After a year+ long hiatus, a move to New York, and one Certification of Completion (I know, so official) of the Professional Pastry Arts Program at the French Culinary Institute, I have decided to re-start my pastry blog. I now have wayyy more knowledge under my belt which will hopefully keep me out of some of the trouble I ran into last time around, mainly, I wont be spending over $200 on equipment for less than 10 recipes... That was bananas.
This time around, I plan on finding recipes anywhere I can, trying new techniques (and possibly botching said techniques), and then hopefully feeding anyone and everyone who is interested. It should be fun so enjoy!
Today, I made a milk chocolate topped pumpkin pie. I found this recipe on Serious Eats while looking around for the perfect fall treat to make on my day off. Despite the fact that was a rainy day, I decided to head to the farmers market to pick up Sugar Pumpkins to roast and make into puree. Despite not knowing what it would look like, I tired to find Kabocha Squash, like the recipe called for, but it was a quiet day at the Borough Hall Farmers Market, and 2 different stands told me they just didn't bring them today. I decided to use two Sugar Pumpkins instead.
I really wanted to make this filling from scratch because I had never roasted and pureed pumpkin before, and let me tell you, it was definitely an interesting process in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen with limited supplies. Luckily I had my large, sharp, chefs knife from school to cut into the pumpkin, but even with that, I had trouble. I was sure i would lose a finger, or maybe a toe. Other than that, the main issue was, of course, space. I searched my kitchen for any dish that could be considered a roasting dish, settled for a few glass tupperware containers and a small pan and stuffed them into my tiny oven.
I had to get a little crafty, but it worked! (**note in the picture above the dishes should be covered in foil for roasting)
Once roasted, the pureeing went very smoothly. I was worried my immersion blender wouldn't do the trick, but she put in her time, blended those pumpkins up, and we ended up with about a quart and a half of pumpkin puree. The recipe only calls for 1.5C so If you make this, and only use pumpkin, you definitely only need to roast one.
The rest of the pie making went on as planned: I made a simple gingersnap crumb pie shell-- baked that off; combined the molasses, spices, cream, and eggs with the puree to make the custard, baked that off; once the pie was out of the oven i made the milk chocolate ganache and spread that on top of the pie with a warm spoon.
I had to wait a few hours before tasting but was it worth the wait. I wasn't sure how i felt about pumpkin and milk chocolate, but now I am convinced that chocolate makes almost anything better.
Lesson 10: Pate a Savarin, Savarin Marie-Galante; Baba Pastry, Cream-Filled Babas
Mmm-mm-mm
These Babas were quite the treat. Something I had never heard of, the baba is a yeasted bread like pastry that can be baked into any shape, but is traditionally baked in tall cylindrical molds. Once baked, the pastry sits for about a day, so that it doesn't fall apart when it is soaked in a syrup (normally, a little boozy cocktail). On top of the amazing dough and the scrumptious syrup, a baba is finished off with a dollop of pastry cream and the garnish of your choice.
2 words- YU.MMY.
I know i added some garnishes so it looks pretty in the picture, but DAYUMMM this was a sweet treat. Of course, as in all classic Lindsey baking, there were a few bumps in the road. It was no cheesecake catastrophe, thats for sure, but still, as yummy as these were, they weren't as quaint and adorable, yes I was going for adorable, as they should have been.
Being my first yeasted dough, I was unsure of exactly how big these babas would get... They just kept growing. The recipe said it would make 12 pastries. I made 6. 6. heaping, round, syrup saturated goddesses, yes goddesses.
They are light, yet satisfy all your carby cravings; wet, and sweet at the same time; and that little dollop of pastry cream really balances the citrus from the syrup. Can I please just say again: YUM.
With a little bit of patience and a good amount of yeast these treats are hard to beat.
I guess it had to happen at some point. I have created my first really, truly, inedible pastry. This, supposed "cheesecake" that I concocted was one, majorly, disgusting, fail.
Everything started off really nicely. I made a trip to Whole Foods, picked up my formage blanc (a soft, mild french cheese, similar to riccotta), prepped the sweet cinnamon pastry, which was yummy and turned out very well:
and then the shit began to hit the fan:
This nasty cottage cheese-ish looking coagulation above is what happens when you try to multi-task, and do not stir formage blank and milk enough while on a low heat. I left it untouched for about a minute, while i was separating eggs. When I returned to the stove, the fat from the cheese had separated from the liquids in the cheese and milk. The ingredients were supposed to thicken, but they were not supposed to curd like they did in the above picture.
So I ran to the local store. They did not have formage blanc, so on try #2 I used a ricotta cheese, which the recipe said would be an alright substitute for the formage blanc. This time around, I was very attentive to the stove, stirring constantly, and hoping for a much better result. With my attentiveness, came the fear that I would once again over-do it and create another puke-like cheese. So apparently, I under-did it this time, which resulted in what resembled more of a milkcake than a cheese cake.
