Lemon Tart with lemon french custard

Lemon tart with mandarines, it's a season dessert by the French Pastry Chef Christophe Felder.

I love citrus fruits and his recipe sounded great ! Who doesn't have a few lemons and mandarines ?

This recipe comes from the book "Exquises pâtisseries pour les fêtes" of Christophe Felder. 

 There is a lot of amazing recipes in it, even some muffins :)

I did my own cookie dough and I flavored it, but I followed all his steps for the lemon cream.

My cookie dough is mandarine flavoured, with the zests and a bit of juice.

I divided all the proportions by half and did 2 medium tarts instead of a big one.

  Preparation   I tried to follow his instructions, but it got harder than it is supposed to be... I felt like I lost a lot of time. But there is no difficulty in the recipe. It lacked of details, but I'll explain it clearly on this post. Still, it took me about 1 hour to prepare... mainly because of the mandarines.

  Tasting   I've never been disappointed by Christophe's recipes ! That cream is absolutely delicious, though too buttery for some people. It's a fresh, rich and buttery cream... it's an all-season dessert actually. A lot of flavor with a hint of sugar... I really don't think I could find better, unless there is less butter in it ahah. For the mandarines, I'm not convinced, it seemed like a nice touch but it's not worth it !

  Conclusion   I keep the recipe, without the mandarines :)

For a 9 inch pie : serves 6 to 8

Christophe Felder gives a recipe for the cookie dough :

Same as mine but +2tbsp of butter and no zests. Softened butter mix everything with a wooden spoon.

Keep 1 hour in the fridge, then cook at 350°F for 15minutes. Turn out when cooled.

   You will need :   

For the cookie dough

1lb of cookie dough with :

2 mandarine's rinds, shredded finely

3tbsp of grounded almond
1/2 cup white sugar

- instead of 2/3 cup -

For the lemon custard

5 meyer lemon's rind, finely shredded

1 1/4 cup sugar (270gr)

3 sticks of butter (350gr)

- it hurts ! -

5 eggs

2 mandarines
1/3 powdered gelatin bag (0.07oz/2gr)

Turn the oven on at 325°F

Making the dough

Finely peel the mandarine's zests with a cheese grate. Chop them.
Add it to the flour with grounded almonds and sugar. Then follow the recipe of cookie dough.

Flatten it on 0.2 inch (5mm) and place it in your buttered mold. Press gently on the sides so it won't fall.
Put 20 minutes in the oven.

Turn out when cooled.

Prepare the custard

Prepare the gelatin by following the instructions on the package.

While your dough is cooking, peel coarsely your lemons to get the rinds.
They may be thick, it doesn't matter... do as peeling an apple.

Cut the butter in dices, set aside.
Press lemon juice in a saucepan, with zests, gelatin, sugar and eggs beaten, whisk.

Turn the stove on at low/medium heat while stirring.

- ingrédients non battus - après battage - après cuisson -

After a "while" (15 to 20 minutes) the cream will thicken and start simmering.
Turn the stove off, add the diced butter and stir until homogeneous.
Use a strainer to pour in a bowl and remove the zests.
Once filtered, beat with an electric beater at medium speed for 1 minute.

Making the tart

Remove all the thin white skins from your mandarines.

- it takes a while ! -

Cut them in dices if too big. 

On your pre-cooked dough, Pour half of the custard, then the mandarines.

Keep the center of the tart without mandarines (circle of 2inches) so it will be beautiful when served. 

Pour the end of the custard, flatten it.

Decorate with a vanilla bean and a few mandarines... a rasperrie or whatever you have :)

Refrigerate 2 hours before serving !

Best Creamy Chocolate Pudding

Do you like chocolate, really do ? 

This is a recipe you have to try... 

It's the best chocolate cream I've ever tasted ! 

This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated, they really do have great recipes.

  Preparation    15 minutes top, so quick and easy !

  Tasting    So onctuous and creamy and... perfect, but if you prefer milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate, this recipe is not for you !

  To conclude    I did it 3 times in a row... loved it too much !

Serves 6 to 8

   You will need :   

1/2 cup white sugar

2tbsp cornstarch

- Maizena -

3tbsp unsweetened cocoa

- Van Houten or Hershey's unsweetened -

2 pinch of salt

- environ 2gr -

3 egg yolks

2 1/2 cup  milk (21fl.oz/62,5cL)

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (2fl.oz/6cL) 

4tbsp unsalted butter (1.8oz/50gr)

1cup bittersweet chocolate ~80% cocoa (3.9oz/110gr)

2tsp vanilla extract

1/2tsp strong ground coffee

- I used Nespresso coffee -

In a small bowl, mix vanilla and coffee. Set aside.

