Lemon Berry Millefeuille

Adapted from:

"Blueberry and lemon millefeuille" from Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy. Also on BBC.

Original Ingredients: (Makes 6 triple-layer millefeuilles): 

• 115g/4oz icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
• 250g/9oz shop-bought puff pastry
• 200g/7oz (or 1 punnet) blueberries
• 165ml/5½fl oz whipping cream
• 25g/1oz icing sugar for sweetened cream
• 1 vanilla pod, seeds only (or alternatively 2 drops of vanilla extract)
• 1 lemon, finely grated zest and a squeeze of the juice

Original Method:

1. Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper. Dust the work surface with lots of icing sugar and roll out the pastry to a rectangle just larger than 27 x 30cm/10½ x 12in, trimming the edges straight. It should be super thin, as thin as you can get it, without stretching the pastry.
2. Cut out 18 rectangles about 9cm/3½in long and 5cm/2in wide and place them on the prepared baking tray. Sprinkle with lots of icing sugar and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
4. Remove the pastry from the fridge and bake in the oven for five minutes, then remove from the oven and sprinkle the pastry with more icing sugar. Return to the oven and bake for a further five minutes, or until the pastry turns golden-brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.
5. For the sweetened cream, put the cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a large bowl and whip until medium-stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl. Fold in the lemon zest and juice, to taste, then scoop the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm/½in straight nozzle.
6. Place one of the pastry thins on a serving plate. Pipe blobs of cream over the pastry and put the blueberries between the cream, then put another pastry thin on top and repeat with one more layer. Sprinkle the top layer with more icing sugar and repeat until all the pastry and cream is used up.

My Ingredients: (Makes 6 double-layer millefeuilles):

• about 40-60g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
• 250g shop-bought puff pastry
• about 70g blueberries
• about 50g raspberries
• 110g double cream
• 20g icing sugar for sweetened cream
• 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2/3 lemon, finely grated zest
• 2 squeezes of the juice

My Modifications:

• I only could roll out the pastry to a smaller rectangle of about 21cm x 28 cm. After trimming the edges, I cut out 12 rectangles each about 5cm x 9cm.
• In addition to blueberries, I also added raspberries to some millefeuilles.
• Extra lemon juice and zest were folded in the cream to reduce the sweetness. I also added zest on the top layers of each millefeuille after finishing with icing sugar.
• I did not exactly measure how much icing sugar used but it's significantly less than 115g suggested.

 

• As my pastry wasn't rolled thin nor even enough, some puff layers became quite thick after baking. Hence I only made 6 double-layer millefeuilles instead of 4 triple-layer millefeuilles.
• Double cream instead of whipping cream was used, simply because I have a tub of double cream expiring in two days. I reduced the amount of sweetened cream as I had fewer layers to cream.
• I used a sandwich bag (because I was too lazy and didn't want to use and wash my piping bags) for piping. I piped the whipped lemon cream as zig-zags over the pastry as the I could not pipe any nice blobs with a sandwich bag.
• The total baking time was about 16 minutes:

1. Bake for 5 minutes, remove from oven and sprinkle with icing sugar;
2. Turn the tray around by 180 degrees, bake for another 5 minutes.
3. Turn the tray around by 90 degrees, bake for another 3 minutes.
4. Turn the tray around by 90 degrees, bake for another 3 minutes.

One-line Verdict:

Using store-bought pastry doesn't mean easy peasey. Rolling it thin and cutting it even was NOT easy.

Verdict:

• This millefeuille recipe is easier than most other recipes. The pastry was cut before baking so the messy step of cutting baked puff neatly is skipped. Whipping cream is a lot easier to make (or it can be bought readily) than Crème Pâtissière used in many other recipes.
• Pre-cutting the puff pastry, however, seems to result in less tidy edges compared with the traditional ones that are cut after baking. If I make millefeuilles again, I will not cut the puff beforehand.
• I accidentally made an extra squeeze of the lemon so the cream was less sweet than I'd like, though my other two friends seem to be pretty satisfied with the reduced sweetness.
• Rolling the pastry thin and even were really challenging. And I didn't do it quick enough so the butter in the pastry started melting in the middle. I stopped and didn't roll further. Maybe I should just chuck the half-rolled pastry into fridge for 30 minutes.
• Substituting piping bag with sandwich bag is acceptable but it's very difficult to make any decent blobs of cream.
• Raspberries go really well with blueberries and lemon! I think those with two berries taste better than those with blueberries alone!
• Overall I am happy with this though there are many rooms for improvement. I will make this again, definitely!
• Approximate cost of the main ingredients: £3

Fresh Fig Ice Cream

Original Recipe:

"Fresh Fig Ice Cream" from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop.

