For Mothersday: Mango - Vanilla Pie with Lemonbalm

Today is Mothersday in my country. I don´t know why it´s not on the same day all over the world. For example in Great Britain they already had her Motherday.... Whoever! I decided this morning to make a quick little Pie for this occasion. I saw this Pie beeing prepared in a cooking show at the TV some days ago. I varied it a little bit but it´s nonetheless based on a recipe from the cook Andreas C. Studer.

In my opinion the recipe can be used for quite every fruit. I pesonally love Mangos and the one in my fridge had to used... But try the recipe for example with some raspberries or some rhubarb. (andreas C. Studer did it with rhubarb.. in the TV Show) Of course the recipe can be done on any occasion or without occasion :) ...and not only on Mothersday...

The amount of ingredients I´ll tell you is enough for about one 25 cm Pie

For the Piecrust you need:

- 200 g wheat flour

- 100 g cold butter

- 4 Tbsp. Milk

- a pinch of salt and some flour to dust the surface when you roll out the dough 

 For the Filling:

- 1 Mango

- 200 ml heavy cream

- 4 Tbsp. sugar

- 1 Tbsp. corn starch
- 2 medium sized Eggs
- 2 pinch of vanilla paste (or 1 scraped vanilla pod)

- 1 Tbsp. of chopped lemon balm

To prepare:

1. Start preparing the Pie crust by crumbling the butter together with the flour and a pinch of salt until you get a sandy consistency. Then add the 4 Tbsp. milk and work on it until you get a well combined dough.

2. Roll out your dough (I like to do it on a parchement paper because it is then easier to transfer the dough in my Pieform) until about 3 mm thick

4. Transfer it to your pieform that you´ve buttered before.

5. With a fork make all over some "holes" in your dough.

6. Cut the Mango into cubes and disperse on your unbaked Piecrust

7. Mix together heavy cream, sugar, corn starch, eggs and vanilla (mix just until well combined)

8. Pour this mixture over the Mangos
9. Spread the lemon balm over all. (The next time I´ll try if it would be better to add the lemon balm after having baked the Pie, to taste more of his flavour...)

10. Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven (220 C)

 Meanwhile clean your kitchen. Nobody else will do it...

 And then savour when slightly hot, the delicate, melting Filling with the crispy crust.... For Mothersday I

decorated the Pie with some coloured sugar.... I made out of a paper a "heart shaped master plate".. First dusted along my heart with the coloured sugar and then dusted allover with some icing sugar.

Springtime gourmet Festival in my Hometown

Every year there is a Gourmet Festival in a parc in the center of my hometown where every county shows his products. This weekend  is the Festival weekend. The sun is shining bright, the parc is crowded of people looking around, drinking eating, making sort of picknick, lying lazy in the gras...... Children playing, laughing.... Of course I went there and tasted some cheese, rose syrup (very delicate!), different mustards (one was with chocolate!), oils...

 

 

Of course I had to buy something. So I´ve got a walnut bread, a fantastic hazelnut oil and some wild garlic cheese. After my exhausting morning where the teacher for Projectmanagment took hours to explain the simpliest things, I had to be recompensed no? A glass of white wine, the walnut bread and some hazelnut oil... 

Yummmm...................... 

Elderflower - Apple Pastries

To my cup of Tea I love to nosh something, mainly something sweet. In fact writing those lines I´m thinking about some cookies... should bake some in the next days...

Having quite ever some puff pastry in my fridge and wanting some "springtime feeling pastry" to accompain my tea (as sun is shining but it´s nonetheless really cold...) I made those Elderflower - Apple Pastries.

You need:

60 ml elderflower syrup

250g curd cheese

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 roll of Puff pastry (about 275 g)

1 medium sized apple

To prepare:

1. Mix together the elderflower syrup, 1 tbsp. sugar and the curd cheese until melted.

2. Peel the apple and cut in slices

3. Cut the puff pastry in squares                                                          4. On each puff pastry square put 1 tsp. of your elderflower-curd cheese cream.

