Warm Chocolate Fondant

Chocolate is my kind of happiness, don't hurt me if I am wrong but let's be honest isn't it every woman's happiness? Even if most of the time they don't want to admit it. In these freezing winter months approaching what better way to get through the winter blues than to wrap yourself in a few thousand blankets put on a classic movie and devour a beautifully rich chocolate fondant accompanied by a citrus and mint salad, creme fraiche ice cream and a pistachio and orange tuile.

For those of you who don't know, a chocolate fondant is that incredibly rich dessert that when you break into it with your spoon a fluid hot ganache flows from the centre. This is one of my many favourite desserts, however be warned it is very rich so if you aren't a chocolate lover make sure to share it with someone who is, it will make their day. Trust me.

Enough of my talking, I know you are all only here for the food, let's be honest most of my friends including my boyfriend are only with me because I make desserts on a daily basis. Just kidding. But not really.

So here is the recipe, on a side note this recipe is written for those who understand how to make a basic ganache or who know basic methods of baking. If you don't understand some of the methods either google it or feel free to Facebook me.

Warm Chocolate Fondant with Citrus Mint Salad, Mascarpone Ice Cream and Orange Pistachio Tuile

Ganache

   75g               Couverture 70%

   40g               Water

   70g               Cream

Warm Chocolate Fondant (5 aluminium moulds)

  110g              Couverture 70%

    50g              Butter

      2                Egg yolks

   40g               Almonds ground

   20g               Rice flour

      2                Egg whites

    90g              Vanilla sugar

                         

1.     Prepare ganache and leave to crystallise

2.     Pipe (grease prove paper) into 4cm wide or 20g heavy discs

3.     Freeze until further use

4.     Grease 5 aluminium moulds with butter

5.     Line the bottoms with a disc of grease prove paper

6.     Over a bain-marie, melt together couverture and butter

7.     Stir in egg yolks, ground almonds and rice flour

8.     Whip egg whites with half of sugar to a stable meringue

9.     Continue adding leftover sugar until meringue is stiff

10.  Fold meringue into chocolate mixture

11.  Place mixture  into a piping bag and half fill moulds (40g)

12.  Gently press one disc of ganache into centre of mould

13.  Finish piping fondant mixture until ¾ filled (30g)

14.  Place into freezer for a minimum of 3 hours

15.  Bake for 15-20 min at 180˚C, closed vent

16.  The cakes are ready when firm to touch

17.  Leave to rest for a 1 minute in the moulds

18.  Un-mould and serve immediately

Citrus Salad

   2                    Mandarins

 ½                     Grapefruit

   2                    Orange

  ¼                    Vanilla pod

   4                    Mint leaves, finely chopped

 50 g                 Sugar

1. Peel and segment fruit, cut into smaller pieces and place into a bowl
2. Add vanilla pod, mint leaves and sugar, and mix thoroughly
3. Cover and leave to infuse for one hour
4. Strain syrup into sauce pan and reduce  the syrup by one third

Mascarpone Ice cream (or Crème Fraiche)

300ml               Milk

  60g                Vanilla sugar

  60g                Sugar

  80g                Egg yolks

280g                Mascarpone (or crème fraiche)

1. Combine the milk and the vanilla sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil
2. Place egg yolks and rest of sugar in a bowl and whisk until blended
3. Continue as for anglaise and cook until the mixture coats the back of a spoon
4. Place the Mascarpone (or crème fraiche) in a bowl
5. Strain the warm anglaise over it and whisk to incorporate
6. Refrigerate for 4 hours
7. Churn in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions or place into beaker for Pacojet

Orange Pistachio Tuiles

  70g                Pistachios

  70g                Sugar

  55g                Butter

    ½                 Orange zest

  70g                Glucose

  20g                Flour plain

Method:

1. Grind the nuts to a coarse meal
2. Cream butter, sugar and orange zest until light
3. Gradually add the glucose, mixing until smooth and well blended
4. Fold in flour and nuts
5. Roll into logs of 1cm diameter and freeze
6. Cut into thin slices and place onto a silpat (leave space for expansion)
7. Bake at 180ºC until even light in colour (5min.)
8. Shape into tuile shape

That's all from me this week and good luck for all the university students going into exams!

