Apple pie retro dessert

The assignment for the last day of this phase was to take an existing dessert, cookie, candy and make it something new out of it. People still have to recognize the original in the whatever idea we would come up with. Some people actually made something new, some only came up with an idea. 

Just inventing something is not as much fun as making it so I wanted to make something. I decided to use the ingredients of an apple pie and turn it into a dessert using the same ingredients.

I started with braking down the ingredients:
- apples
- cinnamon
- cookie
- optional raisins

I decided to go for a cinnamon bavarois topped with some apple confetti with a cookie hashtag. I didn't know how I would present it yet, but I would figure it out on the go.

First I had to make the dough for the hashtag cookies. I made a simple dough using 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter and 3 parts flour and one egg. I baked the cookies on 180C till they were golden.

Then I made the cinnamon bavarois and froze them in little molds.

In the meantime I sliced an apple and cut out little disks. The slices looked so cute I didn't want to through them away so I dried them in the oven so I could use them as decoration.

I baked the apple disks in some butter so they weren't "raw" anymore and added a bit of apricot jam.
Then I toasted some almond slivers and it was time to plate up. Since I had no idea I tried a couple of things.

First attempt was covering the cinnamon bavarois with some chocolate, add the almonds, place it on an apple and top it with the cookie.

It looked really nice except for the cookie. That one looked a bit out of place.

Then I tried it without the chocolate coating with different positions of the cookie.

I liked the first one the most so I worked with that. And the powdered sugar gave it an extra finishing touch. So there it is, my version of an apple pie.

Raspberry and chocolate dessert

Today we were making a raspberry bavarois with an interieur of raspberry cremeux and a cookie bottom and a chocolate mousse with a chocolate cremeux with a chocolate cake bottom. All things we made before except for the cremeux. 

We started with making the chocolate cremeux since we had to freeze it in a mold first before we could use it in our final product. For the cremeux we used:
- 240 gr milk
- 360 gr whipping cream
- 95 gr egg yolk
- 55 gr sugar
- 7 gr gelatin powder (soaked in 35 gr water)
- 75 gr cream cheese
- 180 gr melted dark chocolate

We started with cooking the milk and cream. In the meantime we mixed the egg yolks with the sugar. Slowly we incorporated the warm milk/cream mixture with the eggs and poured it back in the pot so we could cook it for a few minutes on 82C to bind the mixture. We heated up the gelatin so it liquefies and added that to the thickened mixture. Last we stirred in the cream cheese and the dark chocolate. We poured the cremeux in the molds and put them in the freezer. 

Then it was time for the raspberry cremeux. For this we used:
- 350 gr raspberry puree
- 120 gr egg yolk
- 120 gr sugar
- 5 gr gelatin (soaked in 25 gr water)
- 100 butter

We cooked the raspberry puree with half of the sugar. To this we added the gelatin which we heated up till it was liquid. The other half of the sugar was mixed with the egg yolk. We heated this egg mixture in a double boiler for about 5 minutes on 85C. Then we mixed in the butter and when that melted we added the raspberry puree. This cremeux also went into molds and in the freezer. 

As there were two different bottoms to make we each made one. I made the cookie bottom using the recipe for "bretonsdeeg". However I didn't exactly followed the recipe, but made a slight adjustment. I used:
- 150 gr butter
- 120 gr sugar (basterdsuiker)
- 1,5 gr sugar
- 20 gr egg (1 whole egg)
- 6 gr baking powder 
- 1,5 gr carbon dioxide powder 
- 200 gr flour
- 30 gr almond flour
oven temperature 180C

I mixed all the ingredients together, pressed the dough in a mold and baked it till it was golden brown. 

My partner made a chocolate biscuit using:
- 260 gr egg yolks
- 140 gr sugar
- 90 gr almond flour
- 60 gr flour
- 55 gr cocoa powder
- 260 gr egg whites
-140 gr sugar
- 70 gr butter
oven temperature 220C

First he mixed the egg yolks with 140 grams of sugar and the almonds. Then he whisked the egg whites with 140 grams of sugar till soft peeks. In the meantime he melted the butter and let that cool for a bit. He folded the egg yolks with the almond and sugar in the egg whites, sift the flour with the cocoa powder and mixed that in. Last he added the melted butter. He spread this mixture on a baking tray and baked it till the cake was done. After the cake cooled we used a cooking cutter to cut the shape we needed for our molds.