I followed all instructions: Let the pastry shell cool completely, made a beautiful meringue (pictured in the collage above) that had a gorgeous shiny disposition and made perfect stiff peaks, I folded the meringue into the cheese, poured the filling into the shell, egg washed the top and baked for 5 minutes. Once I let everything cool, I sensed something was terribly wrong. The filling never set, it looked like a bowl of cold split pea soup, but kind of white and yellow. It was sort of liquidy and sort of solid. Not at all what I wanted it to look like.
And then I cut into it. What resulted, was a soggy, milky, mess to say the least:
Lets just say, it wasn't good.
Before I trashed the entire thing, I tried it. Despite its disgusting appearance, maybe this thing tasted good?!
... I was wrong. It tasted like milkcake, just like it looked like milkcake.
So before I give you this recipe to try, I WILL try again, and I WILL succeed.
Hypothesis for getting this darn recipe to work: I need to really make sure i give the milk and cheese a time to thicken up, once this happens i think the flavor will still be mild, but it will be more condensed and will not have that milky taste.
So readers, let me do some research, figure this baby out, and ill get back to you, hopefully with some successful news.
If you have ANY suggestions, comments, or questions I have open ears! Just click on the comments button at the top left hand corner of the page.
Lesson 8: Pate Sucree; Tarte Creme de Citron (english- Sweet Pastry; Lemon Curd Tart)
There is something very exciting to me about a citrus pastry in the middle of summer. By the looks of it, you expect a creamy, pudding like texture, which relates, to me, to the days of chocolate pudding and Jell-O. But with the addition of the tart shell and some fancy candied lemon slices, along side the sweet acidity of the lemon curd, this tart easily became one of my new favorite summer treats. It is refreshing, but exciting, and pretty nice to look at, which, i'm not going to lie, I am very excited about. I have definitely had a problem with presentation, but in my extremely uneducated, and pretty biased opinion, I think this lemon tart deserves 5 gold starts for its delicious display.
But hey, why don't you be the judge :)
Something I have learned in my two pastry internships, is that it is always important to taste what you are making as you bake. This not only ensures that you do not go hungry on the job, but also that what you are making is consistent with how it supposed to taste, and is, of course, delicious.
As I have pretty much just been making tarts, the doughs have been very similar, and as I have shared here, have given me some difficulty in the rolling out process. I was happy to find that this Pate Sucree, or sweet pastry dough was not only the most delicious dough to taste (most likely because of all the sugar) but was also the least temperamental dough that I have dealt with to date.
This recipe surely had many steps, and some fun new things for me to try out (candying lemon slices), but despite the time and multiple steps, I really found this to be a pretty simple recipe with a pretty gourmet and some-what difficult looking outcome. Plus I got to use my immersion blender again, which, HOLY CRAP i just can't get over how much I love that thing. I want to blend pretty much everything and have drinkable breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I realize this is not only gross, but probably not the best thing for me so you'll be relieved to know I have not blended up my grilled cheese and tomato soup into one weird little concoction. YOu'll be pleased to know I have tried out a little gazpacho recipe, and I am SO pleased with it, tastes just like the gazpacho I had in Spain.
OK enough of this lovers tangent about my incredible, awesome, amazing, magical immersion blender.
If you are looking for a little day project (because it will take a few hours) and a great way to impress some friends without a great deal of difficulty, I would highly recommend you try out this great summer pastry. Use the recipe below and please feel free to ask any questions or add any comments using the button at the top left hand of this page.
Lesson 7: Pate a Linzer; Mon Linzer (English- Linzer Pastry; My Linzertorte)
Hello again my dear Blogosphere. After a month long hiatus from this baby, I am back at it with a vengeance. I have decided that now, baking will be my full time job. I'm leaving Chicago come October, and going to Pastry School in NYC!
Before phase 2 of my adult life commences, I have the privilege of spending two months in Chicago to squeeze all I can get out of this wonderful city. On my list: water taxi to China Town, Whirly Ball, riding the swings at Navy Pier and much, much more. This past month I have been sorting out all of my Pastry School affairs, and have begun a stage at a local bakery/cafe twice a week, but now I am jumping back into this blog, baking as often as I can, and sharing my journey with you. So heres to new beginnings, following your dreams, NYC, and Linzertortes :)
For my first recipe back in the game I made 1 plum, and 1 raspberry Linzertorte. This is definitely my favorite pastry dough so far. The small amount of cocoa powder accompanied by lemon zest, makes for a light, almost refreshing flavor. My one complaint of course, was in the assembly of the tart. I don't know why but I can't seem to get my presentation across. This dough rolled out really well, and I had the perfect amount to make a lattice on top of eat tart. So what went wrong? While baking, the lattice just kind of lost shape and went all squiggly on me. Now I am sure there is some method to the madness of beautiful pastry, but just DO NOT know it. When it comes to presentation, I have a lot to learn when i go to school!
