Caramelized Puff Pastry

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Since my childhood I've been in love with the puff pastry! And particularly with the cake 'Napoleon' (a puff pastry cake with vanilla butter-creme). This cake is very difficult to bake as the pastry should be crispy, puffy, full of air and not buttery. It very much looks and tastes like a French 'Mille Feuille' (thousands of sheets): each of thousands 'feuille' is very thin and light, very crispy and delicate... And the creme should not be too heavy to make the combination work perfectly.

After several weeks of improving my skills with choux I found that it is time to move forward and switch to the puff pastry. My wish was to find the favorite recipe for the caramelized version and here is what I have achieved:

The best ever inverse puff pastry recipe by Pierre Herme ("Pâte feuilletée inversée") was taken and it worked for me perfectly. My aim was also to achieve the deep caramel color and the thin caramelized layer on top. I do not know how the professionals do that, so probably I've invented the wheel once again...

Anyway, below are the steps you need to follow in order to get the same result!

Choux Quartet

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Although the spring has come gently this year, we did not manage to avoid illness ((... On the second day of doing nothing (spent the first day of illness with my son on the sofa watching cartoons and listening to the audiobooks) I got soooo bored that decided to cheer myself up! Guess what exactly have I done? :)

Once I was deeply in painting (I was a teenager that time) ... however that period actually did not last long... I used to dive into the colorful Van Gogh paintings for ages... But what am I talking about...

Oh yeah! These days I needed something to cheer myself up. And I found the colorful way to do so with my today's passion - pastry ;) This was my yesterday's palette:

Peppermint, chocolate, raspberry and vanilla flavors (beautiful isn't it?). 

I love the choux pastry: love making the dough, love watching them becoming puffy and taking the shape of the balls, love this crispy cover! 

Made 16 pcs (4 * 4 flavors) and called it my Morning Choux Quartet :) I've already written the mint Creme Anglaise recipe, the raspberry one - is the same (you only need to take raspberry puree instead) and the vanilla - is the classic creme Anglaise (no need to write it once again, right?). 

So today I'm publishing only the chocolate creme recipe here (this recipe in Everrnote):

Ingredients:

100 g Creme Anglaise (just cooked, warm)

50 g dark chocolate

up to 100 g heavy cream

Instructions:

1) Melt chocolate and mix with Creme Anglaise until smooth and shiny.

2) Add gently whipped cream (soft peaks). Depending on desired consistency you may add 50 - 100 g of cream.

For the directions on choux pastry check the LeCordonBlue website (I always use that recipe and it works perfect)

http://www.cordonbleu.edu/news/chouxpastrydough/en

Bon Appétit! 

The Spring!

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The weekend has passed and I'm taking a minute to tell you about the 8th of March (International Womens Day in Russia). Although it's an official holiday in Russia, here in Budapest they do not officially celebrate, however all the women and girls usually expect to get flowers and sweet treats from colleagues and spouses.
For me personally this Day is mostly about my Mom. Russians do not celebrate special Mother's Day so I used to see the 8th of March as the Mother's Day instead (unofficially)... That morning before the breakfast Dani (my son) sent virtual cards to his grannies to Russia and had a long chat with them via Skype (it's nice to live in XXI century :))




Despite on the holidays laziness I played with choux pastry again...  As a result I had these green beauties for the breakfast today :)

The green ones are filled with peppermint creme (a-la Creme Anglaise) plus a bit of berries compoté: blueberries + sour cherry. This combination turned out very delicious - tender and balanced!

Those (below) are with praline creme plus salted caramel.

I was experimenting with different glazing recipes as well: chocolate and based on sugar fondant, - and to my taste the sugar one turned out better for eclairs. And what do you prefer as a glaze for eclairs? :)

Finally, here is the recipe of my peppermint creme Anglaise.

Peppermint Creme Anglaise (This recipe in Evernote):

Ingredients:

135 г peppermint puree (I use CapFruit)
135 г heavy cream
65 г egg yolks
40 г sugar
10 г flour
15 г corn scratch

Instructions:

Mango-passionfruit-chocolate macarons

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Spring is my favorite season - sunny, warm and colorful, bright days and flavors! 

Since the Valentine's Day when I've made a special proposal dessert inspired by Faberge Eggs, the combination of passion fruit and dark chocolate continues to come back into my sweet creation. I love this passionate pair and want to recall it in many more new ways. Today is a day of my new macarons!


My kitchen is my lab - I'm like a scientist trying to create new formulas, experimenting with new combinations, challenging new goals. Today I was fighting with my new oven in order to get the best macarons ever (you know HOW naughty they are!). More over, I decider to use a new ingredient in macaron shells to add some mango flavor to the product. When I was in Barcelona I luckily bought one of the Sosa's products: freeze dried mango in powder (you can check it here), so I opened it today and put some in the recipe. I knew this ingredient was very good while working with chocolate - more water cause more problems, however macarons do not love water as well (this was my logic - and it worked!)... I used to change and vary only the filling of the macaron, not the shells and now (after my successful experiment) I believe it's been a big omission. 

So... I put mango powder in side the shells and made my beloved passionate pair (passion fruit + very deep in taste dark chocolate)... And... This was just fantastic! I feel the mango flavor then astringent chocolate and the fresh and sour passion fruit note at the end.... Perfection. They melt in my mouth and the hand goes for the next...


(This recipe in Evernote):

Ingredients:

Italian Meringue:

56 g water

210 g sugar
2 g salt

80 g egg whites
Yellow colorant (not compulsory)

Almond flour - mango part:

85 г almond powder

100 г powdered sugar

15 г Sosa mango powder
25 г egg whites

Instructions: