This week introduced us to plated desserts!
We started on Monday with the demo for a chocolate fondant
and banana mousse with caramel cream insert. The fondants were cooked in little
rings and the chef handled them with great care because they were just cooked
and the slightest knock caused the delicate crust to break and the molten core
to pour out! The mousse was piped into half sphere moulds, the caramel insert
placed in the middle and then a chocolate mousse set on the base. This was all wrapped up and frozen ready for
the next lesson though, as it had to set overnight in the fridge. At the end of
the demo there was a charge to the front of the class to get a taste of the fondants,
which, when tapped lightly with a sponge, gave way and out poured a river of
lava-like chocolate. They tasted very nice and didn’t last long at all!
Unfortunately during the lesson I had to stifle the giggles somewhat. It was a
French chef and he was talking about different things that could be put into
the caramel, after he mentioned salt and rosemary I thought I heard “sexy
paper”…what he actually said though, I’m still not 100% sure on!
After the demo we went into the kitchens for our practical lesson.
We had to start by getting the caramel cream insert ready for the mousses, as
they had to chill for quite a while. Until the course I’d never managed to get
a completely lump free dry caramel (just melting the sugar, with no other
liquid added), however when working in pairs (as we were, in both lessons this
week) I always try and volunteer to do it so I can practice it and get it
right. Its amazing how easy something becomes when you’re shown how to do it
properly! We had a mostly fault free lesson, only one minor cock up on my part.
I was making the banana mousse for the second dessert and it wasn’t coming to
setting point. My partner ran through the list of ingredients to make sure I’d
got them all in – I had, then the quantities, that’s where the error lay! I
thought I’d read 3g of gelatine (which was the quantity for the caramel crème),
unfortunately it needed 3 sheets for the mousse. Each sheet weighs about 2g, so
I’d only put in half the gelatine! We were starting to slip behind, so
desperate times called for desperate measures. We heated a little bit of water
in a pan, added 2 sheets of gelatine when it was warm (to make up for the extra
liquid being added), then mixed it around quickly and poured it in to the
mousse! We didn’t have time to let the gelatine bloom in cold water before
using it, but it seemed to have worked ok, and everything started to thicken as
it was supposed to then! Because we’d gotten behind we didn’t have long to make
a sugar decoration, this was another near disaster. The sugar is over 140
degrees centigrade, so quite hot. I dipped a metal ring in quickly (as the chef
had done in the demo) to make a nice paper-thin sugar collar to go around the
fondant on the plate. That failed miserably, the ring got very hot very quickly
and I haven’t developed sufficiently asbestos fingertips to be able to handle it
yet! So I resorted to drizzling some sugar haphazardly on the baking paper and
hoping for the best, it wasn’t hideous, but there was no finesse about it! It
was really hot to try and pull/shape too, not an enjoyable way to spend 5
frantic minutes, plus when it was thin it sets like glass, a piece shattered in
my fingers and I’d got a splinter embedded, which drew a spot of blood! All
that said and done though, I managed to get a fondant on the plate – the first
one I tried to unmould was 1 minute away from being cooked properly, because as
I took the baking paper off the sponge split a little and out poured the
centre! The second one, after an extra minute in the oven, unmoulded perfectly
though. The chef gave me some good feedback, the chocolate piping was a little
thick, but the design was good, and I’d overdone the sugar work on the plate –
at which point I informed him it was lucky I managed to get any sugar work on
the plate! I left the lesson kicking myself and quite downhearted because of my
mistake. We weren’t going to know until tomorrow whether the quick gelatine fix
worked or not, as it had to set in the freezer overnight. That’s one of the
down sides to working in pairs, my partners’ marks for next lesson were partly reliant
on my mistake, and I felt a great burden of guilt because in haste I’d read the
wrong quantity – 3 grams of something had never seemed so important!
The demo on Tuesday was making a mini caramelised apple
tarte tatin and unmoulding the banana mousses from the previous lesson, with a
bit more sugar work, a spray gun, a couple of sauces and some fancy plating
thrown in as well! The banana mousse tasted nice, with the caramel cream
insert, and the tarte tatin was really nice with the caramel sauce and crème
anglais!
As the practical came round I was very nervous about turning
out the banana mousses. I’d had visions the night before of them not setting
and disintegrating as we turned them out. As we were waiting for the spray gun
(to spray white chocolate on the outside to give them a velvet like texture),
we took the plunge and turned them out. Fortunately they turned out well, and
we got the chocolate sprayed on evenly too, so all was well, and an
overwhelming sense of relief came over me! I could finally enjoy the practical
again, I’d been burdened with guilt for a whole 24 hours! The tarte tatins came
out well too, as did the sauces we had to make. The pulled sugar worked better
this lesson too, and I managed to play around with it for a bit longer this
time. Everything was plated and I was quite pleased with the results. The chef
gave me some good feedback too. So all in all, this lesson made up for the one
the day before. Only one tiny issue with the mousse, my friend took a bite out
of her plated one after it was marked and started chewing on an undissolved
piece of gelatine – we laughed!
Wednesday, after a morning at work, I made my way into London
for a lecture. The lecture today was on chocolate skills. We watched the chef
make an impressive 3D ‘magic’ themed sculpture. A couple of premade shaped
blocks of chocolate created a foundation, upon which the chef added a top hat,
a wand, some cards and a bunny popping out of the hat – all made out of chocolate,
and in a warm room too. It looked great and really fuelled my excitement for
chocolate further!
Rather than go home after the lecture, I’d signed myself up
to help one of the chefs (my favourite chef!) with one of the short courses the
school also run. This particular one was the last of a 4 week (4 Wednesday
evenings in a row) session, and they had to make tarte tatin (very handy as
we’d only made the tiny ones the day before!) and palmiers, along with a nice
caramel sauce to take home to put on the tatin. The session started around 7pm
and finished about 9:30pm. I was an assistant with one of my good friends from the
group, we had to help the chef set up the room initially and then wander around
helping the people out and helping keep the room tidy. It was strange at first
having people ask me for advice, especially when I’m usually double checking whether
I’ve done something right with the chef, however I got into my stride and was
surprised with how many of the questions I was able to answer and help them
with. I really enjoyed it, and signed up to help because ultimately that’s
exactly what I had in mind to do when I set up my own business after the
course. In fact I enjoyed it so much I’ve offered to be an assistant for
several more! Sure, I could have been home at a reasonable time that evening
and relaxed a bit, but it was so much more rewarding being sat on the bus home
at 11pm still buzzing with excitement from the session. It has helped reaffirm
that this is exactly where I want to be heading next in life.
Despite the crappy start to the week, it really picked up at
the end. Next week marks the penultimate week before the Intermediate exams,
only one more practical session, a couple of demos and a lecture to go and then
its exam time. Nerves are definitely starting to bubble a little down below,
but I’ve practiced all the exam dishes once and managed to commit the recipes
to memory. Just one more solid practice weekend and a couple of frantic method
writing sessions to go, to make sure I’ve got that straight in my mind too, and
we should be ready for them!
The chocolate fondant! The sugar work wasn't great, but the fondant tasted so good it didn't matter. Just need to practice getting the chocolate a little thinner now.
The banana mousse, with blackcurrant coulis, berries and a pulled sugar circle! And the caramelised apple tarte tat in with creme anglais, berries and a little extra caramel sauce. My favourite was definitely the tarte tatin, I really like the caramelised apple flavour.
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