Nourished

Patisserie

Baking

The Meringue Girls Meringue Kisses…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI love the Meringue Girls on many, many levels – they’re cute, and they’re cute! They’ve taken something basic and created a niche market – good for them… In addition, their cookbook has brilliant little video clips which can be accessed via the cookbook by scanning a special code on your iPhone. They’re fun, informative, simple, and definitely give you a sense of their personalities: that’s often difficult to achieve in a cookbook.

I’m particularly fond of their meringue kisses, because they’re easy to make, they look fabulous, and you can flavour them in all manner of ways.  They’re the perfect little gift, and make a great item for a charity bake sale.  My most popular flavour are the passion fruit, though the cocoa, raspberry and coconut are popular too.  (The coconut variety taste like a Bounty bar, without the additional calories.) I use Aromes, which are professional patisserie flavours, and these do make a difference.  If you’re going to make a large quantity of a particular flavour, an investment in them is well worth while – they also have the advantage of not adding too much liquid into your recipe.

The Meringue Girls technique is a little different to French Meringue (whisked with cold sugar), or Italian (whisked with a hot sugar syrup, and therefore cooked), or even Swiss (which is whisked over a bain marie to cook, then taken off the heat and whisked until cool).  In this method the sugar is heated in the oven while you’re preparing the whites… It does actually work well, so don’t feel it’s necessary to opt for a different technique.

I’m giving you their basic recipe – do look at their book for different flavour ideas…  Although the method section may seem quite long, do watch the videos included below the instructions – I promise you the Meringue Girls will make it all perfectly obvious in those videos

Ingredients:
150g free-range egg whites (5 medium eggs)
300g caster sugar
For flavourings, see Notes

Method:

  • Start by lining a large baking sheet with baking paper (this is the tray onto which you will pipe the meringues.  In reality this volume of ingredients will certainly fill two normal sized baking sheets, and at least one double oven sheet).
  • Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC.  Line a roasting tray with baking paper, pour in the caster sugar and put it in the oven for about 5 minutes until the edges are just beginning to melt. Heating the sugar will help it dissolve in the egg which more quickly to create a glossy stable mixture.
  • Meanwhile, weigh your egg whites in the free-standing mixer bowl, or a non-plastic bowl.  Make sure your bowl and whisk are free from grease.  Whisk slowly at first, allowing small stabilising bubbles to form, then increase the speed until the egg whites form stiff peaks, and the bowl can be tipped upside down without the egg falling out.
  • Keep an eye on the mixture and stop whisking just before it turns into a cotton woolly appearance, at which point the mixture will be over-whisked and will have lost some of the elasticity in the egg white protein
  • At this point, the sugar should be ready to take out of the oven.  Turn down your oven to 100ºC.  Leave the door ajar to speed up the cooling.
  • With the whites stiff and while whisking again at full speed, add one big tablespoon of the hot sugar ager another to the meringue mixture, ensure that it comes back yup to stiff peaks after each spoonful of sugars. Don’t worry about any small clumps of sugar, but avoid any larger chunks of caramelised sugars from the edges of the roasting tray.
  • Once you have added all of the sugar, continue to whisk on full speed for about 5-7 minutes.  Feel a bit of the mitre between your fingers, and if you can still feel the gritty star, keep whisking at full speed until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth, and the bowl is a little cooler to the touch.  The mixture will continue to thicken up during this stage.  You know when it’s read to use as it will form a nice smooth, shiny peak on the tip of your upturned finger.
  • To pipe the meringue kisses, turn a piping bag inside out, and place it over a jug or bottle, so that it stays in place.  Using natural good colouring and a clean paintbrush, paint 5 thick strips from the tip of your piping bag to halfway down the bag.
  • Then carefully spoon your stiff meringue mixture into the piping back, and turn the bag back the right way around.  You need to pack the meringue mixture in tightly, ensuring there are no air bubbles.
  • With sharp scissors, cut the tip of the piping bag to the size of a 20p coin.
  • To get the piping bag flowing, use some of the mixture to pipe small dollops onto the four corners of your baking sheets, and use like glue to stick your baking paper to the sheet.
  • Hold the piping bag with both hands, placing your dominant hand at the top of the piping bag and your other hand halfway down the bag.  Use the top hand to apply pressure and the lower hand to control the flow of the kisses.  Squeeze the bag (like and udder!) to form the kisses.  They should have a 5cm diameter and a big peak at the top.  You can use different nozzles for different effects.  For example a star nozzle will give you beautiful little star-like kisses.
  • Once you have assembled your meringues into the desired shapes on your lined baking sheet (leaving a couple of centimetres between each shape), bake for approximately 30-40 minutes.  Take them out of the oven as soon as they lift off the baking paper with their bases intact.
  • Leave them to cool on the baking sheet.

