Five years (and a few days) and a special dessert

Every year, around this time, I buy chestnuts, lots of them, to use in savory and sweet dishes or to eat them simply roasted on a cold evening. Chestnuts to me represent autumn and winter, yet this time I made something that I’d normally make during the summer. I made ice cream, chestnut ice cream.

I had a very specific dish in mind. I wanted to make a dessert, a somewhat special dessert for a special day in late November, which was the day this little blog of mine, this cherished part of the internet, turned five.

FIVE. I truly can’t believe I have been blogging for this long. I don’t think I’ve ever been this committed to anything for five years. It feels weird, yet fantastic. It feels like a huge accomplishment but I’ll be honest with you. This past year it’s been a struggle to keep up with this blog. The notion of giving it up crossed my mind and it was the first time I really did not care about it that much. I didn’t want to post as regularly, I wanted to keep things to myself more, live life without having to think about taking photographs of the food I cook or jotting down recipes with every little detail, and words didn’t seem to flow out of me as easily and as much as they used to.

However—and that is a big however—the fact that I found this anniversary worth celebrating, led me to the realization that I do still enjoy blogging, that I do enjoy this type of communication I have with you, the readers; those who quietly pass by, those who always leave a few words that make me feel that what I’m doing here is worthwhile and is being appreciated, those who send me emails with pictures of dishes they cooked from the blog, those who share their knowledge of food with me and who teach me new things, even those who are sometimes a bit harsh or abrupt in their comments; because I truly love creating recipes and sharing them here, with each and every one of you, and it brings me joy having you as my companions on this journey.

So, I had this idea to make a chestnut ice cream but then I thought, it’s winter, I want something else to break that icy feeling. I thought biscuit, and then sablé breton came to mind, a crumbly, sandy biscuit that’s not too sweet and has a light saltiness to it to add another dimension to the dessert. And then I wanted another component, like a sauce, chocolate of course, but with something else in it, to make things more interesting. Alcohol always works with chocolate and then I thought of Armagnac. The best.

A thick sauce that’s creamy, rich, and deeply chocolaty with a kick from the Armagnac, poured over the nutty and smooth ice cream that is cold but earthy at the same time, and the biscuit, that crumbly, buttery, crispy and slightly thick biscuit, adding another texture in the palate, creating a unique dessert. That was the dish I had in mind, and that’s what I made; a balanced and delicious dessert worthy of the five year anniversary of my blog.

So, happy birthday little blog. I really do love you with all my heart.
And thank you to all of you who have been following my adventures in the kitchen these past five years. Hope you join me for the next five to come.

And if you’re in the mood for more recipes with chestnuts, check out these recipes:
Sweet Chestnut Cream (Crème de Marrons)
Chocolate and Chestnut Truffles
Chestnut Cream Truffles
Chestnut Tiramisu
Chestnut Soup with Port
Chestnut Crêpes with Creamy Wild Mushroom Filling

Chestnut ice cream on sablés bretons biscuits with chocolate-Armagnac sauce

Sablés bretons are traditional French butter biscuits from the Brittany region.

You can easily serve this dessert after a festive meal during the Christmas holidays or on New Year’s as it’s so easy to make ahead; the biscuits can be made 1-2 days ahead, the ice cream 2-3 days ahead. The only component of the dessert I’d advise you to make on the day is the chocolate-Armagnac sauce. It is most flavorful the first day, but you can store it in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Also, you can just make any of the three components of the dessert for different occasions. The sablés make the perfect holiday cookies, the sauce can be served over poached pears or quinces for a quick desert, and the ice cream, well, it pretty much is perfect on its own.

The proportion of the biscuit, which is about 1.3 cm thick and 8-8.5 cm in diameter, works great for one large scoop of ice cream and for one serving. You can also cut out the biscuits smaller so you can have more portions of the dessert.

