Baking - Minions and Chocolate showpiece

Aloha!!

I'm here to update the demonstration carried out on 18 - 21 Nov..I know I've lag behind by almost 2 months! Give me time to upload my photos, gather my thoughts before I update my blog. Thank you!! 

These few weeks has been so much of a whirlwind ride!

I've been spending like 3 practicals = 9 hours to complete one chocolate character and a chocolate showpiece.

Believe me, even with all that time given...it just wasn't enough.

Here is the disassembled parts of this cute little minion with the mustache and mohawk hairstyle. The clothing and all are made out of plastic chocolate, which is something like fondant, but is stickier and can be set using cold spray.

Then, the body of the minion is made out of yellow coloured white chocolate in a huge egg-shaped chocolate mold. White chocolate is always trickier as compared to dark chocolate to work with, because it sets really, really fast. Plus, humidity sets in rapidly too, so we have to work really, really fast.

Chef also made a wonderful blossoming rose out of plastic rose, using the flexible knife to fraiser the ends instead of using our palms. It looks so real as compared to using marzipan. I wish I can do that one day!

Here, we have the lovely chocolate minions done by Chef and his assistant. Greedy little minion holding a mini banana! How cute!  

An old man version next to a rock & roll minion.

Alright, enough of the minions done up by Chef and his assistants! I'm pleased to present to you, our SP (B) family shot!!
 

It was one of those classes where we had so much fun! Or rather, I had so much fun! And seriously, look at everybody!!! There's a surfer, a tai-tai version wearing pearls and earrings...Mew's harry potter, a baker carrying a baguette, Charmaine's "itching to get beaten" face...

And then, there's mine!!!

Looking all so excited to devour that piece of chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherry! I spent too much time trying to roll out the attire for my minion, and Mew helped me with the shoes. HAHA! Thanks Mew!!

They see me rolling, they hating!!

Next up! It's the demo on Chocolate showpiece - for our term this time, we had to do a chocolate box, with some exotic decoration on the top.

Chef Fabrice did this lovely chocolate box with a nice piped heartshaped cover.

The above chocolate box is the one we have to do...complete with a curved lid, odd egg shape centerpiece with some white chocolate 'straws' and white chocolate eggs which is coloured with green, red, yellow cocoa butter.

Here, we learned the recipe and technique of creating our own silicon mould using gelatin, with which, we used to create the indent found in the egg. 

I liked this the best, with the white chocolate corals, stars and some cut out fish shape...it's like a 3D chocolate aquarium. =D

Then, during the second demo for the week, Chef Fabrice showed us the different ways of creating flowers using different techniques. A fish knife, by spreading on the chocolate sheet and cutting into long triangles after that...etc...

Here's a closer look at the different type of flowers, the left side is done using the method of cutting long triangles, and on the right hand side, the petals is created using the flexible fish knife.

Moving on, here's a look at my dreaded piece of work!

There's so many things I could have done better! Like, the lid - I didn't managed to 'cut' the chocolate mold in time because it set too fast, and hence my lid didn't have the lovely curved texture. Plus, there wasn't enough time for me to complete the things we have to do...I even had to borrow the 'straws' from Tip, who was piping extras but because I felt extremely imposing on her, I didn't take much to cover the base of the egg structure. =(

We also did some of the white coloured chocolate mini eggs, but somehow, the class didn't have enough, so we ended up sharing the halves.

And the flower...oh my god. I've never had any issues with my chocolate flowers, but I screwed up big time during my chocolate showpiece (of all times!!)!! I chose to make the petals using the fish knife method, and when I started to assemble my flower, I realised that I have made all of my petals sideways, and none of them was straight, resulting in a flower that had 'wrap' petals, creating the look of a close flower instead of a blooming flower.

Which is, of course, a big no no! *le sigh!*

Last but not least, the egg!!! Dunno why there is this horrible after mark on the surface, which, most of our eggs has it, perhaps it will be better if we had a chance to air spray coloring over the chocolate. But at least this was my only saving grace! The egg hold up, was of the same size and the exterior looked alright - according to Chef Willy, that is! HAHA!

