Desserts – Lessons 2 –Cream Based Desserts + recipe for a delicious Crème Brulee

My mother was before her time in many ways and worked full time from the mid 60s until she retired in the late 90s, even though she had 4 children. My nanna helped out, and apart from collecting us from school each day, she always started the main meal preparation for mum to cook when she got home and made dessert. Dessert invariably included a milk/cream-based component, so I think she would have really liked Lesson 2; White Chocolate Pannacotta served with Strawberry Jelly, Crème Brulee with an Almond Tuille and Pavlova Roulade with Chantilly Cream, Kiwi, Strawberry and Passionfruit.

White chocolate pannacotta with strawberry jelly……. is there any other response but yum? Recently a talented blogger I follow, Valentina from “Cooking on Weekends”, asked her readers what their favourite flavour combinations were. I didn’t think of this combination at the time, but since tasting it I think it’s a contender. The recipe calls for gelatine mass rather than a gelatine sheet, simply sprinkle gelatine powder over water and in seconds it’s a mass…..voila! Bring cream and sugar to boil, add the gelatine and ensure it’s melted before adding the melted white chocolate. Once well combined, the yoghurt is added and whisked before placing the bowl over ice to assist in dropping the temperature to 18C – 20C. There were several choices re how the jelly was included in the dish; add the jelly to the bottom of the mould and when set add the pannacotta mixture on top, set the jelly straight on the plate and place the pannacotta on top or set the jelly in a sheet pan and dice and decorate the pannacotta …..lots of options…did I say yum?!

Then there was the Crème Brulee incident! The recipe couldn’t have been easier, and I thought my finished product came out really well, but you’ll just have to take my word for it. I’ve included the recipe below. Once the mixture is made, it pays to sieve it into a jug which makes for easy pouring into the ramekin or moulds for cooking in baine marie with water 1/2 way up the sides. I usually top mine with demerara sugar before blow torching, but in class we used castor sugar (potato/patato). I made 6 individual Brulee’s, a presentation one in a ceramic ramekin and five in aluminium cups, but I have no photo to show as mine were mysteriously missing from the fridge, where I left them to chill, when I came back from our break. It seems one of my classmates had a greater need than mine to present my work as their own. Fortunately Chef had seen me making and torching mine, so I was still marked as having completed all the products, but it left me quite disappointed. Chef decided that the Almond Tuilles would be served with the Crème Brulee, and even though mine turned out beautifully, having curled well after being carefully draped over a rolling pin straight out of the oven, I didn’t take a photo as they looked ever so lonely without the central component on the plate.

Pav (Pavlova) is the quintessential Australian and New Zealand dessert! There is always a lot of debate across the ‘ditch’ regarding its true country of origin, but I’m going out on a limb here by saying I think it’s a NZ creation. My lovely NZ Aunt and my NZ girlfriends make a mean Pav….I think it’s in their DNA. I’ll lay claim to the fabulous ANZAC biscuit and the iconic Lamington for Australia (I think that’s fair). The recipe we made was a pavlova but made into a roulade, filled with Chantilly Cream and fruit, rolled in cinnamon sugar and set aside in the fridge to set. The quality tip is to make the Chantilly Cream very (very) stiff and not over fill the meringue before rolling. My Chantilly was a tad soft…. lesson learnt. I will be doing this one again as it looked great on the plate.

Only two lessons and a final assessment to complete before the end of semester when we finish the weekly kitchen tutorials. The last semester of the course will all be done in the college restaurant kitchen under the direction of a head chef. Next weeks lesson, Lesson Three, will be Chocolate based Desserts and will include; Dark Chocolate Mousse, Milk Chocolate Lava Cake (Fondant) & Choc Chip Cookies served with Mango Ice-Cream…. I hope you stop by and see how it all goes. 

Bon Appetite 

Kathryn 💙👩‍🍳