Next we moved onto plated desserts. In these next couple of lessons we took some of the most successful recipes of famous chefs and recreated them in class.
We started class by discussing what some of the elements in a plated dessert are, things like color, flavor, texture, variety, seasonality and cost. Then we were given a production list to follow for the three desserts each team was going to make. And although at first it didn’t make any sense to me to make the ice-cream base for a dessert I was showing on the third day, by the end of the classes, it was all perfectly clear.
My group was going to make: gianduja parfait, crepes suzette, and raspberry mille feuille with ice wine granita and litchi sorbet. I couldn’t have been more excited!
Some of the other desserts that were being made for the first day included:
Chocolate Peanut Tart
Chestnut Parfait
Chocolate Caramel Tart (which my husband keeps asking me to whip up for him!)
Gianduja Parfait
We were making the Gianduja Parfait, with praline cream, hazelnuts, vanilla ice cream, and carmalized bananas. This was a fun dessert to assemble. We started by making the gianduja parfait recipe, which we put into a flexipan to form, and covered each with a sucree base. After these were frozen, we made a chocolate spray and sprayed each one to give it a velvety look. Then we made our vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, and finally got to caramelize some bananas using a blow torch. The dessert was delicious!
Crepes Suzette
On day two we got busy on our crepes suzette, while other groups got their desserts ready, which included:
Greek yogurt panna cotta
Chocolate soufflé with brandied cherry chip ice cream, Chantilly and warm chocolate
Calliops Tropic
On day 2, the chocolate soufflé recipe was the clear winner. I didn’t care for the other desserts on this day too much, but luckily I still had one more day of plated desserts ahead of me.
The next class brought round three of desserts out.
The other groups were making:
Milk chocolate and raspberry mousse
Caramelized Banana Tarts
Lemon fromage blanc mousse
While we were working on a raspberry mille feuille with ice wine granita and litchi sorbet.
A couple of years ago, my husband and I went to the finger lakes. While there we discovered ice wine and when we came back to the city we just had to have it! It became a very expensive habit which we eventually had to kick, but when I saw this recipe I practically jumped up and down. Ice wine, litchis, and raspberries? I’m not sure there could be a better combination!
This dessert was tough to make because sitting on top of the raspberries is a sugar tuile, made from glazing fondant, glucose and butter. To make it, you boil all three ingredients together to 274 degrees. Then pour it out onto a silpat and let it cool. Once cool, grind it up in a food processor into a powder and sift the powder onto a sheet pan lined with a silpat. Place in the oven at 300 degrees until melted. Remove from the oven and immediately cut into rectangles. Very confusing…
The rest of the dessert was assembled easily. On the bottom is a rectangle of puff pastry, covered in a layer of whipped cream and a sheet of white chocolate. Piped onto the chocolate is a layer of pastry cream with the raspberries sitting on top. Then the raspberries are covered with the sugar tuile. The side of the plate was decorated with some macerated raspberry salad, ice wine granity and litchi sorbet. Delicious!
And with that, concludes mod 3 and we are officially 3/4 of the way through! Next up chocolate and cake decorating.
