Archives Under "plated dessert" (RSS)
The Bomb.
11 February 2010 | Europe, chocolate, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, pastries, plated dessert, recipe | 5 Responses
A fucking bomb went off! Chocolate flourless cake, salty caramel core, milk chocolate shell and blood orange ice cream. The dessert is inspired by a pastry I had in Paris, from the shop of the revered pastry Chef Pierre Herme. It was a bombe, tempered shell and caramel core, I enjoyed it on a park bench in Luxembourg gardens. Mr. Herme ingeniously used a macaron base, his desserts were all marked by inventive skill and imagination. I employ a compressed devil’s food cake sealed with icing to seal in the oozing salty caramel, just a candle held towards Chef Pierre’s brilliance. The milk chocolate shell is just that, tempered 38% milk chocolate. Here’s a recipe for my faithful readers.
Blood Orange Ice Cream
2 cups milk
2 cups blood orange puree
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 oz butter
pinch o’ salt
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup egg yolks
P.S. See this in the Willamette Week?
Cake Donuts.
26 January 2010 | Ten 01, delicious, dessert, pastries, plated dessert | 4 Responses
2010: The Future is Now.
7 January 2010 | Ten 01, cake, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, pastries, plated dessert, recipe | 5 Responses
Two thousand and motherfucking TEN?!? The future is now my faithful readers. I command the powers of the internet in my pants. I make ice cream base in an immersion circulator. As a race we fringe on symbiosis with technology; and I can’t wait to realize this next phase of evolution. Anyway, I been busy as shit. The holidays kicked my ass; and with in-laws in town and hell of prep, plating and me plowing through it all it went by in a pop! Shit 2009 was a pop, a bang, a blast, dice cast and rolled and truth be told past year was fucking fast. I turned thirty, I got married, I’ve become a half way decent pastry chef and an annoying blogger. I’ve made some bad-assed desserts and also learned some killer savory food. Pretty standard actually. Looking to the new year, I’m hoping to step up my game. Turn it up to eleven so to speak. I just need to work harder, cleaner. The desserts will be smaller, more precise. Flavors? Louder. Here’s a recipe bitches. I adapted it from one of the best recipes I’ve learned in a long time.
Graham Cracker Sponge Cake
250 g soft butter
375 g sugar
5 g salt
6 eggs
375 g fine ground graham cracker crumbs.
7.5 g baking powder
100 g A.P. flour
1. Preheat your convection oven to 300 F. Spray and line with parchment one half sheet pan.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and salt light and fluffy in the bowl of a stand mixer.
3. Weigh the crumbs, baking powder, and flour into a bowl and whisk them together well.
4. Add the eggs 2 at a time, allowing the batter to fully absorb each addition of eggs. Scrape the bowl twice during this step.
5. Scape the bowl again and add the dry ingredients all at once. Mix the batter on low speed until homogeneous.
6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake 12 minutes, rotate the pans, and bake an additional 6 to 8 minutes, or until golden brown and springy. Use as a base for a no bake cheesecake or serve it warm with a cream cheese ice cream.
Pootang 3.0.
