Brush puff pastry squares, purchased from any quality supermarket in the frozen form, with a little water, lightly sprinkle with sugar, and bake 150°c to 180°c oven until golden brown, allow to cool, cut in half, pipe lush lemon on bottom half and arrange top piece cut in half.
There are many great sweet pastry recipes around, a quick failsafe recipe I use when I only need 1 flan case. 2 1/2 cups flour 250g chilled unsalted butter diced ½ cup caster sugar 1 tablespoon chilled water 1 whole egg large In a blender or small bench top mixer, mix flour sugar butter until it resembles fine crumbs. Add water and egg, blend until mixed well, careful to not over mix. Rest in fridge 1 hr, roll out on floured bench to about 6mm thick and place in 28cm buttered tart case, rest 30 min, bake blind in moderate oven160°c to 180°c with grease proof paper and uncooked rice, (that is called blind baking, for that I use small aluminium baking pallets) remove blind when half cooked, bake further until a light golden brown, chill ready for use.
The process to reheat the lemon curd applies to both food service clients and domestic. Place tub or container either in a hot water bath (Bain Marie) or micro wave, allow to heat to 45°c approx. I find that to just warm it up until easily spreadable usually works best. Stirring occasionally, being care full not to over whip ,egg is an important component of this curd and does not like to be disturbed to much once set ,so care must be taken!. Once pouring consistency has been reached, pour in to tart shell or dessert moulds of choice, refrigerate about 1 hour or until set, pipe decoration on top and dust with icing sugar.
There are many frozen prepared tart bases in the freezer section and baked shells on the super market shelf, Lush desserts recommends Lincoln Tartlet shells, the fresh crispness ,overall quality of the Lincoln tartlet shells makes for the ideal dessert.
A real Aussie treat with a great twist. Prepare a sponge with mixed fruit either fresh diced or tinned, spoon into glass ware, prepare jelly following packet instructions, and to set, pipe lush lemon on top, finish with a dollop of cream and enjoying.
By Peter Little
1. 1 Run a little cold water (about 1 cup) in to a very clean stainless steel sauce pan. Care must be taken not to allow grime of any sort on or near the sugar surface as the sugar is likely to crystallize.
2. Place 400g caster sugar on top of water in pot.
3. Bring slowly to boil and simmer.
4. While allowing the sugar to simmer break 200mls of egg white. The main trick here is to keep the egg white as clean as possible, that includes avoid touching the egg whites as much as possible, moving yolk between shell halves is the trick. I suggest that the eggs are cold and use free range eggs if possible, always a better result.
5. Place clean egg whites into very clean mixing bowl and get ready, at this point timing is the key to success.
6. When sugar is nearing the point of soft ball stage on the sugar thermometer which is 115°c on a sugar thermometer or 240-250°f or 39-40 Baume, start to whip the egg whites on high setting on mixer. Adding about 1 tsp of sugar to help stabilise the white as it comes up. Thermometers can be purchased at any good kitchen equipment retail store.
7. I find at this stage some people panic, Relax! This is the fun part!, stay focused. If the sugar reaches soft ball stage first, add a small amount of water to cool down and dilute, If egg white reach’s stiff peak stage first, turn down to medium to slow speed to keep churning slowly, if you allow to fully stop at this stage for more than 30 seconds usually it will collapse (split and form clumps) when restarted. Add soft ball sugar slowly while churning on medium speed.
8. While the meringue churns on medium speed, spoon the lush lemon curd in the sweet pastry shells, the trick here is to allow meringue to slowly cool down and cook without becoming too aerated.
9. 10.
11. Using a piping nozzle of choice, place in bag and fold over hand, spoon cooled Italian meringue in to bag and gently pipe on to your lush lemon tartlets. Here it just takes practice to get the hang of it, don’t be afraid to play with different patterns, shapes and cool ideas.
12. Now the extra delicate part, using a camping gas torch gun,( which can be purchased at any good camping store) carefully and quickly with lots of movement run the flame over your meringues, if you stop the flame for longer than 1 second it will burn all your hard work. Keep turning the meringue around to colour all the way around the meringue.
