FINANCIER AND MACAROONS

This evening in class we've got one more night at the Pastry station (Patisserie) and we're preparing two desserts, one called a 'blueberry financier' (kind of like a blueberry muffin) and a tropical fruit mousse with macaroon cake. There will definitely be some meringue-making tonight.

More after class on the jump...

DISH: Blueberry Financier, Citrus Sorbet, Financier Aux Myrtilles, Sorbet Au Agrumes

RECIPE:

PASTRY CREAM (We did not make this)
500 ML Milk (Slightly less than 2¼ cups)
100 G Sugar
½ Vanilla Bean, Split
4 Egg Yolks
20 G Flour
20 G Cornstarch

FINANCIERS (We used italicized below instead of this one)*
100 G Butter, En Pommade
100 G Almond Flour
100 G Hazelnut Flour
200 G Confectioner's Sugar
Finely Grated Zest of 1 Lemon
2 Eggs
10 G Pastry Cream Powder
175 G Pastry Cream
2 Pints Blueberries, Rinsed and Picked Over

*SUBSITITUTE FINANCIERS (x5 for restaurant service)
65 G Flour
65 G Hazelnut Powder
130 G 10-X Confectioner's Sugar
130 G Noisette Butter
20 Egg Whites
1 Pint Blueberries

SORBET
400 ML Orange Juice (~1 2/3 Cups)
100 ML Lemon Juice (Slightly Less Than ½ Cup)
100 ML Lime Juice
Zest of 2 Oranges
Zest of 1 Lemon
Zest of 1 Lime
250 G Sugar
50 G Trimoline or Corn Syrup
400 ML Water (~1 2/3 Cups)

2nd SORBET
TK

RASPBERRY PAPER
TK

Procedure:

Bring the milk to a simmer with half the sugar and the split half vanilla bean. Combine the egg yolks with the remaining sugar and whisk the mixture until it becomes pale yellow (blanchir). Add the flour and the cornstarch to the yolk-sugar mixture. Stir the mixture until smooth. Pour half of the hot milk into the yolk-sugar mixture and whisk it vigorously. Put the tempered yolk-sugar-milk mixture into the saucepan containing the rest of the milk. Stir the mixture on the stove for about 3 minutes after it returns to a simmer. Scrape the spatula against the corners and sides of the saucepan so none of the cream scalds and sticks. Transfer the crème to a bowl set over ice and chill, stirring occasionallly, until cold. Remove the bowl from the ice, and press the plastic wrap against the top of the crème and refrigerate until needed.

FINANCIERS Butter and lightly flour the small tart pans. Lightly toast the nut flours, and when cool sift with the 10-X sugar. Cream the butter in the tabletop mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the sifted nut flours and sugar mixture. Add the eggs one by one, incorporating them well after each addition. Add the pastry creampowder. Just before baking, mix in the pastry cream. Fold in the blueberries. Fill the pans hree-quarters full and bake at 350°F for 12 to 18 minutes, or until golden. Cool and unmold the financier onto the plate.

*SUBSTITUTE FINANCIERS Sift the flour, hazelnut powder and confectioner's sugar together then whisk in the egg whites. When incorporated gently whisk (don't incorporate air) the noisette butter until fully integrated. Fill the pans hree-quarters full then sprinkle cleaned and destemmed blueberries in the center of the financiers so that they aren't touching the metal edges and bake at 350°F for 12 to 18 minutes, or until golden. Cool and unmold the financier onto the plate.

SORBET Zest and juice the fruits. Heat the sugar, trimoline, water, and zests together in a saucepan and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Let the surup cool and then strain. Add the citrus juices. Check the sugar density of the sorbet. Adjust as needed. .Process the sorbet in the ice cream machine.

2nd SORBET* TK

RASPBERRY PAPER* TK

DISH: Tropical Fruit Mousse and Macaroon Cake, Gâteau Aux Fruits Exotiques

RECIPE:

The Macaroon Biscuit
20 G Flour
150 G Almond Flour
250 G Egg Whites
300 G Sugar

The Exotic Fruit Mousse
85 ML Mango Purée (a little more than a 1/3 of a cup)
80 ML Passion Fruit Purée (a little more than a 1/3 of a cup)
65 ML Orange Juice (a little more than a ¼ of a cup)
Juice of 1 Lemon
½ Vanilla Bean
1 Cinnamon Stick
3 Gelatin Leaves, Bloomed in Cold Water
250 ML Heavy Cream, Whipped to Soft Peaks (a little more than a cup)

The Italian Meringue
2 Tablespoons Glucose or Light Corn Syrup
200 G Sugar
60 ML Water (¼ of a cup)
4 Egg Whites

Mango Glaze*
TK

Coulis*
1 KG Raspberry Puree
Juice of 1 Lemon
200 G Sugar

Procedure:

MACAROON BISCUIT Mix the flour and almond flour. Whip the egg whites until very frothy. Add the sugar in a stream, and continue beating until firm peaks are formed. Fold the flour and almond flour into the meringue. With a metal spatula, spread the mixture evenly in a half-sheet pan that has been lined with parchment paper. Bake the cake at 350ºF. Cool on a rack.

