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

Croquembouche (Part 1), Choux Pastry, Nougatine, Creme Patisserie, Religieux

Chef's Religieux

This was not an enjoyable class. "It's gonna be fun, guys!" chirps a delusional Chef Gert. Sure, if you count caramel stab wounds and 3rd degree sugar-burns as "fun". But behind the trauma lies an important lesson: in addition to building character and a new layer of skin, Croquembouche an impressive but demanding dessert all pastry chefs should have in their repertoire, preparing them for the long, intensive hours in store whenever someone exclaims "Oh yes! We would lurve a Croquembouche on our wedding day!"

Choux Pastry & Creme Patisserie

We've been through this before, to make profiteroles you will need: a million choux puffs and 2 gallons of creme patisserie (you'll see why soon enough) to be put together tomorrow. You can fill a couple of choux with cream, placed one atop the other and piped more cream around to make Religieux. But for today we had to build the nougatine base for the Croquembouche.

Nougatine In The Making

Nougatine is a sweet almond brittle made by coating toasted almond in caramel with a pat of butter for shine. This is good enough to be eaten on its own, as they most often are, so rest assured any leftovers you may have will not be going to waste.

Constructing Nougatine Base

The little pat of butter is also helpful in extracting the sticky mix from the pot and rolling it out. Nougatine is hot, guys: hovering over as I was vigorously rolling it out, I could feel the heat emitting onto my face as the steam burned my throat and lungs with every breath I took in. All this I suffer in the name of good dessert.

Cut out a circular disc and a long strip to go around and under it. Work quickly while the nougatine is still hot and malleable, but try as you may not to burn your fingers (too much).

 

Finishing Touches...Are Just The Beginning

Next small triangles were cut and laid on a curved surface (wine bottle works well) to curl up as they harden, then attached to the base with more caramel. I caution extra care and focus at this step, or you'll risk burning your fingers off faster than you can scream Merde!

Elaborate Croquembouche Base

Apple Strudel (Part 2), Quiche Lorraine, Spinach Quiche

Chef's Roundabout Strudel

After 2 intensive days of making Gateau Opéra & Tiramisu with brain-surgery precision, we caught a break with today's strudel and quiches, quick, easy-peasy throw-togethers with hardly any scales, speed or stress required - just the way I like to cook when I feel like unwinding in the kitchen.

Strudel is an Austrian dessert consisting of a light pastry dough wrapped around an assortment of fillings, most popular being apple and cinnamon, so popular in fact, some even consider it to be Austria's national dish.

Chef's Spinach & Lorraine: Grab 'Em While They're Hot!

Quiche is a French open-faced pie of sorts made with a rich egg-and-cream custard known as royale, and any filling of your choice. We made spinach and bacon-and-onion, aka Lorraine, but if you don't fancy spinach, try roasted pumpkin and pine nuts instead, or your favorite ham and cheese combo. Whatever strokes your Buddha.

Sweating Bacon & Spinach

We first sweat the onions and bacon for the Lorraine, and replaced the bacon with spinach leaves for the vegetarian version. I browned the bacon bits a little longer for the smokey flavor to come through, and seasoned with extra pepper and paprika for a spicy kick.

Straining Royale For A Smoother Custard

Pate Brisee, Filling, Royale

We rolled out  the short crust dough we made yesterday, and added the fillings and royale. Last but not least, cheese. Not just any cheese, but the finest the Swiss has to offer: Gruyere. So fantastic is its signature mildly sweet and salty flavor that it prompted the French to rename any quiche with its inclusion quiche au gruyère or a quiche vosgienne.

Stretching Strudel Dough

You may take the easy way out and use filo pastry for the strudel, but the texture will be dry and flaky, not pillowy soft like only a proper strudel dough can be. The dough is unbelievably elastic as a result of the high gluten flour and olive oil used in the making, which makes the vigorous stretching exercise possible.

Rules of perfection would decree you stretch the dough out so thin that a love letter can be read through it, hence the paper test above.