For this recipe, I made two jams, a plum jam and a raspberry jam. I have to say I really enjoy making jam. There is something really fun about transforming fruit into a delish condiment. The plums I used were yellow plums so the Jam ended up a light pink color, while the raspberry jam was a rich maroon. Both Jams were amazing.
All in all, this was a really yummy recipe that was not too difficult to make. If you think it looks good, give it a try, and feel free to ask any questions or add comments via the link in the top left corner of this page.
Recipe: Pate a Linzer: Mon Linzer (adapted from Christophe Felders Patisserie)
Ingredients:
Pastry:
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 t baking powder
1 1/2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 pinch cinnamon
2/3 C sugar
1/2 C chopped almonds
1 pinch salt
2 eggs
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Raspberry Jam:
10oz raspberries
3/4 sugar
1/3 C redcurrant jelly
2 t lemon juice
Plum Jam:
3/4 lb. plums
1 1/4 C sugar
Instructions:
Linzer Pastry
Sift the flour with th baking powder, cocoa powder, and cinnamon into a large bowl
add the sugar, butter, almonds and salt
Using your hands, rub the butter into the dry ingredients.
continue rubbing until the mixture forms fine crumbs
add the eggs and lemon zest
beat with a wooden spoon until smooth
flatten the dough into a disk and cover with plastic wrap.
Chill for at least two hours.
Raspberry Jam
Combine the raspberries and sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stiring constantly
when teh mixture begins to boil, add the redcurrant jelly and lemon juice
bring to a boil and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes
scrape the jam into a bowl and let cook completely
Plum Jam
Cut the plums in half and remove the pits
combine the plums and sugar in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, stiring constantly, until very soft
pure the plums using an immersion blender until smooth
scrape into a bowl and let cool completely.
Assembly:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
butter the pastry rings
on a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper, roll out the dough about 1/8 inch thick
stamp out two crust with 8 inch pastry rings
leave on the rings and reserve the excess dough. transfer the crusts on the paper to a baking sheet,
Dip your finger in water and lightly moisten the rim of each crust
using some of the reserved dough, roll out two ropes about 22 inches long and the height of the apstry ring.
carefully fit them around the moistened edges of the crusts
prick the base of the crusts with a fork
using an offset spatula, spreak 1 crust with the raspberry jam and hte other with the plum jam.
Roll out the remaining dough to slightly less than 1/8 inch thick and cut it into strups 3/4 in wide
make a lattice pattern with the strips for decoration. alternate the direction of the dough strips as you lay them across the totre, arranging one lengthwise, then one crosswise and so on.
bake for 15 to 20 minutes-- the crust does not brown much. Remove from the open and let cool before removing the pastry ring.
Every year for the 4th of July my family gets together with our "east coast family" ( 3 families on the east coast, all from the midwest, therefore we celebrate holidays together). Every year I make dessert and this year I decided to make these delicious Mint Chocolate Chip Profiteroles which were a hit. I was pretty terrified, when the profiterole dough did not puff up like it was supposed to but despite this hiccup the profiteroles were amazing and refreshing. What really made the dessert delish was the home made chocolate syrup and mint chocolate chip gelato. I recommend trying this recipe, which I found on Joythebaker.com!
I apologize for my week and a half long hiatus I have been traveling but am now settled in at my parents house on Cape Cod. As you can see in the picture above, I have the opportunity to work in this FABULOUS kitchen, with a really cool, but very tiny, oven/stovetop.
I will be straying from my cookbook and lessons for the next two weeks but will be experimenting with some other new fun recipes!
Above, is a sour cream wheat bran muffin with cranberries in it. I adapted the recipe from JoytheBaker.com-- who is my absolute favorite food blogger!
If you have any questions or comments-- look to the top left and side of the page and say hello :)
Today I made a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie for my Great Uncle Fredy! I haven't made a pie since I was an intern at the Pie shop and it felt great! I definitely still need to work on my crust presentation, but I think this is a great improvement from my first crimp. The recipe is courtesy of JoyTheBaker.com- my FAVORITE baking blog.
Lesson 6: (French) Sable Breton- Tart Tatin Pomme-Rhubarbe (English) Shortbread Pastry- Apple Rhubarb Upside Down Tart
As you may be able to tell from the long winded name of this weeks lesson, this was a more complicated recipe. The book identifies it as a beginner/intermediate level recipe and I would definitely agree. It wasn't that each step was difficult, but there were a bunch of little components that needed to be executed well and then compiled nicely on top of the tart crust. I realized this week that presentation is definitely something I need to work on. Also that I have no idea how to cut citrus fruit between the membrane without making an insane mess. I suppose in my case it doesn't matter much as long as it tastes good, but I probably would not serve a dish like this until my skills in presentation were better.
The colors were gorgeous, but the clemintines on top were basically just a messy pile of juice and citrus innards. They also left a juicy mess all over my counter top. I'm pretty sure there is a better way to do what did.
So there are 4 parts to this tart: The crust, the rhubarb compote, the caramel apples and the sliced citrus on top.
