Tropical Dutch!
Here`s a new version of my Tropical Dutch. The original on the top left, made in Vancouver, consists of a white chocolate mousse with a crunchy coconut bottom. In the middle a pineapple rum compote, topped with a passionfruit coconut gelée.
My new version consists of a coconut-almond cream filling, baked in a coconut sablee crust. After baking it was brushed with a rum vanilla syrup to add some extra flavour and to moisten the tart. On top I added a vanilla mascarpone mousse with a roasted pineapple compote. The pineapple was roasted one hour at 180°C with vanilla, star anise and cinnamon. After roasting the pineapple it was sliced and grilled. I finished the tart with a refreshing tropical fruitsalad with pomegranate, pineapple and mango, mixed with a rum vanilla syrup. Below a recipe for the sweet and rich coconut-almond cream filling.
Coconut almond cream
ground almonds 75 gram
dessicated coconut 75 gram
sugar 120 gram
butter 60 gram
egg 1,5
Mix all the ingredients with a blender until you receive a smooth paste. Pipe the filling in the fluted tart ring lined with the coconut sablee. Bake for approx. 40 minutes at 180°C.
Birthday tarts!
For my colleagues I made 4 tarts, 2 chocolate hazelnut mousse tarts and 2 vanilla mascarpone tarts. My inspiration for this last tart comes from Pierre Herme, as you can see in my previous post. The recipe for this delicious tart can be found here.
The chocolate hazelnut tart consists of a dark chocolate mousse with creamy vanilla caramel on a shortbread bottom with praline. In the middle we have a chocolate genoise layer, moistened with a coffee Frangelico syrup.
With homemade Gianduja (so easy to make and so good) I made a silky Gianduja cremeux. This gives the tart a delicious silky touch. It was quite a challenge to make 4 tarts with just one tiny little freezing compartment. But what is baking without a challenge?
Gianduja
Milk chocolate 100 gram
Hazelnuts (fresh roasted) 100 gram
Put the milk chocolate with the hazelnuts in the blender until you receive a smooth mixture. Because of the friction the chocolate will melt and blend perfectly with the hazelnuts.
The recipe for the gianduja cremeux can be found here. Try this recipe, you won’t regret it!
Paris
If there is one city you need to go if you want some really good pastries than Paris it is!
I went there for 4 days and of course I want to visit as much pastry shops as possible. My special thanks goes out to Adam from www.parispatisseries.com who made this journey a lot easier. On his website you can see a lot of reviews from pastry shops in Paris.
I bought a Saint Honoré and a Tarte Citron from la Pâtisserie des Rêves. This shop is one of a kind. Just look at the pictures and you see what I mean. Owner Philippe Conticini understands that the design of the shop is very important. And of course the pastries were delicious.
Another pastry that I bought was the Tarte Infiniment Vanille from Pierre Herme. He defines an ideal vanilla to be a combination of vanilla from several different origins; Mexico, Tahiti and Madagascar, thereby creating his version of a “house vanilla”. The tart consists of a sweet tart crust with a very rich, dense filling of white chocolate vanilla ganache and a rich vanilla mascarpone cream. And a biscuit moistened with vanilla syrup. On top there is a silky vanilla glaze. Try to get one of these! It is incredibly good!
I wish everyone a joyful 2013!
Tarte Bourdaloue
It’s time for a French classic! The Tarte Bourdaloue. I am in the French mood right now because I am heading to Paris this week. It is quite simple to make this tart and so delicious.
Creamy and rich frangipane, soft poached pears and a crispy crust, what is not to love about that?
The pears are poached in a mixture of white wine, water, vanilla, cinnamon and star anise. I left the pears in this syrup for a day. This will make the pears taste even better!
The leftover poaching liquid is reduced until I got a thick syrup. The water will evaporate but the all the delicious flavours will stay and intensify. I used this syrup to brush the tarts after baking. I will serve the Tarte Bourdaloue with a sabayon made with the pear syrup.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Pistachio sour cherry tart
My inspiration for this tart comes from Thomas Haas, Vancouver. The best tart I ever ate, honestly, was the pistachio and sour cherry tart from his shop. I was lucky enough to do a stage at his patisserie a year ago. What an amazing team and such an organized kitchen.
So now it is time for my own version of this tart!
The tart is made with a shortbread crust and filled with a Morello sour cherry mousse. The mousse is made with an Italian meringue and whipped cream. In the middle is a Morello cherry insert to add a pungent flavour to the tart.
On top a profiterole filled with Morello cherry mousse. The profiteroles are baked with pistachio streusel on top.
At the end I wrapped a line of homemade pistachio marzipan around the tart.
