More Than Sweet

Pastries

Nordic Paris-Brest

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Cardamom crusted choux with parsnip crème diplomat and rosemary poached pears

Parsnip crème diplomat

Parsnip milk

500ml whole milk 
300g parsnip, peeled and cut into cubes 
1 sri lanka cinnamon stick 
25g honey 
Pinch of salt

Parsnip crème diplomat

250ml parsnip milk
1 Tbsp. heavy cream
40g egg yolks
50g sugar
18g cornstarch
1,5 leaves gelatine

175ml heavy cream

Add whole milk, parsnip cubes, cinnamon stick, honey and salt to a pot and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and infuse in the refrigerator overnight. Strain out the parsnip and cinnamon and measure off 250ml parsnip milk for the pastry cream.

Soak gelatine leaves in cold water. Heat the parsnip milk and 1 Tbsp. of heavy cream with 15g of the sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch, then whisk in the hot milk mixture. Strain back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat while stirring continuously until pastry cream thickens. Bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes, to cook out the starch. Remove from heat, squeeze excess water from the gelatine and whisk into the pastry cream. Transfer the pastry cream to a container and press a piece of clingfilm directly against the surface. Chill in the refrigerator until completely cooled.

Whip the pastry cream until creamy. In a separate bowl, lightly whip 175ml of heavy cream, then gently fold the whipped cream into the pastry cream. Pour into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and refrigerate until ready to assemble.

Rosemary poached pears

1l water
250g sugar
4 pears, peeled, halved and cored
4 sprigs of rosemary
5cm strip lemon rind

Heat water and sugar in a large pot until sugar is dissolved. Add pears, rosemary and lemon rind to the warm poaching liquid, cover and cook for 20-25 minutes until fork tender.

Transfer the pears and poaching liquid to a container and refrigerate overnight.

Cardamom crusted choux rings

50g butter
65g water
65g whole milk
3g sugar
2g salt
125g egg
75g all purpose flour

1 tbsp. cardamom seeds, coarsely crushed
3 Tbsp. granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 180C.

Melt butter, water, whole milk, sugar and salt in a saucepan on low heat. When the butter is melted, bring to a boil over high heat and immediately remove from direct heat. Stir in flour to make a soft dough. Return the pan to low heat and cook the dough for a few minutes, while stirring continuously. Be careful not to scrape the film forming on the bottom of the pan.

Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes. Beat in the egg a little at a time until dough is glossy, elastic and holds a “V”-shape when dropped from a spatula. You might not need all of the egg for the dough.

Line two trays with baking paper and use an 8cm cookie cutter as stencil to draw four circles on each tray with a pencil. Flip the baking paper around so the pencil mark faces down.

Place the choux dough into a piping bag fitted with a 2cm star nozzle and pipe eight choux circles.

Sprinkle liberally with the cardamom sugar and bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack.

To assemble the Paris-Brests, drain the pears and cut into 1x1cm cubes. Cut the choux rings in half and place the pear cubes in the bottom halves.

Pipe parsnip crème diplomat on top of the pears and layer with the top halves.

Serve immediately.

Paris-Brest in the springtime

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Paris-Brest with caramelised buttermilk mousseline & pickled apple, apple sorbet and citrus herbs

For the sorbet, replace pears with an equal amount of apples.

Caramelised buttermilk mousseline

150ml heavy cream
75g sugar
4 egg yolks
25g all-purpose flour
25g corn starch
350ml buttermilk
150g softened butter, divided

Slowly caramelise the heavy cream on a nonstick pan over medium high heat, scraping the bottom once in a while, until the cream turns a a light caramel color.

Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, flour and egg yolks until no lumps remain. Whisk in buttermilk and caramelised heavy cream. Pour into a saucepan and bring to a boil, cook while whisking rigorously for a few minutes to thicken the cream and cook out the starches. Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl. Stir in 75g of butter until combined, cover with clingfilm and let cool. When the cream is room temperature, whisk in the remaining 75g butter and transfer to a piping bag with an open star nozzle. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Pickled apple

2 apples, peeled and cut into small balls
100g sugar
100ml water
1 Tbsp apple vinegar
A few sprigs of verbena, lemon balm and lemon thyme

Bring sugar, water, vinegar and herbs to a boil, and boil for 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat, cool for 15 minutes then add apple balls. Leave for 5-10 minutes, check to make sure apples are not mushy, then remove apple balls from pickling liquid.

Vanilla choux

Makes 6 choux rings

80g whole milk 
80g water
65g butter
5g sugar 
2g salt 
100g strong bread flour, sieved
140-160g whisked eggs 
*1 empty vanilla bean leftover from other purposes 
2-3 Tbsp. icing sugar
Flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 175C.

Add milk, water, butter, vanilla bean if using, sugar and salt to a pan and warm up over low heat until butter is melted. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and remove from heat as soon as the milk mixture is boiling. Remove vanilla bean and rigourously whisk in flour until a homogenous paste, return to low heat and cook the dough for a few minutes. Be careful not to scrape off the thin film that forms on the pan.

Transfer dough to a bowl and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Beat in egg a little at a time, you might not need all of it, until dough falls off the spoon in a V. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe six 7,5cm circles on a piece of parchment paper. Dust with icing sugar and sprinkle with flaked almonds.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until puffy and golden brown all over. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

To assemble and serve
Floral olive oil
Icing sugar
Lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemon thyme

Cut choux rings in half, pipe caramelised buttermilk mousseline on the bottom half and arrange pickled apple balls on top of the mousseline. Place the upper half of the choux rings back on top of the apples and dust with icing sugar.

