Week 31 New Term - Parfait

A new term begins and new things to learn. The 2 weeks break has been so much fun and the first day back to school was actually a little drag. But when came the day to do practical work, I was back in the mood to bake! 

This term we learn more about special diets. Baking to cater for different diets such as vegetarian, lactose intolerance, diabetics, gluten free or allergies such as nuts.

The menu for the day was rather simple. We only had macadamia parfait , dried fruit meringues, Scottish shortbread and a flourless chocolate cake. We spent more time with the plating up than the baking which I thought was really fun. 

We started with the parfait first because it needed about 4 hours to set in the freezer. The parfait had no gelatine in it so it was safe for vegetarians. Instead of using macadamias, we were provided with almonds. Hmm.... most apparent reason is that macadamias cost a lot more. Anyway, the nuts were roasted and then caramel was cooked and the nuts were poured into the caramel for a coating. Then it was left to cool on a silicone mat. After it was cooled, we processed it till little chunky and crumbly nuts. 

Then we cooked the eggs and sugar over a bain marie till it reached sabayon stage. The nuts were mixed into the egg mixture and it was cooled slightly and whipped cream was folded in. Then poured into moulds that has been lined with cling wrap. Then set in the freezer. 

Then we made dried fruit meringues which was really simple, basically it was whipping egg whites and raining in the sugar till it became stiff peaks. Then the dried fruits and chocolate chips were folded in. I wanted to play with shapes so I used heart shape and square moulds, then pipep in the meringues. They were baked for 20 minutes at 110˚C. The meringues were still crisp on the outer layer and slightly chewy in the centre. Then left to cool before assembling. 

Parfait with orange & cherry salad

 We had orange segments and cherries to decorate the plate together with the parfait. Then we topped it with the almond praline and had some crushed almonds on the side. 

Heart shape meringues 

 The square meringues were a little browner than the heart shape ones. But I decided to plate up the squares because I like the idea of square meringues.

Square shape meringues 

The scottish shortbread were really nice to eat. We were given freedom to be creative and somehow I felt like more linear designs today... so mostly squares and lines. Me and my partner agreed with using the same moulds that I used for the meringues. 

Scottish Shortbread

Flourless chocolate cake was a gluten free recipe suitable for those who can't have wheat in their diet. We baked them in a square tin and they looked like brownies. The crust had a nice crunch and the centre was soft and moist. It was actually quite nice to eat. I had the most fun decorating this one. I had the picture in my head but wasn't sure if I could execute the decoration. I am pretty happy with the end result. 

Flourless Chocolate Cake

 I cut the cake into 3 small bite size squares and each had a dollop of whipped cream on it and the on the top I placed a long strip of chocolate. On the side we brushed a little chocolate on the plate and placed a fresh strawberry on it. I thought it was simple and nice.  

Flourless Chocolate Cake with strawberry

The shortbreads were dipped in chocolate and some were drizzled with chocolate and dusted with icing sugar. Plating up was kept simple because I think less is more. 

Scottish Shortbread

 As for the meringues , we gave it a lot of height. We used 3 pieces of the square meringues and had some whipped cream sandwiched in between and then had chocolate filigrees on top. On the side of the plate we had some nuts and some orange peel .

Dried fruit meringue

 At the end of the class, our trainer came to look at our work and he was happy with our work. He said "excellent! , very good! " I was so happy to hear that! I am sure I have a lot more to learn in terms of plating up desserts. It was a good start to the term. 

Flourless Chocolate Cake 

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