Date and Coconut Slice sounds nice
After three posts of fish and one of salad dressings, it’s time to wash our hands well and try an all-rounder dessert that will be desirable to all age groups and foodies alike. This coconut and date delish is served up on a crunchy short pastry base, and instead of having a sponge mass made with flour like the lamington, this particular coconut dolce is made using baked creme patissiere as its central mass or body.
Creme patissiere, known in English as pastry cream, is more commonly used as a filling to eclairs, profiteroles and macaroons. It is basically a more viscous, thicker version of English custard or creme anglaise, thickened on the stove and stabilised through the use of a small amount of either flour or cornflour. In this particular case, it is baked and ends up with a texture akin to that of a good cooked cheesecake or that perfect chocolate brownie. It really is HEAVEN.
This particular recipe is from my time as a pastry cook at the Elma Arts Hotel in Zichron Yaacov ( a town named by Baron Edmund de Rothschild in memory of his father Jacob Rothschild) and was always useful as a petit four, in buffet functions and to build attractive restaurant desserts. An all rounder, so to speak.
The Boutique Elma Arts Hotel on the cliffs of Zichron Yaacov was the culmination of Lily Elstein’s dream and vision. The wife of one of the founders of the generic drug giant TEVA used NZD 500 million of her own ‘drug money’ to save an existing architectural jewel from the jaws of hungry property developers. Elstein renovated and built both a home for herself and for her expansive private art collection, a self funding modern art museum/boutique five star hotel.
Coconut Date Slice
Ingredients to make oven tray sized amount, big enough for a dessert table for a festive feast.
Short Pastry Base
- Butter x 240 gram
- Sugar powder x 160 gram
- Salt x 4 gram
- Almond flour x 60 gram
- White flour x 400 gram + extra for dusting
- Eggs x 80 gram
Method
Put all dry ingredients into mixer, mix for a minute; cube butter into 2 cm cubes, wait till mixture looks like coarse sand, add egg and mix a short time until it comes together. Wrap in Glad Wrap, set aside for 30 minutes.
On a well dusted surface roll out the dough, ensuring that the dough is dusted on both sides throughout the rolling process, until 3-4 mm thick. Place on baking paper in tray. Here is a trick. An easier way to roll out the dough is between two pieces of baking paper, ensuring it’s continually dusted on both sides of the dough so it doesn’t stick. Roll to preferred thickness; it is less messy and easier to transfer from here to there. Place in freezer or fridge to harden.
Date Spread x 500 gram
When the rolled out dough has hardened on the baking tray, using a spatula spread a nice thick even layer of date spread on the unbaked pastry. Set aside.
Creme Patissiere:
Ingredients:
- 3% milk x 500 gram
- White sugar x 126 gram
- Egg yolks x 120 gram
- Cornflour x 50 gram
- Butter cubed x 50 gram
- Vanilla essence x 5 gram
Method:
Mix sugar and cornflour together, then add yolks and mix well into a thick paste and set aside. Add vanilla essence to milk and put on gas top to heat; when hot but before it has boiled add a little of the hot milk to the egg yolk mixture. Mix well and using a spatula add the egg mixture to the hot milk and mix together, turn gas down to lowest possible flame and wait, stirring from time to time, until the mixture starts to bubble like a geothermal hot mud pool. Using a spoon, start mixing while it thickens to prevent the creme from burning. When it’s thick enough, turn off the gas, add the cubed butter and cover the mixture with Glad Wrap, like a skin actually touching the mixture. This prevents a skin from forming and loss of the mixture.
Coconut cake mixture:
- Eggs x 300 gram
- Egg yolks x 125 gram
- Sugar x 500 gram
- Creme patissiere x 700-800 gram
- Fresh dried coconut grated x 400 gram + more for sprinkling
- Melted butter x 400 gram
Melt butter on a low flame, when fully melted set aside to cool a little. Add eggs, egg yolks and sugar into the mixer. Using the paddle attachment on a reasonably high speed, mix/cream well until the mixture is lighter in colour; slow, add the creme patissiere, mix on slower speed, add the grated coconut then add the melted butter slowly. When well combined, tip into the baking tray onto the short pastry and date spread and level.
Put into a preheated 170 Celsius oven for about 40-50 minutes or until nice and light brown on the top; using your palm gently touch to check it is cooked. Set aside to cool. When completely cool, wrap in Glad Wrap and place in the freezer overnight.
Once frozen, remove from freezer and using a brush apply Nappage (a neutral glaze) mixed well with a little hot water to the top of the cake, and liberally sprinkle fresh dried grated coconut all over the top surface. The freezing makes it much easier to cut and release from the edge of the baking pan or form and allows for a clean and professional finish. Most commercial and professional cakes are cut while at least partly frozen.
Next week: a unique Tuscan pasta dish “Rotolo de Spinaci” which if mastered well will knock the socks off your guests and may result in comments like ..”you should open a restaurant”.. an idea you should never entertain.
Ciao.
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