Hrm, I couldn’t think of a better title to this week than “turning something simple to special” Abit of garnishes, a few easy decorations on something simple could double, or even triple up the price of the dessert. Take the situtation, if in a classy restaurant, you order your dolce say, maybe a creme caramel. What would u expect ? a plate with creme caramel demoulded with some caramel sauce ? or maybe perhaps this ????

maybe a demouleded creme caramel with some caramel sauce and creme anglaise, morrello cherries and strawberries and a toffee garnish ?

I guess these lessons this week trains up us if we work in hotels and needs to garnish plated desserts. What is needed for the hotel is of course something FAST, EASily assembled yet elegant looking. Now, that’s tough job eh ? imagine you only have less than a minute to assemble all stuffs for the waiting waiters to send the desserts to the table. That would need alot of practice eh? But, of course, we didn’t need to assemble this in a minute’s time. Cause, we’re … amateurs!

Creme Caramel

Serves 6

Make caramel with 60g sugar and 40ml water. Boil sugar and water till golden colour. Dip the pot in a bowl of cold water. Becareful of steam! Cautious !!! Then pour caramel into moulds. Let it set.

250ml Milk
50ml cream (optional)
vanilla extract
3 eggs
45g caster sugar

Combine eggs and sugar. Blend with warm milk and vanilla. Stir till well combined. Strain them into moulds that the caramel has set. Straining removes the impurities from the eggs. Bake in water bath at 150 till set. Refrigerate beore demoulding. To remove, dip mould into hot water and lightly insert a knife at the sides to loosen it from the moulds. To serve… em, up to you actually.

Next, cherry and chocolate souffle.

Well, not to disappoint you on the photos…

it wasn’t being plated. Haha

Souffle is a light, fluffy baked dessert made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with other ingredients. The word soufflé is the past particle of the French verb souffler which means “to blow up” or more loosely “puff up”. But it has to be eaten immediately cause it will eventually collapse.

Baked Souffle

125g unsalted butter
65g flour
500ml milk
few drops vanilla extract
140g caster sugar
8 eggs (seperated)
Boil milk with vanilla extract. In another bowl, whisk flour, half the sugar and egg yolks till well combined. Pour the mixture into the milk in super low heat and whisk vigorously til lthe mixture thickens. High flames will cook the egg. Add in butter and stir till buttr melts completely. If you prefer other flavours, you can add it to the milk mixture. For chocolate, add chocolate ganach, or zest of citrus fruits and add some segments in it, or even grand marnier. Then, beat egg whites till soft peaks with the rest of sugar. Gently fold in to the milk mixture with a metal spoon. Then scoop into butter-greased and lightly sugared ramekins. This should fit about 6 medium size ramekins. Bake at 190 for 15-20 minutes. Dust with icing sugar, serve immediately.

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