Lychee Rose Parfait and Orange Blossom Macarons

Lychee Rose Parfait Topped with Strawberry Sorbet, served with Orange Blossom Macarons filled with Blood Orange Curd.

I was truly excited by this month Sugar High Friday theme set out by Monisha and I have been playing with ideas in my mind ever since she wrote it was all about Flower Power for this 30th edition. I did not intend to wait until the last minute but I am in the middle of a round up myself and other baking activities so I apologize to my fellow South Carolinian for being among the last entries.

I knew I wanted something light and springy, something that reflect who I am when I think about desserts for dinner parties. I like light flavors, I like individual and miniature. I use orange blossom flower water on a (almost) daily basis. I am a serious ice cream fanatic. I eat fruits like they are going out of business. I love making macarons and I love citrus anything. Most importantly I always try to use flavors I do not tend to gravitate towards like rose extract. I bought a bottle a long time ago and I stare at it everyday....I am not too fond of it or at least I have not come up with a dessert that would allow me to appreciate it, until today...

I tried to get fresh lychees but here it is nearly impossible so I used canned ones and they did the job just as good. They are a little sweeter than fresh ones of course but the texture and final taste was the same. All the components can be (and were) made ahead of times and refrigerated so it gives you plenty of time to tend to more important activities.

Lychee Rose Parfait with Strawberry Sorbet:

Makes 8

Cookie Base:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Divide the dough in half and refrigerate. Roll out one half to 1/2 inch thick and put the sheet of dough on a parchment lined abking sheet. Bake8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool 2 minutes. While still warm cut out 8 rounds with a 3 inch cookie cutter. Set aside. Use the remaining half for regular cut out cookies if desired.

Strawberry Sorbet, adapted from Richard Leach:

3 cups fresh diced strawberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup wildflower honey
1 cup water
3 Tb lemon juice

Combine the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Pass through a fine sieve then freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer's directions. Keep frozen until ready to use.

Lychee Rose Parfaits, adapted from Richard Leach:

1 14oz. can lychees
2 tsp. rose water extract (or to taste)
2 eggs, separated
6 Tb sugar
3/4 cup creme fraiche (can substitute sour cream)
1/4 heavy cream

Drain the lychees and keep or discard the juice. Puree in a food processor with the rose extract. Set aside.
In a bowl, combine the egg yolks and 2 Tb. of the sugar and whisk until pale and thick. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until firm peaks are formed. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and whip for one more minte, until glossy. Whip the creme fraiche and heavy cream together until firm peaks are formed.
Fold the whites into the egg mixture. Add to the lychees. Lastly, fold in the cream mixture. Place the parfait in a piping bag.

Using 8 3 inch metal rings, place a sugar cookie at the bottom of each ring. Pipe the parfait mixture evenly between the 8 rings, leaving some space for the strawberry sorbet. Set in the freezer for 30 minutes or until firm. Fill the remainder of the tubes with the sorbet. Smooth the tops and keep in the freezer until ready to use.

Orange Blossom Macarons with Blood Orange Curd:

For the shells:

120 gr. egg whites, divided
35 gr. sugar
150 gr. finely ground almonds
150 gr. powdered sugar
1 Tb blood orange zest
For the boiling syrup:
150 gr. sugar and 50 gr. water

Sift the ground almonds and powdered sugar. Add the blood orange zest. In a stand mixer, whip 60 gr. egg whites to soft peaks, add 35 gr. sugar.
In the meantime, in a saucepan on high heat bring the water and sugar for the syrup to 230 F. on a candy thermometer.Slowly add the boiling syrup to the egg whites and continue to whip on medium - high speed until they are completely cooled and you have a shiny meringue (10-15 minutes).
Mix the remaining 60 gr. of egg whites and the sifted almond/sugar and carefully fold into the meringue.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip with the mixture and pipe macarons about 3 inches in diameter on parchment paper lined baking sheet. You can let them sit at room temperature for 20 minutes if desired. This is often done to assure those little feet at the bottom but I found that I can skip this step with this recipe and still end up with the same result.
Bake at 320 for 15 minutes. Let cool.

Blood Orange Curd, adapted from Alice Medrich:

grated zest of 1 blood orange
2/3 cup strained blood orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

Combine the zest, sugar, juice in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer.
In a small bowl, beat the eggs until light.
Beat some of the orange mixture into the eggs to temper. Scrape the mixture back into the saucepan and cook stirring constantly until it thickens up, about 5 minutes.
Strain and refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Fill the macarons with about 1 Tb of the curd and refrigerate.

The final decorating step was to melt some white chocolate and form rose petals to set the parfaits on to them in a flower like manner.

I have to say I am acompletely in love with this dessert. The rose flavor is not too strong and it is really "ice cream for adults". Sophisticated, yet simple to make. All the steps are easy and let you set your own cooking pace.

Note: metal rings can be quite pricey so when it comes to assembling cold plated desserts like this one I use pvc pipe. Go the hardware store and select the diameter you need (I like having 2, 3, and 4 inch diameter rings around) and have one of their sales associate cut it for you. If you promise them a few brownies, they will do so without a problem.

