Today was another fun filled day!
We made lots of goodies today and we also got to do another plate! yippie!
First thing we made was powder. Sounds weird, but we did. Remember that sugar and white chocolate thing I talked about? Well we broke it up and put it in a food processor and used it to make decoration sugar. We used a decoration mat which is a mat with little bumps on it. You spread the powder over it and press down, throw it back in the oven until it re melts and then peel it off while its still hot. It's like a big sheet of sugar with holes in it. It's really neat.
I am useless when I help someone try to peel it off. You need to do it quickly because as soon as its off the mat it sets and can break. My little virgin fingers can't handle the heat so it takes me to long and when I try to peel it off it just breaks on me. Luckily we needed small pieces anyways!
The other girls made chocolate tulip paste. We were going to be doing a jaconde sponge with tulip paste design! We spread the tulip paste on a silpat and we had to use the wood grain tool to make a wood design. Again this is not a tool that I am good at using. I couldn't get the hand motion down properly. Chef tried to help me by showing me the motion by doing the "Moon dance" "...You mean moon walk?" "YES!" - So we did the moon walk with our arms. It worked a little. haha.
After we got the design done we threw that in the freezer to set and we made our jaconde sponge. We spread it over the frozen tulip paste and baked it. Once it was done you flipped it over on to a parchment lined baking sheet and peel off the silpat and voila! Wood cake! I believe I yelled "We have wood!" buahaha!
See how cool that looks!? mmmm wood cake.
Then we made our sorbet. Sorbet is easy! syrup and puree. Easy peesy. We all chose different flavours. Strawberry, black current, blood orange and I did raspberry. We boiled our sugar, water, powered glucose and inverted sugar and added that to our puree. We will be running those through the machines tomorrow!
We got to use our ginger bread loafs that we made a few days ago. We made gingerbread french toast. I was not excited about this. I'm not a fan of french toast - to eggy. Chef noticed my scrunched up nose and said "What? You don't like french toast? Whats wrong with you!?" "many things chef.." haha. We put it in the bread pudding base that we made and fried it up. I've never made french toast before..like i said, I don't eat eggs so I never ate it. Chef had to keep his eye on me because I wanted to cook it to within an inch of its life to make sure it wasn't "soggy" anymore. Turns out you want it nice and soft. After my first two all the others were perfection.
We cooked all them and set them aside. Then chef showed us how to plate it. Quite the process. You took a piece of french toast, put some maple syrup in a pan and re heated the toast in the hot sticky syrup (I'm soooooo doing this in the future at home) Then we took it out of the pan and trimmed the edges. Put that on the plate.
Next we sliced some pears that had been soaked in a ginger syrup on the toast.
Next we put little "ginger bread melba toasts" on top of that. (we sliced the bread thin and put it in the oven to get crisp). On top of the crispy bread we put two panna cottas. Then we ran some of the blueberry sauce over the top.
On top of that went two small scoops of the cream cheese ice cream and then the decoration sugar we made earlier.
Next we took some maderines and put them in the skillet with some maple syrup and water. Put the warmed oranges on the plate and used the sauce for a drizzle.
Holy. Lord. Amazing. Our group shared a plate and I think I ate the majority of it. After class Chef asked me if I liked it, I told him I LOVED it. "See. Would I lie to you Ashley?" "I don't know, would you?" "I'm french, we don't lie. We bend the truth..but we don't lie"
Totally changed my opinion of french toast. I'm going to have to make this for Davin for a Sunday brunch/ dessert. I need my ice cream maker first though. Gotta have the cream cheese ice-cream with it!
It's really amazing how you can learn so much from something as simple as french toast. mmm french toast - I just drooled on my t-shirt.
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| Dessert anyone? |
I could eat that blueberry sauce with a spoon. Might have to make some of that for myself. I need a bigger kitchen and a much bigger freezer. Well I don't "need" it..I want it. There is so much I want to do and practice!
OH! We got assigned our wines today! Leona and I got 'Muwin Northern Compass Iced Apple' - sounds amazing. All I really know is that a sweet fruity desert wine can go with anything, as long as the dessert is less sweet than the wine. If it's more sweet you could get a bitter taste from the wine. I think thats right..more research is needed.
We have to present to Chef on monday what our wine is, the history, the tasting notes and our idea for a dessert. He will pick the ones he likes and we will make those desserts for the decadence event. He keeps stressing to people "Don't get offended if I don't pick yours." I honestly can't say I won't be upset. I'm a competitive person and of course I want ours to get picked!
I might just have to pick up a bottle and test it out for myself!
I think thats my day in a nut shell.
I have lots of baking to do tomorrow for a birthday party we are having on Saturday. Wish me luck!
Have a great evening!
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