Pâte sablée - French sweet shortcrust pastry

For the long weekend my mum visited me and besides our other programmes, we - as always - prepared some desserts. We didn't know at the very beginning what exactly it will be but something from my new book, Pastry: Savory and Sweet by Michael Roux. Something sweet, something easy and small.

I opened the book, looked through the more and more delicious sweet-salty recipes then finally I chose a French sweet shortcrust pastry, the pâte sablée. Honestly my dough needed a little bit more flour than the original recipe says but after adding some extra flour the result was perfect, with perfect smell and perfect texture.

Maybe I haven't mentioned yet but my favorite ingredient of cakes, cookies is the lemon zest. Generally I put in almost every kind of desserts what it fits to and doesn't vary too much from. That's what I missed little bit also from this pastry so next time I will grate some lemon zest in the dough and put a small package of vanilla sugar as well.

Let's see first this basic but well-variable recipe then in my next post I will share what I have used this pastry for.

Ingredients:

250 g plain flour
200 g slightly softened butter (cut into small pieces)
100 g powdered sugar (sifted)
a pinch of salt
2 egg yolks

Heap the flour on a clean work surface (or as I did, measure it in a big bowl), mix with the powdered sugar and salt. Add the soft butter and crumble it with the flour, add the egg yolks and start kneading. (The original recipe says: "Heap the flour on a work surface and make a well in the centre. Put the butter, powdered sugar and salt in the well. With your fingertips, mix and cream the butter with the sugar and salt, then add the egg yolks and work them in delicately with your fingertips." I personally believe the dough will be also perfect if you use the palm of your hands, not only your fingers. :))

Knead the dough with your hands properly until you get a solid dough (not too soft, not too hard).

When it is ready you can form the dough into a ball, wrap in cling and refrigate until ready to use. You can keep it in refrigator for one week or in freezer for 3 weeks but the best is if you use immediately.

If you prepare your pâte sablée in advance, don't forget to take out from the refrigator on time before using because it takes around 1-2 hours until it softens again and is ready to use.

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Confectionery test 1.0 - Gerbeaud

Gerbeaud is one of the oldest and most famous café and confectionery in Budapest, Hungary. It serves traditional Hungarian desserts, cakes, pastries such as Dobos cake, Esterházy cake and Gerbeaud slice.

History of Gerbeaud

The Gerbeaud was started in 1858 with Henrik Kugler, the 3. child of a conferctionery dynasty. He acquired and prefected his knowledge during his travels in eleven European conutries, including Paris as well.

He opened his first café at József nádor Square (close to the Gerbeaud's current location) which was known as "the best ice-creams in Pest" soon. In 1870 the café moved to Vörösmarty Square. These years the Gerbeaud's coffee, special liqueurs, bon-bons, tortes and mignons were the most popular among Budapesters. Among its guests we can find the famous Hungarian composer, Franz Liszt as well.

In 1882 Kugler met for the first time Emil Gerbeaud in Paris during his journey. (Emil Gerbeaud was born in Geneva and also came from a confectionery family. He also travelled a lot within Europe to gain experiences.) 2 years later he invited the famous French confectioner to Budapest in order to make him business partner. 

Emil introduced a lot innovations, from the café's offerings via products till the new equipments of his bakery. The café's name became well-known and respected by the end of the century. His baked products were beautifully decorated, his sweets and bon-bons were packaged in special paper boxes by his own design. 

It is worth to look at the Gerbeaud's interior design as well which makes also special the café's atmosphere. 

After some history lessons let's see what you can taste in the legendary Gerbeaud. This summer I tasted three different kind of ice-cream sundaes with one of my best friend, who is also my regular ice-cream eater, cake-tester, Anna. 

Be careful, the Gerbeaud and Tiramisu sundaes' portions are amazingly huge. They were our lunch but replaced our dinner too. :) 

The Gerbeaud's ice-cream

As you can read on the menu, the Gerbeaud's homemade ice-creams are made from fresh ingredients - milk, cream, sugar (How can you see whether it is fresh or not?), eggs - according the traditional cooking and pasteurization process. Their ice-creams don't contain additional artifical colourings or additives.They use only the highest quality ingredients for their products such as Valrhona cocoa powder, Buorbon vanilla, fresh-brewed coffee and the fruit ice-creams are prepared from fresh fruits and fruit puree.

1. Gerbeaud sundae

2 scoops Gerbeaud cake (Valrhona!!), 3 scoops chocolate ice-cream, apricot purée flavoured with apricot pálinka and dried apricot, whipped cream, apricot foam, chocolate sauce and of course Gerbeaud bon-bon.

2. Tiramisu sundae

2 scoops Tiramisu, 1 scoop coffee ice-cream, 1 scoop vanilla ice-cream, 1 scoop banana ice-cream, coffee-amaretto caramel sauce, banana slices, vanilla foam, whipped cream and ladyfinger.

