You might remember those meringue kisses with poppy seed, that I actually planned to include in a dessert during the holidays. Well, I didn't make anything that would have gone well with the meringue, tough I found out that meringue and ice cream are really great together. Okay, I knew that before, but I simply didn't want to confess, because meringue is really not mine, unless it comes to ice cream. Anyway, I used plenty of lemon zest lately, and as it was impossible to drink such a huge amount of lemonade so I made lemon curd. The only problem is that in my family noone likes lemon curd, therefore I always need some little tricks to make them eat it. So this dessert contains pretty much of recycled food and I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. To add an extra kick I infused the mascarpone mousse with lemon thyme, but thyme or basil would work just great too!
Ingredients:
for the lemon curd:
juice and zest of 3 lemons
4 egg yolks
200 g sugar
200 g butter
for the mascarpone mousse:
250 g mascarpone
2 egg yolks
70 g sugar
70 g water
200 ml cream
7-8 twigs lemon thyme
For the lemon curd bring water to the boil. In a heatproof bowl mix together the lemon juice, zest, sugar and butter and put it over the water bath. As soon as the butter and sugar is molten whisk in the egg yolks and whisk until the mixture is pale and thick. Pour into jars and chill for a couple of hours or even over night.
For the mousse bring sugar with water and half of the lemon thyme to the boil. When the sugar is molten remove from the heat add the rest of the lemon thyme and let it infuse until the syrup is cold. Depending on the intensity of the herb you might need more or less of it. Over a water bath whisk egg yolks with the syrup until thick and pale. Whisk the beaten egg yolk mixture with the mascarpone and fold in the beaten cream.
Put some lemon curd onto the bottom of a glass, top with the mascarpone mousse and chill for at least 3 hours. Sprinkle meringue on top before serving.
Somehow I have the feeling, that until Christmas I won't have time for the blog, but I hope to be back shortly after, if not on the blog, for sure you'll find me here. The reason is pretty simple: there are still a lot of things that need to be organised. The plan is to bake some cookies on Friday, then on Saturday I am going to get all the ingredients I need for the menu, that is still haven't been planned... Not to mention that the traditional beigli is also have to be baked, but that is gonna be done on Sunday. Only snow is missing! So therefore I baked these tiny meringue kisses, that remind me in some way of snow. Altough, I am not big fan of meringue, but I know already now, that these are going to be great on one or the other dessert during the holidays. Merry Christmas to everyone!
Ingredients:
60 g egg whites
60 g sugar
50 g icing sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
Preheat the oven to 100°C. Beat egg white with a pinch of sugar until half stiff, then keep on beating and while that add sugar in small portions. Once the egg white is stiff fold in the icing sugar, cornstarch and poppy seeds. Pipe meringue in any shape you like onto a baking paper covered sheet and bake for 1-2 hours depending on the size you have choosen. Once ready, turn off the oven and leave the meringue kisses to cool down inside it.
These tartelettes are the smallest I have ever baked! Only 5 cm diameter, but the taste rocks! First you are simply surprised that that white mousse actually tastes like coffee, then from behind a light touch of anise is exploding on your tounge. It is really important to be careful with the amount of anise, because in this case it is more than true: less is more! Dare to try this combination because anise goes perfectly well with both the coffee and the dark chocolate. For me it was love at first bite! The missing excitement comes with he cocoa bean meringue on top of the tartelettes.
Ingredients:
for the pastry:
125 g flour
50 g butter, softened
50 g icing sugar
1 egg
1 pinch of salt
for the white chocolate-coffee mousse:
100 g white chocolate
50 ml cream
1 tablespoon coffee beans
25 g sugar
25 g water
1 egg yolk
1 sheet gelatine
100 ml cream
for the anise-dark chocolate ganache:
75 g room temperature butter
80 g chocolate (70% cocoa)
55 ml milk
1/4 teaspoon anise
for the meringue:
30 g egg white (about 1 egg)
30 g sugar
25 g icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
pinch of ground anise
crushed cocoa bean
Makes 4 tartelettes shells á 10 cm, but for these you have to double (or even triple) the amount of the mousse. The ganache and the meringue should be enough.
For
the pastry sieve flour and icing sugar and make a mold into the middle.
Add diced butter and salt and crumble butter with flour. As soon as it
well crumbled add the egg and knead a smooth dough. Chill for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 200°C Roll out pastry about 2-3 mm thick and place
them into the tartelettes rings and blind bake for 7-11 minutes, then
cool on a wrack.
For the coffee mousse bring 50 ml of cream together with the coffee beans to the boil, then let it stand for 15 minutes. In the meantime melt white chocolate over steam, then add sieved cream and mix until smooth. Bring sugar with water to the boil, then let cool. In a water bath whisk together the egg yolk and the syrup and whisk until thick and creamy. Stir in the previously soaked gelatine, then fold it into the chocolate mixture. Finally fold in the beaten cream and chill in a piping bag.
