Margarita Granita

It's been a week or so since we plated this dessert in class, but as busy as things are right now I still couldn't pass up an opportunity to talk about a dessert that resembles my favorite adult beverage. :-) It was so pretty, cool and refreshing. The margarita granita was set in a ring of sliced mango and tasted just like a good frozen margarita. The quenelle of avocado ice cream wasn’t outstanding on its own but it tasted wonderful with the granita and gave the dessert some needed creaminess. The dots of tequila gel around the plate had a slightly weird mouth feel, almost like a slightly grainy jello, but packed a powerful tequila punch. The hibiscus foam added some beautiful color to the plate but didn’t add much flavor. By itself it had a slightly floral/plant-like flavor that just didn’t do much for me, but it just blended in with the rest of the dish. The fried rice paper garnish on top didn’t add much flavor, either, but gave the dish some great visual interest and height. The dessert was also sprinkled with just a pinch of salt, too, to complete the margarita flavor profile.

This is one of those desserts where the individual components aren't particularly outstanding on their own, but bring them together and it's a party in your mouth. :-) This is one of my favorite desserts of the class and I would definitely make all of the components again.

Holy Carrots

Okay... so I know carrots are good for your eyes but they are not fun to peel, cut down and grate on a Mandolin. First... they were the biggest carrots in the entire world, I am talking HUGE. And i've used a Mandolin several times before and it wasn't scary at all, it involved a guard and pototae. Chef Wilson likes to live on the edge and doesn't supply the guard...ha. But after getting use to the motion and almost giving Carol (thanks for your help friend) several mini heat attacks, I stil have all of my fingers and the carrots were perfect for our "carrot salad". We made a delish baked alaska and I am no longer upset with these carrots, however my hands were ORANGE for hours afterwards.

Baked Alaska - Carrot Cake Style!

This week marked Cheese Week in our plated desserts class, and above is a photo of the dessert we plated - a carrot cake baked Alaska. The components for this dessert included a carrot, raisin and apple salad base, a carrot cake round, a scoop of cream cheese ice cream (our cheese element), ginger Italian meringue, carrot chips, and carrot salad jus.

I have mixed feelings about the flavors in this dessert. I don’t like raw carrots so I didn’t like the carrot salad at all, although I appreciated the cool crunch it brought to the dish. The carrot cake was delicious, though – very moist and just the right amount of spice. The cream cheese ice cream was way too rich for my taste. For me it was just like eating a cold block of cream cheese and a little bit went a LONG way. The bruleed ginger meringue was tasty with just a hint of ginger. The carrot chips were actually one of my favorite elements on the plate. I liked the crunchiness of the garnish and the baking process brought out the natural sweetness of the carrots. I would definitely make the carrot cake and carrot chips again, but I would tone down the cream cheese ice cream and remove the carrot raisin salad altogether.

I loved the plating of the dessert. The carrots added a beautiful pop of color and great height and the bruleed meringue was really interesting visually. The carrot jus was the only thing I might change - it looked a little too pale and watery on the plate for me. Perhaps a thicker and/or darker sauce would look nicer on the white plate, but there's something to be said for using what's readily available so although I didn't like the taste of the carrot salad, I did like that it provided an instant sauce to work with. :-)

The Bavarian Table Dessert Menu

Hello again, all! For my final project I developed a fall dessert menu for an upscale German restaurant called The Bavarian Table. Following are descriptions for the six desserts I proposed:

Black Forest Trifle - $8
The Black Forest Trifle is a re-imagination of the Black Forest Cherry Torte (Schwartzwälder Kirchetorte), which originated in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany. Here the traditional components of chocolate sponge cake, tart cherries, Kirschwasser-flavored whipped cream, and chocolate shavings are reassembled and layered into a beautiful individual trifle bowl. The top layer of the trifle is then covered in dark chocolate shavings and garnished with candied cherries, a whipped cream rosette, and a hand-piped chocolate decoration.

