Hello!
So today I’m bringing you something simple but very very special… it comes from my culinary school recipe file, and we happened to make this yesterday! Now it’s not a huge deal or anything… but the reason I’m sharing this with you is because it’s such a “GOURMET” sounding dessert , but it’s SO doable at home, and will leave your guests drooling and clapping at the table!
So I’m going to give you this recipe slightly differently… I’ll explain it to you in bits…as we do it at school… so here goes…
This recipe is also for one person ( or two if you’re willing to share)…and it’s also in grams, which is pretty easy to convert with any conversion site, however I’ve given you estimated conversions here also..
First you need to prepare the raspberry coulis…
90 grams frozen raspberries… I would say about 1/2 cup for this portion
30 grams sugar ( eye ball it, about 2-3 tablespoons)
25 ml water
Bring everything to a boil for a couple of minutes, then whiz it all together with a handblender and pass through a sieve to get rid of all the seeds… let sit in the fridge till your ready to use it.
For the Filo pastry:
1 pastry sheet, placed vertically on a cutting board.
30 grams icing sugar ( about 1/2 cup)
30 grams unsalted butter, melted ( about 1/4 cup)
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C.
Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the Filo sheet with melted butter. sprinkle with icing sugar all over, then fold the sheet in half, upwards, and press down firmly so that it sticks. brush the now halved sheet again, and sprinkle with the sugar all over again. Now fold it in half once again, like a page of a book, from left to right. You should now have a smaller vertical rectangle. brush with butter again and sprinkle with a little more icing sugar. Now you can cut it in whatever shape you like. I used a round cookie cutter. As long as you manage to get 3 or 4 cut outs, you’re good. Make sure they’re still nice and stuck together. Once you have all your cut outs, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then place another sheet of parchment on top of the cutouts and then another heavy baking sheet or tray to weight it down. Bake for about 10 minutes, and then check. If its a golden brown, and crisp then they’re good to go. Otherwise pop them back in for a few more minutes.
Now for the Vanilla custard cream:
200 ml whole milk
1/4 vanilla bean
2 egg yolks
30 grams sugar ( about 1/4 cup)
16 grams corn flour ( about 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
Open the vanilla pod and put the seeds in the pot with the milk and bring to a boil. Once it comes to the boil, take off the heat right away and transfer to another bowl and allow the vanilla to infuse in the milk. Meanwhile beat the egg yolks and sugar along with the corn flour. all about 3 tablespoons of the vanilla infused milk and continue to beat. Once it’s all incorporated, pour this mixture into a pot with the milk and , with a hand whisk, continue whisking slowly over a low heat until the custard thickens. Once you get the desired thickness, remove from the heat and add the butter and whisk again. Set aside to cool. Once it has cooled, transfer to a pastry bag and keep in the fridge.
So that’s what my first layer looks like… not the neatest I know, but when all 16 of you are trying to get things done in that kitchen, with your power-house of a teacher screaming at you to get your plate on the pass, it’s really not the time to fuss!
Ok, for the next layer, all you need is whipping cream.
200 ml whipping cream
Just beat it with about 4 tablespoons sugar until you get a lovely whipping consistency … Once it’s done, transfer to a pastry bag and keep int he fridge until your ready to pipe.
So this is what it’s like when we’re all trying to get our plates onto the pass in time and in a decent condition!! As you can see, we all had our own take on the mil feuille… you can really do this any way you like…
Finally, when you’re ready to put it all together you just need some fresh fruit… strawberries, raspberries, blackberries…
Start plating it up in layers.. I started with the vanilla custard cream… just pipe it around the cut out filo sheet… you could fit some fruit in if you wish, like I did…. then carefully place the second cut out filo sheet on top of that and pipe the whipped cream along with more fruit… then place the third cut out filo sheet on top, and dust with icing sugar for a nice finish!
You can use the raspberry coulis in an way you like really… I dotted it around the plate but you could do anything you like with it!
So that’s what we did yesterday! See, it looks pretty fancy but really it’s just pretty straight forward and easy…. and it’s one of those desserts that you can play around with quite a lot… you could do it with summer fruits like kiwis and mangos… you could mix all the fruits up… you could do chocolate cream… the possibilities are endless! Just goes to show that even the poshest of culinary schools do the most basic dishes!
Try it this weekend!! 🙂
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