Melanie Johnson makes the most of juicy British raspberries with these sweet recipes.
Raspberries with all their summer sweetness are simply delicious paired with pistachio in this British take on a classic Paris Brest.
Melanie Johnson’s raspberry-and-pistachio choux
Makes one large or 18 small buns
Ingredients
For the choux
- 220ml water
- 85g butter
- 105g plain flour, stirred through with a pinch of salt and 1tspn of caster sugar
- 3 eggs
For the filling
-
- 600ml double cream
- 100g ready-made pistachio paste
- 150g ready-made thick custard
- 50g icing sugar
Method
Preheat your oven to 180˚C/ 350˚F/gas mark 4 and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Mark a 9in circle on the reverse of the paper to act as a guide for where to place your choux.
Add the water and butter to a saucepan and gently melt together over a low heat. Once the butter has melted, turn up the heat and bring to a boil until you see a white, fluffy ring around the edge of the saucepan. Immediately add all the flour mix in one heap. Remove from the heat and beat well until smooth. Return the pan to the heat to dry out the choux paste for a couple of minutes, stirring continuously. Put the mixture in a mixing bowl and cool to lukewarm (38˚C if you want to be technical).
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each one until combined before adding the next. You can use electric beaters for this. Spoon the paste into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle (or use a freezer bag with the corner snipped off) and pipe rosettes onto the ring drawn on the baking parchment until you have completed a circle leaving a space in the centre.
Bake for 45 minutes, until golden and puffed. Cool on a wire rack and then slice in half horizontally.
To make the filling, whip the cream until it is quite stiff and fold through the pistachio paste, custard and icing sugar. Add to a piping bag.
To assemble, take the top off the choux circle and pipe the pistachio filling all through it, then add rows of raspberries to both the outer choux circle and the centre. Put the lid back on and push down. Finish with a generous dusting of icing sugar.
Serve the pistachio choux with a glass of rosé for an afternoon treat.
More ways with raspberries
Raspberry-and-lemon madeleines with white chocolate
Preheat the oven to 200˚C and brush a madeleine tray with melted butter.
Whisk together in a bowl two eggs and 100g caster sugar. Add 100g plain flour, 1 tspn of baking powder, the juice and zest of one lemon and 100g melted butter. Whisk to combine.
Rest the mixture for 15 minutes. Pour the mixture into the tray and bury a fresh raspberry in each shell, tucking it beneath the mixture.
Bake for 8–10 minutes. Cool and remove from the moulds.
Add a spoonful of melted white chocolate to each hole and press the madeleines gently back in so the chocolate comes up the sides and coats one half of the madeleine.
Freeze for about 15 minutes to set the chocolate, then gently ease from the tray and serve.
Easy chocolate pots with raspberries
Place 120g of broken pieces of dark chocolate in a bowl. Heat 240ml double cream with 75g caster sugar, 2 tspns of vanilla paste and a pinch of salt until almost boiling (using a microwave or hob) and pour over the chocolate.
Let it sit for a minute before stirring until smooth. Divide between four ramekins, filling each halfway. Dot the tops with raspberries, followed by more chocolate mixture.
Finally, decorate the tops with extra raspberries, grated chocolate, mini meringues and edible flowers for a perfect summer dinner-party pudding.
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