Choco Pudding Strawberry Cake チョコプリンと苺ケーキ

The strawberry season is over, I know, but anyway - this cake is great!

For a 24 cm quiche tin

cake base

• 100 grams of dark chocolate (with at least 70% cocoa solids), finely chopped
• 3 eggs
• 15 grams vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• Pinch of salt
• 100 grams flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees. Separate egg yolks and egg whites.

Beat the egg whites with 2 tbsp of ice cold water and a pinch of salt until it reaches a firm peak stage, gradually adding the vanilla sugar to it while beating (or, if you use vanilla bean paste, you can add it to the egg whites before you start beating them). Gently fold the egg yolks into the whipped egg whites.

Mix flour and baking powder and sieve them (!). Fold the sieved flour into the batter in 3 steps.

Grease a quiche tin with butter and sprinkle it with bread crumbs. Transfer your batter to the quiche tin and spread it evenly with a spatula. Bake in the oven for 15 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely while making the chocolate custard cream.

chocolate custard cream

• 125 ml whole milk (full fat)
• 1 ½ egg yolk
• 13 grams flour
• 1 tbsp sugar (if you use soy milk, then skip it!)
• ½ vanilla pod
• 70 to 100 grams chocolate with 60 to 70% cocoa solids (depends on how rich you want the chocolate flavour to be), finely chopped

Pour milk into a pot, deseed your vanilla pod and add them with the vanilla pod to the milk. Heat the vanilla-milk until it almost reaches the fever pitch, then remove from heat. Mix egg yolks, sugar and flour (sieved!) together until smooth. Using a whisk, pour the milk gradually into the egg-mixture, stirring all the time.

Pass the mixture through a sieve back into the pot. Heat the pot again, stirring all the time until it thickens. Remove from heat. Stir in the chopped chocolate until completely dissolved (shouldn’t take long time).

Leave to cool slightly, then spread it evenly over your cake base. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

glazed strawberries

• Approx. 800 grams strawberries
• 250 ml strawberry juice, sieved
• 3 grams leaf gelatine, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes

Heat the strawberry juice over a low heat, but do not cook! Then stir in the gelatine until dissolved. Now leave to cool slightly, but not too long or it will get firm.

Slice each strawberry into 4 halves, dip them into the glaze and then arrange the strawberries the way you like. :D If you don’t like my way, just browse the internet for some inspiration!

Strawberry-Blueberry-Tarte

This is the first recipe for a tarte that I ever used. I baked the tarte at a friend's apartment that I took care of while she was gone on holiday. I ate it with some vanilla ice cream and it was so good! 

I found the recipe on JamieOliver.com. It was posted by lovely Allora Andiamo years ago and now I can't find it anymore on the website, but I saved it back then, fortunately. 

I just love this tarte. It looks so beautiful with the almond slivers like fallen petals on it, plus it's very delicious and full of summer! Give it a try - you won't regret it! ♡

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• 300g plain flour 
• 140g cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 egg yolk 
• Pinch of salt 
• 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste
• Some ice cold water, approx. 5-6 tbsps (see instructions)

For the Filling:

• 350g fresh blueberries
• 200g fresh strawberries, sliced into 1/4's
• approx. 1 heaped tsp of finely grated orange zest
• seeds of 1 small vanilla pod 

To finish:

• 1 small egg
• approx. 2 tbsps of almond slivers for sprinkling 

Method

Pastry:

Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the cold butter and salt.Rub the mixture between your fingers till it resembles breadcrumbs then add the vanilla sugar and the egg yolk. Start adding the water, a little bit at a time, and knead the mixture very gently till the pastry binds together and the edges of the bowl are clean. Don't overmix the pastry otherwise it willll turn out tough once baked. Wrap in some clingfilm and place in the fridge for approx. 30 mins before rolling.

Preheat oven to 180C and grease a 20cm tart tin with a little bit of butter. 

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface, approx. 4-5mm thick. Lay the pastry in your tart tin and trim to size, reserving the left over pastry. Prick it with a fork, line with parchment paper and pour your baking beans over it. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, remove from the oven and remove baking beans and parchment paper. Allow to cool.

Filling:

In a medium sized bowl, combine the fruits, sugar, orange zest and vanilla then pour into the case.Re-roll leftover pastry and cut into 1.5cm strips. To make a simple lattice topping, place some strips running in one direction (vertically) and top them with the rest of the strips (horizontally). Whisk the egg and brush the pastry with the mixture. Sprinkle with the almond slivers.Bake at 180 degrees for approx. 35-40 mins, until golden. Leave to cool.

Serve with some vanilla ice cream! :D

Lemon Tarte with Meringue

Lemon tarte with meringue is my no. 1! But it was not love at first sight. I mean, come on.. lemons! They are tasty, of course, but sour. And I’ve got a sweet tooth, definitely! I was sure we would never make a good match.
But then fate took its course. My relationship with lemon tartes started some years ago, when I entered a coffee house in Vienna and desperately wanted to eat cake. I did not have much money with me, so I had to take what I could afford and that was one cup of coffee and a piece of lemon tarte. You can imagine the rest.
Lemon tarte is not cheap when shop-bought, so I thought why not making my own. I was pretty nervous because of the grilled meringue, but it turned out so well and I could eat so much of it without spending much money. Besides, baking the tarte fills the whole flat with a sweet lemon aroma. Nice side-effect!

Here’s my recipe for a home-made version. I never add too much sugar to my sweets, so if you want it sweeter, then feel free to alter the recipe the way you like it. You just need to add more sugar to the pastry and the lemon filling.