 Fillin' & Rollin'

Butter Up For The Oven

Into the strudel goes some bread crumbs, Granny Smiths, raisins, walnuts, sugar and cinnamon, gently rolled into a log with the help of a tablecloth to keep it from tearing, brushed with melted butter and baked.

Oodles of Noodles

Had some time on my hands so I made pasta today. It's a wonderful thing, making food from scratch. Crossing this one off my list and I'm happy as a lark.

Sunny Quiches, Towering Strudels On Cloud 9

My quiches turned out pretty well, what with all the Gruyere and mozzarella I stuffed in. The strudel may look like a mess, but it didn't bother me: eaten warm from the oven with icing sugar and whipped cream, it was pure bliss.

Patisserie Danoise, Chelsea Buns

Chef Gert's Delightful Danish Pastries

The lesson plan today was to make some yummylicious Danish pastries, and who better to show us how than the jolly Great Dane himself, Chef Gert.

With a good pastry dough, various fillings to choose from and no set rules, the possibilities are endless. And precisely for that reason, we made such a huge variety of pastries that I shall have to present them in installments. Read on for more mouthwatering pictures.

The Various Guises Of Pastry...Monkey Face?

The dough is rolled out and cut into squares. Feel free to make them bigger if you're hungry, which I always am, but this time I'm keeping them small just so that I can make more of them.

The dough can be baked plain or with some pastry cream, to be topped with fresh fruits after. Alternatively, sturdier fruits such as apricots and sour cherries can be added before baking.

Bear Paws

The dough can also be filled with cream cheese or pastry cream and cut to form the "paws". Fanned out, they look remarkably fancy.

Hazelnut Twists

For a more intricate look, fill the dough with hazelnut paste, slice into rectangles and make a small cut in the middle. Push one end through the cut and pull out to straighten, or well, twist.

Topping With Apricot, Apply & Streusel, Brushing On Apricot Glaze

Brushed on while the baked pastries are still warm, the apricot glaze is better absorbed and gives the pastries a lovely, golden shine and a sweet finish.

 

Snails

Filling, Rolling, Doing The Twist

Slap on the filling of your choice, in our case a butter-cinnamon-sugar spread, throw in some raisins, roll up the dough like a cigar, slice and bake, individually or together in a round tin.

If you like, you can even on drizzle some fondant for added color and a fancier finish.

Chelsea Buns

Like the Danish pastries, cinnamon syrup was brushed onto the buns for a sweet shine. And just like the pastries, the texture of the Chelsea buns was pure bliss. Soft and flaky, it gave just enough resistance before melting into a buttery goodness in your mouth.

Chef's Beloved Danish Kringle

Kringles are the Danish version of pretzels, and a favorite of Chef Gert's. He shared his secret recipe for a kick-ass filling, of which I cannot and shall not divulge, I can only say it does not include apricot jam or whipped cream (his all time favorites). That said, the sweet cinnamon butter spread will make a worthy substitute.

But wait, there's more! To the filling he added pastry cream and white chocolate buttons before rolling the dough into a gigantic sausage, laid it onto a baking tray in the shape of, what else, a pretzel, sprinkled on some slivered almonds and sugar, then he baked.

The result was to die for. Soft and crunchy, sweet and cinnamony, light and buttery, every bite was sheer joy to behold.

My Sweet, Sticky Buns

I tossed in as much currents as the dough could carry, coz I know how disappointing it can be when you pay a big sum for a tiny roll at the shops only to find it sorrily lacking in fruit. So I did the buns some justice and myself a favor, and made it the way I would like to eat it. That is how all food should be prepared, don't you agree?

I left the syrup on the stove for far too long, and it boiled down to a thick, honey-like syrup, which I poured onto the buns anyway, and to my surprise, they soaked right through, leaving a layer of sweet,  gooey, sticky goodness to lick off my fingers afterward!

Danish Galore!

I made close to 50 little danishes today. Hold the fertility jokes please, I'm serious. It's a good dilemma to be in, coz these babies tastes amazing, especially straight out of the oven. I see many happy brekkies in the weeks ahead.