Fresh Fruit Tart with Creme Chiboust

In my opinion these tarts are not worth all the effort to make from scratch, as I did not find the end product worth the amount of time the tarts took to make. Nowadays we can buy good pastry and creme patisserie in supermarkets and they are as good as homemade. But this recipe is good to follow to make any type of pastry. You could make the tart with just a creme patisserie inside and not bother with the italienne meringue. The italienne meringue only makes the filling lighter, due to all the air in the egg whites.

TIPS:

The key to making a creme patisserie is speed. Get all of the ingredients out and measured before starting to make it. If you stop mixing the creme patisserie whilst it is on the heat then it will form lumps, as mine did.

When making the italienne meringue a copper pan is essential as copper is very conductive and the sides of the pan need to be hot. If the sides of the pan are cool when you pour out the sugar syrup then it will harden before it reaches the egg whites. Also a stand up mixer is useful or another person to help because you need to pour on the sugar syrup whilst mixing the egg whites.

Ingredients:
For the pate sucre:
250g plain flour
100g unsalted butter, cold and diced into small squares
100g icing sugar, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs, at room temperature
For the creme patissiere:
3 egg yolks
40g Castor sugar
15g custard powder
175g milk
For the meringue italienne:
40ml water
180g Castor sugar
15ml glucose (available from most supermarkets)
3 egg whites



To make the pate sucre:




1) Weight out all of the ingredients.



2) Pour the flour onto a clean work surface.



3) Make a well in the middle of the flour.



4) Pour the butter into the well in the middle of
 the flour.



5) Using your fingertips work the butter into
the flour. 



6) When the butter and flour are completely
combined, make another well in the centre
and pour in the icing sugar.



7) Next crack the two eggs into the well with the
 icing sugar. Using your finger tips combine the
 mixture into a ball. and place it in the fridge for
at least 1 hour or several days until you are
 ready to use it.



8) Remove the dough from the fridge and place
 onto a floured surface ready to roll.
Preheat the oven to C200.




9) Roll the dough out to about 5mm thick,
on a floured surface. 



10) Using a fluted pastry cutter cut out rounds.



11) Lightly grease your chosen tin and then place
 the pastry rounds into the tin.  Prick with a fork.



12) Line the bottom of the pastry case with
greaseproof paper and fill it will baking beans
or as I have used dried haricot beans. Cook until
the pastry is lightly golden at the edges.



To make the creme patisserie:



1) Combine the egg yolks and one third of
the sugar in a bowl.



2) Whisk the 2 together until they are pale and
 foamy. Sift in the custard powder and mix well.

3) Combine the rest of the sugar and milk in a
saucepan and bring to the boil. As soon
 as the mixture starts to boil pour one third onto
the egg mixture, stirring with a whisk to prevent
lumps forming.  Pour the mixture back into the
pan and boil over a gentle heat for 2 minutes.

4) Tip the custard back into a bowl and put
lumps of butter on the surface to stop a
skin forming. Set aside.

To make the meringue italienne:

1) Put the water, sugar and glucose in a copper
pan over a medium heat. Stir with a skimmer
until it boils. Wash down the sugar crystals
which form around the edges with a brush
 dipped in cold water.  Increase the heat
so the sugar boils rapidly.

 



2) Use a sugar thermometer to check when the
sugar reaches C110. At this point beat the
egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff.
Keep an eye on the sugar and take it off the
pan when it reaches C121



3) Pour the hot sugar syrup over the egg whites
in a thin stream whilst mixing the egg whites
at a low speed. Continue to mix a low speed
until the mixture is completely cool, about 15
minutes.



To make the creme chiboust:





1) Using a whisk stir in one third of the meringue
italienne into the creme patisserie .





2) Fold the rest of the meringue italienne into the
creme patissiere with a spatula. Do not over mix
 it or the cream will loose all its lightness.

3) Spoon the cream into the cooled pastry
cases and decorated with fresh fruit.

'The Roux Brothers on Patisserie'

Earlier this month I found a 1986 copy of 'The Roux Brothers on Patisserie' at my grandmothers house and thought I would try out a recipe or two. I had heard that the Roux Brother's recipes were complicated and time consuming, but I didn't believe this until I tried one of their recipes for myself! After poring over the beautiful pictures of french cakes and tarts I came across a beautiful picture of a collection of Fruit Tartlets and Barquettes. The picture consisted of a range of sizes and shapes of tarlets decorated with figs, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, red currents, blueberries, gooseberries and mango. In the book there was no official recipe on how to make the tartlets, only a caption in the corner specifying the pastry used and the filling. The Recipes for these could be found elsewhere in the book. I thought that these tartlets looked irresistible and seemed simple enough to make.

A type of pastry called Pate Sucree was used, which translates to a sweet short pastry. The pastry was lined with a Creme Chiboust. Still sounding simple?

The Pate Sucree is a basic short crust pastry, which is in theory easy to work with. The Creme Chiboust is a creme patissiere mixed with a meringue italienne. Now it is sounding a bit more difficult.

Check back later to see how it went . . .

Nuala's Brownie Recipe

After weeks of testing and altering recipes I have finally created an amazing Brownie recipe. This recipe produces brownies which are chewy at the edges but are still dense and fudgy in the middle - just how I like them!

From Trail 3 I have decreased the amount of sugar by 30g which produces less of a crust on the brownies and makes them more fudgy. Also I cooked the brownies at a lower oven temperature (C160 not C180). This was because before the brownies started to burn at the edges and were not cooked in the middle.

Makes 16 small brownies. 

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate

125g unsalted butter

145g castor sugar

3 eggs

110g plain flour

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to C160. Line and grease a 20cm x 20cm baking tin. It is important that you use the correct size tin as a larger or smaller tin will give different results.
2. Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and add the butter. Put the bowl over a pan with simmering water, at a medium heat. Mix occassionaly until all of the butter and chocolate is melted. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
3. Meanwhile crack the eggs into a bowl and add the sugar. Whisk together until combined. Be careful not to over whisk as this will give your brownies extra air which alter the end result creating more of a cakey brownie.  
4. Pour the cooled melted chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar mixture. Also pour in the flour. Fold together the mixture until it is just combined, being careful not to over mix.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and place on the middle shelf of the oven. Cook for 40 minuites or until a skewer which is inserted into the middle of the mixture come out clean. Leave the brownies in the tin until completely cool. When cool remove from the tin and cut into 16 squares. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy!

Trail 3

If I thought the last recipe was a disaster I was wrong as these brownies were worse. I cooked the brownies for over an hour and they were still not cooked in the middle but burning on top. They also stuck to the pan, which I am not sure why as I greased the pan as I always do!

From the last trail I concluded that the mixture must be to wet and that is why it is not cooking. I therefore needed to decrease the wet ingredients and increase the dry ingredients. But I needed to be careful to not make the mixture to dry which would make the brownies too dry.

Trail 3

INGREDIENTS:
Butter: The amount of butter was decreased slightly to 125g.
Eggs: I decreased the amount of eggs back to 3 eggs, as 4 eggs gave the mixture too much moisture.
Sugar: The amount of sugar to egg was increased from 100g of sugar to 1 egg to 125g of sugar to 1 egg.
Chocolate: I kept the chocolate to 200g.
Flour: The flour was increased to 110g to make the mixture less wet.

METHOD:
To make these brownies the previous method was followed.

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together over a low heat.
2. Whisk the sugar and eggs together until just incorperated.
3. Pour the melted chocolate mixture into the sugar and eggs and then add the flour.
4. Cook at C180.