Sasha's Kitchen: White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes a couple weeks ago, using some homemade raspberry preserves that I canned myself last August in my very first home preserving project.  They were delicious and have been great in several desserts, including the raspberry swirl cheesecake I made over the winter.  I haven't made cupcakes in awhile, and these aren't creatively decorated like some of my desserts, but are light, delicate and summery.  The white chocolate is quite lovely with the raspberry buttercream.

Sasha's White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
White Chocolate Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 whole eggs
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), softened
1/2 tsp salt
3/4  cup granulated sugar
5 oz melted white chocolate
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk

Raspberry Buttercream
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup raspberry jam
4 cups confectioners' sugar

To make the cupcakes, combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.  Melt the white chocolate chips in a double boiler and stir until smooth.  In a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light on medium high speed for about 3 minutes.  Beat in the eggs, adding one at a time.  Then beat in the white chocolate and vanilla.  With the stand mixer on low, alternate adding the flour and milk mixtures until incorporated.  Divide into cupcake molds that are lined and bake at 325 for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

To make the buttercream, beat the butter until smooth.  Beat in the sugar and jam until smooth and a lovely shade of pink.  Pipe on the cupcakes (once cooled) using a pastry bag.

Sasha's Kitchen: White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Rosewater Macarons with Raspberry White Chocolate Ganache

I'm a big fan of anything Parisian these days.  I've wanted to explore Parisian pastries for a long time, because they are so lovely, pretty and delicate and also delicious.  I had tried making macarons about a year and a half ago, but was not very pleased with the results.  Macarons are the darlings of the French pastry world - the new cupcake so to speak.  They can come in every flavor and color, and are light and delicate and oh so pretty.  All I strived for was a lovely little macaron like the ones we tasted at Pierre Herme's shop in Paris.  I finally decided I was up to the task again, that I could figure out the intricate and particular art of macaron making.  I bought a new book on macarons for my arsenal - Les Petits Macarons by Kathryn Gordon and Anne McBride.  The video on their website is also a terrific supportive primer to macaron making.  I strongly suggest purchasing this book!  I'll walk through the steps that I followed like I always do on this blog, but the book itself is a huge help (especially the troubleshooting section in the back) for a successful hands on macaron experience.  I have made two batches of macarons using this book.  The first was a rosewater macaron with a white chocolate raspberry ganache filling.  The second, which I will post about next week, was even better (because my technique improved with some practice), a chocolate macaron with an expresso-cinnamon-chocolate ganache.  Please note that for the rosewater macarons, I used a small amount of rosewater flavoring, rather than rose petals, as suggested by the book.  With macarons, it is essential to measure ingredients precisely - for this reason, I used, as recommended by Gordon's book, a digital kitchen scale to weigh out everything in grams.   The book has several methods for preparing macarons, French, Italian and Swiss.  I used the French macaron method.  This time, I basically have photos of the finished product, but for my next macaron post, I took numerous process photos to share as well.  Stay tuned!

Rosewater Macarons with White Chocolate Raspberry Ganache
165 grams almond flour
165 grams confectioner's sugar
pinch of fine sea salt
5 grams powdered egg whites
150 grams granulated sugar
115 grams aged egg whites (from approximately four eggs)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
pink gel food color (a few drops)
1 tsp rosewater

Rose-Raspberry White Chocolate Ganache
11 ounces (320 grams) white chocolate, chopped
2 T corn syrup
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup raspberry puree (from fresh raspberries)
1 T unsalted butter, soft
1 tsp rose compound
1 T framboise

To make the macarons, double stack two sets of baking sheets.  This allows the heat to distribute more evenly which is key.  Line with either silicon silpat mats (I bought mine at NY Cake and they are terrific) or with parchment paper.

Place the almond flour, confectioner's sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse four times for three seconds.  Sift until well mixed.  Make the French meringue next but whisking the powdered egg whites with the granulated sugar in the bowl of a mixer with a whisk attachment.  Whisk in the egg whites and cream of tartar until the mixture is homogenous.  Set on medium to medium high speed and whisk about 10-11 minutes until the meringue is glossy and forms stiff peaks.  Add the rosewater extract and gel food color to the meringue.

