Poires Belles Helene

A perfect light dessert with a little chocolate treat! A poire belle Helene is a poached pear, covered in dark chocolate sauce. There is nothing very technical in it. This recipe includes a small crumble, if you have some biscuits, you can omit the crumble and serve with a biscuit.

Serves 6 people

Ingredients:

For the poached pears

1 beurre-bosc pear per person, not too ripe
Juice of 3 oranges
2 cups of dry white wine
1 roll of cinnamon
½ vanilla bean seeds scrapped
3 star anises
2 cups white sugar
1 lemon juice
6 cloves
5 grains all spice – whole (can omit if you don’t have any)
1 to 2 cups of water

For the crumble

½ cup of shelled pistachios
1 cup of plain flour
½ cup of brown sugar
½ cup of soft (not melted) butter

For the chocolate sauce:

100 g of 70% cooking chocolate in pellets or cut into small pieces
2/3 up of the poaching sauce

Method:

Peel the pears being careful to keep the stem. Once peeled, extrude with the the end of a pointy knife the bottom end to remove the seeds.
In a saucepan, place all the poaching ingredients. Only put one cup of water at this stage. Bring to a simmer. Once the sugar is dissolved, place the pears in the saucepan. Add just enough of the last cup of water to cover (there may be little parts sticking out, don’t worry).
Simmer for about 30 minutes or until soft when inserting a skewer in a pear. For those pears slightly sticking out, roll them from time to time.
Leave to cool in the saucepan away from the heat until needed.
For the crumble, place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until combined. Spread on a baking sheet, and bake for about 10-15 minutes in an oven on 180°C. Make sure to stir through every few minutes to ensure the crumble pieces do not stick to each other. When it comes close to 10 minutes, it tends to cook very quickly, so watch out to avoid burning it.
When the crumble is ready, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
For the chocolate sauce, pour 2/3 cup of the hot poaching juice on top of the chocolate, stir until melted.
To serve: place a pear in the middle of a place, standing up. Use a ladles to pour the chocolate sauce right over the stem of the pear until fully covered. Place 2 tablespoons of the crumble on one side of the pear. Serve.

Note: the pears can be room temperature or warm.

The sugar tarte

The sugar tarte, known in Belgium and northern France as “la tarte au sucre” is a tarte based on a yeasted dough, soft brown sugar and cream. It is very simple to make and you can get the kids involved all along.

Ingredients:

For the dough

200 g of plain flour
100 g of butter
1 egg
2 tbsp of milk
1 tbsp of caster sugar
10 g of fresh yeast (or 4 of dry yeast)
1 pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)

For the toping:

125 g of soft brown sugar
1 dL (100 mL) of cream

Method:

In a large bowl, place the flour in the bowl and with a spoon, make a well (a hole in the middle of the flour in which you will place all the other ingredients).
Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk.
Add in the well, the yeast, butter, caster sugar, egg and salt.
Mix until you obtain a nice dough.
Transfer into a large bowl, cover with a clean tea-towel and allow to rise in a warm corner until almost double.
Preheat the oven on 180°C.
Butter and flour your tarte tin. Transfer the dough and using the palm of your hand, spread it gently making a little edge. in the centre spread the soft brown sugar, then randomly pour the cream.
Bake until the edges are golden brown.
Eat warm or cold (do not place in the fridge).

Rhubarb!

Rhubarb! Some may know, some may wonder what I am speaking about.

Rhubarb is definitely not, or maybe not yet, a fixture in the average customer’s grocery trolley. In places it is even hard to find. Well, well, it is the right season around Sydney. Let me introduce you to it.

The rhubarb plant

Rhubarb is a perennial (it means it grows again and again every year on its own) low-lying plant. The plant is half a metre tall and consist of long stalk of reddish colour which thick very large leaves. As a kid, we used to pinch leaves from the veges garden’s plant and use them as umbrellas!

The plant typically grows in temperate climate, hence you shall find plenty reference to it in Northern France, England, Belgium, Germany, etc and their equivalent climate countries around the world. The stalk is what is eaten, cooked. The leaves (I recently learned) are toxic!

Rhubarb Preparation

This is something you can get your child to help with, it is fun.

