Tres Leches Cake

I went to a friend's house for an Oscar party last Sunday.  She wanted to make tostadas, so I wanted to make an appropriate dessert.  So I decided on Tres Leches cake.

We had made tres leches in school, during our nuevo latino menu, but I didn't get a chance to make it, because I had to work on other courses.  I made a sponge cake for the base instead of a yellow cake.  Then I used Alton Brown's version of tres leches milk.  Then, because we did it in school, I made common meringue, and brought my mini blowtorch to torch it!

I think it turned out nicely and was very elegant for an elegant awards show.

Fudge Cake with Hazelnuts

This is both sexy and unsexy at the same time.  Is it a perfect slice? No.  Is that an ooey, gooey center?  Heck yes!

My love for chocolate and hazelnuts is well-known and showcased on this blog.  So of course, any recipe with them together, I have to try.  This one comes from Food and Wine, December 2012.  It's called the Tunnel of Fudge Cake with Hazelnuts.

It's a recipe from a second-place winner in a Pillsbury bake-off in 1966. Wonder what won first place?  Anyways, I don't think this one's a winner for me.  The ground hazelnuts tasted great, but gave too gritty a texture to the whole cake.  I liked the gooey center, but my husband wasn't a fan.  So, I'll have to pass on keeping this in my repertoire.

Update: Strawberry Shortcake

This is how the presentation of my strawberry shortcake turned out in gourmet class.  On the customer comment cards, lots of people remarked that the strawberry sorbet was great.  Yeah!

Strawberry Shortcake and Sorbet

In this semester of culinary school I really want to get as much as experience as I can in desserts.  To this end, I'm going to be road-testing dessert recipes on our menu before we have to make them for school.  This is my first one.  The picture above is how my practice run turned out.  Below is the version in The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller. 

I've got some kinks to work out, put that's what practice is for.  The creme fraiche sauce was to die for and had me licking my plate.  I also really loved the strawberry sorbet, but wonder what the difference is between the deep red in the book vs. my light pink.  Such a fitting dessert for Valentine's Day!

Chocolate Caramel Mini Tarts

This recipe comes from pastry chef David Lebovitz.  I love his blog; it's such a great escape to Paris and the city's food and his wonderful recipes.  

These tarts were worth going out and buying the mini tart pan needed to make them.  I used TSOB's creamy caramel sauce recipe again; the only caramel sauce recipe I will probably use from now on.   I also had the pleasure of working with some unusual Peruvian unsweetened chocolate I got as a gift from family that went there on vacation. 

The chocolate was really aerated and crumbly when I cut it.  When I added the cream to make ganache, it was more like a pudding than a ganache.  So Good!  

Other Baking Final

I forgot I had a picture of my other baking final- making a whole fruit tart from scratch. (We also had to make 2 loaves of bread and 10 eclairs and 10 cream puffs that day!)  My teacher liked my tart; her only comment was that the dough was a bit too thick.  I used TSOB's pastry cream recipe, which has some orange zest in it for added flavor.  Since my class was the last baking class of the week, it was slim pickings for the fruit toppings, which is disappointing.  I'm very proud of it though.

Chinese Almond Cookies

The next chapter in TSOB is cookies.  Nothing difficult there, right?  Well, I did learn that you want cold butter for creaming, which was surprising.  This helps keep the cookie from getting thin.  I hate thin chocolate chip cookies.

As you know if you've read my other posts, I love the chocolate/hazelnut combination.  My next favorite flavor has got to be almond.  At work we make these almond scones and I just get so happy smelling the almond extract.  So when I started flipping through the cookie recipes, I settled on the almond ones. These cookies have almond paste, Disaronno (an "Italian liqueur flavored with herbs and fruits soaked in apricot kernel oil" that tastes of almond), and whole almonds on top.  

I'm not sure what makes them Chinese.  In TSOB, Yard shares that apricots are in the same family as almonds.  Their pits are often marketed as "Chinese almonds" and are used in traditional Chinese dishes.  I don't eat much Chinese food, instead I prefer Italian.  And to me, these cookies are a great almond shortbread made with an Italian liqueur.

Before I go on to the next TSOB chapter, pies and tarts, I think I'll revisit the financier chapter.