Top with 1 slice of apple

5. Fold the puff pastry over this filling and squeeze well the edges together

6. Place those pastries on a oventray armed with parchment paper

7. Spread some sugar on each pastry

8. Bake in the preheated (180 C) for about 25 minutes

Pineapple - Coconutdelight

I am ever looking for quick done deserts that nonetheless are a little bit uncommon. At the moment I´ve discovered for me Mascarpone. I use him  for sweets as well as to stir him at the end into my risotto or polenta or.... I dont´t know how long I had some tin of sweetened cococutcream in my cupboard that I never knew for what I could use it. Now I´ve found an option: Coconutcream. I made a coconutcream with mascarpone. Combined with the pineapple it brings some caribean feeling into your home...

The ingredients are:

- 180 g Mascarpone

- 80 g sweetened Coconutcream

- 4 Eggyolks

- 1 Tbsp. vanillated sugar

- 1 gelatine sheet

- 1/2 fresh Pineapple

- 3 Tbsp. honey

- 2 dash of vanilla paste (or one scraped vanilla bean)

To prepare (serves 4 - 6 persons depending on the size of your cups you put the cream into)

1. Soak the gelatine in some cold water

2. Mix eggyolks and sugar until it turns creamy and white

3. Add Mascarpone and coconutcream and mix until well combined

4. Take 2 Tbsp. of this cream and heat it up in a small pan. Dissolve the drained gelatine in the heated cream

5. Put the dissolved gelatine to your Mascarpone-coconut cream

6. Divide the cream in some small cups or in a glass and let rest in the fridge for some hours (or over night)

7. For the topping you cut the pineapple into small cubes

8. Heat up the honey in a pan, add vanilla and pineapple. Stir from time to time until the pineapples are soft and allover covered with honey (takes some minutes).

9. Let cool down the pineapple before you disperse them on your prepared coconutcream.

I used for decoration the leaves from the pineapple.

Lemon-Basil - gooseberrie Petits-Choux

I use Basil wherever it is possible as I like its "perfume", the taste and I am fascinated about the different varieties that exist. Today I´ve bought one pot of greek Basil (thats the one with the small leaves), one normal (with the bigger leaves) and a Lemon - Basil that really smells like a combination of Basil and Lemon. From my dinner with my friends there were some remaining gooseberries, that I had used as decoration for my aperitif. So why not combine them with the Lemon - Basil..... 

For the puffs (= Petits Choux) you need: 

200 g all purpose flour

250g water

100 g soft butter

1/4 tsp. salt

4 medium sized eggs

8 g baking powder
Directions to prepare the puffs:

1. In a large saucepan, bring water, salt and butter to boil.

2. Add flour and baking powder, stirring until the mixture forms a smooth ball. Remove from the heat; let stand for about 10  minutes.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beat well after each addition and continue beating until mixture is smooth.

4. Fill the dough in a piping bag and pipe small amounts of the dough (in a round or bone like shape) on a oven tray (armed with parchement paper)

5. Bake for about 25 minutes in the preheated oven (200 C). Do not open your oven during the baking time, otherwise your puffs will not rise!

6. Let cool down on a wire rack before fillig your puffs.

For the Lemon - Basil cream you need (makes about 14 Petits Choux):

- 200 g Heavy cream

- 200g Mascarpone

- 4 Tbsp. sugar

- one scraped vanilla bean (or 2 dash of a vanilla paste)

- one Hand full of Lemon - Basil leaves

- 100 g Gooseberries

How to prepare the Lemon-Basil Cream:

1. Mix heavy cream and basil leaves until you obtain a smooth cream

2. In a bowl put the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla, add the basilmixture and mix until everything is well combined

To assemble your Petits Choux:

1. Cut in halves the prepared puffs

2. Put some Basil cream on the base and a little bit on the upper part

3. Top the base with the halved gooseberries and put the upper part of your puff on the so prepared base.

Well thats it! Now enjoy them!