This was our final day with chef Kraus. I must say--- I found these 3 days immensely valuable for my future in pastry. His creativity and talent was inspiring to observe and his great sense of humor made the class all the more enjoyable. I was a huge fan of Chef Kraus even before he came to our school as I follow The French Pastry School's blog/website and am so impressed by their talented staff and all-encompasing curriculum. I cannot express how thrilled I was to be able to sit in on this class as it is a true privilege. Austin rarely gets acclaimed chefs to come to the area for specialty classes such as this and so....what a real treat this was for me. I soaked up as much information as I could, wrote extensive notes, took TONS of pictures and asked lots of questions. I found Chef Kraus to be very generous in sharing his knowledge and do appreciate all that I took away from this class. As well, I need to send out a huge thank you to Chef Todd Champagne for seeing to it that I was able to attend and to chef Steve Mannion as well for allowing our participation in such a wonderful, beneficial class. This is another notch I can put on my resume--- but moreso I feel like I am really beginning to build my arsenal of formulas, recipes, and ideas for the future!! Without further ado....I will attach a slew of pictures from the last day with the incredible chef John Kraus...
Orange Madeleines with orange liquor glaze. These were delicious -- especially warm out of the oven with the glaze. Will definitely be making these again and again.
The is the hazelnut wafer better being spread over the template type molds. These were baked quickly and then shaped while still in the over to form decorative wafers.
Chef Kraus reaching into the hot over to form the hot wafers over a round rod.
And the end result--- a delicate hazelnut wafer!
My current obsession--- French macarons. These are filled with raspberry ganache that was very flavorful.
Piping the ganache filling.
Sandwiching the cookies together....YUM! I could have filled up my whole blog with pictures of these beauties!
Chocolathe-- chocolate Financiers. These are similar to chocolate almond pound cake. He put raspberry gelee into each one and then topped with ganache infused with Earl Grey tea. Heavenly!
Piped ganache on top of the chocolathe.
To finish...each was embellished with a chocolate circle sprinkled with cocoa nibs.
These are called grapefruit tuile. They have almonds, butter, grapefruit juice/zest and a bit a flour. The dough is spread into these round flat flexi molds and cooked into disc shaped cookies. They were crunchy and buttery.
How they looked coming out of the oven.
Lemon raspberry tarts. Using the almond sable dough to make shells, place some of the raspberry gelee into each shell, top with lemon cream and bake. Top with mint and candied lemon rind. These were amazing!
Raspberry gelee
Assembling the tarts.
Raspberry and creme fraiche tarts. Another one I will be making soon!
Macaron and raspberry tart shortly before being consumed!!!
These were really interesting. It's a pineapple mango salsa made into a mold with a bit of gelatin and then placed on top of a coconut cake. The salsa is dipped in a glaze to adhere it to the cake. Really refreshing and a great summer dessert. He topped each one with a piece of mint.
Tartelette chocolate. These were fudgy deliciousness. Tart shells with chocolate filling topped with the chocolate streusal and powdered sugar. YUM!
Filling the chocolate tarts!
Chouquette Caramel. These are pate a choux filled with caramel mousseline. Basically cream puffs with a caramel mousse-like filling. They have a Swedish pearl sugar on the outside that looks like GIANT granules of sugar.
When baked....this turns into this:
And while still warm....chef Kraus did this:
They are called Pecan Nespresso Florentin Tuile. You can use them as decorative accompaniments for ice cream, plated desserts, etc. They have coffee, butter, heavy cream, pecans and sugar in them. Yum!
Hazelnut carrot cakes topped with orange blossom water glaze. Pretty simple to make but the cake is very delicate and must be handled with care.
Some pictures of the final dessert buffet....what a feast for the eyes and the palate!
What a wonderful experience. I have so many great recipes and ideas now that I can experiment with. Five more weeks of class.....and then it is out into the world we go!
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