After the cake and cookie cooled it was time for the chocolate mousse. This mousse recipe is slightly different then what we used before. This time we used a creme patisiere, which was already prepared for us:
- 170 gr milk
- 170 gr creme patissiere
- 170 gr dark chocolate
- 8 gr gelatin (soaked in 40 gr water)
- 15 gr cocoa powder
- 400 gr whipping cream

We mixed half of the milk with the cocoa powder and the other half we brought to a boil. To this we added the chocolate, the creme patissiere and the cocoa mixture. We melted the gelatin and added this also. While this mixture cools we whisked the whipping cream till it has the same texture as yogurt. We slowly incorporate the chocolate mixture with the whipping cream, poured it in a piping bag and filled our molds halfway. Then we added the chocolate cremeux in the middle, covered it with some more chocolate mousse and covered it with a piece of chocolate biscuit. Then we put it back in the freezer so it would be easier for us to take it out of the mold and to dip it in a glaze. 

For the raspberry bavarois we used:
- 300 gr raspberry puree
- 7 gr gelatin (soaked in 35 gr water)
- 360 gr whipping cream

We melted the gelatin and added this to the raspberry puree. Then we whipped the whipping cream till it has a yogurt consistency and folded the puree in. We piped half of the bavarois in a mold added the raspberry cremeux and covered it with some more bavarois. We topped it with a cookie and placed it in the freezer. 

Since we had to wait for the desserts to freeze we had time to make some chocolate decorations. 

The glaze was pre-made for the whole class and I think it didn't went the way it should. 

When we dipped in our chocolate and raspberry desserts the glaze just dripped right off. At first we thought it was because the glaze was too hot, but if done right, it should stick on the dessert and give it a nice coating. 

Although the desserts didn't look the way they should, the flavor was good. However next time I would coat it in chocolate. I think that will look much better then this raspberry coating.

Ice cream & wine and dine experience

Today's course has been very relaxing. Nothing much to do then to sample ice cream, wine and desserts. 

Mr Robert Verweij did the workshop today and he started off with ice cream. He talked about the ingredients for making ice cream and gave us his recipe for this very tasty yogurt lemon ice cream made from scratch. He has this fancy ice cream maker that doesn't require a freezing element that you will have to freeze in the freezer first, but his freezes it on the spot. If I would be making a lot more ice cream I probably would purchase one too, but for now my little ice cream maker (including the freezing element) will do just fine. His yogurt ice cream was so good we all wrote down the recipe:

- 140 gr sugar

- 100 gr whipping cream

- 260 gr yogurt

- 1 teaspoon lemon zest

This would make about 500 grams of ice cream. It was quite easy. He put all the ingredients together and turned on the ice cream maker. It took about 15-20 minutes before we could sample the ice. It was soooo good!

While he was talking about everything related to making ice cream Joris made some vanilla ice cream in the back using egg yolks. This ice cream of course has a different texture and I much more preferred the yogurt ice since the vanilla ice cream was a bit to eggy for me. 

After lunch it was time for the wine and dine. First we talked about taste. We had to describe taste. This was quite funny as sometimes taste is just a fact and other times it's someones opinion. 

After all that it was time for some wine tasting. I rarely drink alcohol and I never learned how to appreciate wine. The only wines I like are the sweet dessert wines so it was my lucky day. 

We started with a sweet white wine (Tokaji Pajzos) paired with a ginger lemon ice cream. I think I was too busy eating the ice cream so I don't have a picture of that. 

The next wine was a sparkling sweet red wine (Borgo Maragliano Piemonte Brachetto). The dish that went with the wine was some kind of mouse with a raspberry sauce. The mouse alone tasted quite bland comparing to the wine, but with the sauce it was doable. 

Then it was time for another white wine (Monbazillac). The little cake was a speculoos apple cake. I don't remember if it went well together or not, but if I look at my notes it looks like they paired ok. 

The next wine was a red port (Krohn Porto Colheita 2002). We were suppose to taste it with some blue molted cheese, but since I don't eat cheese I only drank the port. 

The last wine was a sherry (Pedro Ximenez). The sherry is the glass on the right. The color is slightly more red then the port, which is more brown. 