Cream
butter with a help of a fork and set aside. Chop chocolate and bring
the milk together with the anise to the boil. Pour hot milk through a sieve over the chopped chocolate, then stir until smooth. Finally stir in butter with a help of a wooden spoon.
Beat egg white with a pinch of salt until half stiffm then add sugar gradually and beat until stiff. Fold in icing sugar and cornstarch. Pipe meringue in any shap you like onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with crushed cocoa bean. Bake over 90°C depending on the size and thickness for 90-120 minutes.
For years I have been postponing every recipe with a meringue topping. Why? Maybe because I am not so much a fan of meringue, for example I also do not like floating island, of course the custard is yummy, but the egg white part? Brrr...not for me! And there is the famous lemon meringue pie that was on my list for years and still haven't baked it. But then I saw Vera's amazing pie with strawberry and tonka bean and finally that made me to try a pie with meringue. Why is my meringue so purple? Well, the answer you'll find in the recipe.
Ingredients:
100 g rhubarb
50 g strawberry
1 tablespoon elderberry syrup
1 evőkanál cukor
for the pie:
80 g butter
2 eggs
40 g sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
100 g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
125 g yoghurt
for the meringue:
120 g sugar
30 ml water1 tablespoon elderberry syrup
1 teaspoons beetroot powder
Wash and if needed peel rhubarb and cut in about 2 cm pieces, then marinate with sugar and elderberry syrup. For the pie cream butter with sugar, then whisk in the egg yolks, flour, baking powder and the yoghurt. Whisk until you have a smooth batter. Butter a 18 cm round baking form and flatten the batter into it. Sieve rhubarb and together with the diced strawberry put on top of the cake batter. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes on 170°C. For the meringue bring sugar with water to the boil and as soon as it has reached 110°C start beating the egg whites until it is half stiff. When the syrup has reached 121°C remove from the heat and when it stops bubbeling add in a thin strain to the halfly beaten egg white while beating continously. Beat until it forms stiff peaks. Now beat in the syrup and the beetroot powder. Remove the side of the cake form and put meringue on top of the pie, bake for another 5-7 minutes or until it browns here and there a little.
Huh, that was a long day! I can hardly get my thoughts together, but I did not want to wait until tomorrow to share this tiny treat with you. It reminds me of an old fashioned hat, I can't explain it, but that is what I had to think about all the time, while taking the photos. I was once again so stupid! I had the idea of this poppy mousse already about three years ago, but I did not dare to go for it! Yeah, once more! But today, while checking out my notes, I found it again, and I felt like if not now, then I will probably never try to make it. I was so nervous! Originally, I planned to take my mom's delicious poppy pie and turn it into a parfait, but never done. As time passed by, the parfait turned into mousse and finally it is here. Poppy and lemon are inseparable in my eyes, though orange is also great, but it will never be the same like with lemon. So I decided to add a layer of blood orange and lemon based on the beet tart from earlier. I do not even know how to call it, after all it. It is like a curd, but I am not sure if that's the proper name for it. It is actually like a silky pudding and just perfect with the poppy mousse. The base is a joconde and its colour comes from beet, just like the meringue, but you do not taste it. However, coffee is also there in the background in form of a ganache, but it stays there!
Ingredients:
makes 5 8 cm round cakes
50 g ground almond
50 g powder sugar
30 g egg yolks
30 g egg whites
10 g beetroot juice
50 g flour
100 g egg whites
60 g sugar
Mix together the almond with powder sugar, add 30 g egg yolk and 30 g egg white and whisk until fluffy. Whisk in the beet juice and keep on whisking for about 5 minutes. Stir in flour, while that beat 100 g egg white with sugar until it forms soft peaks and fold it into the almond mixture. Bake for 5-6 minutes over 230°C.
100 ml blood orange juice
25 ml lemon juice
120 g sugar
150 ml cream
3 eggs
1/2 egg yolk
Preheat the oven to 120ºC. Put the ingredients of the filling into a heatproof bowl, mix it together and leave it over a bain marie until it reaches 60ºC. Now pour it over a sieve, remove any bubbles and pour it into silicon form. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until it has reached 70ºC in a water bath. Let it cool and chill, and before assembling the cakes freeze it for 30 minutes.
100 g poppy seed
100 ml milk
3 tablespoon vanilla sugar
zest of a lemon
4 egg yolks
120 ml simple syrup
150 ml cream
4 sheets gelatine
Ground poppy seed, add vanilla sugar and cook it in the milk over low heat until it has absorbed. Stir in freshly grated lemon zest. Stir in the previously soaked gelatine and set aside. Beat egg yolks over steam with the simply syrup until fluffly and thick, then remove it from the heat and keep on beating until cool. Fold it into the poppy mixture, then fold in beaten cream.
50 g egg whites
50 g sugar
50 g powder sugar
10 g beet juice
Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt, then add sugar gradually and beat it into stiff peaks. Fold in powder sugar and beat juice. Pipe it onto a baking sheet and dry over 100°C for 30-45 minutes.