Notes:

  • It’s easier to use a liquid egg white, such as Two Chicks, rather than separating and measuring eggs
  • The Meringue Girls use a ratio of 1:2, egg whites to sugar.  I have seen other ratios, but for meringue kisses, this ratio works fine
  • Room temperature whites achieve more volume than cold whites, so once you’ve measured them, allow them to come to room temperature – usually around 30 minutes
  • Your equipment must be clean of grease – if necessary wipe a cut lemon around the inside of the mixing bowl
  • Flavourings can be added by including an ingredient directly into the mixture (for coconut, you stir 25g desiccated coconut into one batch, and sprinkle 25g over the batch – but I also included a few drops of coconut Arome; for chocolate you take 3 Tbsp of cocoa, including half into the mixture, and scattering the remainder over the meringues before cooking (though I did include a little chocolate flavouring in them too).
  • I don’t take my meringues out of the oven straight away, as I found they had a tendency to crack, from being cooled down too quickly.  I turn off the oven, and stick a wooden spoon into the top of the oven door, propping it ajar…
  • Any extra meringues will keep for two weeks in an air-tight container, though I doubt they’ll last that long, particularly if you have children!
You can watch the Meringue Girls in the following clips:
You can get the Meringue Girls book here – and it’s well worth having a look – there’s much more in there than just the kisses…
I’ve used coconut kisses as an element in a pineapple and coconut dessert:
Coconut meringues, coconut creme pattisserie,
brioche pain perdu, compressed pineapple, lime sorbet
They are also an intrinsic part of my petit-four collection, along with pâte de fruit, marshmallows, peanut butter fudge, macarons, and truffles.
Huge close up of coconut kisses…
A little bit of a joke, deliberately coloured and squat,
to look a little like little hats for some sugar work I was making
Production line for the school Christmas Fayre, along with
pâte de fruit – there are passion fruit, raspberry, cocoa, and blackberry there
Cocoa and chocolate flavoured meringues 

Baking

Frangipane Tarts

Pistachio frangipane, with figs

There’s something about the scent of frangipane which has haunted me for decades. We have relatives on the French side of the Swiss-France border, and on our very first visit, we had a plum and frangipane tart. The memory has stuck with me for twenty years – served at room temperature – the tart was luscious, creamy, delicately scented – just adorable.

Spotting some nectarines which needed using up, I thought it would make a delicious variation.  A quick trawl through some of my favourite chefs revealed a recipe on the BBC site by Angela Hartnett…

That first tart was consumed by the multitudes in my household within twenty-four hours.

Luckily, the quantity of frangipane in the recipe allowed me to make two tarts – so the second tart was a plum and frangipane one…  The plums hold up better than the nectarines, though surprisingly they do make the mixture more moist (I would have assumed the nectarines would offer up more water).  The scent load is also greater with the plums.

Having everything to hand, the second tart only took about 10 minutes to prepare, so well worth keeping some frangipane in your fridge (bring it back to room temperature, and give it a quick re-fluffing with a fork – et voila – instant tart…).

The next time I made a bakewell tart, and then another for my chum Sarah… And then we moved on to pistachio and fig tarts, with a further tart for another chum, Nicole…

Once you have the basic frangipane recipe in your back-pocket, the possibilities are endless :0)

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
375g/13¼oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
15g/½oz sugar
225g/8oz unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
1 free-range egg
4 tbsp ice-cold water
For the frangipane:
200g/7¼oz unsalted butter
200g/7¼oz caster sugar
2 free-range eggs
200g/7¼oz ground almonds
For the tart filling:
5-6 ripe plums, each cut into eighths, stones removed
To serve:
icing sugar, for dusting
whipped cream or crème fraîche

