Chocolates & Confections Week 6 Day 2

Chocolates & Confections Week 6 Day2

On Day 1, we made the Dragees, Rochers, and the Marzipan. The marzipan we left out to set overnight. But this is what we made yesterday....

It's a mixture of nuts, sugar, and glucose cooked to a certain temperature, then ground into a thick paste. We pressed it into a brick...

Then poured melted chocolate over it, and let it set overnight. Today, we flipped it over and stamped out circles.

These will be dipped and garnished with almonds. I had my flower cutters too, so I stamped out some flower-shaped marzipan as well.

Unfortunately, only the five shown turned out perfect. All the others had white streaks on them, meaning that something went awry during the tempering process. I don't know what I'm doing wrong...I'll try to monitor my temp more closely next time.

Chocolates & Confections Week 6 Day 1

This week was pretty laid back for some reason. On Day 1, we made dragees, rochers, and prepared the marzipan truffles.

The dragees are caramelized almonds coated with chocolate. A mixture of sugar syrup is cooked to a certain temperature. Once it hits 230F, almonds are tossed in and the whole thing is stirred like crazy.

Eventually, the sugar will crystallize and form a white, sugar crystal coating on the almonds.
We then turn down the heat to medium-low and continue cooking the almonds. Eventually, the sugar coating starts to melt, and turn into a translucent caramel coating...

...We add a bit of butter which causes them to separate into individual pieces and give them a nice gloss. They are spread out on the silpat to cool, then put in the fridge. In the meantime, we temper some dark chocolate for the coating.
The chilled almonds are coated with three layers of chocolate.

We try to keep them separated into individual pieces. To finish them off, we coat them with a mixture of powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

These are SUPER addictive! It's a delicious egg-free, gluten-free snack...except to those with nut allergies. Then soynuts can be used instead.

The Rochers are slivered almonds coated with liquor and sugar, then toasted in the oven til golden. The mixture is coated with tempered chocolate, then formed into little mounds that resemble campfire.

We used amaretto liquor, which enhanced the almond flavor. This was pretty addictive as well.

Tomorrow, we finish our marzipan truffles. We make ours with fresh almonds--other nuts can be substituted as well, such as pistachio, walnuts, and hazelnuts.

Going pyro

OMGoodness, I LOVE my new butane torch! As a matter of fact, I love it so much I've been bruleeing every desserts that I've been serving the past few days.

First up, bruleed banana. There is bananas foster, but I like my bananas more intact and not as sweet. Regular bananas foster uses lots of brown sugar and butter.

On the plate: Bruleed banana w/almonds, pineapple compote, chocolate chip cookie, coconut sorbet.

With the exception of the chocolate chip cookie, this dessert contains no eggs or dairy. I coated a ripe banana with sugar and torched the surface until the sugar caramelized. The result was a banana with all-natural creamy sweetness, enhanced by the crisp caramelized sugar on the outside. If I substitute a vegan brownie or chocolate cake for the cookie, this would make a perfect vegan dessert!

Next up: Earl Grey Creme Brulee, white nectarine compote, fresh orange sections

The earl grey creme brulee was incredible! Perfumed with earl grey tea, its flavor only enhanced by the caramelized sugar. The fruits were a nice accompaniment as well.

This last one was a "let's throw everything together and see what I can come up with" kind of dessert. I call it "Deconstructed Strawberry & Lemon tart sans crust". Lemon curd, Italian meringue, fresh strawberries, chocolate sauce. The browned meringue was like marshmallow, its intense sweetness offset by tangy lemon curd and the not-too-sweet strawberries.

Chocolates & Confections Week 5--Midterm!!

Week 5 is our Midterm!
Wanting to do a "resurrection" theme for our Midterm, we planned on making a sugarwork phoenix, sitting on a pastillage base.

Unfortunately, it was disaster after disaster.
First: One of my teammates put the our colored sugar in the oven to warm it up to a workable consistency. Except he forgot about it. Alas, this was the result...

So he had to make new ones, which took up some time. I was busy making our truffle filling the entire time. But finally he got our sugarwork done on Day 1.

We let it set up overnight. The next day, we carefully assembled everything together.

It turned out pretty cool! Then a few minutes later, the same guy who melted the sugar toppled it over and broke it...
And if that wasn't enough, the chocolate that he tempered wouldn't set. I'm guessing it was contaminated with other stuff. We were running out of time, so we had no choice but to use that to dip the truffles.

Even after an hour, they were still not set. At least they tasted good. I had to roll them in cocoa powder so I can take them home without making too much of a mess.

And we still managed to put everything together. But I think everything worked well with our theme of resurrection--the phoenix was "born", died, and then came back to life (albeit with disheveled feathers).
Hopefully we'll do better for our final...

Tahitian vanilla and Butane Torch

We had a HUGE blueberry sale going on this past week, so I just had to make some sort of a blueberry dessert.

So here it is...Fresh Blueberry Crumb Pie! With walnut streusel topping and the flakiest crust.

Most blueberry pies are double-crusted, meaning they have a top and a bottom crust--but I'd always preferred the crumb topping over the heavy extra pie crust. Nuts are healthier anyway. I like to serve mine warmed up, hence it's on a wooden trivet here.