Oh well! After this whole entire eggy fiasco, I can finally move on and do something else - Sugar that is!!

Till then!!

Baking - Confiserie; Pâte de fruits, Mielina & Confiture de fraise au jus de framboises

Happy September, peeps!!

As of today...17 days till Ben gets down here for another weekend visit, 21 days to Final Practical exam and 23 more days till I fly back home! =)

Oh yes, I'm counting down. Striking the dates on the calendar one, by one.

There's so many things I want to do after I get back home! Like, bake cakes (obviously!) maybe even having a mini sale for a few days (I'll see how!) and then meet up with friends and spend quality time with family, as well as, get down to letting go two of my bags in collection - A Kate Spade Darien-Stevie leather handbag and a Miu Miu Deerskin Hobo Cervo Turnlock tote.

Both comes with the original cards and dust bags.

The Kate Spade Bag is in good condition, 9/10 whilst the Miu Miu bag is a little worn out, about 7/10; which is why I'm letting her go at a attractive discount below retail price. Do email me at bakingwithbeurre@gmail.com if you're interested, and I can send you more details and pictures! =)

I do hope they'll find themselves a great loving owner! =)

ANYWAY! Back to me, in Bangkok, in school.

Yesterday, was a simple day in school, learning about simple things, simple steps and process...and Chef Marc produces simple looking confectionaries that blew our taste buds away.

He made Mielina, Confiture De Lait, Pâte à tartiner, Pâte de fruits, Caramel Mou, Confiture de fraise au jus de framboises, Orange sanguine guimauve and Loukoum à la rose. 

It's all about the sweets and jam, baby!

First up, we have the Confiture de fraise au jus de framboises a.k.a Strawberry jam with raspberry juice.  Seriously, sometimes while sharing the french names of these pastries I've done or Chef have demonstrated in class, it makes me look at things differently; like wow. nice long name. Then, when you look at the English meaning, it's like oh ~

It's like I'm saying blah blah blah in French, and English translated is "Piece of cake with milk jam".

Yep.

Anyhoo! This sweet tangy jam is made with natural ingredients, with strawberries, raspberries, sugar, lemon and with the addition of ground peppercorns, which is optional.

We get to do this during practical, so more on this later in the post.

Next up, we have the Confiture au lait a.k.a Milk Jam and Pâte à Tartiner a.k.a Chocolate Paste.

The Milk jam is extremely easy to make, but takes a really long time to get to the right consistency, and taste somewhat like condensed milk, but slightly less stickier. Whereas the chocolate paste is delicious and reminds me a lot of Nutella.

We get to try the jams on freshly baked baguettes done by Chef Guillaume and it was delicious!

Then, we moved on to sweets.

Here, we have the Caramel Mou a.k.a  Soft Caramel. Made with ingredients consisting of sugar, glucose, whipping cream, whole milk, vanilla bean, butter, sea salt and toasted hazelnuts. It's those type of candies with a soft consistency.

Chef Marc advised that for the caramel mou, it is better to cook the liquid using copper pot, instead of stainless steel pot, as it heat better for the mixture and wouldn't burn as easily as compared to using the stainless steel pot.

Pâte de fruits a.k.a fruit jelly, which is made with apricot and passion fruit puree, sugar, glucose, pectin and citric acid. This was one of the recipes we get to do during our practical, so I'll just skip the introduction and you'll get to read more about it in the later part of my post. =)

Orange Sanguine Guimauve a.k.a Blood Orange Marshmallow had me in awe!

Awe because its really easy to make the marshmallow! The method use by Chef was something like the Italian Meringue, heating up a mixture consisting of sugar, blood orange puree, orange zests, trimoline and fresh ginger, before adding it to a whisking bowl with a large amount of trimoline and gelatin leaves; whisking till you get a nice Italian meringue consistency.

Then, you can either spread it on a candy tray or pipe into different sizes/shapes etc, before coating it in icing sugar. 

