Pastry Camp : Part Deux

The last two days of pastry camp, I brought home more desserts than I ever thought would be in my house at one time. Cookies, bread, ice cream, sorbet, scones, tarts, caramels - it seemed there was nothing we didn't make. Here's a summary of the sweets we whipped up at the very end. Friday was a sad day knowing it was all coming to an end, but looking back, I'm so excited and impressed with everything that I learned, and in just one week to boot!

Day 4
Chocolate Lover's Obsession
This is the cake most people think of when they hear the words, "molten" or "lava" cake. It's a chocolate cake that's slightly undercooked (don't worry the eggs have been tempered so they're fully cooked even before you bake the cake batter), so basically when you dig in, the center runs out and you have an instant chocolate sauce to dip your moist cake into. You can make the batter and freeze it in disposable ramekins and then bake a la minute! (bake to order)

Lemon Cream
This was the best lemon cream I've ever tasted - and it was easy too! You just need equal parts of 5 ingredients (butter, whole egg, egg yolk, sugar, and lemon juice). Let it sit in the fridge over night and you're set! We piped ours into one of our pate sucree (sweet dough) tart shells, but it also pairs well with the scones we made the following day. If you want to be really fancy, (which, we were, of course) make yourself a meringue dough (cream of tartar, sugar, egg whites, confectionary sugar, vanilla paster and salt), pipe in a teardrop shape onto a baking sheet and voila - the perfect cookie to decorate the top of your lemon cream tart!

Chocolate Custard Mix
This was another surprisingly simple recipe - just eggs, whole milk, heavy cream, and dark chocolate pieces (64% cacao). We used the custard to fill our remaining pate sucree (sweet dough) tart shell, baked it until set, and topped with the chocolate nougatine crisp we made on Wednesday. Delish!

Day 5
Scottish Buttermilk and Cream Raisin Scones
I shared these scones with family on Saturday for breakfast and it was almost as if they never made it to our plates, we ate them so fast. Because they were de-lic-ous. The golden raisins are steeped in earl grey tea to give these scones an amazing flavor. Oh, and the creaminess from the fat of the heavy cream/buttermilk combo doesn't hurt the situation either.


Pain a la Biere - Beer Bread
Bread is a labor of love. But it definitely pays off. I have never made more beautiful bread in my entire life. Much less, bread with a beer paste baked into the crust! Can't wait to make this in the winter to go with a homemade stew and/or soup!

Rhubarb Raisin Compote
This was probably the easiest recipe in the bunch. All you have to do is let your rhubarb macerate in the sugar overnight so its nice and juicy and plump. Then the next day, put it in a saucepan and add your raisins, lemon juice and vanilla and cook down until the mixture reduces by half. Great as a pie filling, or by itself. I tried it this morning on pancakes - so fresh and so yum!

Sweets, sweets, and more ... SWEETS!

Stay sweet my friends!