1.The Crust:
Was, once again, extremely dry. I don't know if maybe eggs in France are just like 450% larger than they are in the US but even with my extra large egg yolks, this dough ended up more like a crumbly dust than any pastry dough i have ever seen. I ended up adding one more egg yolk as well as about 3 tbsp of water. I am starting to get frustrated with these doughs. I have no idea why they are all so freaking dry! I would really like to share with you a dough success but instead, i completely made up my own way to get the dough the way I wanted it. As someone very smart once told me "fake it till you make it." I suppose as long as you sort of look like you know what you're doing, people will start to believe you do know what you're doing, and eventually you will build skill. I will take this to my grave, as it seems that is how I have become most successful.
2. The Rhubarb Compote
I am a rhubarb virgin. I have never eaten, purchased, prepared or used rhubarb in a recipe. I am really not sure how this is possible but it is a sad truth I have come to terms with. The recipe told me to slice thinly. So, I did. Or at least I thought i did. What happened was 1) I realized my knives need to be sharpened. and 2) I made a really cool vintage snake toy (which you can see in my next post because I have no Idea how to embed a video into this post). If you're confused by what i mean by a 'vintage snake toy' just look for my next post. Aside from actually cutting the rhubarb, the compote was very simple, just water sugar and rhubarb on the stove until soft.
3. Caramel Apples
These should not have been very difficult to make. Keyword should. I have distant memories of trying and failing to make caramel for a flan I was making in middle school for my spanish class. My project partner and I burnt the crap out of the sugar and pretty much ruined the pan we were using. I hate to admit this, but i was on edge the entire time this caramel was on the stove. Caramel is very particular, especially because this is hard caramel, and just sugar and water, It is hard as a rock when it dries and would definitely create some problems for my pan if i ruined it. On a medium heat, the caramel took about 15 minutes to become the amber color it needed to be. Side-note at one point I was so worried that I would burn the sugar that I googled what amber should really look like, just in case i was missing out on the turn from clear sugar to caramel. Luckily, I watched, and watched, and watched, until the following resulted:
I was proud of myself, and so excited to break the caramel apart, it was definitely a rewarding feeling.
The rest of the apple process was simple and ended up being super delicious. I would consider just making those apples to eat for dessert with some vanilla ice cream.
4. Citrus
I called this part citrus rather than tangerine, because I ran into a little snafu. In past lessons I have talked about having in season produce to ensure a good outcome. The issue with this lesson is that rhubarb is summer produce and tangerines are not in season until fall/winter. So, yet again, I improvised and found clementines The recipe called for 2 but I used 3. I think this was more because I had no idea how to cut the fruit, than because I actually needed 3 clementines. As you can see in the first picture, the citrus segments are kind of falling apart all over the top of the pastry. To this I say "Oh well!" I tried my hardest and this was my outcome. Next time I will definitely watch a youtube tutorial or sharpen my knives at least before i attempt to dissect a citrus fruit that is intended to look pretty.
Make sure before you make this recipe that you have all necessary tools and ingredients. There are quite a few steps and you really need to have read, re-read and read for good measure the recipe to make sure that you do not skip a step.
Have fun and Bon Appetit!
If you have any questions comments or tips, please leave a comment at the top left hand corner of this page!
Lesson 5: (French) Pate A Beignet: Beignets de Fraise or (English) Fritter Batter: Strawberry Fritters.
What a productive week I've had! 3 lessons in one week! I've got to say, I am pretty damn pleased with myself. Either I am becoming a very dedicated blogger, OR an extremely lazy, checked out teacher. Sadly, I feel that the latter is most likely the case. To hell with it! The weather is getting warmer (kind of) and I am suffering from a major case of senioritis... just a few years too late/for the 3rd time (high school, college ,...now....). This beautiful Sunday morning, after a wonderfully productive and full Saturday, I laid in bed until almost 11am watching Undeclared. A series that I had begun less than 48 hour prior. I am happy to say I have about 45 minutes left in the first season... which is also the entire series.
Despite my incredible lazy-woman euphoria, and what felt like a magnetic connection with my plush, full size mattress, I was unable to resist the basket of fresh, organic, farmers market strawberries in my refrigerator. They were just waiting to be all battered up and fried into my challenge of the day: Beignets de Fraise.
I battered and fried the crap out of these strawberries. Some more than others... Hence:
Issue #1:
I realize this picture ^^ does not exactly scream gooey mess. But let me tell you, it looked like a murder scene, I just re-plated/cleaned up for photography purposes ;) . The best way to describe these messy fritters is probably by comparing them to a paper mache project that you popped before the paper mache was dry, therefore the center was basically empty and the encasing just kind of fell in on itself. However, instead of a deflated balloon inside, imagine strawberry goo spilling out of every orifice it could. Never-the-less it was a delicious mess and I figured out what the problem was: the oil was not hot enough.
