Afternoon Tea 2

Our Delectable Spread

It's our turn to host Afternoon Tea: the week leading up to today was spent practicing our prep which had to be completed in record time on service day.

I find this menu more appealing than the last: smoked salmon and roast beef sandwiches "loosely" translates to extra treats for the chefs, and with the previous week's experience, our petit fours came out extra petit and adorable.

Sizzlin' Beef

For a pastry chef, I really dig my meat and fell in love with the huge cut of cow flesh we were given; and can there be any sound sweeter than that of meat sizzling on a hotplate? *swoon*

SANDWICHES & CREPES

Soft Roll With Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese & Chive

Mini Baps With Rare Roast Beef, Horseradish Cream & Rocket

Rye & Linseed With Brie, Cranberry & Pea Sprouts

Crepes

PASTRIES & TEACAKES

Coffee Eclairs With Pastry Cream

Breton With Caramelized Chibouste

Lemon Tart With Fresh Fruits

Date Scones With Double Cream & Raspberry Jam

MOUSSES & CUSTARDS

Pistachio Brulee

Dark Chocolate Mousse With Chocolate Shavings

MINI GATEAUX

Brasilia

Gateau Concorde (Gluten Free)

PETIT FOURS

Raspberry Fruit Paste, Moulded Chocolates With Orange & Grand Marnier Ganache

Fruit Plate

SERVICE DAY

The Crepes Crew: Me, Sunny Smiles Smital, The Talented Erica

Fighting Over The Grand Marnier

I scored a job on the crepes station, which was as close to cooking as one can be on the service floor. With me are Erica and Jing, and Smital as our trusty assistant. :)

Caramelizing Sugar, Butter, Lemon & Orange Juice

Preparing To Flambee With Grand Marnier (Photographer Simon Backing Up For Safety)

KA-BOOM!!!

Voila! So Worth The Torched Eyebrows

After Service Wedgie :p

Winding Down With Drinks & Food

Ivan The Terrible

(Just Kidding, He Was Great!)

Afternoon Tea 1

Spot The Difference

Towards the end of each term Superior students (I say this without a hint of arrogance, just quiet pride) slog through 10-hour workdays over 2 weeks to put up indulgent Afternoon Teas for the paying public. A great chance for us to recreate products learnt over the entire course and a little more, the good people of the community also get to enjoy the fruits of our labor for the low low price of $20 a pop!

Here's a glimpse of what we've been busy preparing this week, mostly for practice; all products are made fresh on service day itself. See what I mean by value-for-money?

SANDWICHES & CREPES

 Wholemeal Pagnotta With Ham, Cheddar Cheese & Dijon Mustard

Mini Baguette With Grilled Chicken, Lettuce, Tomato & Mayonnaise Dressing

Olive Focaccia With Goats Cheese & Roasted Capsicum (Vegetarian)

Crepes

PASTRIES & TEACAKES

Vacherin Meringue Served With Chantilly Cream & Fresh Fruits (Gluten Free)

Almond Shortcake With Crème Diplomat & Pistachio Croquant

Choux Pastries With Chocolate Mousseline & Chocolate Fondant Garnish

Scones With Cream & Raspberry Jam

MOUSSES, CUSTARDS & MINI GATEAUX

Tiramisu With Sponge Fingers, Mango Jelly With Fresh Berries & Cointreau Sabayon Cream

Opera Gateau

PETIT FOURS

White Chocolate Fudge

Moulded Chocolates With Honey Ganache

SERVICE DAY

Crepes & Drinks Station, Coffee!

Sunny Flambeing Crepes

Crepe Suzette For Service 

Crepes With Chantilly Cream & Raspberry Jam For Lunch :p

Piccolo. MY Piccolo. :)

I have a confession to make: I am a Hopeless. Degenerate. Coffee Junkie. Case in point:

1. I am particularly, painfully fussy about my morning joe: I gotta have it on time (within 30 minutes of waking up), steaming hot (how do you wake up with cold coffee??) and strong, real strong ("triple shot cappuccino with ground cinnamon, no sugar please" is how I roll). 

2. If I go cold turkey for just one morning, I get grumpy - granny-pushing, puppy-kicking grumpy. I walk around with a black cloud hanging over my head, furious at the world, punching everything and everyone in sight as I sink dangerously deeper into dark despair and depression, all while managing the worst pounding migraine ever. 

So you see, not only do I love my coffee, I need it. In fact I'm sipping a double shot long black as I write this. Now you know. Don't judge me.

P.s. I'm kidding about the granny and puppy abuse, really! I love 'em! So please, hold off the hate mail. :p

Almond Shortcake With Macerated Strawberries, Sable Breton With Pistachio Croquant

Chef's Shortcake & Breton Creations

In case you're not aware, it's the last class of the term today! And so we bid the year a fond farewell with the American classic Strawberry Shortcake (not the cartoon, but just as sweet) and French Breton biscuit.

Rolling & Cutting Out Shortcake, Brushing On Cream

The American version of strawberries and cream comes with a sweet, crumbly shortcake, hence the name. Almond meal, flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and cream are mixed together to form a pliable dough, rolled out 5mm thick and cut into shape, brushed with cream and dusted with sugar for extra crunch before being baked.

Filling Breton Paste Into Moulds

For the Breton, egg yolk, sugar and butter are creamed together before vanilla, flour, baking powder and salt are added to form a paste so sticky it had to be slapped on to the greased ramekins to be baked.

Breton has a thick and soft texture more similar to cake then biscuit, heck it was even piled on like a cake today with Crème Diplomat and Cointreau-macerated strawberries. Sorry kids, this biscuit's strictly for the adults.

Rounds Of Creme Diplomat & Berries

Cooking & Rolling Pistachio Croquant

Similar to the nougatine we made for the Croquembouche, we caramelized glucose and fondant into a light amber liquid, stirred in crushed pistachios and a pat of butter, and while still searingly hot, rolled it out flat before cutting into shape for the garnish.

My Cookie Plate

Seeing it is so close to Christmas time, I made uno shortcake as instructed and cut the rest of my shortcake dough into festive little shapes: gingerbread men, Christmas trees, snowflakes, you name it, I  got it. And the best thing about this little plate of cookies? They're mine, all mine! So hands off, Santa.

So distracted I was cutting my cookies shapes I forgot about the caramel and burnt it, so the croquants turned out slightly on the dark side. It still tasted good, but I thought I'd improvise by smashing them into smithereens and sprinkling the jade green crystals onto my Breton instead. Quick and easy, and rather homely-looking too.

Berries & Cointreau, Somethin' For The Holidays