But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. When we arrived in the morning, we weren't even sure what we were making or what all the different components of our dessert would be. We pretty much didn't exactly know until they were all plated and being taken into the restaurant kitchen.
Jean-Luc started with a demonstration, before which he told our group to pay specific attention because we'd be doing it immediately after for our desserts. He essentially used this plastic-type thing made of acetate, I think, that had a cocoa butter pattern on it. Then he used his palette knife to apply a smooth and even layer of chocolate on top of the patterned strip, so that the chocolate was right on top of the cocoa butter side. Then, after scraping the excess chocolate off the sides, he placed it carefully into a ring mold (which was really just pieces of PVC pipe cut into small pieces). When the chocolate hardens, you remove it from the mold and peel off the plastic and you have an awesome looking pattern on a ring of chocolate that you can then use for plating your dessert.
After the demonstration, we made 48 of these. Initially, Jean-Luc told us to make 42. Then he said to make 44, in case some got messed up. We decided to make 48, just to be on the safe side. He laughed. And then said, "You guys need to be more confident in your abilities. But yeah... make 48."
Once we were done those and had cleaned all of the chocolate off of our hands / tools / workstations, we moved onto the next step of our plated dessert: white chocolate mousse. We made two batches between the five of us (and then a third batch after because the first two didn't quite yield enough). I've never made a mousse before, so I had no idea what to expect. It didn't seem too crazy. Once that was done, we put it into a piping bag and piped it into our little chocolate molds. Then they went in the freezer to cool / harden / become delicious.
Next, we made something called "craquelin" which I would equate to peanut brittle, sort of, except we used almonds (and I have no idea how you actually make peanut brittle). We melted brown sugar / glucose / butter and then folded in almonds and then spooned it into a silicone tray and then baked them. These ones were shaped like little flat donuts, but Jean-Luc told us you could also just spread a bunch of it out on a baking tray flat and then cut it after baking.
We weren't quite done yet. We made another batch of frangipane cream, which can actually be used to make cake as well. So we made tiny square frangipane cakes which were totally adorable. Before we baked them, we went on break. And at this point I really had no idea what to expect our plates would look like. There were so many different elements and it was unclear whether all of it was for today or if Jean-Luc was just keeping us busy to get us used to being busy.
Once we came back from break, we put our frangipane cakes into the oven and started took out some previously made decoration syrup and started to heat it up to make something out of sugar. Jean-Luc demonstrated the weird swirly shape we had to make effortlessly. It was sort of like a wavelength with a few waves that got progressively smaller and then turned into a line. If that makes sense. Working with sugar, similar to piping chocolate, is a pretty delicate matter, so it was definitely hard to get the hang of it, not only making the shape itself but also working fast enough to maintain the right sugar consistency / temperature. I still wouldn't say that I got the hang of it. But that's why this program is a year.
After this, we cleaned our tables, moved them apart so we'd have room to walk through, and set up our 44 plates on the tables. It was at this point that Jean-Luc assigned all of us different tasks. Mine was pre-scooping 48 little scoops of passionfruit sorbet (Something we didn't make today, but who cares? Yum.) with a tiny scoop and then putting them in the blast freezer so we'd be prepared to put them onto the plates once it was time. Other tasks included, taking the frangipane cakes out of the pans, making a raspberry coulis, cutting up fruit, taking the craquelins out of the pan.
The plating consisted of:
- White chocolate mousse in a chocolate ring
- Topped with fresh berries and garnished with mint leaves
- A frangipane cake
- With a scoop of passionfruit sorbet on top
- And a craquelin leaning against it
- A wavy line of raspberry coulis
- A drop of lemon cream
- A sugar wavelength set between the chocolate ring and the cake
- And the whole thing dredged with icing sugar for good measure
Here are some not that great pictures of the plating. (I didn't really have time to get the right angles.)
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| Plating in progress. Waiting for Jean-Luc to give us the go-ahead for the sorbet and the sauces. |
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| Ready to go out. This is actually the back of the plates. |
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| Bird's eye view. |
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| Yum. |
Today's Recipes*
White Chocolate Mousse
100 g egg yolks
75 g sugar
20 g glucose
25 g water (118 degrees)
6 gelatin leaves
50 g cream
350 g white chocolate
650 ml whipped cream
Craquelin
50 g glucose
50 g brown sugar
37 g butter
50 g sliced almonds
Frangipane Cake
125 g butter
125 g sugar
2 eggs
125 g ground almonds
25 g flour
10 ml rum
10 ml vanilla extract
Decoration Syrup
1.5 kg sugar
750 g water
300 g glucose
Lemon Cream
150 g egg
180 g sugar
120 ml lemon juice
1 lemon zest
1 gelatin leaf
225 g butter
Raspberry Coulis
[No recipe for this, yet.]
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