Next up the famous macaronner step, a folding step with Gordon's book describes in more detail.  With a spatula fold in the sifted ingredients to the meringe using a J fold and continue folding for a total of about 8 strokes after it looks incorporated using the J fold macaronnner technique.  I can't really describe it here - its an art and you need the book!

Pipe one inch circles using a pastry bag and a half inch tip.  I made these a little big, something that I corrected with my next batch of macarons, so stay tuned.  Bake at 200 to dry for exactly 15 minutes, then raise the heat to 350 and continue for nine minutes.  Allow to cool before moving from the silicon.  My feet were a bit lopsided on these macarons because I didn't rotate the trays halfway through at the 350 temperature which is essential for even distribution of heat.  I improved this the second time around.

To make the ganache filling, bring the corn syrup, sour cream, and raspberry puree to boil in a small saucepan over medium high heat.  Pour over the chocolate in the food processor and wait a minute to let the chocolate melt completely.  Pulse until smooth, then add the butter and the rose compound, then the framboise and pulse until shiny.

Pour the ganache in a shallow pan and allow to cool to room temperature for about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is pipeable and not too runny.  Pipe and pair the macarons.

Sasha's Kitchen: Rosewater Macarons with Raspberry White Chocolate Ganache

Sasha's Kitchen: White Chocolate Creme Brulee (Valentine's Day Special!)

I have been preparing a number of desserts lately - including some romantic valentine's day desserts, such as red velvet cupcakes with pretty pink hearts.  In addition, as the owner of a new creme brulee torch, I have been having a lot of fun preparing different types of creme brulee.  So far, I have made regular creme brulee and pumpkin creme brulee.  Tonight, I did some experimentation, and came up with a recipe for a white chocolate creme brulee, just in time to share with our readers for Valentine's Day.  I'm not even close to done with the brulee-ing as there is surely a banana-brandy creme brulee, dark chocolate creme brulee and peach creme brulee in my future.  That's all I have for now, but the impulse to keep coming up with new and unusual flavors of creme brulee is too hard for me to resist.

White chocolate is not actually even chocolate at all, yet it is almost as romantic in its connotations as milk chocolate or dark chocolate.  White chocolate is, according to Wikipedia, actually a confection of milk, sugar, deodorized cocoa butter and egg solids.  My favorite source of white chocolate has long been the white chocolate vanilla Ghiardelli squares that we had brought back from our last trip to San Francisco.

I thought that it would adapt nicely, color-wise into a creme brulee if it was melted and mixed into the cream mixture, before adding the egg yolks.  And, I was right.

Here is what you need to make white chocolate creme brulee as the perfect (and easy) Valentine's Day Dessert (makes four using normal sized brulee dishes):

1 1/4 cups of heavy cream
1 T sugar
4 oz white chocolate
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
Chef's creme brulee torch from Bonjour

To prepare the creme brulee, heat the heavy cream, sugar and white chocolate until the cream just starts to bubble around the edges (over medium-high heat), and the white chocolate is fully dissolved into the cream solution.  You should whisk the entire time, as the white chocolate melts and goes into solution.  While you are doing this, boil a pot of water over a separate burner.

In a mixing bowl, separate out the three egg yolks and beat with the vanilla.  Add the cream-white chocolate mixture to the egg yolk mixture.  Divide among 4 ramekins.  Use the boiling water the surround the ramekins filling the tray so that the hot or boiling water goes up halfway on the sides of the ramekins.  Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes until set.

Chill for one hour, and then put a thin teaspoon of sugar on top of each and brulee according to the manufacturer's instructions on your brulee torch.

This was delicious - similar to regular creme brulee but with a nice, yet subtle white chocolate touch.  I plan on making dark chocolate creme brulee very soon (likely a much more powerful and transformative flavor)!

Check out our other Valentine's day recipes from our site, including Margie's Crunchy French Toast, My homemade Italian Limoncello and My Eat Your Heart Out Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Sasha's Kitchen: White Chocolate Creme Brulee (Valentine's Day Special!)