Days 17 and 18: Plaisir

My sister Jex recently mentioned that she feels like I haven't been baking as many items this term as last term, but the truth is while we'd generally bake more than one item each class in Basic Pastry we only create one cake each class in Intermediate Pastry because there are so many different elements going into one small cake.

One of the more complicated cakes we've made is called a Plaisir.  Literally translated plaisir means pleasure.  While this cake is a pleasure to eat with a very smooth and velvety texture it is a pain in the neck to make.

The first step is to bake a joconde sponge biscuit which is a more dense cake then some of the others we've made.  While the cake part is cooking in the oven you have to make a vanilla supreme mousse and a chocolate mousse.

The first layer of cake is covered with the vanilla mousse and then put in the freezer to set.  After the vanilla mousse has set the chocolate mousse is poured on top of that and the cake is put back in the freezer to set again.  Once the chocolate mousse has set the cake is layered with another square piece of the joconde sponge biscuit.  Finally the top layer is painted with a heated egg and sugar glaze which is fired with a torch until it resembles the top of a Creme Brulee.

My Plaisir

The layers of my Plaisir

Very time consuming and a lot of very temperamental mousses and glazes involved, but the side view is kind of cool.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Days 15 and 16: Heavenly Chocolate

One of my favorite cakes so far was the Douceur Chocolat or Heavenly Chocolate cake.  It had a lot of different elements and turned out to be absolutely delicious!  This also happened to be the cake that I used as a birthday cake for my friend Andrew.

The first layer of the cake was a Hazelnut Dacquoise which is a spongey cake made of meringue, ground nut powder, and powdered sugar.  The second layer was a crispy hazelnut, praline, feuilletine mixture that was kind of like a gooey milk chocolate crunch bar layer.  On top of the crunchy layer was a layer of swirly chocolate mousse, followed by a disk of solid chocolate layered with more swirled mousse and another disk of chocolate.  Yum!

The layers of my Douceur Chocolat

The smooth top layer of my chocolate disk.

After the cake was assembled we decorated the top.  I used a simple swirl of chocolate mousse and triangles of milk chocolate that I'd cut out of my extra chocolate to decorate mine.  The cake sounds like it would have been ultra rich, but it was actually just perfect.  If I end up making my own birthday cake next year this will be on top of my list!

My decorated Douceur Chocolat

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Chocolate Sculptures

From time to time one of our Chefs will create a chocolate sculpture and display it in the front window of the school for all to see and admire.  While the sculptures are always incredibly detailed and impressive I often feel like the Chefs may have cheated a little by using wood, marble, or glue to support the sculpture or even just keep it together.  I'm also always awed by the flowers they create, but wonder why they then make leaves out of plastic or other materials.  On Thursday I had all of my questions answered.

A dark chocolate box sculpture full
of truffles by Chef Tranchant

Chef Christian Faure has been visiting us from Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa for the past few weeks and last week he offered an optional demo on chocolate sculptures.  I attended and was completely blown away by what I learned.  When we arrived he already had a huge sculpture on display and told us he was going to show us how it was made.  The sculpture was sitting on a piece of marbled granite, supported by a large, vertical wooden circle and held up further by a piece of carved wood painted with chocolate.  On top of the sculpture was a huge flower sitting on a red and orange plastic leaf and topped with a chocolate sphere to symbolize the sun.  At least that is what I thought I saw when I initially looked at the sculpture.

Boy was I wrong!  The ENTIRE sculpture was made of chocolate and Chef Faure showed us piece by piece how he made it.  Keep in mind when you look at my photos, I was up close and personal with this sculpture and still had trouble believing it was all chocolate.

Chef Faure showed us that the leaves are tempered dark chocolate layered with tempered white chocolate layered with more tempered white chocolate that has been mixed with food coloring.  The "wooden" circle and the swirly piece of "wood" supporting the sculpture from the bottom are solid pieces of chocolate that are set and then brushed with a metal brush that you'd use to clean an outdoor grill to give the chocolate a weathered looking texture.  Finally the most impressive part of the sculpture was the base.  What appeared to be a nice cut square of marble or granite that could have come directly from my kitchen counter was actually chocolate as well!  The marble texture was created by chopping up milk, dark, and white chunks of chocolate, placing them in a mold and combining them with melted hot cocoa butter.  Very, very impressive!

Here are a few of the photos of the very exciting demonstration.

A piece of "Granite" made of chocolate

Chef Faure layering the chocolate for the leaves.

Chef Faure applying a fine spray of a water and
red food coloring mixture to his chocolate flower.

A side view of Chef Faure's sculpture.

The delicate chocolate flower and leaves.

The flower with such real looking petals.

The leaf with knife etchings to give it texture.

The "marble" base of the sculpture.

A swirl of chocolate covered in gold dust.

Chef Faure's finished sculpture made completely of
chocolate with 2 raw cocoa bean pods sitting next to it.

