inspiration—palettes—method
Total Active Time: 1 hour and 25 minutes
Total Rest Time: 1-24 hours
Total Cook Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes
Prep: 60 minutes
Ingredients
Puff Pastries
Tahini Honey Coconut Milk Crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup coconut milk (60 F)
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup clover honey
1 and 1/4 tsp la baleine salt
Cherry Pecan Goat Cheese Crust:
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 to 1 cup cherries puréed
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup roasted pecan goat cheese
2 tbsp clover honey
3/4 tsp la baleine salt
Miniature Pies
Apple Celery Squash Stuffing:
9 small red potatoes
5 celery sticks
2 large carrots
2 McIntosh apples
4-5 garlic cloves
1 large yellow onion
3/4 cup squash
1/2 cup dried cranberries 1/2 cup all-purpose white flour
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup and 2 tbsp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup and 2 tbsp greek yogurt
5 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sage
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 and 1/4 tsp kosher salt
+++
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp whole milk pinch turbinado sugar*
Chocolate Cherry Chestnut Stuffing:
2 egg yolks
1 and 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup and 3 & 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup and 1/2 tbsp maple sugar
1/4 cup Callebaut Belgian dark cocoa
1/4 cup cherries
1/4 cup corn starch
1 tbsp hazelnuts
1 tbsp chestnuts
2 and 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp la baleine salt
+++
3-4 cherries
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp whole milk
pinch turbinado sugar*
Condiments:
Method
Prep—
Puff Pastries
Tahini Honey Coconut Milk Crust:
1. Prepare your palette board: grind, and measure the following ingredients and place them on a blank slab:
all-purpose flour
coconut milk
unsalted butter
tahini
clover honey
la baleine salt
2. In a large mixing bowl, pour the flour and salt and lightly shake the bowl to incorporate the ingredients. 3. Slice the cold butter into smaller pieces and place all of the butter into the bowl. 4. Add the honey followed by the tahini and finally the milk. Now, mix all of the ingredients fully using your hands and wrists until a well incorporated dough has been created.
5. Place the dough ball on a well-floured surface and slice the dough into three equal pieces using a sharp cutting utensil. Next, using a large rolling pin, roll each of them out one at a time into three thin sheets about 1 cm thick.
6. Wrap each dough sheet in a piece of plastic wrap and place each of them in the refrigerator for at least sixty minutes up to twenty-four hours until ready to shape into the pie crusts.
7. Prepare a muffin tin by greasing each indentation with a tablespoon of butter. 8. Remove the cooled sheets of puff pastry from the refrigerator and plastic wrap, and align each one beside one another on a well-floured surface.
9. Using a small rolling pin, roll out the dough even thinner until it is a millimeter thick.
10. Press the top rim of a small bowl into one sheet of dough in order to create a circled stamp in the dough. Remove the bowl and do this a series of times until you have twelve perfect circles.
11. Remove each circle one by one and shape them into the indentations of the muffin tin until all are filled with the pie crust dough.
12. Place the pie crust dough-filled muffin tin back into the refrigerator for fifteen minutes or until ready to fill.
13. Next, take the second and third sheets and using a sharp cutting utensil, cut a series of small strips into the dough long enough to stretch across the diameter of the rims of each of the twelve pie crusts.
14. Wrap the strips in plastic wrap and refrigerate them until ready to weave over the tops of the pie crusts once each of the pies have been filled.
Cherry Pecan Goat Cheese Crust:
1. Prepare your palette board: grind and measure the following ingredients and place them on a blank slab:
all-purpose flour
cherries puréed
unsalted butter
roasted pecan goat cheese
clover honey
la baleine salt
2. In a large mixing bowl, pour the flour and salt and lightly shake the bowl to incorporate the ingredients.
3. Slice the cold butter into smaller pieces and place all of the butter into the bowl.
4. Add the honey followed by the goat cheese and finally the cherries puréed.
5. Now, mix all of the ingredients fully using your hands and wrists until a well incorporated dough has been created.
6. Place the dough ball on a well-floured surface and slice the dough into two pieces using a sharp cutting utensil.
7. Next, using a large rolling pin, roll each of them out one at a time into two thin sheets about 1 cm thick.
8. Wrap each dough sheet in a piece of plastic wrap and place each of them in the refrigerator for at least sixty minutes to twenty-four hours until ready to shape into proper pie crust molds.
9. Prepare one to two small pie molds by greasing them one by one with butter.
10. Remove the cooled sheets of puff pastry from the refrigerator and plastic wrap, and align each one next to one another on a well-floured surface.
11. Using a small rolling pin, roll out each portion of dough even thinner until each is a millimeter thick.
12. Press the top rim of a medium-sized bowl into one sheet of dough in order to create a circled stamp in the dough that fits your pie mold. Remove the bowl and do this until you have as many perfect circles as you need to fill all of your pie molds.
13. Remove each circle one by one and place them into the pie molds until each one is covered with the pie crust dough.
14. Place the pie crust back into the refrigerator for a period of fifteen minutes or until ready to fill with the chocolate cherry chestnut stuffing.
15. Press the top rim of a medium-sized bowl into the second sheet of dough in order to create the tops of the pie. Release the bowl and roll out the dough to a size large enough to sufficiently cover each pie.