Yield: 8-10 servings

Ingredients

for the sablés bretons (makes 8-10 large biscuits, 8-8.5 cm diameter)
200 g all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1½ tsp baking powder
Pinch of sea salt flakes (I used Maldon)
125 g caster sugar
3 large eggs yolks
150 g unsalted butter, cut into cubes and very soft

1 large egg yolk + 1 tsp cold water, for egg washing the sablés

for the chestnut ice cream (makes about 1 kg)
250 ml fresh, whole milk
250 ml cream, full-fat (35%)
½ tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract)
Pinch of salt
3 large egg yolks
50 g caster sugar
300 g sweetened chestnut cream (ready-made or homemade*) or chestnut jam

for the chocolate-Armagnac sauce (makes about 1½ cups)
170 g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped
80 ml cream, full-fat (35%)
1 tsp vanilla bean baste (or pure vanilla extract)
1/8 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp Armagnac (or Cognac or brandy)
20 g (1½ Tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into very small pieces, at room temperature

*If you make my homemade sweetened chestnut cream, make sure to prepare it a day before you make the ice cream and keep it refrigerated.

Special equipment:
for sablés bretons — stand mixer or electric hand-held mixer, plastic wrap, rolling pin, baking sheet, baking paper, 8-8.5 cm round cookie cutter, pastry brush
for ice cream — heatproof spatula, fine sieve, plastic wrap, ice cream machine
for chocolate-Armagnac sauce — heatproof spatula


Preparation

for the sablés bretons
In a medium bowl add the flour, baking powder and sea salt flakes and mix with a spoon.

In the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large bowl), add the sugar and 3 egg yolks and using the paddle attachment (or a hand-held electric mixer) beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, for about 2 minutes. Add butter little by little, beating well after each addition, until fully incorporated and you have a smooth mixture. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until a dough starts to form.

Lightly flour a clean work surface and empty the dough on top. Knead lightly to form a uniform dough, shape it roughly into a ball and then into a flattened disk, and place it between two sheets of baking paper. Using a rolling pin, roll it out 1 cm thick. Transfer it onto a baking sheet and place it in the refrigerator for 1 hour or until it is firm.

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Prepare the eggwash by adding in a small bowl 1 egg yolk and 1 tsp cold water and mixing well with a fork.

Remove the dough from the fridge, remove the top sheet of baking paper and using a pastry brush, brush the top of the rolled-out dough. Using a fork, make a criss-cross pattern (see photo for reference) which is the traditional pattern for the sablés bretons.

Place baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven and bake dough for 6 minutes. Remove baking sheet from the oven and, using an 8-8.5 cm in diameter cookie cutter, cut 8-10 rounds and return baking sheet in the oven. (See photos for reference). Bake for further 8-9 minutes or until the dough is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and leave to slightly cool on the baking sheet for about 30 minutes. Then, using the same cookie cutter as before, carefully and cleanly re-cut the sablés and place them on a wire rack to cool completely.

Don’t throw away the small pieces of biscuit that you’ll be left with. Use them as a crispy topping for ice cream.

You can keep the sablés bretons at room temperature, in a cookie tin, for a week.

for the chestnut ice cream
In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the milk and cream and heat over medium-low heat until tiny bubbles appear around the edges of the pan, being careful not to boil the mixture.
In a medium bowl, add the eggs yolks and sugar and whisk well with a wire whisk until light and smooth.
Very slowly, pour the warm milk and cream mixture into the egg mixture, whisking quickly and continuously so the eggs don’t curdle. Pour mixture into the saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, making sure to keep scraping the bottom of the pan. Stir the mixture until it thickens and coats the spatula, for 5-6 minutes.

Pour the custard through a fine sieve and into a clean bowl. Add the vanilla bean paste (or extract) and salt and stir well. Leave to cool for about 30 minutes and then add the sweetened chestnut cream or chestnut jam and mix with a wire whisk to incorporate. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for about 2 hours or until the mixture is cold.

Empty the mixture into your ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Once the ice cream is ready, empty it into a container suitable for the freezer and freeze it for at least 4 hours before serving.

for the chocolate-Armagnac sauce
Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (bain-marie) and melt, stirring often with a spatula. The bottom of the bowl must not come in contact with the simmering water otherwise the chocolate will burn.

