PASTRY: NEW SUMMER MENU

I haven't been in school since last Wednesday and I'm ready to go. Tonight we do a Fig and Orange Gratin, Lemon-Thyme-Honey Ice Cream (Provence), Gratin De Figues Et Oranges, Glace Au Miel De Thyme-Citro. I love figs but when I tasted another group's attempt at the dessert it seemed like a disappointing recipe. Here's to hoping it doesn't have to be. I'm also bringing the recipe for the Spago dessert, "Omar's Coconut-Apple Haystacks," along with a few other dessert options as the other group had a lot of down-time.

An update after class...

DISH: Fig and Orange Gratin, Lemon-Thyme-Honey Ice Cream (Provence), Gratin De Figues Et Oranges, Glace Au Miel De Thyme-Citro

RECIPE: Mix 125 ML milk, four tablespoons heavy cream, 500 ML lemon-thyme-honey and boil in a sautoir. Whisk four egg yolks and temper in milk-honey mixture. Cook on low heat, stirring, strain and cool on ice. Process in machine and freeze (USE AMMENDED VERSION BELOW!).

Beat 65 G butter until fluffy and add to a mixture of 150 G confectioner's sugar, 150 G almond flour, a pinch of salt until blended. Add and blend two eggs. Whip 250 ML heavy cream to soft peaks and folk in with almond mixture then put it in fridge.

For service and garnish, spread a layer of frangipane in the bottom of a soup bowl. Cut 10 figs, each vertically in 1/4's. Segment six oranges in at least 40 segments. Arrange five alternating sections of fig and orange supremes in a spoke patter over the almond cream. Place bowl in oven to warm and torach the surface until cream puffs and surface is goden. Place a scoop or quenelle of ice cream in center and garnish with a lemon-thyme sprig.

BREAKDOWN: It sure does look like a pretty dessert but I'm not sold. First, the recipe in the book was incorrect which is why the last group to make the dish made an ice cream that wouldn't set. The recipe calls for too much honey which makes it very difficult for the ice cream to set. Also, we didn't have a lemon-thyme-honey so we substituted it with fresh thyme leaves.

We were told by our chef that honey is 125% sweeter than regular sugar so he usually cuts recipes that call for it. The ammended recipe multiplied for restaurant service follows (x1 honey ice cream, x4 frangipane, x3 fruit):

Mix 1 L milk, a half liter of heavy cream, 700 G honey and boil in a sautoir. Whisk 12 large egg yolks and temper in milk-honey mixture. Cook on low heat, stirring, strain and cool on ice. Process in machine and freeze.

The rest of the recipe stayed the same. We used the torch for the first time in school to brown the top of the frangipane and we garnished with fresh mint. As you can see, it's a pretty attractive dessert but the frangipane is a little gritty and for the dessert to really be good at the least the figs need to be truly fresh and care needs to be taken when substituting the lemon-thyme-honey not to add too much fresh thyme.

We had a lot of time on our hands as we had expected so we tried a few extra recipes. One member of our group made molten chocolate cake and tried her hand at a passion fruit mousse, both from recipes from memory. The molten cake was very attractive and tasty but needed more chocolate (I'll try to get the recipe for an upcoming post) and the passion fruit mousse while tasty (where can I get some of the fresh stuff!?) didn't set. We were also taught how to make a chocolate ganache with which to garnish plates with decorations and cursif for birthdays. It contained chocolate, corny syrup and cream (amounts to come).

I brought my own recipe to try out, another one I'd come across in Chef A.'s stack of copied recipes he keeps in the kitchen. It was another Spago dessert cookie and I think I may have to get Nancy Silverton's book of desserts, or at least make some more copies from a library copy because I've enjoyed these cookie recipes-- they're different. Silverton was the former pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck's Spago Restaurant.

Omar's Coconut-Apple Haystacks

For the Apple Puree:
2 Large, tart green apples
2 Tablespoons of lemon juice
4 Tablespoons butter
1 Vanilla Bean, split and scraped
1/2 Cup Granulated sugar

For the Cookie Mixture:
2 Egg Whites
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
4 Cups long, shredded, unsweetened coconut
1/2-2/3 Cup Apple Puree

Peel, 1/2 and core two green apples and toss with two tablespoons of lemon juice. Melt four tablespoons of butter with the scraped and split vanilla bean until it melts. Add apples and cook, stirring occassionally, until tender, three to five minutes. Sprinkle 1/2 cup sugar on apple mixture and stir with wooden spoon. The melting sugar will release juice from the apples and liquid will collect in the pan. Continue cooking, stirring until juice and sugar reduce into a thick syrup and the apples are translucent and caramelized, five to 8 minutes. Pour into a bowl and remove the vanilla bean. Cool. Puree the mixture in a food processor.

In a large mixing bowl, mix two egg whites, 1/2 sugar and four cups of coconut using a wooden spoon. Start adding puree to coconut mixture until the batter is moist enough to hold together 1-inch balls formed with your hands. The batter should be sticky.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. With your hands, press mixture tightly into 1-inch balls and place 1 inch apart on a nonstick baking sheet. Using the first three fingers of your hand pinch eash ball into a pointed pyramid shape about 1 inch high. Keep each cookie tightly packed. Bake for 20 minutes until cookies are brown. Remove from the oven as soon as the cookies can be lifted off the baking sheet without sticking. Let cool completely before removing from baking sheet.

We didn't have the long, shredded, unsweetened coconut so I used what they had, unsweetened flakes. The cookies were good, moist and interesting but they were maybe a touch too golden-brown on the outside. It's an interesting combination, apple and coconut and tasty-- they're flourless and more macaroon-like than cookies. The longer coconut would allow the macaroons to hold together a bit better possibly allowing for a little less cooking time, and a little more moisture and one chef suggested that there was a touch too much lemon. I wouldn't do them in a convection oven necessarily next time but I would definitely make them again.