Chocolate Week: Round Two!

Finally up to date.  Today was the last day of the second week of chocolate week, though we still need to finish up a recipe on Monday.  The chocolates we made this week were fantastic.  All three of the chocolates we made thus far are some of my absolute favorite flavor combinations.

The first chocolate is a classic french chocolate called 1848.  We made ours with hazelnut praline (which we made ourselves), roasted hazelnuts, feuilletine, and milk chocolate.  It's pretty sickly sweet, but so good.  We brushed it with an edible gold powder after taking it out of the bar molds.

The second one we made was a white chocolate, strawberry, and lychee ganache inside a milk chocolate shell which we then put a stick in, dipped in more milk chocolate, then sprinkled with crystallized rose candy.  They're ridiculously adorable, and they may be even more delicious than they are cute.

Another chocolate we made was sort of a caramel ganache with milk chocolate, which we cut into triangular pieces, dipped in more milk chocolate, and sprinkled with sea salt.  Caramel, chocolate, and sea salt?  Yes please!
The last chocolate we made this week was a rocher truffle made from a coffee infused dark chocolate ganache, then dipped in dark chocolate and caramelized almonds.  Coffee and dark chocolate may be the winning flavor combo from this week.

Cake Week: Round Two!

This was a delicious week.  The cakes may have even been better than the first cake week, which is really saying something.

Cake 1:


This was probably my least favorite cake out of all the cakes we've made.  This cake had a pate a sucre (sugar dough) base, and on top of that was a brownie.  I feel like I should describe this brownie though, because it is not a normal brownie-- it's a frenchified brownie.  It started out pretty normal (melted chocolate, sugar, nuts, etc.), but we made a meringue which we then folded into the chocolate mixture.  The brownie was not at all fudge-y and gooey, it was light and relatively dry.  It would have been good if we had left it at that, but on top of the brownie we spread a layer of really bitter orange marmalade.  I was not a fan.  On top of the orange marmalade was a chocolate-tea mousse.  I actually really liked that, but not everyone was fond of the tea in it.  We decorated the top with chocolate decorations we made ourselves.  Pretty cool!

Cake 2:

This was suuuuuper good.  Chef called it an Inflorescence cake.  It was layers of almond dacquoise, milk chocolate mousse, cherry jam, and another layer of the almond dacquoise.  We then submerged it in an amaretto flavored bavarian cream, then poured a marble glaze on top.  The decoration on top is made of isomalt, which we painted with an really pretty mauve-ish colored edible powder.  I think it's the prettiest thing we've made since I've been here. Gorgeous.



Cake 3:

This may have been my favorite of both cake weeks thus far.  It's a coconut cream tart with exotic fruits and a lime mousse.  I'm normally a sucker for chocolate desserts and often skip over the fruity desserts, but this fruity dessert is giving all of the chocolate desserts I've eaten a run for their money.  The dough is a pate a sucre dough, and we baked that slightly then filled it with a coconut cream we made and put it back in the oven.  We put an apricot glaze over that, then sliced the lime mousse we made (which we poured into tubes and froze to get the round shaped slices) and decorated the tart with the mousse and a bunch of fresh fruit.  We used mango, baby bananas (which I still don't know the technical name for), pineapple, kiwi, papaya, passion fruit seeds, and dried pieces of coconut.  Then we sprayed it with apricot glaze again, et voila!  Delicieux!

Cocktail Week/Dough Week

The week after plated dessert week was even crazier, and I wasn't sure that was even possible.  We started the four week sequence over, so we were back to doing dough.  But!  That was the last week for the students who started in January (and a couple who had started in September), and at the end of every term there's a cocktail party.  All of the students leaving/graduating at the end of the term are required to make a dessert (or appetizer if they're in the cuisine course) from their country of origin, and they spent most of that week in the kitchen preparing for it.  That was also the first week of a few new students, so the kitchen was absolutely packed.

I don't have any photos of the bread we made that week, and honestly I'm not sure that I even remember all of what we made.  I do remember we made an anise flavored bread, pain de mie, classic baguettes, and financiers.  That may have been it.  Chef also had the students who weren't leaving make some more desserts for the cocktail party (like mini tarts, macaroons, pate a choux with cream filling, etc.) So have some photos of the desserts at the cocktail party!

That was a really sad week.  The students who were graduating all left on the Saturday morning, and tears were definitely shed at our apartment.  Luckily that day my roommates and another two girls from the school went to Carcassone, so that brightened our spirits a bit!  Carcassone was such a beautiful town.  It kind of reminded me of the renaissance festival a bit too, so that automatically makes it amazing.

Plated Dessert Week

 Sorry I haven't been active on here at all lately!  I'm gonna try to catch up and post about all the delicious things I've been learning to make.  Here's where I left off.

Plated dessert week was crazy.  There were a thousand recipes for each of the desserts so for most of the week the kitchen was pretty hectic.  Friday was the worst-- and the best!  Friday was the day we plated all of the desserts, but we had to eat all three of them in about five minutes before moving on to prepare the next plated dessert!  I think everyone either had a massive food baby or was suffering from a major food coma for the rest of the day.  It was delicious but pretty sickly.

Plated Dessert 1:

This dessert was made from pink meringue squares, chantilly cream, peaches soaked in black currant juice, (x2).  On top was an anise ice cream and a raspberry sorbet, and in front was a strawberry coulis that was dipped in gelatin, so it held it's shape on the plate but as soon as you cut into it the coulis ran all over.  That was my favorite part of this dessert.

Plated Dessert 2:
 
The cake part of this dessert was made of layers of alambra biscuit, lemon jelly and a chocolate-asparagus mousse.  On top was a lemon-asparagus sorbet, with cocoa tiles on the side.  This dessert was a pain in the ass to put together thanks to the cocoa tiles, but it was actually really delicious.  Who would've thought asparagus would be a good dessert food?  Not me, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Plated Dessert 3:

This was my absolute favorite.  The three main flavors were chocolate, raspberry, and ginger-- a.k.a. the best flavors in the world.  Inside the cocoa tower were layers of joconde biscuit, chocolate raspberry ganache, fresh raspberries, and a ginger creme brulee, with raspberry sorbet on top.  Delish!  I almost ate this one in entirety even though it was the last dessert and I was already suffering from food baby contractions.