Chocolate and Dulce de Leche Charlotte

The Charlotte Cecile is one of my favorites desserts. There is nothing fancy about the flavors, chocolate and vanilla is as classical as you can get and like all the classics always good! the lady fingers add a crunchy texture that goes perfect with the softness of the mousse. This time around I had some dulce de leche that was about to expire (we bought close to 15 kilos from Argentina a year ago) and also I had dark chocolate (82% cocoa), so I decided to try another classic (at least in Argentina) combination. It was my first time making dulce de leche mousse and I used too much gelatin, so the result was not as good as it should be but I am sure next time around I will have a perfect dulce de leche mousse. Overall the Charlotte was very good, the contrast between the bitterness of the chocolate and the sweetness of dulce de leche is a winner. I hope you enjoy this recipe. Bon appetit!

A slice of heaven

Recipes

Chocolate Mousse

140 grs of dark chocolate (I used 82%)
1 egg
2 yolks
56 grs of sugar
14 grs of water
200 grs of whipping cream


Melt the chocolate on a double boiler, keep it a 45 C
Beat egg and yolks in your stand mixer
Cook the sugar and water until the mixture reaches 118 C
Add the sugar to the egg mixture while beating on medium, increase the high and beat until the mixture is light and reaches room temperature. You just made a Sabayon.
In the mean time whip the cream to soft peaks
Add the chocolate to the sabayon with the mixer running at low speed.
When this mixture reaches the 30C fold in the cream in 3-4 additions.

Dulce de leche mousse

200 grs of dulce de leche
1/2 cup of whipping cream
5 grs of gelatin  (I used 7grs so I guess 5 is going to be ok)
3/4 cup of whipping cream

Heat the cream and add it to the dulce de leche, mix well until you get a homogeneous mixture.
Add the gelatin (remember to activate the gelatin in cold water)
Let the mixture cool down to 28-30C
Whip the cream to soft peaks and fold it into the previous ingredients.

To assemble you can use any mold you have but it is better to use a bottom less mold. Place a row of lady finger at the bottom, then cover the sides of the mold with lady finger (flat face inside). Pipe the choco mousse into the mold filling half of it. Place it in the refrigerator until it is hard enough to support the next layer of mousse. Then fill the rest of the mold with the dulce de leche mousse.
Refrigerate until service.  

Fruit tart with passion fruit pastry cream

I am back! yes I am adding something to my blog after a long, long time. The main reason for my lack of posting was the fact that I worked for almost 6 months at a bakery that opens close to my place, I was working part time there while keeping my full time job at the lab, it was hard but not super bad. I was in charge of the sweet stuff at the bakery, it was a good experience but is was not a nice one, the tools I had to make all the pastries was far from being close to ok!! can you imagine making 4-5 liters of pastry cream using a 2 liters pot (was a 1 liter pot the first week!) and a crappy $38 target electric cook top??, well I did it for 6 months! and that was just one of the things that were totally wrong at that place......

I am back to my normal life now so I have some time to blog now and then.....last weekend I found a nice passion fruit juice and several fresh fruits at the grocery store so I decided to make a fruit tart. I made the pastry cream using the passion fruit juice instead of milk and when I was ready to assemble the tart I whipped 100 ml of cream and mixed to the pastry cream, the result was a lighter pastry cream, super tasty, I loved it. The recipes for the pastry cream and the tart shell are in this post.

July took the three 4 inches tarts to the lab and everybody happens to like them, they were a very refreshing dessert for this texas spring/summer. Please enjoy it.

The search for the perfect brownie is done

I was searching for the perfect fudgy brownie for a long time, now I can say I found it, yes this is gonna be the recipe I will use from now on, no more playing around, this brownies are perfect, so perfect that I am so addict to them, I can eat and eat and eat non stop. Once you try them there is not return, you are hook.

We ate some of them with a little bit of confectioner's sugar and some berries, some with ice cream and and a big piece was the base for a dark chocolate mouse cake, unfortunately I did not have the chance to take pictures of it because my wife smash it when she was trying to remove it from the fridge.....no comments....  
Enjoy it.....

Fudgy Brownies (adapted from Bakewise)

149 gr (1 1/2 cups) pecans
369 grs (1 1/2 cups) butter
400 grs semisweet chocolate finely chopped
4 large eggs
3 large yolks
357 gr (1 1/2 cups) brown sugar
120 gr (1 cup)  confectioner's sugar
20 grs sugar (2 tbsp)
45 ml  (3 tbsp) light corn syrup
1 tbsp vainilla
pinch of salt
187 grs (1 1/2 cups) All Purpose flour

Preheat oven 300 F
Roast the pecans during 10 min
Line a 13 x 9 x 2 inches pan with parchment
Melt the butter and the chocolate in the micro oven or over a double boiler
In a large bowl beat the eggs and yolks just to blend. Add the sugars, corn syrup, vanilla and salt to the eggs, mix until combined.
Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and stir together, add the pecans and then stir the flour.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for about 1 hour. Start checking after 40 min, a toothpick should come out wet with gooey chocolate.
Cool compleatly in a cooling rack. Remove from pan wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Next day attack them!!