Method:
  • For the pastry, sieve the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Tip the cubed butter into the bowl. Rub the butter and the flour between your thumb and fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
  • In a jug or small bowl, beat the egg together with four tablespoons of ice-cold water. Pour into the flour mixture.
  • Slowly bring the ingredients together with your hands to form a dough, being careful not to overwork it.
  • Knead the dough lightly on a clean, floured work surface, then wrap it in cling film and refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes.
  • For the frangipane, beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Crack the eggs into the bowl one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the ground almonds and mix well until combined. Set aside.
  • Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Dust the work surface with flour and roll the chilled dough out thinly. Use it to line one large 25cm/10in tart ring or 6-8 individual tartlet rings 8cm/3¼in in diameter. Trim away any excess.
  • Spoon the frangipane into the tart case so that it comes about halfway up the sides. Smooth over the surface with a spatula and cover the frangipane evenly with the plums.
  • Bake for 30-40 minutes (15-25 minutes for the tartlets), or until the pastry is crisp and golden-brown and the fruit is tender.
  • Remove the tart(s) from the oven. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm with whipped cream or crème fraîche.
Notes:
  • I used a pre-rolled pastry sheet made by Marie – it’s the best I’ve used, comes in a circle, and is rolled super-fine!  Because it’s so fine, I always brush it with beaten egg and allow to dry in the fridge, before putting any filling in
  • Don’t push your figs too far into the batter, it will rise up around them.  For maximum visual effect, just lightly lodge them in

Lay the fruit in a pattern of your choosing – you can see from the plum chart that I chose a different layout that time

Fig and pistachio frangipane

Nectarine and frangipane

Plum and frangipane

Bakewell Tart: spread jam  spread a layer of frangipane, and top with almonds halfway through cooking #simples

Baking

Creme Patisserie [Thermomix]

Whenever people ask me what I make in my Thermomix, the first thing that springs to mind is flawless, effortless creme patisserie.  It’s just ridiculously easy in a Thermo, and rather time consuming when made in the conventional way.  Once you have creme patisserie, you can make perfect fruit tarts, glorious soufflés and immaculate pain au raisin!

Ingredients:

300ml full fat milk
60g unrefined caster sugar
30g unsalted good quality butter
30g plain flour
3 free range egg yolks
the seeds from 1 vanilla pod
pinch of salt

 

Method:

  • Put all the ingredients into the Thermomix bowl and cook for 7 minutes at 90C, speed 4.
  • Give it a quick whizz at the end to ensure it’s smooth, then pour into a bowl and cover with cling film until it’s cool.   There’s also a pistachio creme patisserie on my PK Pistachio Souffle recipe.
  • Yes – that’s it!  Keep it in your fridge until you require it.
Oh. And if you’re stupid enough to stick in a block of quite cool butter, do put the lid on properly and start the machine quite slowly.

Baking

Marco Pierre White’s Raspberry Soufflé

 

My favourite souffé recipe, I found this again when I moved the blog onto this site – I’d posted this for Gemma, from the Independent.  If you’ve ever been lucky enough to eat at Mirabelle, the now deceased restaurant run by Marco Pierre White, you’ll know this dish.  I’ve had many, many variations of it, but none are as good as this, which was published in the Mirabelle cookbook.

Frozen raspberries are actually better than fresh for the pureé (or coulis) which is used as the base of this soufflé. They contain more moisture than fresh, and are much cheaper.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter
220g caster sugar
16 fresh raspberries
100ml Framboise (raspberry eau de vie)
12 egg whites
200ml raspberry reduction (see basic recipes on page 54)

To serve: 1 quantity raspberry pureé, made with 300g raspberries and 100g caster sugar, blended and sieved.

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and thoroughly grease four soufflé dishes 7.5cm/3in in diameter and 6.25cm/212in deep with half the butter. Place in the fridge until the butter sets hard, then butter again just before pouring in the soufflé mixture. Sprinkle with 20g of the caster sugar to coat, tipping out any excess. [See my comments on lining the dish]
  • Marinate the fresh raspberries in the Framboise until ready to use.
  • Put the egg whites into the bowl of your mixer and begin to beat. When they start to take shape, start adding the remaining sugar, a quarter at a time. When thoroughly mixed in, add another quarter and so on. [You can check whether the sugar has fully dissolved by rubbing a tiny bit between you fingers – if it’s still grainy – it hasn’t fully dissolved]
  • Put the raspberry reduction (the soufflé base) in a round bowl and whisk in a third of the beaten egg white; this loosens the base. Fold in the remaining egg white carefully.
  • Half fill the soufflé dishes with the mixture, then place three drained, marinated raspberries in the centre. Fill to the top with the mixture, then scrape off evenly with a palette knife. Run your finger around the edge to push the mixture away from the sides. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes. [Running your fingernail around the edge should create a lip, which allows the soufflé a clean lift from the dish]
  • To serve, place the dish on a plate with a raspberry on top, and some of the pre-prepared raspberry puree, or coulis, on the side.

