difficult | Cecile's Cuisine

Rain, rain, rain and rain… What to do when it rains and rains and rains? not a lot except staying indoors and either snack in front of the TV, or play in the kitchen. I chose the latter this past Sunday;-)

I had lots of fruits in my fridge and was craving a yummy dessert so i strolled through the recipes that Stephane Glacier had share with us last year at the Demarle Convention and I decided to recreate his Strawberry tart. I changed a few things however. Instead of using a Pate Sable Breton which is a bit salted, i chose to use his recipe for Almond Pate Sablee.

Ingredients for 7-8 3 inches Individual Tartlets of 3 inches wide:

Almond Pie Crust:

250 gr. of flour
150 gr. of butter at room temperature
2.5 gr. of salt
93.75 gr. of powdered sugar
31.25 gr. of almond mill/ or flour
55 gr. of whole eggs ( which is about 1 egg)

Pistachio Mousseline Cream:

250 gr. of milk
1/4 vanilla bean
50 gr. of egg yolks ( which is about 3 egg yolks)
75 gr. of sugar
23 gr. of corn starch
115 gr. , or 1 stick of butter at room temperature
100 gr. of pistachio paste

Pistachio Paste:

100 gr. of pistachio nuts
25 gr. of almond mill
50 gr. of sugar
1.4 cl of water
2 drop of pistachio extract

1/4 cup of Rasbperry Jam or Jelly for Glacage.

In a large bowl, mix the butter and the flour until the mixture looks like sand.
Add the rest of the ingredients and knead with your hands, or use a mixer.
Place the dough onto a plastic wrap and shape into a log of about 3 inches. Place the log into the fridge and let it rest for at least an hour.
When the dough has rested, take it out of the fridge.
Cut 1 inch disc, and place it onto a roulpat. Fold the roulpat over the disc, and with a rolling pin, roll the dough into a disc of about 5 inches wide, and 3 mm. thick.
The dough will be too soft to pick up, so lay the roulpat with the dough upside down as shown onto the tartlet tray, and slowly pull the roulpat off the dough.
Push the dough inside the tartlet mold and with your fingers, push the dough so that it will fit perfectly inside.
Repeat steps 5 thru 7 until you have exhausted all the pie crust.
Place the tray back into the fridge to cool again for 1-2 hours.
After the crust has rested, turn the oven to 320 and cook the pastries for 15-20 minutes.
When the pastries are cooked, remove them from the oven and let them cool completely.
Pour the milk into a small saucepan and bring it to boil.
Meanwhile in a bowl, beat the egg yolks and the sugar until the mixture become thicker and whitens.
Add the corn flour and mix it in.
Pour the hot milk onto the egg mixture and stir.
Pour this mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat while constantly stirring until the mixture thickens. Remove the cream from the stove, pour it into a container.
Cover the cream with some plastic wrap and place the cream in the fridge to cool.
Meanwhile prepare the pistachio paste if you can’t find any.
Place all the ingredients given for the pistachio paste into a chopper and chop it all until the mixture becomes a paste.
Empty the cream, the pistachio paste and the butter into a mixer and beat until the mixture becomes fluffy and creamy.
Place the cream into a pastry bag and pipe the cream into each tartlet up to the rim of each tartlet.
Slice each strawberries in tiny slices and place them onto the tartlet clockwise.
Warm up the raspberry in the microwave for 30 seconds or until the raspberry is liquid and brush the raspberry over the strawberries et voila!!!
Devour!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

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Saturday evening I had guests for dinner. What to fix for desserts??? The choices are endless…but it had been a while since I had eaten eclairs and I really did not want to make a cake. What I knew that it needed to be chocolate so I made chocolate eclairs:

Ingredients for 8 normal-size eclairs or 16 small ones:

For the choux pastry:

8 cl or 1/4 cup,1 tbsp and 1 tsp of milk,
8 cl or 1/4 cup,1 tbsp and 1 tsp of water,
1/16 tsp of salt, 2 tsp of sugar,
3 1/2 Tbsp of butter,
1/2 cup of flour,
1 pinch of salt,
2 large eggs.

In a saucepan, heat up the milk, water, salt, and sugar.
Add the butter cut up in pieces.
When the butter has completely melted, bring the mixture to boil.
Remove the pan from the stove and add the flour by stirring very well.
Place the pan back on the stove ( it must be turned off, but will still be warm), and stir and stir with a heat-resistant spatula until the dough starts becoming a ball and will no longer stick to the rims of the pan.
Remove the pan from the stove, empty the dough into a cold bowl and add the eggs to the dough one at a time, mixing well after each egg.
Place the dough in a pastry bag, with the large circular opening make long sticks of about 5 inches or 2 inches for small ones on a large silpat that you would have previously lay on a large perforated sheet.
Place the perforated sheet in a warm oven of 350 and cook the eclairs for 15 minutes for the small ones or about 25 minutes for the large ones. The dough should be brown and dry on all sides. If the dough is a little bit soft, continue cooking the eclairs for 1-3 more minutes. Take them out to cool.
When they are cold, or cool enough, cut the top off at about 2/3 high of the eclairs. Set aside.

Ingredients for the Pastry Cream:

325 gr or 1 1/3 cup of whole milk
4 egg yolks,
65 gr or 4.5 tbsp of sugar,
15 gr. or 3 tsp of flour,
15 gr. or 3 tsp of corn starch,
a pinch of salt,
200 gr. of bittersweet chocolate chips ( Ghiradhelli Preferably)
80 gr. of butter

In large bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the mixture becomes whitish.
Add the flour and the corn starch to the eggs and mix.
Warm up the milk over the stove, or in the microwave for 2 minutes,
Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture and stir. Place the milk/ egg mixture back onto the stove and cook until the mixture is bubbling and is becoming really thick. Remove the pastry cream from the stove, and place it into a bowl. Set aside.
Pour the pastry cream in the flexipan.
Cover the pastry cream with some plastic wrap and place it into the fridge to cool.
Place the chocolate chips and the butter into a microwable bowl and microwave for 2 minutes or until the chocolate is completely melted.
With a small whisk, mix the butter and the chocolate until you have a homogeneous mixture.
Pour this mixture into the bowl.
Pour the pastry cream into the same bowl, mix well.
Pour this mixture into a pastry bag and fill each eclairs as shown below.

Now let’s prepare the ganache for the glacage of the eclairs. This recipe yields more than you will need but you can freeze the rest for later use.

Ganache:

100 gr. of chocolate chips
100 gr. of heavy cream
40 gr. of butter
32 gr. of honey

Place the chocolate and the butter in a large bowl.
Pour the cream and the honey in a microwable container and cook for 2 minutes.
Pour the cream over the chocolate and butter and mix well until the chocolate and butter have become a smooth ganache. If the chocolate is not completely melted, place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until the chocolate is completely melted and free of lumps.
Take each top and dip them into the ganache.
Place each top on the roulpat in case of any drippings and leave them there until the ganache is cured.
Place the top on each eclairs.

Et voila!!!