If you want something different from the chocolate, vanilla or coffee eclair or choux, maybe try these chocolate raspberry profiteroles. You can choose to make choux or eclairs.
I will maybe never do the perfect shape choux or eclairs. For one reason, this is not a goal of mine. Somehow I like some irregularities here in the shapes. It has something like “home” about it and leaves space for the imagination to work out which shape choux I am going to pick! Here the shapes are quite irregular, I had a little extra choux dough which I topped a few pieces with.
The cream inside these chocolate and raspberry profiteroles is not milk-based, but berry juice-based. The whipped cream makes it lighter than a full custard.
It is a bit of work, but well worth it!
Ingredients:
For the choux pastry, use the recipe I have on this page HERE. If you have a Thermomix, feel free to use the recipe given with it, it works very well. I strongly recommend you read the tips on the page linked here. If the dough is too liquid, the choux will be flat and not dry well.
You don’t necessarily need to glaze the choux before baking (those in the photos didn’t get glazed).
For 18 good size choux, or here 22 (medium +)
- 4 eggs
- 150 g of plain flour
- 75 g of butter
- 250 mL of water
- 1/2 tsp of table salt
For the cream
In this cream, we use the raspberry coulis we are about to make instead of milk for the custard. Once the custard is done, we need to cool it down before mixing into it the chocolate whipped cream.
- 1.5 full eggs (the 1/2 came from the leftover one from the profiteroles) or 2 egg yolks
- 300 g of frozen raspberries
- 30 g of cornflour
- 50 g of white sugar
- 100 g of dark chocolate
- 1 tablespoon of dutch cocoa
- 200 mL of liquid or thickened cream
To decorate
- 75 g of dark chocolate (couverture if available)
- a few fresh or frozen raspberries (optional)
Method
The choux
- First, we need to get the choux in the oven. Follow the recipe referred to above (HERE as well). Remember to check your choux are well dry before removing them from the oven. If not sure take one out of the oven and push it open to check if it is dry inside.
The cream
- Place the raspberry with a couple of spoons of water in a saucepan and stew until all unfrozen. Use either a small blender or a mashing tool to puree. Using a mesh strainer over a clean bowl, recover all the coulis you can. Discard the seeds.
- In a large bowl, mix the egg and sugar until pale, add then the cornflour and make sure there aren’t any lumps. In a saucepan, place the raspberry coulis and the custard mix. Cook over medium-high heat until thick (make sure not to burn) then transfer to a bowl. You will know when it is ready to transfer as the mix will have significantly thicken. Make sure not to boil. Now, if you have time ahead of you, place the custard in the fridge, else in the freezer. it needs to be cold to add to it the chocolate – whipped cream.
- Melt the chocolate with a splash of milk. Make sure it is all smooth, if necessary add another splash of milk. Add the cocoa powder using a small sieve to avoid the lumps. Whip the cream, once whipped, add the chocolate to it, mix until just combined. Do not worry if not perfect. Keep cold until the raspberry custard has cooled done to room temperature at least. Mix the custard and chocolate whipped cream together.
The profiterole
- Now you can finish preparing your chocolate and raspberry profiteroles. Using a piping bag and a round nozzle fill the choux. I don’t do a hole underneath (else it gets messy when you eat the choux) but a place on top which may have less resistance to the push of the nozzle. That spot will be covered by the icing/topping.
- For the topping of the chocolate and raspberry profiteroles, melt (overture if you have) chocolate over a bain-marie. Once the chocolate is melted, dip the top of each choux in it and place it back on the board. Add a fresh (or frozen) full raspberry on top.
The profiteroles will keep at room temperature for a few hours. Place in the fridge overnight.
This raw recipe of raspberry and coconut slice is out of a magazine I bought at the airport before a short flight. There were a number of interesting recipes including this one. I am not particularly an advocate for raw food, although I have nothing against it overall. This recipe is straight out of Donna Hay, I am adding to it some comments and tips which mat come in handy during the realisation of these bars.
The recipe has tw main steps and requires a few hours to set after each of the main step,
Makes about 20 slices.