18 November 2009 | Ten 01, chocolate, creative presentation of the week, delicious, faithful readers, plated dessert, recipe | 2 Responses
It’s funny how one idea leads to another and sometimes the most obvious idea is the best one. Looking at my Fat Spouse dessert, it was good; hell it was great even. What it lacked however was a warm element. Something to start melting that malted milk ice cream and pretzel bark. Something rich and fatty. Like pootang…BREAD pootang. All peanut butter chips and compressed devil’s food cake stratifying a rich brioche custard. There’s been some discussion of pootang technique in the kitchen as of late, and one thing again leading to another, I’m now pureeing my base. It creates an even, dense, almost cakey texture. The chunks of devils food are compressed in the vacuum sealer then diced. Finally a good use for that bomber technique. You can get cool potions this way, but a realized dessert was tricky. Now how about that fancy cruise ship garnish? I got the idea from a dish wifey had dining when we dined at Spago Beaver Creek. A simple piped lattice of tempered chocolate onto acetate, scored and bent in a PVC half pipe. The other tile of tempered chocolate underneath the ice cream is a buffer between the cold scream and the warm pootang. Cocoa nibs help it grip. I brought back the dulce dessert Watchmen blood drip plate saucing technique for good measure. This fucker gets oohed and ahhed every time it hits the table. Here’s the recipe for enjoyment of my faithful readers.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bread Pudding
6 oz butter at room temperature
6 oz sugar
2 oz dark chocolate
4 oz peanut butter
5 eggs
3 cups heavy cream
12 -15 brioche buns
2 cups diced compressed devils food cake that has been diced
1 bag Reeses peanut butter chips
1. Cream the butter and the sugar with the paddle. While they are achieving light and fluffy in your stand mixer, melt the chocolate and peanut butter over a double boiler.
2. When the sugar and butter are light and fluffy, add the melted chocolate and peanut butter. Mix until well incorporated, scraping the bowl as necessary.
3. Add the eggs one by one, scraping and incorporating.
4. Switch to the whisk and add the heavy cream on low speed. Keep the machine going while you prep the bread.
5. Cut the bread into large chunks. Take the custard off the machine, add the bread and mix thoroughly. You need enough bread to make a messy paste. Too much and your pootang will be dry, to little and it will be a custardy mess. Cover the mix and let it soak over night. This is essential to chingon pootang.
6. Next day pull the base and puree it in the food processor. Transfer to a large bowl and mix in the chunks and chips.
7. Prepare one half sheet tray with sprayed parchment. Pour and spread the base into an even layer. It should ride the rim of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap, then cover with aluminum foil. This will create a nice even top.
8. Bake in a 300 degree convection oven for about 25 minutes, rotating once. It is normal for the pootang to souffle a bit while baking. When it is done it should be dry (baked looking.)
9. Cool completely before slicing to de-molding desired shape. Reheat portions in the microwave for 20 seconds.
Toasted Hazelnut Cake
25 October 2009 | Ten 01, delicious, dessert, plated dessert | 7 Responses
This here dessert is like a bong hit. It’s all “Dude, It’ll be all hazelnut, banana and mascarpone, man!” I based it on an excellent brunch item I had over at Belly Timber, a Stuffed French Toast. It combined house made Nutella, mascarpone, hazelnuts, and a specially made brioche. It was the first time I ate with David and didn’t have the Chicken Waffle. Anyway, I make a hazelnut sponge cake, the same recipe I used for the Grilled Almond Cake, I just switched the nuts. This formula is moist and buttery; and works with any nut. This dessert is selling well so far, no surprise considering the banana factor. Maybe a certain Chef will see fit to add her recipe in the comments! Thanks for your patience with this blog everybody who is still reading. The web is bloated with food blogs, everybody’s cooking!! The ice cream recipe is one from one of my favorite Chefs, David Lebovitz; author of The Perfect Scoop.
Fat Spouse.
