Chèvre-Scented Coeur à la Crème with Pistachio Crust

Chèvre-Scented Coeur à la Crème with Pistachio Crust 

 This recipe is from the Book The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friburg. I will be creating this for my lovely wife for Valentines Day. This is one easy recipe..

Chef Bo Friberg is a certified Master Pastry Chef with over 40 years of professional experience in the industry. Chef Bo (as he is known to his students) graduated from the Confectionery Association School of Sweden and holds a degree as a Master Confectioner. He has worked in both small shops and large retail and wholesale operations in the United States and Europe, and was Pastry Chef for Swedish American Lines Cruise Ships. In addition, he has demonstrated his pastry artistry on television shows including the two highly acclaimed public television series Cooking Secrets of the CIA, and Cooking at The Academy, as well as NBC's Today Show and the locally produced Bay Cafe.

Chef Bo has taught baking and pastry courses to all levels of students - from beginners to seasoned professionals - since 1978. Chef Friberg currently holds the position of Department Chair of the Baking and Pastry Program at the Professional Culinary Institute in Campbell, California. From 2001 to 2004 Chef Friberg was the Executive Pastry Chef at the San Diego Culinary Institute where he taught a very special 30-week Baking and Pastry Certificate Program, which he developed specifically for the school. Chef Bo previously spent nearly 20 years teaching at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, where he was part of the school's opening faculty team. In 1995 Chef Friberg was selected as a member of the start-up teaching group for The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in the Napa Valley, where he spent five years as a Chef-Instructor before returning to CCA for a brief stay.

Chef Friberg has received awards and honors for his work in Europe and in the United States. He has earned gold medals on two occasions at the American Culinary Federation's Culinary Arts Exhibit of the Pacific Coast. Chef Bo's book The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef was the recipient of a 2004 IACP Cookbook Award. Chef Friberg is also a member of the Advisory Board for PastryScoop.com.

Chef Bo's celebrated cookbook The Professional Pastry Chef, has now been revised to its Fourth Edition, with the expanded material divided into a two-volume set, Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry and The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef. Either of these two new volumes alone is a comprehensive reference. Together, they cover the full spectrum of baking and pastry. Both books are certain to become classics- essential sources for recipes, information and inspiration for professional pastry chefs, apprentices, students, and pastry lovers everywhere- in the same way as the previous three editions.

Chèvre-Scented Coeur à la Crème with Pistachio Crust 

Coeur à la Crème, literally "heart with cream" in English, can be made from any combination of fresh cheeses such as farmer's cheese, cottage cheese, or cream cheese.It is very simple dish with only a few ingredients - the cheese, sugar, cream (or meringue to make a lighter version), and fruit. The flavor varies according to the proportion of whipped cream and /or meringue added. This recipe is not too sweet and has a little bite, which comes from the addition of chèvre (goat's milk cheese). Coeur à la crème is traditionally served with sweetened fresh strawberries and strawberry sauce. Although the cheese dessert is the classic interpretation, the name coeur is sometimes used to describe a heart-shape frozen mousse.
Heart-shaped wicker baskets and heart-shaped porcelain molds with small holes in the bottom are made especially for this dessert in sizes that make individual servings and larger ones that can hold up to eight servings. Before the forms are filled they are lined with slightly dampened cheesecloth. the cheese filling is placed in the forms, and they are left overnight in the refrigerator to allow the whey to drain off, leaving a smooth creamy mixture. I prefer the porcelain molds, since the little drainage holes can be taped over allowing you to use for other purposes.
If you do not have coeur à la crème molds (or you do not have enough molds for the number of servings you are making), leave the cheese mixture to drain in a fine mesh strainer or a colander lined with cheesecloth. The next day you can pack the mixture into a heart-shape metal form lined with cheesecloth, or for individual servings, a heart shape cookie cutter (or a coeur à la crème mold provided you have at least one-it does create a much more attractive shape). Press the cheese in tightly, using a palette knife. Place in the freezer for 10 minutes, remove, unmold, and repeat until you have made the desired number of servings.

1. line twelve individual or two 3-cup (720-ml) coeur à la crème molds with damp cheesecloth, using enough for an overhang around the edges. set the molds aside. 
2. Whip the heavy cream and granulated sugar until soft peaks form. Reserve in the refrigerator. 
3. Place the cream cheese and chèvre in a mixer bowl. using the paddle attachment, beat until the mixture is smooth, scrapping down the sides of the bowl a few times to make sure there are no lumps. 
4. Place the farmer's or cottage cheese in a food processor and blend until completely smooth. Blend this into the cream cheese mixture. Fold the reserved whipped cream in by hand. 
5. Pipe or pour the mixture into the lined molds, dividing it equally. Fold the cheesecloth over the top to cover. Place the molds in the refrigerator overnight, setting them on the sheet pan or tray to catch the whey as it drains off. 
6. Place a portion of the Strawberry Sauce in a piping bottle. Reserve in the refrigerator together with the remaining sauce. 
7. Spread the crushed pistachios out in a flat layer in a shallow dish. 
8. Presentation: Lift a Coeur à la Crème out of the mold. Peel away the cheesecloth and place the heart flat-side down on top of the pistachio nuts so that the nuts adhere to the bottom of the dessert (the side that was exposed when it was in the mold). Press some of the nuts into the side of the heart around the bottom edge as well. Place the heart, nut-side down, slightly above the center of the dessert plate. Slice the stem end off one strawberry, cutting the end flat and removing the hull. Cut one thin round slice from this end, then cut the remainder of the strawberry into thin slices lengthwise. Arrange three of the larger lengthwise slices on the base of the plate around the top half of the heart, with the points toward the rim of the plate. Place the round slice on the top of the slices strawberries next to the heart. Pipe teardrops of Strawberry Sauce on the base of the plate on both sides and around the bottom of the Coeur à la Crème. Sprinkle julienne mint leaves over the sauce. Place a Curly Cue Leaning against the point of the heart with the tip angled toward the strawberries.  

Ingredients:

1½ Cups (360 ml) heavy Cream 

7 ounces (200 g) granulated sugar 

8 ounces (225 g) soft cream cheese 

3½ ounces (100 g) soft mild Chèvre such as Montrachet

1 pound, 8 ounces (680 g) farmer's cheese or cottage cheese 

Strawberry Sauce 

1½ pounds (½ kg 182.5 g) fresh ripe strawberries

1 tablespoon (8 g) cornstarch 

2 ounces (57.5 g) granulated sugar 

NOTE: When the strawberries have white shoulders around the hull together with a little white on the tip (or nose) they are called "cat-faced." This usually occurs once a year when one of the growing regions gets hit with rain, forcing a cooler area to pick its berries before they are fully ripe. These immature berries are inexpensive but bland and and without much color. If you have no choice but to use them, add a small amount of raspberry juice or Beet Juice to make more appealing.