The chandeleur

As everybody knows, or not, yesterday was the chandeleur, so we made some crêpes.
I do not want to say but it was so good!

With the following recipe, I did 14 crêpes around of 9 in. After that for the serving number...we were just 2 but it did well so...
The batter was a little thick but you can add some milk or water, if you want it lighter, and easily get 15 to 16 crepes.

Crepe batter:

250 gr flour
5 gr salt
20 gr sugar (optional)
3 eggs
1/2 L milk
50 gr brown butter

Sift the flour in a bowl, add salt and sugar, if you want to, whisk. Add the eggs one by one and the milk. Sieve the batter and stir the brown butter.
Set aside for half an hour and start to pan the crêpes in a greasy skillet.

And now, let check what was on the menu yesterday night..mmmm!!!

Curry creamy leeks with crab meat and bay scallops

Grilled pork belly and the cheesy crêpe.

The traditional but at least very good nutella-banana-whipped cream crêpe.

and to finish...

Cinnamon apple compote with a salted caramel sauce.

So what do you think of? Are you booking a table for next year?

Advices:

- I think you could add a vanilla ice cream with the banana crêpe should be perfect and a calvados ice cream with the apples crêpe....





Chocolate-coco Tart

And for that chocolate-coco tart you will need a little shortcrust pastry and a chocolate ganache.

My ganache recipe is based on 100 gr of chopped dark chocolate and 10 cl of heavy cream. I place all the ingredients in a double boiler. When it is melted, I put the ganache in the tart dough that were previously cooked in the oven at 350 F during 20 minutes.

Chill it for 2 to 4 hours, during that time you can toast some shredded coconut in a dry pan and you will put it on top of the tart right before serving.

Advices:

- The tart can be done the day before and saved in the fridge.

King's cake



That tradition should be just the 6th of January every year but usually you can eat the Epiphany pastry cake or king's cake through January.
You need to buy a puff pastry at your grocery store for that dessert. I will make a post for the puff pastry soon but right now I am interested in the stuffing called frangipane.

So for 8 servings

Frangipane recipe:
1 cup almond powder
2/3 cup icing sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup butter
FM almond extract
1 egg yolk

Put the butter at room temperature.
In a large bowl, mix the almond powder, the sugar, the eggs, the butter and the almond extract.
In the puff pastry, cut two circles of dough (1 foot diameter) and spread the stuffing on one of them. Leave 1/3in free of frangipane and cover it with egg yolk. Place the second dough on top and make the two circles adhere at the level of the egg yolk.
Brush the cake with the egg yolk and put in the oven for 30 minutes at 350°F.

Advices:
- You can put the cake back in the fridge before cooking it in order to let the frangipane harden a bit.
- Brush the King's cake again before putting it in the oven . You can draw something on the cake with a pairing knife.
- I used to add some rum to flavor the stuffing, it match very well.

You are ready to make one this week-end!

The mint religieuse

In France, you will find some religieuses in every bakery, usually with a chocolate or coffee flavor. The joke  is unfortunatly only showing in French where menthe religieuse (mint religieuse) sounds exactely like mante religieuse (this).

Trust me, once you will taste it, you would like to get more.

To do that dessert, you need to do a cream puff pastry dough, a pastry cream and a plain frosting.
For this recipe, you have to make two sizes of puff pastry, one with a 2 inches ball and one with a 1 inch ball. The pastry cream will not be done with a vanilla flavor, but with some fresh mint leaves. You will mix the mint with half of the sugar that you will infuse in the milk. Then just follow the cream pastry recipe.

Plain frosting
1/2 egg white
7/8 cup confectionners sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1-2 drop green food color

You have to get a really nice soft mix, if not, you can warm it up a little bit in a microwave.

Now you have to fill your puff pastry balls with the mint pastry cream, and to put some frosting on each ball. Place a small ball on the top of each big ball. Chill the religieuse in your fridge for an hour.

Now it is time to enjoy.