23 August 2009 | chocolate, delicious, faithful readers, plated dessert, recipe | 7 Responses
Anyone who gets Food Arts probably saw this presentation on page 81 of the July issue; yep I totally stole it. The original creator is Chef Sandro Michell, pastry master for Alain Ducasse’s Adour in New York’s St. Regis Hotel. To say that he is a bad ass is a bit of an understatement, to say that his work will be aspired to and emulated the world over is a point of fact. Who knows if I’m even the first to bite his presentation? The design of it is perfect; each bite a perfect portion of the flavors and textures. Faithful readers know of my love of cylinders, this set up was a natural progression from my dulce de leche logs. Chef Sandro streamlines the process by rolling up acetate and piping in the soft ice cream. Anyway, on to the flavors. I’ve always wanted to do a plated dessert version of Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby, so here it fucking is!! Devils food cake, chocolate peanut butter pretzel bark, malted milk ice cream. This dessert had been a fun little path of progressions for me. It’s first incarnation was done like Tony Martin’s Brownie Crunchie, a peanut butter and pretzel layer was spread warm onto the cake then set, and sliced. With that method, the pretzels got soggy; hydrating from the moisture in the simple syrup soaked sponge. I was riding my bike home on Friday night and it hits me: bark!! What I wanted was bark, like we had in Zermatt!! Just with pretzels instead of almonds and shit. Crunch factor, achieved!! The plate is sauced with chocolate and peanut butter caramel, sooooo fucking good!! When I first plated it up, I tweeted a picture of it, which caused a bit of a stir. Next day my buddy Rich was in to eat it; fucking Twitter, huh? The other cool thing about this dessert is the cocktail pairing: White Russian. Naturally you want milk with this right? Or cream? And vodka, right? Kaluha? We all know Kelley makes a killer Caucasian, it’s perfect!!
Pretzel Bark
6 oz milk chocolate
6 oz dark chocolate
6 oz creamy peanut butter
3 cups loose chopped pretzel sticks
1. Melt the first three ingredients over a double boiler.
2. Stir in the pretzels and pour onto a sheet pan with a silpat or parchment.
3. Chill the bark for 30 minutes before cutting into desired shapes. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Off Site Dish Up.
30 July 2009 | Ten 01, blueberries, delicious, dessert, plated dessert | 2 Responses
We found ourselves perched precariously with too tall speed racks in the back of a pick up. As the truck’s engine revved ready to pop the curb my mind flashes through this pasts weeks events. Moving tons of product, slaving mad and crazy hours. Tarts. Shit tons of little tartlettes. Cookies. Over five hundred; twenty some odd pounds of dough. White Chocolate Panna Cotta. Four hundred of them, forty eight at a time. Cleaning and processing six flats of blueberies. The truck struggling to summit the curb forces me from my reverie, the speed rack tilting, threatening to spill its payload. Perez and I look at each other, shaking heads. Wham!! The truck nails a huge rock and we almost lose our shit. The shits were up on two wheels, I dropped and tucked against our stacks of plates and dug in , gripping. In that split second I knew I’d lost the load, that I’d blew the mission. We braced against the rocking and steadied the racks, cussing and kicking and carrying on. I felt in that instant…peace. I’d known it was out of my hands, beyond me. I couldn’t be more prepared for this event than I was. I had my product, I had my boy, I knew we had this. Right until it all was about to fly out of the back of this fucking truck, out of my control. Thankfully, none of that happened. The truck rocked back level, the speed racks clunked upright. We rolled silently over the grass to the plating area. We had a few hours earlier spread the custards out onto about a dozen sheet pans, each on a little square of acetate; easy to slide off onto chilled plates. They thawed slowly in the fridge for about three hours, and finished perfectly in the spanking afternoon sun. The entire plating, 275 plates in the end, took about eighteen minutes. We had so many hands helping, I just poked around, answering questions and pulling fucked up plates off to be replaced with perfect ones. All said and done, we nailed it. The silky custards were ice cold but not frozen, the compote thick and rich, the simple essence of blueberry. We retreated from the heat to the cool of our dorm room to pound tall boys and take a nap. I slumbered happily elated, stoked to be a chef that day.
That’s Fucking Delicious.
