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Berry chocolate religieuse 

Click for video tutorial! 

Makes: 10 pieces, with extra choux pastry Approximate time: 2 hours Elements: Craquelin, choux pastry, pink pepper berry liquid, light chocolate crémeux, berry chantilly, dark chocolate garnish

Craquelin

37 g Butter

47 g Raw cane sugar

47 g Flour

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius.

Place butter, raw cane sugar and flour into a bowl. Rub together with fingers until it all comes together into a dough.

Roll between two pieces of parchment paper until 1.5 mm thin. Freeze.

Choux pastry

63 g Water

63 g Milk

50 g Butter

3 g Salt

3 g Sugar ---

75 g All purpose flour   ---

100-125 g Eggs

Bring water, milk, butter, salt and sugar into a boil. Remove from heat and add flour. Stir in flour quickly, making sure there are no pockets of flour.

Return the pot to heat, and dry the dough out until it no longer sticks to your spatula.

Place the dough into a new bowl. Stir roughly to cool down quickly.

Add eggs bit by bit until the dough is smooth and soft enough to drop from the spatula. The dough should nicely hang from the spatula when you lift it up.

Place choux pastry into a piping bag with an 8 mm round tip.

Pipe 4 cm rounds and 3 cm rounds of choux pastry on your baking tray with baking paper.

Using a 4 cm and 3 cm round cutter, punch rounds of frozen craquelin and quickly place them on top of the piped choux according to size.

Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes at 170 degrees celsius until the bottom and top of the choux are golden brown. (I baked the 3 cm choux for about 28 minutes, and the 4 cm ones took about 33 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool.

Pink pepper berry liquid

14 pink peppercorns

220 g Mixed berry purée

Lemon zest

30 g Sugar

Blend defrosted mixed berries and pink peppercorns. Strain to remove seeds.

Add purée, lemon zest and sugar to a pot. Bring to a boil and cook until slightly thickened. I boiled mine for 2 minutes.

Cool in fridge.

Place in piping bag.

Light chocolate crémeux

35 g Milk

70 g Cream ---

10 g Sugar

20 g Yolk ---

80 g 62% Dark chocolate ---

100 g Whipping cream

Whisk egg yolk and sugar.

Boil milk and cream. Add boiled mixture to yolk mix. Whisk thoroughly and return everything back to the pot.

Heat again while stirring continuously until the mix is at 83 degrees celsius, or slightly thickened. Do not boil or it will split.

Pour the thickened mixture over a bowl of dark chocolate. Mix to combine until smooth and glossy. Cool to 25 degrees celsius.

Whip cream to soft peaks in the mean time.

When the chocolate mixture has cooled down, fold together with whipped cream gently. Place into piping bag.

Berry chantilly

80 g Whipped cream

18 g Berry purée

Whip cream and berry purée to stiff peaks. Place in piping bag with a decorative tip.

Dark chocolate garnish

25 g Dark chocolate (use compound if you don’t want to temper your chocolate)

Ground pink pepper

Melt chocolate. Spread onto baking paper as thinly as possible.

Sprinkle ground pink pepper on top.

Leave it to set in the fridge.

Break into shards for garnish.

Assembly

Poke holes at the bottom of big and small choux.

Fill big choux with light chocolate crémeux. Fill small choux with the berry liquid. Pipe a small blob of chantilly on top of the big choux to stick the smaller one on top.

Garnish the top of the small choux with a swirl of chantilly. Place the dark chocolate garnish at an angle.

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Banana caramel cake

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Approximate time: 2 hours Elements: Banana cake, caramel banana compote, glaze, spiced cream, lace tuile

Banana cake

140 g Unsalted butter, softened

100 g Sugar

100 g Eggs ----

320 g Bananas, mashed

120 g Sour cream (can substitue with greek yoghurt, or cream + 7 g vinegar/lemon juice) -----

230 g Flour

4 g Baking powder

6 g Baking soda

2 g Ground cinnamon

2 g Ground cardamom

Salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Whisk softened unsalted butter in a bowl. Whisk in sugar and then eggs.

