French Gateaux

Pepe surprised me at Christmas with a voucher to attend a Patisse cooking Class. I was spoilt for choice with the options including a macaron masterclass, croquembouche class, art of pastry, all about the tart, French classics and French gateaux. I was still up in the air about which class to attend so I posted a facebook entry and everyone was voting on all of the above which didn't help me at all.

I decided to learn how to make a classic cake with a French style and attend the 'French Gateaux' class.

Whilst I was on my way to class, Pepe had his hands full with attending a fairy birthday party with the boys. I was definitely looking forward to having a few hours to myself and hopefully learning a few things at class.

A short walk from Central Station to the Patisse cooking school, I got a little lost with another girl but we weren't the last to the class so that was a relief. My reputation of being late wasn't the case here. There was a table full of people with name tags and aprons and Bill, the manager made me feel at home with a coffee and a pastry filled chocolate custard to meet the rest of the class.

We met the team helping out for the day and Aren who was going to be our demonstrator for the day. We started off with making the almond sponge for the opera cake. I was given the job to whisk the almond meal paste together and was wondering why my arm was about to fall off, only to figure out a short while later that we were making double quantities.

Flying through the ready made ingredients of coffee syrup for the buttercream and sponge, Aren made chocolate ganache and chocolate glaze. It brought me back to the many times that Pepe had helped to make chocolate ganache to only have it split every time and then we would be running around like a headless chooks to throw the mixture into the kitchenaid and blitz it to have it come good again.


Learnt how to make a foolproof buttercream by making a swiss meringue whisking til it tripled in volume and then added the butter and white chocolate. Then we were ready to put our opera cake together. Layering the buttercream, sponge, brushing on coffee syrup with 2 more layers it was into the freezer to set.

Next we made choux pastry for the Paris best and piped into a bicycle rings.

These were then baked in the oven as we were treated to an amazing lunch of asparagus, peas risotto drizzled with truffle oil and a simple green leaf salad. Divine!

With no time to spare we were back into making our chocolate sponge layer for the Chocolate Framboise Pave and chocolate mousse. Assembling the cake with layers of chocolate sponge, brushing this with raspberry liquid then a layer of mousse and repeating this two more time with a sponge layer on top. This was then put into the freezer to set.

Whilst waiting for our pave to set, it was back to our choux pastry sprinkled with flaked almonds. Piped the choux full of hazelnut buttercream and it was made extra delicious with hazelnut praline sprinkled on top. Indulgence central.

Once the chocolate framboise pave had set, it was time to ladle the chocolate coating with the melted dark chocolate. Finished off with slivered pistachios and freeze dried raspberries. Perfect for a Valentine's treat.

With a box of goodies in hand, Pepe came to pick to me up with the boys. They couldn't wait to try the treats I had in store for them and I could tell it was fingerlicking good!

 

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and couldn't have asked for a great bunch of people and patient presenter in Aren who managed to answer any curly question thrown his way. It was great to feel and taste our way through the class and of course have a few laughs along the way.

 

Patisse Cooking School

Ground Floor 67 -69 Regent Street
Chippendale NSW 2008

(02)9690 0665

W: www.patisse.com.au

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Patisse_Cafe

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PatisseSydney

 

Homemade nougat

Memories drifting back to an amazing dinner memento from Sean’s Panorama and having visited Montelimar, France’s nougat capital. It was time to embark on making nougat after talking about it for a few years.

Using Bill Grangers’ White Chocolate, cherry and almond nougat as a guideline, I attempted my first ever nougat which I’ve called ….

‘Where’s the white chocolate, cranberry and nuts galore nougat’.

Makes 45 pieces and takes an hour all up

Ingredients

Edible rice paper (I got mine from David Jones food hall)

460g (2cups) caster sugar

250mL (1cup) glucose syrup

125mL (1/2cup) honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 egg whites

80g almonds lightly toasted

80g pistachios lightly toasted

80g hazelnuts lightly toasted

100g dried cranberries (I used cranberries instead of the cherries but it works well either way)

Lightly grease a 20cm x30cm baking tray and line with sheets of edible rice paper.