Chef Faure and me with my signed edition of France's Best Recipes Cookbook.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Days 12, 13, and 14: Chocolate

One of the main focuses of our Superior Pastry course next term will be Chocolate.  We will learn how to melt, temper, and work with chocolate.  We will be making candy, coating cakes, and even making a small chocolate sculpture.  A few days last week we had an introduction to this medium.  One day was spent learning about and working with milk chocolate to make small candies and the next day was spent working with dark chocolate to make truffles.  Even though I've been making my Tuxedo Strawberries for years I really know nothing about the technical methods for professionally working with chocolate.

The first thing we learned was that there are three types of chocolate, milk, dark, and white.  The difference between each kind of chocolate is what percentage of milk and cocoa butter each contains.  The next thing we learned was how to temper chocolate.  When you temper chocolate you heat it to a temperature between 45 and 55 degrees celsius, then lower the chocolate temperature to between 24 and 27 degrees celsius, and then raise it back up to a temperature of 28 to 32 degrees celsius depending on which type of chocolate you are melting.  Tempering the chocolate insures that it will "set" correctly.  Chocolate that has set will be shiny, and hard and can be left out on display without melting.

The day that we worked with milk chocolate and made praline candies shaped like half moons dipped in milk chocolate and we made muscadine which is a praline and cream candy also dipped in milk chocolate and then covered in powdered sugar.  I forgot to take a picture intially so these were the leftovers and don't look that pretty.

My Milk Chocolates

The day we worked with dark chocolate we made almond and coffee flavored candy squares which we dipped in dark chocolate and decorated with walnuts and we made dark chocolate ganache truffles dipped in dark chocolate and rolled cocoa powder.

My Almond Candies and my Truffles

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 11: Bavarois aux Trois Chocolats

Whilst I have been baking up a storm in Paris I have yet to become really great friends with any of the cuisine students.  Luckily, my friend Andrew, who is here working on his dissertation for his PhD in Art History is an amazing cook.  So, we've taken to having lovely dinners together at least once a week.  He cooks the meal and I (or my friend Maggie) make the dessert.  It works out very well.

A few Saturdays back he cooked a delicious meal for us.  We started with a beautifully plated red beet and carrot salad and then had a delicious beef roast with potatoes and chanterelle mushrooms.  It was delicious.  Maggie had her practical class that day and brought over the Bavarian Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake that I then made the following Monday.  Everything about the meal was fantastic including the company!

Beet and Carrot Salad

Dinner

The layers of my Mousse Cake

My swirly white chocolate design

The mousse cake was assembled in a round cake ring lined with a thick plastic.  The base was a dark chocolate mousse followed by a milk chocolate mousse, followed by a white chocolate mousse, and topped with a dark chocolate glaze.  We used white chocolate to add a design to the top of the cake.  I'm still working on my writing/decorating skills, but I do think I'm getting better by the day.  Also, now that I'm a pro at making my own triple mousse cake I'll never need to go to Filomena again...oh but what about the veal pizza?

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Days 9 and 10: Opera

Last week we learned how to make an Opera cake.  This is a famous French dessert that usually has "Opera" written in chocolate on top of it.  As part of our final exam we will be required to write Opera in chocolate.  While this sounds like it might not be too difficult the exact technique and fine lines of the chocolate make it something that takes quite a bit of practice.  In fact our chef recommended we purchase a jar of Nutella and add some oil to it to thin it out a bit and practice writing Opera at home.  I have purchased the Nutella, but have yet to start the practicing.  As you'll see from my cake I am a LONG way from being a chocolate writing expert!

The Opera cake is a very time intensive cake as it has many, many layers.  While the cake part is a standard spongy cake the assembly takes quite a bit of time.  The Opera is layer upon layer of cake, syrup, ganache, and coffee buttercream icing.  Each layer is quite thin and when you've finished the cake you pour a chocolate glaze over top and then after it has set you cut the edges off so that your guests can actually see the layers you've created.

My Opera Cake

The layers of my cake

In any case, my cake was quite well put together, well imbibed, and very beautiful until I started decorating it.  I have a lot of work to do with the chocolate writing, I'll keep you all updated as to  my progress!

The Chef's Opera Cake

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 8: Macaroons

Could Macaroons be the next Cupcakes?  I think I may need to come home and open a macaroon shop because mine turned our really great!  They can be made in any flavor, color, or size that you like and can be eaten with your hands, what could be better?  In our macaroon class we made raspberry macaroons with a light anise flavored cream and had to plate them like a restaurant dessert as part of our grade.  I am not a fan of anise flavoring which is one of the reasons I do not like the italian cookies my aunts make every year for Christmas, but these were amazing.  The raspberry flavor mixed with only a touch of anise made the dessert as a whole something to die for!  I was very pleased with my macaroons and even more proud of my plating/decorating ability.  I think I could totally work as a pastry chef in restaurant.

My Macaroons

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!