Tarte au citron

This is a very simple tart to make, as long as you follow the recipe correctly and use an electric scale. At first you may think the recipe contains A LOT of lemon, but there really isn't any point in having a lemon tart unless you get the full blast of its flavour! 

Ingredients

• 200g plain flour + extra for dusting
• 30g icing sugar
• 95g unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp cold water
• 4 lemons
• 120ml double cream
• 250g caster sugar
• 5 large eggs

1. Mix flour and icing sugar together in a large bowl
2. Cut butter into small chunks and add to the flour, pulse if you have an electric blender, if not, rub the ingredients together with your finger tips until they resemble a breadcrumb structure
3. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and add the egg to it and combine ingredients with you hand, if it doesn't quite stick together, add 1 tbsp of water and try again. Try not to overwork the dough as the butter will melt and turn into a sticky mess
4. Lightly dust work surface with flour and gently roll out the pastry dough to about 3mm thick
5. Put rolled out pastry into a 23cm fluted tart tin and very lightly press the pastry against the sides, don't worry about the extra pastry hanging off the sides of tin for now
6. Evenly prick small holes across the entire base of pastry and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes
7. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C/160 fan
8. Take pastry out of fridge and line with parchment paper and fill baking beans/rice
9. Bake the pastry for 5 minutes and take it out of the oven, use a sharp knife to trim off the excess pastry to form a perfect shape
10. Return pastry to oven and bake for another 10 minutes (check if base is dry, if not return to oven for another 3 minutes)
11. Remove baking beans and parchment paper and bake for another 5-10 minutes, or until the base is golden
12. Take pastry case out of oven to cool slightly, lower oven temperature to 170 degrees C (150 fan) and start preparing filling
13. Mix eggs, caster sugar and cream together and whisk until smooth
14. Add the juice and zest from 4 lemons to the eggs and whisk again until everything has combined 
15. Pour mixture into a jug
16. Return pastry back into oven and then pour the filling in, this way, the filling is less likely to spill than attempting to return pastry case with filling together into oven
17. Bake for 25-35 minutes, it's done when the sides are set and the middle wobbles slightly when tapped gently on the side
18. Cool completely on bench top
19. Dust with icing sugar and serve! 

Sachertorte

The Sachertorte, it is also known as the king of chocolate cakes. No, I didn't make that up! For something as glamorous as the king, it is really quite a plain cake/torte. The decorations only consist of a shiny chocolate coating and the piped word Sacher on it. The recipe dates back to 1832 and is the signature cake of Hotel Sacher and its recipe is guarded as top security. However, many have attempted at creating their own version of the sachertorte since. 

Ingredients

• 145g + 100g plain chocolate (in separate bowls)
• 80g + 35g+ 60g caster sugar (in separate bowls)
• 140g unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g ground almond
• 40g plain flour
• 5 large eggs, separated
• 10 tbsp apricot jam
• 200ml double cream
• 10g milk chocolate
• coco powder for dusting

1. Melt 145g plain chocolate over simmering water or low power in the microwave, let it cool for 20 minutes
2. Beat butter until it is very soft
3. Cream in 80g sugar into the butter and it is very soft and fluffy
4. Grease and line a 23cm round baking tin with parchment paper and pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C
5. Add the cooled chocolate and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar and mix
6. Add the egg yolks and beat the mixture until it is smooth
7. Fold in the ground almond and plain flour until they have incorporated into the rest of the batter
8. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites with electric whisk until it begins to get foamy and then add 1 tbsp of the 35g of sugar at a time until all the sugar is dissolved and the meringue forms stiff peaks
9. Add 1/4 of meringue to cake batter and beat it in to soften the batter
10. Add remaining egg white to the batter and VERY gently fold it in to avoid losing the volume
11. Pour mixture into baking tin and bake for 50-60 minutes (you may need to cover the top with foil after about 40 minutes to prevent the top from burning, but this is oven dependent)
12. Take the torte out of the oven and let it cool in the tin for 2 minutes and remove from tin and cool on a wire rack
13. Slice the torte horizontally in half
14. Heat double cream and 60g caster sugar until boiling and sugar completely dissolved
15. Take cream off the heat and let it cool for 2 minutes and add to 100g of broken plain chocolate, stir until chocolate has melted and the ganache is shiny. Let is cool for 10 minutes 
16. Microwave 5 tbsp of apricot jam to soften it and make it more spreadable
17. Spread apricot jam onto the bottom slice of torte and leave it for 5 minutes and then spread a generous amount of chocolate ganache on top of the jam
18. Put the other layer of torte on
19. Microwave the remaining apricot jam and spread it on the torte
20. Pour ganache onto the torte and spread it evenly, or tilt the torte to let the ganache run to the side to get a smooth finish on the top and the sides
21. Let the ganache to cool completely for 30 minutes
22. Melt milk chocolate over simmering water or low power in microwave and put it into a piping bag and let it cool for 20-30 minutes
23. Pipe the word "Sacher" on the torte with milk chocolate 
24. Dust coco powder into patterns you desire 

