Tea Talks: Jin Patisserie

Rouge cube: chocolate sponge cake dessert with earl grey creme brulee.

Jin Patisserie is a pastry boutique now based in Culver City, California, where you can enjoy high-end hot teas along with many amazing, delicately-crafted desserts. There aren’t just pretty macarons, buttery cookies, and artistic chocolate truffles, but fancy French-style cakes that are loved for their flavors, textures and certainly for the gorgeous presentations.

The Rouge, pictured above, is one of the menu offerings. It consists of chocolate sponge cake with a filling of chocolate mousse and earl grey creme brulee. Proprietor Kristy Choo provided us with the recipe for this rather complicated dessert. Please note that the recipe is merely a guideline so you can see all the effort put into this cake cube. The actual recipe used by the team at Jin Patisserie likely has different measurements and instruction details. Given that you can taste this cake at Jin Patisserie, it’s worth it to make a trip to the teahouse instead of trying your hand at making it at home. (Some steps require serious technique and experience!)

Jin Patisserie, which originally opened in Venice, California in 2003, is the result of Choo’s experience with and passion for desserts, particularly chocolate and cakes. Her constant drive to refine her craft and improve all areas of running a small business is what makes her place so special. You can see all the attention to details.

The former flight attendant and pastry chef to Singapore’s Raffles Hotel talks about what it’s like to operate her tea shop, and her memories of drinking tea.

Jin Patisserie must often get booked for large parties. Can you give us advice on how to serve lots of people tea and food quickly and all at the same time?

We usually offer a set menu or sometimes if the guests prefer buffet style, we do that as well.

For on-location parties, we usually prepare a sampler plate in advance for each guest, which consists of savory items as well as mini pastries. These can be achieved farely quickly if you plan ahead of time.

Kristy Choo, proprietor of Jin Patisserie.

What are your favorite teas that you think generally pair well with most sweets and snacks?

I love to drink tea. Since growing up as young as five years old I have already cultivated the habit of drinking tea with my dad in the morning, after lunch, tea break and after dinner.

I love drinking tea with milk since I was young and it is still the first thing I drink in the morning.

I personally like strong assam tea with milk and eat my pastries or tea sandwiches at the same time. We do have some amazing scented teas as well that is a mix of green and black along with fruits or flora. Basically, most scented teas will go well with pastries.

In your online shop, you offer cookies with tea leaves baked in. Can you give us any tips on how to bake with tea so that you can taste the tea?

First of all you have to put enough tea leaves but not make it too over powering as well. Blend it into the ingredients and make sure not to over-bake. [Kristy was kind enough to share her green tea cookie recipe with us. Click here to see the recipe or scroll further down.]

What was one of your favorite tea-based dessert recipes to make?

Many years ago I used to make a tea-flavored crème brulee and a sesame rolled cake with hojicha cream inside. They were very well accepted by our customers.

What’s the most rewarding thing about running your pastry boutique?

To see and materialize your idea and imagination. It is always fun to be able to make your imagination happen and do what you like and see that your customers appreciate and like what you have created. These are the two most rewarding for me, especially seeing all your regular customers keep coming back and how much they have enjoyed and liked the pastries that you make and tell you that they love the concept you have created.

What’s been the most challenging thing about having your own teahouse?

It is always very hard to strike [a balance] between following your passion and giving the best to your customers, like trying to make enough money to pay the bills.

Doing the day-to-day operation, like managing the staff, service, marketing, production and being creative at the same time. Being a small business is very hard to hire more people to handle everything else as you usually don’t have so much budget to do so. So most of the time I have to wear different hats in a day to get things done and it does get very challenging and stressful sometimes.

Recipe: Kristy Choo’s Green Tea Cookies

Ingredients

500g butter
250g sugar
725g flour
13g vanilla extract
75g matcha tea powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Cream butter and sugar in a mixer. In a bowl, combine flour and matcha powder until it’s mixed well.
3. Add dry mixture into the creamed butter and sugar and stir. Then add vanilla extract.
4. Roll the dough into tube and cover in plastic wrap. Store the rolled cookie dough in the refrigerator until it has hardened, about 1–2 hours.
5. When the dough is ready, slice each piece to 1 cm thick. Place cookies on a lined baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes.
6. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan and on to a cooling rack.

Recipe: Jin Patisserie’s Rouge

See all the steps that it takes to make the beautiful Rouge by clicking here.