In a separate bowl, mix mashed bananas and sour cream. Add this to the butter mixture.

Whisk all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add into the wet mixture and whisk to combine.

Spread into a rectangle on a baking tray with baking paper.

Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown on top, and cake springs back when touched.

Caramel banana compote

50 g Sugar

100 g Butter

45 g Almonds, toasted and chopped fine

Orange zest from 1 orange

Pinch of Cinnamon

Pinch of Cardamom

120 g Bananas, fine brunoise

Caramelise sugar in a pot. Add butter bit by bit and whisk until melted. Add almonds, orange zest and spices. Mixture will look split. Cool in the fridge until butter sets slightly.

Fold in bananas gently.

Place the compote between two pieces of parchment paper. Roll until evenly thin and the size matches the rectangle piece of banana cake.

Leave to freeze.

Shiny glaze

40 g Water

40 g Sugar

Boil water and sugar until slightly thickened. Set aside.

Spiced cream

80 g Cream

Pinch of Cinnamon

Pinch of Cardamom

Pinch of lemon zest

Whip everything together to stiff peaks. Set aside in fridge.

Lace tuile

50 Raw cane sugar

15 g Flour

30 g Water

25 g Butter, softened

Whisk everything together.

Place half a teaspoon of batter onto a baking sheet with baking paper. Spread batter into a thin circle.

Bake for 7 minutes or until evenly cooked at 180 degrees celsius.

Once cooked, leave to set and cool for about 30 seconds. Gently peel it off the baking sheet. Shape it with your hands and let it cool, or shape it into an egg holder.

Assembly

Place frozen compote on top of the banana cake. Trim edges that don’t have compote on top off.

Cut the cake into three equal pieces. Stack the cakes. Clean up the edges if you need to.

Glaze the top with the syrup. Warm the syrup if you have to.

Portion the cakes into individual portions.

Quenelle your cream on to one side of the cake.

Top the cream with the tuile.

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Lemon basil meringue tart

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Brittany shortbread

38 g Butter, softened

20 g Yolk (1 egg yolk)

33 g Sugar

50 g Flour

3 g Baking powder

Salt

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius.

Whisk softened butter, with sugar and yolk.

Add flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine.

Spread between two pieces of baking paper to 3 mm thickness. Freeze completely.

Remove top piece of parchment paper, and place the tart base onto a baking tray.

Bake for 12 minutes, remove from oven. Cut the tart base to a square shape. Return the tart to the oven and continue cooking until evenly golden brown and the tart sets to a crispy texture (about 5 minutes).

Cool.

Lemon curd

5 g Sugar

50 g Egg (1 egg)

39 g Lemon juice and zest

55 g Butter, softened

Whisk egg and sugar together.

Bring lemon juice and zest to a boil. Add to egg mixture and whisk completely. Bring the whole mixture back to the stove and heat until thickened. Do not overheat because it can split.

Cool down the mixture. Whisk in softened butter once it’s cooled.

Place in piping bag with a round tip and set aside.

*If you are making this tart with the meringue, increase the amount of sugar to make this sweeter. This curd is too acidic on its own!*

Lemon gel

200 g Lemon juice

Reduce lemon juice until it’s a thick syrup. Cool and place in piping bag.

Basil italian meringue

9 g Water

56 g Sugar

30 g Egg white (from 1 egg)

Fresh micro basil leaves (can use normal basil)

Dehydrate micro basil in the microwave. Place fresh micro basil leaves on a plate and heat for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Leave to cool completely. The basil leaves should be dry and crisp, but not burnt. Pass it through a sieve to turn into a finer dust.

Boil water and sugar to 121 degrees celsius. At the same time, whip egg white until it is foamy.

Pour hot sugar syrup into foamy egg whites while whisking completely. Whip the meringue until it is stiff enough to hold itself up.

Place into a piping bag with round tip.