13. This is a good example why I recommend using a Italian meringue instead of either a French meringue which is whipped uncooked egg white and caster sugar added or a Swiss meringue which is warmed egg white with the sugar slowly added during the whipping stage. Italian meringue sets ,has a much better mouth feel and holds up much better for shelf life, and the egg is cooked!!.
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15. Enjoy!!!!!
Cut lengths of thick clear food grade plastic (acetate), melt choc (be sure to use coverture chocolate) in a dry bowl on top of a water bath, stir with a rubber spatula, making sure to scrape off the sides of the bowl until fully melted, allow to cool slightly, spoon and smooth out a thin layer of chocolate, allow to cool until nearly set. Bring ends together into a teardrop shape. Place in fridge and allow to set. Spoon slightly warmed (I bit more than room temp, being mind full not to melt the chocolate) Belgian crème in middle, chill and serve. For best shinny result when removing plastic from the chocolate refers to manufacturer’s instructions on tempering chocolate. I will make an effort to post how this is done if there are enough requests. Lush Belgian crème has great thermo reverse quality ideal for food service as well as domestic which means reheating in the microwave or Bain Marie until pouring consistency is reached, then pour in to your favourite food mould or glassware and reset.
A novel way to way to pass around a dessert platter at a dinner party, sometimes the simplest of ideas are ideal, just don’t forget to offer some teaspoons!
There are many skilful ways to create chocolate flakes, 2 effective ways is to either use a potato peeler on a block of chocolate or on an extra clean flat marble bench ,run out some melted chocolate. You can also use a chilled thick clean steal baking tray .You start with block of quality chocolate chopped into chunks, and melt in a Bain Marie style (bowl on top of a simmering pot of water), being extra care full not to get any moisture in the chocolate (otherwise it will be ruined and you will just have to eat it all with a spoon and start over again in a clean dry bowl!). Pour on to marble bench and spread with spatula allow to nearly setting then scrape off bench in short sharp motions. This is very messy but the results are worth it, to finish, Chill and Sprinkle.
To remove from tub or mould. Place upside down in very hot water for around 20 to 30 seconds, just enough to allow crème to slide out, tapping edge to create air pocket, should then just slide on to plate.
| This is a truly classic French dessert that has featured on many of my menus in the past. A great dessert for home, the poached pears can also be baked in puff pastry, (yum! Basically it is poached pears in white wine, usually served with vanilla ice-cream and a Chocolate sauce. I recommend buying the firm green pears. To start, peel pears top down, following contours of the pear, very important for dish presentation. Not a nice sight, being served poached fruit that looks like someone hacked at it with a blunt knife! Remove the stem and cut lengthways into quarters and remove pear core .wash well, place in sauce pan and cover with a good white wine, I prefer a dry medium sweet chardonnay, a Riesling will also do. Add sugar to taste, 1 stick of cinnamon half lemon and a split vanilla bean if you have one handy. The trick here is to bring to the boil and simmer gently, replacing the wine with water to keep the pears covered. We chefs sometimes cover the simmering fruit with a katush and bake in the oven. When a knife or skewer passes easily through the cooked pear, it’s ready. Remove pears from pot, and also the lemon and reduce the poaching liquid if you feel there is too much left over juice to cover the pears, by simmering quickly, (this will also help intensify the flavour of you favourite white wine) at this point also adjust the sugar levels to taste. When the pear marinade is ready pour over pears and cover, Allow to cool before placing in fridge. If you can wait at least 2 to 3 days to marinate, turning the pears frequently, this will produce the best results. In the kitchen, this is where patience and forward thinking really pays off. To serve, Heat Lush Belgian chocolate in the tub until very warm and easy to pour consistency. OK to do this in the micro wave or gently melted in a small sauce pan. Pour in to Ramekin of choice and, tap carefully on bench to remove fine bubbles. Allow to set and chill in fridge, when set turn out of Ramekin by slightly warming in a water bath. Slice and arrange pears on top or around it, top with a chocolate sce,made up of approximately equal parts simmered cream and coverture chocolate mixed well together, and strained. Bon appétit |
