Raspberry & Lychee Pavlova

When I visited legendary pastry chef Dominique Ansel’s eponymous bakery in New York a few weeks ago (I wrote about the adventure and the subsequent canelé experiments in my previous post), I managed to get my paws on a raspberry and lychee pavlova. One of the staff members had told me it was her favourite dessert in the pastry display case and, since it was also the most eye-catching one, I had to try it.

Reverse-engineered version of famous pastry chef Dominique Ansel's raspberry and lychee pavlova

Ansel’s website describes the raspberry and lychee pavlova as “light-as-air lychee meringue filled with fresh raspberries, raspberry jam, mascarpone whipped ganache, and lychee whipped ganache.” The pastry was splendid; the meringue was crunchy on the outside but chewy on the inside, with just the lightest hints of lychee flavour. The ganaches complemented the raspberries wonderfully.

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Crème Brûlée Tart with Figs

I hadn’t had crème brûlée for years when I came upon it on a restaurant menu last week. Interestingly, rather than serve the classic French dessert in a ramekin, the pastry chef opted for a rather inimitable presentation.

Fig crème brûlée tart

The crème brûlée custard was cut into cubes, arranged on a plate, and then caramelized. A variety of fruity sauces and shredded pieces of cake adorned the dish. The clever presentation inspired this blog post.

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Strawberry, Almond, and Rose Tart

A few weeks ago, while browsing the websites of Paris’s top pâtisseries, I spotted Hugo et Victor’s Tarte Fraise (strawberry tart). The pastry’s strawberry-red shell complemented its meticulously arranged strawberry slices superbly—I was quite inspired by its colour.

Strawberry, almond, and rose tart with toasted meringue

This weekend, I had a chance to experiment with adding food colouring to tart dough. The results were impressive. The trick is to use a food colouring that does not lose its pigment when baked.

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