I am so excited that I had to sneak away from my “date weekend” with my honey (not really, he is out fixing my snowmobile he wrecked so we can go out tomorrow) to tell you about this great recipe idea me and my team in school came up with.  It is brilliantly good and I am very excited about it.

Now some of you may feel overwhelmed by the whole process but if you have time and a little ambition, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Here is the beauty of baking. I mixed this tart dough recipe to perfection but cooked it all wrong.  (We won’t go into that now.)  So when I pulled it out of the oven instead of having a beautiful tart shell I had a mess of crumb.  So I crumbled all of it up, put it on a sheet pan and returned it to the oven to dry them out further. 

The following are the recipes and procedures I used to make my “Ooops Parfait“!

Nut Tart Dough 

      20 oz. Flour, pastry, sifted
      10 oz. ground pistachio
      12 oz. Sugar, granulated
      1lb Butter, unsalted, COLD
      3.25 oz. Eggs
      ½ tsp. Vanilla extract

Procedure:
1. Grind nuts finely with a portion or all of the sugar and add to the flour in the mixing bowl. This helps to get the nuts finely ground.
2. Using the paddle attachment on low, add cubed up fat and add piece by piece to all of the combined dry ingredients.
3. When the mixture looks like it is just about to come together into a ball, add the eggs and vanilla very fast.
4. Mix on low until all the eggs are incorporated.
5. If the mixture seems too dry, add a little milk or water.
6. Set mixture aside.

 

On with the recipes.

Pastry Cream
      1/2 Qt. Milk, whole
      2 oz. Sugar, granulated
      1.25 oz. Cornstarch (or 2.25 oz. A.P. flour)
      2 oz. Sugar, granulated
      2 ea. Egg yolks
      1 ea. Eggs
      1 oz. Butter, unsalted
      1tsp Vanilla extract or 1/2 a bean

Procedure:
1. Heat milk with the first 4 oz. of sugar. ( put 1 whole vanilla bean cut in half and the inside scraped out into milk mixture)
2. Blend together the starch and second 4 oz. sugar. Then blend in the egg yolks and eggs.
3. Strain the milk to remove the vanilla bean
4. Pour the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture slowly while consistently stirring. Return mixture to pot and cook, consistently stirring, until cream is thick and it boils. It will get very thick. Cook for 30 seconds to one minute. Remove from heat into bowl on ice.
5. Stir pastry cream to cool slightly. Whisk butter into cream mixture and add vanilla (if using extract.
6. Pour into bowl (if using extract) and place plastic wrap or buttered parchment paper directly on the mixture to prevent skin.
7. Put in the refrigerator.

Next!

Whipped Cream
      1 pint heavy cream
      1 tsp vanilla

Procedure:
1. Whip until stiff peaks!

Now you want to fold your pastry cream and whipped cream together (called “Mousseline” -Moose – a- lean).

1. Carefully put enough pastry cream into the bottom of your parfait glass to fill it 1/8 the way up ( you can put it in a piping bag to make it nice a neat)!.
2. Next, add your crumble, making even layers of each ingredient.
3. Now add your crushed up raspberries
4. Repeat the layers until the glass is almost full.
5. To top it off you can put an upside down raspberry on top and drizzle a raspberry sauce over the top or just leave it plain. Completely up to you!

For a parfait, we know it is just a layered dessert! So, make it as many layers as you want. One layer of each ingredient or two or three of each. It all depends on your glass or what you want you end product to look like.

To really take it over the top though you can make a “Frangipane” the way I did and use it as a garnish! This would truly mean your ambition is such that you should be in culinary school yourself!

So, I asked myself while in class, what is Frangipane? Never seen it or tasted it. So my team and I decided to make the recipe and see what it looked like as a dough and then decide what to do with it! Turns out, it is a filling for tarts. Who knew? not me. It is much like a buttery, sugar thin dough. With this knowledge, I decided to spread a thin, thin, thin layer over a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake it crisp. I left it out over night and the next day it was perfectly crispy and WaHOOOO an over the top, awesome garnish in our “Oops Parfaits”. I peeled it off the parchment and broke it up into jagged garnish size pieces. Then stuck them into the top of the parfait. Right between the raspberries!

Just in case you want to try it:

Frangipane (a tart dough)
      4 oz. Almond paste
      4 oz. Sugar, granulated
      2 oz. Butter, unsalted and/or shortening
      1oz. Flour, pastry or cake
      1 oz. Eggs

Procedure:
1. With the paddle attachment, mix almond paste and sugar at low speed until evenly mixed. Be careful not to mix too much air into product.
2. Mix in fat and flour until smooth.
3. Mix in eggs, a little at a time, until smooth.
4. Line a cookie sheet with parchment and spread a thin, thin, thin almost see through layer over the parchment.
5. Bake at 450 until light to golden brown. Just not burned!!

DISCLAIMER: I hope you know that none of the above pictures are taken by me.  I do not posses the skills to remember to take pictures and bake at the same time.  So, I have used other people’s skills in that area to illistrate my techniques and product.

I wanted to share with you a special dessert recipe I found today.  It is so awesome and heartwarming
I had to let you all know about it.

 APPLE TART
from the JoyofBaking.com by Stephanie Jaworski

CRUST:
      1 cup all-purpose flour
      1/3 cup confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar
      1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

FILLING:
      One 8-ounce cream cheese, at room temperature
      1/4 cup granulated white sugar
      1 large egg
      1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

TOPPING:
      1/4 cup granulated white sugar
      1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
      4 cups Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices (about 3-4 large apples)
      1/3 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F  and place rack in center of oven. Grease (or spray with Pam) a 9 inch springform pan.

CRUST: In the bowl of your food processor place the flour and sugar. Pulse to blend together. Add butter and pulse until dough just begins to come together. Pat the dough onto the bottom and one inch up the sides of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator while you make the filling.

FILLING: In a food processor process the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and mix well. Blend in the egg and vanilla extract and process until smooth. Remove the crust from the fridge and pour in the filling. Return to refrigerator while you prepare the topping.

TOPPING: Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Toss the sliced apples in the sugar mixture. Spoon the apples evenly over the cream cheese layer and sprinkle with almonds. Place the springform pan on a larger baking sheet to catch the drips.

Bake at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 400 degrees F and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown (apples are soft when pierced with a fork), and filling is almost set. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar and serve at room temperature. Leftovers can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated.

Started school yesterday for my third quarter.  I honestly cannot believe it has been 8 months since I started this journey and it feels as though it was yesterday.  What an exciting time to be alive, I feel.  When I am on vacation from school I find my mind wanting for a good challenge that I get in school.  Not always do I look at it in a positive way but I still yearn to learn!