Pastry cream : crème pâtissière

8 servings

Pastry cream :
25 fl oz milk
6 eggs yolks
5 3/4 oz sugar
3 1/2 oz flour
1/2 vanilla bean

Pour the milk in a saucepan. Squeeze in the vanilla seeds from the vanilla bean.. Add to the saucepan and bring it to a simmer over medium heat.
Meanwhile, whisk the yolks with sugar until the mixture is pale yellow. Whisk in the flour, and pour the hot milk on this preparation.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
Whisk it until the pastry cream comes to a full boil and start to be thicker. Pour into a bowl. Discard the vanilla bean.
Cover the cream with a plastic wrap pressed directly onto the surface of the cream.
Chill it quikly.

When the pastry cream is completely cold, it is ready to be eaten or to be used for another dessert like an eclair, a religieuse or a choux


Advices :
- Of course you can replace the vanilla bean with vanilla extract or another flavor

Cream Puff Pastry Dough : Pâte à choux

Preheat the oven at 400°F.

8 servings

Cream Puff Pastry Dough :
1 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
7 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/4 cups AP flour
4 eggs

Combine the water, salt, sugar and butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. The butter must be completely melted by the time the liquid boils, so adjust the heat as needed.
Aside from the stove, immediately dump all of the flour at once into the saucepan.  Using the wooden spoon, stir to make the mixture come together into a thick paste. Reduce the heat to medium-low, continue stirring until the dough stop sticking to the saucepan.
Transfer the dough to the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the eggs one by one, letting each addition absorb into the dough before adding more.
Use the dough immediately. Transfer it to a pastry bag and piped for the most uniform shapes.
Brush the piped dough with some beaten eggs.
Cook for 25-30 minutes.

Cherry dessert

Two words to describe that dessert : simple and efficient.
Simple to do it, all parts of the recipe are easy to execute.
Efficient by the effect you will feel when you will bring the first bite to your mouth.

6 servings

Panna cotta :
2-3 gelatine leaves
16 fl oz heavy cream
4 fl oz milk
1 vanilla bean (Op)
2 1/2 oz sugar

Heat the cream, milk, vanilla seeds and sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
Soften the gelatin in cold water. Press it to remove as much water as possible. Add it to the hot cream mixture and stir until dissolved.
Divide the same quantity of panna cotta into your chosen recipient.
Place in the fridge for minimum 2 hours.

Cherry jam :
1 lb cherry
4 oz sugar
sqz lemon juice
sqz pure almond extract (Op)
FM water

Clean and pit the cherries.
In a pan, mix and heat all the ingredients. Cook it slowly until you get half of the initial volume. Stir frequently.
When you get the desired consistence, let it cool.

Crisp :
1 3/4 oz almonds powder
1 3/4 oz sugar
1 3/4 oz flour
1 3/4 oz softed butter

Let the butter soften at room temperature. Add all the ingredients, if it is too moisture, add a bit more flour.
Put it in the fridge for 1h minimum. During that time, turn on your oven at 350F, take a sheet tray, crushed the dough and cook it, stir it frequently until the crisp get a blond coloration. Once it is done, keep the crisp in a cookie container.

Once that 3 first steps are done and the panna cotta looks like jelly, top it with some cherry compote and finish with some crisp. Now it is ready to eat.


Advices :
- The 3 first steps could be done the day before, like this, you will be sure that the panna cotta will be fully ready.
- Do not forget, use soften butter and NOT melted butter, for a better result at the end.
- The recipe is with cherry fruit but you can switch to other fruits. Also if you want to replace the pure almond extract with some spices, feel free to do so.
- For the crisp, if you prefer to use some pistachio powder, hazelnut powder, pecan powder... it is up to you!
- For a better presentation, use transparent container like martini glass. Layers will be more visible.
- Keep one cherrry per person or a piece of fruits choice for decoration purpose.

sqz : squeeze bottle, one pressure to get the exact quantity of liquid you need.
Op : optional
FM : for memory, you have to think about it but you do not have any quantity to respect.