Epiphany galette

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Here is the recipe for the very classic but delicious "galette des rois" (Epiphany galette) in puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) with almond cream or frangipane . You will also see some professional tips to easily handle the dough, and obtain a nice and regular galette.

How to roll out pastry for a tart

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Rolling out pastry from a block and lining a tart mould or tin is not as straighforward as all that. To help you to succeed every time, here is a very simple tip. It will to change your opinion of tarts...

How to use a forcing bag (piping or icing bag)

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The forcing bag is the tool needed whenever you need to deposit a blob of something precisely in a particular place (in a mould, a glass, on a plate, etc). Here is how you do it.

How to beat egg whites

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Beat egg whites is very common in cooking and pastry, here are some tips to get there easily.

How to add beaten eggs whites to a mixture

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It is common in cooking or pastry, having beaten whites mix preparation to another without making them completely fall, here are some tips to help you to.

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée)

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Puff pastry is an incredible assembly of thin layers of butter enclosed in thin layers of dough. After cooking this give a succession of thin crisp pastry leaves that produce exceptional desserts or pies. It's a jewel of French patisserie. Making your own puff pastry is not very difficult, it's just a little work with a good recipe (like this one!). This recipe is for quick puff pastry ("feuilletage rapide") perfect for beginners.

How to keep a tart pastry case crisp

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The problem with tarts, and fruit tarts in particular, is that the filling (fruit, cream or whatever) ends up soaking into the pastry and turns it soft. Here is a professional tip for avoiding this problem: spread a thin layer of white chocolate, which does not have a strong flavour, in the bottom of the tart. This seals the pastry and it will stay crisp. French pastry chef have a verb for that, it's "chablonner".

Beef Wellington

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Beef Wellington consists of a beef fillet (or tenderloin) that is first seared, then cooked in the oven in a puff pastry crust stuffed with a mushroom duxelles and morsels of foie gras. The recipe is rather long, but fairly straightfoward. Here I show you all the tips to help you make it sucessfully yourself.

Gâteau Basque

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This traditional Basque dessert is similar to a gâteau breton (brittany butter cake), but very moist as it is filled with a rum-flavoured confectioner's custard (crème pâtissière, or french pastry cream). This is a fairly simple recipe, though as the dough is fragile and difficult to handle, I offer a...

Linzer torte

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Linzer torte, or tart from Linz (Austria), has a cinnamon-flavoured crust filled with raspberry jam. The special and rather crumbly sweet pastry used for the case is made with cinnamon, ground almonds and the yolks of hard-boiled eggs. There are many different versions. In this rather unusual one, inspired by Gaston Lenôtre, the raspberry jam is mixed with a little tart (in the other sense!) stewed apple.

Yeast-based flaky dough (for croissants)

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This yeast-based flaky dough (or croissant dough) is where puff pastry meets a yeast dough (such as brioche dough). This means that not only will we get flaky layers, but the dough will also swell and rise. The method is along the same lines as for a feuilletage: the basic dough is first kneaded, then layered with butter and folded over several times (in...

How to make tart cases

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It's not easy to make beautiful, even tart cases, but here I'll let you into the secret of how the professionals do it. You will see that there are a lot of little details that make all the difference. It's a bit technical, but don't worry, I'll guide you through the important points.

Langoustine and leek tarts

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Small puff pastry cases filled with a layer of chopped leeks, fried langoustines (also known as scampi or Dublin Bay prawns), topped with hollandaise sauce.

Puits d'amour

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This delicious little cake's charming French name means "well of love". It is made up of layers of puff and choux pastry, assembled with a light caramel and filled with vanilla confectioner's custard.

How to make a good pastry tart case

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Lining a tin or mould with pastry to make a tart or pie seems simple enough: you roll out the pastry, put it in the tin and trim off any overhanging bits. It may not be rocket science, but if you want a tart with a perfect pastry case, it really helps to take care over a few details, which I will show you here.

Apple custard tart

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You may well know the classic Parisian custard tart (or "flan"), traditionally vanilla-flavoured. Here is an apple version, with extra apple flavour as the custard is made with apple juice. This is topped with delicious caramelized apple slices.

Viennese Shortbread

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The Viennese shortbread, or "Spritz", are small shortbread cakes, with a light vanilla taste and covered with chocolate.

New Zealand pies

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New Zealand pies are small pies with different fillings that can be found in any "eatery", those informal places where you can eat in or take away. In this recipe, you'll find a spicy beef version, and another with salmon and bacon.

Recipes

A recipe is really quite a simple thing (or should be): a list of ingredients, a method, and that's all there is to it. Unfortunately its not always the case. Sometimes you might get the impression that a recipe, found in a magazine or on a web site, has been concocted especially to make you fail:...
June 3^rd 2024179 K3.6

Egg yolks and caster sugar

We often come across recipes where we need to mix egg yolks with caster sugar. This would appear to be a very ordinary and simple thing to do but, be warned, these two ingredients can behave oddly together.
February 15^th 201879 K 24.3

Drawing a pattern in pastry

Often in the kitchen, in pastry-making, or in baking, we need to trace a pattern on a pastry. It's just a question of aesthetics but it has its effect after baking on a galette, pithiviers, pâté en croute (terrine in a pie crust), etc.
May 23^th 201931 K4.1

The proper use of a pastry bag

Ever used a pastry bag? Handy, isn't it, but unfortunately not very easy to fill. In fact, to be comfortable with this tool, you'd need 3 or 4 arms, which isn't very common. Does that mean it's a goner? No, of course not. Here are 2 or 3 tips to help you get comfortable with it.
December 5^th 20206,6364.7

Zester like a pro

Have you heard of the microplane? It's an extraordinary tool that allows you to grate very, very finely, and therefore zest with disconcerting ease. Here's some information about it.
December 25^th 20206,1974.9

Creams in pastry

In this post, I propose you to make a small tour of the different creams in pastry. If you like to make them at home, you have already noticed the many creams that exist for the different desserts: Chantilly, custard, diplomat, Bavarian, etc. etc. Each one more delicious than the other, they...
March 12^th 202211 K4.5

Cake moulds

When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?
August 25^th 20251,2685