This Bonsai Dessert is not really a bonsai and perhaps not even a simple dessert. I called it the sweet bonsai of women because I wanted to create something that was a tribute to all women. However, what came out of it in the end is not even a simple tribute. It’s hard to talk about simplicity when it comes to women, and maybe it’s this complexity that makes them so special.
International Women’s Day: La Festa della Donna
International Women’s Day was born and spread globally to celebrate the economic, political and social progress of women and to highlight the steps still to be taken to achieve gender equality. Gender equality is a vast topic, one thinks that it is a bit of a utopia, almost a paradox to seek any equality between gifted human beings of a wonderful uniqueness. Perhaps it is fair to say that the woman will never be equal to anyone, precisely because of her singular ability to love, give life, bewitch and sometimes frighten. It may be her complexity that makes her so wonderfully unique.
Mimosa or Bonsai
In Italy it is customary to pay homage to women with a mimosa because it is a flower that is easy to find and within everyone’s reach. It was precisely this concept, “within everyone’s reach”, that made me think of bonsai. Its name means to take care, cultivate and describes very well how the relationship with a bonsai is a particularly devoted commitment, not within everyone’s reach. A practice that looks more like a journey in continuous evolution, without a real destination, and aimed at a “simple” teaching. There is only the here and now. During the formation of a bonsai, this journey is as far as its shape can be established.
Bonsai
As definitive, it is actually nothing more than an “instant photograph” taken at a particular moment by us, chosen to be able to represent it as a living subject. Although, in a more or less imperceptible way, the passage of time will continue to change its shape continuously. Having a bonsai to take care of means understanding its uniqueness and therefore allowing this uniqueness to be able to express itself freely and harmoniously. It communicates its essence through a natural form among the infinite possibilities.
Taking care of the bonsai is therefore not the mere achievement of an aesthetic ideal, but the becoming a means through which the small tree can express itself and the nature of which it is an emanation. Cultivating a bonsai therefore implies getting in tune with it, discovering and understanding its character, and then enhancing it as much as possible. Iit means revealing its qualities, from the most obvious to the most hidden, carefully considering its strengths and weaknesses
Relationships
In the end, this sweet bonsai of women has not remained a simple tribute, but has become the symbol of how my imagination suggests how the relationship between a man and a woman should be. A relationship that implies the search and care of its purest essence and the commitment to help it bloom luxuriantly. Then we are able to enjoy its happy freedom and be able to do as the Japanese do during the cherry blossoms: sit in front of it and admire its extraordinary beauty.
Bonsai Dessert for Women Recipe
Ingredients
For the pastry:
- Corn flour 100 gr
- Flour 00 210 gr
- Icing sugar 60 gr
- Cold butter 110 gr
- Egg 1
- Salt 1 pinch
- Baking powder 1/2 teaspoon
- Turmeric 1 tbsp
Strawberry Bavarian cream:
- Strawberries 250 gr
- Cream for cakes 175 ml
- Sugar 75 gr
- Lemon juice 1/2 lemon
- Vanillin 1/2 sachet
- Isinglass 6 gr
Cream bavarois:
- Fresh Cream 200 gr
- Sugar 75 gr
- Milk 75 gr
- Isinglass 6 gr
- Vanilla 1 pod
Sugar paste:
- Sugar 250 gr
- Water 50 gr
- Honey 25 gr
- Isinglass 2 gr
- Unsweetened cocoa powder 50 gr
- Butter 17 gr
Procedure
- Start with the pastry, sift the
- flours and mix them well in a bowl
- Add the butter cut into small pieces, knead well until you get a sandy mixture
- Add the sugar and stir quickly
- Add the egg, salt and water, kneading quickly until it forms a ball
- Wrap the shortcrust pastry in plastic wrap and transfer it to the fridge for at least half an hour
- Preheat the oven to 180° and bake the pan with the pastry arranged in small pieces
- Bake for about 20 minutes
- Prepare the strawberry Bavarian cream, start by washing the strawberries and cut them into pieces
- Put the strawberries in the bowl of a blender, add the sugar and lemon juice and blend well until
- Getting a puree
- Transfer the strawberry puree to a bowl, add the cream in which the gelatin must already be dissolved and mix well
- Whip the cold cream for cakes, add the strawberry puree and stir gently so as not to disassemble the cream
- Now that the mixture is ready, pour into a glass and place in the refrigerator until thickened
- Now prepare the cream Bavarian cream, soak the isinglass, heat the milk in a saucepan, add the sugar and melt well.
- Add the vanilla seeds and add the gelatin and let the mixture cool
- Whip the cream then add to the flavoured milk
- Pour the mixture into the same
- glass of strawberry Bavarian cream for the second layer
- Now prepare the sugar paste, soak the fish pot, drain and squeeze it well
- Then take a saucepan and pour in the water and isinglass
- Turn on the stove with a very low flame and melt very slowly, stirring constantly
- When the isinglass is completely liquid, add the honey and continue to stir until it has also melted
- Put the cocoa and sugar in the mixer and let it mix
- Add the butter and finally add the water with honey and gelatin and let the mixer work again for 5 minutes
- Remove the mixture and knead it with your hands for a few minutes on a wooden pastry board
- Form a dough, wrap it in plastic wrap and leave to rest in the refrigerator for two hours
- After the necessary time has elapsed, shape the fine sugar paste with your hands and form a trunk with branches
- Gently place the sugar paste trunk on top of the Bavarian cream contained in the glass
- Top with a dollop of strawberry cotton candy and crumbled shortcrust pastry powder
Download the recipe in Italian. | Scarica la ricetta in italiano.
Check out Lorenzo’s Valentine’s Day Recipe
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