Peach Ginger Cream Cheese Pastry Cups
| Serves | 12 |
|---|---|
| Menu Part | Dessert |
Pastry chef Toni Roberts
Ritz Carlton Hotel
Chicago
Pastry chef Toni Roberts likes to prepare these for summer brunches at the Ritz Carlton Chicago, but the mini tarts also make a sweet ending to dinner, topped with a scoop of ice cream. The housemade peach-ginger jam that tops the cups can double as a bread spread or condiment for grilled meats. Weighing the ingredients makes for more precise measurements when baking.
Ingredients
Peach ginger jam
6 g. pectin
330 g. granulated sugar, divided
250 g. frozen peach ginger blend puree, thawed
50 g. glucose
25 g. lemon juice
Cream cheese filling
10 g. frozen lemon zest puree, thawed
227 g. cream cheese
85 g. confectioners’ sugar
1 egg yolk
½ tsp. almond extract
Pastry dough
312 g. all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. salt
227 g. cold butter, cut into cubes
114 g. sour cream
1 egg yolk
Candied almond topping
1 egg white
20 g. granulated sugar
¼ tsp. salt
150 g. sliced almonds, toasted
Steps
1. For peach ginger jam, in small bowl, whisk together pectin and 30 g. sugar.
2. In heavy saucepan, whisk peach ginger puree, 300 g. sugar, glucose and lemon juice. Over high heat, bring to a boil. Whisk in pectin mixture; cook, whisking, until temperature reaches 104 C.
3. Pour into shallow bowl and refrigerate until well chilled.
4. For cream cheese filling, in food processor, combine lemon zest puree, cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk and almond extract. Cover and process until smooth. Transfer to bowl and refrigerate until well chilled.
5. For pastry dough, in clean food processor, pulse flour, salt and butter until butter is size of peas. Whisk together sour cream and egg yolk; add to flour mixture and pulse until dough forms.
6. Flatten dough into 1-inch-thick disk; wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
7. Load peach ginger jam and cream cheese filling into separate pastry bags; set aside.
8. On surface dusted with confectioners sugar, roll pastry dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into 4-inch squares, rerolling scraps once and cutting again. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray. Place dough squares into muffin cups; pipe in peach ginger jam and cream cheese filling. Pull up corners of dough square and shape to fit.
9. For almond topping, in small bowl, whisk egg white, sugar and salt until foamy. Stir in almonds. Place a little pile of almond topping on each pastry cup.
10. Bake in 350 F oven for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown. Let cool in muffin tin 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from tin while still warm and place on wire rack to cool completely.
Photo courtesy of The Perfect Puree of Napa Valley