You can make a blackberry soufflé the same way, using creme de cassis for the reduction and marination. Use a little less water, as blackberries contain more water than raspberries. Bake the soufflé for 7-8 minutes instead of 10.

Patisserie

Agar gels… A possible filling for macaron?

We’ve all seen them dotted around the plates of certain chefs, but when Nigel Haworth had an agar gel on the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, it suddenly seemed very mainstream.  Had to make one didn’t I? I have lots of recipes for agar gel, but I thought I’d make this one, using blackberries instead of blackcurrants.

Actually, it was surprisingly easy to make, and immediately it stuck me that it would actually make a very good vehicle for flavouring macaron – the gel is firm enough to stand proud, but still tastes very much of its key ingredient – ideal for macaron then!  I will be experimenting with a number of them to see how they compare to the more ‘jammy’ fillings, and I think I’m going to give Kuzu a go for exactly the same reasons.

When using a ‘molecular’ component, it is incredibly important to get the weight of ingredients absolutely accurate.  It’s 6g of agar agar, this must be exact.  I use this kind of scale for measuring ingredients like this – it measures in 0.01g increments – some scales work in 2g increments – check your scale before measuring it out!

I should point out, by the way, these photos are on a saucer not a dinner plate!

Ingredients

400g/14oz blackcurrants
115g/4oz caster sugar
2 tsp lime juice
200ml/7fl oz water
6g agar agar
Method
  • Add the blackcurrants, sugar, lime juice and water to a medium sized pan and bring to the boil.
  • Boil for two minutes and then pass through a fine sieve.
  • Place the blackcurrant liquid back into the pan, bring to the boil, whisk in the agar agar and return to the boil.
  • Once boiled, pass through a sieve again and place into a tray and put in the fridge until the liquid has set to a gel.
  • Once the gel has set, place into a blender and blend until smooth.
  • Pour into a squeezy bottle and reserve.
PS. I have now tried using the agar gel in a macaron, and it’s perfect for those that you want to serve pretty much immediately or in the next 6-12 hours.  At least is saves the overnight proving of your macaron, but left any longer than that and it completely soaks into the shells and makes them soggy.  Clearly one option would be to up the agar quantity to create a jelly, which is something I will try next. Still useful if you need macarons for immediate consumption though.  One tester likened the effect to being the ‘best jaffa cake’ she’d ever had, if that in anyway helps… :0)

You can see that the gel is still easy enough to spread, despite holding its shape

Patisserie

Petit Fours: Pâtes de Fruits

Of all the petits fours presented at the end of the meal, I always have a soft spot for pâtes de fruits, the little cubes of fruit jelly.  A petite bite of acidic sweetness, it’s always stuck me that it’s the perfect way to combine sweet and sour, and intense fruitiness too.  This acidity is achieved by including citric or tartaric acid into the recipe, and the light mouthfeel is achieved by using pectin, rather than gelatine.  This allows the jelly to melt in your mouth, which releases both the sweet and acidic elements of the jelly at the same time.  Don’t store the finished product in the fridge – the granulated sugar will begin to dissolve.

I’ve adapted this recipe from one on the Sosa website.

Ingredients
1kg fruit pureé (in my case, blackberry, but look below for the fab colour of passion fruit)
1kg sugar
30g pectin jaune (a kind of fruit pectin)
300g glucose
5g citric acid

Method:

  • Heat the fruit pureé until boiling point
  • Mix 100g of the sugar with the pectin and then add to the pureé stirring constantly
  • Boil again and add half sugar
  • Boil again and add the sugar remaining
  • Heat again until boiling point and add the liquid glucose
  • Cook on a low heat until you reach 106ºC
  • Add the citric acid and remove from the heat
  • Pour in a frame or moulds
  • Leave to cool at room temperature for around three hours, or overnight
  • Cut into your preferred shape and dredge in sugar

 

Pâte de Fruit

Cook on a low heat until you reach 160ºC

Pour in a frame or moulds

This is a passion fruit variation, which also makes excellent pâte de fruit

Baking

Heston Blumenthal’s Lemon Tart [Thermomix]

Without doubt the best lemon tart I’ve had, light, just set and vibrant with citrus flavours.

I’ve actually made this recipe several times now, and have gradually refined the process so that now the 11yo actually makes it on her own! The first time I ignored all of the instructions about sticking it into the freezer, and I paid the price. Firstly the dough was far too soft to handle, and broke as I was transferring it to the case. Secondly it went golden far too quickly, and lastly it absolutely fell apart when I mis-handled the tin. Make sure you follow the instructions exactly, use an oven thermometer, your digital thermometer, and if you have one, your laser thermometer too!