22 July 2009 | Ten 01, creative presentation of the week, delicious, dessert, plated dessert | 10 Responses
Why is this dessert going nowhere? I love this dessert. It’s a tasty refreshing and interesting treat. I love this. I love it almost as much as some other complete flops I’ve created. We all know what a float is; a frothy icy treat, simply ice cream and soda. It’s just got a little twist, a little refreshing surprise. It’s blackberries, and corn. That’s right I said fucking corn. Sweet corn ice cream to be exact, I learned it from a recent mentor. It pairs great with the blackberries, the little corpuscles bursting and adding their juice. Corn and berries, who new? So yeah you plop some of the corn ice cream in a frosty glass, cover it with fresh blackberries and homemade blackberry syrup, cover it with club soda or sprite, and Robert’s your father’s brother. I garnish with caramel corn and white chocolate polenta cookies. A good stir with a long spoon will froth it up and blend the flavors. It’s not rocket scientist, it’s just good. I thing people get turned off by corn in ice cream. People want one flavor: vanilla. I bet if I changed the ice cream to that specky pod I’d have a frenzy on my hands. Maybe next week.
Sweet Corn Ice Cream
Design Process.
12 July 2009 | Ten 01, dessert, faithful readers, pastries, plated dessert | 5 Responses
I’m a bit of a hack, I must admit. I mean sure, I got skills. I’ve got brains. I have a strong undestanding of proper technique, yeah I’ve baked some shit. I know custards, cookies, cakes, and muffins, I’m sure I could puzzle out a turkey stuffins. The chessecake hand is strong, the bread pudding, people don’t shut up about it. What I’m trying to say here kids is I’ve cooked a bit, I’ve spent some time baking. Having said all that, I’m kind of a hack. I hack my way through plated desserts. I’m like a blunt instrument swung lamely; a dull machete rampage in a chandelier shop. When it comes to innovation, creativity, style, I’ve got a lot to learn. I don’t have an original bone in my body. Most of the things I do are bit off someone else, twisted and forced through the filter of someone in the one to five years of experience demographic. I’m getting better, I think I might be starting to figure it out. I Google ideas. I read cookbooks, magazines. I try and eat dessert when I go out. I write shit down a lot. Well these days, I just tap it in. I’ll be on the bus or my bike or whatever and suddenly I’ll think: Grilled Zucchini Bread with Root Beer Ice Cream!! Into myPhone it goes. I’ve always drawn plates, shapes and squiggles sometimes reverse engineering shapes into flavors. I like to bounce my ideas off Kate because she has a keen eye for design. She taught me “plan view;” brilliant!. I try to come up with something that looks cool and eats well. I shoot for ninety percent Damn That’s Good and ten percent How’d He Do That? Most times, it works. I’ve been hammering out a new summer menu, and I think these are some bad-assed desserts. I’ve been working with a consultant who asked to remain anonymous, suffice to say this person is a also bad-assed. One of the best pastry chef’s I have worked with, this person has forced me to create outside my comfort zone, deviate from my normal menu formula. Oregon produce is so good right now, fruit is everywhere on this one. Changing desserts this week; stay tuned for more my faithful readers.
Faithful Readers.
7 May 2009 | blog, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, plated dessert, shameless self promotion | 6 Responses
For those five or six people that actually read this shit allow me to elucidate, you are not alone! faithful readers are out there, and they’re making dessert. This photo here is a version of the Dessert of Last Year; a chocolate flourless cake made by Ms. Jessie Badley, a culinary student and faithful reader. Apparently the dessert is offered at her cooking college’s restaurant, where it is maued upon with much gusto. It gives me great pleasure to know that someone is out there among the interwebs reading my screwy ideas and bullshit ramblings. So pleasured am I in fact, that I will now publish her email without her permission! Thanks Jessie!!
Hello! I recently found your site online and have become somewhat obsessed. I’ve looked through all your plated desserts and they are beautiful! I am currently enrolled in culinary school as a prospective pastry chef and found your recipe for the chocolate whiskey cake! I am actually making this at school right now for our plated desserts in the restaurant on campus (inspired by your post.) I just wanted to let you know that its genius. I switched out makers mark for Evan Williams (sour mash) and it tastes amazing! So I guess I’m writing to thank you for having an awesome blog and such in depth directions and whatnot. not only do I get a giggle out of your words, but I’ve learned a lot! Keep it coming!