A loaf and pastries
I thought I'd give a brief update on what I've been tinkering with in my kitchen over the weekend. I baked a nice rye loaf on Saturday morning - it's based on my regular 70% rye recipe, but I added some toasted sunflower seeds and whole-rye flour to a cold soaker. The dough is a breeze to mix and work with, without being terribly sticky or otherwise up to no good. You can find the recipe here. The loaf is pictured below:
For dessert, I prepared some princess pastries. I had a genoise cake in the freezer just waiting for one application or other. I split the genoise into thin cake layers, brushed them with Grand Marnier cake syrup, and spread raspberry jam on top of one layer. Rounds were cut out with a 5cm cookie cutter, and pink coloured marzipan wrapped around the two sandwiched genoise layers. Some pastry cream on top of the genoise and then whipped cream to fill up the marzipan cylinders. The pastries were then decorated with fresh raspberries and chocolate figurines and shared with co-workers :)
And here's the assembling stages; raspberry jam on genoise layer:
... and the pastries before and after pastry cream:
Comments
is really the land of delights! Fantastic, HansJoakim
Umm, are you sure you don't have a patessierie or a culinary degree or something? Amazing Hans!
Snif, i made two Rye doorstops lately, i have been overproofing frequently.
Mebake
The wonderfulness of hansjoakim's 70% rye.
The pastries ... I can only dream about. As always, I am awestruck by his artistry.
David
Both are beautiful!
The bread is wonderful , but I have a confession......I check your post for your sweets! I admit it! I love your tortes, pasteries, and the like! I'm addicted! I should go to meetings.
Audra
oh wow.. those pink treats look asolutely divine! Little rose clouds! yum! The contents themselves sound like they'd be a fantastic treat, but the presentation also adds so much more to it all!
some rye, maybe, or... some of that fabulous dessert, maybe....or both?
Fabulous bread and pastries Hans, and thanks for the accompanying pics of how you built that creation!
Larry
and beautiful looking pink princess pastries!
Sylvia
I was just lamenting to my son who is a prof. chef that I would love to work on these types of things but who would eat it???My husband raised his hand LOL....I will just tune in to your pics and dream. c
You bake beautiful breads and perfect pastries, Hans. You certainly aren't the "average" home baker.
Your pink princesses are exquisite. Hmm....do you ship internationally? :-)
Sigh..you do torture us....
Betty
Thanks so much for all your kind compliments, fellow TFL'ers!
They're highly appreciated! Keep on baking everyone :)
Everything is to die for Hans! As usual!
I have a few questions relating to your genoise cake though, what size pan do you bake it in and how many eggs do you typically use? And what is the typical height you achieve?
I am having a bit of a problem with my typical 3 egg genoise and can achieve about one inch, but not an inch and a half in my 8 x 1 1/2 round pan. The cake bible was saying an inch and a half height is correct for a genoise, but I just can't seem to do it : /
Keep up the delicious rye breads and pastries though! I certainly enjoy admiring your work.
Thanks so much!! :)
I'll try to help out with the genoise, but I'm not sure I can answer you directly since pan sizes seem to vary across the Atlantic. I'm using the genoise recipe from ABAP (which I'm sure is pretty similar to Beranbaum's). The pan is 22cm in diameter (8.7in) and approx. 4.5cm in heigth (1.75in). I filled the pan with 500gr cake batter, in which I used 4 eggs. Once baked, the genoise filled the form exactly (so about 4.5cm/1.75in in height). Do you think these measurements/heights are in line with Beranbaum's directions?
PS: For tips on genoise making and baking, check out the brilliant eggbeater blog! And (most importantly) keep on baking!
Hans, Every detail in those pastries is perfection! What form does the marzipan come in? Is it pink already or did you add the color?
Salma
I bought marzipan at my local grocery store. It has a cylindrical-shape (like a log), and comes in packets weighing 500gr. It's untinted, so it has originally a pale, ivory, off-white colour. I used red liquid food colouring to give it a pink colour.
Thanks Hans, I can find that log in my grocery store and tint it. You think I shd roll it by hand or pass it thru a pasta roller? How many pastries did one log make? I went back to the picture (which I so enjoy just looking at!) and counted 11. Piping some kind of a shape with the chocolate will be another challenge. I do want to try something. Thanks again.
Salma
Hi Salma,
I suggest you roll it by hand, with a rolling pin. Roll it like you would a regular tart dough, but use powdered sugar to keep it from sticking. And roll it rather thin - the taste of marzipan gets quite overwhelming if it's present in large quantities. Try to keep it about 3mm thin before you cut strips for the pastries. There will probably be some scraps and leftovers, but I'd bet that the full 500gr should result in approx. 20 pastries, about 5cm in diameter and 4cm in height.
Best of luck :)
Hi Hans,
I am ENDEAVOURING today to make these pastries. Baked the genoise; kneaded the marzipan in a plastic bag with 4 drops of food color since my nails had dirt in them from gardening. Actually, it worked very well. Now I have to run out to get some cream for the custard. I happen to have Lenotre's Dessserts cook book, which I dug out for the recipes. Some questions: What kind of chocolate works best to make the figures? Will regular dark chocolate or chocolate chips work, melted, poured in a plastic bag, snipped? Can I asemble everything and refrigerate till tomorrow? I guess they sit in pastry cases.
Salma
Sounds great!
I used dark chocolate; 60% - 70% cocoa I believe. That slightly bitter, dark chocolate taste is great together with sweet berries, whipped cream and the marzipan. You could probably use chocolate chips too, but I wouldn't go that route if you want the best taste. In my opinion, chips are OK for cookies, but not so great for just about anything else.
You can assemble and fridge, but wait with berries and chocolate decorations until just before serving. The marzipan might get a bit soft if you let it wait for too long in the fridge - do not make them more than a day in advance, I'd say.
I hope you'll enjoy them as much as we did!