Thanksgivukkah

As I'm sure you heard, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah overlapped this year (on the 28th of November), a rare occurrence that (apparently) complicated things for American Jews who had to have celebrations two nights in a row. Since I'm currently studying in the UK, I had class on Thursday until 6:00pm, so no chance of a proper Thanksgiving regardless of the timing of Hanukkah. So we combined both celebrations and pushed them until Saturday so that our British family (who had to work Friday) could come over, enjoy the day, celebrate Hanukkah and, of course, eat lots of turkey.

My Favorite Holiday

I love Halloween! It's my favorite holiday. You get to dress up in silly costumes and eat sweets without feeling stupid or guilty (respectively). Because Halloween fell mid-week, I got to celebrate it twice! Once with my friend Katy and her flatmates--it was a Halloween party crossed with a birthday party for Katy's flatmate Lucy. The invitation said come in fancy dress (that's British for come in costume) or come dressed as Lucy. So I decided to try out a costume I've been wanted to do for a few years: Lucille Ball. I found a close to perfect Lucy dress at a charity shop near me. The pearls and pumps were mine already. The real effort was getting my wavy red hair curly and pinned up (I think I used over 30 bobby pins!) The party was good fun even if I don't think any of the Brits there knew "I Love Lucy."

Plated Dessert for the Jewish Holidays

I made this dessert (honey milk chocolate semifreddo on apple almond cake with caramel apple sauce, milk chocolate almond bark, marzipan and nougatine) for the Yom Kippur break-fast meal this year. Yom Kippur was in mid-September, but I guess with all the excitement of starting school, I forgot to post this.

The beautiful thing about this dessert is it could be for almost any Jewish holiday! I had been away from home for Rosh Hashanna so I decided to use the traditional flavors from that holiday--apple and honey--as inspiration for my dessert. Since some of my cousins can't eat gluten- the whole dessert is gluten free and is therefore suitable for Passover (obviously if you keep Kosher there are other considerations besides leavened goods and flour, but in my household that's pretty much the extent of Passover.)

Digestive Biscuit Ice Box Cake

This was fun--and it's simplicity and speed makes it perfect to do during the holiday baking rush when everyone in the house is whining that I'm not making anything for us to have. I digress. It is not at all attractive--it's just layers of whipped cream and dark chocolate covered digestive biscuits--but that's half the fun of this simple, homey cake.  I made the whole thing in a springform pan and stuck it in the freezer. It's important to let the whole thing sit over night (or for a full day) so that the cookies get a bit soft. Take it out of the freezer and leave in the fridge for an hour or so to let soften a bit. It's a terribly easy and unsophisticated dessert but gosh it's yummy!

Menu Project, The Food

Guinness Chocolate Cake: See how the dark, cylindrical cake with the
foamy, white cream on top resembles a pint of Guinness? Cute, huh?

As I mentioned in my description of the menu project, the chefs ordered two desserts from my menu of high-end twists on comfort food: the Guinness Chocolate Cake with Creme Fraiche Ice Cream, Creme Fraiche Cream, and Guinness Chocolate Sauce (a twist on chocolate cake); and the Brie, Chocolate, and Basil Panini on Sourdough with an Orange Basil Salad and Orange Philadelphia-style Ice Cream (a twist on grilled cheese). I had to plate two of each and bring one of each up to the chefs at a designated time. That was intense...so intense that I didn't even get to take photos of them in class. Luckily I'd practiced one at home before and had enough left over of the other to plate it at home today so I do have photos of the desserts, just not from the night I made them in class.

A few relevant details of the project I forget to mention before: we were allowed to bring our own plates, but didn't have to. We were not required to make an amuse bouche, but it is allowed (although not mentioned by the chefs, I figured it out from taking to former students). The chefs sit up at the front of the class and you must carry everything up to them (in contrast to the usual judging where they come to you) at a chosen time that is different for each person so that hot food stays hot and cold stays cold (in contrast to the usual judging where everyone finishes at the same time and the judges get to you when they get to you).

Now that that's out of the way, I can tell you what I did. I decided to make a sort of amuse bouche. I bought different plates for each of my desserts and a beautiful tray that matches my restaurant theme perfectly (you can see it in the picture of the cake, above) to use to carry everything up to the chefs on. I knew I needed something to carry them on since I was going to be bringing up one of each of the ordered desserts plus an amuse for each of them and I don't have four hands--shocking I know--and I thought a sheet pan covered with parchment would look crappy.

