Raspberry Crème Fraîche Puff Food

SIMPLE RASPBERRY CREME PUFFS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, or silicone mat.
• In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, sugar and salt. Slowly heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently to dissolve sugar and melt the butter. Once sugar is dissolved and butter is melted, increase the heat to medium high heat and bring the mixture to a boil.
• When the mixture is boiling, remove the saucepan from heat and add flour all at once. Quickly mix the mixture until all the flour is absorbed. (We just made panade!)
• Replace the saucepan back to burner and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the dough, continuously mixing with a wooden spoon. The dough will start to form into a ball. Keep mixing for another 3-4 minutes until light crust forms on the bottom of the pan. (Note: It's important to cook for at least 3-4 minutes to dry out the panade.)
• Transfer the dough into a mixing bowl with paddle attachment and mix it for a few minutes on low speed until the mixture is at room temperature, about 2 minutes. (No mixer? No problem. You can mix it with a wooden spoon!)
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. This will help to get egg absorbed into the dough quicker. Don't add more than 2 eggs at a time! This is important, as you might not need to add all the eggs. The dough should be smooth and shiny, thin enough to slowly fall into a ribbon, but too runny. (Read more details in this post!)
• At this point choux pastry is done and ready to be piped into whatever size you want. Uncooked dough can also be refrigerated for up to 3 days in an airtight container.
• Transfer the batter into a pastry bag and pipe into 1.5-inch rounds couple inches apart. Level peaked tops with a wet fingertip.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes, one baking sheet at a time. The pastry shells should be golden brown, crispy and puffed up. (Note: If the creme puffs go flat as they come out of the oven, it means they are slightly undercooked and needs to be bake a bit longer. Simply put them back in the oven and bake for a few more minutes.) Transfer the shells onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
• To make raspberry whipped cream, pour cold heavy whipping cream in a mixing bowl with whisk attachment.
• Beat the cream on low speed (speed 2 or 4 on stand mixer) until slightly thickens.
• Add raspberry jelly. Continue to mix on medium speed (speed 4) for a minute or two. You can increase the speed to 6 on stand mixer until the mixture reaches hard peaks. Keep a close eye on it, you don't want to over-beat it, or it'll turn into sweet butter. Transfer the filling into a pastry bag fitted with a piping tip of your choice. (I used Wilton here.)
• To assemble, using a sharp pairing knife, slice top of each creme puff horizontally. You don't have to cut all the way through.
• Pipe the filling into each pastry shell and place the top of the creme puffs back.
• Arrange the filled creme puffs on a platter and dust with powdered sugar and serve.

RED, WHITE AND BLUEBERRY CREME FRAICHE PUFFS

Steps:

• Prepare the pastry shells according to the package directions.
• Beat the cream and confectioners' sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold in the creme fraiche.
• Spoon 2 tablespoons whipped cream mixture into each pastry shell. Top each with 1 tablespoon berries. Repeat the layers. Top each with 1 tablespoon whipped cream mixture and 1 berry. Sprinkle with additional confectioners' sugar, if desired.

CRUSHED RASPBERRY CREAMS

Steps:

• In a small bowl stir a sprinkling of the sugar in with the raspberries, crushing them very slightly as you stir, but still leaving them more or less whole. In a separate bowl fold the crème fraîche and yogurt together with the remaining sugar and the meringue pieces.
• Divide the raspberries among four small glasses, top with the creamy meringue mixture. The raspberry pots can be eaten straight away or will keep in the fridge for up to 4 hours.

RASPBERRY CRèME FRAîCHE PUFF

Steps:

• Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat oven to 400°F.
• Unfold pastry sheet and cut a 3-inch square from pastry with a sharp knife (reserve remaining pastry for another use).
• Bake pastry square on an ungreased baking sheet until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer pastry to a rack and cool completely, then cut pastry horizontally into 2 layers. Stir together crème fraîche and granulated sugar until sugar is dissolved.
• Just before serving, put bottom half of pastry on a plate and top with crème fraîche and raspberries, letting some berries spill onto plate. Cover with top half of pastry and dust with confectioners sugar.

