Black Sesame & Vanilla Cookies Top Choux Pastry

I have made choux pastry many times. Choux Pastry is good for sweet & savoury.
Cookies-Top choux pastry add the crunchiness and taste to the puff.

Black sesame is one of my favourite flavour. When i saw this recipe at Foodagraphy. By Chelle , I know I'm going to try this out.

Place cookies dough on top of the pipped choux pastry

Black Sesame Choux out of the oven

Plain choux out of the oven

filled with black sesame choux

Cookies Dough:
25g all purpose flour
25g unsalted butter
25g castor sugar
10g Black Sesame ( Roasted)

1.Place the unsalted butter in a bowl and use a spoon to mash till slightly softened.
2, Add in the sugar and mix to combine.
3. Add the flour (and cocoa powder if using) and use a spatula to mix till combined.
4. Wrap with cling wrap and roll into a mini cylinder. Place in the freezer to chill for at least half an hour

Choux Pastry:
60g all purpose flour
40g unsalted butter
100ml water
pinch of salt
2 eggs (100g)
Pinch of baking powder


1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2. Place water, butter, salt in saucepan.Heat the mixture till the butter melts and boils (at least 95°C).
3. Add the flour and baking powder into the saucepan.stir the mixture quickly to mix.
4. Remove the mixture from heat. Continue stirring until the dough slightly coo; down.
5. Add in the eggs one at a time. Using the spatula, stir the mixture quickly to mix in the egg.
6. Transfer the dough to a piping bag. Line a tray with baking paper and start piping swirls of the dough onto the tray. You should end up with approximately 10 puffs.
7. Remove the cookie dough from the freezer, slice into ten pieces and place on top of the piped puffs. Press down slightly and ensure that the cookie rounds are in the center of the puffs
8. Place in preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. Cool before filling with desired fillings.

Black Sesame Custard:
250ml milk
60g sugar
4 egg yolks
zest from one orange (optional)
12g corn flour
12g cornflour
8g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
3 tbsp black sesame powder

1. Combine the milk, black sesame powder and vanilla in a saucepan, heat till just boiling.
In the meantime, beat the yolks and sugar till thick and pale yellow. Add in the flours and stir to combine.
2. Slowly add the heated milk to the yolks mixture. Whisk in a few tablespoons of the milk mixture into the yolks bit by bit, before adding the rest of the milk, whisking constantly.
3, Transfer mixture back to stove, cook over low heat, stirring constantly to prevent mixture from burning.
4, When the mixture has thickened (can coat the back of a spoon), remove from heat, stir in butter. Leave to cool completely. Refrigerate till ready to use.

Assemble:
You can fill the custard from the bottom of the pastry using pipping bag. Use a small knife, poke a hole at the bottom of the pastry and fill the custard with pipping bag

or

Cut the pastry into half, open it up and fill the custard in the middle using pipping bag.

Opera Gateau- 歌劇院蛋糕

Opera Gateau, one of my favourite layer cake. It consists of  Jaconde biscuit, Chocolate Ganache and coffee butter cream. The old classic flavour combination.

I love this cake because of the texture of the layers. The individual component is not hard to make. It's all about the assembling the cake to have each layer evenly.

Opera Gateua

Jaconde biscuit:

Blanched almond meal 135g

Icing sugar 135g

Eggs 270g

Plain flour 45g

Egg whites 135g

Sugar 22.5g

Melted butter 22.5g

1. Mix the almonds, icing sugar, eggs and plain flour together on the mixer until light and fluffy.

2. Whip the egg whites and castor sugar together until firm peak – but not over whipped.

3. Fold the 2 mixes together until smooth, then fold in the melted butter.

4. Spread evenly over baking tray and spread to a level consistency.

5. Bake in the oven at 220C until firm but not coloured.

6. Remove from the tray immediately once removed from the oven and sprinkle with sugar.

Coffee buttercream:

Water 75g

Sugar  No.1  205g

Egg whites  112.5g

Sugar  No.2 11g

Butter   ( softened )  230g

1. In a sauce pan, prepare sugar no.1 and the water and bring to the boils. Brush down the sides to remove any sugar syrup.

2. When the boiling sugar reaches 116C begin to whip the egg whites with the second sugar in the mixing bowl with the whisk attachment.

3. When the boiling sugar reaches 121C slowly pour the sugar down the side of the mixing bowl. Whip until room temp. Slowly add the butter to the mix, being careful not to curdle the mixture.

4. Mix until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. Store at room temp until time to use.

Chocolate ganache:

Fresh double cream 250g

Dark chocolate couverture 250g

1. Bring the cream to the boil and pour over the chocolate.

2. Form an emulsion, and cover to the surface until ready to use.

3. For use, ganache must be soft enough to spread, yet not too soft.

Coffee sugar soak:

Espresso coffee 100ml

Sugar 25g

Coffee extract 3g

1. Dissolve the sugar in the hot coffee and then add the coffee extract.

2. Store at room temp until time of use.

Opera Glaze:

Dark chocolate couverture 225g

Canola oil 25g

1. Melt the chocolate and stir in the oil. Store at room temp until ready to use. Use at 37C.

Assembling the gateau:

1. Spread a thin layer of coating chocolate over a sheet of the jaconde biscuit. Once set, flip this over onto a   sheet of silicon paper onto a lined tray.

2. Soak the biscuit through with the coffee soaker.

3. Apply butter cream over the sponge, making sure to build up the sides of the cake.

4. Set the next biscuit layer over the butter cream, and soak well with the coffee soaker.

5. Apply the ganache evenly over the second layer of the cake.

6. Place the last layer of butter cream on top of the cake, being  careful to make the top smooth and even.

7. Freeze the cake slab.

8. Pour the cake with the chocolate glaze, trim the sides. 

Tip: Dips the knife into hot water before cutting the cake to get clean edge.