Put the sugar, glucose, honey and vanilla in a large heavy-based saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, over low heat until the sugar has dissolved.

Bring to the boil, and then boil without stirring, brushing down the side of the saucepan with a wet pastry brush to remove any sugar crystal which may form. Cook until the mixture reaches 142C on a sugar thermometer (soft crack stage) or test the syrup by dropping a small teaspoonful into a bowl of iced water- you should be able to remove the ball of syrup and stretch it with your fingers into pliable strands.

Meanwhile, beat the egg whites in a large clean bowl until firm peaks form. While beating, very slowly pour the hot syrup in a thin stream into the egg white. Continue to beat until the mixture is thick and holds its shape- depending on your beaters, this can take between 2-8 minutes. Once the mixture can hold its shape, stop beating. You don’t want it to thicken and become like toffee.

(In my case, the mixture wasn’t really thickening that much so I kept it going for another 5minutes but it still wasn’t holding its shape too well. I was hoping the setting process would help in this instance.)

Gently warm nuts in a dry pan (or in an oven for 5mins at 180C). I managed to source my nuts from Co-op in Katoomba as they had a great selection to choose from.

Stir into the mixture with the chocolate and cranberries. For this step, Bill Granger recommends that you’ll need someone with a strong arm to stir the fruit and nuts through the nougat. That’s where Pepe came into the picture and helped out.

Pour mixture into the tin and place a layer of rice paper over the top. Leave to set overnight and then cut into square or bars with a hot, wet knife. That’s another thing, cutting the pieces of nougat you need some muscle as its tough going, lucky that Pepe came to the rescue again.

The next day the nougat had set and I couldn’t wait to try it. It was delicious, it was medium soft and the toasted nuts just cut through the sweetness.

The only thing I would do differently is probably not add the white chocolate as you couldn’t really taste it, add more nuts into the mixture and some citrus peel for the next one. I’ll also try and cook the sugar syrup mixture to a slightly higher temperature to see if makes a difference in the mixture holding its shape.

Challenge 4- love

As it was Valentine's Day, what better way to celebrate the theme love but with lots of seafood.

I headed down to the Fish Markets with many like-minded people and got myself a dozen Sydney Rock oysters and a great big mudcrab. Yum!

As I had the MasterChef Cookbook Vol 1, I thought I'd test out
Lucas Parsons' Singapore Chilli Mud Crab and the Pressure Test Apple Tarte Tartin.

So for entree was the yummy oysters with an eschallot and red wine vinegar dressing, yummy! Pepe surprised me with my favourite Tasmanian Kreglinger Vintage Brut 2004.

Lucas Parsons' Singapore Chilli Mud Crab

serves 2

prep time 20mins

cooking time 6mins


Ingredients

1 live mud crab (1.25-1.5kg)

1 tbs peanut oil

Chilli Paste

2 small red chillis, chopped

10g fresh ginger peeled and chopped coarsely

2 large cloves garlic coarsely chopped

1 tbs peanut oil

Chilli Sauce

1 cup (250ml) tomato paste

Juice of 2 limes

30g coarsely grated palm sugar (in 100ml of warm water)

1/4cup (60ml) of tomato sauce

3/4-1 tbs black bean sauce to taste

Garnish
Coriander leaves and lime wedges to serve

Method

Cook mud crab in boiling salted water for 10-15mins. Drain and refresh in iced water. Prepare the crab lifting the tail flap and easing off the back shell. Remove and discard the gills, liver and brain matter and rinse the crab well. Using a cleaver or heavy knife, cut the crab into four pieces.

To make chilli paste, use a mortar and pestle to pound the chillies, garlic and ginger to a paste. Add 1 tbs pf the peanut oil and combine well.

