Crunchy caramel

Now we're getting somewhere! My Cakes: Classic to Modern class started this past Saturday and everything on the menu sounds really good and involves a few recipes so will be more challenging. For week 1, we made a Crunchy Caramel Cake which included three recipes: Meringue noisette layers, butterscotch caramel and Chantilly cream. The meringues {ground hazelnuts, cornstarch, egg whites, sugar and vanilla} were baked at 250 degrees for an hour and a half {but could be baked for up to 2-3 hours} to dry them out.

Making caramel is scary. Sugar has to be cooked on high heat, along with water and glucose. While the mixture is caramelizing, the sides of the pot need to be brushed down with water to avoid crystallization and if a drop of the boiling mixture touches you, you will be scarred FOR LIFE with a sugar burn.

Then we made Chantilly cream. Whipped cream, gelatin and sugar made fluffy. Everything layered together and SO sweet.

Coming this Christmas...

Back to school! My Art of Cookies class started off simple last night with a classic shortbread recipe. This is a less buttery version of typical shortbread: butter, icing sugar, bread flour and rice flour are combined and rolled out and baked for approximately 20 minutes. Very light and flaky. I can't wait to make these again during the holidays.

Messy but good

I finally tried a recipe from this book I bought a while ago {Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey}, the delay being that the recipes are INSANE: we're talking chocolate, caramel, butter, etc, etc...seriously sweet stuff.

So these "Heart of Darkness Brownies" not only contain butter, semi-sweet and unsweetened chocolate, pecans, but chopped up Snickers bars too. Wow. PLUS, they are topped with marshmallows and drizzled with a caramel sauce made of those little Kraft caramels, heavy cream and vanilla. I'm going to test them out on my family tomorrow but I'm sure that these will be a hit.

Cuban strawberry mousse tart

I never thought I'd be one of those people who photographed their dessert before they ate it, but here we are. A yummy tart I sampled while in Cuba.

Pa-tiv-e-ay

That's how you pronounce: Pithiviers. This puff pastry dessert is from the town Pithiviers, outside Paris. Puff pastry is rolled out and cut into two circles, one a 1/2-inch larger than the other. Almond filling {the same as was used for the Frangipan} is spread into a dome shape in the center of the smaller circle and garnished with apricots. The larger circle is placed over top and the edges are sealed together {after being brushed with egg wash} and trimmed into a scallop shape.

A pinwheel pattern is scored into the pastry with the dull side of a paring knife and a slit is cut into the center to allow steam to escape. This is baked at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. The sides should puff up {um, almost} to create an even surface.