Cut the leaves and discard.
Rinse/wash the stalks.
Cut the bottom part of each stalk and pull any stringy skin that comes with it

Your rhubarb is ready.

What to do with it?

Here are 5 ideas of what to do with it:

Stewed rhubarb:

This is the easiest use! Just cut in 5 cm pieces, place in a saucepan, add water until mid-heigth (of the rhubarb) and cook gently for about 15 minutes. When stirred it should come apart, just add some white sugar to taste. Want more precision, look HERE.

Rhubarb, yogurt and cereal breakfast

A great combination for an uncommon breakfast. The name and the photo say it all. More HERE.

Roasted rhubarb

This one works great as a side to a vanilla pannacotta or the topping of a cake. To find how to prepare it, click HERE.

A simple rustic rhubarb tarte

This one is a french classic. A short crust pastry, the rhubarb stalks are diced quite small and placed on the pastry. There are 2 choices then: just add sugar and a few nuts of butter (not pictured here) or add an egg, milk, almond mixture, then bake! Yummy. The details HERE.

And finally, a leavened dough rhubarb tart

This dough makes use of the roasted rhubarb and a northern France traditional tarte which dough is made with fresh yeast, the sugar tarte (tarte au sucre). I will cover that tarte au sucre in an upcoming post, just delicious!

Stewed rhubarb

Use this as a dessert served with a biscuit or as a part of breakfast.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of rhubarb stalks, leaves removes, cleaned, ends trimmed and cut in 5 cm length
White sugar

Method:

Preparation of the rhubarb

This is something you can get your child to help with, it is fun.

Cut the leaves and discard.

2. Rinse/wash the stalks.

3. Cut the bottom part of each stalk and pull any stringy skin that comes with it

Cooking:

Just cut in 5 cm pieces, place in a saucepan, add water until mid-heigth (of the rhubarb) and cook gently for about 15 minutes. When stirred it should come apart, add some white sugar to taste. Keeps well in the fridge for a week in an airtight container.

Use:

Use for dessert as such, served with a biscuit or use for breakfast with yoghurt and oats.

Want to use rhubarb another way? Check out the roasted rhubarb and rhubarb tarte.

Rhubarb Tarte

Rhubarb is a summer to autumn food. The plant grows in temperate climate, it produces large green leaves on thick stems. The parts used in the kitchen are the stalks. Apparently, the leaves are toxic and are most often used for compost and in natural home made preparatation against some garden insect pests.

To prepare rhubarb, first cut off the leaves and discard and was the stalks. Cut each end of the stalk. Pull on the sting that comes from the sides of the stalk if any and discard too.

For a rhubarb tart for about 8 people.

Ingredients:

1 shortcrust pastry
1 bunch of rhubarb stalks
1 egg
2/3 cup brown soft sugar
1/2 cup of cream (if ou don’t have cream, you can use milk)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.
Roll the shortcrust pastry and place in the tart tin.
Cut the rhubarb stalks in sections 1/2 centimetre to a centimetre long and place on the pastry.
Mix egg, cream and sugar and pour over the fruits.
Bake until the crust is golden brown.

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Welcome to autumn!

Welcome to autumn! Yeah ! And goodbye to summer fruits. Ohhh 🙁

Here are two inspirations for you:

Autumn inspiration: roasted figs, to serve with a panna cotta, ice cream, a cake or simply some yogurt.

End of summer inspiration: a peach frangipane tart.

Roasted figs

The first one is a dish everyone can make without much kitchen skills. You need a non-stick fry-pan, some butter (salted is better), balsamic vinegar, honey and obviously fresh figs. I bought a tray of over 40 figs for $15 last week, very cost-effective when you consider they can be at $2 piece! It is peak season, so go for it, it is now or never. I had not cooked figs like this before and I must say I will do it again. Make sure to roast them just before serving. And if you are into it, why not flamber them?

Recipe HERE.

I served mine with a vanilla panna cotta and an orange semolina cake. The cake recipe is from the GoodFood website. The cake is surprisingly moist, even before adding the syrup (for the syrup I did not follow the recipe).

As for having figs, plus panna cotta plus cake at once, it was a bit of an extravaganza! The cake was not strickly necessary, it could have been some small dry biscuits, but I thought the children may not be so fan of the panna cotta (and I was wrong).

