Moulded Chocolates, Caramelised Fruits & Marzipan, Milk Chocolate Fudge, Preserved Fruit Peel

Chef's Moulded Chocolate Treasures

We end this week's petit fours theme with, amongst other things, more chocolate! Unlike the truffles made in Basic with their kaleidoscope of booze flavored fillings (which I lurved) or chocolate croquembouche made in Intermediate with their very thick chocolate shells (which I did not enjoy biting through), these babies encased a simple and gorgeous honey ganache within a thin chocolate shell, though the process was anything but simple:

Chef Karen's Toys: Magnetic Chocolate Moulds & Pattern Transfer Sheets

Painting On Food Color For Decoration

Filling Moulds With Chocolate, Tipping Excess Out To Create Chocolate Shells

Scrapping Off More Excess For Clean Finish

Piping Honey Ganache Into Shells

Warming Ganache For Better Adherence (To Chocolate & Transfer Sheet)

Scrapping ON Transfer Sheet

Moulded chocolates done and dusted, we moved on to much easier tasks, namely:

Caramelised Fruits

 

Literally fruits dipped in hot caramel, of which I'm not a fan. The way I see it, a perfectly fresh and sweet piece of fruit should be enjoyed on its own, not encased in a coat of caramel that cuts like glass when you bite into it trying to reach the fruit within. 

Enrobing Preserved Orange Peels In Chocolate: Delightful

Milk Chocolate Fudge

Unlike the white chocolate fudge made in Intermediate which was tongue numbingly sweet, this was slightly more enjoyable, due to the addition of chocolate, what else. Bring to boil sugar, glucose and cream, add to that chocolate and butter, mix to combine and pour into mould to set. Finish with a thin later of tampered chocolate and you're in business!

Slicing Fudge With Guitar Cutter, Enrobing In Chocolate

Chocolate And Caramelized Fruit Platter

3 Dimensional Beauty

Surprise Sugar Treats

Morning treat from classmate Matin, I picked a green one. (Pistachio! Yum!)

My Candy Stash: Milk Chocolate Fudge, Caramelised Fruits

Moulded Chocolates, Preserved Fruit Peel

I made a couple of surprising discoveries today:

1. The preserved orange peel which I just knew I would hate at the start of this arduous process turned out to be my favorite! The peel was not bitter or as sweet as I feared (turns out the sugar syrup was mostly there to draw out the moisture from the peel), instead it was only mildly bitter with just the right amount of sweetness and bite in taste and texture that went beautifully with the chocolate shell. I absolutely loved it!

2. The hard caramel on the fruits was just as unappetizing as I thought it would be, but when I cracked opened and rinsed off the offending sugar (I'm not one to waste good food) I discovered the fruits had softened from being dipped in lava hot caramel, "cooking" them ever so slightly which brought out their inherent sweetness to a more pronounced level. 

3. I can tamper chocolate! In the last 3 weeks we have been tampering a lot, and I mean a heck lot of chocolate, getting a ton of practice in the process and today, my tampered chocolate was perfect. And I mean puuurr-feeccttoo! The chocolate on the preserved peels set in less than 2 minutes, and hours later when I brought them home, they were still oh-so-shiny with nary a trace of fat or sugar-bloom. Boo-Yah!

Nougat De Montélimar, Gianduja, Marzipan Apples & Pears, Preserved Fruit Peel

Chef's Petit Fours, Marzipan Fruits

Nougat De Montélimar

We round off yesterday's mise en place with a few finishing touches, but first...

...A Word From Our Sponsors

Enrobing Sliced Nougat In Dark Chocolate - Valrhona, No Less!

Finishing With Cocoa Butter For Shine & Longer Shelf Life

Slicing Pâtes De Fruits.
Impressive Guitar Cutter, Huh?

Finishing Gianduja With Chocolate Piping

Spray Painting Marzipan Fruits

Preserved Orange Peels, Hung Out To Dry...Finally

Carnage!!

That praline was so worth waiting for: irrationally rich and creamy with an Earth-shattering CRUNCH, Ooo-la-lah! We protested when the slab was cut into such tiny morsels, but let me tell ya, with something this good, a little goes a long way.

The nougat was an sweet surprise, but not diabolically sweet; in its stead was a mild sweetness from the honey punctuated with crunch and fragrance of the roasted nuts. For the first time I actually enjoyed nougat, and won't hesitate to recreate this recipe again should the craving hit.

All said and done, it should be noted that these sugary treats were made and tasted greedily devoured at 10 in the morning. Suffice to say, some of us felt oh so sick right after. :p

My Party Platter

Nougat Bars

Can You Guess What This Is?

Clue: I Didn't Do A Good Job! :p

Nougat De Montélimar, Pâtes De Fruits, Gianduja, Honey Ganache, Preserved Fruit Peel

Mise En Place 1:

Chef Keith's Nougat De Montélimar

It's a busy class today with not 1 but 5 mise en place's in store, so read on to find out more. 

Nougat (sometimes known as nut bread) is a confectionery made with sugar, honey and roasted nuts. Some are soft and chewy while others hard and crunchy, depending on its construction (more on that later). Today's nougat was created in Montélimar, France in the 18th century, famed for their addition of almond, a key produce of the region.

Chopping Roasted Nuts, Drizzling Hot Honey & Syrup Into Egg Whites

Almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios are used today; glace cherries optional, so I opted them out: pretty as cherries go, I didn't want them smearing the slabs red when sliced.

Cooked honey is slowly added to whipped egg white, similar to how Italian meringue is made. In next goes sugar syrup, and here the fate of thy nougat is determined, be it soft and gooey or rock solid with a snap: the more the nougat is worked, the tougher it will be, as the sugar crystallizes and hardens the final product.

Mixing Nuts Into Nougat, Molding Into Shape

Placing Nougat Between Rice Paper, Leveling It Out

Mise En Place 2: Pâtes De Fruits

Aka fruit jelly, an easy one to make. Boil raspberry puree with sugar and glucose for sweetness and pectin to help set the jelly, followed by another key ingredient: tartaric acid.

Dr. Keith's Prescription: 7g Tartaric Acid Solution

Most fruits are acidic, some more than others. It is this acid that works with the pectin to ensure a good set. Less acidic fruits such as berries sometimes need an extra boast, either with some lime juice or in today's case, a little tartaric acid for a more neutral flavor.

Mise En Place 3: Gianduja aka Praline With Pailleté Feuilletine

Pailleté feuilletine is a sweet crunchy wheat flake, like your favorite breakfast cereal, only better. Way way better. Mixed with praline and tampered chocolate, this will set into a rich, creamy and satisfyingly crunchy praline, very very Moorish indeed.

Mise En Place 4: Honey Ganache

Amazing how a little honey goes a long way. The smell of honey and boiling cream was heavenly; mixed with Valhorna chocolate (a treat for Superior students!), I cannot wait to taste this on Saturday. I'm sure it'll be good, so good in fact, I actually omitted kirsch/rum/cointreau for the first time! If I had some good mead on hand though...

Mise En Place 5: 1 Cute Chef