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Last Call For Mousse!

This is the last call for you to get me your entry to HHDD 11 Mousse!
I know that a lot of us have had internet connection issues (me included) so I am extending the deadline to sunday...LAST DAY....after that get ready for a round up of the most intriguing, gorgeous, mouth watering mousses I have ever seen!

The recipe for the mousse in the picture is just a variation of this one. I added grated fresh ginger and a dash of nutmeg...delicious!

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Banana-Pistachio Bonbons & Chocolate Pudding

Or..."monkeying around instead of finishing my spring cleaning"... according to B.

Right then I lifted my eyebrows and replied "well then, if this is monkeying around I am sure you won't care if I eat it all ..."

I have never seen a man picking up a vacuum cleaner faster than he did when he saw what I had just pulled out of the oven! Up until know I had never seen the necessity to re-arrange our cleaning responsabilities so why do it now..."I feed you honey, give you clean clothes and love you, darling...Keep vacuuming"

A conversation on the state of the pantry and the fridge with my dear friend C. made me realize it was about time to organize my shelves again and use the (many) items i had bought for a particular recipe that I had never gotten around to make or that left me with extra "stuff" such spices, flours, extracts and in this case spring roll wrappers (scroll down to the bottom of the link) and plenty of fine chocolate needing to be used!

I had bananas getting tired of staring at us day after day, pistachios about to take a trip to the neighbors' because they were feeling abandoned, and wrappers about to get as wrinkly as prunes, and plenty of chocolate to share the love.

I decided to make little banana packets with the spring roll dough and I shaped them into candy wrappers, baked them and served with some form of chocolate... When I usually make them, I use vanilla beans cut in half lengthwise to tied the ends but I did not feel like using my precious loot on a casual weeknight dinner.
Instead of making my staple chocolate sauce of heavy cream, chocolate and spat of butter (which works great as an impromptu fondue), I decided to make B.'s childhood favorite: chocolate pudding. I grew up on mousse, he loves his mama's pudding...except dear mother-in-law never seems to find the recipe...I got inspired by this one from Gourmet Magazine, and the serving amount was perfect for 2, no sharing...!

Banana and Pistachio Bonbons:

Serves 2

4 spring roll wrappers
2 bananas
1 Tb. lemon juice
1/4 cup toasted, chopped pistachios
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup of butter, melted

Peel the bananas and cut them into small cubes, add the lemon juice.
Lay a wrapper down on a clean cutting board, brush with some melted butter, sprinkle with 1 Tb of sugar, add 3 Tb or so of diced banana, add 1 Tb of pistachios. Roll the wrapper into a log and secure the ends with kitchen strings or vanilla bean (cut in half and soften if necessary), to form a candy wrapper type package.
Repeat with the remaining ingredients and bake for 10-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool to room temperature.

Chocolate Pudding, adapted from epicurious:

Serves 2

1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate
2 Tb cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

In a heavy saucepan whisk together sugar, cornstarch. Add chocolate and cocoa powder to sugar mixture.
In a bowl whisk together milk and egg yolk and gradually whisk into chocolate mixture. Bring mixture just to a boil over moderate heat, whisking constantly, and boil 1 minute, whisking. Remove pan from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla.
Divide pudding between two 8-ounce ramekins. Chill puddings in freezer, surfaces covered with plastic wrap, until cooled, about 30 minutes.

I regret I did not make more for tonight...the wrappers are good any time of the day, cold-warm-hot. And the pudding....I scored major points with B. Good I have got a birthday coming up!

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Tapioca Raspberry Verrines - Heart Of The Matter

I thought that after some rich mousses, very sweet pastries and buttery brioches, B. and I could use a little dessert break. I know our waistlines and hearts would thank us...it is spring after all! There are plenty of gorgeous seasonal fruits available at the market and since we did a good house spring cleaning our eating would not suffer a lighter dessert fare.

I also thought that Ilva's and Joanna's event The Heart of The Matter was a great pretext to come up with a little easy, tasty creation using what I had picked up at the market one morning. I love raspberries....maybe as much as I love lemons. Stranded on a desert island, I would be completely satisfied with a bowl of these and a dollop of whipped cream. I don't use tapioca very much because of the gelatinous texture it takes when it is cooking. I was on the lookout for big pearled tapioca but the Asian market I go to was closed so I had to fall back on the regular kind. I was not really sure of the end result when I cooked the tapioca layer of the verrine but it thickens a bit when cooling and becomes more like rice pudding once completely refrigerated.
This dessert uses minimum sugar, milk (you can use low fat), and plenty of fresh fruit. Even the topping won't put your heart into shock!

Tapioca Raspberry Verrines, from Tartelette, inspired by the cover of this book:

Serves 4

1/3 cup tapioca
2 1/2 cups milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups raspberries (could use frozen)
1 1/2 tsp. gelatin
1 Tb. water
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 Tb. sugar
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tb. butter

For the tapioca pudding:
In a heavy saucepan combine the milk, tapioca and 1/4 cup sugar. Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens up, about 10 minutes, stirring every so often. Remove from the heat and let coo to room temperature.

