Recipe: Lychee Rose Saint Honoré

It’s Christmas season, the time for get-togethers with friends and families. For us, it’s the busiest period where months of preparation didn’t seem to help ease production and fulfillment crunch. Nonetheless the celebrations must go on and we try to attend year-end parties whenever we can.  

Here’s my go-to recipe for a relatively quick and easy pastry that can feed and impress large groups at a potluck party. Try it out this Christmas and let us know what you think!

Lychee Rose Saint Honoré

Craquelin

85g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
100g flour
100g sugar

1. Cream butter and sugar together in a stand mixer with paddle attachment.

2. Add in flour and beat till combined.

3. Add food coloring to desired color.

4. Roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper to 2mm thickness and freeze.

Choux pastry

125g whole milk
125g water
110g unsalted butter
3g salt
165g flour, sifted
240g eggs

1. In a medium pot, add in milk, water, butter and salt.

2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

3. Remove pot from the heat, add in all the flour at once and stir quickly.

4. Return to heat again till a thin coating form on the bottom of the pot.

5. Transfer to mixing bowl fitted with paddle attachment and beat at medium speed to cool the mixture down.

6. Gradually add in eggs, one at a time till fully incorporated.

7. Transfer to piping bag.

Choux pastry + Craquelin

1. Use an open star piping tip to pipe the choux pastry into 1.5-2cm diameter.

2. Place cut frozen craquelin (of the same size) on top of the choux pastry.

3. Spray the baking tray with water. Bake for 10mins at 200C and turn down to 180C for another 8mins.

Rose Chantilly Cream

250g cream
35g sugar
1 tsp rosewater

1. Place all ingredients in a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment.

2. Whisk till soft peak.

Lychee Ganache Montée (whipped ganache)

100g Fossa White Chocolate
50g + 150g Cream
1 Can of lychee, drained and diced

1. Heat 50g of cream and add to white chocolate.

2. Whisk till mixture is smooth and well combined.

3. Cool the mixture down in the fridge till semi-thick.

4. Transfer to mixing bowl fitted with whisk attachment. Add in 150g of cream and whipped till firm.

5. Fold in chopped Lychee.

Assembly

1. Fill the choux pastry with Lychee Ganache Montée.

2. Place three choux on a 6cm sable (butter cookie) and decorate with Rose Chantilly cream .

Sake Kasu

Few months ago, Taichi from Sakemaru (a sake subscription service – check them out) asked whether I could make chocolate with sake kasu. I immediately said YES because this is one of my dream ingredients. I can smell it all day.

Sake kasu, also known as sake lees, are the leftover rice from brewing sake. It has recently gained popularity as an ingredient due to its abundance of nutrients and incredible flavor. Some hardcore sake fans simply bake them with salt to make a chewy side dish. If you manage to get your hands on some, definitely try this out. It’s delicious!

Sake kasu is soft and mushy. It smells like sake.

The sake kasu we got were produced in the process of brewing Daiginjo, which is the highest grade of sake brewed by Asahara Shuzo Brewery, a family brewery located in Saitama Prefecture. To make them into chocolate, we dehydrated the sake kasu for a few hours over low heat to remove moisture and alcohol. The result is a chewy “jerky” that has all the flavors of sake without the alcohol so it’s suitable for people on alcohol-free diet.  This kasu “jerky” is then combined with our house-made white chocolate and some sea salt flakes to round off the flavor. 

Dehydrated sake kasu is still sticky.

Talking about white chocolate, this bar would be the first and probably only batch of white chocolate we will make with natural undeodorised cacao butter sourced from Peru. We managed to get our hands on a few kg of these special cacao butter and it's all going into this batch. This is easily one of my favorite bar now. Only 250 bars were made so do grab them fast before they run out!