Passion Fruit and Milk Chocolate - Round Two

After I satisfied my cravings for passion fruit milk chocolate macaron, I still had 1 container each of passion fruit mixture and milk chocolate ganache, and half a slab of passion fruit pate de fruit. I was thinking how I could use them to make another dessert and an idea came to mind: passion fruit milk chocolate mousse cake, yuuuummmm... Easy and delicious round two recipe :)

Passion Fruit Milk Chocolate Mousse Cake
Yield 6 3X2-inch round cake

Sacher cake (adapted from Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard)

Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated
35 grams almond flour
39 grams sugar
13 grams cocoa powder

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Beat 2 egg whites with 1 tablespoon of sugar (from the 39 grams) until stiff peak and reserve.
3. Whisk the 3 egg yolks and 1 egg white with the remaining sugar and almond flour until the mixture doubles in volume and turns a pale yellow color, about 10 minutes.
4. Gently fold the cocoa powder into the yolk mixture.
5. Fold the egg white foam into the yolk-cocoa mixture.
6. Pour the batter into a buttered and floured 9X9-inch square cake pan.
7. Bake for about 10 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool the cake at room temperature, take it out of the pan, and cut into circles that fit the bottom of the ring mold.

Passion fruit mousse

Ingredients:
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
3/4 cup passion fruit mixture (leftover from passion fruit pate de fruit)
3/4 (2 oz) packet gelatin, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

Directions:
1. Add dissolved gelatin to the passion fruit mixture and mix well.
2. Fold whipped cream into the passion fruit-gelatin mixture.

Chocolate mousse

Ingredients:
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
3/4 cup milk chocolate ganache (leftover from milk chocolate ganache for the macaron), melted
3/4 (2 oz) packet gelatin, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

Directions:
1. Add dissolved gelatin to the melted milk chocolate ganache and mix well.
2. Fold whipped cream into the ganache-gelatin mixture.

Chocolate crumbs

Ingredients:
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1/2 cup cookie crumbs (use any cookie, I used leftover hazelnut meringue)

Directions:
1. Mix melted chocolate and cookie crumbs.
2. Spread mixture on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or silicon mat and refrigerate.
3. Crumble into small pieces before use.

Assembly:
1. Cover one end of the ring mold with foil or plastic wrap.
2. Put one piece of sacher cake at the bottom of the mold on top of the foil or plastic wrap.
3. Pour or pipe the passion fruit mousse on top of the cake to fill half of the mold.
4. Sprinkle the chocolate crumbs on top of the passion fruit mousse.
5. Put a piece of leftover passion fruit pate de fruit (cut into circles) on top of the chocolate crumbs.
6. Pour or pipe the chocolate mousse on top of the pate de fruit to fill the mold.
7. Freeze the cake for 30 minutes.
8. Unmold the cake using a knife dipped in hot water to run through the sides of the mold.
9. Let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

Gosh... Didn't realize this involved so many steps until I wrote it down. I said it was easy, not quick :D Anw, here is the cake..

Looks pretty impressive huh :p My chocolate mousse was not as smooth as I wanted to, but it still tasted good. To eat this properly, you have to get all the layers in one bite. The passion fruit mousse and pate de fruit are pretty sour, so you'll be overwhelmed by their sour taste if you eat them by themselves. Go ahead and try this recipe, see if you like it as much as I do ^^

New Favorite Flavor Combination: Passion Fruit & Milk Chocolate

I used to hate sour taste in my dessert, but my opinion was completely changed when I bit into a passion fruit milk chocolate macaron by Jean Paul Hevin

(the one with brown and yellow shell)

It was a perfect balance of the creaminess of milk chocolate and the fragrance of passion fruit. The sourness of passion fruit did not overshadow the delicate sweetness of milk chocolate at all. I was immediately hooked. 

I'd been wanting to try this flavor combination but couldn't find good quality passion fruit puree in my little town. Until one day, I went to a local international food market and the store owner said that they have 100% natural passion fruit puree. I was so excited that I immediately made a batch of macaron when I got back from the store. I used Pierre Herme's recipe for macaron shell and chocolate ganache, and Jacques Pepin's pate de fruit recipe to make passion fruit pate de fruit. The results....

The milk chocolate ganache was runny (more like thick chocolate sauce) so I had to freeze the macaron after filling them with the ganache. Might be caused by different cocoa butter content in Herme's recipe, hmm... not sure.. Anw, the flavor was still delicious, the sweetness was just right, and the sourness of passion fruit complemented the richness and creaminess of milk chocolate extremely well. The pate de fruit in the middle gave the macaron an additional layer of texture, so I think it was a good idea. 