Here we are! The KING of chocolate cakes! 

Pain aux raisins

The good old pain aux raisins, there are many variations to how this is made. Some use puff pastry and some uses brioche dough. Personally, I'm a fan of the brioche dough method. A trip to Boston and a taste of the pain aux raisins from the Flour Bakery really got me interested in making these myself, especially when I realised I couldn't just take a trans-atlantic flight every time I fancied some. To make the pain aux raisins, you will need to make the brioche dough and the pastry cream. 

Recipe (brioche dough)

• 160g plain flour
• 170g strong white bread flour
• 2 and a half large eggs
• 60ml water
• 160g unsalted butter, cut into 10-12 pieces (room temperature)
• 7g dried yeast
• 40g caster sugar
• 2g salt

1. You can use a dough hook, that can make your life easier, but I don't have one, so I did it by hand
2. Mix plain and bread flour, sugar togther
3. Add salt to one side of mixing bowl 
4. Add yeast to the other side of mixing bowl
5. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the water and eggs to the well
6. Use your hands to bring all the ingredients together and knead the dough for 5 minutes
7. Add one piece of butter at a time to the dough and incorporate by kneading it on a lightly floured surface, repeat the process until all the butter has been incorporated
8. The dough at this time will feel VERY wet and you will start to doubt whether it's going to work, keep kneading it and it will eventually become silky and elastic. Stop when you can stretch it by about 30-35cm and it doesn't break
9. Put the dough in a lightly floured bowl, seal with cling film and let it proof at room temperature for 2-3 hours or better, overnight in the fridge for up to 10 hours
10. The dough should have almost doubled in size

Recipe (pastry cream)

• 300 ml semi-skimmed milk
• 100g caster sugar
• 30g plain flour
• pinch of salt
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp vanilla essence

1. Bring milk to a boil
2. Mix sugar, flour and egg yolks together until it resembles a thick paste
3. Add hot milk a bit at a time to the eggs, whisking it the entire time to prevent lumps from forming
4. When all the hot milk has been added to the eggs, return the whole mixture back to saucepan
5. Put it on medium heat, whisking the mixture the entire time, until it boils and thickens
6. Take the pastry cream off heat and fold in the vanilla essence
7. Let it cool to room temperature

Recipe (sugar glaze)

• 140g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Make the glaze by simply mixing everything together, add more water if necessary to make it thinner. 

You will also have to soak your raisins if they are very dry

1. Knock out the air in the dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface to 40cm by 30cm, with the length of dough facing you 
2. Spread the pastry cream on the dough, you don't need any cream 2-3cm on the length closest to you
3. Spread the raisins over the pastry cream
4. Start rolling from the length furtherest away from you and roll it towards you. Try to keep it a tight roll (I didn't in mine as you can see, and it didn't look very good, but it's my first time)
5. Use a sharp knife to cut the roll into 3-4 cm thick pieces and turn them round, then you can see the spiral
6. Put it in a baking tray and wrap with cling film and let it proof for a second time in a warm room for 60 minutes to 90 minutes and it should increase in volume
7. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C (160 fan) when the doughs are almost ready (i.e. have increased in volume)
8. Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on your oven
9. Take it out of oven and brush the top with glaze whilst it is still warm