Millefeuille with Crème Patissiere and Mixed Berries
If you’ve ever wandered past a French patisserie, you might have spotted a delicate pastry stacked with crisp, golden layers and silky cream. That’s the mille-feuille, sometimes known as the “Napoleon,” a timeless French dessert whose name literally means “a thousand layers.The pastry’s signature thin, crunchy layers are made with laminated puff pastry, which rises beautifully in the oven to create delicate, buttery sheets. When assembled with care, the layers give you a bite that’s light, airy, and indulgent all at once.
Puff Pastry Pinwheels with Fruit
By searching the internet, you will be able to find hundreds of tutorials on how to fold puff pastry shapes. One of them is the pinwheel. Easy enough to make in 4 steps. Fill the centre with a cream or custard and decorate with mixed berries and a preserve.
Apple Tarte Tatin
Tarte Tatin is known for its rich, glossy caramel, tender apples, and crisp pastry base. Unlike a traditional tart where the puff pastry sits underneath the filling during baking, a Tarte Tatin is baked upside down, with the apples at the bottom of the pan and the puff pastry on top. Once baked, it is inverted so the caramelised apples become the topping.
Glazed Doughnuts
With this recipe, we will make a sugar brioche dough. Famously perfect for making a cinnamon doughnut or better yet, Beignets à la cannelle. As it is a yeast-raised dough, it will take some time however but it is pillow-like soft. As the name suggest, it can be sprinkled with cinnamon sugar or in this case, we will be making glazed icing to decorate.
White Chocolate and Lemon Tartlets
I love lemon meringue or even anything for that matter with lemon added to it. The taste experience of sweet and tarty is my favourite. When a clients asked me to make something with chocolate for her husband which also enjoys lemon desserts, I thought of pairing white creamy chocolate with lemon. Simple and quite quick to make as well. You may use ready made tart cases or follow my recipe on shortcrust pastry below.
Chocolate and Berry Tartlets
I have made this recipe and this combination of pastry for probably the last 20 years. I have not changed anything except perhaps, as per the client’s request, added a cream liqueur to the cream part of the Ganache au Chocolat. Each little tartlet pan are carefully lined with Pâtè Sucrèe (Shortcrust Pastry).
Mini Milktarts
This is one of South Africa’s best-loved heritage desserts, and for many of us it brings back fond childhood memories of enjoying it at home. Although it is a custard-based tart and similar versions are found in many countries, this one is unmistakably South African. For us, it will always be linked to what our grannies used to make , each family with its own unique crust, but always finished with a generous sprinkling of cinnamon on top.
Berry and Pecan Galette
This berry and pecan galette, enriched with apple and cinnamon and finished with a dash of whipped cream, will have you reaching for more.
The recipe is fresh, easy to assemble, and bakes in under half an hour, making it a quick go-to dessert before your guests arrive.
Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Pithivier
Pithiviers are traditionally made with two disks of puff pastry (Pâte Feuilletee), filled with a savoury filling and baked in the oven until golden flaky dough forms. The fun behind this recipe, is the fact that you can create almost any art on the top. Usually filled savoury, sweet fillings such as chocolate chips, cookie dough, fruit based pies.
Get creative with making different shapes with the excess dough.
Chocolate Profiteroles
What I love about Pâte Choux or Choux pastry is how versatile it is. It is easy to make, quick to bake and it can create different products within a minute by just piping, decorating or finishing the product differently. Churros are made with the same pastry and fried. Éclair's piped into finger-length pastries of 10cm, filled and glazed. Paris-Brest is piped in a circle and profiteroles (sometimes called choux puffs) can be made as a savoury hors-d’œuvre or a sweet dessert such as these Chocolate Profiteroles filled with Pastry Cream (Crème Pâtissière).They can be filled with ice cream and even freeze for a few weeks. Gougères (cheese puffs) are made the same way as profiteroles but distinctively filled with cheese.
Paris-Brest with Almond Praline Crème
Perhaps something you did not know, but Paris-Brest is a timeless French pastry that perfectly combines refinement with indulgence. Shaped as a ring of choux pastry, it was originally created to honour the famous Paris–Brest cycling race, with its circular form symbolising a bicycle wheel. The pastry is baked until golden and crisp, then filled with a smooth, nutty praline cream that adds richness and depth of flavour. Finished with flaked almonds and a dusting of icing sugar. This recipe has a praline cream made as per tradition with either a crème mousseline or crème pâtissière enriched with praline paste made from hazelnuts or almonds.
Paris-Brest with Chantilly Cream
Paris-Brest is made out of Choux dough, which is such a versitile dough to work with. Make profiteroles, Churros and eclairs if you like. The Chantilly cream is light and silky, but cannot keep well so decorate and consume quick! :)
Pâte à Croissant
Croissants have been a cornerstone of our training at the Patisserie Academy for many years. While they are often seen as one of the more technical pastries to master, we’ve proven time and again that with the right guidance, structure, and understanding, they can be made successfully and consistently. At the heart of great croissants lies baking science, from gluten development to temperature control and fermentation.
Plum Pistachio Frangipani Tart
To celebrate the upcoming season, I decided to make these beautiful plum tarts that resemble flowers or roses. They’re filled with a fragrant frangipane and set on a delicate shortcrust base.