Issue #2:
I had done all of my prep work, made the batter, hulled and skewered the strawberries, and was ready to fry. I put the grapeseed oil over heat, grabbed my candy thermometer and waited until the oil was 350 degrees. After about 4 minutes of waiting and checking the temperature of the oil, I realized that my thermometer only went up to 220 degrees. Yep, it took me that long to realize that the thermometer I was using was just no help at all. My solution was to wing it. (By the way this is an awful solution and in no way am I suggesting you do this when you are baking). SO. I figured that if it took about 8 minutes for the oil to heat to 220 it would only take about another 7 or 8 minutes for it to heat to 350. So I waited, and for no reason other than an unprecedented hunch, I decided that the oil seemed to be about 350 degrees. The first fritters took about 6 minutes to become a golden brown like they were supposed to. So not only were they cooking very slowly, but the strawberries were just SOAKING in grapeseed oil. After 6 minutes I still wasn't very pleased with the batters color, but I couldn't just sit by as these poor strawberries were doused in grapeseed oil. As a novice fritter maker I really was not sure what to expect so I tried one more batch of two at this temp. They were equally as disappointing, so I decided to wait for the oil to heat a bit more. Voila, just a little more patience, a little more heat, and these gorgeous, golden fritters had emerged.
I have to say, Lesson 5 was a fun one. This was my frist fried pastry and I truly enjoyed the new skill practice. It was a fairly simple recipe, and didn't take up too much time or require any prep ahead of time, unlike lessons 1-3.
To sum it up here are my quick tips from lesson 5:
1. Make sure you read between the lines of your recipe. If it says that the oil you are using needs to be at 350 degrees that means you need to be able to measure the temperature presumably, using a thermometer. Obviously I still have to work on this skill.
2. If you are unsure to tell when something is done, whether in the oven, on the stove, or frier, make sure to research characteristics of a dish that is finished. Eating underdone or overdone pastry can be a really unpleasant experience (although I, personally, will almost never say no to dessert: whatever condition it may be in).
Lesson 4: (In French) Pate a Crumble: Crumble Raisins-Poires. (In English) Crumble Pastry: Grape and Pear Crumble
This is by far one of the most basic, yet delicious recipes I have made thus far. I realize I have only made 4 recipes so far, but simplicity and short prep/bake time really made this dish a pleasure to make on a Thursday night.
When I made my list to go shopping at Sur la Table a few weeks ago, I wrote that I needed ramekins. I didn't write how many, or what size I needed. Quickly, I called my roommate Rae (photographed below) who, very graciously, looked into my cookbook, Patissere, and confirmed that there was no instruction as to how big the ramekins should be, just that the recipe should serve 6 people. I decided to purchase the ramekins photographed above. These worked alright, but I am pretty positive they should have been bigger, as there was some leftover pear, a ton of leftover grapes and leftover crumble (which i put in a plastic baggy and froze).
Despite my small serving dishes, and leftover ingredients, I found this to be extremely successful. I even got to capture a picture of Rae enjoying the dish right when it got out of the oven!
If you can't tell by that face, she was delighted and thoroughly enjoyed about two bites of her crumble before running out to meet some friends.
This recipe also calls for a grape, Muscat grape, that is only found in its peak season in the US, between August and September. Sadly, its June right now and I decided to substitute the Muscat grape for a typical, ordinary, seedless red grape. Once again, it is never ideal to substitue ingredients if the recipe calls for something specific, but when you are in a bind substitutions are acceptable. The crumble would have had some different flavors and textures had I used the Muscat grapes, but ended up being pretty tasty with our run of the mill grapes from Whole foods.
From set up to clean up this recipe took me about an hour. It would be a great last minute dessert to make for a small family get together, or just to save to eat throughout the week.
Tips from this week:
1. Make sure you know exactly the size of dish you should be baking in. This will prevent waste and ensure proper cooking times.
2. Once again, try to make recipes that have all ingredients in season at the time. This way, your dish will taste as fresh and delish as possible and you can feel good about having good, naturally seasoned fruits and vegetables in your food.
3. If you do end up having extra of something, try to freeze it and save it for a different recipe! Or make something up in order not to waste.
I hope you enjoyed reading! Next, I'm going to make strawberry fritters. Can I get a YUM?!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recipe: Pate a Crumble: Crumble Raisins-Poires (adapted from Christophe Felders Patisserie)
Ingredients:
Crumble Pastry:
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all -purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 sticks butter, diced
1 3/4 cup ground almonds (I used half almond meal and it worked perfectly)
1 tsp. ground sugar
2 pinches salt
Filling:
3 firm, ripe pears
1 lemon, halved
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. coriander
1 bunch Muscat grapes, stems removed
Instructions:
Crumble Pastry:
Place the flour, sugars, butter, ground almonds, cinnamon, and salt on a work surface or in a large bowl.
Squeeze the ingredients together with your hands, then knead when they begin to come together
the butter gradually combines with the fry ingredients
Use your fingertips to crumble the dough into small clumps.
