I never thought I'd say this—savory person as I am—but here it is: After eating so much meat over the past couple weeks, pastry will be a nice reprieve.
Today, we were introduced to the sweeter side of things with custards. The first recipe was creme caramel, which I know as flan. The caramel—made with sugar and water—is poured into ramekins and, when set, is topped with a custard; finally, it is baked. After they've chilled, the desserts are popped from the ramekins and—as chef says—voila! You've got yourself a creme caramel.
Next, we made creme patissiere (pastry creme). Anyone who's eaten an eclair is familiar with this starch-bound custard. Creme anglaise (vanilla custard sauce) followed for good reason: It's a bit trickier, considering the custard is stirred over heat until it thickens—without a starch to speed up the process. If the heat is too high, you've got scrambled eggs.
It's also important to temper the egg/sugar mixture with the boiling milk (which are initially added together, then stirred in the pan over heat together to form the custard). You don't want breakfast when you've ordered dessert, right?
The final recipe was Bavarian creme, which is creme anglaise with gelatin and whipped cream. I'm pretty sure I could eat that every day. Of course, it would have to be accompanied by a cheeseburger. After all, I do favor savory over sweet. Hmm... Maybe I'm already missing meat.
It's OK. I know we'll meet again.
Our class was ahead of schedule, so after we wrapped up
custards, we started the dough lesson. We prepared pate brisee (flaky tart dough) as well as pate sucree (sweet tart dough). We'll be working with these later this week—stay
posted.
With all this sugar in my system, I felt like I
needed to tone things down a bit and eat a dinner on the healthier side. I picked up an organic split chicken breast at Whole Foods, which I seared and roasted. With the pan drippings, I made a white wine mustard sauce (with a dribble of heavy cream—but who's counting?) I also stuffed some black mission figs with Maytag blue cheese, wrapped them in prosciutto di Parma and drizzled over a balsamic reduction. (Thank you, mom, for that recipe.) For good measure, I added an arugula and heirloom tomato salad.
It will entitle me to licking my ice cream bowl clean tomorrow.
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