B. 

I'm Back!

After reading through my old blog entries it seems that I always start with saying Hello all! I'm not very original with my startings and I'm watching the Bachelor at the same time as writing this so I will carry on with that.

So hello all!

I know I have been terribly lazy and haven't been updating this blog in a very long time, but to start off with my life has become beautifully hectic this year. It's honestly been a crazy few months. I've moved into a new flat with my crazy flatmates Laura, Sam, Jojo and Kristiana (Follow our antics on Instagram @the_phat_flat). They are full of surprises and if you can imagine 5 girls being squeezed into a very small 4 bedroom house in the heart of Auckland city, well you can only imagine how crazy and often strange things can get. I, as of recently, also started my new job at Sky city Pastry kitchen, it is an amazing opportunity for me to be exposed to the exciting and often challenging industry of Patisserie. Although it is very tiring I am loving it so far and I have learnt an incredible amount about this crazy world I'm heading into.


I should probably update you on everything that you would have missed from me being lazy last year. Where do I even start? Well I ended the year with receiving a scholarship from Southern Hospitality that put funds towards my studies for this year, I completed last year with straight A+'s which I am incredibly happy about, I have been interviewed for a bakery magazine called "Slice" which will have an article about my studies, work and my passion for patisserie in the next issue, and my class and I held our End of Year Buffet for our family and friends (which they seemed to enjoy mainly because of the free food).

I honestly came into this year scared out of my wits of what I was getting myself into for my second and final year of Patisserie, I thought I was going to fail miserably and the world was going to end. Thankfully though, as usual, I overreacted. This year has been filled with some challenges but overall it has been exciting, fun and often crazy. My days are long and tiring but by the end of it I am so proud of all that I have accomplished and how far I have come from the beginning of last year.

The paper we are currently doing is sugar and chocolate confectionary, and yes all day we learn how to make lollies and all sorts of chocolatey goodness. It's a hard life I live, I know. I honestly get way too excited learning how to pull sugar to create hard candy or learning how to properly temper chocolate (which I have failed at miserably a few times, with the chocolate mostly ending on myself or the floor).

For those of you who want to know what I do at work, no I am not the dishwasher (we have someone that does our dishes for us, if I only I could hire someone to do that at the flat) I am a 'Commis Chef' in the Pastry Kitchen at Skycity. Sky City Pastry kitchen supplies desserts to places such as 'Rebo', 'The Grand Hotel', 'SkyCity Hotel' and the 'Orbit' which are all part of the SkyCity restaurants. So what I do is assist the Pastry Chef's with jobs such as filling macaroons, making pecan tarts, rolling sweet paste, and on occasion finishing desserts (and no that does not mean eating them but decorating them), plus many other things that you probably don't really care about.

So that is my update, again sorry for the radio silence over the last few months. I have no excuse apart from watching way too many TV shows and movies.

For my next post I promise to put a recipe up as well so you can see the sort of things I am learning this year, they are all very exciting and fun to make (well I think they are) so I will try to choose just one!

Have a great week,

B.

Mary Vetsera Gateau

Well well well, hello to you all! First things first I apologise for being so lazy with writing my blog and holding back the many amazing recipes that I have learnt over the last few months, so many exciting things have happened and suddenly it is nearing the end of the year! Crazy stuff. To start off with I made it through the Auckland Regional Culinary Fare Fruit Flan competition, woke up at 3am and worked my butt off which in the end paid off with a gold medal. Not too shabby I thought.

This semester in class we have just finished the foundation breads paper, which lets be honest was incredibly boring. Just yesterday we also finished the shop production paper which was the most fun I have had in class all year. We as a team had a turn at each station producing things like french pastries, gateaux, bakery items and slices/cookies/tarts. Then we sold them through Piko cafe on AUT campus to anyone that wanted to pay for the things we eat for free (while the chef isn't looking).  So that was an amazing experience which taught me many skills, mainly patience with grumpy chefs, and it also showed me how much fun it is to be a Pastry Chef. Oh and not to mention, when I was team leader, I had permission to boss people around which was my favourite part and my team members worst nightmare. 

