, you think twice about it……..

Fabàtable in SISTER Magazine

Posted on December 2, 2011 in Favorites, Quick and easy, Sweet | Tagged , , , | Comment

Last weekend I baked two recipes from the book Rose Bakery “Breakfast . Lunch . Tea” which I purchased last year in the shop as I was in Paris. I love this book!

Have a look at it, it’s been published in the online Magazine SISTER Magazine. I met one of the sisters, Thea, in Berlin last October and accepted to contribute to their project.

Patisserie School – Week 2

Posted on November 29, 2011 in Favorites, Sweet | Tagged , , , , , , | Comment

The second week is already almost over.
The first week was nice and relaxed, whereas the second one was harder and the tempo has increased drastically.
We made pate à choux a couple of times, for me more than that, because even though I thought I was good at it….I had to start again twice. Same thing with the crème pâtissière, thank God we tasted it before putting it into the tarte. It wasn’t sugar we used, but salt!!!
Then came the butter cream for the Moka cake (with coffee), which I also made by hand once before and it went fine. Let me tell you that when you have the pressure of not finishing last, you don’t always know what you are doing, especially something that you’ve never made that way before.
We made a sweet dough, a Flan tarte, choux à la crème (whipped cream), éclairs filled with crème pâtissière and white glazing, choux with crème pâtissière and glazed with caramel, a génoise for the moka cake, 3 kinds of brioche……basically it’s been full of surprises.
It can be frustrating at times, but it’s like some people feel with their kids – when the pastries look at you and smile, give back to you all the love you put into making them…..it’s wonderful and you feel fulfilled!

Making Brioche:

The ingredients: flour, eggs, salt, sugar and baking yeast. Do not mix the last 3 ingredients next to each
other for that the sugar and salt would burn the yeast. Mix with the mixer, when the dough doesn’t stick
to the bowl, add the eggs. Once it’s homogenous and flapps against the bowl it’s done (20-30min)

The Chef rolls the Brioche in both hands…Make them nicely round by making the dough flat with the palm
of your hand. Stretch a corner and fold it back in the center of the circle (see pic. below). Repeat the action several times.
Then with your hand, roll the dough to form a ball. Form with the palm of your hand by gently forming a
skittle (pic.3). Place in brioche form and with one finger press the head down whilst turning the form.

Brioche with chocolate chips. Bottom left the “Navettes”. Brioches bake 10-15 min on 180c°. Glaze with
egg and milk.

Making Choux and Éclairs:

Making pâte à choux and éclairs. Make sure the dough isn’t too fluid. As a tip, for the éclairs, with the
horn’s edge in flour, mark the baking tray to give you an indication of the size. Very helpful indeed!


Making choux glazed with caramel and choux à la crème with whipped cream. The caramel cooks until 160c°,
watch your hands whilst turning the choux on itself after dipping it into the caramel….HOT!

Making Moka:


Making a Moka: Génoise has to be fluffy. Make a butter cream and add coffee to it, keep it in the fridge.
Then make a syrup with water and sugar, add strong coffee. Slice the génoise into 3 and with a brush soak
each layer with the coffee syrup and butter cream.


Butter cream and almonds on the side. You can also make a writing canvas out of almond paste.
It’s up to you.

Making caramel decoration


Making caramel deco is great. It’s not as easy as it looks but the results make the whole difference on a
dessert.

All content and photographs © Fabienne Dauplay

Patisserie School – Week 1

Posted on November 24, 2011 in Uncategorized | Comment

There I am in France, starting in a pastry school.
So far I gotta say, it’s nice, the people are very friendly, the area is beautiful, valleys, stream and reddish trees. We are at almost 900m in altitude so the air is pretty thin. I had to get used to it the first couple of days, it’s strange it doesn’t seem like much, but you still feel it a lot.

