HAPPY FIRST BLOGIVERSARY and some beautiful STRAWBERRY-TARTELETTES WITH CRÈME PATISSIÈRE

Strawberry-Tartelette with Crème Patissière

I can hardly believe that it’s only a year ago when I started blogging and sharing my recipes with you. But that’s how it is. Today’s my first ‘Blogiversary”! To celebrate the occasion I’ll share with you some wonderfully simple Strawberry Tartelettes. They’re as beautiful as a flower on a summer lawn…and absolutely delicious. Furthermore, they include two of my favourite (baking) things: berries and a piping bag ❤ 😉

But before I show you my recipe, I would love to know, what your favourite ‘Betty The Baking Princess-recipe’ is? Feel free to comment below – I am looking forward to it!

Best wishes and THANK YOU for following me,
Bettina.

_________________________________

Strawberry-Tartelettes with Crème Patissière

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Baking time: 18 minutes

Ingredients for 4 tartelettes:

Sponge: ­       2 eggs ­       80g sugar ­       1 tbsp. vanilla sugar ­       1 pinch of salt ­       2 tbsp. warm water ­       zest of  ½ lemon ­       60g flour ­       10g cornflour

Filling:­ 3 egg yolks ­       50g sugar ­       10g flour ­       250ml milk ­       ½ vanilla bean ­       1 tsp. Grand Marnier   Decoration: ­       about 500g nice, fresh strawberries ­       almond flakes ­       confectioners‘ sugar

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C and grease your four tartelettes forms well. Sprinkle them with flour afterwards.
2. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Put the egg yolks into a large bowl and put the egg whites into a medium sized bowl.
3. Add sugar, one pinch of salt and warm water to the egg yolks. Whisk until light and fluffy. Add zest of 1/2 lemon. Set aside.
4. Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and whisk with an electric whisk until stiff. Put the whipped egg whites on top of the egg yolk-mixture.
5. Sift the flour and cornflour on top. Gently fold in and combine, trying to keep the volume.
6. Pour the mixture equally into the four prepared tartelettes forms and smooth the surface
7. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 18 minutes or until the top is golden brown, you can also check whether they are done using a needle.
8. For the filling, put the milk into a pot. Add vanilla, vanilla bean and Grand Marnier. Bring to the boil, then take it off the stove and let it rest for a few minutes before removing the vanilla bean.
9. Whisk egg yolks and sugar thoroughly. Add flour and corn starch. Add the egg-mixture to the milk mixture and heat it again while stirring. When the crème has thickened, take it off the stove, cover it with cling film and put it into the fridge.
10. While the crème patissière has to cool down, wash and cut the strawberries. You can either use the whole (when they’re small) or cut “rings”. Both ways can create beautiful patterns on your tartelettes.
11. Remove the „lid“ of the now cooled tartelettes and pipe the cooled crème on to them. Decorate with strawberries, (roasted) almond flakes and confectioner’s sugar.

_________________________________

To get a printed version: Download the pdf. (Both English and German versions available!)

Strawberry-Tartelettes with Crème Patissière

Erdbeer-Tarteletten mit Crème Patissière

Advertisements

Neville’s Vanilla-Meringues

‘What about you, Neville?’ said Ron. ‘Well, my gran brought me up and she’s a witch,’ said Neville, ‘but the family thought I was all Muggle for ages. My great-uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me – he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned – but nothing happened until I was eight. Great-uncle Algie came round for tea and he was banging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my great-auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced – all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased. Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here – they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great-uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad.’ – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, p. 93.

Even though the risk of being accidentally dropped out of the window by your great-uncle due to a meringue seems very limited in our world, many bakers are still afraid of them. Some people chuck their left-over egg-whites away because they think that they couldn’t bake the meringues anyway.

And indeed, they can be tricky if you’re baking them on a very humid day or using a recipe which doesn’t work well. I was always very lucky with my meringues, though. This is, of course, thanks to this recipe I’m sharing with you today. To proove how easy it is, here a picture of my very first meringues (over a year ago):Not bad for a first try, don’t you think? The recipe I’m suggesting uses a bain-marie to heat up the egg-whites-sugar-mixture before baking. I’ve tried another recipe once, but that recipe didn’t work for me at that time.

With this one, however, I didn’t have a single batch of meringues that was damp or lumpy, they were always wonderfully light and crisp, though still nicely soft inside. A last important advice concerns the storing: I suggest an air-tight box, in which you can keep them without problems for a week or more – if they aren’t eaten beforehand… 😉

_________________________________

Neville‘s Vanilla-Meringues

Preparation time: 20 min
Baking time: 50-60 min
Yield: 30-50 meringues (depending on how big you pipe them)

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 215 g sugar
• ½-1 tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ TL fresh lemon juice
• if you like: sugar pearls to decorate

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 130°C.
2. Put egg whites, sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice into a heat-resistant bowl. Prepare a bain-marie: put the bowl onto the pot with boiling water.
3. Whisk with the electric whisk until the mixture has reached a temperature of about 55-60°C (use a candy thermometer).
4. Take the bowl out of the bain-marie and continue to whisk until the mixture has cooled down to room temperature again. (It should now be very thick and easy to form.)
5. Put the mixture into a piping bag and, using a nozzle of your choice, pit meringues onto a baking sheet (covered with baking parchment). If you like, decorate the meringues with sugar pearls. Bake in the oven at 130°C for 50-60 minutes. (If you wish to pipe very small or big meringues, you’ll have to adapt the baking time accordingly.)
6. Take them out of the oven and wait until the meringues have cooled down completely. Then, store them in an airtight container.