Original Ingredients:

• 2lbs fresh black mission figs (about 20)
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 lemon
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more to taste.

Original Method:

1. Remove the hard stem ends from the figs, then cut each fig into 8 pieces. Put the figs in a medium, non-reactive saucepan with the water, and zest the lemon directly into the saucepan.
2. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 8-10 minutes until the figs are tender. Remove the lid, add the sugar and continue to cook until it reaches a jam-like consistency.
3. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Blend together with cream and lemon juice, chill in the fridge and then put in your ice cream maker per the manufacturer's instructions.

My Ingredients:

• 450g of Turkey's bursa figs (about 8)
• 125ml of water
• 1/2 lemon
• 75g of sugar
• 120g of double cream
• lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
• 15ml of Crème de Cassis 

My Method: 

• I halved the recipe and translated it into metric measurements. The only exception is water. I did not reduce the amount of water into because it would not be enough to cook the raw figs.
• I added 15ml (approximately 1 tbsp) of Crème de Cassis after blending to avoid the ice cream from freezing too much.

One-line Verdict:

Looks rustic but tastes divine. Not the easiest ice cream to make though.

Verdict:

• This ice cream is egg-free, it means it's particularly easy to freeze into hard ice. Using an ice cream maker should help but I don't have one. I did churn the mixture a lot (every 30 minutes for the first 4 hours) but it just couldn't reach the creamy texture. I will make this or any other non-custard based ice cream again only if I get a decent ice cream maker.
• Thanks to the liqueur. I think it did help to prevent the ice cream from freezing too much. I was afraid the addition of Crème de Cassis (a blackcurrant liqueur from France) would interfere the flavour but luckily it didn't happen. If I make this ice cream again, I would use Rum, Brandy or Vodka as the higher alcohol concentration should be more efficient in preventing ice formation. Or I'd replace some granulated sugar with liquid glucose, which can provide some viscosity and prevent ice formation.
• Though it looks rustic, it tastes good. What can I say? It tastes DIVINE. No exaggeration. The sweetness is just right and the fig seeds give an interesting crunchy feeling. Did I mention the colour? No food colouring but the figs and double cream alone are enough to give the ice cream an absolutely gorgeous pink.
• I think a food processor can be used to blend the fig jam before mixing it with double cream and lemon juice to grate the fig skins and give it a smoother feeling.
• Figs are in season from autumn till early spring, so seize your chance before they're gone!
• Approximate cost of the main ingredients: £4 (about 500g, excluding the cost of liqueur)

Banana Walnut Bread

Adapted from:

"Banana Bread" from BBC.

Original Ingredients: (Makes a 20cm x 12.5cm loaf)

• 285g/10oz plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 110g/4oz butter, plus extra for greasing
• 225g/8oz caster sugar
• 2 free-range eggs
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 85ml/3fl oz buttermilk (or normal milk mixed with 1½ tsp lemon juice or vinegar)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Original Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well. Fold in the flour mixture.
5. Grease a 20cm x 12.5cm/8in x 5in loaf tin and pour the cake mixture into the tin.
6. Transfer to the oven and bake for about an hour, or until well-risen and golden-brown.
7. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before serving.

My Ingredients & Method:

• Basically followed the recipe word for word except the following modifications:
• I used 3 ripe bananas instead of 4 (as I misread the recipes, doh!)
• I used a 20cm (8-inch) round cake tin as my loaf tin is smaller than the suggested size.
• I reduced the baking time to 40 minutes.
• I added 30grams of walnut.

One-line Verdict:

An easy cake perfect for breakfast or teatime with coffee or tea.

Verdict:

• I misread the recipe and accidentally reduced the banana portion by a quarter. The resulting cake had a weaker banana flavour than most store-bought cakes. Oh yes, banana bread is technically a cake. The "bread" title has more to do with the loaf-shape then the texture.
• Tin sizes or shapes definitely affect baking time. This must be taken into account when substituting tins. A rule of thumb is to reduce the baking time by about 1/4 when using a shallower pan (in another word, a wider tin with larger surface on the top) than the one in the recipe. For a recipe with an original baking time of 60 minutes, start checking 40 minutes after start.
• Walnuts or any nuts should be toasted at 200C for 6-8 minutes before chopping and mixing with the batter. I didn't realize that from other online resources until I finished my bake!