Baby Shower | Congrats Liang & Josh!

Baby "DoFo" (that's a mashup of last name syllables) is on the way, and I was happy to bring desserts to the tea-time themed baby shower. To match the theme, I wanted to make small bite-sized desserts that didn't require any utensils to eat or serve. Another friend was already bringing scones, so I decided on coconut macarons with lime-lychee curd, matcha green tea sugar cookies (this time cut into D's, F's and circles -- the ability to spell out DoFo was purely coincidental), and bourbon sugar fudge squares.

To make the macarons, I made plain shells but baked them with toasted coconut shavings on top. I probably could have ground up coconuts into the shell or used coconut extract, but I didn't necessarily want the coconut flavor to be predominant. For the filling, I made lime-lychee curd (using a basic lemon curd recipe but substituting the lemon juice for about 75% lychee puree and 25% lime juice) and mixed it with a small portion of pastry cream.

The matcha green tea sugar cookies were just like the previous time I made them, but with a different brand of matcha that made the mix much more vibrant:

The fudge comes from a Bon Appétit recipe and is addicting. The original thought was just to throw in something darker and richer, like the pastry equivalent of a cigar for the men at the shower. But this ended up beingmy favorite of the three. The fudge has a light bourbon flavoring in it, and is topped with bourbon raw sugar and Maldon sea salt flakes which really give this dessert that something special.

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Fudge with Bourbon Sugar

Makes an 8"x8" square (cut to desired shape/size)

Ingredients:

• 283.5g bittersweet chocolate
• 113g unsweetened chocolate (okay to substitute with bittersweet)
• 1 14-ox. can of sweetened condensed milk
• 142g unsalted butter (1¼ sticks), cubed
• ¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 2 Tbsp bourbon
• 1 Tbsp light corn syrup
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 vanilla bean
• flaky sea salt

for bourbon sugar:

• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 cup demerara sugar (raw cane sugar)
• 2 Tbsp bourbon

Directions:

1. In advance, prepare bourbon sugar by scraping vanilla beans into a small bowl and stir in demerara sugar and bourbon. Spread on to a parchment-lined baking sheet and let dry out overnight (or speed up process by placing in oven at lowest heat possible.
2. Line an 8"x8" baking dish with parchment paper, leaving generous overhang to be able to pull out fudge later. Lightly coat with butter or nonstick spray.
3. Heat chocolates in a double boiler (i.e. heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water), stirring occasionally until almost completely melted. Set aside.
4. Combined condense milk, butter, bourbon, corn syrup, and salt in a small saucepan. Scrape in vanilla beans and heat over medium under barely hot (as close to same temperature as the chocolate).
5. Gently stir in a quarter of the milk mixture into the chocolate with a rubber spatula. Add another quarter, stirring to incorporate. Continue mixing in the remainder of the milk in 2 additions, stirring vigorously until fudge is shiny and almost elastic, about 5 minutes. 
6. Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth top.
7. Let cool before sprinkling with bourbon sugar and sea salt.
8. Cover and chill at least 4 hours.
9. Turn out onto cutting board and cut as desired.

Pastry School Recap | Unit 5/8 - Cakes

Cakes were my main interest prior to pastry school, and probably still are the basis of what I like to present as my "craft". The amount of time and labor that go into them sometimes make other quicker pastries more attractive. However, I will always have a respect for and fascination with cakes.

I made this salted caramel mousse cake earlier this year for my new niece Madelyn. Although the cake is not listed on the website for Extraordinary Desserts (my favorite cake shop), it is the Versailles cake featured on the cover of Karen Krasne's Extraordinary Cakes recipe book.

The cake is made with almond joconde sponge, soaked with some rum simple syrup, and layered with drizzled salted caramel and salted caramel mousse. The outside is pressed with praline (caramelized pistachios and almonds).

Then the top is coated with a gelatinized salted caramel.

Finally, salted caramel macaron halves (homemade!) are pressed against the sides and decorated with a ribbon (not necessary to hold on the maracons, but definitely helpful for stable transportation). Et voilà!

I wasn't thinking clearly about the occasion when I used a spiked simple syrup when assembling this cake for a newborn baby . . . but at least the adults got to enjoy.

A few of my favorite cakes from Units 5 & 8 of pastry school:

Special Occasions cake for midterm: passion fruit bavarian cream filling with fondant decorations, dedicated to my parents' 35th anniversary

(This is what my parents consider "posing with the cake"):

Lemon Chiffon Cake:

Marzipan Peach Cake:

Fraisier Victoria: sponge cake, creme mousseline, fresh strawberries

Flourless Chocolate Cake: with chocolate hazelnut mousse and chocolate meringues

(Here's the inside):

Chocolate mousse cake: the outside is a decorative biscuit d'amandes cake wrap

Charlotte Royale: a dome of jelly rolls with pistachio mousse filling!

Unit Exam: genoise cake with buttercream and toasted almonds

Pastry School Recap | Unit 7 - Petits Fours (Happy Valentine's Day!)

Happy Valentine's Day! To celebrate, I made some white chocolate and raspberry macarons. The white shells were a little more successful than the pink ones, which I over-deflated a bit, but both should be yummy to share with friends on a trip to Carmel this weekend.

To be honest, the hype and reverence around French macarons make me a little less excited about making them. That is probably why this is the first time I've made them at home (outside of class). However, I do think they are delicious treats, and no doubt big money-makers for bakeries (I almost always grab one when I'm at a Bouchon Bakery)!

Conceptually, petits fours are the most interesting to me. I love the idea of shrinking down desserts, and although it may be too labor-intensive, I could imagine having a bakery specializing in innovative petits fours. The French translation of petits fours is "small ovens" and the term refers to bite-sized desserts. The two dessert types are glacé (glazed, such as the ones you see in Swiss Colony catalogs), and sec (dry, such as macarons, meringues and biscuits). I believe there is also the savory type, salé (salted), for appetizers.

Some examples of petits fours from Unit 7:

Hazelnut Financiers:

 Pâtes de fruits: raspberry and passion fruit jellies

Sablés: swirl cookies

 Unit Exam: fruit jellies, Russian tea cakes, passion fruit barquettes, lemon-raspberry sandwich cookies, raspberry macarons, cat's tongues, nougat, madeleines