Sweet shortcrust pastry

• 125 grams of butter at room temperature 
• 70 grams caster sugar, sieved 
• 50 grams ground almonds 
• 250 grams flour, sieved 
• 1 egg (50 grams) at room temperature

Beat butter, sugar and ground almonds and gradually add the sieved flour until well combined. Add the egg and knead until well combined (if the dough is too firm, add some splashes of water). Form the dough into a ball and refrigerate for about 1 hour (or until needed).

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out. Lay your tarte tin with it, prick it with a fork, line with parchment paper and pour your baking beans over it. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, remove from the oven and remove baking beans and parchment paper.

Lemon filling

• 3 lemons
• 100 grams of butter at room temperature 
• 1-2 tbsp honey
• 15 grams of corn starch
• 3 eggs at room temperature

Zest one of your lemons and squeeze the juice of all 3 lemons. Melt butter and honey in a saucepan on a low heat, then add the lemon zest and juice to it and let it cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat.

Whisk the 3 eggs with the corn starch and add to the butter-lemon-mixture. Mix well until smooth.

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees. Spread the lemon-mixture over the baked tarte and bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Meringue

• 25 grams of caster sugar (or icing sugar), sieved
• 3 egg whites

Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then start to add the sugar gradually. Whisk until stiff.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (grill option).
Fill a piping bag with the meringue and pipe big dots on the surface of the tarte, so that they cover the surface of the tarte completely. Grill in the oven for about 1-2 minutes (or longer) until slightly coloured.

Blueberry Tarte

Last weekend was not good. It simply wasn’t a real weekend. I had classes on Saturday and had to wake up at 7 am. After classes I had to finish a presentation. Then, on Sunday, I revised the presentation. Weekend over.
 

I got in the mood to watch the movie My Blueberry Nights in the evening on Saturday, that we had bought some time before. It’s a quiet movie, starring Norah Jones (Elizabeth) and Jude Law (Jeremy). Further two of my most favourite actresses: Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman. I enjoyed the movie. 

Inspired by Elizabeth eating blueberry pie, I wanted to bake one myself. I love blueberry pie so much and couldn’t understand why only a few people ordered it at Jeremy’s shop. Jeremy explains it this way:

"From my observations, sometimes it's better off not knowing, and other times there's no reason to be found. […] Hmm. It's like these pies and cakes. At the end of every night, the cheese cake and the apple pie are always completely gone. The peach cobbler and the chocolate mousse cake are nearly finished... but there's always a whole blueberry pie left untouched. […] There's nothing wrong with the blueberry pie. Just... people make other choices. You can't blame the blueberry pie, just... no one wants it." (© My Blueberry Nights)

I wanted blueberry pie! Desperately.
But eating it with vanilla ice cream at this time of the year, well… not good, I thought. So I did an alternative.
And my pie turned into a tarte. Why do tartes always look so beautiful?
 

For a 18cm tarte tin
 

base

• 300 grams flour
• Pinch of salt
• 140 grams cold butter
• 1 TL Vanilla Bean Paste (or seeds of a half vanilla pod)
• 1 egg yolk
• 6-7 tbsp cold water 

Divide egg yolk and egg white (you can freeze egg whites for later).
Put a bowl on a scale so that you can measure everything right away. Sieve the flour into the bowl, add a pinch of salt and cut your cold butter in cubes into the flour-salt-mixture. Add I tsp vanilla bean paste and start to knead (you can put your hands under running cold water before you start, if you want). When the mixture resembles bread crumbs, add the egg yolk and knead ahead. Gradually add the cold water, until all the flour is incorporated into the dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out. Lay your tarte tin with it, prick it with a fork, line with parchment paper and pour your baking beans over it. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, then remove baking beans and parchment paper and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
You can roll your pastry as thick/thin as you wish. I like the base not too thin, but others don’t, so work it they way you like it.
 

pudding or custard cream カスタードクリーム

• 125 ml whole milk (or soy milk)
• 1 ½ egg yolk
• 13 grams flour
• 1 tbsp sugar (if you use soy milk, then skip it!)
• ½ vanilla pod 

Pour milk into a pot, deseed your vanilla pod and add them with the vanilla pod to the milk. Heat the vanilla-milk until it almost reaches the fever pitch, then remove from heat. Mix egg yolks, sugar and flour (sieved!) together until smooth. Using a whisk, pour the milk gradually into the egg-mixture, stirring all the time.
Pass the mixture through a sieve back into the pot. Heat the pot again, stirring all the time until it thickens. Remove from heat and leave to cool slightly.
Spread your pudding over your tarte base.
 

blueberry top

• approx. 380 grams blueberries (save a small handful for decoration!)
• approx. 1/8 l water
• zest and juice of a small lemon
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour (I always use the japanese katakuriko 片栗粉)

Put half of the blueberries with the water in a pod and bring to boil. Leave to boil for about 4 minutes. Add sugar, lemon zest and juice and reduce the heat. Dissolve the cornflour with a little water and mix it into the blueberries. Cook until it thickens stirring regularly.
Spread the blueberry-marmalade over your pudding and the uncooked blueberries over it, pushing them slightly into the marmalade.
Leave to cool overnight. I decorated my tart with some further lemon zest.

Jeremy: "When I was little me mum used to take me to the park on weekends... 

She said if I ever got lost I had to stay in one place so that she'd find me."
Elizabeth: "Does that work?"
Jeremy: "Not really, She got lost once looking for me." (© My Blueberry Nights)

"A few years ago, I had a dream. It began in the summer and was over by the following spring. In between, there were as many unhappy nights as there were happy days. Most of them took place in this cafe. And then one night, a door slammed and the dream was over." (© My Blueberry Nights)

Have you ever been inspired by a movie to cook or bake something? If yes, what was it and by what movie? I’d like to hear some experiences. (^^)