Strawberry & pistachio mousse cake

Sometimes a girl just needs a girlie cake.  Something pink, light and fruity, ideally with a surprise in the center.  That is exactly what this strawberry and pistachio mousse cake is about.

This is another recipe from Hidemi Sugino's Le goût authentique retrouvé.  He calls this "Mariee".  I read somewhere that the ones he makes are so delicate that they have to be consumed at his shop and are not available for takeaway.  I'm not sure how true this is.  

I knew from my previous try at another one of his recipes that Hidemi Sugino tends to use very little gelatin in his mousses which is probably fine in colder and drier climates.  But with the mercury and humidity rising in Hong Kong, I was a little worried and used a little more gelatin than what was specified in the recipe.  The mousses still turned out tantalisingly soft.  The light green pistachio mousse centre is not visible until you cut into the cake, adding an element of sweet surprise.  The pistachio biscuit is unexpectedly moist and tasty - probably the best recipe for pistachio biscuit I've come across. 

Recipe below makes about 5 mini round cakes, adapted from Le goût authentique retrouvé by Hidemi Sugino (note: methodology below was inferred since I don't read Japanese, feel free to modify any step you deem appropriate)

Pistachio biscuit:

36g almond paste

15g pistachio paste

18g eggs

16g egg yolks

10g egg whites

For the french meringue:

- 32g egg whites

- 20g granulated sugar

18g corn starch

8g melted butter

Pistachio mousse:

80g whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks

8g pistachio paste

80g milk

1/10th vanilla bean

16g egg yolks

16g granulated sugar

1.2 piece gelatin sheet

Strawberry mousse:

170g whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks

170g strawberry pulp

97g italian meringue:

- 70g granulated sugar

- 18g water

- 35g egg whites 

3.6 pieces of gelatin sheets

34g eau de vie de framboise (raspberry brandy)

Sirop d'imbibage:
10g sirop à 30°B
5g water
5g eau de vie de framboise

Décor:

mirror gel

1. Pistachio biscuit:

Using an electric mixer, beat to combine almond & pistachio paste.  Add in eggs, egg yolks and egg whites gradually, whisking constantly until mixture is creamy and fluffy.  Fold in corn flour and melted butter.  For the french meringue, whisk egg whites and caster sugar together until stiff peaks form.  Fold french meringe into almond, pistachio & eggs mixture gradually in 3 batches.  Pour batter into baking sheet approximately 9 by 12 inch in size and bake in 230C preheated oven for 5 minutes.  Leave to cool before cutting out 5 x 5cm rounds.  There will be excess left over so you could use a smaller baking sheet and reduce the proportion of ingredients accordingly.

2. Pistachio mousse:

Place gelatin in cold water to bloom.  Heat pistachio paste, milk & split vanilla bean together in a pan until boiling, remove vanilla bean.  Whisk egg yolks & sugar together then pour in hot milk mixture, continuing to whisk to temper the egg yolks.  Heat milk & egg mixture until 84C, then mix in softened gelatin.  Strain pistachio cream and leave to cool.  Whisk whipping cream until soft peaks and fold into pistachio cream.  Pour into 7 inch round cake ring lined at the bottom with cling wrap.  Leave in fridge until set.  Cut out 4cm round pieces.  There will be quite a bit of excess left over but I found working with smaller proportions problematic. 

3. Sirop d'imbibage:

Mix all ingredients together.

4. Strawberry mousse:

Place gelatin in cold water to bloom.  Heat strawberry pulp but do not boil.  Mix in bloomed gelatin and leave to cool.  Mix in raspberry brandy.  Whisk whipping cream until soft peaks, set aside.  Prepare italian meringue by heating water and sugar until it reaches 118C.  At 115C, whisk egg whites until its foamy.  While continuing to whisk, pour in sugar syrup and whisk till stiff peaks form and italian meringue is ready.  Fold in italian meringue then whipping cream into strawberry puree.  

5. Assembly:

Ensure cake rings are well covered at the base with cling wrap.  Pour strawberry mousse into cake rings filling about 1/2.  Carefully place and center 1 piece of pistachio mousse disk into each cake ring, pushing slightly into the strawberry mousse to anchor but not all the way down.  Fill with remaining strawberry mousse until just slightly short of top of cake ring.  Brush pistachio biscuit with sirop d'imbibage before placing on top of strawberry mousse.  Wrap top of cake rings with cling wrap and press down with bottom of a baking sheet to flatten surface.  Leave to set in refridgerator.  Once set, turn over such that the end with the pistachio biscuit is at the bottom.  Top with mirror gel before removing from cake ring.  Decorate as desired.
 