3. Somlói for two people

4 scoops Somlói sponge, 2 scoops vanilla ice-cream, 2 scoops chocolate ice-cream, 2 scoops walnut ice-cream, vanilla foam, 2 chocolate macarons, crispy walnut linzer and whipped cream.

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Hókifli - Traditional Hungarian dessert

This dessert was also made for the garden party yesterday. It was finished up already before lunch as the cheesy crescent rolls.

Hókifli is a traditional Hungarian christmas dessert.

Usually we make 2 different kinds of hókifli at home, it always depends on the occassion what we make it for and how much time we have for preparing. If you want fresh and soft hókifli next day as well, try this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 kg flour

3 egg yolks

5 dkg fresh yeast (+ some lukewarm milk)

40 dkg fat (or 68 dkg butter)

2 dl sour cream

20 dkg sugar

pinch of salt

For the filling:
jam - plum or apricot

Place the flour in a big bowl, mix with the salt and sugar then crumble the fat in it (traditionally we make it with fat, so the dough is softer but if you don't like fat, try with butter). 

Warm the milk, crumble the fresh yeast in it with some sugar and wait for 10 minutes.

Add the egg yolks, the sour cream and the yeast to the flour and start kneading the dough with your hands. Be careful, not knead it for a long time because the fat will melt by your hands' warm. So knead the dough fast!

When it is ready, set aside and let it sit for 1 hour. 

Place the dough on a floured surface, roll to rectangular shape and about 1-2 mm thick. Place the jam in a long thin line by one edge of the dough. Pull the edge of the dough over the filling, then roll it up little bit (the filling not to leak during the baking). Cut about 5 cm pieces and place on the baking paper on an oven pan.

Preheat the oven into 200°C then bake the hókilfi golden brown. (Be careful, the hókilfi is baked very quicky, do not burn it!) When you take the oven pan out from the oven, let it cool for a while then rotate the still warm but not hot hókilfi into powdered sugar.

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Cheesy crescent rolls

Yes, yes, yes, yes!!! Absolute success!!! These cheesy cresent rolls are always big favorite among my friends, colleagues and in our family. Today I was at a garden party where the 64 fresh and soft rolls were disappeared within half an hour.

Ingredients:
70 dkg flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 dl oil
2 dl yoghurt
2 dl milk
5 dkg fresh yeast

For the filling:
25 dkg butter (room temperature)
1 tablespoon salt

For the top:
+ 1 egg
+ 20 dkg cheese

Place the flour in a big bowl, mix it with the sugar then make a hole in the middle. Pour the fluid ingredients in the hole, the yoghurt, oil, lukewarm milk then crumble the yeast in it. Mix the ingredients carefully with a spoon and let it sit for 10 minutes.

10 minutes later knead the dough with your hands and add as much flour as the dough needs until it gets soft but not sticky.

Mix the butter with the salt and divide into 4 parts.

Preheat the oven into 220°C.

Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Take one, put on a floured surface, roll it to a plate-sized and set aside. Take another piece of dough and roll it as well. Grease 1/4 of the butter mix on the dough and place the other (already rolled) piece on this. Divide this round shape dough into 16 equal pieces with a knife (as you slice a cake). Take one slice and  roll it up starting from its wider edge. Place on the oven pan (far enough from each other because they become twice bigger in the course of baking), grease it with some egg and strew with grated cheese.

Repeat this 3 times more.

Put the oven pan into the preheated oven and bake the rolls until the cheese on their tops gets gold.

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Today's purchase and the books which moves to Stockholm with me

My new happiness: Pastry: Savory and Sweet by Michael Roux. I have made eyes at it for a long time since I have read a lot of good reviews about it at many forums but I have procured only today. There is big happiness now! Recipe books can never be enough. I buy many for myself and I also get many as present.

When I arrived home with the next piece of my collection under my arm I have looked through which books move with me to Stockholm. Some has already been there but let's see what is still here in Budapest.

But let's switch over to Michael Roux's book. This French-born man is one of the most celebrated chefs in UK nowadays. From his bio we can see how joung he started his profession. At the age of 14 he became a patissier, he opened his first restaurant (Le Gavroche) in London in 1967. It was the first restaurant in Great Britain which gained 1, 2 then 3 Michelin stars. His well-known restaurant, the Waterside Inn was opened 5 years later. He got many awards, nominations during the years as appreciation of his work.

In this book Michael Roux covers ten popular types of dough, including short crust, brioche, puff, choux, croissant, and filo, provides step-by-step instructions and kitchen tips that ensure perfect results, everything illustrated with color photographs. When I opened the book for the first time I was smitten with the classic and contemporary recipes for finished pastry dishes (for instance: Quiche Lorraine, Classic Pizza, Apple Tart, Pecan Pie etc.) On the face of it, high quality paper was used for the book, photos and illustrations are excellent, and reading into the recipes it seems the result will be perfect.

These are the first impressions about the book but I will also share my experiences during the making of the certain pastry. 

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