Back into the Kitchen!

I have entered the third kitchen class of the baking/pastry program, plated desserts. This class will encompass anything other than breads, items that can be served on a plate or on a buffet.

The first three days were spent watching our chef demo lots of new things. Everything made were items that we will be making throughout the course--creme brulee, pot de creme, chocolate and fruit mousses and many different garnishes to complete these desserts and make masterpieces suitable for photography.

The class operates in teams of two. Each day teams work at one of three stations.

1 production - preparing key ingredients needed by the entire class and making pastries that would be served on a buffet, such as cookies or petite fours.

2 mis en place - preparing the items that will be needed to make the dessert that you will plate the next day

3 service - where the dessert comes together on the plate with all of its components and garnishes

For the first go-round we were required to make one of the items that had been demonstrated earlier in the week. However after this rotation we are free to choose anything we like, pulling from a portfolio of recipes we develop, pulling from any sources we choose.

For our first project my partner and I made chocolate mousse. The photos above show the mousse after it is removed from the mold, placed on a hazelnut cookie (so that it can be moved and not squished!) and then covered in chocolate ganache. Below are three platings of the same dessert.

This is my first ever plated dessert! I was very happy with the results, a combination of random and intentional elements. This is the chocolate ganache covered chocolate mousse kissed with pistachio, garnished with a caramel paste basket, fresh raspberries, raspberry sauce and chocolate cigarettes. We made all of the garnish pieces as well as the dessert itself.

This variation used a different garnish, a striped chocolate cut out and the raspberry sauce was smeared rather than dropped onto the plate.

For the third plating the edge of the mousse was kissed with caramel crumbles. I used vanilla anglaise sauce to flood a large bowl and garnished that with chocolate sauce.

This class has been a lot of fun because it involves so much creativity, which is great with my architecture and design background. I am really excited to have the opportunity to make anything we like, as it will allow me to try things I have been timid to try before. There is lots of fun to come and the photos will be much more interesting than those six weeks of bread!