Ingredients:
The base:
- 120 g (1 cup) rolled oats
- 80 g of dry desiccated coconut (1 cup)
- 120 g of almond meal (1 cup)
- 65 g coconut oil (1/3 cup) melted- alternatively use a vegetable oil such as sunflower (olive oil may have a flavour too strong for this recipe)
- 200 g of pitted dates
- 25 g (1/4 cup) of raw cocoa
Note:I prefer using the weight rather than volumes as depending how pack the ingredient may be in the cup, you will achieve different outcomes. Here, it would be of little consequence though.
The raspberry layer:
- 750 g of frozen raspberries (you can also use mixed berries if you run out of raspberry like me in this version)
- 1/2 cup of maple syrup (125 ml)
- 50 g white chia seeds (1/4 cup) – I only had black ones, it did not change anything really
- 25 g of coconut oil (1/4 cup)
For decorating (optional) : 7 g (1/4 cup) freeze dried raspberries, crushed
Note on the use of coconut oil here: I wandered about the use of coconut oil in this part of the slice, I can only think that it is used to support the structure of the slice as coconut oil solidifies quite easily. I did not have any when I made my slice, I used some cocoa butter buttons instead. They also solidify at lower temperature. If you are going to use those, be mindful to wait that the jam temperature is no more than 50 °C as coconut butter burns at higher temperature
The coconut pannacotta layer:
- 60 mL of water (1/4 cup)
- 1 1/2 tsp powdered gelatine (you can use the gelatine in sheets as well, use the amount suitable to 400 mL of liquid)
- 310 mL of coconut milk (1 1/4 cup)
- 2 tbsp honey
Method
The order below is first for the slice base. Then, while the base is cooking, you can work on the jam filling. The pannacotta is done a few hours later to allow the first two layers to cool down and settle.
- Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F). To make the coconut cacao base, place the oats, coconut, almond meal, coconut oil, dates and cacao in a food processor and process for 1 or 2 minutes or until the mixture comes together.
- Press the mixture into a lightly greased 20cm x 30cm slice tin lined with non-stick baking paper, smoothing the top with a spoon. Cook for 20 minutes or until firm. Set aside to cool slightly.Tip – no more than 20 min cooking.
- Place the raspberries and maple syrup in a medium saucepan over high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15–18 minutes or until softened and liquid has reduced. Remove from the heat and add the chia seeds and coconut oil. Stir to combine and set aside for 20 minutes to cool.
- Pour the raspberry chia jam over the cacao base, smoothing with a palette knife. Place in the refrigerator for 2 hours or until completely cooled and firm.
Tip – use the back of a spoon or a rubber spatula if you don’t have a palette knife.
- To make the coconut pannaccotta, place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle over the gelatine. Stir to combine and set aside for 5 minutes or until the gelatine has been absorbed.
- Place the coconut milk and honey in a small saucepan over high heat and bring to just below the boil. Remove from heat and whisk in the gelatine mixture until dissolved. Strain and set aside to cool completely.
- Pour the pannacotta mixture over the slice and refrigerate for 2 hours or until completely set. Cut into bars. Top with freeze-dried raspberries to serve.
Tip for cutting: you will need to clean you knife after each slice to retain crispy white and avoid crumbs sticking to the next line of slices.
Tip: Keep well in the fridge for 4 days. The pannacotta will start turning pink . Don’t throw it away. This does not affect the taste so much.
Here is a raspberry and ricotta muffin recipe which is another great way to use excess ricotta, something different to making ricotta pancakes (which is really good too!). I made up another ricotta muffin recipe the same day, they are pretty good too: Walnut, honey, orange and ricotta muffins (CLICK HERE).
Makes 15
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cup of ricotta
- 250 g of plain flour
- 2 tsp of raising powder
- 130 g of melted butter
- 200 g of white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 cups of frozen raspberries (do not thaw them)
- Some coarse granular sugar for the top
Method:
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C
- Mix the ricotta, milk, sugar and eggs until the mix is completely smooth (no ricotta lumps left)
- Add the flour and raising powder, mix well
- Add the raspberries gently.