Obviously the chocolate lava cake was the big star.It was AMAZING!

I never had a wine tasting before and I have to say it was quite fun. Normally you will have to spit out the wine, but I poured just a sip or two in my class so I drank it all. No need to waste good wine. Out of all the five wines I liked the sweet sparkling red wine the most.

Schwarzwalder birthday cake

For my moms birthday I wanted to make something nice. For my dad's birthday I made the Oscar cake with an extra layer of panna cotta on the inside. Just to give it a different twist. Initially I wanted to make the same for my mom's birthday, but when I looked online I stumbled on this schwarzwalder cake made by Rudolph van Veen. I knew this had to make this cake. 

First I started with watching the video in which Rudolph shows how to make the cake. Then I went to the store to get the rest of the ingredients I needed.  

After that it was baking time. 

I started with making the cookie dough since this has to be chilled for a bit. This recipe was quite straight forward and all I needed was:
- 300 gr flour
- 200 gr butter
- 100 gr sugar
- 1 egg
oven temperature 180C

I put all the ingredients in a bowl and kneed them till it forms a dough. This dough I put in the fridge to chill.

After that I stared on the chocolate biscuit:
- 250 gr dark chocolate
- 125 gr butter
- 3 eggs separated in yolks and whites
- 125 gr brown sugar
- 80 gr self rising flour
- 50 gr almond powder
oven temperature 200C

I started with melting the chocolate and the butter on a double boiler. Then I whisked the egg yolks with some sugar till fluffy and mixed this into the chocolate. I carefully incorporated the flour and the almond powder in the chocolate mixture. In the meantime I mixed the egg whites with the rest of the sugar till fluffy. To this I incorporated the chocolate and spread the mixture out on a baking tray. I baked it for about 15-20 minutes till the biscuit was fully baked and let it cool.

This recipe was too much for my baking tray resulting in a thick layer of chocolate biscuit. Next time I would half the recipe and half the banking time.

While the biscuit was baking I took the cookie dough out of the fridge and put it in my baking pan. As I didn't want to waste any dough or do anything else with it, my cookie layer was a bit thicker then the recipe called for. Next time I would just half the cookie recipe. I baked the cookie till it was golden. I think it took about 30-40 minutes because it was a thick slice. This also had to be cooled.

For the cherry stuffing I needed:
- 200 ml whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 130 gr cherries in a jar
- 1 gelatin sheet soaked in water

Because I had more cherries (and again didn't want the rest to go to waste) I doubled the recipe. I made the cherry stuffing twice since the first time the whipped cream didn't turn out the way I wanted to. What I did was whipping up the whipped cream with the sugar, heating up some of the cherry juice, to this I added the cherries and the gelatin and this all I mixed into the whipped cream. As it had to much juice the cream started to curdle and I had to through it all away. 

The second time I added the cherries (without the juice) to the whipped cream first and then slowly incorporated the juice. This gave a slightly better result. Next time I will wait till the gelatin has firm up the cherries and juice mixture first and then incorporate the whole thing with the whipped cream. 

Now it was time to ensemble the interior of the cake. I used a cutter to cut out 3 circles of the chocolate biscuit. As my baking tray was too small I could only get 2 whole circles and 2 half circles. I started with a layer of one whole circle of chocolate biscuit in the cutter. On this I sprinkled some amaretto liquor and I spread a layer of cherry whipped cream. I topped it with another layer of chocolate biscuit. Again another dash of liquor and a layer of cherry whipped cream and I finished with the two half circle of biscuit. Next time I would just use the two half circles for the middle layer, but I didn't know if I would have enough cherry whipped cream so I wanted to use the whole circles first, just in case. 

I placed the cookie on the interior and used a bigger cutter for the outside rim. This rim will be filled with chocolate mouse using this recipe:
- 110 ml milk (I didn't had milk so I used whipping cream instead, which worked just fine)
- 2 egg yolks
- 30 gr sugar
- 180 gr chopped pure chocolate
- 375 gr whipping cream

Actually I used this recipe times 1,5 since I didn't want to end up with not enough mouse. And luckily I did, because I didn't end up with much after using it all. 

