Don’t let the name intimidate you. A galette is basically a flat pie without the tin. Swap the strawberries for any fruit (or a combination of fruits) that’s in season. Pretty easy and only takes a while to make, especially if you’re using frozen pastry. And I dub this “incredibly appropriate” to eat during the sweltering summer months, especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. 

Strawberry Galette (recipe from Martha Stewart) 

For the Shortcrust Pastry:

[ 2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the surface + 1 1/8 teaspoon salt + 1 teaspoon sugar + 8 oz (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces + 1/3 cup ice water ]

Pulse the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor to combine. Or you can do it old school and use your hands.

Add the butter and pulse until the mixture forms coarse crumb (If using hands, rub the pieces butter of into the flour). Add ice water and pulse until just combined (the dough will still be crumbly). 

Shape dough into a disk, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least one hour (or overnight).

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ gas Mark 4. 

On a floured surface, roll out the dough to a 1/4 inch thickness.

Cut out a 10-inch round and transfer to a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

For the galette:

[1 pound strawberries, hulled + 1/4 cup sugar + 1 tablespoon water + 2 teaspoons cornstarch ]

Cut the strawberries lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Reserve end pieces for another use.

Toss slices with 1/4 cup of sugar, water and the cornstarch.

Immediately arrange them in concentric circles on the dough. Start 1 inch from the edge, overlapping slices slightly.

Fold the edge of the dough over the fruit. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

To Finish Off: 

[1 large egg yolk + 2 tablespoon water + 1 tablespoon sugar + 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces]

Whisk together the egg yolk and water. Brush the dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Dot berries with the butter. Bake until the crust is golden brown – 40 to 45 minutes.

Now, you can either transfer this straightaway to a serving plate and serve warm with cream or ice cream 

or you can kick it up a notch by toasting some sliced almond and scattering it on top or just simply dusting some powdered sugar (or both!)

Enjoy!

I’m not going to lie. I’m in love with the photo above. I was so caught up in trying to replicate one of those eclair pictures; the one with the pristine shaped pastry, glossy chocolate glaze and fluffy white filling that I completely overlooked the one above until I was skimming through the 137 pictures and as luck would have it, my keyboard got semi-jammed at this particular one. Granted, it underwent a considerable amount of post-editing, but this picture will be one of my favourites for a very long time.

And as for the eclair itself, my train of thoughts went something like this;

The other night Karina told me she wanted to get a watch for her father’s birthday, to which I promptly suggested getting a Tag Heuer. I then went on to look up the price list of Tag Heuer watches and saw that two of them were priced at $19,700. We both laughed off the idea and wondered who would be pretentious enough to get such a watch (with pink gold, apparently)? Only one name came to my mind. Charles “Chuck” Bass; and then I chuckled to myself, remembering an episode where there was a scene where a waiter put a “RESERVED” sign next to a plate of eclairs for Mr. Bass. I was inspired.

Not exactly the most coherent, but that’s the unadulterated truth. 

Éclairs = [ Pâte à choux + Cream filling + Chocolate Glaze ]

Pâte à choux

[ 100g unsalted butter + 300ml water + 140g plain flour, sifted + 4 large eggs ]

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Grease 2 baking sheets.

Bring the water and butter to a boil in a pan. Tip in the flour and stir with a wooden spoon to form a ball of soft dough. Take off from the heat. Cool for 5 minutes.

Transfer into a mixing bowl and with a paddle attachment on, beat in the eggs into the dough one at a time, waiting until each egg becomes incorporated before adding another until a smooth glossy paste form.

Spoon into a piping bag with a 2cm plain or ridged tip. Pipe 8-10 eclairs to each baking sheet, making sure to leave plenty of space in between each. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes, swapping the sheets midway.

Set aside to cool on a cooling rack.

I decided to go with the classic filling of pastry cream instead of opting for whipped cream. You can just as easily switch the two, or mix one part pastry cream to one part whipped cream for a lighter pastry cream.

Pastry Cream:

[ 300ml milk or half-and-half + 3 large egg yolks + 50g sugar + 2 tablespoons cornflour + 2 tablespoons flour + 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean ]

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until a pale and creamy. Sift in the flour and cornflour and mix into the egg mixture.

Bring the milk and vanilla to a boil over low heat.

Temper the egg mixture by putting 1-2 ladles of milk into the egg mixture and whisking to prevent lumps from forming. Return the egg-milk mixture into the milk in the pan and whisk until thick. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Chocolate Glaze:

[ 100g dark chocolate + 2 tablespoon cream ]

Microwave the chocolate and cream on high for 1 minute and stir until all the chocolate is melted and the mixture turns glossy.

Assembly:

Spoon the cooled pastry cream into a piping bag with a plain tip.

Slit each eclairs half way or make a hole on both ends using the tip of a spoon.

Pipe in the filling.

Spoon the glaze over the eclair, or just dip the eclair into the chocolate glaze.

*OPTIONAL: sprinkle some crushed pistachio on top.

Enjoy!

I sat through a grueling midterm yesterday and was looking forward to sleep in on the weekend when I remembered that earlier during the week I agreed to take some food pictures for Graha. I had to make the puff pastry from scratch. At 10PM. He owes me big and he knows it. I’m thinking lunch at our usual Korean BBQ place will cover for this favour very nicely indeed. 

So angst aside, this is Jamie Oliver’s recipe for banana tarte tatin. You can always swap the bananas for any other fruits; stone fruits, strawberries, or go for the classic by using apples. If you have frozen puff pastry available then this recipe; the prep and cooking will take about 30 minutes. And it’s unbelievably good served warm with ice cream.

