Sweet Pastry

Sweet Pastry

 

So this sweet pastry recipe can be used for loads of delicious desserts, try an Apple Pie with crème patisserie with this pastry.



Ingredients:

• 100g Butter
• 75g caster Sugar
• 1 Egg
• Pinch of Salt
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 225g Plain flower
• A few drops of  water

Method:

1. Cut the butter into small pieces
2. Add sugar and beat together until butter and sugar are creamy, which should take about 10 minutes
3. Add eggs and vanilla and mix in
4. Sieve the flour and salt  onto a clean work surface
5. Make a well in the middle and add all your butter/sugar and egg mixture, do not leave any in the bowl
6. Mix together to form a soft dough until smooth but do not over work the mixture
7. Wrap in cling film in a disk (not a ball) to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling out

Rolling and Blind Baking:

1. Make sure you have a flat ring and baking sheet ready and greased
2. Take pastry out of the fridge and roll between 2 sheets of cling film until 2mm or 3mm thick
3. Pull off 1st layer of cling film
4. Hold the pastry under 2nd layer of cling film and position over flan tin
5. Whilst the cling film is still in place gently press pastry in the corners of flan case
6. Remove cling film and use rolling pin or knife to remove excess pastry
7. Place back in fridge to cool down and rest for at least 20 minutes
8. Remove from fridge and dock pastry
9. Lay greaseproof paper over pastry and fill with baking beans (or coins) and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees  C/Gas 4/350 degrees F
10. Remove baking beans and place back into the oven to ensure bottom is cooked

Bradley's Choux Trifle

Bradley's Choux Trifle

 

Ingredients:

For Crème Diplomat:

250ml Milk

1 Egg

50g sugar

15g Flour

15g Custard Powder

5ml Vanilla Extract

Equal amount of double cream, slightly whipped

For The Choux Pastry:

75ml Water

30g Butter

45g Strong Flour

2 Whole Eggs

1tsp. Sugar

Salt, pinch

For the Trifle Filling:

Crème Diplomat (see recipe below)

Coffee Cream (Whisk Double Cream to form soft peaks, marble in some coffee liquor to taste)

Chocolate Orange Cream (Melt Chocolate, pour in double cream, add juice and a little zest of orange)

Method:

For Crème Diplomat:

1. Whisk the egg and sugar together.

2. Add the flour and custard powder to the egg mixture to form a liaison.

3. Heat the milk.

4. Take milk off the heat and add a little at a time to the liaison and then return to pot and cook.

5. Mix hard so no lumps form and cook for 5 minutes until thickened.

6. If lumps appear strain through sieve.

7. Transfer to a clean bowl and stir occasionally to help mixture cook down quickly.

8. Once the mixture has cooled down completely, add an equal amount of slightly whipped cream and mix together until fully incorporated.

For the Choux Pastry:

1. Pre-heat an oven to 220°C

2. Bring the water, sugar, salt and butter to the boil in a thick-based saucepan.

3. Add all the unsieved flour all at once and mix to incorporate.

4. Turn down heat and cook out for 1 minute to avoid the sandy texture and floury taste.

5. Stir continuously and vigorously until the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan clean.

6. Remove from heat and allow to cool in a cold, clean bowl.

7. While the mixture is cooling, beat the eggs together in a separate saucepan and line and grease a baking tray.

8. When the mixture has cooled down but is still warm, add the beaten eggs one at a time. Mix well (the mixture will come apart and look like it won’t work but keep vigorously mixing until it comes together again). Repeat this step until the pastry is the right consistency so that it is thin enough to pipe, but it will still keep its shape.

1. Pipe the choux pastry out using a piping bag without a nozzle. Pipe into small profiterole shapes.

2. Using a little cold water pat down any peaks as they will burn during cooking. Splash a little cold water over the tray to help create more steam while cooking.

3. Choux pastry needs to be cooked at a high temperature, usually around 220°C, this is because choux pastry needs to be cooked quickly to create a shell on the outside and leave it airy on the inside, this is why you need lots of steam. Therefore, do not open the oven doors as this will let excess steam out from the oven and in turn, make your choux pastry go flat.

4. After 15 minutes if choux pastry has risen well, turn the oven temperature down to 180°C to dry the insides out.

There are 3 ways to tell is choux pastry is ready:

ü  Tapping the bottom of the buns: if they sound hollow they should be ready.

ü  Visual check: if they have risen well and have a nice caramel colour, this is a good sign.

ü  Break one open: If the inside is still soggy then return to the oven for a few more minutes; soggy insides mean that the pastry still contains too much moisture which will mean a ‘pancake’ appearance once they have cooled down.

To Serve (This is merely an idea I like to use, be creative!):

1. Find a small glass if you can, start by piping a layer of Crème Diplomat into the bottom of the glass.

2. Next, pipe a layer of the chocolate orange cream (be careful not to smudge the glass at this point)

3. Pipe another layer of the crème diplomat

4. On top of that pipe a very small amount of the chocolate orange cream, get some kitchen towel ( scrunch into a ball) and smudge up the glass, rotating as you go to get an even coat (the last layer of chocolate orange cream should all now be up the glass).

5. Fill the remainder of the glass with your coffee cream and place a suitable pastry shell on top of the glass, I prefer to serve it on a narrow dish with some extra dipping shells.

6. DON’T FORGET TO DIG IN!