I started with heating the milk or in my case the whipping cream. In the meantime I mixed the sugar in the egg yolks and to this I add a splash of warm whipping cream to avoid lumps. The egg mixture went into the rest of the warm whipping cream till the mixture was as thick as custard. Then I took the pan of the stove and mixed in the chocolate. While this mixture cools I started with whipping up the rest of the whipping cream. I poured the chocolate mixture into the whipped cream and mixed it till the chocolate is fully incorporated. I poured the mouse in a zip lock bag and after I took the cutter off my chocolate biscuit I piped the mousse all around the interior. Unfortunately my interior was slightly higher then the outer rim so my cake looked slightly different then the original. After everything was covered with the mouse I put the cake in the freezer.

The next day I made the chocolate glaze using the same recipe as the one from the Oscar cake"
- 280 ml water
- 360 gr sugar
- 260 gr whipping cream
- 120 gr cocoa powder ( I only had 100 gr, which also worked)
- 6 gelatin sheets soaked in water

I put all the ingredients in a pan and cooked it till it was ready. Then I added the gelatin and let it cool till about 40C.

I took the cake out of the freezer and start pouring the glaze all over starting with the rim. After the cake was covered I put it on a cake stand and held it on my lap while we drove to my mom's. Although it was an hour drive the cake was still frozen when she tried to cut it. I guess with a cake this big it needs at least two or three hours to defrost. The rest of the family couldn't wait so they digged in. Frozen or not it was a great birthday cake. Normally I would test a recipe first before making it for "real" so for a first timer it wasn't bad at all. Next time it would be much easier and faster to make this cake and I'm sure I will be making lots of them. It was that good!

Baby boy 1st birthday cake

For my nephew's first birthday party I wanted to make something he could enjoy as well. I decided on making a two tier cake with one extra little cake for him only to enjoy. So for the adult cake I could go all out since he won't have any of it anyway.

For the baby cake (4 inch square baking tin) and the top tier (6 inch square baking tin) I used 1,5 times the biscuit recipe so;
- 300 gr eggs
- 150 gr sugar
- 150 gr flour
- pinch of salt
- lemon zest
This is enough to fill the two tins. 

For the bottom tier (8 inch square pan) I used the same recipe, but next time I would double the recipe to:
- 400 gr eggs
- 200 gr sugar
- 200 gr flour
- pinch of salt
- lemon zest
I think this would make the bottom tier higher. And maybe next time I will use even less flour, maybe the cake would be more moist.

For the butter cream I doubled the recipe and this was more then enough since I also used some for my maccarons. Part of it I kept plain for the baby boy and the other parts I divided it in two so I could make mint butter cream and blueberry butter cream. The mint butter cream would be used as a crumble coating. 

I baked the biscuit the day before to save time, but next time if possible I would bake it the same day. I think that might make a difference as well. 

I started with the baby cake first and cut the biscuit in three parts. On the first part I brushed some sugar water to keep the biscuit moist. Then I spread a layer of crème pâtissière and topped it with some blueberry jam. The second layer was the same. Then I crumble coated it with some butter cream. The cake had to be refrigerated before I could decorate it. 

Then I started with the bottom layer since this was the biggest. I also cut the biscuit in 3 parts and this time I sprinkled the biscuit with some mint liquer sugar water. Then I thinly spread some crème pâtissière added the blueberry jam and the blueberry butter cream. I did the same for the next layer. Then I crumble coated it with the mint liqueur butter cream and put it in the fridge.

For the second tier I had some mint butter cream left so I used part of it in the filling, but the rest was also similar to the bottom tier. 

As for the decorations I looked online for some inspiration, but ended up with my own design of the cake. The bottom tier was covered in white fondant and the second and baby cake in baby blue fondant. As I still had lots of blue and gray fondant I decided to go for a blue and gray color scheme. My nephew loves birds and ducks so birds in the blue sky and ducks on the bottom tier. I didn't really wanted to make clouds so I just made some white decorations, also to cover the not so nice parts up. With a letter cutter I cut out his name and with a number cutter a "1".

I started with covering all the biscuits with fondant, starting from big to small. Then for decorating I did the top tier first. As I wanted the baby cake to be similar to the top tier I started decoration this one after. Last I decorated the bottom tier. 

I'm very proud of the cake, but next time I will need to cover up the flaws a bit better. But the important part was that everyone loved the cake and I absolutely loved making it for my baby boy who is now a toddler. 

