My First Blog

Well this is my first ever blog post, so let’s see how we go. I was convinced by a friend that a blog is a great way to share the things that you love with the rest of the world. I am by no means a writer or a photographer but hopefully you will enjoy my recipes and the stories that come with them. 

I love cooking, especially desserts and sweet things and in 2011 I began my Certificate 3 in Patisserie at William Angliss Institute of TAFE. I love to cook for my friends and family and my favourite thing to hear is “Would you like to bring a dessert?” because I know that this gives me the opportunity to experiment and try something new or pull out an old favourite recipe.

My hero is Adriano Zumbo and I was lucky enough to meet him at a book signing in 2011.

Over the past year, I have made some things that I have been very proud of, but my greatest achievement was the Rainbow Macaron Tower that I made recently, for my sister’s 18^th Birthday. It contained 6 flavours of Macarons:

PINK: Strawberry with white chocolate and raspberry ganache

PURPLE: Boysenberry with white chocolate and blueberry ganache

BLUE: Plain shell with chocolate ganache

GREEN: Mint with choc mint ganache

YELLOW: Lemon with Lemon curd

ORANGE: Orange with jaffa ganache

In a future blog, I will share with you my macaron recipe. However, I thought for my first blog post I would include a recipe for something that is not too tricky to make and is a definite favourite with my family.

FRUIT TARTLETS

Makes 12

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry:

2 cups plain four

1 tablespoon castor sugar

100g unsalted butter (cold)

1 egg yolk

3-4 tablespoons ice water

Crème Pâtissière:

250g milk

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste(or one vanilla pod)

3 egg yolk

1/8 cup castor sugar

1 dessert spoon plain flour

1 dessert spoon corn flour

To finish off:

White chocolate melts

Mixed berries

Tortenguss or any clear flan gel

Pastry

Sift four and castor sugar intoa bowl.

Cut butter into small cubes andrub into flour, using fingertips, until it resembles fine bread crumbs.

Add egg yolk and 3 tablespoons of iced water and mix with a flat bladed spatula using a cutting action until the mixture comes together into small balls. If the mixture is not coming together, add another tablespoon of water. 

Use hands to bring dough together but do not knead. 

Wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour.

While resting, make Crème Pâtissière.

Crème Pâtissière

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together egg yolks and castor sugar.

Mix in flours and a dash of the milk so that you have a smooth and runny consistency. 

In a small, heavy-based saucepanbring milk and vanilla bean paste to a boil.

While constantly whisking, pourhalf of the milk onto the egg yolk mixture and continue to mix until combined.

Pour the mixture back into thepot with the remaining milk and stir with a wooden spoon over a low heat untilit has thickened (this custard will thicken quite quickly).

When thickened, remove from heat and pour custard into a bowl.

Sprinkle custard with a little castor sugar and cover with cling wrap, so that it is touching the surface of the custard. This will prevent a skin forming.

Refrigerate until ready to use. 

Preheatoven to 180˚fan-forced

Remove pastry from refrigerator and roll out so that it is approximately 3mm thick.

Cut out circles (approximately 9cm diameter) and put into a greased muffin tray.

Place full tray in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

Use a fork to prick holes in the base of each case prior to baking.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until cases are golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool on arack.

Melt white chocolate over a double boiler (a bowl over a pot of just boiled water) and brush each of the pastry cases with a thin layer.

Refrigerate until set.

Pipe Crème Pâtissière into eachof the cases and decorate with desired berries.

Prepare flan gel  

Add one packet of Tortenguss (flan gel powder), with 250ml of cold water and 1 dessert spoon of castor sugar.

Bring to a boil over a low heat while stirring constantly.

Take of heat and allow to sit for one minute before spooning over tartlets. 

Thank you to everyone who has read this first installment. Hopefully you have found this recipe helpful! I look forward to reading your comments, especially if you have tried this recipe!