Summer Berries and Golden Kiwi Tart With Lemon Verbena Crème Pâtissière

This is my adaptation of Christine Farber's Custard Tart With Spring Fruits from her Mes Tartes book, which by the way, the book that I really adore and use it a lot to make sweet and savory tart. The original recipe for pastry cream only uses fresh vanilla bean for flavoring, but I substituted vanilla with lemon verbena from my garden. As for the fruits, I suppose you can use any kind of your favorite fruit combination. But for now, I just want to enjoy as much berries as I can, while they are still  plenty in the farmer's market.

Summer Berries and Golden Kiwi Tart With Lemon Verbena Creme Pâtissière

Recipe adapted from Christine Farber's book, Mes Tartes

Make 1 (10 inch) tart

450 g sweet pastry, recipe follows

500 g Lemon Verbena Creme Pâtissière, recipe follows

200 - 225 g red raspberry

100 g wild blueberry

3 golden kiwis, peeled - sliced

4 - 5 strawberries, halved

Roll out sweet pastry to fit a 10 inch tart pan. Trim off the excess. Prick all over with fork, refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Bake tart  for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, then paint the pastry using pastry brush with lightly beaten egg, it helps the pastry from being soggy when fill with custard, and keep its crunch. Return it to the oven, continue to bake for another 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, un mold, then transfer the tart shell onto wire rack to cool completely. Once the tart shell is cooled, fill with crème pâtissière, and the fruits. Start with raspberries, golden kiwis, wild blueberries, and strawberry slices. Serve immediately.

Sweet Pastry

500 g pastry flour

150 g confectioner's sugar

300 g butter, cut into large chunks

2 eggs, lightly beaten with fork

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbs vanilla sugar

Place all ingredients in a food processor, pulse a few seconds until the dough almost comes together, it's okay if  a few chunks of butter still visible here and there. This will make the pastry even more tender and flakier. Gather the dough and form into ball, then flatten it into a disc. Wrap with plastic, refrigerate at least for 3 hours, or overnight. 

For  Lemon Verbena crème pâtissière

500 g (2 cups + 2 tbs) whole milk

3 leaves lemon fresh verbena

125 g extra-fine sugar

5 egg yolks

50 g whipping cream

40 g potato starch or corn starch

Bring  the milk, 60 g sugar, and the lemon verbena to simmer in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan,  remove from the heat, and over the pan to infused the verbena.

Meanwhile, combine the remaining sugar with potato or cornstarch. Add the egg yolks and whipping cream. Using a whisk, mix well to make sure there aren't any lump left.

Discard the verbena leaves. Slowly add the milk to the egg mixture, keep whisking while you do this. Pour the mixture back to the pan, return it to the stove and set it over medium heat. Whisk constantly until the mixture starts to boil. Turn the heat to low, let it simmer for 10 minutes while still stirring constantly. The cream should be thick and smooth.

Pour the cream into a bowl. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on pastry cream to prevent skin forming. let it cool at room temperature. Once cooled, chill in the refrigerator, ideally 24 hour before using.

Kue Nastar, Indonesian Pineapple Cookies

This little morsels of sweet, fragrant (thanks to that tiny little bud called clove), and exotic flavor of Indonesian mini cookies are truly moreish. After few attempts, and tried so many recipes from internet without any success, I finally able to make it using my own basic pastry base, and feel pretty satisfied with the result. It is not difficult to make, but it does take a bit of time to make pineapple jam, and to shape them into nice roundish ball. Hope you will like it.

Kue Nastar, Indonesian Pineapple Cookies
makes 28 to 29 small cookies

For pineapple jam
550 grams pineapple chunks (from 1 large fresh, peeled, and cored pineapple)
75 grams sugar

For pastry
254 grams all-purposed unbleached flour
65 grams confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 oz unsalted butter, cut into large chunks
zest 1 large orange
2 egg yolks
2 tbs milk

For egg wash
1 egg yolk
1 tsp milk

Additional ingredient : 28 - 29 cloves

Puree pineapple chunks using food processor or a blender. Transfer to sauce pan, add sugar, then cook on a medium heat until all liquid has evaporated.  Lower the heat to low, continue to cook until its thicken and a little drier then the consistency of regular jam. Remove from the heat, cool completely. Scoop out about 6 grams, and make a round ball, place it on a plate. repeat with remaining jam. Set aside

Place pastry ingredients in a food processor, pulse a few seconds until it is starting to come together. Take about 16 grams of dough, flatten it, place  pineapple round in the center. Enclose the filling, form into round ball. Arrange neatly on a baking sheet. Repeat until all dough and jams  have been used up.

