Maria Selyanina is a world-wide confectioner. Originally from Russia, she proved by her own example that there is nothing impossible if you are sincerely passionate about what you are doing.
All the stages of its formation, learning difficulties and first successes can be found in detail from her live journal, but in this article we will describe everything briefly and, of course, give a recipe from the chef.
As where?
Maria always loved to cook, but did not consider the process of creating food as something more than a hobby. Yes, she easily mastered new recipes, made successful corrections on a hunch, set tables for guests, but when asked why not open her own establishment, she reacted with a bewildered smile. Moreover, teacher education opened up completely different horizons for development. However, fate decreed otherwise.
Maria moved to Barcelona, ​​got married and began to develop a business opened with her husband. In parallel with this, she returned to a long-standing passion and found that she was most interested in confectionery. She began to bake to order. At the same time, Maria Selyanina led the LJ, in which she recorded all her achievements.
Universities and current activities of Maria Selyanina
The fateful event in the life of the future pastry chef was the opening of the Le Cordon Bleu school in Barcelona . Having decided, Mary took a tangible amount from the family budget and went to study. After that, professional skill began to grow exponentially - an internship in the best pastry shop in Barcelona, ​​courses, schools, master classes ...
In a short period of time, the Selyanin from self-taught turned into a master, to which they listen. Behind all this lies endless labor and self-confidence, because success does not come just like that.
Maria Selyanina. School in Barcelona
The idea to teach came to her spontaneously. In her LJ, she asked readers how interesting the online learning school would be. To her surprise, many responded enthusiastically. First, classes were conducted on the Internet, after a suitable room was found, equipment was purchased and, with the feasible participation of new acquaintances in the professional field, the school of confectionery skills of Maria Selyanina was opened.
The project was incredibly successful - groups were recruited and graduated one after another, many students found their calling and got a powerful start. Continues its work and online school. In the near future, a personal confectionery should open at the school, in which everyone can buy finished products.
Maria Selyanina, whose cake recipes you will find in this article, turned out to be not only a professional pastry chef, but also released new masters into the world, which we will hear about.
Tenderness itself - Unai cake by Maria Selyanina
Very personal and multifaceted work of the master. We recommend finding violet syrup - with it, blueberries acquire a completely different taste. For a cake with a diameter of 20 cm, you will need the following products:
biscuit:
- almond flour - 68 grams;
- wheat flour - 15 grams;
- icing sugar - 68 grams;
- eggs - 2 small;
- egg whites - 2;
- sugar - 8 grams;
- butter - 10 grams.
Blueberry Confiture:
- sugar - 30 grams;
- blueberry puree - 210 grams;
- violet syrup - 60 grams;
- violet essence (if any) - 1 drop;
- pectin - 3 grams.
Syrup:
- water - 120 grams;
- violet syrup - 30 grams;
- sugar - 60 grams;
- violet essence (if any) - 1 drop.
Mousse:
- milk - 120 grams;
- violet syrup - 30 grams;
- sugar I - 30 grams;
- egg yolks - 3 pieces;
- white chocolate - 150 grams;
- cream with a fat content of at least 33% - 150 grams;
- violet essence (if any) - 2 drops;
- water - 60 grams;
- gelatin sheet - 6 grams;
- sugar II - 120 grams;
- egg white - 60 grams.
Glaze:
- milk - 75 grams;
- cream with a fat content of at least 33% - 75 grams;
- white chocolate - 90 grams;
- gelatin - 5 grams.
Recipe
The first thing to do is take the blueberry jam. Maria Selyanina recommends leaving it acidic enough to pleasantly set off the creamy sweetness of the mousse.
Mix berry puree with violet syrup and half sugar, warm to 40 C.
Mix the remaining sugar with pectin.
Once the blueberry mass reaches the desired temperature, add sugar with pectin and bring the mass to a boil.
Cook for 2-3 minutes and remove from heat.
Mix the essence, pour into a sealed container and cool completely. Such confiture can be stored in a cool place for up to 4 days.
For syrup, mix water with sugar, bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add violet syrup and essence.
Now take care of the biscuit.
To do this, preheat the oven to 180 degrees and cover the baking sheet with baking paper.
Combine flour, almond flour and icing sugar, sift into a bowl. Maria Selyanina recommends using a large sieve.
Beat the squirrels in a separate bowl until a strong peak, set aside.
Add eggs to the flour mass and beat thoroughly for at least 7 minutes.
Melt the butter.
Add part of the almond dough to the hot oil, mix thoroughly. Combine both mixtures, kneading from bottom to top.
Add pre-whipped proteins to the main test, mix gently, keeping the airiness of the mass.
Put the dough on a baking sheet in the shape of a rectangle with sides 38 * 38 cm. Carefully flatten so that the thickness of the layer is the same everywhere.
Put the baking tray with the dough in the oven and bake for 10-13 minutes (depending on the oven). Ready sponge cake should be ruddy and flexible.
Remove the biscuit from the paper and cool completely on the wire rack.
Cut 2 circles with a diameter of 18 cm from the finished cake.