Heat wok with peanut oil until hot and smoking. Add the chilli base and stir for 30 seconds. Add the crab pieces and cook for 30 seconds, stirring continuously, then add the chilli sauce and cook, uncovered for 5 mins or until sauce thickens slightly. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve, arrange the crab in a large bowl, then pour over the sauce. Scatter with coriander leaves and serve with lime wedges.


Let's say it was delicious and gone in seconds.

Apple Tarte Tartin

recipe by Kate Nichols

Serves 2

Ingredients

3 Golden Delicious apples (I used Granny Smiths as this is how I remember a good apple tarte tartin)
1 tbs lemon juice
½ cup (110g) caster sugar (you could probably use 1/4 cup as the apples were so sweet)
20g unsalted butter, chopped
Ready-rolled puff pastry sheet
Icecream to serve (I used Maggie Beer's Vanilla Bean & Elderberry Icecream)

1. Preheat oven to 220C (200C fan forced)

2. Peel apples, cut into quarters, remove cores (cutting each quarter at the core so it has a “flat” side), and toss the quarters in a large bowl with the lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the sugar.

3. Using a 20cm frying pan as a guide, cut pastry into a round slightly larger than the pan, prick with a fork.


4. Melt butter in a 20cm non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Cover with the remaining sugar. Cook over medium-low heat, shaking pan occasionally to spread around any dark spots that appear, until a rich caramel forms.

5. Place apple quarters into pan, rounded side down, arranging them around pan. Cut remaining apple to fill gaps. Cook the apples over medium heat for about 10 minutes until caramel is bubbling up in the pan, shaking pan occasionally to prevent burnt spots.

6. Lay the pastry over the apples, tucking any protruding edges around edges of pan.

7. Place the pan in the oven, cook for about 25 minutes, or until the puff pastry has risen and cooked. The pastry should be dry and flaky. Stand tarte in pan for 10 minutes before carefully turning out onto a serving plate. Serve with cream or icecream.


After having attempted Apple Tarte Tartin a few times, this recipe has been the best one yet and definitely one to do again.

Icecream, sorbets oh my!

I recently received an icecream maker for Christmas and have been rather keen to use it.

First off we made vanilla icecream, we made up a custard and waited for it to cool before putting it into the icecream maker. We waited in anticipation and watched the paddle stir the mixture slowly freeze to become icecream. It turned out to this beautiful golden colour and so creamy! Yay our first batch was a success.

Second we tried making a ruby grapefruit sorbet. Now that took a little bit longer as I think I put way too much in and conked out the motor on the icecream maker. Luckily I had my handmixer to help out and just kept putting it back in the fridge to freeze and now we have a yummy sorbet to celebrate new year's eve with. Can't wait to sprinkle in the campari though=)
 

I've included the recipes for the vanilla icecream and ruby grapefruit below.

Vanilla Icecream (makes about a small tub 500mL)

• 4 egg yolks
• 250mL milk
• 250ml thickened cream
• 100g caster sugar
• a few drops of vanilla essence

Pour milk into saucepan and bring slowly to boiling point but don't let it boil. Put in vanilla essence.

In a bowl beat and mix egg yolks and sugar until thick. Pour milk into mixture of egg yolks and sugar whilst stirring. Pour mixture back into pan and heat gently until the custard thickens. When you see a film form over the back of the spoon it's time to remove the saucepan from the heat to cool. When custard base is cold, stir in the cream. Transfer the whole mixture into the icecream maker.

Ruby grapefuit sorbet (makes about 800mL)

• Juice of 8 pink grapefruit
• 250g caster sugar
• 1/2 cup (125ml) Campari, plus extra to drizzle

Strain the grapefruit juice into a saucepan, add the sugar and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves. Cool, then stir in the Campari. Pour the mixture into a shallow container and freeze until frozen at edges. Remove from freezer and beat with an electric beater. Pour back into the container and refreeze. Repeat 2 or 3 times. (Alternatively, use an ice-cream machine following manufacturer's directions.) When firm, place scoops of sorbet in serving cups or dishes and drizzle with a little extra Campari before serving.