Ingredients:

For the pastry:
300g plain flour
150g unsalted butter
½ tsp salt
120g icing sugar
3 large egg yolks
Seeds from ½ vanilla pod
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
1 egg for the egg wash

Method:

  1. Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the flour, butter and salt on low speed until it becomes a sand like texture (approximately 2-3 minutes). [Actually, I did this by hand]
  2. In the meantime, in a tall container blitz together the icing sugar and egg yolks with a hand blender.
  3. Add the vanilla seeds and lemon zest to the egg yolk mixture and then add to the bowl in the mixer and continue to mix on low speed until fully combined and a very soft dough has formed (approximately 3-5 minutes).
  4. Mould the dough into a flat rectangle and wrap it in clingfilm before placing in the fridge for at least 1 hour. [Did mine overnight, was pretty firm when I rolled it out]
  5. Roll the pastry between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of 2mm, using two stacked 2 pence coins as guides, then place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
  6. Pre-heat the oven to 190ºC/gas mark 5. Line a 26cm tart tin (2.5cm deep) with the pastry making sure to press it into the edges and leaving the pastry hanging over the edge.
  7. Take a sheet of baking paper and scrunch it up several times to eliminate any sharp edges. Prick the dough with a fork all over the surface. Place the baking paper on top and add enough coins (or baking beans) to fill the casing ¼ of the way up. Place in the preheated oven to bake for approximately 20 minutes or until fully cooked. [Be careful with the coins – once nearly put a watch battery in the oven which someone had dumped in the coin pot – check them!]
  8. In the meantime, mix some of the leftover dough with an egg using a hand blender.
  9. After 20 minutes, remove the baking paper and coins and, using a pastry brush, brush the entire surface of the tart with the dough and egg mixture. This ‘liquid pastry’ will ensure that any holes will be sealed. Return the tart to the oven for an additional 10 minutes.
  10. Remove the tart from the oven and allow to cool completely.
  11. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 120ºC/gas mark ½. Place the baked pastry case in the oven to warm up.

[If you’re in a massive hurry, you can use this pastry, it comes in a pre-cut disc and is the best commercial pastry I’ve found to date.  This is what the 11yo uses when we’re in a hurry, and it’s pre-rolled to a very suitable thickness]

 

For the filling:
Finely grated zest and juice of 5 lemons
300ml double cream
390g white caster sugar
9 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
Method:
  1. Put all the filling ingredients into the thermomix and cook for 10 minutes, speed five, at 60ºC – keep a close eye on the temperature, you want to stop it at 60º – do not rely on the thermomix, check it with a digital thermometer!  At this point, strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug. With a spoon, remove the bubbles from the surface of the liquid.
  2. Slide the oven rack out a bit, then pour the mixture into the warm pastry case inside the oven. Fill the case to the top, slide the rack carefully back in, and bake the tart for approximately 25 minutes or until the temperature of the filling reaches 70ºC. Allow to cool completely at room temperature.  [Now. You’re supposed to check the temperature with a thermometer – DO NOT TEST THE TEMPERATURE AT THE EDGE OF THE TART! It’s cooked further than the rest of it, and will mark your custard! I’ve now made this tart several times and I actually now test it with a laser thermometer, basing the reading on the centre of the tart – you can also use the ‘wobble test’ – there should still be a noticeable wobble in the centre.]
  3. Just before serving, trim the overhanging pastry by running a sharp knife round the top of the tart tin and discard.
Notes:
The tart had the perfect amount of wobble, and stood upright, but it was still a little too loose for me, in terms of mouth feel.  Unless you’re going to practice it before you make it for something big, do take it a little beyond 70ºC if you want to make sure it’s more firmly set.  Also, Heston says to trim the pastry just before you serve? No, think that’s a bad idea… Firstly, I ended up with little crumbs on my tart, not matter how I held it, because the pastry is so brittle.  Secondly, I managed to break a chunk off mine at the last minute, which then meant that I was unwilling to really trim it up to the fluted edge for fear of a repeat…  Also, the pastry was still too thick… I rolled it much thinner after that.
Make sure your sheet will cover your tin entirely

 
 
 
Rolled to the thickness of two 2p pieces… Eventually…
 
 










Remember to test your tart in the centre, not at the edge!

 

Tart, with nibbled edge and that blooming crack!…
This recipe is in Heston Blumenthal at home cookbook.  You can find it here >