Coconut Cake

Coconut cake is one of those things I always wanted to make but for one reason or another I never  made it. A couple of weeks ago I was watching food network and Bobby Flay was having a coconut challenge so I finally decided to do some research and find a good coconut cake recipe. I found several recipes, based on those I came out with one recipe to test. I got lucky and the results were magnificent!! The cake was so good just by it self we almost ate it with out any frosting. If you want to have a very good coconut cake give this recipe a try.....

The quantities I will give you here are good for two 6 in by 3 in cake and one 6 in by  2 in. I decided to make the cakes that way so we do not have a big cake just for the two of us, in this way I placed 2 of them in the freezer so we can enjoy later trying different frosting/cake combination....

Recipe:


Cake:

2 ½ cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
⅔ cup coconut milk
1 ½ cups sweetened coconut flakes (unsweetened is ok if you want to cut down calories)

Frosting:
(for one 6x3 in cake)

4 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
zest of half lemon
1 tsp of lemon extract

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (sifted)
3/4 cup toasted unsweetened coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
Into a bowl whisk  flour, baking powder and salt together; set aside. 
In another mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes at medium speed. Add eggs 1 at a time until combined. Add vanilla extract. Add coconut milk mix well. Add dry ingredients and shredded coconut and mix (do not over mix).  


Pour the cake into the pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown, in my case were 25 min for the 6 x 2 inches. Let cool on wire racks.

For the frosting, beat cream cheese and butter together until light and smooth. Add lemon extract and zest,  add the confectioners' sugar slowly  until thoroughly incorporated. 


To toast the coconut flakes until they turn golden brown (I used a pan but you can do it in the oven if you want). Frost the cake with the cream cheese/lemon frosting. Garnish with toasted coconut flakes.

Lemon Chocolate Tart

It has been a long time since I post something, not because I am not cooking or baking anymore,  the only reason is I  am too busy following the football world cup!! yes I love football and I am trying to watch every single game from this world cup.  So far it has been a good world cup with several very good matches and also some big upsets like Italy, France and England going home very early. Argentina is doing good but we play against bad teams so far, this saturday we will have a nice test against Germany. 

This year I have very opposite feelings about our team, I really like most of the players that are in the team but I do not like the coach, Maradona, for those of you that are not familiar with him, he is consider to be the best player in the history of football, I agree with that. He also had a very long story with drugs, his personal life was public mess for a long time, and he thinks he is God, so I do not like the guy, I love the player but not the person. The AFA named him coach of the national team but he did not have any experience as a coach, well he had some and he did very badly. To make it short I do not want Argentina to win the world cup because if he thinks he is God now can you imagine what is going to happen if he wins??? he is going to be the father of God LOL!!! One the other side I want Argentina to win because I am a passionate about football and I am from Argentina.  Anyways, I have the felling that the cup goes to Europe again this year......

The past weekend I was killing for a lemon tart, I remembered I had some lemon juice in the freezer (a friend gave me like 20 meyer lemons and I saved all the juice) so I was ready to go. I made the pastry shell and then the lemon curd, when I finished with it I realized it will be not enough to fill the 9 inches pastry shell so was in a dilemma, should I make more lemon curd or should I use a filler? I went with the second option after search for something usable in the refrigerator, what I found? chocolate ganache from Tomas B-Day cake. Of course the combination was good, I love chocolate with citrus. I also made some italian meringue and piped on top using the saint honore tip.      

Recipe


Pastry shell

Butter 160 grs
Powder sugar 90 grs
Eggs 68 grs
salt pinch
AP or cake flour 270 grs

Cream butter and sugar for a couple of minutes, add the egg and mix until well incorporated, add the salt and flour and mix just until incorporated. Cover with film and refrigerate for at least 30 min before use it.
You will have more than enough dough for a 9 inches tart.
Bake it blind in a oven at 375F

Lemon curd

Lemon juice 150 grs
Sugar            300 grs
Eggs                 6
Lemon zest from  2 lemons

Butter           160 grs
Gelatin             3 grs (optional)

In a saucepan, stir together the lemon zest, juice and sugar and bring to a simmer. In a small bowl, beat the eggs. Beat some of the lemon mixture into the eggs to temper. Place the mixture back into the saucepan and cook stirring constantly until it thickens up, about 5-8 minutes. Remove the curd from the heat and incorporate the gelatin (dissolved in cold water) let it cool. When the mixture reaches the 28 C incorporate the butter (one tablespoon at a time) using an electrical hand mixer. Let cool completely before using.

Italian meringue

Sugar           200 grs
Egg whites  100  grs
Water             30  grs

In a small pot over low heat, combine sugar and water. Swirl the pot over the burner to dissolve the sugar completely. Do not stir. Increase the heat and boil to 118 C.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the eggs whites on low speed, when the temperature of the sugar reaches the 110 increase the speed to high.

With the mixer running, pour the hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over fluffed egg whites. Beat until the mixer bowl is cold. Use it immediately.

Chocolate ganche

Dark chocolate  100gr

Cream               200 grs

Bring the cream to a boil and place over the chocolate to melt it,  mix very well and let it cool before you use it.