FRESH BERRY TARTS WITH COCONUT PASTRY CREAM

fresh berry tarts with coconut pastry cream

Long time no see, everyone!

I have been on hiatus.

During my "cleansing/detoxification" of sugar for the last few weeks, I had tons of marking as this is the end of the school year.

As I type this, my last huge pile of projects awaiting marking is sitting on my dining room table: board games, poetry anthologies, art work, dioramas, video-taped skits and other such creative takes on "To Kill a Mockingbird Pride Projects" (so-named for the pride each student is supposed to have, for having created projects that showcase their individual talents). The last few make-up exams are being scheduled, a handful of anxious individuals have yet to recite their memorized "Tomorrow and tomorrow" Macbeth soliloquies, and a stack of textbook receipts for lost books are awaiting my attention. I recently powered through 2 class sets of essays and I'm feeling euphoric. The marking burden is starting to lift slightly from my achey shoulders.

I figured it was time to celebrate with a batch of pastry cream! However, you know me...I had to tinker with the classic flavour of vanilla and add something to it. I decided upon Coconut flavoured pastry cream. From the market I had purchased a fresh little box of blueberries and a huge box of strawberries. In my freezer I had on hand a 24/pack sleeve of frozen tart shells and a half a can's worth of leftover Coconut milk.

I decided that Sherry Yard's Pastry Cream recipe with the Coconut Variation would best suit the bill today. I opted to use 3 large eggs in the recipe instead of the 5 large egg yolks. I thought it would be lighter and less yellow, lending to a more coconutty flavour and appearance.


Yard's recipe is so easy. I was happy with the results of using the whole eggs. The cornstarch I used to thicken the pastry cream enabled me to make the pastry cream in practically a couple of minutes! I was whisking away and it was pretty instantaneous how it thickened to a pudding consistency. It was smooth and though I strained it as directed, only a few bits were left in the strainer. It wasn't grainy at all. Yum. The flavour was very nice. I'll be using this one again.

COCONUT PASTRY CREAM
from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking
yield: 2 to 2 1/4 cups, enough for two 9-inch tarts or 24 mini tarts

1 cup milk
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 t finely chopped orange zest [I left this out entirely]
2 t vanilla extract
3 T all-purpose flour or cornstarch
pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks or 3 large eggs, chilled
1 T unsalted butter, softened

• If you will need to cool this quickly, line a baking sheet with plastic film and set aside.
• Bring the milk, coconut milk, 1/4 cup sugar, and vanilla to a simmer in a medium nonreactive saucepan over medium heat
• Meanwhile, sift together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the flour or cornstarch, and salt onto a piece orf parchment paper. Whisk the egg yolks or eggs in a large bowl. Add the sfited dry ingredients and whisk until fluffy.
• When the milk comes to a simmer, remoe from the heat and ladle out 1/2 cup of the hot milk mixture. Drizzle it slowly into the eggs while whisking. Once the 1/2 cup nilk is incorporated into the eggs, pour the mixture back into the hot milk, whisking constantly. Be sure to scrape all the eggs into the pan with a rubber spatula.
• Immediately begin to rapidly whisk the pastry cream. In less than 1 minute, it will boil and begin to thicken. Continue to whisk for about 3 minutes, or until it has the consistency of pudding. To test the cream for doneness, tilt the saucepan to one side. The cream should pull away from the pan completely. Rinse and dry the large bowl.
• Strain the pastry cream through a fine-mesh strainer back into the bowl. Add the butter and stir until it is metled and incorporated. If the cream seems grainy, pulse it in a food processor until smooth. The cream is now ready to use, or it can be cooled to room temperature and refrigerated for up to 3 days. To cool the pastry cream quickly, spread it out on a baking sheet lined with plastic film. To prevent a skin from forming as it cools, place a sheet of plastic film directly on the surface.

FRESH BERRY TARTS

I used fresh strawberries and blueberries, but I imagine raspberries and blackberries would be equally good. I can envision sliced mangos, kiwi and other soft-fleshed fruit being equally delicious resting on the pastry cream.

1 "sleeve" of frozen tart shells (24 count)

1 cup fresh blueberries

4 cups strawberries, sliced

• Bake the frozen tarts as directed on the package. Mine called for 12 minutes at 375degrees F.
• Wash and prepare the fruit. I tasted the strawberries and didn't find them sweet enough. Unfortunately, it isn't strawberry season in Vancouver yet. When it is, I'm definitely going to make this recipe again. Local is the way to go with fruit. Today, I used those honking huge California strawberries that look kind of malformed...and they were slightly white inside. I know that's not a good sign. But that's all that I could find this time of the year. sigh. The way I fixed this washed out strawberry flavour problem was I sprinkled a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar on the sliced strawberries. I allowed the berries to macerate a bit in the sugar and eventually it produced this syrup at the bottom of the bowl. I was short on time and didn't save the juices to reduce on the stovetop to a thick syrup--but if you had the time, you should. Then you'd incorporated the cooled syrup back into the berries.
• I leave the baked tart shells unfilled, stored in a tupperware container until ready to serve.
• When ready to serve, fill each tart shell with a tablespoon or so of cold pastry cream. Arrange your berries on top.
• Refrigerate any leftover prepared tarts. The tart shells will begin to get soft from the moisture in the pastry cream and fruit so I try to consume them quickly after assembly.