For the mousse, first of all, it is necessary to make the Italian meringue.
Mix water and sugar II, bring to a temperature of 117 ° C, whisking the proteins in parallel to a solid peak.
Immediately pour the boiling syrup into the squirrels without stopping whipping.
Do not turn off the mixer until the mass has completely cooled. Set aside 150 grams of meringue - you don’t need the rest, but Maria doesn’t recommend doing less, because it will be more difficult to get the right consistency.
Soak gelatin in cold water.
Whip cream until soft peak, add violet essence.
Mix milk with half sugar I, bring to a boil. In parallel, mix the remaining sugar with the yolks.
Remove boiling milk from the heat and only after that add violet syrup. Maria Selyanina strongly recommends following this sequence of actions, otherwise milk will curl.
Pour the milk and syrup into the yolks, constantly stirring. Put the mass on the fire again and bring to 82 ° C.
Remove from heat, add the white chocolate cut into small pieces and squeezed gelatin. Stir the mixture thoroughly until smooth. Cool to 37 ° C.
Mix half the deferred meringue into the chocolate-violet mixture, mix thoroughly.
Add whipped cream, achieve uniformity again.
Add the remaining meringue to the mousse mass, again mix by hand, keeping the mass airy.
You can start assembling the creamy-blueberry dessert that Maria Selyanina offers. The cake is assembled in a mold with a diameter of 20 cm.
Put the first biscuit on the bottom of the mold, soak in syrup. Wait 5 minutes and soak again.
Beat confiture at low speed to give a softer consistency, then transfer to a pastry bag.
Spread half the confiture evenly over the sponge cake.
Put the mousse in a second pastry bag.
Fill with mousse the space between the sides of the mold and the biscuit, then lay the mousse in a layer 1 cm thick over the confiture. Put the mold in the freezer for 7-8 minutes to set the mousse.
Put a second biscuit on top of the frozen mousse, repeat all the operations: impregnation, confiture, mousse. Smooth the mousse thoroughly.
Put the cake pan in the freezer for 4-5 hours to let it cool completely.
Almost ready Unai cake, which offers you to cook Maria Selyanina. Glaze is the final touch that will give it the necessary gloss.
Soak the gelatin in cold water.
Soften white chocolate in a water bath.
Mix milk with cream, bring to a boil and remove from heat.
Add white chocolate, knead until smooth. Add squeezed gelatin and mix again.
When kneading the glaze, drive with a spatula in one direction - this minimizes air ingress.
If bubbles appeared on the surface of the glaze, then tap the container with the glaze on the countertop - thanks to this measure, air will escape. Bring the glaze to a temperature of 40 ° C.
Free the cooled cake from the mold and place on the wire rack.
Pour the cake evenly with icing, without leveling - it should spread itself.
Let the icing harden and decorate the cake to taste - Maria used macarons, violet flowers and fresh blueberries for this.
The confectioner did not mention this, but we recommend that you also try this cake, replacing blueberries with raspberries and violets with roses.
Maria Selyanina: recipes for French classics. Choux pastry
Maria herself admits that she loves choux pastry very much for its versatility, since it forms the basis of eclairs, shu, Saint Honore and croquembush and many other products. However, the choux pastry is not amenable to many - products do not rise or fall, dry or break. According to the recipe that the confectioner gave, choux pastry will turn out for everyone and always. Take:
- water - 200 grams;
- butter - 80 grams;
- sugar - 4 grams;
- salt - 4 grams;
- flour - 120 grams;
- eggs - 4 pieces.
Cooking
Cover the baking sheet with baking paper.
Preheat the oven to 260 C.
In a stewpan, place water, sugar, salt and butter, cut into small cubes, and put it on a small fire. You need to ensure that the butter is dispersed in the dough before the liquid begins to boil.
As soon as the oil and water boil, pour all the flour at once, mix thoroughly until smooth.
Dry the dough on the fire for 1.5 minutes - this is necessary so that during the final mixing it absorbs more eggs - the quality and volume of voids inside the eclair depends on it.
The dough can be removed from the fire when it begins to roll into a ball, and a small crust will appear at the bottom of the stewpan.
Pour the eggs into a bowl, mix thoroughly with a whisk and strain the resulting melange - this will make the dough homogeneous and will not break.
Add melange to the dough little by little, each time carefully mixing and controlling the consistency. Adding the rest of the melange, you should get a beautiful glossy dough that falls heavily from the shoulder blade, and not pours.
Put the dough in a pastry bag and squeeze it onto baking paper. For better air circulation, the items are staggered.
Place the baking tray with eclairs in the oven and turn it on for 10 minutes.
After that, set the temperature to 170 ° C and, without opening the oven, bake for another 35 minutes.
Finished products have an intense golden color and are rather dry.
Cool completely and fill with cream to taste.
Total
Confectionery is incredibly popular today - there are more and more masters offering a wide variety of treats. Many manage to create their own business without leaving their home kitchen. Maria Selyanina, whose cake and pastries we tried to bake today, gives people an incentive to develop, instills the joy of creation.