Winter berry napoleon

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A long overdue wintery post!!! 

These are the sweet treats I prepared for the winter festivities back in December, they are so easy to make and you are sure to impress your guests with these delicious mini bites :)

Why not try this recipe by replacing Christmas tree shapes with heart ones for the upcoming Valentines  celebrations? Your Valentine will fall head over heels for them! 

Ingredients:

1 packet of ready made puff pastry

Creme patissiere (click here for my recipe)

Your favourite berries ( I used blueberries and raspberries)

Icing sugar

Method:

-Roll out the puff pastry and cut into your favourite shape with a cookie cutter (picture 2 & 3)

- Pierce the pastry with a fork or toothpick (picture 4)

-Dust the top of the puff pastry with a icing sugar ( picture 5)

- Bake in the oven at 190 C until golden brown (about 10 mins)

-Leave the puff pastry to cool at room temperature and pipe the creme patissiere onto it (picture 6 & 9)

-Add a layer of berries and top with a layer of puff pastry (picture 10)

- Dust with icing sugar and enjoy !! (picture 11) 

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Crème pâtissière

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If I'm given the choice between chocolate and vanilla I wouldn't hesitate 1 second on choosing anything vanilla! 

2 years ago on our honeymoon in French Polynesia, we visited an amazing vanilla plantation on the Island of Raiatea (click here to see pics), I felt like a kid in a candy store, it was such a unique experience to see where these precious vanilla pods come from. We brought back quite a few pods from our trip and kept them vacuum sealed for them to keep their freshness and as I opened a pack for this recipe, they tasted just like when we picked them 2 years ago.

Here's a very simple creme patisserie recipe which I then used to fill little Christmas treats back in December (post to follow). 

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

140g caster sugar

45g cornstarch 

400ml whole milk

2 vanilla pods

100ml heavy cream 

Method:

- In a sauce pan, bring the milk, heavy cream and split vanilla pods to a simmer, turn the heat off, set aside and let the mixture infuse for at least 15 minutes (picture 2,3,5)

- In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until they turn pale and subsequently  amalgamate the sifted cornstarch into the mixture (picture 6,8,9)

- Remove the vanilla pods from the saucepan (picture 10) and pour the egg mixture into it, whisking continuously bring the pastry cream to a simmer until the desired thickness is reached (picture 11,12,13)

- Place the ready custard in a bowl and cover with cling film directly on the pastry so that it doesn't form that unpleasant skin on the top (picture 14)

-Once the creme patisserie has cooled down, place it in the fridge and use to fill your favorite baked goods!

* Original recipe from Giallo Zafferano 

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Rhum Vanille de Tahiti

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Being French but having grown up in Italy, it's always been in the culture of both countries to have the occasional after dinner 'digestif'. Italians are mostly known for sipping their Limoncello or Grappa whilst the French are more into Cognac and Armagnac.

 During our honeymoon in French Polynesia we discovered, what has now become my new favorite 'digestif': homemade vanilla rum.

I'm usually not a fan of flavored spirits but when you make it yourself and have the most delicious award winning Tahitian vanilla from Hotu -Vanilla, it's hard to resist! It's a very easy recipe but you will be sure to impress your guests at your next dinner party.

To avoid major day-after headaches, obviously drink responsibly and use the best quality spirit ;););)

Ingredients:

1 bottle of good quality Rum ( I used Havana Club Anejo 7) 

5 vanilla pods

Method:

*Cut 3 vanilla pods in half and empty the beans into an empty bottle (picture 3-4-5)

*Place all the pods in the bottle including the ones cut in half 

*Pour the Rum (picture 6)

*Leave the mixture to infuse a couple of days before sipping your homemade vanilla rum

Enjoy ;)

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See the video of my homemade vanilla rum on instagram: click here

Raiatea - French Polynesia

During our 2 weeks in Bora Bora, we decided to take a day trip to the opposite island of Raiatea, also known as the sacred island; it's only a 10min plane ride away and well worth a visit!

We had the chance to meet the owners of the Hotu Vanilla plantation, Guy & Odette Tauatiti, who took us around their plantation and told us all about how their award winning vanilla is made, what an amazing experience!! You will be seeing quite a few vanilla recipes on the blog as I seem to have developed an obsession for it ;)

*Young vanilla pods - 9 more months to go until they ripen and can be collected*  

*Vanilla pods are left a couple of hours per day in the sunshine and then wrapped in dense cloth so that they can go through the process of "sweating", thus getting rid of all the water to release the vanilla bean flavor*

*The vanilla pod on the right is not yet ready for consumption as its thickness indicates that it is still full of water and must be dried out to resemble the pod on the left*

*Taputapuatea Marae - one of the most sacred places on Raiatea, believed to the very first Marae dating back to 1000AD*

*Tahiti's famous local dish "Poisson Cru a la Tahitienne" - will be trying this one at home sometime soon!*

Check out more pictures of French Polynesia on my new instagram profile - click here