- Using a large spoon, spoon mixture in muffin cases. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake until well golden.
This raspberry and lime Christmas log (or buche de Noel) is a light and refreshing dessert for the Christmas period. Perfect for Christmas under the sun! Bookmark the recipe for the bavarois recipe which you can do on its own served with red berries.
The bavarois of this recipe must be prepared a day ahead.
Concept
- A core of raspeberry bavarois
- A blanket of mascarpone&lime
- A macadamia crumble
Ingredients
For the bavarois:
- 300 g of frozen raspberry
- 3 small egg yolks
- 250 ml of milk
- 130 ml of cream
- 110 g of caster sugar
- 4 gelatine leaves (I used the ones from the supermarket)
For the m and lime blanket:
- 500 g of mascarpone
- 100 ml of cream
- rind of 1 lime
- juice of 1 lime
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- 2 egg yolks
For the nut crumble:
- 10 macadamia (raw)
- 30 g soft butter
- 1 pinch of salt if the butter is unsalted (otherwise, omit)
- 2 generous tbsp plain flour
- 1 tbsp white sugar
Method:
Raspberry Bavarois
- Prepare your mould. I used a cake loaf as a general support, buttered and blanketed in cell wrap, a sheet of flexible cardboard (buttered and covered in cell wrap) and curved as a semi-cylinder.
- Mix sugar and egg yolks until pale and creamy, add a little of the milk to make slightly more liquid.
- Place the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water.
- In the meanwhile, heat up the rest of the milk to boiling point.
- While the milk is warming up, place the frozen raspberry in the microwave for 1 minute (full power), then blend in the blender to obtain a juice. The raspberry juice will still be cold.
- While whisking, add the hot milk to the egg-sugar mix, mix well. Transfer to the saucepan and on a medium heat, mix continuously until it thickens. The custard MUST NOT boil.
- Remove from the fire and transfer in a bowl
- Squeeze the water out of the gelatine and mix the gelatine until fully dissolved with the warm custard.
- Add the raspberry juice, mix well.
- Whip the cream to soft peaks and mix in gently to the custard mix either using a large
wisk or a silicone spatula.
- Pour into the tin, cover with cell wrap and place in the fridge at least 15 h prior to decorating.
Tip: For the custard, you will know it is ready when a spoon placed in the saucepan comes out with the custard covering/blanketing the back of a spoon (not runny).
Mascarpone & lime blanket
- Place all the ingredient in a stand mixer or large bowl.
- Whisk until smooth and fluffy.
Nut crumble:
- Whiz all ingredients in a small food processor.
- Place on a piece of baking paper on a baking tray.
- Toast under the oven grill until lightly coloured, toss around, place again under the grill until you get a nice brown colour. Be carefull, when it starts toasting, the colour changes quickly.
- Remove from the oven, cool down, and store in a bowl or airtight container until required.
Assembly:
- Unmold the bavarois by turning it straight onto the serving dish.
- Prepare the lime & mascarpone blanket and using a spatula, gently spread on the sides and ends. Using a fork, make patterns.
- Dust more lime rind all over, place a few mint leaves and some cocoa nibs.
- Place the crumble all around.
- Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
A chocolate and raspberry tart! Miam! It also has a balsamic vinegar finish. The raspberries are not only on top but also mixed with chocolate.
This recipe is one from Pierre Herme’s book “Le Larousse du Chocolat”. Recipes in the book are not necessarily Pierre Herme’s own recipes but have been selected by him across his professional and personal network.
This is the case for this one, it comes from a Patisserie in Strasbourg, in Eastern France, and is by Thierry Mulhaupt.
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
- 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
- 150 g soft butter
- 95 g icing sugar
- 250 g of flour
- 2 pinch of salt (except if using salted butter)
- 1 egg
- 30 g of almond meal
This will make 600 g of pastry. You only need a bit more than half. Keep the rest for another dessert, it will keep in the fridge a few days.
