Fry Day on a Wednesday

Bomboloni with Caramel Ice Cream and a Trio of Sauces

Today was fry day--everything we made was deep fried. It was a good day, even if I did smell like oil and look all greasy after. We made brioche dough last class so we could fry up some bomboloni. We also made some sweet wontons and fruit beignets. Everything was great!

Bomboloni with Raspberry Coulis and Chocolate Sauce

The bomboloni were almost as good as the ones Jacques Torres made at his recent demo. I think they would have been as good had I not let the dough over proof slightly. We filled them with vanilla and chocolate pasty cream. I opted for making mostly chocolate ones. I also made one shaped like a doughnut without filling. We served them with raspberry coulis, chocolate sauce, and vanilla creme anglaise and caramel ice cream. They are also incredible plain, or served simply with one or two sauces.

Beignets with Spiced Nuts, Coconut Foam,
and Tamarind Ice Cream

The beignets are not traditional New Orleans-style beignets as far as I know (I've never had beignets in New Orleans). They are large pieces of fruit, dipped in a yeasted beer batter, and dunked in a deep fryer. My favorite were the apple rings (which we cut horizontally and cored, so they resembled very thick onion rings or, perhaps, doughnuts). We served these with delicious spiced nuts, coconut foam, and tamarind ice cream. Tamarind has a sour taste that is quite unusual but in a good way. I didn't like the ice cream on its own very much, but with one of the nuts or a bite of beignet, it was quite pleasant.

Apple Wontons with Apple Cider Dipping Sauce

The wontons were great! I made the apple compote for the whole class (we divvy up tasks and I got that), which was really good practice as I haven't made a compote in a while. Plus Chef said I could flavor it however I wanted so I had some fun with that. I digress. So we filled wonton wrappers with the apple compote and fried them. We served them with a hard apple cider dipping sauce. Gosh they were good.

Brioche

Bomboloni are made with brioche dough. Well we could only fry up so many, so we made brioche loaves with the rest. Mine was slightly over proofed, which is why the top isn't quite evenly shaped. Ah well it was still brioche, so yum!