Prepare together butter and chocolate in morsels. Set aside.

In a saucepan, stir in sugar, cocoa salt and cornstarch, mix.

Whisk in the yolks and the cream until homogeneous

Whisk in the milk until fully integrated.

Bring slowly to a boil at low heat, whisking slowly. It takes 7 to 8 minutes.

When all the surface is simmering/boiling. Count down 30 secondes while whisking.

Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate and butter in morsels. Whisk until homogeneous !

Whisk in the vanilla/coffee mix.

When you have an homogeneous cream, pour in a bowl and cover with buttered parchment paper.

Refrigerate 2 hours.

Whisk and serve !

 - I love so much chocolate ! -

The French Flan - Custard Tart

A Home-made flan like in french bakery shops. A touch of vanilla, it's a really fresh dessert.

That's the first flan I have ever made, and I really think it was perfect... not too heavy, 

not too much flour, great colour and shape... this recipe convinced me !

I've looked in many books and magazines, finally it's Sébastien Gaudard's rcipe that I've chosen, 

But I followed others advices and tips (Françoise Bernard's) and I've added vanilla.

The book it comes from : "Le meilleur des desserts"/"The best of desserts" lacks of details...

Honestly, if you follow it word by word, you won't succeed....

Well, I already knew the tricks so I haven't had any problems, here is the detail recipe :)

Enjoy that delicious flan !

  Preparation   There is a few tricks but I explain everything carefully in the recipe

  Tasting    Amazingly good, at least as good as in the french pastry shops !

  To conclude    I'm not looking further for a flan recipe right now, I'm happy with this one :)

For a 9inch mold

For 8 people

   Il vous faut :   

1 cookie dough, vanilla flavoured

3 cups + 3tbsp of milk (75cL)

4 eggs

3/4 cup of granulated sugar

3,5tbsp of Maïzena (2.1oz)

- cornstarch -

1 vanilla bean, grated

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Turn the oven on at 320°F

Making the dough

Follow the recipe of pâte brisée

Add in 1 tsp of vanilla extract with the water

Place some parchement paper in your pie-mold so you can unmold it easily afterwards.

Flatten you dough (2mm) place it in your mold, pressing gently on the edges.

Use a rolling pin to remove the excess

- roll toward the exterior of the mold -

Create an alluminium circle so the dough won't go down. 

Do that only if the edges are vertical like mines.

Put in the oven 15 minutes

Set aside at room temperature.

Put the oven on at 375°F

Prepare the vanilla bean

Open he bean in half, remove the seeds and set them aside for another recipe.

Doing the pastry cream

Bring the milk to a boil with 1tbsp from the sugar in a saucepan

- putting sugar avoids milk burning/sticking on the sides -

In the meanwhile, whisk the eggs with what's left of sugar. Stirr in the maizena until homogeneous.

- that's quick -

When the milk simmers, put in the vanilla bean and pour the half of it on the previous batter, whisking !

Whisk for 15seconds and put it all back in the saucepan at medium heat, whisk well.

Leave it 2 to 3 more minutes, whisking continuously especially in the corners of the sauce pan !

It will thicken quickly. Remove from the stove and pour in a bowl. 

You have made a french pastry cream :)

Remove the vanilla beam, and beat with an electric beater 1 minute at low speed.

Pour the cream in the mold, flatten the top.

Put in the oven 45 to 50 minutes in the middle of the oven until real golden on the top.

 

- it's alive ! -

- After cooling down, it flattens and creates a thin layer of dough :) -

Let it cool down at room temperature, 

then refrigerate at least 3 hours

Serve cold !

Light Panacotta with rhubarb

It's the way I like it served at Le Fellini (italian restaurant in Paris), turned out from the mold :) 

served with raspberrie sauce, or in that case, a rhubarb sauce !

I made a mix of a few recipes, picked up what I liked, here is the result :

For 4 to 5 glass mold

  You will need :   

10 fl oz of evaporated milk (30cL)

- ou half & half -

6.8 fl oz of milk (20cL)

1.7 oz of white sugar (40gr)

1tsp. of vanilla extract 

- or a half vanilla pod grated -

0.2 oz of gelatine (6g)

- 3 slices -

Put 2tbsp of cold water in the powdered gelatine, stir and set aside for 10 minutes

Put the milks and the vanilla in a casserole at medium heat, stirring slowly

After 3 minutes, the cream will be warm and smoky, put the sugar and use a whisk to stir it

Put the temperature higher until the cream starts small bubble/shaking

- it must not boil -

Turn of the stove and let it cool 3 minutes, stirring slowly

Integrate the gelatine and let it cool 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes

Pour in your molds/glasses, cover with a plastic film and let it cool for at least 6 hours

Serve with a home made rhubarb sauce 

- market's rhubarb -

   To do a rhubarb sauce :   

17.7 oz of prepared rhubarb

2 oz of sugar

 vanilla extract 

- panacotta has some, don't need to put more -

Rince, peel the rhubarb and cut it in dices

Put it in a casserole with the sugar at low heat for 5 minutes, then put it on medium heat
and let it cook approximatively 10 to 15 minutes,
until the rhubarb lost her water and that all the water disappeared.

