Perfect Peach Galette Rose's Alpha Bakers

Splat 2 |splat| informal noun

  a sound of something soft and wet or heavy striking a surface: the 'perfect peach galette' from the 'The Baking Bible' made a huge splat as it hit the bench.

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Splat!!!  So went the 'Perfect Peach Galette', with it's fresh peach topping and 'Perfect Flaky and Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust'.

I had the storage container ready for when the galette was cooled and lifted up the cooling rack to feel the bottom of the galette. Why I lifted the rack so high and so quickly I don't know, but there was "height and momentum" involved now.

The galette flew off the cooling rack and hit the edge of the storage container on the way down.

It flipped.

It broke.

It went splat!!!!  

So I scraped up some filling and plonked it on a tiny piece of still intact pastry... ta-da... and that's today's photo.  

It all started well enough I guess, it's still winter here so purchased imported peaches, American peaches to be exact *mental note to go plant a tree for carbon neutral ness!   

The peaches were put into a pot of boiling water (off the stove top) for one minute. I did some extra peaches in case I needed them.  

nude peach

Skins slipped straight off once the peaches were placed in a colander and cold water was run over them.

Peaches were then sliced, popped in a large bowl with sugar, salt and lemon juice to macerate. See all that juice? It was time to drain the peach slices of that juice. I got two thirds of cup of juice. 

juice was put into microwave safe jug

Butter is added to the juice and the mixture is microwaved (option is there to do it on stove top), until the juice mixture has been reduced to about one third of a cup.

reduced juice mixture

Reduced juice mix is spreadable... oh my, this tastes absolutely like the "essence of summer" or more accurately the "essence of peaches". 

The peachy concentrate was added back to the peaches slices with cornflour, almond extract and gently tossed together. 

all mixed and ready to be put aside so I can start the pastry

Here comes bad idea two but it doesn't include a "splat!!", I thought since we did this exact same pastry a few weeks ago for 'ElderBlueberry Pie (with not blueberries)'....  I'd use the same photos/text. Yep, then I forgot to take the shaping part at the end but I can redeem myself with pie apple coming up in a few weeks... fresh photos and shaping for that post :) 

For now here is the repeat of making the 'Perfect Flaky and Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust'...

Unsalted butter is cubed and then frozen. You can make by hand or with the food processor, I went with the latter.  The recipe is a rough puff pastry with a cream cheese/butter combo (rather than all butter or shortening/butter or lard/butter combination). 

Your frozen chilled flour, salt and baking powder mixture is removed from the freezer and process it briefly the with cream cheese.

The frozen butter then goes in for a whizz, cream and vinegar are added and the mix is processed until the butter is the size of small peas. 

It still looks like crumbs, with visible small bits of butter... you are only using the food processor to cut in the fats/liquid. Remove mixture from the food processor in it's crumb form and pressed together, before wrapping and chilling.

Time to roll... the mottled look showing the tiny pieces of cold butter. I rolled mine between two lightly floured pieces of plastic wrap. Envelope folded, rerolled, chilling happening too! 

Ok I was supposed to have used a pizza tray but mine has holes in bottom and I thought it wasn't going to suitable. Instead I put a round of rolled pastry on a silpat, put the prepared fruit filling on base and folded edges over leaving exposed fruit in the center. Sprinkled sugar on dampened edges and baked. 

No serving suggestions or opinions on end product today... but umm the pastry was nice, light and super flaky... I could tell from the distance the flakes travelled over the kitchen. Looking forward to the next bake where I won't be lifting any cooling racks!! 

Happy Baking :) 

How it works... now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a month I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

The Baking Bible available from Amazon and all discerning book retailers. 

You might also be interested in Salt and Pepper Squid recipe.

ElderBlueberry Pie (with no elderberries) Rose's Alpha Bakers

ElderBlueberry Pie (with no elderberries instead blackcurrants and blueberries) 'The Baking Bible'

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Apparently elderberries grow well in Australia, so my local nursery man told me. Yet I have never seen one, an elderberry that is. All about elderberries on Wikipedia

We love a savoury pie here, usually red meat but poultry, seafood and veg pies are also popular. Perhaps that is the reason we don't have a fruit pie culture in Australia, ummm "apple" you might have apple pie over winter or perhaps an aunt might whip up an apple/rhubarb pie.  Add in a mini fruit mince pie or three at Christmas and that's your dessert pie eating over for the year. We do like tarts and tarte Tatin but the double pie crust is a hard sell without the meat! 

This is supposed to be a family sized pie, but I went with "mini pies" to give sample pies out for my first ever berry pie.

Starting with Rose's 'Perfect Flaky and Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust' recipe, butter is cubed and then frozen. You can make by hand or with the food processor, I went with the latter.  The recipe is a rough puff pastry with a cream cheese/butter combo (rather than all butter or shortening/butter or lard/butter combination). 

frozen cubed butter

It's cream cheese that creates a little magic with this pastry, but more on that later first you need to take your chilled flour, salt and baking powder mixture from the freezer and process it with cream cheese.

The frozen butter then goes in for a whizz, cream and vinegar are added and the mix is processed until the butter is the size of small peas. 

Removed from the food processor in it's crumb form and pressed together, wrapped and then chilled.

