If I close my eyes and remember myself as a little girl standing in a huge store near the counter with sweets, then somewhere among the mountains of candy, marmalade, and sherbet, mountains with white and pink zefirs will rise. Huge zefirs the size of a child’s fist, with a crust thin as the first ice, behind which hides a delicate bubble-like body that melts in the mouth, with a slight taste of apples. A lady in a white starched headdress deftly folds an envelope out of paper and fills it to the top with zefirs, weighs it and hands it to me. Tthis is happiness. In Soviet times, making zefirs at home was difficult: although KitchenAid appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, it was not available to us. Therefore, the only way to get your favourite treat was to stand in a huge queue for it. It’s much easier now – take my recipe, KitchenAid, a little time, and voilà!
If I close my eyes and remember myself as a little girl standing in a huge store near the counter with sweets, then somewhere among the mountains of candy, marmalade, and sherbet, mountains with white and pink zefirs will rise. Huge zefirs the size of a child’s fist, with a crust thin as the first ice, behind which hides a delicate bubble-like body that melts in the mouth, with a slight taste of apples. A lady in a white starched headdress deftly folds an envelope out of paper and fills it to the top with zefirs, weighs it and hands it to me. Tthis is happiness. In Soviet times, making zefirs at home was difficult: although KitchenAid appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, it was not available to us. Therefore, the only way to get your favourite treat was to stand in a huge queue for it. It’s much easier now – take my recipe, KitchenAid, a little time, and voilà!- Prep time: 35 minutes + 30 minutes’ chilling and 24 hours’ setting
- Cook time: 50 minutes
- Makes: 30
- Difficulty: challenging
- Course: dessert
- Cookware: KitchenAid stand mixer, silicone spatula, pastry bag with a rosette nozzle at least 1 cm diameter
- Cuisine: Eastern-European
Ingredients
- 250 g apple puree or 4 medium apples
- 250 g sugar
- 1 egg white
For the syrup:
- 475 g sugar
- 160 ml water
- 4 tsp agar agar
- icing sugar for dusting
Cooking method
Step 1
Heat the oven to 180°C. Soak agar agar in water for syrup.
Step 2
Peel and seed apples, cut in half and bake. Put warm apples in a bowl, blitz with a blender until even. Add sugar to the apple purée and leave to cool.
Step 3
Put water with agar agar on low heat and, stirring constantly, wait until the agar agar is completely dissolved. Add sugar, bring syrup to boil, stirring constantly with a spoon. Periodically lift the spoon up and check the syrup for a “thin thread”. When it reaches a temperature of about 100°C, a thin thread will stretch from the raised spoon. Remove the syrup from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.
Step 4
Transfer the apple purée to the stand mixer bowl, add half of the egg whites and beat on slow speed. When the purée becomes light, add the other half of the egg whites and beat until fluffy. Continue beating on slow speed, pour in slightly cooled, but still hot syrup in a slow but steady stream. The mixture will begin to increase in volume. It is ready when it becomes dense, shiny, and smooth. Since products with agar agar solidify already at 40°C, the zefirs must be piped very quickly. If the mixture does not fit into one pastry bag, then the rest must be left in the stand mixer, and continue to beat it at a slow speed.
Step 5
Spread baking paper on a flat surface. Quickly spoon the mixture to a pastry bag with a nozzle and pipe zefirs on the paper. Dust with icing sugar. Leave zefirs at room temperature on the table for a day. During this time, they will harden and a thin crust will form. Match two halves of zefirs together. Store zefirs in the refrigerator, tightly covering the container with cling film, at a temperature from + 3 to + 5°С for no more than 7 days.
My tips and tricks:
When choosing apples for zefir, choose the less juicy ones, that you can easily crush with your finger. They will bake faster and will make the purée thicker. Try to make zefir from berry purée. You can use fresh or frozen berries for this. If the berries are frozen, then defrost them completely. Blitz the berries with a blender, and then strain them through a sieve. If the purée is not thick enough, then you can simmer it over low heat. The quality of zefir is directly affected by the amount of pectin in berries or fruits. Besides apples, currants, raspberries, strawberries, peaches, cherries, apricots, pears, plums, and even orange peel are high in pectin. All this is a huge ocean for your experiments.
Alla Plachkova’s wine recommendations:
I recommend brut white aged sparkling Bisser Kolonist as a pair for zefir. The wine is made from Chardonnay grapes from Kolonist own vineyard. The wine is made by classical method of champagnization with aging sur lie in bottles no less than 1½ years. The wine is light straw colour with a golden hue. Serving temperature: from +6 to + 8°С.
- 250 g apple puree or 4 medium apples
- 250 g sugar
- 1 egg white
- For the syrup:
- 475 g sugar
- 160 ml water
- 4 tsp agar agar
- icing sugar for dusting
- Heat the oven to 180°C. Soak agar agar in water for syrup.
- Peel and seed apples, cut in half and bake. Put warm apples in a bowl, blitz with a blender until even. Add sugar to the apple purée and leave to cool.
- Put water with agar agar on low heat and, stirring constantly, wait until the agar agar is completely dissolved. Add sugar, bring syrup to boil, stirring constantly with a spoon. Periodically lift the spoon up and check the syrup for a "thin thread". When it reaches a temperature of about 100°C, a thin thread will stretch from the raised spoon. Remove the syrup from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.
- Transfer the apple purée to the stand mixer bowl, add half of the egg whites and beat on slow speed. When the purée becomes light, add the other half of the egg whites and beat until fluffy. Continue beating on slow speed, pour in slightly cooled, but still hot syrup in a slow but steady stream. The mixture will begin to increase in volume. It is ready when it becomes dense, shiny, and smooth. Since products with agar agar solidify already at 40°C, the zefirs must be piped very quickly. If the mixture does not fit into one pastry bag, then the rest must be left in the stand mixer, and continue to beat it at a slow speed.
- Spread baking paper on a flat surface. Quickly spoon the mixture to a pastry bag with a nozzle and pipe zefirs on the paper. Dust with icing sugar. Leave zefirs at room temperature on the table for a day. During this time, they will harden and a thin crust will form. Match two halves of zefirs together. Store zefirs in the refrigerator, tightly covering the container with cling film, at a temperature from + 3 to + 5°С for no more than 7 days.