Have you heard of or tried a caramelised apple cake before? If you haven’t you should!
First off, the middle of the cake consists of nice caramelised apples and then it’s topped off with caramel over it.
Optional: can add raisins, rum or cinnamon.
Cuisine: French
Raspberry Macarons
For this week I’m baking raspberry macarons, another classic of French patisserie. It’s one of the most popular desserts among people in France and recently has gained popularity worldwide. If the recipe is followed thoroughly, macarons are not hard to make.
For this recipe the Italian meringue was used because it leaves the macarons with a nice crisp on the top but still soft in the inside.
I’m aware that baking macarons for your first time can be overwhelming, but I assure you that even if they don’t look perfect on the first time, they will on the second try.
As long as the filling doesn’t contain egg yolk, the macarons can be kept refrigerated for a short week.
Galette des rois
The ‘Galette des Rois’ is typically a French tradition that celebrates the Epiphany. This celebration derived from the night the three kings (wise men) Gaspard, Balthazar, and Melchior, voyaged to pay their tribute to one of the world’s most famous enfant born on earth, bringing with them gifts.
This tradition has lost much of its religious significance over the years. For many French families, this tradition has become a day where the family gathers and shares a Galette des Rois (a puff pastry pie filled with a smooth mixture of frangipane, a mixture of both almond and pastry cream, and finished by hiding a small charm in the frangipane).
The most important part of this tradition is the ritual that goes along with it. The youngest child of the family must hide underneath the table while an adult cuts the Galette. The hiding child must then call out which slice goes to whom, in order for it to be totally random. Whoever gets the charm in their slice is the King (or Queen) for the day and gets to wear the golden paper crown, that the Galette typically comes with. Also that person has to pick who will be their Queen or King for the day.
Ecstatically Chocolate Éclair
Chocolate éclair is the pastry that you can find in any boulangerie in France. Commonly flavored with chocolate or coffee and situated close to the counter when you buy your daily bread, you can’t not see them.
Éclair can be translated as ‘flash’, it is called like this because it can be eaten very fast.
The beginning of the recipe is the to prepare the chocolate custard. Feel free to replace the chocolate custard by any flavor of your choice, vanilla, hazelnut …
Thick Chocolate Custard
The chocolate custard is part of my chocolate éclairs recipe but can be used as filling for any type puffs or cakes.
It can be used to make any custard, only the step 8 needs to be change to the taste you want, pistachio, white chocolate, caramel, coffee …
Vanilla pods is better than vanilla extract, it gives a stronger flavor to the custard.