Passion Fruit Milk Chocolate Macaron

Yield 72 macarons (depends on how big you pipe it)

Ganache:

400 g milk chocolate (I use Callebaut)

400 ml heavy cream

140 g unsalted butter

Directions:

1. Chop the milk chocolate into small chunks and put them in a bowl.

2.Heat heavy cream in a pan and let boil for 1 minute.

3.Pour the heavy cream on the chocolate and let sit for about 3 minutes.
4. Stir the chocolate-cream mixture until smooth and add the butter little by little while continue stirring.
5. Let the ganache cool down to room temperature, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until use.

Passion fruit pate de fruit

Ingredients:
1 (14 oz) package of 100% natural frozen passion fruit puree (I used Goya)
1/4 cup apricot preserve
1 cup sugar
1 (2 oz) packet gelatin, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

Directions:
1. Simmer passion fruit puree, apricot preserve, and sugar for 20 minutes over medium heat until slightly reduced.
2. Take 1 cup of the passion fruit mixture and add the dissolved gelatin. Keep the remaining passion fruit mixture in the refrigerator.
3. Stir the mixture thoroughly and pour it into a baking pan lined with plastic wrap. The thickness of the mixture in the pan should be about 1/4 inch.
4. Let the mixture cool down to room temperature and refrigerate until firm.
5. Cut the pate de fruit into small squares (size depends on the size of your macaron) before filling the macaron.

Macaron shell

Ingredients:
300 g almond powder (blanched almonds ground into fine powder)
300 g powdered sugar
110 g egg whites

300 g granulated sugar
75 g water
110 g egg whites

Directions:
1. Combine almond powder and powdered sugar in a bowl. Sift to remove lumps if necessary.
2. Put granulated sugar and water in a pan and heat over medium heat until the temperature reaches 215 F (use a candy thermometer).
3. When the sugar mixture reaches 200 F, starts beating 110 g egg whites (don't overbeat). Once the sugar mixture reaches 215 F, pour it into the beating egg whites (make sure the mixer is still running when you pour the sugar mixture, or you'll end up with scrambled egg whites). Keep beating the egg whites until it forms stiff peak.
4. Pour another 110 g egg whites on the almond-sugar mixture and scoop the beaten egg whites on top of it.
5. Fold the mixture together until uniform but don't overmix. It should take no more than 50 strokes.
6. Pipe the batter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicon mat.
7. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour or until the surface of the piped batter feels dry when touched. Preheat oven to 350 F while waiting.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until done. Let cool and fill with the fillings.

Making macaron is challenging because it involves a lot of steps. The key is to not overmix the batter. Once you get the knack of knowing when to stop mixing, you're golden. Sometimes I still get cracked and weird-looking macaron, but when I get it right it is super rewarding.  If you need more tips on making macaron, Syrup & Tang has a very helpful website. Still worried? Don't be, just face your batter :)

One Lazy Saturday Morning: Toast, Egg, and Bacon

With all of my friends and roommate going on a trip to somewhere warm for spring break, I got to keep the apartment to myself and had a lazy Saturday morning breakfast. My everyday breakfast usually only consists of 2% milk, any cereal I have on hand, and a banana. I love cereal, but after a while it gets boring and I want to make something special for my breakfast this morning. I opened the fridge and I found old sliced white bread, eggs, and bacon. Not very exciting.. Then, I remembered the cover of the newest Food Network magazine..

Toast, egg, and bacon with a little twist, ordinary yet interesting and most importantly, easy. So I took my bread, cut a hole in the middle of it with a large heart-shaped cookie cutter (to make it more interesting), and fried it in a frying pan with a little bit of butter over medium heat. Once the side facing down turned golden brown, I flipped the bread, turned the heat to low, put an egg in the heart-shaped hole, and wait until the egg white became translucent. I took the bread carefully off the pan with a rubber spatula and fried two pieces of bacon on the same pan. The result...

Simple, delicious, hot breakfast for one :) The heart-shaped hole didn't retain its shape, so I think I'll use regular round cookie cutter next time. I fried the bacon extra crispy, but you can fry it less if you like less crispy bacon. The egg was a perfect sunny side-up with tender white and runny yolk..

YUUMMMMM!!! For those of you who are looking for an easy hot breakfast, try it and you'll be amazed at how simple ingredients can have such a big taste :)