The Sweet Life

One of the challenges that I face with my staff is that they tend to slow down and become nervous when given a new recipe, whether it is for something as simple a new cookie, or something a little more complex. For instance, I gave a recipe to one of my newer cooks, J. It listed the ingredients, listed cooking methods, and combining the components. When it came time to finishing the recipe, it said "Put the pastry cream into the robot coupe and add the chevre." She turned to me and asked if she had missed something. "Where is the pastry cream? It's not listed in the ingredients." she asked. I then had to show her that the first part of the recipe is making a pastry cream with the first few ingredients. I suppose part of me knew that they are not aware of what they are making on a daily basis or why. That they just look at ingredients listed and methods and don't think about it. That they were just blindly trying to get through prep lists and go home. J...

I just got back from Ace Hardware with a dozen 4 oz jars with lids! Exciting, I know. It's cherry season again! And seeing that I still have brandied cherries in my fridge (apparently I don't drink enough cocktails!), I decided to make pickled cherries this year. I made some at work for our cherry inspired dessert on the McKinlock Court menu, so I figured why not make some at home and . . . try canning them! And of course, give them away as gifts. The following recipe is sort of a template in that you can substitute as needed. For instance, I didn't have any cider vinegar, so I used champagne vinegar instead. I also didn't have any cloves, but I had some wine muddling spices left over from winter and since it's mostly cloves, I used that instead. Feel free to substitute whatever you want that complements your fruit. I made a little over twice this recipe (2.31 times to be exact) and had enough to fill twelve 4 oz jars and one. Pickling Syrup 116 grams ...

Seems cream puffs are all the rage these days. At least among the chefs I admire. I remembered something from my days back at Trump when my pastry chef Hichem was working on  pate a choux with a "streusel" top. He had conversations with a French chef, and experimented at work. I'm not sure if he was testing the other chef's recipes, or if they were sharing ideas and working on a technique. But in any event, I used this technique for my Raspberry Cream Puff, one of the new desserts at AIC. I got the recipe, which I call cassonade dough, from a French recipe. I rather like these, though they're becoming more commonplace at many bakeries and restaurants across the US. But at least I can say that I was a witness during the development stage! Raspberry Cream Puff Raspberry Cream, Lemon Curd, St Germain Chia Seeds,  Micro Lemon Balm, Freeze-Dried Raspberries

Baking cookies for a bake sale. Instead of baking something new, I'm going back to cookies I baked last Christmas for friends. I can't recall where exactly I got this recipe, but I'm sure if I wasn't lazy, I could do a "Google" and find the original and tell you where I got it. But, seeing that it is 12:22 and I've only my second dozen cookies in the oven and that I haven't been feeling too well lately, I'm hoping that you'll let me off the hook. In any event, the recipe isn't mine, and the idea isn't original, but I'm filling the "thumbprints" with ganache, and a brandied cherry half-the cherries I brandied myself a couple of years ago. 226  grams butter 272 grams sugar 1 tsp vanilla paste 40  grams yolks 115 grams Dutch cocoa 2 tsp salt 272 grams flour 30  grams cream Cream together room temperature butter and sugar, with vanilla paste. Add yolks, scraping after adding and mix until incorpo...

Milk Tea Mousse, milk chocolate almond biscuit, sesame streusel, blackberries, micro lemon basil, bubble sugar I made this for the Woman's Board lunch on Tuesday. I will be serving it this Thursday as a dessert option in the Member's Lounge. I'll be adding a sauce, either blackberry, or a tea caramel (or blackberry tea caramel?). This dessert replaced another one they originally wanted; they grew tired of creme brulees. I used to drink milk tea when I visited Chinatown with my friend, and so, it evolved into a dessert. I tried to think of many ways to keep a pure tea taste and ended up using one of my white chocolate mousse recipes. Worked out very well. Once I get the sauce down, I'll repost another photo.

Working on items for our Small Plates restaurant this season and piped these guys. They were supposed to be eclairs, but they shrank into little peanut shapes (they were supposed to be minis for this platter on Wednesday . . . but, whatever, these are much better!). So, instead of getting discouraged, I got excited, made some peanut butter cream, filled them, put them in a bowl and shared them with coworkers. The best bowl of peanuts, hands down! Best of all, no messy shells to sweep up and toss.

Can you believe that Christmas is this Sunday? Neither can I! I've been a busy little elf, and after the Cookie Swap, I've been inspired to carry on with the cookie and candy making. For my pastry team, I bought oven mitts and stuffed them with little treasures: And for friends and "chosen family" I made coffee caramels, nougat, more Spiced Cookies with Cranberry Jam and Jivara , and Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies with ganache and brandied cherries! Chocolate thumbprints filled with ganache and brandied cherries!  Filling the spiced cookies. Cookie and candy tins! Cookie Bags! I hope everyone has a happy holiday! Merry Christmas and I'll see you in the new year!