Filling:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Peel the pears and squeeze some of the lemon juice on them to discourage browning
cut the pears in half and remove the cores.
Cut each half lengthwise into three slices and squeeze more lemon juice on them.
combine the sugar cinnamon and coriander in a large bowl
toss the pear slices in the spiced sugar
combine the pears and grapes in the ramekins and sprinkle with crumble pastry
bake about 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden.
Lesson 3: Pate Brisee Fondante: Tarte aux Fruits Rouges-Pistache. Soft Short Pastry: Berry and Pistachio Tart
Ahh lesson 3... 3 lessons. 3 tarts. Each one different than the last, each one equally delicious, each one bringing up new kitchen mysteries for this beginner-ish baker to solve. This week I took on a more complicated Pate Brisee, which was the same dough as lesson 1. The difference is that this version of Pate Brisee is supposed to be much softer. The french name, fondante sounds just like commonly known fondant that we hear about on food network challenge all the time, and is used to cover cakes, or as an edible clay-like substance.
This recipe also included some very basic things with very fancy names. It calls for Fleur de Sel and Kirsh, two things that I had never heard of. I did some research, both online and at Whole Foods, and found that Fleur de Sel is just a fancy sea salt (which i did find at Whole Foods), and that Kirsh is a wintery sweet Brandy. The Kirsh I could not find anywhere, so I looked online and found that I could substitute Kirsh with a fruity Brandy. I chose a tiny $4 bottle of blackberry Brandy, not the classiest choice, but it worked.
This was a pretty simple recipe with a very yummy outcome. Here are my tips from Lesson 3:
1. Make sure to scale out all of your items. This recipe calles for different weights of the pistachios and berries. Using a scale you trust, and trusting your weighing skills is very important. There is no shame in having a unit converter out on you computer or cellphone while you're weighing, as long as you get it right!
2. Try to get the ingredients that a recipe calls for, but if you can't find the fancy stuff, don't sweat it, research a legitimate substitute, pick it up and continue with the recipe.
3. Make sure to not over fill the tart shell. If you think it is a little too high, place a piece of tin foil under the shell in the oven. This way, if the liquid runs over, you won't have a burnt mess in your oven.
If you have any questions/suggestions/comments please leave them below!
My next lesson strays away from the tarts! Check back later this week to see what I will take on next.
Lesson 2: Pate Sablee, Tart A l'Orange (Crumbly Sweet Pastry, Orange Cream Tart)
Lesson #2… Hmm.. Lesson #2 was, a bit of a mess, to say the least. I was in a slight time crunch, which definitely made the experience a little less enjoyable than Lesson #1. (note to self: leave ample time to prepare sometimes finicky french pastry recipes) Despite this, I will admit, the tart was not nearly the disaster I was expecting it to be.
I started off with all of my materials laid out and ready to go. I knew that I had to make the dough first and let it chill for about two hours, so I had planned a doctors appointment to fill in the 2 hour chilling time. Wellll that didn’t quite work out for me.
Issue number 1:
I prepared this new dough, a crumbly sweet pastry dough, just as the recipe told me too: with the eggs and butter at room temperature, the flour sifted, and the measurements exact. I realized, as I was “kneading” the dough, how terribly difficult it is to knead a pile of floury crumbs. It was a freaking mess. Meanwhile, It was at about t-10 minutes until I needed to leave for my appointment. I tried, and tried, and tried to get my dough to come together, it just wasn’t working with me. So i made an executive decision, I was going to add a second egg yolk to the dough to try to add some moisture. This worked a little bit, but definitely not perfectly. At this point, I had to go, so I wrapped the discombobulated dough in about 4 layers of plastic wrap and left it in the refigerator to chill, praying that when I returned, the dough would have miraculously taken shape.
When I got home this is what I found:
Not exactly the miracle dough I was hoping to return to. But I was determined to finish this recipe. I decided to get creative and use some of the skills I had learned while at my internship at a small, but amazing, Chicago pie shop. Instead of rolling out this dough, which the recipe instructed (but in my case would not have been possible), I pressed this crummy mess into the tart pan, just as I would have done with a crumb pie shell at the bakery.
It didn’t look too hot but it worked and I was satisfied.
Issue number 2:
This one is less of an issue that I ran into, and more of a large annoying mistake that I made. I was working on the cream filling. This step takes a bit of multi-tasking, nothing intense, but you have to juggle the orange juice and zest on the stove, as well as the sugar, corn starch and eggs in the standing mixer. Because I prepared all of my ingredients for each step before I started (you know to take some fancy pictures), I had diced the butter that was supposed to go into the cream as a very last step. This butter was sitting with all of the ingredients that I was beating together in the standing mixer, so without double checking, I added the butter to the sugar, corn starch and eggs. This is what it looked like:
It kind of looked like scrambled eggs and was definitely NOT what I wanted. I immediately caught my mistake, trashed the first batch, tried again. The result was beautiful and smooth just like I wanted:
Much better!
The rest of the process went smoothly, until the very end, the finishing touches.