Serve with a few extra apple balls, fresh herbs, dots of floral olive oil and citrus herbs

Spiced maple mille feuille with basil-apple salsa

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Spiced maple mille feuille with apple-basil salsa

Makes 4 mille feuilles

Puff pastry

260g all-purpose flour
150ml ice water
200g cold butter
Icing sugar

Quickly mix together flour and ice water until a shaggy dough, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.

Beat the butter block with a rolling pin to a pliable 10x10cm rectangle. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 10 minutes.

Roll out the dough to an 18x18cm square on a lightly floured workbench. Place the butter in the center of the dough and fold the corners of the dough over the butter, so they meet in the middle. Pinch to thoroughly seal the dough around the butter. Flip the dough, so the seal faces downwards and roll out to a 30x15cm rectangle. Make a letter fold, turn 45 degrees and roll out again to a 30x15cm rectangle. Make another letter fold and wrap lightly in clingfilm, rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Repeat this process three more time for a total of 6 turns. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.

Preheat oven to 200C. Roll out dough to 4-5mm thickness. Using a 10cm oval cutter, cut out 12 pastry leaves and place at least 3cm apart on a baking tray lined with parchment. Place a piece of parchment on top and another baking tray on top of the parchment. Bake for 15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway.

Remove top baking tray and parchment, dust with icing sugar and bake for another 3-5 minutes, until icing sugar is melted and caramelised.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. 2 cups milk (480ml)

Spiced maple creme mousseline

450ml whole milk
4 egg yolks
90g maple syrup
4 Tbsp. corn starch
1/2 habanero
A pinch of salt
150g softened, unsalted butter

Warm up the maple syrup, add the habanero and infuse for 5 minutes. Remove the chili and leave the maple syrup to cool to room temperature.

Whisk together maple syrup, salt, egg yolks and corn starch, set aside.

Bring milk to just below boiling and pour over 1/4 of the milk. Pour the mixture back into the pot and bring to a boil while whisking constantly. Cook for a few minutes while whisking rigorously, remove from heat and whisk in 75g of butter. Cover with clingfilm and leave to cool to room temperature.

Add the remaining butter and whisk until smooth and very creamy. Season to taste. Transfer to a piping bag with a 1cm nozzle.

Apple basil salsa

2 green apples, peeled and diced
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
2 tsp. lime juice
1 Tbsp. finely chopped basil leaves
Pinch of salt

Mix everything together, season to taste. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Pipe spiced maple mousseline on 4 pastry leaves. Spoon apple salsa on top of the mousseline in the centre of the leaves and top with another layer of pastry. Repeat with mousseline and apple salsa. Dust the remaining four pastry leaves with icing sugar and place on top of the mille feuilles.

Serve.

Mint eclairs with salted cocoa craquelin and cherry grappa cremeux

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I had some frozen cherries from last summer in the freezer, that I wanted to use for something special. To me, eclairs are just that. Special. They are so simple, that the flavours you put in really get to shine. Cherries, chocolate and grappa are one of my favourite pairings, especially when combined with the freshness of mint.

I infused fresh mint leaves in the pate a choux, and since I love the look of a choux au craquelin, I made a salted cocoa craquelin topping rather than the traditional chocolate glaze. You could go in a different direction than cherries and grappa here, maybe a classic vanilla pastry cream or a mint cremeux with chocolate chunks for a French take on a classic.

I used a portion of leftover cherry cremeux for a lovely summery tart with rhubarb and hibiscus, that I will be posting soon.  

Mint eclairs with salted cocoa craquelin and cherry grappa cremeux

12-14 eclairs

Adapted from Choux au craquelin by Maja Vase

Cherry grappa cremeux

200g cherry purée
40g egg yolk
50g granulated sugar
1,5 gelatin sheets
20g butter
20g grappa
Pinch of salt

Soak the gelatine in cold water.
Mix sugar, egg yolks and salt in a heatproof bowl, and set aside.

Add the cherry purée to small saucepan and bring to just below boiling. Pour a little cherry purée over the egg yolks while stirring, then add the rest of the cherry purée. Stir until fully combined. Squeeze of excess water from the gelatine, then stir into the cherry mixture. Cool to 50C, then stir in the butter and grappa. Use an immersion blender to emulsify.  

Transfer the cremeux to a piping bag with a small nozzle and cool completely in the refrigerator. 

Salted cocoa craquelin

100g butter, at room temperature
100g brown sugar
100g flour
15g cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt 

Mix everything together to a homogenous dough, roll out to about 3mm thickness between to pieces of parchment. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill while making the pate a choux. 

Mint infused pate a choux

100ml whole milk
100 ml water
100g butter
200ml firmly packed mint leafs, roughly chopped  
1 tsp. sukker
1⁄2 tsp. salt
100g all-purpose flour
3 large eggs

Combine milk, water, butter, mint leaves, sugar and salt in a heavy bottomed saucepan, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Sieve the milk mixture, discard the mint leaves and pour back into the saucepan. Bring back to a boil, remove from heat again and stir in the flour. Stir until the mixture comes together and the dough is soft, shiny and doesn’t stick to the sides of the pan.

Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, leave to cool for 10-15 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl in between. Beat the dough until soft, pliable and elastic. 

Transfer the dough to a piping bag with a 2,5cm diameter star nozzle. Pipe 12,5cm long eclairs on a parchment clad baking tray. Cut 12,5×2,5cm strips of the craquelin and place on top of the eclairs. 

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 175C fan. The eclairs are ready when golden brown all over. Leave to cool completely. 

Make two holes on the bottom of the eclairs and pipe the cherry cremeux into the holes to ensure the cavities are completely filled. 

Bon appetit!