Coconut versus Champagne "dessert"

I was very exited about this class and when I first saw the recipe I though it would be difficult to put it together. I guess it can be quite difficult if you have to do it by yourself, but this time we worked in a team of 5. Normally it would be 4, but we had one extra person. And also so parts of the dessert was pre-made for us so that made it easy also.

We splitted in two teams; one team started with making the batter for biscuit roulee and the other team started making the dough for the cookie bottom. We used the recipe for "bretonsdeeg":

- 150 gr butter

- 120 gr sugar

- 1,5 gr salt

- 20 gr egg

- 8 gr baking powder

- 1,5 gr oxygen powder

- 230 gr flour

oven temperature 175C

We put all the ingredients in a bowl and used the dough hook to mix it all together. When it comes together we rolled it out and used a cookie cutter to cut out the rounds we needed for our molds. Since this is quite a buttery dough and it has a rising agent we need to bake it in a mold otherwise it would not have the shape we needed. We baked the cookies till they were golden and let them cool in the mold.

As we still had some dough left, we made some fun cookies. 

The other part of the team made the biscuit roulee, which is basically a biscuit filled with jam and rolled up. The recipe was for two people, but since for this dessert we only needed a thin slice this recipe was enough for the five of us:

- 220 gr egg white

- 225 gr sugar

- 175 gr egg yolk

- 165 gr flour

- 10 gr custard

oven temperature 225C

First we started with beating the egg whites with the sugar till soft peaks. Then we beat the egg yolks till they were fluffy.  We folded the egg yolks into the egg whites and folded the flour and the custard in last. 

We thinly spread the batter on a baking sheet and baked it till it was done. After it cooled we spread some jam on the baked side and rolled it into a log. Then we wrapped it in some plastic and put it in the freezer. 

The coconut dessert had a coconut filling which was already made for us. The same goes for the champagne dessert, but instead of coconut it had an apricot filling. The recipe for the coconut filling is:

- 300 gr coconut puree

- 15 gr confipec

- 180 gr sugar

- 180 gr dried coconut

Instructions are quite simple. You cook the coconut puree and add the confipec with the sugar to it. This you bring to a boil for a bit and then add the dried coconut. After that you pip this mixture in a mold and put it in the freezer. When it's frozen you dip it in some chocolate.

For the apricot filling all you need is:

- 500 gr apricot puree

- 60 gr sugar

- 6 gr gelatin

Heat up the apricot and dissolve the sugar and gelatin in it. Then pour it into mold and freeze them. 

Since this was already done for us all we had to do now was to make the bavarois. Again we split the group so one could make the coconut bavarois and the other group the champagne bavarois. 

For the coconut bavarois we used:

- 430 gr coconut puree

- 6 gr lemon juice

- 14 gr gelatin powder (soaked in 70 gr water)

- 550 gr whipping cream

- 3-4 tablespoons of sugar (not in the recipe, but we like it sweet so we tweaked it)

We started with heating up the coconut puree. Then we heated the gelatin and added it to the coconut together with the lemon juice. Then we took it off the stove and waited till the mixture started to thicken up a bit. In the meantime we beat the whipping cream with some sugar till soft peaks. When the coconut mixture started to thicken, we folded that into the whipped cream. We piped it in the mold and let it freeze up in the bast freezer. As the bavarois continues to firm up we couldn't wait long. So after a few minutes we took the mold out and put the coconut filling in. Then we covered it with some more bavarois. Last we put the cookie on top and put the mold back in the freezer. 

For the champagne bavarois we use:

- 350 gr champagne

- 20 gr marc de champagne

- 35 gr custard powder

- 150 gr egg yolk

- 120 gr sugar

- 12 gr gelatin (soaked in 60 gr water)

- 500 gr whipping cream

We started with mixing the custard powder with a dash of champagne. Then we cooked the rest of the champagne and used the custard powder to bind it. This has to be cooked through for a bit. Then we added the gelatin. In the meantime we beat the egg yolks with the sugar till it was airy. Then we mixed in the hot custard and let it cool. Then we whipped the cream till soft peaks and folded the custard in. 