Issue number 3:
I was so excited about this recipe, because I got to use a blow torch to caramelize brown sugar on top of the tart. Have I mentioned that I have never used a blow torch to caramelize anything before??? Yet, I decided not to read up on best practices on caramelizing brown sugar on top of tart. As shown in the middle picture below (photo credit to my roommate rae) I not only, burnt some of the brown sugar, but I managed to set it on fire for a little bit. Lucky for me there were only a few burnt pieces of sugar. In the end I learned my lesson: I probably should have read up a bit before taking the torch to my, much slaved over, orange cream tart.
I brought the remainder (that I didn’t eat) to school today, and it was a big hit so I would definitely recommend trying this one at home! I have attached the recipe below courtesy of my lovely cook book Patisserie by Christophe Felder.
Just to sum up: here are my tips from lesson #2—
1. Make sure to always have a backup plan if your dough isn’t quite moist enough. Maybe add some water, another egg yolk, or some orange juice. This all will depend on what you are making, but make sure to put some research into it if you’re not sure what to do.
2. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. In baking, if you read the instructions and follow through accordingly, you will almost never mess up. I did not read and therefore ended up with a vomit-like concoction that I ended up needing to throw out.
3. Don’t try a technique if you really have no idea what you are doing. Yes, I have used a blow torch before… on meringue, not on brown sugar! Luckily I just ended up with a few small pieces of burnt brown sugar and a funky, speckled looking tart. I suppose it could have been much worse!
I hope you enjoyed reading this weeks mishaps!
Ciao for now!
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Recipe: Pate Sablee, Tart A l’Orange (adapted from Christophe Felders Patisserie)
Ingredients:
Crumbly Sweet Pastry:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 stick plus 1 tbsp. butter, diced
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg yolk (2 in my case)
Orange Cream
1 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed if you can
zest of 2 oranges
1/3 cup sugar
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 sticks butter, diced
Finish
1/4 cup brown sugar
Crumbly sweet pastry 1:
sift flour into a large bowl and add the butter and sugar
using your finger tips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients. Continue rubbing until the mixture forms fine yellow crumbs.
Add the egg yolk and knead until the dough is smooth and forms a ball.
Flatten the dough and cover with plastic wrap. Chill for at least 2 hours.
Orange Cream:
Bring the orange juice and zest to a boil in a heavy saucepan over a medium heat.
Beat the sugar with the whole eggs; egg yolks, and cornstarch in a medium bowl until sugar dissolves
Remove the pan from the heat and gradually whisk in the egg mixture.
Return the pan to the heat and cook the orange cream, whisking constantly until it thickens— let boil for 10 seconds.
Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the butter
Whisk until shiny and smooth
Scrape the cream into a shallow dish and press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface (this prevents a film from forming over the cream). Chill completely
Crumbly sweet pastry 2:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter the tart pan.
On a lightly floured work surface roll out the dough, if you can, to about 1/8 an inch.
Drape the dough over the tart pan and make sure the edges are flush with the tart pan.
Prick the base of the tart shell with a fork.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden.
Let cool
Finish
Lightly whisk the orange cream. Spread it in the tart shell and smooth with a thin spatula
place in freezer for 5 minutes
Sprinkle the top evenly with brown sugar.
Using a caramelizing iron (or kitchen torch), lightly brown the surface of the tart.
Before I dive into lesson #2 (coming shortly) I want to just provide a quick tip/update from lesson 1. As I mentioned in lesson 1, I got very frustrated with the plums, a few times actually demolishing plums, making it necessary for me to replace the plum with an extra (that I luckily bought). Instead of just telling you this major mistake I made, I am first going to share a picture with you:
This^^^ is my great aunt Sheryl. On Monday I went to visit her and my great uncle Fredy for a Memorial Day dinner. Being the super awesome great niece that I am, I brought them some of my remaining plum tart. As my Aunt went to bite into this otherwise flawless, two day old, piece of tart she noticed this crumbled up, thoroughly baked fruit sticker.
Lesson #1 part two: ALWAYS check to make sure your fruits are fully de-stickered
Thank you Aunt Sheryl for being a trooper through this seemingly stressful event. As one of my favorite auto tuned news reports should have said: Ain't nobody got time for fruit stickers.
Lesson 1: Pate Brisee, Tart Aux Quetsches (Short Pastry, Plum Tart)
Yesterday I went to heaven. I’m really not sure how I had managed to avoid it in the past but it is true: Sur La Table (which fancy people, including myself of course, pronounce “sur la tab”… weird) is in fact, what I imagine heaven to be like. Not only did they have everything I could have dreamed of for my kitchen/baking needs, but they also gave out little samples of the most delish ice cream, WITH a mini waffle cone. Come one! If that ain’t heaven I am doomed for eternity.