In the meantime, in a small pan, add cream and heat over low heat until bubbles start appearing around the edges of the pan.

Once the chocolate is smooth and melted, turn heat off so the water stops simmering underneath, but do not remove the bowl from the top of the pan so it stays warm. Immediately add to the melted chocolate the heated cream along with the vanilla, the salt and the Armagnac, and stir well with the heatproof spatula to incorporate until you have a smooth sauce.
Add the small pieces of butter one by one, whisking with a wire whisk continuously to incorporate each piece into the sauce before adding the next piece. This will ensure that the mixture won’t split. You should end up with a smooth, shiny and somewhat thick chocolate sauce.

Empty it in a bowl and if you plan on using it on the same day, keep it at room temperature. If you plan on using it the next day, cover it well with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge. You can reheat it in a bain-marie or in the microwave, being careful not to burn it.
You can keep it in the fridge for 3-4 days but it has the best flavor on the day you make it.

assembling and serving the dessert
When you have all the components of the dessert ready, start assembling your dessert.
In individual plates, place one sablé breton biscuit. On top, add a large scoop of chestnut ice cream and then either serve the chocolate sauce on the side, in a small container, or pour the sauce over the ice cream.
Serve immediately.

Enjoy!!

Chocolate ganache tart with raspberries

I’m not sure how many of you really care about my feelings toward Valentine’s Day so I’m going to spare you the details and just come out and say that I really don’t care about it.

I have nothing against it but I find it’s more important to be aware of your feelings towards the ones you love and share these feelings with them as often as possible, preferably every single day, rather than wait for that one day in the middle of February to do it.

Granted, February is a bleak month and it could benefit from a little love-showing but you will never see me making heart-shaped cookies or cakes for my beloved partner on Valentine’s because I reserve that kind of thing for our anniversary. Ha!

The only thing I can say that I love about Valentine’s is that I have an excuse to eat more chocolate, not that I need one. It’s nice to have a legitimate reason though, right?

I haven’t decided yet on what I’m going to make tomorrow, and let’s not pretend it will be this tart, because we have eaten this already over the last few days. I am a last-minute kind of person on these things and will probably decide tomorrow morning, but you, well you should definitely make this.

This is my idea of a perfect dessert. A chocolate tart with a pâte sucrée base and a chocolate ganache filling.

The tart is not too sweet, with the raspberries adding a pleasant acidity and freshness. The base is biscuit-like and buttery with a subtle vanilla flavor whereas the ganache is silky smooth and supremely chocolatey. It is delightful in every possible way, it looks pretty and it tastes fantastic.

Have fun!

Chocolate Ganache Tart with Raspberries

Pâte sucrée (sweet pastry crust) is a sweet and rich pastry with a crisp, biscuit-like texture. It is made with flour, butter, icing sugar and eggs, and it’s used as the base for sweet tarts whose filling don’t need baking.
I have made another version of pâte sucrée previously for this fresh berry tart that contains three egg yolks rather than two whole eggs and is made and baked in a slightly different way, yet I can’t discriminate between the two. They are both very good. Stick to this one if you’d rather use fewer eggs.

Decorate with some fresh raspberries, or alternatively and if you can't find fresh raspberries, with a sprinkling of icing sugar. Both will look and taste great on top.

Yield: 6-8 pieces

Ingredients

for the pâte sucrée (pastry)
250 g all-purpose flour, sieved
100 g unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces, plus extra for greasing the pan
100 g icing sugar, sieved
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or the scraped seeds from 1 fresh vanilla bean
2 medium-sized eggs, at room temperature

for the chocolate ganache filling
250 ml cream, full-fat (35%)
200 g good quality dark chocolate (55-60% cocoa solids), cut into small pieces
30 g glucose syrup (or golden syrup or light corn syrup)
60 g unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
Pinch of salt

Fresh raspberries, to decorate the tart

Special equipment: fine sieve, large food processor, rolling pin, plastic wrap, fluted or straight tart pan (22 cm in diameter) with removable bottom, baking paper, baking weights or dried beans


Preparation

for the pâte sucrée
• with a food processor
In a large food processor, add the flour, butter, icing sugar, salt and vanilla bean paste or seeds and process, tilting and gently shaking the bowl until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs or almond meal. Then add the eggs and process until just combined and you have a very soft and pliable dough. It will be a little sticky.