RASPBERRY JAM BUNS WITH CRèME FRAîCHE FROSTING

Steps:

• In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the milk until it is body temperature (you can also use the microwave for this). Transfer the warm milk to a large bowl and stir in the yeast. Let the mixture sit until the yeast is dissolved and looks cloudy (almost like miso soup), about 5 minutes. A few bubbles on the surface is also a good sign that your yeast is ready.
• Crack one of the eggs into a small bowl and beat with a fork. Add the beaten egg to the milk-yeast mixture, along with the flour, granulated sugar, salt, and butter. Use a wooden spoon to mix everything together until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. (If after a minute or two of mixing it doesn't pull away from the bowl, add a little more flour, 1 Tbsp at a time, until it does. On the other hand, if the dough seems far too dry and impossible to mix, add a little more milk, 1 Tbsp at a time, until it becomes a little more forgiving. This is the nuanced part of baking where all the tiny variables-how humid the air is, how you measured your flour, etc.-all come into play. Don't worry too much and trust your instincts.)Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Shape the dough into a large ball and knead it by pressing it with the heel of your hand and pushing it away from you, then immediately pulling it back, folding the top of the dough back on itself. Kneading is all about this push-and-pull. Turn the dough clockwise a little bit each time you push and pull it so that it gets evenly worked, and knead it until its surface is completely smooth and the whole thing feels both solid and soft at the same time, not unlike a baby's bottom (probably my favorite line in this book). It will take a solid 5 minutes of kneading.Put the dough back in the large bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough sit in the warmest spot in your kitchen until it's soft and puffy and just about doubled in volume, about 1 hour.Return the dough to the lightly floured work surface and use a floured rolling pin to roll it into a large ovalish rectangle measuring roughly 18 in [46 cm] long and 12 in [30.5 cm] wide. If the dough resists while you are rolling it, simply let it rest until it yields to the rolling pin; dough responds well to patience. Spread the surface of the dough evenly with the raspberry jam, leaving a ½-in [12-mm] border. Starting from a long side, roll the dough up tightly so you end up with an 18-in [46-cm] rope. Cut the rope into a dozen even slices (I like to cut it in half and then cut each half in half, and so forth, so that it's easy to get even pieces). The ends might not have much jam-you can still add them to the bunch to make a baker's dozen.Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange the buns, spiraled-jam-side up, on the prepared baking sheet in relatively even rows. The buns should be touching each other but not shoving each other and the seams on the rolls should be facing inward in the "huddle" so that they don't unravel in the oven. Cover the buns loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until they've risen a bit and are soft and puffy, about 1 hour. Or, so you can prepare them the night ahead, let them rise at room temperature for just 30 minutes, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, pull them out and let return to room temperature, about 1 hour, before proceeding.Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350°F [180°C].Crack the remaining egg into a small bowl and whisk it with 1 Tbsp water. Uncover the buns and brush them with the egg mixture (I use my hands for this so I get to be very gentle, achieve even coverage, and don't have to wash a brush afterward). Discard whatever egg mixture is left over (or save for another use such as a tiny omelet).Bake the buns until they're beautifully browned and the exposed jam is caramelized, 25 to 30 minutes.While the buns are in the oven (ha!), in a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, crème fraîche, and vanilla.Drizzle the hot buns (yeow!) with the crème fraîche mixture-this should be a wonderfully messy moment. Serve immediately (an even more wonderfully messy moment). These buns are best served warm out of the oven rather than at room temperature.

RASPBERRY AND PASTRY CREAM FILLED PUFF PASTRY

Steps:

• To make pastry cream:
• Split a vanilla bean lengthwise, using a back of knife to scrape the seeds. In a medium saucepan, combine milk with the vanilla bean and seeds and lemon rind. Bring to a boil, then remove the lemon rind and vanilla bean.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Add the sugar and flour and whisk well. Before adding the egg yolk mixture to milk, temper it by whisking in some of the milk to the yolk mixture. Pour it all back into the milk saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook at a boil for 2 to 3 minutes then remove from stove top and cool.
• Cut the puff pastry into 3 by 3-inch squares. You should have 24 pastry squares in total. Bake according to package directions until golden brown and crisp. Remove from the oven and cool.
• Place 1 square of puff pastry on a plate. Top with a layer of pastry cream. Top with raspberries and a small dollop of pastry cream. Repeat to make 1 more layer, ending with a puff pastry square on top. There should be 3 layers of puff pastry and 2 layers of pastry cream and raspberries in each stack.
• Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

RASPBERRY CREME FRAICHE TART

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375.
• Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 whole eggs, plus the white of the third egg. Beat until smooth. Add flour and mix at low speed just until combined.
• Scrape batter into a 9-inch tart pan, spreading over bottom and up sides of pan to create a rim.
• Mix egg yolk with crème fraîche and remaining vanilla. Pour over batter and spread just to the raised edge. Place berries on custard. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake until golden brown and edges of custard are set, about 40 minutes. Cool 30 minutes.