Just a very short post to report that I finally found a way to use up the bad griottes. Following some blogger’s suggestions, I removed the griottes from the alcohol syrup and soaked them in syrup instead, hoping the strong alcohol taste would leech out. That didn’t work.
Along came Cherry, who virtually put me on house arrest because I had to watch her constantly, sneaking to a different room only when she’s taking a nap. During one such long day at home I found a recipe for cherry millefeuille using both fresh American cherry and alcohol soaked griotte. The griotte is chopped and cooked and reduced to a semi-confit. This is then made into a griotte cream for the bottom layer. The top layer is standard pastry cream with cut fresh cherry halves embedded inside. I thought it was fitting to make a dessert with cherries, to honor Cherry’s arrival into our family, plus I had a whole day to kill.
The feuilletage inverse came out pretty well, after I turned the AC way down and used a tray of ice water to cool the marble counter. I was worried about shrinkage during baking since I needed the entire surface of my 30x40cm baking sheet to get three slices large enough to fill my long rectangular mold. Luckily the shrinkage was minimal and I managed to cut out three pieces with only a few slivers of cut-offs left. Cooking the griottes turned out to be the magic trick as it mellowed the harsh alcohol taste, allowing all the layers to pull together harmoniously. Unfortunately, since it took me the whole day to make it, we didn’t get to eat it until the next day. By that time, the feuilletage layers have soaked up some moisture and were a little soggy. If cherries are still decent when we come back from France I’m going to make this again, and this time we’ll eat it right away.
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7 comments:
ok, you've got to tell me something. Do you stick the perfectly halved cerries *after* you cut the cake or do you actually manage to half them with surgical precision?!!! The cake looks wonderful btw : )
such a pretty dessert!
Ales, *actually* since I knew exactly where I was going to cut it, I lined up the cherries along the cutting line when I put them in. Too obssessive? ;oP
Jaden, thank you!
hi lynn , all your bakes are such a delight to look at.
Lynn can u kindly guide me to which types of chocolate is best for making decoration using the plastic sheets?
I have tried using the normal lower range of baking choolate, melted it and spread on the sheet leave it overnight in the fridge but once it reaches room temp. it goes real soft and i had a hard time peeling it off. I wonder why it did not harden to give it a good crunch. thank you
Sue, baking chocolates are suitable for the kind of decoration you are trying for. You need to use couveture chocolate, which contains cocoa butter, cocoa mass, sugar and milk powder in the case of milk chocolate, but nothing else. Also, you cannot just melt chocolate and expect it to harden properly. it needs to be tempered. Hope this helps.
thanks lynn for the guidance. So i need to use chocolate couveture which is a better grade of chocolate rite , melt it and then tempered before spreading to the sheets. I think i use the lower grade cooking chocolate which cost maybe sing dollor 1.50 , that why my chocolate is soft and without the crunch.
thanks
That's gorgeous! I love anything with cherries.
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