For the filling:
- 20 cl of thickened cream or liquid creme fraiche
- 250 g of raspberries
- 270 g of dark cooking chocolate (64%)
- 70 g of soft (NOT MELTED!!) butter
For the garnishing:
- 150 g of raspberries (fresh)
- balsamic vinegar
Method
- Mix all the pastry ingredients without working the dough. That is combined them quickly. Place in cell wrap and rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
- Use a 22 cm diameter tart tin. Butter it. Roll the pastry about 4 mm thick. transfer to the tin. Trim the edges. Pick the bottom of the pastry with a fork (this prevent air bubbles forming during cooking).
- Place the dish (with the pastry ready to bake) in the fridge for half an hour before baking. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Place a piece of baking paper at the bottom of your tart, add baking stones (or beans or rice). Bake for 17 minutes or so (depending on the oven). Remove from the oven and remove the baking stones. Cool down the tart base on a cooling rack (handle gently, it is fragile).
- To prepare the garnishing, juice the raspberry through a sieve. Cut the chocolate in small chunks. Heat up the juice, heat up the cream to boiling point. Place hot cream and juice on top of the chocolate. Mix until melted. Add the soft butter and mix until fully incorporated.
- Place your tart shell on the serving plate. Pour in the chocolate mix, it will level on its own.
- Use the garnishing raspberries to place on top pushing a few down, little hole up.
- Fill those raspberries with balsamic vinegar using a little spoon.
This is a great dessert that can be done early and only requires last minute plating. The mousse is shiny and just exquisite!
Serves 6
All the ingredients can be prepared in advance and stored separately.
For the chocolate mousse
Ingredients
- 55 g caster sugar
- 2 tbs brandy or liquor of your choice (omit if you want)
- 125 mL of water (1/2 cup)
- 200 g dark chocolate
- 3 eggwhites
- 185 mL (3/4 cup) thickened cream
Method
- Break the chocolate in pieces and place in the food processor, blend into small pieces.
- In a small saucepan, heat up the sugar, water and brandy to boiling.
- With the blender’s motor running, add the hot liquid to the chocolate and blend until all melted and combined. Stop the blender.
- Add at the same time the cream and egg whites. Blend 10 to 15 seconds (max) until just combined. Here you have to trust the recipe as it is so counter-intuitive for a mousse, but trust me it works. If you blend for too long (I did it once), your cream will not set properly.
- Pour into a container, cover or close the container and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
For the nut crumble
Ingredients:
- 10 macadamia raw
- 1 tbsp of brown soft sugar
- 2 tbsp of plain flour
- 15 g of soft butter
Method:
- Place all the ingredients in a small food processor. Process until crumbly.
- Place on a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray
- Insert into the oven at 160°C, toast until golden
For the raspberry coulis
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup of frozen raspberries
- 1/4 cup icing sugar
- 2 tbsp water
Method:
Blend the raspberries, water and sugar until smooth. Adjust the sweetness with more sugar if needed. I prefer not to add much sugar as there will already be some in the nut crumble and chocolate mousse.
To Serve
Use a warm spoon to scoop a clean quenelle of chocolate mousse, place the nut crumble soil, then the coulis.
How to call a dessert which is no exactly what you intend to do? Lets call this one a chestnut raspberry tiramisu.
The background
I had all these chestnuts I wanted to use. The kids and I got excited and after having eaten a whole bad of them somehow, the second bag was going untouched for a while. This is a classic situation in a family, isn’t it? So I used most of them to make a chestnut puree. I had in mind to do a beautiful chestnut raspberry layered cake. I also had this great pot of mascarpone in the fridge and had been going through the cookbook “80 Authentic Italian Sweet Treats, Cakes and Desserts” by Laura Zavan.
Now, a very important factor, it is very cold in my kitchen at the moment (for those who don’t know, we have been going through renovations). It would have felt like around 5°C when I prepared the dessert wrapped in many layers.
The process….
- I created a short crust pastry, let it rest for a while in the fridge, though I could have left it on the kitchen bench considering the freezing weather this weekend. I rolled the dough quite thin (3 mm), baked it to a beautiful golden colour.
- I used a raspberry coulis I had in the freezer to create my bottom “layer”. Obviously I needed to add some gelatine. I prepared that step at the same time as the dough. My advice to you is check your volumes and don’t put too much gelatine. It was a bit too jellified to my taste.
