Green Tea Piece Montee (Croquembouche) - Daring Bakers May '10

Who doesn't enjoy a "crunch in the mouth"? That's what Croquembouche translates to in English. Another name for this tower of cream-filled puffs covered in caramel and spun sugar is Piece Montee (mounted piece), and in France it's served as a wedding, anniversary or baptism cake. They can be several feet high, or in the case of my little trio - 6 inches each.

MATCHA GREEN TEA PETITE PIECE MONTEE
The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Most of the time, when I've seen these towers of pastry in the United States, it has been during the holidays. Perhaps because the shape resembles a Christmas tree? Or because, like a Gingerbread House, it's an undertaking to gather all the parts of this and a great crowd-pleaser to present.

In my catering gigs, I've made several Croquembouche and I've made the puff pastry balls (Profiteroles) numerous times with different fillings.
Here's one with Rose Tea filling:
I was inspired to try a pastry cream with Matcha Green Tea by the amazingly chic Gail Baral, (a Tea Sommelier, friend and co-creator [with Robb Wain] for the online Tea Shop, ALGABAR.)
Along with her stylish online business, Gail presents unique, educational and contemporary Tea workshops at some of the best events and hotels in the US and beyond. If you ever have a chance to take part in one of her Teas or the opportunity to invite her to yours, DO!

There are three main parts to the Piece Montee: Pate a Choux (pastry puffs), Cream Filling (ie. pastry cream, mascarpone, or thickened and flavored whipping cream), and the Caramel sauce (used to keep the mounted pieces...well...mounted, and to make the spun sugar threads).


RECIPE: Pate a Choux as given for Daring Bakers

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.

As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.

It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

RECIPE: Matcha Green Tea Pastry Cream (adapted from recipe as given by Daring Bakers)

1 cup milk
2 Tbls. Cornstarch
2 Tbls. Matcha Green Tea Powder
6 Tbls. Sugar
1 egg
2 egg yolks
2 Tbls. butter
1 tsp. Vanilla

1- Mix 1/4 cup milk with the cornstarch and 1 Tbls. of Matcha Powder.
2- In a saucepan, heat the rest of the milk, sugar and 1 Tbls. Matcha Powder
3- When the milk just begins to form bubbles around the edges, remove the pan from the heat.
4- In the bowl with the cornstarch mixture, add the egg and the egg yolks, whisk til smooth.
5- Pour just a bit of the warm milk into the egg mixture and whisk constantly so the eggs do not cook.
6- Then pour the egg mixture into the pan with the rest of the warm milk and return to Med/High heat.
7- Now, using a spatula, or wooden spoon - stir constantly until the mixture is thick and begins to boil.
8- Remove from heat and beat in the vanilla and butter til smooth.
9- Place in a ceramic dish, cover with plastic wrap that you press onto the pastry cream.
Chill in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or up to 2 days.

RECIPE- CARAMEL (for mounting and spinning sugar)

1 cup sugar
2 squeezes of lemon juice
1 Tbls. Water

In a saucepan, bring all three ingredients to a slow simmer while stirring over Med. heat.
Using a pastry brush dipped in water, wash down the inside of the pan on occasion to avoid having the sugar crystallize.
When a boil is reached, stop stirring and allow to boil for about 5 minutes or until a slight caramel color appears. Remove from heat and stir while sugar cools.

PUTTING THE TOWER TOGETHER:
Using the filled cream puffs, carefully dip each one into the caramelized sugar as you build your tower.
Start with the round base and gradually move to the next layer, using less puffs as you go and moving inward to a cone shape.

As the sugar cools and becomes taffy-like, use a fork to pull strings up and drape around your tower of pastry puffs.

If at any time the sugar gets brittle or too hard to work with, just reheat and start again. It can be used over and over by reheating.

You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato Jam

This post is about my first virtual lunch with virtual friends whose names start with @, and although I don't know them-know them...I know them. I joined in on the wonderful idea to "create a BLT with your own spin on it, photograph it, and blog about it". Mine is a BLTea ~I'm kinda new to the social media scene, twitter schmitter, life in 140 characters or less, but I'm hooked! I'm trying hard to catch up with some of the big guns in the foodie/chef/cooking online world. I have to say, most of the time I've found them to be amazingly intelligent, creative, passionate, and generous with info and time. I'm having a blast and so thrilled to be playing. This #BLTlunch idea was one of those twitters that I read between @cowgirlchef and @cheryltan88 and @pinchmysalt. They explained briefly (because that's all you can do on twitter) about doing something that sounded like a virtual picnic, a Friday web-lunch, a Recipe Roundup where BLT sandwiches were the star of the moment. I loved the idea and also knew that it would get me off my canister with the blogging thing.

I cook - every day. I think about food - every moment. I take "sorta" good photos - every meal. My family is already so used to eating food that has to be warmed up after it has starred in its own 15 minutes of fame. I wrote to each one of those well established and extremely talented bloggers and said, "count me in". They responded as if we had been friends forever, excited that I was aboard and anxious to see what BLTea was about.

Well, my BLTea is about making a Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato sandwich that would be good in all seasons - made with seasonal and farmer's market heritage tomatoes. To do that, I turned the tomatoes into a savory, just a bit spicy, jam infused with smokey tea.For about a year now, I've been developing recipes for the very highly respected ALGABAR, a Home and Tea Salon in Los Angeles. I'm Executive Chef for their catering division, Fete Du The, and I've grown to appreciate the healthy, spiritual, sensual qualities of truly great tea-- like the ones they have in the shop on La Brea in Los Angeles. Gail and Robb are more than retailers, they are passionate artists and connoisseurs of taste and style. It's rare to be able to say such great things about people that you work with, and I think of them as friends. But before I throw-up the sandwich I just ate (and loved) with all this mushy talk - let me finish with the bullet points of my BLTea sandwich and I hope you will try making the jam. There is such a self-loving feeling that happens when you spread your own, home-made jam on a piece of bread. You feel - no matter what else - I can survive. I can make jam! Jam on.

SMOKEY TEA TOMATO JAM for a BLTea-

300 grams (about 8) Farmer's Market Heritage Tomatoes (red, zebra, yellow, etc. peeled, cored, seeded, chopped)
200 grams (about 3) Apples (peeled, cored, sliced)
300 grams (about 1 1/4 cups) sugar
1 tsp. minced serrano chili pepper
1 lemon (zest and juice)
2 Tbls. Smokey Tea

In a deep sauce pan combine the tomatoes, apples, sugar, minced serrano, lemon zest and juice. Heat just to boiling then remove the pan and let cool.
Meanwhile, wrap 2 Tbls. of smokey tea leaves in a cheesecloth and tie tightly with kitchen string. Place the wrapped tea into the pan with tomatoes and push into the liquid. Cover the pan and place in refrigerator over night to infuse.The next day, heat the pan of tomatoes and tea to just before boiling. Remove the wrapped tea and continue boiling the tomato mixture til it reaches 224F. and is concentrated. This should take about 20 minutes. Check the set and carefully pour into prepared jars immediately and seal properly. If not preserving, this can be sealed and kept in refrigerator for 1 week.

My BLTea is prepared by spreading the Smokey Tea Jam on one side of dark, multi-grain Russian Rye bread. Add crisp Bacon on top, then wild Rocket Arugula and the second slice of bread. This is a great sandwich for traveling.

Let me hear about your jamming, too. Enjoy!