Raspberries Puff Pastry

This simple gourmet dessert looks heavy but it is actually light because it is filled with airy pockets that feel like a whisper when you bite into it. Lukewarm puff pastry with raspberries and a raspberry sauce is layer after layer of pure rapture. The crisp shells with soft interiors and creamy custard with warm raspberries and a thick yummy and tangy sauce make this almost uniquely French treat dessert spectacular. This recipe takes some time to practice and perfect so try it twice or three times before serving it to impress guests.

Make the puff pastry a day before you make this dessert, otherwise, you can buy it in the market. To test, a well made puff pastry is flaky, rich and buttery without being heavy. It is not really difficult to make. The basic principle is to create layers of butter and dough, fold the two and turn them in together. It is important to work as quickly as possible on a cold surface, careful that the butter should not melt and incorporate in the dough while you are working on it. To make this possible, ice water is needed when making the flour and butter mixture, the butter will remain in its mold while the flour will not be completely moistened. The dough and the butter must be evenly layered and rolled in the same thickness. This takes some time of practice to master. A well-made puff pastry is essential in a French kitchen because you can make many wonderful desserts with it.

Ingredients

21 oz. puff pastry dough

12.8 oz. creme patissiere (custard filling for pastries and cakes)

0.55 lbs. (8.8 oz. or about 1 cup) raspberries

1/4 cup raspberry sauce

1 oz. light yogurt

3.5 oz. (7 tablespoons) vanilla sugar

6 mint leaves

1. Using some flour so that the dough does not stick on the rolling pin, roll the pastry to about 3 to 4 millimeters in thickness. Prick the dough all over so it doesn’t rise too much while cooking. Place on a baking sheet and cook in a 180-200 degree oven. Sprinkle icing sugar on top of the dough when it is about half-cooked. Before it begins to caramelize on the surface, remove from oven.

2. Cut eight-centimeter-circles from the cooked pastry and place the raspberry in rings around the pastry. Use a piping bag to fill the middle with custard. Make two layers of pastry with the raspberry and custard, heaping one set on another and covering the top with another circle of pastry.

3. Bake in a 180 degree oven for three to four minutes. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

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4. With raspberry sauce, decorate plate and to make a spider web, line with yogurt. Place the raspberry pastry beside it. Serve.

Beer Brioche

Brioche is sliced, toasted and dipped in a sweetened beer batter then fried in butter until golden and crispy. The not so simple gourmet dessert is served with beer ice cream and caramelized pears for a rare and unique gourmet dessert that beer lovers are sure to adore. This recipe by Chef Antoine Westermann is an excellent balance of bitterness and sweetness that make an adventurous dish for a splendid culinary experience.

Brioche is a uniquely French treat pastry that is rich and dense with a heavy crumb and golden flaky crust. It is made with egg, butter, and cream and has a yeasty flavor that pairs excellently with beer. You can get brioche in the bakery or the French pastry shop. Select freshly baked brioche if possible for a better quality and more delicious dessert. In this recipe, the toasted brioche is covered in a batter of beer, eggs, and sugar and then fried in melted butter until crunchy and golden. The rich sweet bread develops a nice crispy crust that is creamy and tender inside and wonderfully melts in the mouth. Eaten with the glazed pears and the beer ice cream, the dish is absolutely divine.

There are a wide variety of beers and some are better for making dessert than others. For this recipe, it is best to use dark or stout beer, which tends to have more malt and tastes like caramel, complementing the pastry, peaches, and the cream. You can also choose sweeter varieties of beer since it only makes sense to use it for dessert. Complex, full-flavored rich beer is perfect for making ice cream. The bitterness of the beer is tempered with the sweetness of the sugar and the luscious cream. Other kinds of beer that work well for his recipe are Belgian style Tripel, which is creamy and smooth, or fruity lambics, which is sweet and pairs well with the peaches.

Ingredients

14 tablespoons flour

5 ¼ teaspoons granulated sugar

01/2 tablespoon baking powder

YEAST?

1 cup beer

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 tablespoon milk

5 ½ tablespoons butter

For the beer ice cream:

4 egg yolks

1 cup cream

For the termination:

3/4 cup beer

1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar

2 eggs

For the pears with syrup:

2 fresh pears

2 cups water

1 vanilla pod

juice from 1/2 lemon

juice from ½ an orange

1 ½ tablespoons butter

5 ½ tablespoons + 1 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar

1. The beer ice cream should be prepared in advance to give it time to freeze. In a mixing bowl, place the yolks, add sugar and whip them together until smooth and creamy. In a saucepan, put 50% beer and 50% cream and heat on the stove. Pour the beer and cream mixture in with the yolk and sugar mixture beating constantly and mixing it all together well.

2. Pour mixture in the saucepan and heat on the stove at low temperatures, stirring gently with a spatula. Make sure that it does not boil to prevent the egg yolks and cream from curdling. To check if the cream is ready, lift the spatula and blow on the surface and if the cream scatters like a rose blooming then it is good to go. Cool and place in the ice cream maker. Freeze.

3. Peel and slice pears in two and soak them in ice water mixed with lemon slices, orange slices, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla pods. Soak for at least 20 minutes. Cut the soaked pears into thin fan-shape slices. Melt butter in pan and place the pears back side up. Sprinkle with brown sugar to caramelize.

4. Slice brioche and toast. In a bowl, beat eggs and add sugar. Add beer and mix it up well with a fork. In a saucepan, melt some butter. Dip the toasted brioche in the egg and beer mixture until fully coated. Place the soaked brioche in the saucepan and sprinkle some sugar on top of the bread. Pour on a little bit more of the egg and beer mixture. Heat until nicely browned and turn to the other side to get the same nice color.