My first dessert (pictured above), the Guinness chocolate cake was a hit. My ice cream came out perfectly, something I surprised myself with because I tend to have a bit of trouble making a perfect creme anglaise ice cream base. My cake, the chefs said, was not quite Guinness-y enough and ever so slightly dry. They said I should have "refreshed" them in the oven and then doused them in a Guinness soak. Actually, I'd thought of doing that, but was afraid I'd over soak them and make them soggy, so I opted to go with the plain cake because I know it's really good. I'm a bit annoyed at myself that I didn't take the risk, but they still liked the cake and really liked everything else on the plate.

I cut the crusts off when I did this in class and served it
with slightly less salad.

My second dessert, the panini, came out almost perfect. My panini got ever so slightly over cooked, so there was a tiny bit of burnt cheese, but other than that (and iced cream that slid a bit on my plate) everything was actually exactly how I wanted it. The chefs didn't even mind the iced cream moving on the plate--to be honest they probably didn't notice, I only knew the scoops were wrong because I knew where I wanted them. The chefs liked my panini and the concept of a dessert panini. By the way, Philadelphia style ice cream (or iced cream, as I call it) is ice cream that is not churned in a ice cream machine so it comes out a bit icy but actually slightly lighter than regular ice cream. I'm really happy they liked this one so much because, out of the two, this was a bigger risk than the cake.

Sorry about the really strange coloring of the photo, perhaps I should have
used my real camera instead of the one on my iPhone.

My amuse went over very well. It was a sample of one of the small plates from my menu--a chocolate chip cookie and steamed vanilla milk. The chocolate chip cookies had a little bit of cocoa powder in the dough so they are almost chocolate chocolate chip cookies. I made them really small and served them with a demitasse cup of steamed milk. Technically, since we didn't have a steamer it wasn't steamed milk, it was frothed milk--I used one of those aerolatte thing-ies. I scalded the milk added some vanilla powder (it doesn't change the color like vanilla extract would) and just a dash of amaretto (I like the almond flavor with the cookie). The chefs both liked the amuse. I think part of what they liked was the taste and part of it was the fact that I put that extra effort into making something that wasn't required.

I'm thrilled with how well everything came out and with how much the chefs liked everything. We have three final projects (this, a wedding cake, and our final exam showpiece). I definitely got off to a good start with these!

White Chocolate Hazelnut Semifreddo

This was delicious, but not quite as nice as the mendiant. That's really only because I prefer milk chocolate to white chocolate. Semifreddo means partly frozen in Italian. Just like the mendiant or the parfait, it's a frozen dessert that isn't frozen solid because of all the air whipped into it, not to mention the fat and sugar. Anyway, we served this with drizzled with dark chocolate (which sets up when it comes in contact with the frozen semifreddo), set on top of a piece of hazelnut cake, sitting on a long curved piece of chocolate, with chocolate sauce, raspberry coulis, raspberry compote, and raspberry cream (raspberry flavored whipped cream) filled with chocolate sauce. It was not easy to make the filled raspberry cream scoops. They were worth it though...raspberry cream with a chocolate surprise inside!

Chocolate Hazelnut Mendiant

This is even better than parfaits! It's easier to make--basically it's frozen creme legere (pastry cream lightened with whipped cream)--and just as delicious. Plus I love chocolate hazelnut flavored anything. I think the presentation is lovely. We drizzled tempered chocolate onto acetate and then wrapped that around the unmolded mendiant (which is sitting on top of a piece of delicious chocolate hazelnut chocolate cake) to create a cage. When the chocolate was fully hardened, we pulled off the acetate. That, unfortunately, was easier said than done and a bunch of the cages ended up somewhat broken. Ah well, those ones still tasted good. We served them with chocolate sauce, clear vanilla sauce, strawberry coulis, fresh strawberries tossed in a bit of vanilla sugar and liqueur, and a hazelnut tuile.