Time to roll... the mottled look showing the tiny pieces of cold butter. I rolled mine between two lightly floured pieces of plastic wrap. Envelope folded, rerolled, chilling happening too! 

Cutting my top pieces with love heart steam hole. 

There is chilling/resting steps along the way here but I'm on to the elderberry (less) fruit filling now. 

Yep, it's winter here so it's frozen berries. Blackcurrants and blueberries were left to defrost over a strainer so I could use the juice in the next step. 

A slurry is made with water and cornflour (I used the juice from defrosted berries and made up the extra with water). 

Sugar and fruit is added to the pot, I added zest as elderberries would have added more tartness. Looking rather brightly coloured at this stage, but after a brief cooking time to activate cornflour (corn starch) the mixture is thick and dark. If serving pies warm the mixture will thin a little and at room temperature will thicken again. 

Pie pan was lined with pastry, filled with berry filling, topped with pastry tops and baked. Lol, this is one of those"dang I thought I took photos of that bit" moments. But here is a pie! 

Inside corner of pie showing the flakiness of the pastry even when rolled paper thin.

Now back to the "cream cheese pastry magic". Normally once you re-roll puff or rough puff pastry you lose more of your "puff" each time your re-roll  ... however the cream cheese in this pastry is far more forgiving and allows you to re-roll many times and not lose the rise. Example above is fourth roll out of scraps and you are still getting this height after the pastry was "scrunched" and re-rolled. 

Bread baking next Rose's Alpha Bakers bake.

Happy Baking :) 

Would I bake again? Yes and no... pastry yes... this would make a wonderful savoury pie crust. As a fruit pie no, but I do want to try other fruit pies from Rose's books there could be a "game changer" in there. 

Would I change anything?  No, it tasted fine and I guess that's what a berry pie should taste like, I suppose, not sure ha ha.  

 How it works... now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a month I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

The Baking Bible available from Amazon and all discerning book retailers. 

you might also be interested a fondant pie cupcake ... it has blackbirds :)

French Orange Cream Tart Rose's Alpha Bakers

                                french orange cream tart 

Dad is running wild: always look forward to the 10pm phone call from the nursing home saying "your Dad is using his walker as a weapon". Dad's kept me busy this week with a trip to hospital plus two falls at the nursing home (he is fine... though I suspect his leaving a trail of staff and residents in his wake), soooo, I'm behind with my usual blog posts but I have finished my bake for Rose's Alpha Bakers. :) 

I'm sure many of you are familiar with (or have eaten 402 slices) of the classic French Tarte Au Citron (Lemon Tart)... today's tart is a lovely alternative to lemon tart using oranges. 

Started by making a template as per instructed by Rose to use as my pastry cutting guide. Hmm, The Simpson's ruler probably belies the sophistication of the tart... but I needed "inch" measurements. 

Thought I should make it food safe, so wrapped in foil. 

Pastry time started with processing the cold butter cubes with raw sugar until the sugar disappeared. 

Flour, cream and egg are added and you have a crumbly mix ready to be turned out and pressed together.

Pastry making always has a touch of alchemy to it, the crumbs from the food processor become "pate sucree pastry" with a few simple presses. 

Ready to roll, between two pieces of lightly floured plastic wrap.

Here comes the bit I have never done before, the pastry with the bottom layer of plastic wrap is draped over the back of a cake tin. 

Then your loose bottomed tart tin is fitted on top and the whole thing is flipped. 

I was wondering why I was doing this instead of chucking the pastry in the tin like I usually do (ok, not chucking, don't chuck... gently placing in the tin) but I "got it", the reason for doing it that is. What you end up with is a perfectly shaped pastry case, with flat bottom and neat corners.

Case is blind baked as per normal. 

The filling is a breeze to make and if you do get little air bubbles on top of your unbaked poured mix, use your gas torch to lightly go over the surface, it will pop all bubbles before it goes in the oven.   Ha, my filling is almost neon orange thanks to local free range eggs that had the brightest yolks I have ever seen!

After baking and chilling it's time to fire up the torch it's time to brûlée. A local cafe uses the term "burnished" when they are talking about their lemon tart "burnished lemon tart" and that's really what the finish is like on this tart. Only a few teaspoons of icing sugar is used/brûléed to become a whisper thin burnished sugar finish.

A small amount of icing sugar is applied and torched, after a brief chilling a second small amount is sifted over torched. I thought at first it the sugar wasn't going to caramelise, but it's just a matter of holding the torch a little closer and a little longer in one spot than you think.   

I choose not the neatest tart slice today, but rather a shot of where the icing sugar was a little thick... you can see on slicing the sugar lifting. You don't want the pretty, delicate appearance of the tart spoilt ... although I did crave the "burnt sugar" crust that the word brûlée evokes. 

The accidental misfire photograph of the tart shows the light shining through the pastry. Dang, this is the thinnest prettiest pastry case I have ever made!!! 

Would I bake again? Yes, I'm going to bake for Christmas this year I do love "Christmas/oranges". I'll skip the torching and go for snow sugar and red currants to decorate. 

Would I make any changes? perhaps check the bitterness or not of the zest before I used it. The recipe has a little lemon zest and I forgot how bitter my backyard lemons are! A little bit of bitter aftertaste in an otherwise perfect tart. 

How it works... now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a week I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

The Baking Bible

Happy Baking :)

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