On life in Auckland, the hostel is still going great and it's always nice to come home to incredible friends, although I have lost many friends due to me not bringing home as much food as I used to. Who can blame them really. 

 I'm sure you are all sick of me blabbering on so I decided to do something a bit different this time and upload a video from my last, as my mum calls it, 'masterclass' from the last holidays I was back in Tauranga. I demonstrated how to make and construct a Mary Vetsera Gateau so here is the recipe plus a super low quality video of me trying to be cool. Just for your entertainment...

Mary Vetsera Gateau

Ingredients

Japonaise

5 egg whites

160g sugar

125g ground hazelnuts

30g corn flour

50g icing sugar

Ganache

300g cream

350g couverture (good quality chocolate)

60g butter (soft)

25g Cointreau (optional)

Nougatine

150g sugar

150g slivered almonds, roasted

Method

Japonaise

1.   Whip up egg whites and sugar to stiff peaks

2.   Fold in dry ingredients

3.   Pipe 4x20cm spiral on baking paper

4.   Bake at 160C for 20-25mins

Ganache

1.   Boil cream

2.   Pour boiled cream over chopped up covouture

3.   Let it cool to body temp, then add softened butter

4.   Pour onto a tray and put in fridge

Nougatine

1. Cook sugar to a light caramel

2. Stir in almonds, pour onto an oiled tray and leave to cool

3. When cold, crush coarsely

Assembly

1. Layer with ganache

2. Mask sides and top with ganache

3. Cover whole torte with crushed nougatine

That's all from me for now, have a fabulous week!

B. 

Chocolate Divinity Cake

Hello all! As I have been scrolling through Facebook over the last week I have noticed that a few of you have tried the recipes I have put up, especially the carrot cake. They all look fantastic and I'm sure they tasted great too! I love hearing about the recipes you have tried and seeing the pictures of all the beautiful things you have been making so keep them coming! I was very excited to go home in the weekend and try the carrot cake that Sarisa (An amazing girl from Thailand who is practically my sister now and has been living with us for 4ish years) had made using the recipe I put up last week and it was so delicious that I ate pretty much the whole thing.

I'm counting down the days until my competition at the end of this month and I'm slightly freaking out but training is a lot of fun and I'm learning so many skills that will help me in the industry. So all in all life is going great, I'm still loving the course that I'm doing and I couldn't imagine studying anything else which is a good sign. It's scary to think that I graduate next year! Freaky. Anyway, I decided to share this chocolate divinity cake recipe with you because I loved not only eating it but making it as well, it's so easy and yet so delicious. If anyone wants to learn how to make those chocolate lilies on the top let me know and I'll show you next time I'm home. Enjoy!

Chocolate Divinity Cake

1 egg yolk
2 eggs
220g sugar
130g buttermilk
90g vegetable oil
150g soft flour
1/2tsp baking powder
1/2tsp baking soda
30g cocoa powder

Ganache:
400g chopped chocolate (good quality, not compound)
300g cream
25g soft butter
30g cointreau (optional)

Method
Pre heat oven to 170C
1. mix all dry ingredients in one bowl
2. mix all the wet ingredients in another bowl
3. fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients
4. bake for 45minutes or until the knife comes out clean and hot

Ganache Method
1. bring cream to boiling point
2. add the cream to the finely chopped chocolate
3. stir until completely smooth
4. stir in the softened butter and cointreau when Ganache is about 30C (about body temp.)
5. pour onto a tray and put in the fridge until it is solid enough to spread and is not too liquid

Assembly
1. split cake into 3
2. spread first layer with raspberry jam and sandwich all layers with ganache
3. mask outside with a thin layer of ganache and chill
4. Warm the remaining ganache until it is of pouring consistency, pour over a smooth coating of ganache
5. decorate with either chocolate lilies or pipe rosettes with the remaining ganache

Have a great week!