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What else can you do with pastry cream? Take a look at my Cream Puff Trio post!

I'm entering this berry tart in the Nutriferia Berrilicious Roundup. Go check it out!

MATCHA CUPCAKE SURPRISES FOR MOTHER'S DAY & CUP-A-CAKE HOLDERS

organic matcha cupcakes for mother's day: these have hunks of cream cheese filling and are topped with matcha buttercream and buttercream or icing flowers

It's high time I made some cupcakes. I've been experimenting with recipes and today I decided to make some floral cupcakes (using my tried and true Wilton techniques). Instead of relying on fakey food colouring for dying my cupcake batter, I used high grade organic matcha. Oops, that's only because it was the only kind I had at home; I don't bother drinking the icky cheap stuff because it's too bitter--kind of pricey and a bit of a waste for baking...but hey, it's mother's day.

daisy: not my favourite looking flower. i think the petals suck. next time, i'll use a 140 tip

a wilton flower (okay, a reasonable facsimile of one because I fudged the number of petals)

a pink wild rose. not as pretty as the wilton rose

The colour of my organic matcha is way more vibrant and bright green than the cheap matcha. The surprise I hid in each cupcake is a chunk of cream cheese. I was trying to figure out how to maximize the filling in my cupcakes with the piping bag--a real pain in the you-know-what--but decided to throw in a cold cube of cream cheese instead. It was way easier than trying to pipe stuff in after baking. Besides, having tried the matcha cream cheese combination before in a brownie recipe, I was smitten.

gerbera: use a Wilton#104 piping tip with the wide side of the tip facing away from you, pipe the petals drawing the tip towards the centre.
a royal icing lily: no, the stamens are not edible
buttercream violet drop flowersHere's my original recipe for these matcha cupcakes. Decorate with a matcha buttercream base for a grassy look and top with piped buttercream flowers.

The cupcakes stay moist because of the veggie oil. You can freeze these cupcakes (frosted) up to a month.

MATCHA CUPCAKE SURPRISES (makes 12 cupcakes)

1 cup & 2 T sifted cake flour

1/2 plus 2T sugar

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 t vanilla extract

1/2 t almond extract

1 T organic matcha
4 T cold cream cheese, cubed

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line 12 muffin pans with paper cups
• In your mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and matcha until thoroughly combined
• Whisk together the oil and milk and add to the dry ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed
• Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract and beat again for 2 minutes on medium speed
• Divide the cold cubed cream cheese evenly between the 12 lined muffin pans. Pour the batter over the cubed cream cheese, filling at least halfway.
• Bake for approx. 20 minutes, until the cakes test done
• Remove the cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool on a rack.
• Decorate with Matcha Buttercream

the matcha crumb is tender and the cube of cream cheese a pleasant surprise

MATCHA BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups confectioners' sugar

2 T milk

a few drops almond extract

1/2 t organic matcha, or to taste.

nb: You can divide your buttercream, setting aside some for the matcha flavouring and colour the rest of the buttercream for flowers.

• Place the softened butter in a large mixing bowl
• gradually add the confectioners' sugar a little at a time to the butter, beating continuously. continue until all the sugar is blended in
• Beat with the mixer until the icing is pale and fluffy
• Beat in the milk until well combined
• At this point, you can divide your buttercream for your green matcha base and buttercream flowers. Leave what you need for the green coloured buttercream in the mixing bowl. Add the matcha and beat until well combined.
• Use gel food colouring to colour the rest of the buttercream for the flowers.
• Decorate with drop flowers, polka dots, vines, daisies, etc.

ANY LEFTOVERS?

a cupcake in my favourite cupcake holder

there's no danger of smushed cupcakes while you're travelling

Bring cupcakes to work in these nifty Cup-A-Cake holders. Make sure you fit the cupcake against the plastic prongs instead of simply plopping the cupcake on the base of the holder. I made that mistake initially and squished the top of the cupcake. The cupcake is supposed to "float" in mid-air, held by the prongs. I used large cupcake liners and there was plenty of room between the cupcake and the base.
I purchased these at Williams Sonoma in Vancouver.

Williams-Sonoma

2903 Granville Street

Vancouver, BC(778) 330-2581

MARSHMALLOW CREME FILLED BLACK SESAME MADELEINES

marshmallow creme filled black sesame madeleines

This is my Asian-French-Twinkie fusion version of a madeleine!

any excuse is a good excuse to eat marshmallow creme: just ram your piping bag's tip into the madeleines and try to force as much marshmallow creme in there that you can without the little cake exploding!

I toasted some black sesame seeds and buzzed them in my Bullet until they were finely ground. I tossed that in with the flour in my favourite Madeleine recipe and then filled the baked madeleines with marshmallow creme.

the black sesame madeleines really do need the dusting of confectioners' sugar to highlight the grooves of the shell

They were really good but I must admit not as delicate and pretty looking because they had that awful grey hue from the black sesame. The marshmallow creme was a perfect foil to the nutty sesame flavour and the confectioners' sugar did wonders to accent (hide!) the grey cast on the little cakes.

In adapting the recipe, I incorporated 1/3 cup black sesame, toasted and ground finely. The baking time was shortened somewhat from my previous trial without the sesame. You just have to keep an eye on them as they bake quickly. After the "hump" develops, it's pretty soon that they'll need to come out. They'll take approximately 8-12 minutes in a 375 degree oven.