- I wanted to obtain a chestnut mousse but using the mascarpone. I mixed 250 g of chestnut puree, initially 200 g of mascarpone, 50 g of softened butter. At this stage, I realised I had not though it through well enough and that my dessert was not going to be what I intended. I used the rest of the mascarpone (400 g total), some sugar syrup (I keep some handy in the kitchen) and 50-100 g of pieces of raspberry frozen. I was betting on the mascarpone and butter to set.
- Construction time (a bit like leggos!), the disk at the bottom, the jellified raspberry coulis over the disk, then the mascarpone-chestnut-raspberry mousse. Cell wrap on top and in the fridge!
I didn’t know if it would have set overnight but after a few hours, it had not moved and I was running out of time. I placed the dessert in the freezer where it set just on time.
Result:
In the end, it was quite good. Next time, if there is one, I would add a little gelatine to the mascarpone.
I had also prepared a backup dessert, a chocolate cake with roasted strawberries. As a result, we had plenty to chose from and a fair amount of left overs. Did you know, some desserts freeze really well? You can have a nice finish to your meal in no time!
The recipe for this flourless raspberry, almond and chocolate cake was created out of a test I did one night some eight years ago. I had completely forgotten about it, until I visited the Orange Grove market a year ago where the same cakes in individual portions are sold.
When I first made this cake, we lived in Bondi Beach. I remember because it became the favourite after diner snack of a Swedish flatmate at the time, when she left, she specifically asked for the recipe (which I gave her).
Now, more important for some of you, this cake has no flour! If you run out of almond meal as happens to me from time to time, you can swap for hazelnut meal, I tried, it works!
Ingredients:
Makes a 20 cm ring cake.
- 40 g butter
- 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 100 g dark cooking chocolate
- 1/2 cup of buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 50 g of caster sugar
- 75 g of almond meal
- 1 cup of frozen raspberries
Method:
- Preheat oven to 160°C, line the bottom of a 20 cm diameter (or close to 20 cm) circular tin.
- Melt the chocolate and butter together.
- Add one after the other one, mixing well in between: the sugar, cocoa powder, and buttermilk.
- Now, add the egg yolks one at the time keeping the eggwhites in a separate bowl.
- Add the almond meal.
- Beat the egg white to snow and gently fold in.
- Pour the batter in the tin and spread delicately the raspberries on top.
- Bake until the centre is settled (no longer wobbly).For the baking the key is to cook slowly to prevent burning.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool down completely before removing the cake from the tin.
- Ice with icing sugar.
This Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins recipe from Bourke St bakery (the Ultimate Baking Companion) is a winner! Light, with chocolate and raspberries (what else?) and easy to make.
A couple important comments :
- The recipe calls for large muffin trays, it is definitely the very large ones! The large ones you may have at home are perfect too, you will just end up with more muffins!
- Use good quality muffin paper cases as the mix is quite liquid and otherwise will end up soaking the paper and the muffin will stick to the tin, it will be harder to remove them.
Makes 12 (or about 20 if you use the “home size” muffin trays)
A recipe from Bourke Street Bakery
Ingredients:
• 400 g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 300 g caster sugar
• 310 g unsalted butter
• 480 ml buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 225 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 225 g raspberries, fresh or frozen
• 55 g raw sugar
• Icing sugar, for dusting
Method
- Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Lightly grease a 12-hole muffin tin and line with paper cases.
Sift the flour and baking paper into a bowl and add the sugar, mixing well to combine.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, then remove from the heat and stir in the buttermilk. Using a whisk stir in the eggs to combine. Pour over the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Use a large spoon to gently fold through the chocolate and raspberries. Don’t overmix.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops with raw sugar. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for 20-25 minutes. For smaller ones, cook for around 10 -15 minutes. It may be necessary to drop the temperature about 10 minutes before the end of baking time if the muffins are starting to brown on top.
- To test if the muffins are done, push the top gently to feel that it is firm. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before eating. Dust with icing sugar to serve.
