I'm here to update on the demonstrations being carried out on 11 Nov - 14 Nov, and touch up a little on my first ever Loy Kratong (Which I can remember) in Bangkok!
First up, Chef Willy did the demonstration on sugar free plated desserts - the Boule Mystère and the Red fruit panna cotta.
The Boule Mystère consists of a dark chocolate shell filled with chocolate mousse, layers of sable breton, topped with a gold leaf covered chantilly quenelles and finally covered with a red sprayed chocolate dome - which looks super exquisite, and is super duper tough to make; because you have to be really patient and careful while creating the holes so that the shell doesn't break.
It's sugar free because the sugar is replaced with Manitol, a type of sugar suitable for diabetic patients to consume.
Next, we have the red fruit panna cotta - which is a personal favourite of mine; I'm always ordering the Panna Cotta in Osia, a restaurant at Resort World Sentosa; their panna cotta is super creamy and delicious with a generous serving of red berries compote.
This Panna cotta is filled within two white chocolate shells, which has two spheres of frozen strawberry and raspberry sauce, presented on a sablee breton disc, sprayed with pink and white spray and finally...decorated with fresh raspberries, rose petals and pulled sugar rings! (More on that later!)
Meanwhile, I would like to express my heartfelt major thanks to James and Por, the two wonderful assistants who helped create these beautiful miniture desserts for tasting! Super cute isn't it!!!
Presenting to you, my Red fruit panna cotta!
With plated dessert, we can actually play around with the decorations! Here, I created the red sauce look using a drop of sauce and smearing it with a spoon - the easiest and simplest way to dress up a plate. Chef mentioned that the drop of sauce can be slightly smaller though. HAHA!
My first attempt at pulling sugar - creating rings after rings of pulled sugar. We were all wearing gloves, heating up our hard lumps of pulled sugar in the microwave when it is too cold. Quite fun actually, and the heat from the hot sugar is also quite bearable. =)
The next few lessons will be more on sugar, where we will try to present our first ever sugar showpiece! I'm quite excited but I know it's gonna be a mad rush! Just like how my chocolate showpiece practical went (More on that on the next post!)
Closer look at the chocolate spheres with a nice panna cotta center! Well, you do know that because this is a plated dessert, we get to dig in after presentation right? HAHAHA!
Last look! It could be better in terms of plating! I will just keep improving and improving through practicing, I supposed!
Next up, we have the Chocolate Bonbon for the next two demonstrations! On the first day, we had Hazelnut Praline and cinnamon ganache and Cappuccino Ganache.
The Hazelnut Praline and cinnamon ganache is type of chocolate bonbon with a praline bottom, topped with cinnamon infused ganache, and chablonnage with milk chocolate bottom, and left to set outside over night in a chocolate room so that it sets well and proper and retains its creaminess.
It is quite a beautiful flavour, with the cinnamon spice kicking in after, complimenting the taste of hazelnut.
Then, we have the cappuccino ganache, which is filled inside these beautiful shaped chocolate bonbon molds!
Chef also decorated it with some modeling chocolate flowers, jelly, transfer sheet, etc.
Here's a look at my Chocolate Bonbon! I chose to do heart shaped because it was my hubby's birthday and I wanted to send him some love! HAHA!
The chocolate mold is sprayed with red cocoa butter, with a little gold powder, filled with chocolate, remove maximum so that the chocolate shell is thin...filled with the ganache and then covered with chocolate and let set with a plastic sheet over the back so that its shiny!
I took the chance to make a chocolate dish using a technique I learned from a book; Working with Chocolate. It could have been better if my chocolate threads was piped slightly thicker, because more than half broke off due to the connecting "threads" being too thin.
A look on the inside! The bottom chocolate should be slightly thinner, but as this is the first time we did chocolate bonbon with mold..I didn't know how to gauge how much more of fillings I should have piped. =P
Next, the last demonstration for the week is still on Chocolate bonbon, but in the form of doing chocolate bars with different fillings!
Here, we have the crystallized hearts, which is made with pastillage (made from gelatin powder and SQ icing sugar, mixed together till it forms a nice soft dough, which can be rolled out), and soaked in candy syrup made of water and crystallized sugar for nearly 4-5 days.
The result of that is sugar crystals forming around the heart, creating a beautiful, sparkling crystal heart.
Then, we have the chocolate bars with dry fruit/nuts! Chef advised that by adding dry products like fruits or nuts to chocolate, it can help prolong the shelf life of the chocolate product.
Next, we have the Caramel Passion fruit ganache (which was a super hot favourite!!), filled with passion fruit puree, and decorated with colourful cocoa butter dye. It's like graffiti art!! I love the look and fell in love with the taste, the sweetness of the white chocolate is reduced with a nice sharp tangy sourness of the passion fruit!
I would make this bonbon when I'm back!
For our practical, we have the chocolate bar with vanilla ganache with tonka beans! Tonka beans is a type of spice that is commonly used in perfume making, and is super duper fragrant. It has the fragrance of Vanilla, and hints of cinnamon, if I am not wrong!
Last but not least, Chef created a sample piece using left over nuts and chocolate, rolled between two bubble wraps, let set and randomly cut to sizes! These chocolate bits are equally delicious, and can be samples for little kids and adults to try.
Presenting to you, my chocolate bars with vanilla ganache and tonka beans! =D
It's a pity that my chocolate set a little too fast upon pouring, and hence when I scrapped to remove the excess at the back, my chocolate wasn't smooth at all, instead, having these wavy curves. =(
Oh well, after the usual school week, I had something to look forward to, on Sunday! It was the Loy Kratong Festival - where we apologise to the Mae Nam (Mother Nature/water) for polluting the water, and in this water latern, we put in a coin, a clipped nail and a strand of our hair to symbolize washing away our bad fortune so that we have good fortune in the coming year!
Some of the beautiful Kratongs available for sale! My friends, Jane and Mew and myself, took a Tuk tuk down to Asiatique, where I've heard that the people in Bangkok usually head to, to release their kratongs. We took a tuk tuk instead of the ferry because boy, the whole place is super crowded and packed! The traffic jam was 2 hours over from the main road to the Asiatique itself!
We count our lucky stars that the Tuk tuk driver knew the shortcuts. He was speeding all the way though, and we hanged on for our dear lives! It was also a good thing that we reached our destination in less than half an hour.
This is my Kratong! I initially bought another kratong with roses and all, but it was a mistake! The kratong was made with a foam bottom - and this was made with a coconut tree disc (I think), anyway, something organic that won't harm the sea lives in the sea.
Jane, Mew and myself!
Sorry for the blur photos - taken with my phone.
Lovely, lovely kratongs! Besides these lovely flowers and leaf type of lanterns, there was also lanterns made out of bread, biscuit, etc!
There was so much going on, there was a night market along the road for a food fair event, we also had dinner at a nice live bar restaurant place right next to the ferries wheel. It kept raining water droplets though, because of the condensation from the ferries wheel.
The journey back home was super tiresome! We were stuck in traffic on a tuk tuk for 2.5 hours! There was two lanes, but one of the lanes was occupied with party goers (What the hell are the pavements for!!) and there was this one stupid car who occupies two lanes! And the rest of the other cars doesn't even honk or anything. This continues for another 45minutes or so. Like seriously?!
When I finally got back home, I had a major pimple from the pollution. =(
Ah well! At least I had fun! =D
Alright! That pretty much sums up my wonderful week! Next up, will be an upcoming post on my first ever chocolate showpiece! I'm dreading to show it actually, because I could have done so, so much better. Oh well!
Till then!
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