Bee Sting Cake - $8
Bee Sting Cake (Bienenstich) is a German dessert that features sweet bread, vanilla custard, and a baked-on topping of honeyed almonds. This version of the dessert features layers of brioche discs and vanilla diplomat cream (pastry cream lightened with whipped cream and stabilized with gelatin) assembled in the shape of a bee hive. The brioche is brushed with a honey almond syrup to add flavor and retain moisture and the “hive” is garnished with shards of almond brittle. More honey almond syrup is drizzled on the plate in a random pattern to mimic the flight path of a bee, and the plate is further decorated with a hand-made marzipan bee. The pastry chef completes the dish with a quenelle of honey cardamom ice cream set atop a few broken bits of almond brittle.

Orange Bavarian Cream - $8
Orange flavored Bavarian cream is poured into individual-serving Bavarian molds for this dessert. A cranberry pistachio conserve (a jam made with whole fruit stewed in sugar) compliments the orange flavor of the Bavarian and adds great textural and color contrast. The plate is garnished with pistachio dust and a candied orange slice for further color contrast and visual interest.

Warm Apple Strudel - $8
A warm slice of traditional hand-pulled apple strudel is served with salted caramel sauce and star anise ice cream in this dessert. The strudel is cut on a bias and placed on a plate that has been decorated with a cross-hatch pattern using the salted caramel sauce. The strudel is then dusted with confectioner’s sugar and topped with a few candied walnuts. A fan of Granny Smith apple slices are placed in front of the strudel and serve as a base for a quenelle of star anise ice cream. More candied walnuts are then placed in a circle around the dessert to add an additional crunch factor.

Pear Gingerbread Cobbler - $8
Sliced Anjou pears are topped with a gingerbread biscuit and served in an individual square serving dish set atop a larger plate. This is a great dessert to make ahead and warm just before service. A quenelle of Chantilly cream flavored with ground ginger is placed on top of the warm cobbler and garnished with a dried pear chip and a honey tuile cookie. The dessert is completed by a quenelle of pear Riesling sorbet placed beside the cobbler on a bed of crumbled pear chips (to prevent the sorbet from sliding around on the plate).

Doughnuts and Coffee - $8
This dessert is a take on traditional Bavarian “Krapfen,” which are jam-filled yeast-raised doughnuts fried in fat and dusted with powdered sugar. Here the doughnuts are miniaturized, filled with strawberry jam, and five of them are served with small ramekins of warm chocolate dipping sauce and warm espresso crème Anglaise. Coffee is further introduced to the plate with chocolate-covered coffee beans as a garnish. A strawberry fan is also present to add color contrast and tie into the strawberry jam filling in the doughnuts.

I'm excited about producing the Bee Sting Cake and the Pear Gingerbread Cobbler for my final practical, but I'll definitely be doing a lot of recipe testing between now and then. Wish me luck and "viel Glück" to all my classmates as well!

Reggae Regale continued...

Soooo....not only did I want to create a theme that would carry through the ambiance, but I wanted to use authentic indigenous ingredients for the area.  I researched fruits and recipes for the Caribbean and the West Indies and came up with this: 

Sweet Potato Plantain Empanadas-8

Sweet potato pie with a Caribbean twist!  Roasted sweet potatoes and plantains in a puff pastry pocket with both brown sugar vanilla sauce and marshmallow sauce.  Served with Passionfruit cashew ice cream and cashew dust

Chocolate Coconut Rum Cake-8

Dark rum laced chocolate cake served with a scoop of blue mountain coffee ice cream sitting in a pool of spiced rum sauce and topped with chocolate coconut sauce and toasted coconut flakes

Tropical Cheesecake Tart-8

Fresh papaya and pineapple rest on top of a guava-laced cheesecake in a butter crust surrounded by a dance of spiced mango mojito sauce and kiwi sauce.  Topped with a spring of peppermint for a fresh island dessert

Shining Starfruit Lime Cannolis-8

Two lime cannolis with starfruit chips and both mango and starfruit sauces topped with lime zest

Soursop Ice Cream Sandwich-8

Soursop is a fruit that seems to mix strawberries with pineapples—try it sandwiched in pineapple cake topped with toasted meringue, sitting in a pool of blood orange grand marnier sabayon and surrounded by papaya mint sauce and blood orange segments

Ice Cream and Sorbet Sampler-8

Blue Mountain Coffee Ice Cream-Passionfruit Cashew Ice Cream-Mojito Sorbet-Coconut Sorbet.  The quartet is served in chocolate lace bowls and atop almond shortbread cookies with chocolate sauce and pineapple sauce