_________________________________

To get a printed version: Download the pdf. (Both English and German versions available!)

Neville’s Vanilla-Meringues

Nevilles Vanille-Meringues

Sweet Choux-Pastry Rabbits

To top off my Easter-Baking series I’ve got the cutest rabbits ever ready for you! Sweet in both appearance and taste they are my favourite Easter treat.

Baking them took quite a bit of time and effort, but it was SO much fun! =) The decorating, too, was very enjoyable as I wasn’t following strict instructions, but rather creating my own rabbits based on some I had seen on http://cuisine-addict.com/.And the best thing out my rabbits is yet to come: they taste absolutely FABULOUS!! I’m sure you, too, know the feeling of disappointment when you eat a very beautiful treat whose taste can’t match its visual brilliance. Not here! Every part of the rabbits is delicious…from the crisp choux-pastry over to the sumptuous chocolate ganache and the creamy vanilla filling up to the chocolatey earss – pure relish!So, don’t hestitate and let these sweet little cuties be your Easter bunnies, too! ❤

_________________________________

Sweet Choux-Pastry Rabbits

Yield: 6 rabbits
Preparation time: 1.5h
Total time: 2h

Ingredients:

tools: ­       piping bag ­       1cm round nozzle ­       small brush   for the choux-pastry: ­       0.75dl water ­       0.75dl milk ­       60g butter ­       1 pinch of salt ­       3 tbsp. sugar ­       100g flour ­       2 eggs (lightly beaten) ­       ½ vanilla bean

for the filling: ­       3 egg yolks ­       50g sugar ­       10g flour ­       10g corn starch ­       2.5dl milk ­       ½ vanilla bean ­       1 tbsp. Grand Marnier for the decoration: ­       100g dark chocolate ­       30g butter ­       3-4 tbsp. confectioners‘ sugar ­       white marzipan/fondant ­       pink marzipan/fondant ­       a bit of confectioners‘ sugar

Ingredients:

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C.
2. Put water, butter, salt and sugar in a medium pot and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat.
3. Add all the (sieved) flour at a time and stir 1-2 minutes until a soft dumpling forms which doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot anymore
4. Take the pot away from the stove and let it rest shortly.
5. Add the eggs one at a time and stir them into the dough. Make sure the dough gets soft but doesn’t dissolve.
6. Put the dough into a piping bag with a round nozzle. Pipe 6 big and 6 small heaps onto a baking sheet (covered with baking parchment).
7. Bake for about 30 minutes in the middle of the preheated oven. Be careful: Don’t open the oven during these 30 minutes!
8. While the profiteroles are in the oven, prepare the filling: Put the milk into a pot. Add vanilla, vanilla bean and Grand Marnier. Bring to the boil, then take it off the stove and let it rest for a few minutes before removing the vanilla bean.
9. Whisk egg yolks and sugar thoroughly. Add flour and corn starch. Add the egg-mixture to the milk mixture and heat it again while stirring. When the crème has thickened, take it off the stove, cover it with cling film and put it into the fridge.
10. When the 30 minutes are over, switch off the oven and let the profiteroles dry in the slightly opened oven for about 10-15 minutes.
11. Take the profiteroles out of the oven and let them cool down completely on a cooling rack.
12. Put the crème pâtisserie into the piping bag and pipe a portion into each profiterole.
13. Make the chocolate ganache: Melt 100g dark chocolate and 30g of butter over a bain-marie. Add 3-4 tbsp. of confectioners‘ sugar (sieved).
14. Pipe a circle of chocolate ganache on each belly and head of the rabbits. Put the head onto the belly.
15. Form the eyes out of the marzipan. Decorate them with the chocolate ganache using a small brush. Use the pink marzipan to create the nose. (You can put a bit of confectioners‘ sugar onto your hands when forming the marzipan.)
16. Melt the chocolate couverture and pipe dots onto a baking parchment. Form the ears using a small spoon. Cool them for 5 minutes in the fridge, then make small cuts into the rabbits‘ heads and put the ears into these cuts. Store them cooled until you serve them and enjoy!(recipe of the profiteroles adapted from „Luftig-leichter Brandteig“ by Luise Lilienthal; decoration inspired by http://cuisine-addict.com/)

_________________________________

To get a printed version: Download the pdf.
(Both English and German versions available!)

Sweet Choux-Pastry-Rabbits

Süsse Brandteig-Häschen