We have been very busy. After the first day, where I met the other students of our group, the teacher and got our Pâtissier case with whips, spatulas, thermometer, pastry roll, knives etc….
Up we go…first week of work: we made a pâte sucrée (sweet dough), pâte brisée, crème pâtissière, made a Flan pie, an apple pie, filled tiny pies with almond cream, made a ganache, use our sculptor talents for the miniardise (mini-pastries) while working with crème au beurre (butter cream), maroon cream, glazed them with white sugar fondant, ganache and brown fondant…..quite difficult actually. We made roses out of almond paste and tried to write and decorate mini pastries.

Taste with your eyes…..

Chef Xavier Brun showing how to write for cakes and starting to make a rose out of almond paste.

Filling the miniardise with almond cream. Then, coming out of the oven.

Glazing the miniardise with chocolate ganache.

Dome and Hedghog from the Chef.

My miniardise.

Making rose petals.

Making roses. That’s how a rose from a Chef looks like.

That’s how mine look like.

Apple pie raw.

Flan and apple pie.

All content and photographs © Fabienne Dauplay

 

A Foodies Dream – Part Two: On the way to Food Camp in Cilento, Italy.

Posted on November 20, 2011 in Events, Favorites | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

After our stay in Bolzano we made our way to the Cilento region, where Florian Siepert from Foodtri.ps organised the Food Camp Cilento 2011. For lunch we made a stop in Tuscany for some homemade Spaghetti Bolognese (which, as I learned later, isn’t proper for that you should use bigger pasta in order to stick to the meat sauce) and a Spritz at Il Conte Matto in Trequanda.

We spent 5 days in at the very nice Hotel Antonietta in San Marco di Castellabate which embodies the beautiful stereotype of how I imagine Italy: hills, sea, olive trees, warm nights, loud teenagers on the piazza and drunk Germans (I was among them) also on the piazza! Florian had organised for us to use the Hotel kitchen, so we cooked and ate on the premises.

We tasted wine from local vineyards, one we bought wine from, Bruno De Concilis, a Miles Davis fan who named his sparkling wine after him but spelled it backwards.
We were shown how to make ricotta cheese, foccacia, figs bread by Giovanna and Laetitia at the Agriturismo Corbella in the National Parc of Cilento.
We took part in making buffalo mozzarella at the Barlotti Farm, where we enjoyed our lunch at the farm while breathing through the mouth as the breeze would bring the smell of the stables towards us.
The trip also included visits to a local oil producer Olio Torretta, to the amazing pasta maker Guiseppe di Martino in Gragnano, who passionately talked about pasta and who produces 5 stars pasta, delivering to starred chefs. Thanks to him I will never see Pasta the same way.
Some of us went squid fishing and octopus hunting.
In a word, it was a fantastic, rich trip and great food topped with an amazing group.

To avoid overloading you with photos and text, I’ll split up the trip in several Posts.

Leaving Bolzano – hello Tuscany!

On the way from Bolzano to Tuscany.

Lunch at Il Conte Matto, homemade Spaghetti Bolognese and Aperol Spritz.

San Marco di Castellabate – Cilento, The Food Camp!

The first day at San Marco, we went food shopping at the Santa Maria Market and bought enough to feed more than 45 people for the evening. At the hotel, once everybody arrived, once the introductions were made and the groups formed (to decide who cooks what and when) we were to meet in the kitchen and start cooking.


After the shopping in Santa Maria, we headed back to the hotel where we prepared a meal for the whole group. Here, cleaning the fish, which we stuffed with herbs and grilled. It turned out to be a bit of a disaster.


Some cooked in the kitchen, some on the roof top of the hotel…la dolce vita!


The antipasti group, on the left with Natalie Simons from blog Pastasciutta. They prepared delicious grilled vegetables and bruschetta.

Homemade pasta with clams and herbs.

Giovanna Voria at the Agriturismo Corbella in the National Parc of Cilento:

Homemade orrechiette, fusilli, tagliatelle or linguine aren’t a secret for us anymore. We got to taste fried pizza dough with roasted tomatoes, braised salad with olives, figs bread, ricotta cheese with bays or confit orange, marinated fresh figs in wine and chickpeas in chocolate and bay leaf. The warm breeze, the beautiful landscape of the National Parc, the setting of the place almost made us forget the shooting noise in the background from the bore hunting.