White Chocolate Citrus Parfait

I'm surprised at how much I liked this. I'm not a huge white chocolate fan and I wasn't sure how I felt about it with citrus. I really did enjoy it though. I think parfaits are one of my new favorite desserts to eat (but not to make...they are not terribly enjoyable to make). They are basically a frozen mousse set atop a slice of moist cake, so they are light, almost creamy, cakey (where the cake is), and, obviously, cold, which I always enjoy. We served it with a strawberry salad, strawberry coulis, chocolate sauce, and a lace cookie. I'm not sure I approved of the garnish, I think I'd have preferred leaving off the dark chocolate sauce and lace cookie and adding white chocolate decor (such as a fan or cigarette).

Chocolate Mint Dome

We are doing plated desserts again. The first plated desserts unit wasn't my favorite unit and I'm not convinced that the second one is going to be an improvement, but I do really enjoy the food we make and it's certainly an important learning experience. This was really nice! It is a dome of mint parfait (a frozen dessert made of a frozen mixture of whipped cream and pate a bombe) filled with chocolate parfait and set atop a piece of flourless chocolate cake--it's actually built in a silicon dome mold, so the cake goes on last and, once it's frozen, it's flipped out. We sprayed it with chocolate (that's melted and thinned with extra cocoa butter) to give it some texture. Also on the plate is orange and mint salad, a chocolate cigarette, candied orange peel, chocolate sauce, and shortbread. I'm not sure why we used the shortbread with it as it was rather unnecessary, but it was good.

Lemon Loaf

This was really quite nice. The lemon-y flavor came from lemon zest, lemon glaze, and lemon pieces mixed into the batter. I have to say the lemon pieces were quite unexpected, I've never seen them in a lemon loaf recipe before, It was tart yet sweet, tender and moist yet not too crumbly, yum!

Blueberry Muffins

I actually made these before for the Great Blueberry Muffin Showdown. These actually came out a little better, perhaps because we were running short on blueberries so the chef told us to use about 1/3 less than the recipe called for. (In case you were wondering why I think it is good that there weren't as many blueberries in the blueberry muffins, I should mention that I don't like blueberries very much.) Plus the berries we did use were quite tart, so I actually didn't mind them in the relatively small quantity.

I realize this is silly, but we got to use those tall brown muffin papers that look so café-ish. They are so pretty and you don't need to use a muffin tin (which are such a pain to clean)--so I was very happy!

Orange Cinnamon Swirl Bread

 

This is the dough we used to make the sticky buns. We also made this lovely bread. It had a wonderful orangey flavor and the cinnamon swirl wasn't overly sweet. Have you ever noticed that there is no cinnamon bread, just cinnamon swirl bread?  Ever wondered why that is? As it turns out, that's because cinnamon in the quantities needed to flavor dough acts as an antimicrobial and kills the yeast. Interesting, don't you think?

As I was saying, this is good bread. The texture is lovely and bread like with a dense but light crumb and, as I've mentioned, a nice kick of cinnamon that compliments the subtle orange flavor of the bread. This bread is great plain, just slice and eat. Or, if you'd prefer doing something a little fancy, it makes wonderful french toast. I make my french toast with a little bit of cinnamon and orange juice (and zest if I have it) in the egg mixture. As it turns out, cinnamon and orange bread dipped in this mixture and fried up in a pan with some non-stick cooking spray or butter comes out spectacularly.

I sprinkled the french toast with some powdered sugar
and drizzled it with real maple syrup. Yum!

Jalousie

Sorry, I didn't get the best photos.

This, for lack of a better word, tart is made with a puff pastry crust. The crust is filled with any number of fillings, we used crème d'amandes and raspberry baker's jam. The top piece of puff is sliced with a knife and stretched slightly to make a lattice that is apparently reminiscent of jalousie blinds, hence the name. It was very tasty and quite pretty, I think!

A top view of the lattice and the almond cream and jam underneath.

"Studying", con't

Oops, forgot pictures of what I made when I was studying. Here they are:

Nectarine and Raspberry Tart with Pastry Cream

Gingersnaps

Candied Lemon Peel

Mini Lemon Tartlets with Candied Lemon Peel

Linzer Tart

This is not an easy tart to make, but it is well worth the effort. First you have to make the linzer dough, which is a very nice dough and not too difficult to make. Then you have to make the jam. That's right make the jam, from scratch.  Granted, you could use regular bakers jam, but this is so much better! And jam making while tedious is very satisfying. You also have to make almond cream, delicious. Finally, you compile the tart. That's done by lining the tart ring with a round of the dough (which by now you've let chill and have rolled out...it's a soft dough so that's no easy feat.) Put a thin layer of almond cream in the bottom, then spread the completely cooled jam on top of it, taking care not to smudge the almond cream with the very thick jam. Then cut another round of dough into strips and make a lattice pattern--not to be confused with a basket weave in which the strips are woven rather than just laid in one direction than the other. Egg wash the dough on top, but not the jam. At that point it goes into the oven until browned (hard to tell since the dough is already brown...). Let cool and enjoy. Phew, done!

