After an extremely long, unexplained absence, I wish I had an interesting story to tell about why I haven't posted anything in more than a month. Something like... I was whisked away to Paris, France as soon as a restaurant owner heard of my blog, and I have been working there! Truth is, I was swamped by school. That's all there is to it. Boring... However, I have still been cooking and taking pictures, I just haven't been able to update the blog. I will try my hardest to update more regularly, at the very least, once a week.
And so, I figured since I am on March Break, I could spend some of my time updating this (while listening to the Harry Potter soundtrack, of course!)
For my first recipe; a rather simple, yet elegant, dessert. Lately, I've realized that I should always have a frozen pack of puff pastry in my kitchen. If I am out of ingredients to make a more complex dessert, or simply too lazy, I can always use the puff pastry dough to make croissants or some other quick pastry. Which is what I decided to do one night, but I didn't feel like serving my parents and myself plain croissants. So I decided to dress them up, and everyone loved them! I loved how the sweetness of the mango cut through the heaviness of the chocolate; it just worked really great. Enjoy!
The Intellectual Croissants
Ingredients:
1 frozen pack of puff pastry dough
1 egg and tablespoon of water (for egg wash)
Mango puree/ sorbet (run frozen mango chunks for food processor until smooth)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Splash of heavy cream
Directions for croissants:
-let the puff pastry dough thaw, until cool to the touch
-on a flour-covered surface, roll out the dough until rather thin, yet not translucent
-using a sharp knife, or pizza cutter, cut the dough into quarters
-then cut each quarter diagonally and you will end up with 8 triangles
-roll the triangles, with the tip pointing out from you, into croissant shapes
-with the egg wash, 1 beaten egg and a splash of water, brush it on top of the croissants
-place on a slightly greased baking tray, or on aluminum foil
-follow the instructions on the dough box on how to bake, but I made mine at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes
Directions for chocolate ganache:
-while those are baking, you have time to make the chocolate ganache
-while you can use a double boiler to melt the chocolate, the microwave saves you a lot of time and pots to clean later
-into a microwave safe bowl, add in the chocolate and heavy cream
-heat on medium power for 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds
-your ganache is ready!
To assemble:
-once the croissants are ready, dip or smear the ganache on top of them
-on plates, add 1 tablespoon of the mango puree/sorbet
-on top, place the chocolate-smeared croissants and there you have it!