Cover the sheet with plastic wrap, refrigerate for an hour,  or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, whisk the yolk and milk together. 

Brush each cookie with egg wash, then top with clove if desire.  Bake in the center oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden to your liking. Cool completely before serving.

Chocolate-Raspberry Layer Cake With Sarah Bernhardt Chocolate Glaze

Raspberry seem to have a short season, fortunately I still see plenty of them in the grocery store. I must admit that they are quite pricy, but to make this great cake, it is okay to splurge a little bit. The cake is actually not that complicated to make. All components can be made ahead, and the best part is you don't need to make complicated decoration for topping. Just a simple fresh raspberries is enough to impress your guest. Hope you like it.

Chocolate-Raspberry Layer Cake
Recipe adapted from Bon Appétit, June 2010
makes one 9 inch cake

For the cake
2 cups unbleached all purposed flour
1¾ cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs

For chocolate ganache and raspberry topping
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate  - cut into bits
1¼ cups heavy whipping cream
6 tbs seedless raspberry jam
12 ounces fresh raspberries

For Sarah Bernhardt chocolate glaze

recipe adapted from Alice Medrich's BitterSweet

makes 1⅔ cups

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into bits

12 tbs unsalted butter

1 tbs light corn syrup

5 tsp water

To make the cake 

Position rack in the middle of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease two 9 x 2 inch cake pans with butter, or oil, line the bottoms with parchment papers, grease the papers as well.

Sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into large bowl. Whisk and form  a well in the center.

Break eggs in another bowl, whisk lightly. Add water, buttermilk, and oil. Mix to blend. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients. Whisk just to incorporate ingredients.

Divide the batter among prepared pans. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake. If cake forms domed, place clean kitchen towel atop hot cakes, then gently press with palm of hand to level them out. Cool completely in the pans on a cooling rack.

To make chocolate ganache 

Place chopped chocolate into a bowl. Bring heavy cream just to a boil. Pour on top of chocolate, let stand for a minute, then stir until chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Put aside 1/3 cup of ganache onto small bowl, and leave it at room temperature. Refrigerate  the rest of ganache until thick enough to spread, stirring occasionally, about an hour.

To Assembly

Carefully invert one cake onto a cake cardboard, peel off parchment paper. Spread 3 tablespoon raspberry jam on top. Spoon the chilled ganache on top, using metal spatula spread evenly. Invert the other cake onto cardboard, peel off parchment paper. Carefully slice it on top of ganache. Spread the remaining 3 tablespoon raspberry jam on top.

Spread a thin layer of 1/3 cup remaining ganache on top and the side of the cake. This layer is called the crumb coat, the main purpose is to smooth out any uneven surface, and fills any cracks. Freeze the cake until the ganache is set, about 15 - 30 minutes.

Meanwhile make the chocolate glaze.

Place a skillet on the stove set on a medium heat. Add about an inch of water and bring to a gentle simmer, then turn the heat to low.  

Place all ingredients in a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over the skillet of barely  simmering water. Stir continuously until chocolate is melted. Remove from the heat, stir once or twice until perfectly smooth. Cool the glaze to 88 to 90- degrees F to make a perfectly shiny glaze. 

Place the cake on round wire rack, and set the rack on top of baking sheet. Pour the glaze over the center of the cake. Shake the rack gently to even out the glaze, letting it drip down the side of the cake. If there are any bare spot left uncoated, use the spatula to scoop out excess glaze, and cover those spot. Refrigerate the cake until glaze is set. Once set, decorate with fresh raspberry in concentric circle.