The frangipane peach tart

For this tart, I was pretty pleased with myself I must say. Ambrine was preparing a pizza (a school assignment was to prepare a meal). I wanted to do a tart to use some peaches which didn’t look too good. They ended up being really good actually! I decided at the last minute to use a tall edges tart tin and dress it up a little bit. This is by no means something hard to make, it takes just a little more time. It took me from start to finish the same time as the pizza from start to finish (including dough), so about an hour and a half.

The tart is a plain short crust pastry, lightly blind baked, a frangipane custard at the bottom then the slices of peaches and to finish it off a brush of apricot jam and some rosemary. Yum!

Recipe HERE.

Peach and franginane tart

Make this peach and frangipane tart before the peaches disappear for 10 month! I know, I often say so, but it is true: it is another classy easy to make dessert.

Small warning: use a bit of intuition on this recipe as I made the tart up on the moment and my quantities may need slight (not big) adjustments. I will try to do it again soon and will edit as required.

Serves 8.

Ingredients

Pastry:

120 g of plain white flour
50 g of melted butter (I use salted butter)
½ cup of cold water

Frangipane custard

3 eggs whole
½ L of milk
50 g of plain flour
30 g of white sugar
1 to 1 ½ cup of almond meal

Note: the amount of sugar may seem small to you, it is by design. We don’t want the frangipane custard to overpower the sweetness of the peaches. The peaches are the heroes of the dish!

Tart assembly

5 peaches cut in small quarters (roughly 12 pieces per peach), skin on
A handful of rosemary leaves
½ cup of good quality apricot jam.

Method

Shortcrust pastry:

Place all ingredients together and combine. You need to be careful here not to mix and not to work the dough but only to combine it all. Add a few drops of water at the time if necessary. Make a ball, cover loosely for ½ hour, let it rest. If the dough is too sticky add a spoon of flour or two.
When the dough has rested, roll the dough to the size of the tart shell you are using. Transfer the dough to the tart shell. Roll the rolling pin over the edge to trim excesses. With a fork, make marks over the whole bottom and blind bake until slightly golden. You can use blind baking balls if you have some (don’t forget to place a piece of baking paper between the dough and the baking stones, I forgot once and learnt a lesson!).

Frangipane custard:

Basically a custard with added almond meal.

Heat up the sugar and milk until almost boiling, in the meanwhile beat the eggs and flour together. When the milk is hot, insert while mixing to the egg mix and return to the stove until it thickens. Make sure the mix does not boil. It should take up to 5 minutes (depending how hot is the heat). Once you have obtained a thick custard remove from the heat and add the almond meal. You want a thick spreadable consistency but not runny. It will thicken a little more when cooling down.

Tart assembly:

In the blind baked shell, place the frangipane custard at the bottom. Then, starting by the outer ring, place peaches pieces in a circle. Depending on your tin diameter and the size of the peaches, you may be able to do a full second ring or use the peaches in the other direction for the inner ring (as in the photo).

Bake on 180°C until the pastry is well golden. Once the peach and frangipane tart has cooled down, transfer to the serving dish. Heat up the jam and with a brush “paint” jam all over the peaches and exposed custard an on the inner part of the pastry shell. Place the rosemary leaves randomly over the tart.

3 quick last minute desserts

3 quick and last minute desserts to help fix that lunch or diner when you are either pressed for time or not willing to spend much time behind the stove!

Then keep scrolling down for a few photos of the week trials! Some are part of upcoming posts!

1 The Summer Fruit Log

This is really simple and requires a very low level of effort! You need one good quality puff pastry, some cream for whipping and some berries. The photo says it all or pretty much!

Such an australian dessert in its style!

2. The Chocolate Friands (for tea or coffee after lunch) for that little extra craving…

This is one of these recipes where you place all the ingredients together, mix, place in the oven and bake and this is it!

The plus +++ of that recipe is that they are gluten free, loaded with chocolate and of course quick and easy to make. And by the way, GF!

YUM. Recipe HERE.

3. Back to basics with this yoghurt and berry ramequin

This may not impress the crowds but will definitely please the whole family. Whiz some strawberries with a little icing sugar. Roughly mix it to the yogurt. Add blueberries and sliced almonds on top.

When I do this at home, it goes in a flash!