So I went to Sur La Table to get the “special equipment,” as Felder puts it in his book, that I will be needing in the first 5 recipes of this exploratory experiment. I won’t lie, it was very exciting buying a mini butane torch for my next recipe. Really, who needs a bat next to their bed for protection? I’m sleeping with a butane torch under my pillow. Take that future apartment burglar…
While at Sur La Table I also picked up my new stainless steel 9” tart pan with a removable bottom, which I will be using for the first three recipes. Todays adventure: Tart Aux Quetsches, or Plum Tart, with a focus on the pastry dough, Pate Brisee, or Short Pastry.
Side note:
This cookbook focuses on taking the reader/explorer, step by step through the basics of french pastry. It focuses on 8 types of dough that, once mastered, can be utilized and a bajillion ways. The introduction to each new dough, comes with a recipe for a delicious treat, and then we move upwards and onwards from there until, of course, I am a master french pastry chef.
Back to the recipe of the day:
This was a very simple recipe, and I found it pretty easy to execute. All you need is a standing mixer (or a wooden spoon works), some basic measuring equipment, a tart pan and 8 basic ingredients: then voila! A plum tart has been birthed. The pictures below show each step along the way, as well as what the end product looked like… gorgeous in my opinion. I will attach the recipe below for anyone who would like to give it a shot.
A few things that I struggled with/would suggest for those wanting to attempt this recipe:
1. Make sure that you use this recipe when plums are in season. Plums are NOT in season right now, and I think the tart turned out a little too tart for my liking (in the end I sprinkled a bit more sugar to the top of the tart to balance out the ‘tartness’). I realize i’m giving advice that I am not following, but thats just how it has to be for this little challenge I have given myself, what the book says, I bake, no ifs ands or buts!
2. Figure out how to de-pit a plum before you start this recipe. My poor roommate had to witness me struggling, like stomping my feet and yelling struggling, because these damn plums did not want to separate from their pits. Again I think this is most likely because they are not in season, or maybe they weren’t quite ripe enough. Either way, I have definitely learned my lesson on plums.
3. The recipe called for 1lb. of plums. I found I needed about 1.5 lbs in order to fill the tart pan. I would recommend buying anywhere from 1.5-2 lbs. If anything, you will have left over plums to snack on!
If you have any pointers, questions or comments I’d love to hear from you! (I realize at this point I have one follower…. my best friend Taylor in NYC but i figured I’ll get used to talking to readers… maybe in the future more than just my family and friends will read this whole business….)
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Recipe: Tart Aux Quetsches (adapted from Christophe Felders Patisserie)
Ingredients:
Short pastry-
1 stick butter, diced
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
3 1/2 tbsb. sugar
1/2 Cup cold water
Filling-
1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
1 1/2 lb. plums (Felder recommends italian prune plums, but any work)
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Short Pastry:
Combine butter, sugar, flour, salt, and sugar in electric mixer bowl (make sure the paddle attachment is on). Beat until fine crumbs are formed.
Beat in the water just until the dough is smooth (see picture above for examples)
Flatten the dough into a disk and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in refrigerator for 2 hours.
Just before the two hours are up:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter the tart pan.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about 1/8 inch thick
Drape the dough over the tart pan and trim the dough so it is flush with the rim of the pan.
Prick the base of the tart shell with a fork.
Filling:
Spread the breadcrumbs in the tart shell
Cut the plums in half and pit them.
Make a small incision lengthwise in one end of each plum half and arrange the plums in the tart shell.
Bake the tart for 35-40 minutes, until the crust is golden and the fruit is tender.
Mix the sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle it on the tart
Hello there blogosphere, and welcome to my blog/life experiment. I am currently a Special Education Teacher in Chicago, but more importantly, I am an aspiring baker. This past January I had a, sort of, Carpe Diem moment when I realized that if I want to bake, I need to just get off my ass and make it happen! Last month I finished up a three month internship at a local, and incredible, pie shop (No I didn't quit my job, it was every Sunday for those three months) This experience made me realize a few things: 1. I love baking. 2. Despite how terrible waking up in the morning may be for ANY job, when you really love the work you're doing, the waking up becomes tolerable. 3. Even though I have been baking for years and years on my own, when it comes to commercial kitchen work/large scale baking skills, I know close to nothing. 4. I love baking. 5. I can do this thing....I think.
As summer approaches, and I apply to like a million bakeries for stage experiences (mini internship, but the cool french word), I realized that thus far, I have been baking to bake, to eat, to share. This method is super fun. And exciting. Aaand all over the place, with no direction. SOOO I did some research and found this book. Patisserie by Christophe Felder (picture above). This fabulous, picture filled, educational book will be my personal challenge for the next... year... ish. I will go recipe by recipe, reading, baking, taking pictures, and telling YOU my, thus far non-existent readers, how my self-education is going. My hope is, by the end, to be a master french pastry chef. Send me suggestions, helpful hints or just enjoy this mess of an experiment.
Ciao for now!
P.S. I realize this is basically like that movie about Julia Child, but hey, whatever, it was a good idea.
Lindsey Bakes @lindseybakes-blog - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