For the raspberry layer:
Combine the remaining sugar and the raspberries in a saucepan and cook over low heat to break the raspberries a little so that they release their juices and soften up.
In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the tablespoon of water and let it get soft.
Remove the raspberries from the stove and gently stir in the soften gelatin. Stir until it is completely incorporated. Let cool to room temperature.

For the topping:
In a saucepan, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, spices and butter and cook until the mixture lumps up and gets toasty. Let cool completely.

Assemble the verrines:
Divide the tapioca pudding and raspberries evenly among 4 glasses or other containers.
Right before serving, sprinkle about 2 Tb. of the crumb topping among the verrines.

Funny thing is that this was meant to be shared between friends in sunday night, but a terrible wind storm kept each couple home so we had ours and we had theirs on monday night... I hope that if they read this they will invite us again...!

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Waiter, There Is Something In My...Brioche!

When Andrew announced the theme of this month WTSIM, my head started spinning....Bread! I make bread a couple times a week, from the simple dinner roll to sandwich bread to the more complicated sourdoughs and multigrains. This time around I thought about impressing my family with yet another elaborate creation but then I thought that the few readers that I have might want to know a little bit more about my tastes and the only thing to showcase that is in a simple brioche.

I like complicated, I like challenging, I thrive for multi level prepared plated desserts but comes sunday morning I live for my toasted slice of brioche. Simply buttered and touched by a spoonful of strawberry jam...nothing makes me happier. B. knows the ritual and has easily adapted to his French bride's habits. Let's face it: wine, cheese, brioche... who is to complaint?!

I have tried a multituted of brioche recipe over the years but I have to admit that since last month the recipe from Epicurious (extremely similar to Dorie Greenspan's) is the one I have made every saturday afternoon. Hands down, it is the most flavorful and most adaptable one around. I play with the flavor with different fillings like chocolate chips, raisins, pralines, and extracts such as rum, toffee, and in today's case orange water. I put this stuff in most of my baked goods, cakes, breads and crepes. It lends a subtle aroma that never makes me think of orange but if spring flowers all making my tastebuds sing on sunday mornings.

Golden Brioche, adapted from Epicurious:

Makes 2 large loaves

1/3 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1/3 cup warm milk (105°F to 115°F)
1-2 Tb orange water (according to taste)
2 envelopes dry yeast
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature
Egg wash:1 egg, beaten to blend with 1 tablespoon water

Place 1/3 cup warm water, warm milk, orange water and yeast in bowl of standing heavy-duty mixer; stir until yeast dissolves and let proof (10 minutes)
Fit mixer with dough hook. Add flour and salt to bowl; mix on low speed just until flour is moistened, about 10 seconds. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Beat in the eggs on low speed, then add sugar. On medium,beat until dough comes together, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add butter, 1 piece at a time, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding next. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until dough pulls away from sides of bowl, about 7 minutes.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise at room temperature until almost doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Punch the dough down to deflate it. Cover bowl with plastic and chill until dough stops rising, lifting up dough around edges and allowing dough to fall and deflate in bowl every 30 minutes, about 2 hours total.
At this point you can tackle forming the brioche loaves or refrigerate overnight to do this the next day.
Butter and flour 2 large loaf pans. Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Cut each dough half into 3 logs. Arrange 3 logs crosswise in bottom of each prepared loaf pan. Place loaf pans on baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and let rise another 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Brush the brioches with the egg wash and bake until they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped, about 30 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, if you can wait that long and enjoy!

Now you know, if you knock on my door on sunday mornings you are most likely to be handed a couple of slices of brioche and a cup of coffee...

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Get Your Mousse On ! Donna's Dark Chocolate Mousse

Just a reminder that there is one week left to post and send me your entry for HHDD Mousse!

In case you need some inspiration, here is another one from Donna Hay (thanks Peabody for the email).

Dark Chocolate Mousse, from Donna Hay Modern Classics 2

Serves 6 to 8

200g(7oz) dark couverture chocolate, chopped
75g(2 1/2 oz) butter, chopped
4 eggs, separated
1 cup(8 fl oz) cream
2 TBSP icing(confectioner's) sugar

Place the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat and stir until melted and smooth. Pour the mixture into a bowl and add egg yolks, one at a time, beating until well combined. Set aside.Place the cream in a bowl ans whip until soft peaks form. Set aside.
Place the egg whites in a bowl ans whisk until soft peaks form. Sift over the icing sugar and whisk until the mixture is thick and glossy.Gently fold the cream through the chocolate mixture, then fold the egg whites through.
Spoon into bowls and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

It was the first time (if my memories serves me right) that I saw a recipe including both egg whites and whipped cream as the lightening agent of the mousse and thought it would be overkill heavy with both egg yolks and heavy cream but it turned out rich but not "stick to your ribs my arteries are shrinking". I used 62% Lindt chocolate and topped it with an extra dollop of whipped cream and some cocoa nibs. Delicious!

Update: in an attempt to explain my mousse making thoughts, it seems that my English was not clear enough. I have always made mousse including egg yolks and whipped egg whites. I have sometimes gone the easier way by combining melted chocolate and whipped cream. What I meant is that I have never combined the three in one recipe.

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