• by hand
In a large bowl, add the flour, icing sugar, salt and vanilla bean paste or seeds and stir with a spatula. Add the cubed cold butter and, using two knives, a pastry cutter/blender or your fingertips, cut it into the flour, until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs or almond meal. Then make a well in the middle, add the eggs and mix with your hands, working quickly, until just combined and you have a very soft and pliable dough. It will be a little sticky.

Empty the pastry dough onto a lightly floured work surface, lightly flour your hands and knead very lightly the dough for 5-10 seconds, just until it comes together into a ball. Place the dough ball in a large piece of plastic wrap, form a disk, cover it and place it in the refrigerator to chill and firm up, for 2 hours.

Lightly grease the bottom and sides of your tart pan.

Remove the pastry dough from the refrigerator, unwrap and discard the plastic wrap and place dough between two large sheets of baking paper. Using a rolling pin, roll out the pastry to a thickness of 0.2-0.3 cm.
Remove the top sheet of baking paper, slide your hand underneath the bottom baking paper and carefully and gently invert the dough onto the tart pan, allowing it to fall little-by-little onto the pan base. Remove the baking paper from the top and carefully and gently again line the pan with the pastry, pushing it into the curved sides of the pan if you’re using a fluted tart pan. If it tears, don’t fret; just use the overhanging dough to cover those tears. Using the back of a knife, cut the excess dough that's hanging around the edges of the pan.
Place the tart pan in the refrigerator and chill the dough for 20-30 minutes.

Note: In case you have left-over dough, you can keep it in the freezer, wrapped in cling film or in a ziploc bag, for up to a month. Thaw it and use it to make smaller tarts or biscuits.

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Take the tart pan out of the refrigerator and prick the base of the dough with a fork all around. Line the bottom and sides of the dough with a large enough piece of baking paper and fill it with pie weights or dried beans. Place the pan on a baking sheet and on the middle rack of the oven and bake the pastry for 20 minutes.
Take the pan out of the oven and remove the baking paper along with the pie weights. Turn heat down to 180 degrees Celsius, return pastry to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes until the dough has taken on a slightly golden color. Be careful not to over-bake otherwise the pastry will be too hard.

Remove tart pan from the oven, place onto a wire rack to cool completely and then remove the pastry from the pan.

for the chocolate ganache filling
Once the tart base has cooled, start making the ganache.
In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the cream and bring to the boil over medium heat. Remove pan from the heat and add the chopped chocolate and glucose syrup. Leave for 1 minute and then whisk until you have a smooth and creamy mixture. Immediately add butter, one small piece at a time, whisking continuously yet softly until all the butter has been incorporated into the mixture and you have a smooth and creamy ganache.

Note: Don’t whisk vigorously because air will be incorporated in the ganache resulting in little bubbles that will be visible on top. I didn’t follow my own advice and whisked a little harder than I should, that’s why tiny bubbles are visible on top of the tart.

Assemble the tart
Place tart shell on a plate.
While the ganache is still warm, pour it into the tart shell, all the way to the top but being careful not to spill it. If you have any leftover ganache, pour it into a glass bowl and place it in the fridge to eat as some sort of chocolate pudding.
Place the tart carefully in the fridge and allow the ganache to set completely before serving. It will take 3-4 hours for the ganache to set.

Once ready, decorate the tart with some raspberries and have some extra to serve alongside the tart, or alternatively you can sprinkle the top with icing sugar.

You can keep the tart in the refrigerator, uncovered (or lightly covered with a piece of plastic wrap) for 2 days.

