Recipe: Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong’s Mikado
Even young bakers will have fun making—and eating—this sweet, festive treat from Pastry Chef Gregoire Michaud, made with dried berries and white chocolate.
For a festive cookie that children will enjoy making as much as eating, try Dried Berries Mikado. These treats are a hit at Four Seasons Resort Hong Kong, where Pastry Chef Gregoire Michaud fashions sweet, buttery dough into slender cookies dipped in white chocolate and dried fruit.
But you don’t have to travel to Hong Kong to try Dried Berries Mikado. Simply follow Michaud’s recipe at home. You can even enlist kids to help with the shaping, dipping and sprinkling. Visit the Four Seasons blog Have Family Will Travel to see how one young baker and her mom take this recipe on.
Ingredients
270 gm (approximately 2 ½ cups) cake flour
160 gm (approximately 1 ½ sticks) butter
80 gm (approximately 2/3 cups) icing sugar
60 gm egg (approximately 1 extra large egg)
One tablespoon of vanilla essence
150 gm (approximately 6 oz.) Opal 31% white chocolate
A handful of freeze-dried berries
Method
Mix all the ingredients until batter is smooth. Using a piping bag with a piping tip 3 to 5 mm in diameter (1/8 of an inch), pipe straight bars on a baking tray. Bake the Mikados at 400 F/200 C for about 15 minutes, until golden brown. Allow cooling. Melt the white chocolate in a microwave and temper it to 90 F/32 C.
Assembly
Dip the sticks almost fully in the white chocolate, leaving a section clear to use as the holding part later. Before the chocolate sets, sprinkle the crumbs of freeze-dried berries on the sticks. Allow the chocolate to set, and serve.
Helpful Tip
Create a selection of dips such as fruit purée or caramel sauce to enhance the sticks. Also, you can dip them in different chocolates and sprinkle on different condiments such as nuts or dried citrus peel.
Makes approximately two dozen pieces.
Recipe courtesy Gregoire Michaud
