Mimosa Panna Cotta, Acai Blueberry Creme Brulee and Tropical Bread Pudding ....

Happy Wednesday!

Time is flying by! I know you hear me say that all the time here, but really, it'll be September next week! Ouch.. Fall already?.. where did summer go? I didn't get to the beach as much as I wanted to. :( I didn't get to play or laugh until my stomach hurt, no rolling in the sand.. .ok, enough of me and my nonsense...I did get to bake, so that in itself is a great thing.

Today we had to plate our Panna Cotta, Creme Brulee and Bread Pudding. Again, having to be creative in our flavor choices and our components. It was a pretty good week. We made some pate a choux and shaped them into fun forms. I made some zig zags, flowers, bows and  what-nots.  ;)  We also made Florentine cookies which we shaped. And which I ate :) :) many of them.. lots of them.. they had peanuts, almonds and cranberry! Cut me some slack, I walked twice around Lake Eola! I may have worked off about .. oh, lets say one of the 5 ??  1/2? Oh who cares!

Tuesday we played with our flavors and created our 3 main desserts and today was our day to present. Soo, lemme just present my craziness... Again, I am not the happiest with these. I would really love to have had more color on my plates, its just that the flavors I come up with all have earth tone colors!  Not to mention.. Bread pudding??!? Really? Plating this isn't the cutest. I personally don't like its taste and it's not the best shaping. I know, I know, just show you the pictures and shut up already. Fine.

Strawberry Mimosa Panna Cotta accompanied by Orange, Lemon and Lime Candied Zest and a Bow Shaped Cinnamon, chocolate, walnut Pate a Choux:  The Panna Cotta flavors are: Strawberry on the bottom layer followed by thin slices of real strawberries, champagne in the center and orange with orange pieces on the top layer, topped off with orange slices and orange zest strips.

My next plate is an Acai Bluberry Creme Brulee in a Graham Cracker and Walnut crust accompanied by a Blueberry reduction sauce and Almond, Peanut and Cranberry Florentine discs.

Last but not least is my Tropical Bread Pudding consisting of mango, walnuts, carrot and coconut accompanied by a hazelnut Frangelico Creme Anglaise sauce and  a toasted coconut and pistachio chocolate sphere.

I hope you likey. :)  I did taste everything. The Panna Cotta came out delicious! I know my sister would have loved it. The champagne in the middle kicked off the strawberry and orange Panna Cotta flavors. The Acai and Blueberry Creme Brulee with the crust was also delicious.  I am not a fan of bread pudding, but the mango and carrots gave it a good kick so I was happy with all three.  Just because we come up with flavors and fancy names doesn't really mean that it tastes good!

All my classmates had some fun creations too!

We have some really creative cats in our class. It inspires me to try harder.... ok, no it doesn't. Sorry, this isn't my thing. Its not what I want to do. I like to make DELICIOUS. And if its traditional, then so be it! I just throw a little Linda twist into it and voila!! That's your non-tradition for ya!

Have a beautiful evening! We have a Creme Brulee practical to prep for.  I think we have made Creme Brulee 7 times throughout this degree. If you cant make the darn thing by now.... then... well.....practice.

All of this is making me thirsty... so Im going to pass on the water and make myself a yummy Mimosa!

Night, night!

XOXO

Get that wrist ready to whip up some Sabayon and enjoy a Creme Brulee too!

Terrific Tuesday?  Why yes it was!....kinda!  ;) 

Aww, thank you guys for all the love and support yesterday with my tough day! Please don't worry, everyone has a bad day here and there. I am glad mine was on a Monday and I'm not letting it take over by any ol' means. Thank you guys for hanging in there with me. A blog is a blog which means you get the good, the bad, the ugly and the funny.. oh, and lets not forget the corniness too. :) Welcome to my world.

I was tired today, and late to class again. I really must stop that.  ;) I cant say that I am excited to go to this class because it just lacks a little "je ne sais quoi " .. did I spell that right?!?! :)  We seem to re-make things, and its just very unorganized.  BUT, we are going to make the best out of it and I am going to try to get us some great recipe's so we can in turn have yummy creations of our own! The best part is adding your very own touch and that is what I hope we can all get out of this.

We made Creme Brulee today. Yes, we have already seen this back in the first 6 weeks of our basics class. This is super duper easy and all you really need to have is that wonderful torch that I ended up falling in love with :) Remember? It went from fear to full on frenzy! I wanted to make Creme Brulee all the time just so I could use it! ;)

Creme Brulee Recipe

6 EGG YOLKS

3 oz GRANULATED SUGAR

24 oz HEAVY CREAM

.15 oz VANILLA EXTRACT

tiny pinch of salt (optional)

Super easy for you.  Warm up your Heavy cream.  In a separate bowl, stir together your yolks and sugar. Once the Cream is simmering, you whip it into the egg yolk mix and continue to whip so that the heavy cream does not cook your eggs.  Add in your vanilla and salt, continue to whip, and place the Creme into your ramekins.  Put these in the oven in a water bath at around 310 degrees F and wait for them to be jiggly to touch.  Once they are cooled, you can sprinkle sugar on the top of each ramekin, and torch your happy self away until you get that nice brownish caramel color on top! You are ready to serve!

It doesn't get any easier than that!  This is a LOVELY desert that you will get a round of applause for. No need to let them know it didn't take you hours over the stove to prepare ;).  I will keep your secret. What are friends for, right? 

We then moved on to the more time consuming custard, the Sabayon! Oh boy, oh boy.  We had to make this one BY HAND.  That means a lot of whipping and whipping and whipping. So get your wrist ready.  This is the French version of the Italian original, Zabaglione.  Zabaglione uses a red wine for its creation and the French use a white wine.  Today we used a dry Riesling.

This has a very distinct taste and you either like it or you don't.  I was in the middle.. so I guess I just threw that sentence out of the water! Laughing... Hey, I'm on the fence sometimes, what-da-ya want me to tell ya? I mean, when I added the fruit, I thought it was yummy. Without the fruit, I thought it needed something else. :) And so it did! The fruit... you see how we go around in circles here?

This baby only uses Yolks, sugar and white wine.  You take your yolk and you beat it until its foamy. You then add in your sugar and  your wine and you beat it some more with your whip.  While you are doing that, you are boiling some water so that you can place your bowl over it and let the steam cook your custard. All the while, you are whipping it and whipping it. And no, its not as cute as that little Wil Smith girl whipping her hair back and forth.  AT ALL.. :)

You want to whip this for a very long time, as long as it takes until it thickens, and you get that ribbon-like stage we are looking for.

At this point you are ready to place this in your cute serving-ware :) :) You serve it warm with your favorite fruit and enjoy!! We used peaches,  mandarins and blueberries... use your favorite fruit! You will lovey!!

I'm off to work out!! I hope you enjoy making these!! Please let me know if you do.  Let's hope tomorrow is an amazing day. I know it will be if we set our minds to it.

Night Night...