B.

To Die For Carrot Cake

 Hello to you all! I should probably apologise for the very late blog post, I do try my best to put one up every wednesday but this week has been particularly hectic for me. On monday we had our Cake Foundations practical assessment, then on thursday we had our food science and commodities test which as usual I was stressing out about. I was then going to put up a post on Friday but I get distracted very easily and the day was then filled with cupcakes, coffee dates, blogilates, lilo and stitch and new girl. So considering I only just woke up and I'm still in my pj's (lazy i know) I decided to finally put up a post!

This carrot cake recipe is literally to die for I couldn't stop at just one piece, it's a melt in your mouth, not caring about the thighs kind of recipe. I mean who doesn't like a big slice of moist carrot cake?

Carrot Cake Recipe

240g flour (medium)
1 1/2tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
1tsp mixed spices
1/2tsp cinnamon
120g brown sugar
200g castor sugar
3 eggs
300g olive oil
160g grated carrot
80g walnut pieces (optional)
110g crushed pineapple

Cream cheese icing
105g cream cheese (soft)
90g Butter (soft)
190g icing sugar
1tbsp lemon juice

Method

Preheat oven to 160C
1. combine eggs, oil, grated carrots, chopped walnuts and crushed pineapple. Mix thoroughly then add the sugars, combine well
2. sieve flour, baking soda, salt, mixed spices and cinnamon; add to the mix
3. pour batter into a prepared cake tin (grease proof paper on base and greased around the sides/bottom) and bake for 90 minutes or until set
4. cool in tin for 20 minutes before turning out
5. Once cold ice with the cream cheese icing

That's it and in the end you will have a beautifully moist and delicious cake to enjoy, I should probably change out of my pj's and actually do something productive so that is all from me.

Have another great week!

B.

Chocolate Hazelnut Gugelhopf

Helllo hello! I'm back with another recipe that before I had made it in class I had never heard of, seen or eaten one before, let alone been able to pronounce the weird name. It is called a Chocolate Hazelnut Gugelhopf (pronounced google-hof, weird I know). The only reason it is called a Gugelhopf is because this recipe is baked in the Gugelhopf mould, you could make a banana cake in these moulds and it would then be a banana gugelhopf, but that doesn't sound fancy enough so we shall just stick to the chocolate hazelnut recipe. 

How's Auckland going B? Well thank you for asking, It is going great apart from the fact that I literally just put my washing out on the line and it's now bucketing down with rain. First world problems, it's a hard life. Patisserie is going better though, if you saw my photos on Facebook you will know that we are now going into more of the cake decorating side of things which I absolutely love! I have my cake foundations assessment on monday and then it's on to sponges, gateau and torten, yum!

I'm sure you didn't click on the link to read my lame jokes and my blabbering so here is the recipe...

Chocolate Hazelnut Gugelhopf (Makes 2)

Ingredients

100g soft butter

50g sugar

100g melted chocolate (preferably a good quality chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa)

5 egg yolks

4 egg whites

50g sugar

50g

ground hazelnuts

50g ground almonds

65g soft flour

Decoration:

300g chocolate (compound will be fine)

30g oil

Method

Preheat oven to 180C

1. melt the good quality chocolate over a bain-marie

2. cream softened butter and sugar until white and fluffy

3. gradually add egg yolks

4. stir in melted chocolate

5. Make up a meringue, with the egg whites and sugar, until soft peaks

6. fold the meringue into the basic mixture until combined

7. gently fold in sifted flour and ground nuts

8. place batter into greased and floured moulds (into 2 moulds)

9. Bake at 180C for 30minutes or until firm to touch

10. once cool, flood with melted compound chocolate (300g chocolate combined with 30g oil) and decorate base with lightly roasted ground hazelnuts or almonds

Just so you know to 'flood' the cakes means to pour the melted chocolate over them starting in the middle and working your way out. Once all the chocolate is poured over the cake gently tap the tray to even out the chocolate. Do one at a time and then once they are covered pick up the cake and lightly press into the hazelnuts.

