As the weather turns chilly this week and my works continue to pile on, baking really allows me to take a step back and relax from the stress. Having said that, despite working through the weekends in the past weeks, I felt like I am starting to enjoy my job again. Perhaps is a turning point for me? (But we shall wait and see about that lol.)
Yesterday, I baked some traybakes for Free Cakes for Kids Hackney (whilst also sneaked our for a nice Indian supper in between haha). It’s a charity I’ve been working with for a couple of months now, and honestly what’s better than sharing the joy of your bakes than with someone else? 🙂 (And to be fair, it just gives me an excuse to temporarily drop my work and do something else lol.)
Finally, my summer holiday has officially begun! And as if my holiday hasn’t come quick enough, I am already packing for my trip to Paris tomorrow. 😉 I have always been very excited to visit the city again since the last time I was there when I was 4 years old, and now at last it’s happening! Hopefully, I will have plenty to share with you guys about it. 😊
One of the things I am most looking forward to now is to see all the amazing pâtissière in Paris, and I am hoping I will learn something more about them while I am there. So, meanwhile, here is a quick throw back to an entremet I did a while ago.
This entremet is composed of a raspberry mousse with a layer of vanilla sponge, sandwiching two layers of jellies, one blackcurrant and one clear strawberry. The entremet is topped with a tempered chocolate flower. For those of you who may have seen the recipe of my mango mousse cake, the recipes for the individual components follow almost the same method. (Here is the link 👉 https://tangosbaking.home.blog/2019/06/29/its-a-long-hot-summer/) To make the raspberry mousse, replace the mango purée in the recipe with a raspberry purée. The vanilla sponge is the same recipe without the desiccated coconut, and the blackcurrant jelly is made using blackcurrant juice. The glaze is made from raspberry purée. This entremet is also moulded using a silicone mould. Also a quick tip– when demoulding, dip the mould quickly in warm water to loosen the mouse up, then you should be able to get a clean finish when removing the entremet from the mould. 😉
Do you have any travel plans in the summer? Let’s share in the comments section! 👍
One of my favourite things in the summer is no doubt a smoky barbecue party with friends. Yesterday, my work colleagues were cooking up a meaty feast in the back garden. Chicken, ribs, prawns, sausages, burgers and all could name! 🍗🍖🍤🌭🍔 What possibly can a meat lover like me says no to? 😋 (Even better with a cocktail in my hand haha!)
Since I did not contribute to the grill, I paid my dues by whipping up (quite literally) a dessert for everyone there. To keep up with the finger food theme, I decided on some chocolate profiteroles topped with freeze-dried raspberries. To top it off, I also did some chocolate-dipped strawberries. The strawberries at this time are the best around this time in the year. One of the biggest joy I get from baking and cooking is to see the joy you bring to others with the food you’ve made. So, very happy that my colleagues enjoyed it! 😊
Chocolate Profiteroles with Freeze-dried Raspberries and Chocolate-dipped Strawberries
Quantity: 15-20 profiteroles
Ingredients:
For the choux pastry:
50g unsalted butter
150ml water
65g strong white flour
30g caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
For the pastry cream:
4 egg yolks
65g caster sugar
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp cornflour
350ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Decorations:
200g strawberries
300g dark chocolate
50g white chocolate
Freeze-dried raspberries
Method:
1. Start the choux pastry by placing the butter in water in a saucepan. Heat until the butter has fully melted, bringing the water to boil.
2. Keeping the saucepan over heat, tip all the flour into it in one go. Beat vigorously until it forms a smooth dough. Remove it from heat afterwards.
3. Add the beaten eggs a bit at a time to the dough, stirring vigorously after each addition, to achieve a soft, smooth batter. Take care at this stage as you may not need all your eggs. The batter must not be too runny or too stiff. To check that you have the right consistency, lift a bit of the batter up with a spoon. It should just hang off the spoon, holding a V-shape.
4. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6.
5. Line the baking tray with baking parchment. Sprinkle droplets of water over it. (This creates steam to give a crisp crust on your profiteroles.) Pipe your choux batter in small circles, leaving enough gap between them as the choux will rise considerably.
6. Bake the profiteroles for about 25-30 minutes, or until they are golden and fully cooked inside. As soon as they are taken out to cool, use a skewer to pierce the bottoms of each profiteroles to create an air hole to let out steam, and place them on a wire rack.
7. While the profiteroles are baking, make the pastry cream by whisking the egg yolks together with the sugar until a pale yellow is achieved. Sieve the flour and mix it into the yolk mixture until well-combined.
8. Heat the milk with the vanilla in a saucepan over a low heat until there is a gentle simmer.
9. Slowly pour about half of the hot milk to the yolk mixture, whisking as you are adding. Then return the mixture to the remaining milk in the saucepan.
10. Bring the mixture back to boil by heating, whisking continuously as it is cooking, until a smooth custard is formed.
11. Line a tray with cling film, and pour the pastry cream on it to cool and set in the fridge. You may dust some icing sugar over to prevent a skin forming.
12. When the profiteroles are cooled and the pastry cream is set, pipe the pastry cream into the profiteroles through the air hole at the bottom. Take care to ensure the profiteroles are well-filled.
13. Melt the chocolates over a double boiler or using a microwave. (Take care with the white chocolate as it is easy to get overheated and turn lumpy.)
14. Dip the filled profiteroles and strawberries in the melted dark chocolate. Allow it to cool and set slightly before drizzling the melted white chocolate over with a spoon. Dust the profiteroles with freeze-dried raspberries.
Tango's Baking 