Banana Tarte Tatin:

Caramel & Banana:

[ 60g unsalted butter + 160g caster sugar + 1 teaspoon zest of orange + 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder + 4 bananas ]

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 
Cut your butter into cubes and put into a sturdy deep-sided baking tray approximately 19 x 30cm 

Place the tray on a low heat, let the butter melt, then add the sugar and stir constantly until completely combined

Continue to cook for about 5 minutes or until the sugar has all dissolved and the mixture is golden and caramelized. By the time this happens the mixture will be roasting hot so be very careful and whatever you do, DON’T be tempted to put your fingers in the mixture as you’ll give yourself a nasty burn

Meanwhile, peel the bananas, halve them lengthways, and lay them carefully on top of the golden caramel 

Remove from the heat, then sprinkle over the cinnamon and finely grate over the zest of half your orange

ASSEMBLY:

Dust a clean work surface and rolling pin with flour 

Roll out your puff pastry (homemade or store-bought) until you have a rectangle shape (or any other shape) about the same size as your tray and about 0.5cm thick.

Drape your pastry over your rolling pin and carefully lay it on the baking tray, gently tucking it around the bananas to make sure they’re well covered, with no gaps 

Using a knife or fork, prick the pastry a few times 

Place the tray at the top of the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden

Serve warm with some ice cream, crème fraîche or any other fluffy dairy product you like. I served mine with some whipped cream and honey with an extra pinch of cinnamon.

Enjoy!

After the Valentine’s dessert kerfuffle, I was left with about 4 sticks of butter that I know not where or when I got from. I thought long and hard as to what to do with them, and as a nod to the success of the puff pastry, I figured I should tackle the croissant. Here I’m making them as mini croissants, because the dough will only make 5 regular sized ones and, well,there’s just one too many calories if it’s that size.Just like the pretzel, the croissant has a history of its own:

“It’s the summer of 1683 and the city of Vienna is under seige. The Ottoman Empire has asked that the Hapsburg city to surrender, and the leaders have told the Turks to (and I’m paraphrasing here) “take a long leap off a short pier”. The siege of Vienna was under way.

 One of the many ideas that the Turks had to infiltrate the city was to dig tunnels beneath the city and their walls, set off explosions within the tunnels; which would in turn destroy said walls and allow the Turks to enter. It was a good idea, except for one variable that they could not have expected - a baker by the name of Peter Wender.

Mr. Wender was working in the basement of his bakery during the seige when he heard an unexplained sound coming from one of his walls. He alerted the city army and went to investigate and lo and behold, discovered the Turks and foiled their plan.

The baker, for his part, decided to advertise his part in preventing the invading army from…well…invading, and created a pastry in the shape of a crescent, which happened to be the symbol of the Ottoman empire.

After the Turks were ousted (with a fair amount of help from the Polish army), it became custom to serve morning coffee with Wender’s pastry. A tradition was born.

A century later, a Viennese princess by the name of Marie Antoinette married the French King Louis XVI. She insisted that the bakers in Paris learn how to make the treat. Over the years, the french bakers added butter and yeast to the mix, and the Croissant (meaning ‘crescent’) was born.”

This story is most likely to be untrue, but it’s a good story nonetheless. And as for the recipe, it was not documented until the year 1906.

Now, You know you can always run off to the nearest bakery after reading this post, but just incase you want to feel the unbridled joy making your own batch of freshly baked croissants, I’m posting up a recipe that I used. 

It takes time and patience to make. I watched Becoming Jane while waiting for the detempre to rise and then watched Super Juniors’ MVs in the time between the foldings. Highly scandalous, I know.

Pardon the slightly dark pictures because today was a rather gloomy day. I personally loved it because there’s nothing better than a cloudy, rainy Sunday to lazy around after a long week.

Detempre (dough):

[ 250g flour + 1 tbs yeast + 120ml water + 125g unsalted butter + 3 tbs sugar + 1tsp salt ]

Dissolve the yeast with a little bit of the water, set aside for 10 minutes until bubbles appear.

Put the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl.

Add in the water and yeast mixture. Knead until it forms an elastic ball. Leave to rise for at least 2 hours.

Preparing the butter:

Place the butter between two sheets of cling film and roll into a square using a rolling pin. Put inside the fridge while waiting for the dough to rise.

Once the dough has risen, punch out the air and roll into a rectangle. Get the butter out of the fridge and put it in the middle of the rectangle.

Wrap the dough around the butter and make a seal. By this time the dough will roughly be square shaped. Roll the dough into a rectangle again and fold into thirds, and fold it again like a book. This completes the first turn. Stick the dough into the fridge and wait 15-30 minutes.

Take the dough out and roll again into a rectangle and repeat the folding process. And then chill the dough again. This completes the second turn. Do this until you have done at least 4 turns.

Then chill the dough for another 2 hours or overnight before using.

To make croissants, roll the dough into a rectangle, divide by two, and cut scalene triangles out of the rectangle.

Take one triangle,and starting from the wide base, roll in tightly until you have the crescent shape.

Arrange on a baking tray lined with baking papers and cover with a cling film until the croissant rises and doubles in size.

Then brush with egg-wash (1 egg + 1 teaspoon milk or water) and put into a preheated oven for about 15 minutes at 150 degrees C.

Serve them with anything you like, from something sweet like jam or marmalade to splitting them into halves and stuffing it with ham, cheese and tomatoes.

Enjoy!