Now I'm going to stop being lazy and run into the rain to get my washing, Have a great week!

B. 

Indulgent Mille Feuille

Hello fellow food lovers, I’m back in the land of grumpy bus drivers, busy streets and unpredictable weather. I am very grateful that I have the smell of fresh baking, great friends and good food that gets me through living in this big little city.  So far this week we made a few more traditional cakes, they were the Madeira cake and the marble cake. We then made a delicious chocolate hazelnut Gugelhopf, fruit cake and also a chocolate divinity cake. If you would like any of the recipes for those cakes just let me know and I will message it to you on facebook.

Over the break I decided to do a sort of demonstration to some of my mum’s friends to show them how to make a Mille Feuille. It was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be and I loved being the teacher instead of being a student. They all seemed to enjoy it, especially when they got to try it, so I thought I would share the recipe to all those that weren’t there.

Just on a side note the Auckland Regional Culinary Fare is on the 28^th and 29^th of June so I have decided to enter in the traditional fruit flan competition this year. I am very excited to be able to do a competition so I will let you know if I completely fail at it or get a medal.

Anyway here is the recipe; it’s quite long but not very difficult. My sister made one the other week using this recipe and she nailed it, so if she can do it any one can do it. 

Mille Feuille Recipe

 

Ingredients

1 sheet of Convenience puff pastry

Pastry Cream

300g milk

50g sugar

1 egg yolk

25g custard powder

100g cream (whipped)

Royal Icing and Decoration

2 egg whites, room temperature

2 teaspoons lemon juice

3 cups icing sugar (approx.)

80 g bittersweet chocolate, melted

Method

Pastry Baking

1. Preheat your oven to 200° C

2. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into three equally-sized pieces

3. Transfer the dough to a baking pan (or pans) lined with parchment paper and pierce the dough all over with a fork

4. Cover the dough with another sheet of parchment paper and place a baking pan or pie weights on top to weigh down the dough as it bakes

5. Bake for approx. 15minutes or until the dough is golden brown

Pastry Cream

1. Place half the sugar and most of the milk (retain 2 tablespoons for later use) into a saucepan and bring to the boil

2. Mix custard powder and sugar together, add the left over milk (two tablespoons) to the mixture.

3. Stir in the yolk

4. Pour the boiled milk over the prepared mixture of milk, custard powder, sugar and yolks while stirring

5. Pour back into the saucepan and cook thoroughly, constantly whisking

6. Pour into a clean bowl

7. Cover the pastry cream (not the bowl) with glad wrap

8. Put in the fridge to cool down

9. Once cool beat the pastry cream until lump free

10. Fold in the whipped cream

Assembly

1. Work on a flat surface lined with baking paper

2. On the bottom layer spread half of the pastry cream

3. Put the middle layer of puff pastry on top of the pastry cream and slightly press down

4. Spread the rest of the pastry cream on top of the middle layer and finish by putting the last layer of        puff pastry on top

5. Put in the fridge to set

Decoration

Royal Icing

1. Beat the egg whites and lemon juice until foamy

2. Add most of the icing sugar and mix on low speed until very smooth and glossy

3. Add the rest of the icing sugar if necessary so that the icing drips off the beater and sits briefly on the top of the mixture before sinking back in

4. Melt the chocolate and put into a paper piping bag

5. Pour the royal icing over the Mille Feuille and spread until flat

6. Working quickly, drizzle the chocolate across the top in horizontal parallel lines from one side to the other

7. Using the tip of a sharp knife make perpendicular vertical “cuts” down through the chocolate

8. Next do the same as step 7 but up through the chocolate instead of down

9. Set in the fridge

Once the royal icing has hardened trim the edges to improve the appearance and don’t throw away the off cuts, I’m sure someone will want to eat them.

This recipe is absolutely delicious, but once you start eating it you can't stop. Ever. It's that good.

So I hope you all have a fantastic week full of sweet things and great moments.

That's all from me,

B.