Served with homemade vanilla ice cream--made from Tahitian vanilla extract! Most vanilla extracts are made from Madagascan vanilla, and they have a more woody, strong, screaming "I AM VANILLA!!" kind of flavor. Tahitian vanilla is milder, and more flowery--perhaps lady-like--softly singing "....Vanillaaaaaa...." Anyways, the pie and the Tahitian vanilla ice cream were a match made in heaven, and were quite delicious.

And remember how I used that gift certificate to SpoonsN'Spice to get a butane torch?? Well, I finally put it to use. I made coconut creme brulee, just to try something different...that and Mom claimed she "doesn't like coconut" (...and I wanted to prove her wrong).

It took me several attempts to get the torch going, but very soon, I was bruleeing away! So here it is, coconut creme brulee with coconut sorbet, butter cake, and pineapple compote. It turned out so good Mom and Dad were almost fighting over it!

What should I brulee next?? I'm worried I'm turning into a pyromaniac...

Chocolates & Confections Week 4

Chocolates & Confections Week 4: Sugar Cookery

This week, we learned about sugar cookery and sugarworks. Things like caramel, taffy, and hard candy involve cooking sugar to a very high temperature. Today, we made soft caramel (I put cinnamon in mine), chocolate taffy, peanut brittle, and pulled/blown sugar. With pulled/blown sugar, a mixture of sugar, glucose, and water is heated to 290F ~295F, at which point acid (in this case, tartaric acid or cream of tartar) is added. The acid prevents the sugar from crystallizing, keeping it malleable and workable.

Here's my teammate pouring the cooked sugar onto a silpat...

He has to then quickly work in gel food color, using the silpat to manipulate it around and mix it in.

Notice how he's not actually touching the molten sugar. Did I mention this has been cooked to approximately 290F??

Phew! That was HOT! This is the finished sugar, ready to be pulled, blown and shaped. While my friend here practiced with it, I went off to the side and made mixed-nut brittle...

...Ooooh with pistachio, almonds, and walnuts. Peanut Brittles are delicious, but this was just as addictive. Other teams used cacao nibs; pecans and chipotle; and simply almonds.
Same thing here, a mixture of sugar, glucose, and evaporated milk is cooked to a certain temp, at which point nuts, vanilla extract (or other flavorings), and butter are mixed in. Addition of baking soda causes the whole thing to bubble up, incorporating air into the hot caramle-like mix. This gives the brittle a honey-comb like network, giving it a lighter texture. That way, it's still crispy and hard, but not so hard that it'll break people's teeth.

Now back to pulled sugar...my friend grabbed some blue sugar from other teams and made a lovely rose in a vase.

Notice the plastic pen tube in the bottom right corner. We used the plastic tubing of a pen to blow the sugar into balloons and balls. It was a little intimidating at first, but pretty easy once I got the hang of it.

A pink balloon that I blew. Now what to do with it...?

Suddenly, the nerdie biology major in me awakens. This was the resulting product.

...Hehehe. A heart, complete with aorta and pulmonary vein! Come on, it's almost Valentine's day!

Fruit Tarts Galore!!

Every Sunday, I make goodies to take to church for the people to enjoy with their coffee after worship; been doing that for well over a year now. Well...last week, a gentleman came up to me and handed me a card. Puzzled, I thanked him, and he smiled back saying, "No...thank YOU."

Upon opening the envelope, I was surprised and delighted to discover a thank you card from several people in the congregation. It said, "Thank you for the delicious treats," and "Thank you for your sweet ministry." Awww....so heartwarming.... It's little things like these that drives me, that gives me motivation to keep on making pastries :)

Then I saw another envelope along with the card. It turned out to be a gift certificate for SpoonsN'Spice, a local kitchen gadget store! I was stoked! :D

Later that week, I went to the store and got the torch for bruleeing creme brulee and meringue topping--something that I've always wanted.

Wanting to show my appreciation, I decided to go a little fancy this Sunday...

Fruit tartlets! There was a major berry sale at several grocery stores, so I stockpiled them. The shells turned out awesome--buttery and crispy. I filled them with pastry cream, topped them with the berries, and brushed them with strawberry jam. I think I made about 25 of these; but alas, when I put them out, they disappeared in a matter of few minutes. A lady suggested I take one to the pastor, and I managed to grab one of the remaining three. That was close....

I saved two shells for our own dessert (so Dad wouldn't get sulky). I put mangoes and a mint leaf garnish.
But there was still half a tub of the pastry cream left, along with lots of berries. What shall I do with them? Make more tartlets of course!
I ended up making ten of them for three families, and three for our own. Mrs. A's family has a voracious appetite, so we gave them six--that should be enough for two adults and two small children, right?

Later that day, Mrs. A informed me that her hubby was "Mmmmmmm...."-ing as he ate it. Gotta love feedbacks like that :)
But there were STILL some leftover cream and tart dough. So this time around...

Voila. A 4" tartlet, enough for three small bites.

Thank you everyone! Love you all!