EXOTIC FRUIT MOUSSE AND ITALIAN MERINGUE In a stainless steel saucepan, heat the mango purée, passion fruit purée, orange juice, lemon juice, vanilla bean, and cinnamon stick. As soon as the mixture comes to a boil, remove from heat and stir in the bloomed gelatin. Strain the mixture into a clean bowl. Make an Italian meringue: bring the glucose, sugar, and water to a boil in a small stainless steel pot. Start beating egg whites at low speed. They should be at soft peaks by the time the syrup is at the soft-ball stage--238ºF. Slowly pour the syrup into the beating egg whites. Beat until the meringues forms firm, but not stiff, peaks. Fold the fruit purée mixture into the meringue using a balloon whisk. (If the fruit purée mixture has thickened and started to set, then fold the meringue into the fruit purée instead.) Fold the whipped cream into the meringue mixture. Unmold the macaroon biscuit onto a work surface. Trim the edges and then cut the biscuit into 3 even strips. Place one strip on a clean parchment-lined sheet pan. Spread half of the mousse mixture over the biscuit. Lay another strip of biscuit over the mousse and then cover with the remaining mousse. Lay the third strip of biscuit on top. Seal the eges of the gâteau with a spatula. Cover with plastic wrap and chill or freeze until set.

* GLAZE*

*COULIS* The fruit puree is brought to a boil with the juice of one lemon and 200 G of sugar, then chilled. If done from scratch with fresh berries the coulis would be a few pints of berries with sugar and lemon juice, macerated (allowed to stew) then boiled, blended and strained through a cheesecloth.

To serve: Trim the eges of the gâteau and cut into 8 rectangles. Place a rectangle on a serving plate and cover the top with sliced fresh fruit. Surround with kiwi or mango coulis.

BREAKDOWN: I was so distracted by the chocolate work and plating technique tonight that I forgot to take a picture of the first dessert, the blueberry financier. I'll try to insert a picture below from another group making the dessert next week but in the meanwhile don't look at the man behind the curtain, take a look at the process behind making the mousse cake! There were some major differences between the recipes in the book and the ones we ended up making in class.

FINANCIER: As noted in the recipe above, we didn't make a pastry cream and we substituted the financier recipe. In addition, we made two sorbets, an orange-lemon sorbet and a raspberry sorbet. The financier was placed at the back of a square plate with currant coulis dots in front of it. The sorbets were placed on the other side of the plate in yin-yang style with a raspberry paper cookie between them.

FRUIT MOUSSE & MACAROON CAKE: For restaurant service we multiplied the meringue recipe x2, the sorbet x5 and the meringues by x1½. There were some differences in the preparation technique between the recipe in the book and the way we made the dessert in class. One difference was to add ½ the sugar to the whites and the other to the flour and almond flour mixture and to then fold the two together-- this to supposedly make a lighter meringue. Also instead of using a spatula to form the mousse between two layers we use pastry rings as show above.

The meringue was first piped out onto a parchment sheet within circles which had been drawn on it. After they had cooked and cooled the edges were trimmed back so that the merinques fit in the metal pastry cutters (at right). The mousse was then ladled in on top, another meringue cookie was put inside and another layer of mousse topped that. After the mousse-cake set we glazed them with a mango puree which had been mixed with simple syrup and gelatin and set quickly. The result was quite beautiful, actually.

After setting in the fridge, the mousse-cakes were removed from the pastry cutter by quickly torching the sides while turning the cake on a turn-table. The pastry cutters were then gently pulled up and off the mousse-cakes and the cakes were put back in the fridge and later topped with one blackberry, a half wedge of kiwi, 1/8 slice of strawberry and one blueberry.

We melted some chocolate (dark and milk, separately), tempered it and used a brush to spread it thinly on sheets of parchment paper which we then put in the fridge to cool. Once they'd set we were able to gently peel them off the paper and use on of each leaned up against the mousse as garnish, prevented from sliding with a raspberry dusted with confectioner's sugar.

The dots alongside the mousse at right are raspberry coulis. The chocolate was a little bit of work and I'd imagine not something you want to be rushing with in the midst of restaurant service but the result is really worth it. The plates look elegant. All the chefs have good insight into plating design and technique but the pastry chef is among the best. I'm not saying I want to be a food stylist but designing the plate so as to most entice people with the food is certainly something I'm interested in learning alot more about. I'd like to know of any books on this subject.