Warm and Hot Desserts Day

Above: Dark Chocolate Molten Cake

Below: Peanut Butter Financier

I had a lot of fun today in Plated Desserts class! Above are photos of two of the desserts my group plated. The first is a dark chocolate molten cake with a Mexican chocolate caramel center. We plated it with a drizzle of Red Hot sauce, a quenelle of vanilla bean ice cream, and a shard of caramelized cocoa nib brittle. Visually I think it's a fun dessert, but some people might be intimidated by the cocoa nib brittle. As for taste, I liked how the cinnamon flavors balanced with the chocolate - just enough to let you know the cinnamon was there but it didn't overpower the chocolate.

The second dessert pictured is a peanut butter financier with grape gelee, malt cream, peanut dust and vanilla bean chiffonade. What a fun dessert to plate! This is basically a modern version of the classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The peanut butter wasn't overpowering in the financier, which I appreciated, and the grape gelee wasn't sickeningly sweet like the grape jelly you buy at the store. I wasn't a big fan of the malt cream but it was more interesting than just putting on a quenelle of chantilly cream. If you eat this dessert with your eyes closed, you really might think you're eating a PB&J sandwich, so I just love the concept.