16. Place the pie tops in plastic wrap and return them to the refrigerator for fifteen minutes or until the pies have been filled. Mini Pies
Apple Celery Squash Stuffing:
1. Prepare your palette boards: measure, chop and grind the following ingredients and place them on a blank slab:
red potatoes
celery sticks
carrots
McIntosh apples
yellow onion
squash
dried cranberries
garlic cloves
all-purpose white flour
whole milk
cheddar cheese
unsalted butter
extra virgin olive oil
sage
thyme
oregano
white pepper
black pepper
kosher salt
Chocolate Cherry Chestnut Stuffing:
1. Prepare your palette board: measure, and grind the following ingredients and place them on a blank slab:
egg yolks
whole milk
brown sugar
maple sugar
Callebaut Belgian dark cocoa
cherries
corn starch
hazelnuts
chestnuts
unsalted butter
vanilla extract
la baleine salt
Heat—
Mini Pies
Apple Celery Squash Stuffing:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Bring a large cast iron skillet filled with the extra virgin olive oil to a simmer on medium heat. Add the butter followed by a pinch of the salt and the garlic cloves. Transfer the the onions, carrots and celery into the skillet and stir the veggies into the liquid fat. Eight minutes. 2. Add the potatoes and let cook for another two to three minutes lowering the heat as necessary so as to avoid evaporating the liquid fat.
3. Add the sage, thyme, oregano, white pepper and black pepper and continue to cook for five minutes.
3. Next, slowly and continuously stir in the flour and then the milk, alternating between the two in order to integrate the newly added fat and grain. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add the rest of the salt. 4. Pour in the apples, dried cranberries and squash followed by the greek yogurt and give the mixture a final set of stirs to incorporate all of the ingredients in a balanced way while cooking the remaining fruit and vegetable for another three to four minutes. 5. Heat off. Allow five minutes for the mixture cool before transferring the stuffing to the muffin tin to fill the miniature pies.
6. Remove the prepared muffin tin and the chilled strips of puff pastry from the refrigerator. Place a scoopful of the stuffing into each of the twelve muffin tins atop the chilled puff pastry. 7. Add one tablespoon of shredded cheddar cheese per miniature pie to garnish the stuffing.
8. Place half of the strips of puff pastry in a horizontal line about one and one-half inch apart from one another. After this, vertically lay the remainder of dough strips to perpendicular interweave between each of the horizontally laid strips from the first batch so that each vertical strip weaves over and under a set of the original horizontally laid strips in order to create twelve separate weave-tops for the miniature pies.
8. Place each of the dough weave-tops onto each of the pie crusts and press the dough of the tops one by one into the doughs of the crusts in order to firmly secure each miniature parcel.
9. Whisk the egg yolk and one tablespoon of whole milk in a small cup to create the egg wash. Using a small brush, gloss each of tops of the pie crusts with the wash.
10. Place the muffin tin into the preheated oven for fifteen minutes and bake until golden brown on top. Remove from heat. Add a dash of turbinado sugar and kosher salt and then let the dish cool for at least thirty minutes before tasting.
Chocolate Cherry Chestnut Stuffing:
1. Roast the Nuts: preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Slice the outer shells of your chestnuts using a sharp cutting utensil and place each one on a baking sheet seam-side up. Bake for fifteen to twenty-five minutes or until the shells begin to peel away and the interior of the chestnuts are beginning to expose themselves. Remove from the oven and let cool. Remove the chestnuts from the shells and store the excess in an air-tight container until further use. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. On an empty baking sheet, place the hazelnuts and roast them for twelve to fifteen minutes. Remove them from the oven and let cool before placing the excess in an air-tight container until further use. 2. Raise the oven temperature 375 degrees F. Bring a small saucepan to medium heat and add the milk, sugars, salt and cornstarch. 2. Stir gently and continuously until fully combined. Next, add the butter, and two egg yolks and stir until the mixture comes to a light boil.
3. Turn off the heat and immediately add the cocoa followed by the vanilla extract. Remove the pan from the stove and continue to stir the mixture until the ingredients are fully balanced and the texture is thickened and smooth. 4. Chill the mixture in an airtight container in the refrigerator for at least one hour before filling the pie shell. 5. Remove the pie shell and top of the pie from the refrigerator and place on a flat surface.
6. Fill the pie shell with pie weights or beans to ensure it stays in place while baking and then place the shell into the oven to cook for ten minutes. Remove it from heat. Let it cool and remove the weights. 7. Fill the pie: Using a spatula or butter knife, spread a delicately thin layer of the chocolate mixture over the bottom and sides of the pie crust.
8. Next, add the one-fourth cup of dark cherries to the bottom of the pie shell, followed by the roasted chestnuts and then the roasted hazelnuts.
6. Finish off the pie filling with a second tier of the chocolate sauce atop the nuts and cherries.
7. Attaching the Crust Top: Finally, add the top of the puff pastry crust and roll the excess dough that hangs over the circumference of the pie into and beneath itself as if tucking in a blanket’s edge. Tap your finger around the inner circumference of the pie to reassure that the pie top has a depth of one-fourth of an inch from the floor of the crust top to the ceiling of the rim of the crust top. Pinch around the perimeter of the crust top’s rim with your thumb and forefingers in order to form a crimped rim.
8. Place the pie in the oven for ten minutes. Whisk an egg and the milk together in a small cup. Remove the pie from heat. Quickly and carefully gloss the surface of the pie top with the egg wash and then place the pie back in the oven for an additional ten minutes.
9. Remove the pie once again to cover the top with tinfoil and continue to bake for an additional twenty minutes. Raise the heat to 425 degrees F and continue to heat for a final twenty minutes until the bottom of the pie is solid and the top (covered) remains a crisp golden brown.
Total cook time is approximately sixty to sixty-five minutes. 9. Oven off. Remove from heat. Let cool. Garnish with turbinado sugar, leftover cherries and Spiced Whipped Cream.
Taste & Enjoy!
Color to the Method—
Music to the Method—
Wells/Tormé: The Christmas Song
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