Week Three of Pastry

This week I designed two different plated desserts. The first is an Apricot and Chantilly Cream Roulade with Meyer Lemon Ice Cream. It is garnished with candied Meyer lemon peel, vanilla anglaise and apricot sauces. The roulade was much too large of a portion and should have been half the size. I had originally wanted to cut a thicker slice so that it could be plated standing upright, but it was much too large to do so. I think this plating worked nicely as an alternative. The best aspect to this dessert was the flavor--it elements went together magnificently and the Meyer Lemon ice cream was fabulous!

This is the second dessert I plated this week. I got this recipe for Trio of Panna Cottas from a wonderful cookbook called Passion for Desserts by local pastry chef Emily Lucchetti. The trio included Vanilla, Cinnamon-Almond and Caramel Panna Cotta and was accompanied by a dried fruit compote (cherries, prunes and apricots in a brandy sauce). The garnish in the plating above was a vanilla tuile cookie, very thin and crisp.

This was my most successful plating of the trio because each panna cotta was garnished with something that reflected its flavor, yet it maintained its simplicity. Garnishes were vanilla: vanilla tuile, cinnamon-almond: toasted almond slivers, caramel: caramel sauce.

I also plated one larger Vanilla Panna Cotta which I thought turned out successfully because it looks naturally placed and is simple in presentation.

The results of the texture and flavor seemed to be good--I had never made or eaten panna cotta before this. I loved the cinnamon-almond and caramel, which both had wonderful flavor, however I found the vanilla a bit plain. The fruit compote was a wonderful, robust compliment to the light flavor and texture of the panna cottas.

Stay tuned for three more weeks of plated desserts!