Candied lemon zest

Lemon zest

200 g Water

100 g Sugar

Julienne lemon zest with knife, or use a zester tool.

Boil lemon zest in cold water twice.

Boil lemon zest in water and sugar until the zest is translucent.

Set aside.

Assembly

Pipe lemon curd and italian meringue, keeping in mind the balance between the acidity and sweetness of both elements respectively. Make sure that both are evenly distributed as too much of either would mean that the tart will be too acidic, or too sweet. Make sure there are no holes in between the elements.

Dip a melon baller or teaspoon into hot water, and make indentations into the piped lemon curd. This creates dipped areas for the lemon gel to be piped. Pipe the lemon gel into those indentations.

Garnish with candied lemon zest and micro basil.

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Chocolate chip cookies

Click for video tutorial!

Makes about 12 cookies Approximate time: 45 minutes

225 g Butter to make 175 g of brown butter

166 g Brown sugar

83 g Caster sugar

1 Egg

1 Egg yolk

300 g Self-raising flour / 285 g Flour + 15 g Baking powder

170 g Chocolate chunks (I used 62% dark chocolate)

Sea salt

Preheat oven to 165 degrees celsius.

Brown butter in a pan on high heat. Measure 175 g of brown butter and cool down in the fridge.

Mix in brown sugar and caster sugar. Mix in egg and egg yolk.

Mix in flour.

Fold in chocolate chunks.

Weigh out cookies to 80 g balls. Place 6 cookies on one baking sheet with baking paper.

Sprinkle salt on top.

Bake for 12 minutes at 165 degrees celsius. Every oven is different. Adjust cooking time to your oven.

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Black sesame, caramelised banana and miso macarons

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Makes about 24 macarons  Approximate time: 1 hour

Black sesame macaron

100 g Almond flour

25 g Black sesame powder

150 g Icing sugar  ---

90 g Egg whites

100 g Sugar ---

10 g Egg whites

Sift almond flour, black sesame powder and icing sugar. Get rid of big lumps that couldn’t be sifted. If you have a food processor, run these dry ingredients together for a few pulses to make them even finer.

Whisk 90 g egg whites in a clean and dry bowl until frothy. Gradually add in your sugar and continue whisking until your egg whites are stiff enough to hold itself up.

Add all your sifted/processed dry ingredients into the bowl of french meringue. Gently fold just to combine.

Add your 10 g egg whites (not whipped) into the mix. Gently fold together.

Slap your mix twice or until it flows off your spatula slowly. Don’t over-do it.

Pipe onto non-stick baking paper with a round piping tip. Try to pipe as evenly as you can!

Leave to set for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the surface of the macaron does not stick to your finger.

Bake your macaron shells for 12 minutes at 140 degrees celsius. Every oven is different, so you may require more or less time. When you take your macarons out of the oven, the “feet” should not be moving when you touch it. If it does, bake them for another minute and check again.

Leave to cool completely. Remove the shells gently, and pair them up according to size.

Caramelised banana and miso buttercream

105 g Sugar

20 g Water

120 Banana purée

120 g Butter

Miso paste

Place sugar and water in a pot and caramelise. Deglaze with banana purée. I processed my bananas in a blender.

Let it cool down at room temperature.

Make sure your butter is completely smooth and soft with no lumps. Whisk in your cooled banana caramel with the butter.

Add miso paste to a portion of your buttercream to taste. Whisk everything together again until smooth. If you don’t have miso paste, season with salt. If you have a stick blender, use it to emulsify the buttercream! It will be even more smooth and shiny.

Assembly

Pipe your buttercream in the middle of one of your macaron shells. Sandwich them together.

Leave them in an airtight container in the fridge overnight. This will enhance the texture of your macarons. The shells will absorb the flavour and moisture from the filling, making them even more delicate and flavourful. The saltiness, sweetness and bitterness in the filling will balance out nicely too.

To serve, remove them from the fridge 24 hours later, and let them come to room temperature covered.