The week in image

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Cherry Clafoutis

This is my recipe of the cherry clafoutis. I tried a few recipes to get there: too sweet, too thin, too bland, too much juice lost…The “traditional” clafoutis recipe contains milk, egg, sugar and flour and critically cherries with pits ON!!!

My version is slightly different to the “traditional recipe” in that I have added a little tanginess (yoghurt) to pair with the taste of the cherry. I also choose to keep the pits (this is subject to many discussions in the cooking world. Check my post if you want to know more!

Before we start, a few tips:

Tip: Plan a dish in which your batter will be 4 to 5 cm thick when pouring the preparation over the fruits (or you don’t get that moist middle)

Tip: the clafoutis rises during baking, so have a couple of centimetres of free board (it will deflate when taken out of the oven).

Serves 4

For info, my dish was 17 x 17 cm

Ingredients:

300 g of fresh cherries,with pits and stems (remove the stems if you do not fancy them)
2 large eggs
40 g white sugar
50 g plain flour
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup of milk (50 cl)
1/4 cup of cream (60 g)
1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt (120 g)
a nut of butter (for the dish)

Method:

Butter and flour your dish
Preheat the oven on 170°C.
Place the fruits (with pits and stems) at the bottom of the dish.
Mix the eggs and sugar together, ass the milk, cream, vanilla and yogurt. Combine
Add the flour
Poiur the batter over the fruits trying to keep the stems going upwards
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool until serving wrm or cold.

It keeps well at room temperature or in the fridge for a couple days.

Pear and Almond Tarte

Pear and almond are so good together. This tarte is not only very easy to make, it presents well. The recipe is from Donna Hay, with a few twicks in the method. This tarte has no shell, it is a cake with the fruits placed on top. The shape of the tin makes it (plus it is good!)!

Ingredients:

90 g of soft butter (I use salted butter)
90 g of brown sugar (1/2 cup)
2 eggs
120 g of almond meal (1 cup)
40 g of plain flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
2 teaspoons of finely grated lemon rind (decrease to 1 if you prefer the lemon flavour to be softer)
2 pears (I used Corella, you can use Packham, Williams would work well, but not too ripe)
90 g brown sugar (1/2 cup)
raw sugar for sprinkling

Method

Preheat oven to 160°C. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process until just combined. Add the eggs, almond meal, flour, baking powder and lemon rind and mix until just combined.
Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased 9.5cm x 33cm loose-bottom fluted tarte tin. Here, you may want to use baking paper to cover only the bottom of the tarte tin, this will make the transition to the serving dish easier.
Place the pears and extra brown sugar in a bowl and toss to coat. Press the pears into the tart mixture and bake for 35–40 minutes or until golden brown. You may not be able to place all your pieces of pear.
Sprinkle with raw sugar and allow to cool in the tin.

Strawberry and rosemary madeleines

These strawberry and rosemary madeleines go really well with some fruit desserts which ask for a little cake or biscuit on the side.

I love madeleines, they are cute, crusty, light. They go with so many things and can be made rapidly (very rapidly) and for many reasons. As a child, it is one of the first cake recipes we made again and again, the other two ones being the yoghurt cake and the “reine de Saba” (or Sheba’s Cake), a light chocolate cake.

Strawberry and rosemary madeleines

The recipe is pretty close to the recipe for the plain madeleines, with the addition of the strawberries and rosemary.

Ingredients

These proportions made about 40 strawberry and rosemary madeleines.

120 g butter
2 tbs rosemarry (very finely chopped)
1.5 cups of strawberry
250 g of plain flour
150 g white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs

Method

Melt the butter in a small saucepan on low heat with the chopped rosemary. Before it turns colour, emove from heat and let infuse and cooling.
Use a food processor to mix the eggs and sugar together until fluffy (alternatively use a whisk).
Remove the leaves of the strawberry and puree in a blender. Mix with the egg and sugar.
Add the flour and baking powder
Add the butter (keep the rosemarry) slowly
Put a tablespoon of the mix in each madeleine print and bake for 10-15 minutes on oven 17o°C
Cool on a rack, make sure they do not touch when cooling.

Strawberry Tart

Strawberry tart, yeah! This dessert is at its best when you have good supply of tasty strawberries. This is also a very easy recipe to involve kids in.