In the meantime we took the biscuit out of the freezer and sliced them as thin as possible. then with a cookie cutter we cut out the right size and put that into a mold. Then we piped in the champagne bavarois and put the apricot filling in. We covered it with a bit more bavarois and sealed it with a cookie. This mold also wend into the freezer. 

Two teams prepared the jelly for the finishing touch so when the bavarois were frozen enough we took them out of the mold and dipped it in the jelly. We also had time to make decorations so we could doll them up. 

Also since we had plenty of bavarois mixture left we piped them into some molds and froze them as well. Then we rolled them into some dried coconut and some crunchy nuts. 

So instead of 6 desserts we ended up with a bit more.

Next week no more cooking or baking, but wine and dessert tasting. 

Nougat & Marshmallow & Chocolate fudge & lolly pops

It's all about sweets today.The day stared with a demo about making marshmallows and nougat. As much fun it was to look at, it was of course a lot more fun making it ourselves. 

This time we were in pairs again and we started with making marshmallows using this recipe:
- 300 gr sugar
- 100 gr glucose
- 18 gr gelatin powder soaked in 90 gr water/juice/liquor or 9 gelatin sheets
- 180 gr egg whites
- optional color

For a nice flavor and some color we soaked the gelatin in some mint liquor first. Then we cooked the sugar with the glucose and a dash of water till 121C. When the temperature reaches 115C we beat the egg whites till soft peeks. To this we added one part the hot sugar mixture of 121C and to the other part we mixed in the gelatin. Then the whole thing went into the egg whites and was mixed till the bowl cools. 

We oiled a baking mold and sprinkled it with some powdered sugar and some dried coconut. When the marshmallow mixture was ready we scooped it in the mold and let it dry for an hour or so.

Now we started with making nougat. I never made nougat before but it was easier then I thought. We made it with:
- 450 gr sugar
- 225 gr glucose
- 60 gr egg white
- 150 gr nuts (mixture of hazelnuts and almonds)
wafer sheets

Nougat is made with sugar that has been cooked the first time till 121C and the second time till 149C. So we started to cook the sugar and the glucose with a dash of water till 121C. In the meantime we beat the egg whites till soft peeks. About 1/4 of the sugar mixture was mixed in the egg whites and when the rest of the sugar reached 149C this was added as well. Then all we could do was wait till the mixture has the right consistency. This can take some time, but once you notice that it doesn't mix well anymore the mixture is done. We added the nuts and scooped the nougat on some wafer sheets. With another wafer sheet on top of the nougat we could press it down as much as we wanted. After the nougat cools we sliced them in the shape we wanted. 

Now it was time for some fudge. There were two fudge recipes, one for a "basic" fudge and one for a chocolate fudge. Of course we were making the chocolate one"
- 450 gr sugar
- 190 gr whipping cream
- 75 gr glucose
- 30 gr cocoa powder
- 50 gr butter
- 100 gr nuts

We mixed together the sugar, whipping cream, glucose and the cocoa powder and headed it to 117C. Then we took the pan off the stove and added the butter. We left it to cool for a bit, added the nuts and tempered it on a marble slab till about 45C and it's no longer glossy. Then we put it on a plate till it cools. 

We didn't make the basic fudge but this was the recipe for it:
- 300 ml whipping cream
- 600 gr sugar
- 3 tablespoons of glucose
- 5 gr salt
- 1 table spoon butter

You cook the cream, sugar and glucose till 117C, then add the butter and salt and let it cool till about 45C. We sprinkled some dried coconut on the bottom of a tray and poured the fudge in. Then we sprinkle some coconut on the top. 

Now for the part that didn't work out: lolly pops. Well that's what happens when you don't follow the recipe:
- 1 cup of sugar
- 2 tablespoons of glucose
- 1/4 cup of water
- 1,5 tablespoons of citrus juice
- 1 tablespoons of citrus zest
optional: food color

What we did right was heating the sugar with the glucose and the water till 143C. Then we added the juice and the zest and poured it into some molds we greased earlier. Then all we had to do was wait till it cools. The only problem was that we had to much juice in the mixture. We ended up with this sticky  candy that was good, but not anything close to a lolly pop. So next time: we will follow the recipe!

As we had time left we tempered some milk chocolate and dipped the marshmallows in. We even dipped some of the nougat and used some to decorate the fudge. It can't get any sweeter then this.