Basket pastries with meringue cream (GOST)
Description
Making nostalgic tartlets with GOST-style protein cream is quite simple—just follow the step-by-step recipe. For a flavor gradient, use a tart jam or confiture. Plan ahead what decoration you will pipe on the tartlets and prepare piping bags, food coloring, and tips. From this amount of ingredients you get 6 small tartlets and 4 large ones. Serve chilled or slightly warm.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Prepare the ingredients.
- 2
Step 2
Beat the softened butter.
- 3
Step 3
Add the sugar or a mixture of sugar and powdered sugar (140 g), and beat until smooth, about 5 minutes.
- 4
Step 4
Add the egg yolks and whisk for about 5 more minutes.
- 5
Step 5
Add vanilla sugar, a pinch of salt, and baking powder; mix.
- 6
Step 6
Lastly, add the flour in several additions. Knead the dough.
- 7
Step 7
Roll out the dough into a sheet, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30–40 minutes.
- 8
Step 8
Lightly dust the work surface with flour, roll out the dough into a thinner sheet 5–7 mm thick. Cut out the dough and place it in the molds.
- 9
Step 9
Prick the bottoms of the molds with a fork. Put them in the freezer for 30 minutes, or for much longer—up to several days.
- 10
Step 10
While the baskets are freezing, you can use the leftover dough to make caps for the little mushrooms and bake them at 180 degrees for 15 minutes.
- 11
Step 11
Preheat the oven to 215–220 degrees and bake the baskets for about 15 minutes, watching for doneness. If air bubbles form on the bottom of the molds during baking, slightly open the oven door and press the dough down with a fork.
- 12
Step 12
Remove the baskets from the molds once they have cooled. Do this carefully—they are very delicate and fragile.
- 13
Step 13
Spread a little jam or confiture on the bottom of each tart shell.
- 14
Step 14
Pour 180 grams of sugar with hot water, place over medium heat without stirring.
- 15
Step 15
Meanwhile, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form.
- 16
Step 16
When the sugar syrup reaches about 110 degrees, stir in citric acid and heat it to about 120 degrees. That is roughly 5 minutes after it comes to a boil. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, you can test the syrup for the soft-ball stage: spoon some boiling syrup, dip the spoon with the syrup into a bowl of ice water, cool it, and try to roll a soft ball between your fingers. If the syrup dissolves right away in the water, keep cooking; if it forms a ball, it’s ready.
- 17
Step 17
Pour the syrup into the egg whites in a very thin stream while continuing to whisk, trying not to hit the whisk wires. Whisk for 5–7 minutes; the finished cream should “cling to the whisk” and leave a clear, ridged trail. Transfer the cream to a piping bag. Part of the cream can be tinted with gel food coloring.
- 18
Step 18
If after piping the cream onto the tartlets there is still some left, you can pipe it onto a baking sheet and bake-dry it in the oven at 100 degrees for about 50–60 minutes; you will get meringue.
- 19
Step 19
Decorate the baskets with cream to your taste; some of the baskets can be decorated with "mushrooms," for which the "caps" were baked earlier. On others, you can simply apply cream "caps" and sprinkle them with sugar topping. The nostalgic baskets with meringue cream are ready.
- 20
Step 20
And here they are — ready mini meringues made from leftover cream!