Hazelnut bavarian mousse cake
Autumn in the Netherlands. A season with beautiful colours, but also lots of rain and freezing cold. What is better than to get inside near the fireplace and get a slice of a delicious and rich bavarian mousse cake? Made with roasted hazelnuts, vanilla, tonkabean and dark chocolate. Warm flavours and colours that represent this time of the year.
Maybe with a good glass of cognac?
Well at least I know my wife loved it!
The base is a vanilla and tonka crème anglaise. Fresh roasted hazelnuts are ground into a paste and mixed with the crème anglaise. The Bavarian is finished with whipped cream and gelatin. The bottom is a blind baked pastry dough, brushed with tempered chocolate to make a moisture barrier.
The floater in the middle is a dark chocolate ganache flavoured with vanilla and tonkabean. Perfect in combination with the hazelnut bavarian.
Speculaas, Dutch spiced biscuits or windmill cookies
This is a traditional Dutch treat. Everyone loves them! The cookie dough is made with a special spice mix. The mix consists of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and cardamon. The smell when baking these cookies is really delicious.
Recipe for Dutch Speculaas:
500 g flour
300 g light caster sugar
250 g butter
200 g dark caster sugar
50 g milk
10 g speculaas spices
5 g baking powder
30 almonds (for decoration)
Blend the flour, sugar, spices and baking powder. Make a hole in the middle of this mixture and add the butter in cubes and add at the milk. Mix the dough with your hands into a soft dough. Let the dough rest in the fridge for 24 hours. It is really important to let the dough rest this long. The spices will develop their flavour. Trust me, this is necessary to make delicious Speculaas.
Preheat the oven to 175°C.
I used an old Dutch ‘Speculaasplank’, the wooden cookie mold on the picture, to make a traditional mill. The cookie is often baked in this shape. If you don’t have a Speculaasplank, just roll out the dough about 5mm thick and cut the dough in the desired shape. Put some almonds on top, egg wash the dough and bake the Speculaas for about 25 minutes.
For the filled ones, roll out the dough and cut out 2 cirkles. Get some almond paste (see the recipe below) and put it on the middle of the first cirkle, brush the sides with some egg wash, this will make the dough stick. Put the second cirkle on top. Brush the top of the dough with egg wash and bake the Speculaas for about 30 minutes. The long ‘Speculaasstaaf’ needs about 40 minutes to bake.
Almond paste
250 gr almonds
250 gr sugar
1 large egg
zest of a lemon
This is really easy to make. Mix the equal parts of almonds and sugar and grind them in a blender and add the egg and the lemon zest. Mix it really well and cover it with saran wrap and cool. After cooling it is ready to use.
Eat this Dutch treat with a cup of fresh brewed coffee and enjoy!
Bruges, the chocolate capital of the world
When you go to Bruges in Belgium you need to get some chocolate! The city has close to 50 chocolate shops. And ofcourse I was looking for the best chocolates.
So I went to ‘The chocolate line’ a shop from the famous chocolatier or should I say shock-o-latier, Dominique Persoone. I was lucky to meet him at the shop! He invented the chocolate shooter and makes bonbons with unique and innovative flavours. How about crispy fried onions and chocolate? Or saffron and curry, wasabi or even a ganache made with a distillate of Havana leaves. On the right picture you see some chocolates that I bought at his shop.
Tonka beans
A very special ingredient and a doubtful one. Because of the high coumarin levels the bean is forbidden in several countries. It is like a mix of vanilla, almond and honey. A depth flavour and truly delicious! There was only one shop where I could find bonbons made with tonka beans. They were so good!
Carrot cake
Here are some samples of delicious carrot cakes that I made. The cakes are made with a 5 spice mixture: anisseed, fennel, peppercorn, cinnamon and ginger. This makes the cake really spicy. The frosting is made with cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon peel. A nice combination with the carrot cake. For decoration I made some carrots from marzipan. Crushed walnuts are used for the sides of the cakes.
Advocaat, a Dutch delicacy
Made with yolks, sugar, brandy and vanilla. It is really easy to make and truly delicious! It is like Eggnog but flavoured with vanilla and without nutmeg.
Did you know that the word “brandy” comes from the Dutch word “brandewijn” which means “burnt wine”.
Nice to make for Easter, but hey, do we need an excuse to make a brandy liquor?
Recipe for Advocaat
200 gr yolks
200 gr sugar
200 ml brandy (or 250 ml for a stronger Advocaat)
1 vanilla bean
Whisk the yolks, sugar and vanilla together and add the brandy. Whisk this mixture ‘au bain marie’ until it thickens. Cool the ‘Advocaat’ over an ice bath and it is ready. Serve with soft peak whipped cream.
Happy Easter!