See what I mean about not being easy. Well at least it tastes absolutely superb! The nutty, spiced dough pairs so well with the raspberry jam and the almond cream. It's almost like a linzer cookie, but better!

Tarte aux Noix

This was really good! Basically it's a tart shell with a little jam (we used raspberry but the chef said that apricot is really good too) and slivered almonds in the bottom and filled with a flourless cake. The cake part really can be baked on its own as an actual cake, the chef baked two little loaf cakes to show us this. I'm going to have to try that, because it'll be really good! Don't get me wrong part of what was great was the whole combination of the jam and cake and crust, but I'm sure the cake alone will be good. That's because the cake was made with almond paste and almond and hazelnut flour so it had a strong nutty flavor. Plus it was tender and moist and excellent! The decoration on top was really easy to do, I just held a cardboard circle over part of the the cake and sprinkled powdered sugar over the whole thing. Apparently this crescent moon version is the most traditional, but you can also use a stencil to make fun shapes with the sugar if you want.

Look at that lovely layer of jam and almonds, yum!

Berry Clafoutis, con't

As promised, here's the photo of the berry clafoutis. It's not the most elegant looking thing, but it sure tasted good!

Berry Clafoutis

This is a twist on a classic clafoutis, which is traditionally made with unpitted black cherries. We used fresh berries--blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries--instead. I like cherries, but I like berries more, so I'm very happy with that substitution. The custard was easy to make and the tart crust was the usual pâte sucrée crust that I've gotten so used to making. Unfortunately I'm still not great at cutting the crust evenly after lining the tart ring. I really need to work on that. Ah well, it didn't look great but it tasted pretty darn good!

P.S. I'll upload the photo and post it tomorrow.

Fresh Fruit Tart

Today in class we made two tarts and pots de crème au chocolat. We didn't actually get to finish the pots de crème, we will do that Monday. I can't wait until we do, they looked great! In the meantime, we did make and get to take home the two tarts. The first was a fresh fruit tart. We used the pâte sucrée shells we made last class. Then we filled them with freshly made crème d'amandes. We baked them. Unfortunately, the walls of my shell collapsed. Apparently I'd pulled them in a little too far when I trimmed the excess dough. I think I did it because my apple tart's walls had bent over the ring a little, making it difficult to take out of the ring, so I over compensated this time. Ah well, it was still going to taste good, but I was a bit worried about how it would look (and also how I'd "fill" it.) So when we filled them with pastry cream, I had to be careful, since it wasn't so much filling as topping. I managed okay and kind of hid the messy edges. Then  we learnt how to section citrus properly, peel and cut kiwi, and slice strawberries (that, I already knew). We decorated the tarts next. That was fun! I think mine looked quite pretty. I used the orange slices and kiwi around the edge to help cover up the collapsed wall. Then I did some nice stuff with the berries in the center--partly because I love berries, partly to distract from the edge. It really worked. The chef even said mine looked good, and he liked what I did with the berries. Then I just glazed the top with apricot nappage (basically heated apricot jelly). You know, a fresh fruit tart looks like a simple thing. Turns out, it really isn't!

We also made tarte bourdaloue, I'll write about it soon.

Lemon Bars with a Coconut Crust

Oh wow these were good!  They are from the Baked cookbook, which I find has slightly more complex recipes than most but is overall an excellent cookbook. Basically these are lemon bars made with a graham cracker and toasted coconut crust filled with lemon curd. Now I'm not sure what I did wrong, but the filling didn't ever fully set (it remained nice and creamy and curd-like, but not quite bar like) and the crust was a bit hard to cut and stuck to the pan.  So they didn't look beautiful, but they certainly tasted amazing. I mean really, lemon curd, graham crackers, and coconut...yum!

I made these for Pop's birthday, I think it looks really pretty with the yellow candle!