The rhubarb must be tender

Pour in a bowl and let it cool down

Rhubarb and vanilla is a great mix =)

Crème panachée with no eggs - chocolate & kirsch cream

Among the first recipes of Vovoï's cookbook, there is a creme panachée (mixed flavoured cream).

A really foamy cream, light and delicious. She made it chocolate & coffee, but I'm not a huge fan of coffee dessert, so I changed it to make a chocolate-vanilla cream the first try, and a kirsch-chocolate cream the second time.

Flavours can be easily changed depending on your taste. They are added at the end of the recipe.

The contrast of colour and of taste is really pleasant, black and white is always a pleasant mix :)

The recipe is easy and quick, the only thing you could miss is the flour dilution.

For 4 small yogurt-size cup

   You will need :   

17 fl. oz of whole milk (50cL)

1.1 oz of flour (~ 30gr) (1 big tbsp.) 

- diluted in 1.7fl oz.of not cold milk (5cL) -

0.9 oz of white sugar (2tbsp / 25gr)

Put the milk in a wet casserole to boil

- the boiling milk and the whisk will make the cream rising, you need to pick a casserole with high sides -

Dilute the flour by putting it in a bowl, digging a well in it and pour the milk (1.7 fl oz) little by little in it, blending with a spoon. Flour has to be perfectly diluted in the milk

As soon as the milk starts boiling, pour the milk/flour in it and use a whisk to mix it.

The boiling must start again, keep using your whisk for 5 minutes while boiling.

Be careful the milk isn't burning/cooking on the inner surface.

After those 5 minutes, turn the heat off and keep mixing for 1 to 2 minutes,

Then pour your cream in to separate bowl, it's time to flavour it

- if you have some issues with the flour you can filter it -

 For the chocolate part, melt 1.0 to 1.4 oz of chocolate and mix it with it

for the vanilla half, add 1tsp. of vanilla extract and mix it with it

- for the kirsch half, 2tsp of kirsch -

Pour at the same time in your recipient/yogurt pot.

Let it rest in the fridge for at least 8 hours

This cream reminds me, at the taste and texture to the "viennois" I used to buy in stores, 

- the part under the whipped cream -

You cans erve it with a whipped cream, some  langues de chats or cigarettes :)

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Suggestions

chocolate and raspberries (mix raspberries and sugar together and add it to the cream)

chocolate and mint (1tsp of mint extract)

chocolate and orange (grated frozen orange)

lemon and raspberries (2tbsp of lemon juice)

coconut ?

You can do almost everything !

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Crème pâtissière - French pastry cream

As I announced, here comes the recipe of the second famous cream !

The creme patissiere is considered "cooked", compared to the creme anglaise, it's thicker, creamier.

You can spread it on tarts... it kind of has the same consistency as mayonnaise.

It's also useful in recipe like the gâteau basque, the frangipane, or the chocolate puff (éclair au chocolat) etc. It can be vanilla, lemon, chocolate, coffee.... flavoured 

I will give you the classic vanilla recipe that you can use for a fruit tart for example !

For a big pie, multiply it so you will use 5 or 6 egg yolks. (Twice more than what I've written)

   You will need :   

For 3 egg yolks,

8.5 fl oz. of milk (25cL)

2 tbsp. of cooking starch

3tbsp of sugar

1/2 vanilla pod

Put you milk to boil in a wet casserole with the grated vanilla pod

Work in a bowl the sugar with the eggyolks until white and foamy

Then add the starch in it and mix it well

Verse the boiling milk in that bowl

- after removing the vanilla pod -

Mix a bit and put verything back in the casserole,

let it cook while mixing whith a whisk,

let it 2 minutes while boiling,

medium temperature once it boils

- still mixing it with your whisk -

Never stop mixing 

- Be careful it's not cooking on the inner surface, grate everywhere -

Let it get cooler in a bowl, covered with a plastic film 

or with powdered sugar to avoid a crust

You can spread it on your tart (pre-cooked, shortcrust or cookie dough)

You can keep it 3 to 4 days in the fridge

- on the picture above, it's a vanilla shortcrust dough -

- don't put too much cream ;) -

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Suggestions

For a chocolate cream, you can add 4oz of chocolate to melt in the milk

For a coffee one, add 1tsp of coffee extract in the milk.

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