Mini pistachio fraisier cakes

I received a pleasant surprise a couple of weeks ago from a good friend coming back from Switzerland.  He bought me a copy of Ladurée's Sucré: The Recipes!  

I've been wanting to get myself a copy for some time now, particularly after acquiring Ladurée's Savoury: The Recipes from a very charming bookshop in Duxton Hill (Singapore) called Littered with Books, which by the way is worth a visit.  The obvious lure of Ladurée recipes aside, these books are a delight to have for a number of other reasons: gorgeous pictures accompanying all recipes, it comes beautifully wrapped in soft crepe paper, has silver / gold page edges, velvety covers and packed in classic Ladurée pastel pink / mint green boxes.  You have to see it to know what I mean!  I almost bought a copy when I was in Ladurée's Zurich shop earlier in March but stopped myself when I realised it costs CHF60 and I could get it cheaper via amazon.co.uk at around GBP20.  Unknown to me my friend went to the same shop in Zurich a week after and got me a copy! I've now promised all sorts of dessert treats to him and his wife in return for the awesome gift!

The first recipe that I tried from the book is the pistachio Fraisier, which comprises almond génoise soaked with kirsch syrup, pistahio mousseline cream, fresh strawberries and pistachio almond paste.  The recipe is for an 8-inch round cake, but I had these new hexagonal mini cake rings that I've been wanting to use and decided to make mini versions of the Fraisier instead.  I also omitted the pistachio almond paste layer.

I thought the hexagonal shape moulds were quite suited given how the strawberries were laid out.  Taste wise, the pistachio mousseline turned out a little too sweet for my liking and I would definitely reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe if I were to make this again.  Other than that I think a pistachio lover would definitely take to this cake.  Strawberries could also be replaced with raspberries to make a Framboisier. 

Recipe below adapted from Ladurée's Sucré: The Recipes, makes around 3 mini cakes

Almond génoise cake

17g butter

67g cake flour

2 eggs

67g granulated sugar

17g ground almonds

Kirsch syrup

25ml water

25ml sugar

10ml kirsch liqueur
10ml raspberry liqueur

Strawberries
12 strawberries, of approximately equal size

Pistachio mousseline cream

45g butter

90g whole milk

1 egg yolk

25g granulated sugar

7g cornstarch

30g pistachio paste

Decoration
Gel mirror & fruits as desired

1. Almond génoise cake

Melt butter.  Whisk eggs and sugar over bain marie till it is about 50C, thick, pale and tripled in volume.  Remove from heat and continue whisking till mixture has cooled down.  Fold in flour, then ground almonds and butter.  Pour into cake pan (around 9-inch round to get 1cm thick génoise) and bake for approximately 20 minutes in 170C preheated oven.  Allow to cool before cutting out 3 pieces exactly the same size as the mini cake rings and 3 slightly smaller (i.e. 2 pieces per mini cake, 1 slightly smaller than the other).

2. Kirsch syrup

Bring water and sugar to a boil.  Allow to cool before adding in kirsch and raspberry liqueur.  

3. Strawberries

Slice 9 of the strawberries into halves, 6 halves for each mini cake.  Cut remaining 3 strawberries into thin slices.

4. Pistachio mousseline cream

Leave butter out to soften at room temperature.  Bring milk to a boil.  Whisk yolk and sugar till it pales slightly, mix in cornstarch.  Pour about a third of the hot milk into egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly throughout to temper the yolk, then pour mixture back into rest of milk and bring to a boil., stiring constantly.  Leave to cool for about 10 minutes before mixing in half of the butter.  When cream has cooled to room temperature blend in pistachio paste and other half of the butter, using a electric mixer if necessary, till cream is smooth. 

5. Assembly

Place larger pieces of cut génoise pieces at bottom of mini cake rings and lightly soak with syrup.  Pour a thin layer of pistachio mousseline cream over génoise up to about 1cm high.  Arrange strawberry halves along the inside of the cake ring (as shown in pictures), cut side against the side of the cake ring, pushing them down into the cream.  Fill centre with thinly sliced strawberries, also pushing into the cream.  Cover strawberries with more mousseline cream, then place in second (smaller) piece of cut génoise on the cream before filling with remaining mousseline cream till top of cake ring.  Refridgerate till set before removing from cake ring.  Top with gel mirror and fruits as desired.