In Greece again (and a fruit tart)

Even though this beautiful berry and crème pâtissière tart on pâte sucrée was made last week in the Netherlands, I’m writing this from a different place. I’m in Greece!

We arrived a few days ago and we are reveling in the warm hot weather, the friendly faces, the good food and the beauty of our surroundings. Yes, Athens is beautiful, especially this time of year.

It is very much summer at the moment in Greece, with temperatures at 35 degrees Celsius, but when we left the Netherlands, there was a thunderstorm and we couldn’t walk one meter without getting soaked to the bone.

That is all behind us at the moment and we’re looking forward to starting our summer vacation. Part of it will be spent in Athens and the rest in an undisclosed location. I’ll share photos and stories at some point.

In the meantime, I didn’t want to leave this recipe for a sweet tart in my files all lonely and unshared. It is delicious, colorful and sinful—don’t let the innocent-looking berries on top fool you, the calories in this are a lot—, a tart worthy of a celebration, any type of celebration really, even the “I had a rough day at work and managed not to freak out” kind of celebration.

The pâte sucrée is buttery and crisp like a biscuit and a tiny bit harder than the common version, but only so that it creates a nice contrast to the creamy, smooth, rich crème pâtissière. The crème is also slightly different from the common pastry cream, as it contains more eggs that make it somewhat stronger. The addition of whipped cream though, lightens it and makes it more creamy and airy.

The fresh fruits, devoid of any icing sugar or apricot glaze, give not only freshness and lightness to the tart, but also a slight sharpness and liveliness to it. The more fruit the better. Try to use different kinds.

I used blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, red currants and strawberry-grapes. I was so surprised to find these at the market in The Hague, they’re a hybrid, and they taste just like their name implies; grape flavor with a hint of strawberry sweetness.

I hope you enjoy making this tart as much as I did and more so when you eat it!

Crème Pâtissière and Fresh Berry Tart

Crème pâtissière (pastry cream) is a rich, creamy, smooth and thick custard made with eggs, milk, sugar and corn flour, and can have flavorings like vanilla, various liqueurs, coffee, etc. It is used as a filling for tarts, éclairs, choux and many more.

Pâte sucrée (sweet pastry crust) is a sweet and rich pastry with a crisp, biscuit-like texture. It is made with flour, butter, icing sugar and eggs, and it’s used as the base for sweet tarts whose filling don’t need baking.

You don’t have to use a variety of fruits on top of the tart, but you can go with just one. You can also use any type of fruits you like as long as they are not too wet. For example, strawberries, cherries, peaches, apricots, nectarines, figs, grapes will work beautifully in this tart.

Yield: 6-8 pieces

Ingredients

for the pâte sucrée (pastry)
250 g all-purpose flour, sieved
100 g unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces, plus extra for greasing the pan
100 g icing sugar, sieved
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or the scraped seeds from 1 fresh vanilla bean
3 egg yolks plus 1 egg yolk, from large eggs
1 Tbsp whole fresh milk

for the crème pâtissière (cream)
500 ml whole fresh milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or the scraped seeds from 1 fresh vanilla bean
7 egg yolks, from medium-sized eggs
125 g caster sugar
60 g corn flour
150 ml cream, full fat (35%)

Fresh raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, red currants, seedless grapes

Special equipment: fine sieve, large food processor, rolling pin, plastic wrap, fluted tart pan (22 cm in diameter) with removable bottom, baking paper, baking weights or dried beans, pastry brush, wire whisk, hand-held electric mixer


Preparation

for the pâte sucrée
• with a food processor
In a large food processor, add the flour, butter, icing sugar, salt and vanilla bean paste or seeds and process, tilting and gently shaking the bowl until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs or almond meal. Then add 3 egg yolks and process until just combined and you have a very crumbly dough that barely holds together.

• by hand
In a large bowl, add the flour, icing sugar, salt and vanilla bean paste or seeds and stir with a spatula. Add the cubed cold butter and, using two knives, a pastry cutter/blender or your fingertips, cut it into the flour, until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs or almond meal. Then make a well in the middle, add 3 egg yolks and mix with your hands, working quickly, until just combined and you have a very crumbly dough that barely holds together. Don’t knead the dough.