5. Arrange the brioche on the plate. Place the glazed pears beside it. Put a bit of the brown sugar in the bottom of the plate and place a scoop of beer ice cream on top.

Honey and Lavender Ice-Cream

If you are lucky enough to get fresh honey with the hive intact, it’s a brilliant idea to keep the hive and use it to serve honey lavender ice cream to your guests.  This gourmet ice cream recipe is healthier than your regular ice cream because it uses honey instead of sugar, making it a perfect dessert option for sugar-conscious moms who crave for sweets. Lavender honey ice cream is a uniquely French treat that is rarely commercially available so it makes a great homemade experiment to impress your guests with something new that they haven’t tried before. 

Lavender honey can be naturally made by bees that collect only lavender nectar and are housed near fields of lavender flowers.  You can’t always get it and if it is available, is quite expensive. A more convenient and less expensive alternative is to make lavender-infused honey.  It is as simple as cooking lavender flowers in honey and putting it in a jar then leaving it for a few days until the flavor of the lavender flowers blends in with the honey. Thereafter, the lavender flowers are strained to make this delicious dessert. 

Honey lavender ice cream is best enjoyed with some cookies or a light pastry. For this recipe, Chef Jany Gleize combines the ice cream with a cigarette pastry made with eggs, sugar and flour.  He makes use of the hive as a bed for the golden yellow ice cream with flecks of purple lavender buds to make the plate look even more delectable and make the dessert taste and smell sweeter. Chef Glaize notes that it is very important to get fine quality lavender when making dessert, not hybrid lavender which is okay if you’re making soup.

Ingredients

250 g of lavender

honey 4 egg yolks

250 g of milk

125 g of cream small flower

400 g of dough to cigarette

7 g of lavender flower

1. The honey lavender infusion must be prepared several days before making the ice cream so that the lavender can sit in the honey and produce a more distinct flavor. Cook lavender flowers and buds in honey and store in a jar.

2. To make the ice cream, heat the milk, cream, lavender honey and eggs and stir until they are thoroughly combined and dissolved together. Let cool and put in the freezer for a few hours until they crystallize. Process the frozen ingredients in the ice cream maker and store ice cream in the fridge.

3. To make the cigarette pastry, combine sugar, flour, lavender seeds, and egg whites and mix together until it forms a creamy and even texture. Spread the cream on phyllo sheets cut in rectangular shapes place on the baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in a 180 degree oven for a few minutes until it browns. Once cooked, allow to cool for awhile and fold into a cylindrical shape with the aid of a rolling pin.

4. To serve, cut the hive into a rounded shape and place at the center of the plate. Scoop the ice cream and place on top of hive. Place cigarette pastry on the side and decorate with lavender flowers. Add lavender or chocolate syrup if you wish.

Creme Brulee With Ginger And Basil

The crème brulee is a quintessential French dessert made of delicate, creamy flan with a golden brown crust of caramelized sugar on the top. But in this recipe, Chef Mario d’Orio of Le Mahatma Restaurant takes it a step further by adding ginger and basil leaves for a more exciting and sophisticated take on the dessert. At times fragrant and therapeutic, the ginger and basil provide a contrast to the creamy sweetness of the traditional custard.

Vanilla bean is the primary flavoring of the classic crème brulee and the chefs recipes still includes it. The addition of the ginger, grated or minced finely, is done at the same time as the vanilla bean so that the flavors are cooked into the custard. The basil leaves, which does its best when fresh and with the least amount of cooking, are added during the last stages of the preparation. It is chopped finely, which releases its sweet, herby fragrance. The crème brulee is one of the easiest desserts to prepare if you look at the directions but care must be exercised when cooking the milk and cream into a custard lest it curdles or overcooks. You will have to know when it’s time to take the dessert out of the fire. The egg yolks are added and whisked to make the custard. This recipe can be a stepping stone for further experimentations with flavoring the crème brulee beyond basil and ginger. Should you wish, you can add coffee, chocolate, green tea, liqueur, lemon, pistachio, and orange zest later on to the basic custard.

While crème brulee means “burnt cream,” it is the brown sugar layer which is actually “burnt.” Using a blowtorch, the sugar is caramelized until it forms a crust on top to seal in the rich, creamy and silky custard base. With the basil and ginger, this luxurious dessert becomes invigorating and refreshing to the senses. Serve with a glass of Sauterne.

Ingredients

1 cup milk

1 ¾ tablespoons ginger

1 vanilla pod

¼ lb. sugar

10 egg yolks

1 pint heavy cream

10 basil leaves

brown sugar

1. Peel and cut ginger into thin and small pieces. In a medium saucepan, cook the milk over medium heat. Add the ginger and sugar then stir. Scrape vanilla bean and place the pulp and bean in saucepan. Stir then bring to a boil. Set aside to cool.

2. In a bowl, separate the eggs. Set aside the egg whites for other uses. Whisk egg yolks until rich and smooth. Strain the cream and add to the egg yolks a little at a time, stirring continually until blended. Finely chop the basil and stir into the mixture.

3. Pour in shallow bowls or casserole dish and place in a preheated 100 degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes or just until the cream is set and trembling in the center.

4. Allow the dish to cool then refrigerate for two hours and up to three days. Before serving, sprinkle sugar and caramelize using a blowtorch. Garnish with thin spirals of ginger.