There are three versions I make alternatively at home. All require a sweet short crust pastry precooked. The difference is in the addition of a layer between the pastry and the strawberry. All have a glazing above the strawberry made from diluted strawberry (or other red berries) jam and brushed on.

VERSION 1 – the most simple version and the quicker: placing the strawberries directly on top of the cooked pastry. It is better made in the morning or at least a few hours before eating to allow the fruits and jam to soak a little and soften a little the pastry.

VERSION 2 – Using roasted berry which have been reduced to a puree over the pastry, then placing the strawberries on top.

VERSION 3 – The most elaborate and often seen in pastry shops. Placing a layer of creme patissiere (thick custard) over the pastry before placing the strawberries.

The dough

250 g plain flour
125 g softened butter
125 g white sugar
1 egg

Mix all ingredient together and form a ball. In a large bowl, mix all ingredient together and form a ball. Over a few movemnts, knead it on the kitchen bench to ensure cohesion (20 seconds max).

Place the dough on a sheet of baking paper and spread with your hands. Dust with flour to prevent sticking. You can also place another sheet of baking paper and roll with the rolling-pin. I like to push it with my hands. Once you have the size and thickness desired, remove any excess (you can use it for biscuits with the kids). Place in your tin if using a tin (or just use a pizza tray), trim as needed. Using a fork, make little holes all over. This prevent the formation of bubbles in the oven.

Bake 10-15 minutes on 160 degrees Celsius until light blonde. Remove from the oven and slide the base on a cooling rack using the baking paper. Allow to cool.

The Topping

VERSION 1

You need:

Strawberries, end trimmed
Strawberry jam diluted slightly with hot water for brushing over.

Place the strawberries on the base, then brush over with the diluted jam.

VERSION 2

You need:

balsamic vinegar
caster sugar
Strawberries, end trimmed
Strawberry jam diluted slightly with hot water for brushing over.

for the roasted strawberry, place 1 cup of strawberries (if very large, half or quartered) in a small roasting dish. Mix 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar with 2 tablespoon of caster sugar. Coat the strawberries, if excess, leave it at the bottom of the roasting dish. Roast under the grill or in the oven for 10 minutes or a but more until just soft. Use a blender to make a puree.
Place the puree of roasted strawberry over the base. Then place the full strawberries.
Glaze by brushing over with diluted jam.

VERSION 3

You need:

For the creme patissiere (custard)

25 cl milk
30 g caster sugar
30 g plain flour
2 egg yolks
a drop of vanilla

for the rest of the tart:

Strawberries, end trimmed
Strawberry jam diluted slightly with hot water for brushing over.

For the custard, warm up the milk and sugar together. In the meanwhile beat the egg yolks with the flour in a large bowl, use some of the milk to get it more liquid.
When the milk is about boiling, transfer to the bowl with the egg-flour mixture and beat together until combined.
Pour back into the saucepan and place on low over the stove. Keep mixing until the cream thickens and then transfer to a clean bowl. If not using straight away, place a plastic film right on the surface to prevent the formation of a skin.
Spread some creme patissiere on the base
Place strawberries
Glaze using diluted jam with a brush.

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Ingredients:

For the poached pears

For the crumble

For the chocolate sauce:

Method:

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Ingredients:

Method:

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The rhubarb plant

Rhubarb Preparation

What to do with it?

Stewed rhubarb:

Rhubarb, yogurt and cereal breakfast

Roasted rhubarb

A simple rustic rhubarb tarte

And finally, a leavened dough rhubarb tart

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Ingredients:

Method:

Preparation of the rhubarb

Cooking:

Use:

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Ingredients:

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Roasted figs

The frangipane peach tart

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Ingredients

Pastry:

Frangipane custard

Tart assembly

Method

Shortcrust pastry:

Frangipane custard:

Tart assembly:

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1 The Summer Fruit Log

2. The Chocolate Friands (for tea or coffee after lunch) for that little extra craving…

3. Back to basics with this yoghurt and berry ramequin

The week in image

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Ingredients:

Method:

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Ingredients:

Method

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Strawberry and rosemary madeleines

Ingredients

Method

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The dough

The Topping

VERSION 1

VERSION 2

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