Empty the pastry dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap (do not knead it because you will activate the gluten in the flour which will make the pastry tough and it will shrink during baking), form a disk, cover it and place it in the refrigerator to chill, for about 1 hour.

Lightly grease the bottom and sides of your tart pan.

Remove the pastry dough from the refrigerator, unwrap and discard the plastic wrap and place dough between two large sheets of baking paper. Using a rolling pin, roll out the pastry to a thickness of about 0.3 cm, taking care to keep the dough neat and tear-free.
Remove the top sheet of baking paper, slide your hand underneath the bottom baking paper and carefully and gently invert the dough onto the tart pan, allowing it to fall little-by-little onto the pan base. Remove the baking paper from the top and carefully and gently again line the pan with the pastry, pushing it into the curved sides of the pan. If it tears, don’t fret; just use the overhanging dough to cover those tears. Using the back of a knife, cut the excess dough that's hanging around the edges of the pan.
Place the tart pan in the refrigerator and chill the dough for about 20 minutes.

Note: In case you have left-over dough, you can keep it in the freezer, wrapped in cling film or in a ziploc bag, for up to a month. Thaw it and use it to make smaller tarts or biscuits.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 350 Fahrenheit.

Take the tart pan out of the refrigerator and prick the base of the dough with a fork all around. Line the bottom and sides of the dough with a large enough piece of baking paper and fill it with pie weights or dried beans. Place the pan on a baking sheet and on the middle rack of the oven and bake the pastry for 15-17 minutes.
In the meantime, in a small bowl, add 1 egg yolk and the milk (1 Tbsp) and mix well with a fork.
Take the pan out of the oven, remove the baking paper along with the pie weights and check that the base is slightly golden. Brush pastry well with the egg yolk-milk mixture and return pastry to the oven, without the baking sheet this time. Bake for another 10-12 minutes or until the dough is golden.

Note: The glazing of the pastry “seals” it somehow, and it prevents it from getting soggy and soft when the filling is added.

Remove tart pan from the oven, place onto a wire rack to cool completely and then remove the pastry from the pan.

for the crème pâtissière
While the pastry dough is resting, start making the crème pâtissière, which will also need time to cool in the refrigerator before using.

In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan add 400 ml of the milk, the vanilla paste or seeds and a 1 Tbsp of the sugar, and bring to the boil over medium-high heat.

Note: By adding sugar to the milk it prevents it from catching and sticking to the bottom of the pan.

In the meantime, in a medium-sized bowl, add the egg yolks and the rest of the sugar and whisk with a wire whisk until you have a smooth mixture. Add the corn flour and the remaining 100 ml of the milk and whisk to combine.

Gradually whisk milk mixture into the egg mixture (don’t worry about curdling, it won’t as the egg mixture has corn flour in it) until combined well. Empty this mixture back into the saucepan and place over medium heat. Whisking continuously, wait until the cream begins to bubble and then remove it from the heat. Transfer the cream to a clean bowl and cover it with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap adheres to the surface of the cream, which will prevent it from forming a skin.
Place the crème pâtissière in the refrigerator for an hour or until it has cooled.

Note: You can make the crème pâtissière a day in advance.

When the cream crème pâtissière has cooled, whip the cream with a hand-held electric mixer until soft peaks form.
Whisk the crème pâtissière with a wire whisk to loosen it, but if you find that it has become too stiff to whisk by hand, switch to a hand-held electric mixer.
Fold the whipped cream into the crème pâtissière using a spatula.

Assemble the tart
Fill the tart shell with the crème pâtissière mixture. Arrange the assorted fruits on top and serve.
Alternatively, you can fill the tart shell with the cream mixture and place it in the fridge until you want to serve it. Add the fruits on top just before serving.

You can keep the tart in the refrigerator, uncovered (or lightly covered with a piece of plastic wrap) for 2 days.