Framboise de Chocolat II

I made this one of my favorites dessert for a dear friends from KL. Hope this dessert gave her a sweet memory of our fellowship gathering after so many years.

There are few flavors in the dessert which is the bitterness from the dark chocolate, sweet sponge cake and the sour raspberries. Each flavors had represented about our life story. I feel that is really a good choice for having this dessert in this special gathering.

Recipe for a 8 inches square cake pan or cake mold, serve 9

Two pieces of  6 inches square vanilla sponge base

70% dark chocolate 140 g

Egg yolks 67 g
Caster sugar 67 g
Water 20 g
Whipping cream 270 g
Raspberry puree 115 g (Puree with food processor and strain out the seeds)
85 g raspberry puree (puree with food processor  and strain out the seeds)
25 g caster sugar
half piece of gelatin leaves

• Melt the chocolate at a double boiler.
• In another sauce pan, melt the sugar with water until it become sugar syrup.
• Beat the egg yolk in a mixing bowl with a whisk, adding the hot sugar syrup little by little until a think paste.
• Add in the melted chocolate follow by the raspberry puree until well combine.
• Whisk the whipping cream until the same consistency as the raspberry and chocolate mixture.
• Fold both ingredients together until well combine.
• Place a piece of sponge cake in the center of a cake pan. Pour half of the chocolate mousse on top then refrigerate until the mixture set. Add another piece of sponge on top and pour the remaining mousse mixture over the cake. Level them evenly and refrigerate until set.
• To make the raspberry topping, cook the raspberry puree with caster sugar until it simmering hot. Add in the gelatin leave which already soaked until soft. Stir until well combine. Set aside until it cool down.
• Pour the raspberry puree on the top of the cake evenly and refrigerate until set. Portion with a hot knife and garnish with some berries.
• Enjoy!

Profiteroles with Chantilly Cream

I love profiteroles, my son loves it, my hubby loves it, my friends loves it and there are no reason for me not to make this again and again. After many years playing with choux pastry, I am still sticking on my old comfort recipe that gives me so much confidence to make it repeatedly. 

As for the cream, I have tried different kind of fillings for the puffs such as custard also name as creme patisserie, vanilla whipped cream, cream cheese mix with whipped cream and etc. Until lately, I came out with my own version of Chantilly cream that suit my taste bud so much which could win over all my previous attempts. However, eating is still base on individual taste buds. Generally, the puffs will never go wrong with any creams and chocolate garnache, don't you agree with me?

Recipe for 14 large puffs:

For the Puff: 

70g plain flour

3 large beaten eggs

100g water

60g unsalted butter

Pinch of sugar and salt

For the puff, boil the water, butter and pinch of sugar and salt in a cooking pan until its bubbling. Turn off the heat, add in all the plain flour and mix with a wooden spoon until well combine and become a smooth dough.

Add half of the beaten eggs and mix (this stage is a bit hard work but please patient and keep stirring until the egg mix into the dough. Once the eggs completely mix with the dough, you will find it quite dry and hardly to mix. Add the beaten eggs little by little into the dough and continue mixing. You might not finish using the beaten eggs. You will need to have a smooth and silky consistency of the mixture. When you spoon up the mixture, it should drop back to the pan very slowly. The mixture should not too dry or too wet.

Once you get the right consistency of mixture, transfer it into a piping bag and pipe out about 14 dollops of mixture on a baking tray with baking paper attached.

Spray some water on the mixture. This is to prevent it over burning while it's baking in the oven. 

Bake at 200'C preheated oven for 15 minutes or longer until it puff up and turn light brown then turn the temperature to 170'C and bake for another 15 minutes. Transfer the puff on a wire rack to cool down.

For the Chantilly Cream:

3 egg yolks

200ml milk

30g sugar

20g plain flour

20g unsalted butter

250ml whipping cream

20g sugar powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100g whipping cream

100g dark chocolate

Prepare the custard first. Boil the milk with sugar until sugar is dissolved but not boiling. Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks and flour to a thick paste but no lumps. Add two tablespoon of milk if you find it too dry to mix.

Pour the warm milk into the egg yolks mixture, pour little by little and mix with a hand whisk until everything combine. Then, pour back the mixture into the cooking pan. Cook with very low heat and keep stirring until it thicken.

Once the mixture is thicken, remove from the heat and add in the butter in 2 batches. Keep stirring until the heat slightly cool down, Then add in the butter and vanilla extract. Continue stirring until well combine.

Transfer the cream into a plate and cover with cling film. Make sure the cling film touch on the mixture, this is to prevent it from skin forming on its surface. Chill the cream in the fridge and ready to use.

Meanwhile, whip the up the cream with the sugar powder and vanilla extract until thicken. Combine the chilled custard and whipped cream with a hand whisk until well mix. Transfer this chantilly cream into a piping bag and chill in the fridge until ready to use.

For the chocolate garnache, warm the whipping cream until simmering hot then remove from the heat. Add in the dark chocolate immediately and stir gently until well combine.

To assemble the profiteroles, poke a hole on the top of each puffs then piping in the chantilly cream about 80% full. Dip each puffs with chocolate garnache. Chill the profiteroles in the fridge. It is best serve cold. Enjoy!

Paris - Brest Dessert

According to Wikipedia, Paris–Brest is a French dessert, made of choux pastry and a praline flavoured cream. The pastry was created in 1910 to cmmemorate the Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race begun in 1891. Its circular shape is representative of a wheel. 

Here is another bake for Christmas, fruit puffs. It's been in my to-do-list for quite sometimes. My last bake of this dessert was long time ago since 2007. It's unforgettable as I made a lot to feed 100 congregation for a pastor retirement party. 

I miss this dessert a lot and now with this festive season I have so much excuses to make again. 

This fruit puffs has win over many taste buds as it taste light and refreshing. 

Recipe for 28 puffs:

For the Puff: 

140g plain flour

5 large beaten eggs

200g water

1200g unsalted butter

Pinch of sugar and salt

For the puff, boil the water, butter and pinch of sugar and salt in a cooking pan until its bubbling. Turn off the heat, add in all the plain flour and mix with a wooden spoon until well combine and become a smooth dough.

Add half of the beaten eggs and mix (this stage is a bit hard work but please patient and keep stirring until the egg mix into the dough. Once the eggs completely mix with the dough, you will find it quite dry and hardly to mix. Add the beaten eggs little by little into the dough and continue mixing. You might not finish using the beaten eggs. You will need to have a smooth and silky consistency of the mixture. When you spoon up the mixture, it should drop back to the pan very slowly. The mixture should not too dry or too wet.

Once you get the right consistency of mixture, transfer it into a piping bag and pipe out about 28 spiral shapes of mixture on a baking tray with baking paper.

Spray some water on the mixture. This is to prevent it over burning while it's baking in the oven. 

Bake at 200'C preheated oven for 15 minutes until it puff up then turn the temperature to 170'C and bake for another 15 minutes. Transfer the puff on a wire rack to cool down.

For the cream:

Beat 250g cream cheese and 80 gram caster sugar until smooth batter then add in eight tablespoon of lemon juice and 4 tablespoons of coicointreau then mix well to combine. 

Chill the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes until cold enough to whip with the whipping cream. Add 400ml whipping cream into the cream cheese mixture and whip until thicken. Transfer to a piping bag and keep in the fridge until ready to use.

To assassemble:

Cut the choux pastry 1/3 from the top. Pipe some cream on the bottom part of the choux pastry then arrange some fruits on top. 

Pipe some cream on the top of the fruits then place the lid back on the top. Chill in the fridge and sprinkle with some dusting icing powder.before serve.