A very close friend reached out to me recently with the sad news that his wife's brother had unexpectedly passed away. My buddy wanted me to create some kind of dessert to honor his wife's brother. Even though his wife wouldn't get to taste it (thanks to the COVID sequestering situation), he wanted me to adhere to certain restrictions. 1) the pastry had to be gluten-free (because his wife is); and 2) I couldn't use any almonds, because she doesn't like almonds. I was told to push my limits and see what I could come up with.
This was a big challenge for me because I have never "created" anything before. That's not what I do. I "re-create" things other people created by way of their recipes and formulas. So, I would really be pushing my limits with this one!
I spent an entire day thinking about the assignment. Finally, the next morning, I came up with an idea! I thought I would make individual cream tarts. It would give me a chance to use tart rings for the first time. I decided I would use pistachios, hazelnuts, mousseline crème, and a meringue of some sort. I knew I wanted to use the hazelnuts in a praline mousseline crème, similar to the filling used in a Paris-Brest, so that left the pistachios to be used in the base. Because I didn't have access to gluten-free flour (thanks again to COVID and bare shelves at the grocery store) I scoured the Internet to find a way to make a pastry shell with just nuts and no flour. I finally found one by KC Cornwell at the blog FeedFeed, and I was ready to begin.
I had ground pistachio flour to which I added an egg, sugar, salt, and butter to and made a dough that I pressed into tart rings and then baked for about 10-12 minutes.
I toasted hazelnuts and removed their skins as best I could. Then, I added them to sugar and water that I caramelized to make praline. I spread the caramel-coated hazelnuts on a Silpat covered baking sheet and let it cool. Finally, I broke up the hazelnuts and sugar into my food processor bowl and blitzed it until it formed a paste.
Meanwhile, I made crème pâtisserie (pastry cream) and allowed it to quickly cool, covered, spread out on a plastic wrap lined baking sheet in the refrigerator. Once cool, I beat the praline paste into the crème pat., along with some additional butter, to make the hazelnut praline mousseline crème filling.
I piped the mousseline filling into the now cooled tart shells and set them aside in the fridge while I made an Italian meringue - my favorite! Using a star tip, I piped a billowing mound of meringue on top of each tart and lightly torched the meringue edges.
Viola! I had a gluten-free, almond-free, pastichio nut base with hazelnut praline mousseline crème topped with a lightly torched Italian meringue cream tart!
I decided to name my creation, the "Blinded By the Light Cream Tart" in honor of my buddy's brother-in-law's favorite song.
I never had the honor of meeting my friend's brother-in-law, and knew absolutely nothing about him. So imagine my surprise when my friend's wife told me that cream tarts were her brother's favorite pastry and that this brought back very happy memories of a time when the two of them ate their way through the bakeries of Europe! The three of us knew that her brother had a guiding hand in this.
Beyond that, though, is the impact that this heretofore unknown person had on me. Before I was asked to do this, I would never consider creating something of my own. The thought just would never occur to me. It's not how I bake (or cook). Like I said earlier, I "recreate" what others have done and written down. This not only presented me with the opportunity to create something new, but it also forced me to take that opportunity and do it! And the constraints that were put on me by my friend's wife - and the current grocery store situation - made me really put forth an effort to come up with something. It also taught me to stop thinking about the things I could NOT do and the ingredients I could NOT use and focus on those things that I COULD do and COULD use. When I got rid of that negativity, Nick's spirit flowed into me and the cream tart was born!
So I tip my chef's toque to Nick and thank him for helping me not only with my first pastry creation but with helping me to gain the confidence to do something I never realized I could do.
This was a big challenge for me because I have never "created" anything before. That's not what I do. I "re-create" things other people created by way of their recipes and formulas. So, I would really be pushing my limits with this one!
I spent an entire day thinking about the assignment. Finally, the next morning, I came up with an idea! I thought I would make individual cream tarts. It would give me a chance to use tart rings for the first time. I decided I would use pistachios, hazelnuts, mousseline crème, and a meringue of some sort. I knew I wanted to use the hazelnuts in a praline mousseline crème, similar to the filling used in a Paris-Brest, so that left the pistachios to be used in the base. Because I didn't have access to gluten-free flour (thanks again to COVID and bare shelves at the grocery store) I scoured the Internet to find a way to make a pastry shell with just nuts and no flour. I finally found one by KC Cornwell at the blog FeedFeed, and I was ready to begin.
I had ground pistachio flour to which I added an egg, sugar, salt, and butter to and made a dough that I pressed into tart rings and then baked for about 10-12 minutes.
I toasted hazelnuts and removed their skins as best I could. Then, I added them to sugar and water that I caramelized to make praline. I spread the caramel-coated hazelnuts on a Silpat covered baking sheet and let it cool. Finally, I broke up the hazelnuts and sugar into my food processor bowl and blitzed it until it formed a paste.
Meanwhile, I made crème pâtisserie (pastry cream) and allowed it to quickly cool, covered, spread out on a plastic wrap lined baking sheet in the refrigerator. Once cool, I beat the praline paste into the crème pat., along with some additional butter, to make the hazelnut praline mousseline crème filling.
I piped the mousseline filling into the now cooled tart shells and set them aside in the fridge while I made an Italian meringue - my favorite! Using a star tip, I piped a billowing mound of meringue on top of each tart and lightly torched the meringue edges.
Viola! I had a gluten-free, almond-free, pastichio nut base with hazelnut praline mousseline crème topped with a lightly torched Italian meringue cream tart!
I decided to name my creation, the "Blinded By the Light Cream Tart" in honor of my buddy's brother-in-law's favorite song.
I never had the honor of meeting my friend's brother-in-law, and knew absolutely nothing about him. So imagine my surprise when my friend's wife told me that cream tarts were her brother's favorite pastry and that this brought back very happy memories of a time when the two of them ate their way through the bakeries of Europe! The three of us knew that her brother had a guiding hand in this.
Beyond that, though, is the impact that this heretofore unknown person had on me. Before I was asked to do this, I would never consider creating something of my own. The thought just would never occur to me. It's not how I bake (or cook). Like I said earlier, I "recreate" what others have done and written down. This not only presented me with the opportunity to create something new, but it also forced me to take that opportunity and do it! And the constraints that were put on me by my friend's wife - and the current grocery store situation - made me really put forth an effort to come up with something. It also taught me to stop thinking about the things I could NOT do and the ingredients I could NOT use and focus on those things that I COULD do and COULD use. When I got rid of that negativity, Nick's spirit flowed into me and the cream tart was born!
So I tip my chef's toque to Nick and thank him for helping me not only with my first pastry creation but with helping me to gain the confidence to do something I never realized I could do.
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| Created with love for Carolyn and Christof in honor of Nick by Mark W. Falzini. |
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