We have been working on a series of different tarts for the last week and a half, and not finishing any of them until yesterday, so I had no pictures to put up. I love tarts: fruit, sugar, and crunchy crusts make my life complete. However, these are no ordinary tarts. These are multi-day, multi-level creations that I hope are fabulous when we finally get to eat them on Friday.
Almond Cream and Pear Tart. I know I will love this. I have a new and very serious addiction to almond cream, and these poached pears are delicious. The base is a shortbread crust filled with an almond pastry cream, baked until brown and delicious. Then it is topped in a light almond cream and covered with the poached pears. The poaching liquid was delicious: red wine, cassis, oranges, cinnamon, and star anise. We will make the leftover liquid into a sorbet sometime soon. I painstakingly arranged the pears in circles, and then we topped it with marzipan pears. Voila!
Citron Tart. Standard lemon/lime curd, which happens to be a favorite snack of mine also in a shortbread shell. Then we built a seriously fragile tower of French meringue logs covered in yellow coconut.
Pistachio Macaroon cake. We made giant French macaroon shells and then filled it with a pistachio mousilline pastry cream, lined with raspberries, and topped with another shell. I think we are going to place chocolate sculptures we started yesterday on top, but I am not entirely sure.
Tarte Tatin Modern. It is basically an inverted caramel apple pie, and it is a very traditional French dessert. However, we made them very, very small, and decorated them with pistachio powder, and almond nougat. It looks warm and yummy!
Then we played around with macaroons, they are also a pistachio shell and a pistachio cream. They have so much flavor, and it is such a unique flavor.
Nougat Glace. It is an Italian meringue with whipped cream, candied oranges, dark chocolate and hazelnut pieces. The texture is like a mousse-y ice cream. It is incredibly simple to make except for the Italian meringue, which is always messy. I have a strong aversion to sticky things.
On Wednesdays we have the buffets of all of the MOFs and visiting chefs, so we eat lots on incredible treats. Here are a few shots of the ice cream buffet, and the petit gateaux’s. These first photos are from Alain Chartier, who along with being an MOF is also a world champion and the coach for this year’s French world cup team.
The Yule log is some sort of pinnacle achievement in France; I see it in all the fanciest things. Sometimes the logs look like American sponge cake rolls, like a pumpkin roll, so I am still unsure why they are so special. But, I have yet to make one so I have no idea how hard they are. These are filled with ice cream, so it is especially difficult.
Ice cream macaroons, flavored raspberry and cassis (which tasted like grapefruit to me so something may have been lost in translation). I’m a sucker for anything raspberry.
On to our petit gateaux snacks! We tried all of them, and they were all delicious and very unique. There was a grapefruit with pistachio and formage blanc, which was so tart I hardly knew what to think. A key lime with meringue crumbles that was also incredibly tart, but delicious. There were two that tasted strawberry-shortcake-ish but I am not entirely sure what was in them.
Then, my favorite. Perhaps the most interesting and delicious thing I have ever put in my mouth. The chef said it was an almond base, with a violet and chestnut filling, a chocolate mouse mixed with verveine (the local herb) and oh, it was sweet, but unique but no too out there. I loved it. I have another in my fridge I am hoarding.
We have our midterm today, but we don’t know what it is. I think I will be fine.
Oh, and I have used the word delicious entirely too much. I need a new word. Succulent maybe? Nah, that should be used for barbeque…, which I would kill for right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment