French caviar baskets

1. Stage

Measure and weigh all the ingredients for the shortbread dough in advance.

2. Stage

Sift the flour with the starch. Cut the butter (cold) into pieces. Place in a blender half the flour, then the butter and the other half the flour. Beat to a crumb. Lightly beat the yolks with sugar and vanilla.

3. Stage

Add the zest, pour the yolk mixture over the buttercrumb mixture, and beat everything again with a blender.

4. Stage

Knead the dough and roll into a ball. Divide into 12 pieces. Cool slightly. I made half a batch, so I divided into 6 portions.

5. Stage

Shape the baskets, since I had "caviar," I baked them in a muffin mold. At the bottom of the baskets lined with circles cut out of baking paper, place a weight (I had beans). Bake in an oven heated to 180 "C for 7-10 minutes. Refer to your oven! Let the baskets cool in the form and release from it. You can bake the baskets a few days in advance. Store in a container with a lid in a cool, dry place.

6. Stage

Meringue baskets: All products for making French meringue should be weighed and prepared in advance.

7. Stage

Whisk the whites with salt until light foam.

8. Stage

Without stopping to whisk, gradually introduce sugar and whisk until it has completely dissolved.

9. Stage

Mix the powder with the starch. Stir into the whites in three steps, stirring constantly with a spatula. Add a few drops of lemon juice and stir. P.S. I will share with you a secret. The whites you took weigh as many grams as the sugar and powdered sugar should weigh as much. The exception - in our case for the baskets we added 10 grams of starch.

10. Stage

Place the meringue in a piping bag with a star tip.

11. Stage

Set out round nests 5-6 cm in diameter. This meringue is enough for 12 cakes. I baked all of them so I wouldn't have to bake them on New Year's Eve. The meringues can be prepared a few days in advance. Store in a container with a lid in a cool dry place. Preheat the oven to 180°C, then reduce the temperature to 90°C and put the baking tray with the meringue. Bake for 1 hour. The finished meringue easily comes off the Teflon mat (baking paper). P.S. I bake meringue with the oven door slightly ajar, making a tiny gap by crumpling a piece of foil.

12. Stage

Cream: Prepare the products for the cream in advance.

13. Stage

Whip the cream with the powdered sugar. Add the cream cheese.

14. Stage

And whip it up again.

15. Stage

Place the cream in 2 piping bags - one with a tube nozzle, the other with a star nozzle. The bag with the pipe nozzle needs 1/3 of the total weight of the cream.

16. Stage

Lace Chip: Weigh out the products for the lace chip.

17. Stage

Mix the water, flour and oil with a whisk. Add the coloring agent and stir well.

18. Stage

Heat a non-stick skillet and pour the chip mix into it. It begins to bubble and sizzle in the pan, turn the heat down to medium and bake until the bubbles and sizzling sound are gone. The chip is ready. Remove it with a spatula and place it on a napkin to remove the oil.

19. Stage

"Caviar": Can be made a week before the holiday. Chill the butter in the freezer; if the dessert is for adults, you can use vodka. Mix the orange juice with the syrup so that the color of the caviar is more natural. Add the agar-agar, let stand for 5 minutes, mix well. Place in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

20. Stage

Using a pipette, drop the drops into cold oil (vodka). Work quickly, because the mixture of juice and agar-agar hardens quickly. If solidified, it can be heated (in small portions) in the microwave.

21. Stage

Toss the finished "caviar" on a strainer and let the oil drain off. Ready "caviar" perfectly stored in the refrigerator up to 1 month in a glass container with a lid. If you do not have agar-agar, the "caviar" can be made from gelatin. Below I will give a link to the recipe.

22. Stage

Assembling: In the baskets of shortbread dough, put 10 grams of kurd. I'll give you a link to the lemon curd recipe below.

23. Stage

Fill the top with cream (a baggie with a star tip).

24. Stage

Fill the nests in the meringue with kourdes. Around it, pour the cream (pipe nozzle).

25. Stage

Decorate the cakes with caviar, chocolate "olives" and lace chips just before serving.

26. Stage

Delicious!

27. Stage

And made of shortbread dough.

28. Stage

And from meringue.