Pistachio & raspberry macarons (PH's Montebello)

I guess it's about time for another try of Pierre Hermé's macaron recipes. =D  This time, I really wanted to try one with a jelly insert.  The Montebello macaron caught my eye for its contrasting colours and the pairing of pistachios and raspberry flavors sounded so intriguing.

I was initially a little hesitant about the recipe after realizing how much colouring I had to add for the red shells - 11g worth compared to 3g for the green shells! I've never used up so much colouring on a single batch of macarons much less for half a batch.  Then I thought - its PH so I just need to trust it.  On hindsight I had nothing to worry about coz the red shells couldn't have turned out any better! 

The tanginess of the raspberry jelly really adds a lovely twist to the pistachio ganache.  Who would have thought pistachios and raspberry could pair so well?

There was a little hiccup was when I tried sprinkling some crushed pistachios on some of the green shells.  For some reason the ones with sprinkled crushed pistachios all had cracked tops whilst those without were fine, yet they all came from the same batch of batter.  Strange?

Have a good Easter everyone!

Recipe below makes about 72 macarons, adapted from Pierre Hermé's "Macarons"

Raspberry jelly:

300g fresh raspberries

60g caster sugar

2 pcs gelatin leaves

Soak gelatin leaves in cold water.  Puree raspberries and sugar together, then strain to remove pips.  Heat puree to about 45C and add gelatin leaves, stiring to incorporate.  Pour into gratin dish lined with clingflim to a depth of about 4mm.  Leave to cool 1 hr in room temperature then in freezer for 2 hours. Cut jelly into 1.5cm squares and return to freezer while working on the rest of the macarons.

Macaron shells:
Green shells:
150g ground almonds
150g icing sugar
55g aged egg whites
1g yellow food colouring
2g green food colouring

Red shells:
150g ground almonds
150g icing sugar
55g aged egg whites
11g raspberry red food colouring

Italian meringue:
- 300g caster sugar
- 76g mineral water
- 110g aged egg whites
- 1.5 tsp egg white powder (added to second portion of egg whites.  PH doesn't use egg white powder in his recipes in the book but he recommends using egg whites that have been aged for at least a few days.  I tend to add egg white powder to my egg whites if I didn't have the chance to age them enough.  It helps to strengthen the protein bonds that form when you whisk the whites and gives the same effect as using aged egg whites.)

For the shells, sift together icing sugar & ground almonds in a large bowl. Stir respective food colouring into egg whites, then pour mixture into icing sugar & ground almonds but do not stir.

To make italian meringue, bring water & caster sugar to boil at 118C.  At 115C, start whisking second portion of egg whites (with egg white powder, if applicable).  When sugar syrup reaches 118C, pour it over egg whites, whisking continuously till meringue to cools to 50C.  Separate meringue into 2 equal batches and fold each batch separately into red and green/yellow ground almond-icing sugar mixture.  Spoon each batch of batter into separate piping bag fitted with plain nozzle.

Pipe rounds of batter about 3.5cm in diameter, spacing them 2cm apart on lined baking trays.  Rap baking trays on work surface covered with kitchen cloth. 

PH's instructions are to leave shells to stand for at least 30 minutes until they form a skin, then bake them in fan oven for 12 minutes at 180C.  From past experience this doesn't always work for me under Hong Kong's weather conditions, so instead I dry the piped batter for 15 minutes in the oven at 65C, then without removing the macarons, increase the temperature to 150C and bake for 14 to 15 minutes.  Either way, during the last 4 minutes of baking open and close the oven door twice to let out steam.  Once out of the oven, slide shells on to cooling rack and allow to cool completely before removing from silicon mat / parchment.

Pistachio ganache:
225g whipping cream
225g white chocolate
35g pistachios

Blend pistachios with whipping cream in electric food processer.  Melt chocolate.  Bring cream & pistachios to boil and pour it over the chocolate in batches.  Stir till smooth. Pour ganache into gratin dish and press clingfilm over the surface of ganache.  Set aside in fridge for ganache to thicken.

Assembly: 

Spoon ganache into piping bag fitted with plain nozzle.  Pipe a generous mould on either the red or green shells and lightly press a cube of raspberry jelly into the centre.  Pipe a dot of ganache on top then cover with another shell of different colour.  Store macarons for 24 hours in fridge and bring out 2 hours before serving.