Here, we have the Loukoum à la rose a.k.a Rose Loukoum, which is a sweet from the Middle East, and not from French.

It's a lychee and rose essence flavored jelly coated with a mix of icing sugar and starch. The method and ingredients required is exactly the same as the fruit jelly, just replacing the passion and apricot puree with lychee puree and rose essence.

The taste is very, very refreshing, and the fragrance of the rose is very aromatic. =)
 

Last but not least, we have the Mielina; a Honey candy, which taste so much like a Nougat, only much more softer. Also, we got to do this as well during practical! =)

Lo & behold! Presenting to you my limited variation of sweets!

Check out my strawberry & raspberry jam!

It was really easy making this jam, but the only thing we have to look out for, is to ensure that the temperatures required at each stage is being met, and also check that the mixture is being reduced to a nice sticky texture, allowing the excess water from the fruits to evaporate properly. Which, will gives you a better result of a sticky, good jam.

My jar was actually really full, right up to the brim but it turned out that it was because I didn't boil enough for the water present in the fruits to be reduced. I got back home and re-boil it a little longer using my multi cooker, and this was the amount I was left with.

All we had to do, was to macerate the strawberries and raspberries with sugar, lemon juice overnight, before straining the juice and bringing it to a boil at 125℃, before adding the strained fruits back into the mixture and let boil while whisking carefully, but thoroughly (to keep the strawberries whole) to a 105-106℃ - however, this is not accurate.

The main important thing, is to ensure that your mixture is not liquid, but rather, let boil till the mixture is thicken enough. Another important thing, is to remove the foam found during the stages of boiling, as the foam contains bacteria, and hinders conservation. 

Yep. I managed to keep most of my strawberries whole, however, due to the long boiling process, the raspberry has unfortunately disintegrate. 

Last but not least, we also did the Pâte de fruits and Mielina!

These recipes are for two, so Mew did the Mielina while I made the fruit jelly.

The Mielina is prepared by boiling sugar, honey, trimoline and whipping cream in a large saucepan till 118℃ and adding soften salted butter and chopped nuts like almond, hazelnut, pistachio, walnuts and pine nuts at the very end, before spreading on a candy tray and let cool before cutting.

These cubes of honey candies gets soft really easily, so it is best to be wrapped separately in candy wrappers and kept refrigerated.

Mine came back home melted back into a bar, despite being chopped into smaller cubes earlier during class. 

Then, I made the fruit jelly.

In a large saucepan, I added the apricot and passion fruit puree in and warm till above 60℃, before adding in a mixture of pectin and sugar in 2-3 batches, whisking each time completely to ensure that there are no lumps. Then, I let boil till 105℃ and added sugar and glucose after the second boiling period, before adding the citric mix.

The jelly sets really fast, so I had to pour them right away into candy tray and flexible molds, chilling them in the blast freezer before cutting into cubes and coating with sugar.

It was a simple demonstration and practical class, but it's back to entrêmets and layers tomorrow!

As I was saying...21 more days to the final exam! *Fighting!!* Leaving you with the recipe for strawberry jam! Till next time!

***

STRAWBERRY JAM WITH RASPBERRY SAUCE (Makes ½ltrs)

INGREDIENTS
400g strawberries, cut & hulled
250g raspberries
300-450g sugar (adjust accordingly to sweetness liking)
Juice of 1 small lemon
2 ground peppercorns (Optional)

* Make sure that the mason jars have been sanitatised by boiling jars and rubber.

STEPS
1. Macerate strawberries, raspberry, sugar, lemon juice overnight in a bowl.
2. Strain syrup from the fruits into big sauce pan and whisk on medium heat till 125℃. Set aside the fruits.
3. Once boiled till 125℃, add the fruits back into the saucepan and stir slowly in order not to break the fruits, and let boil again till it's 105-106℃ or until the liquid thickens, whisking continuously.Add peppercorns if preferred.
4. Remove any foam present.
5. Pour into jar and let cool with cap open, after which, keep refrigerated.

Keep refrigerated. Shelf life is about 2-3 weeks.

***