Petit Four Deguise

Deguise are cute little desserts that are disguised as something else. Usually it is a sugar dessert that looks like fruit, or animals, or whatever. In this case tuxedo strawberries are really easy and also really cute play on making the strawberry dressed up (no pun, I promise)

Since there isn't really a formula for this item I'll throw out some pointers:

• Pate glace does not give such a hard mouth feel to it when the chocolate dries or sets up. Because of that it is actually preferred to a tempered chocolate.
• White pate glace does not dip too well so you might need to dip it twice, just make sure the layers dry before re dipping.
• "Wash" the strawberries like you would mushrooms, with a wet paper towel. You want to clean it without removing the texture that the chocolate is going to grab on to.

Need:

White pate glace, chocolate pate glace, melted chocolate, strawberries

MOP:

• Wash strawberries, dry before use
• Dip the strawberries in white pate glace (shirt). Let it set up before dipping a second time. When you set the strawberry down try to let the excess chocolate drip off to avoid getting large foots. You will also want to pick up the strawberries and move them to help not create foots (pools of chocolate on the bottom).
•  Dip on an angle, then on the other angle with chocolate (jacket)
• Use a fine tipped piping bag, or parchment cone works best to draw a bow with two connecting triangles, or a bow tie with a small diamond and then an elongated diamond. If you piped a bow tie give the shirt three buttons.

You can also easily dip and decorate other fruit or dried fruit in this same style. Here dried apricots are dipped to resemble little cookies. And below the strawberry is given a corsage out of a cut apricot, a bride, and a groomsman in the background.

Tuile Paste pattern for Joconde Sponge

Joconde sponge is a very nice cake to use for decorations or visual enhancement for the sides of cakes or mousses because it can be spread very thin and can also be decorated with tuile paste very easily.



Formula:
1 recipe of Joconde spread on a full sheet pan
1/2# tuile paste (100% Butter, 100% Sugar, 100% Egg whites, 100% Pastry flour, 1% salt)
Colouring




MOP:

 

Gisslen, pg. 410

• Make tuile paste using the creaming method.
• Add colour to the appearance. You can easily make a cocoa tuile paste by adding cocoa powder, or colour it with food colouring.
• Apply stencil over a silpat lined sheet pan. Its really important to get a sheet pan that is not warped.
• Spread tuile paste very thinly over the stencil. You can also use your fingers to texture it, or you can use a brush (very much like we did in second block).
• Put in blast chiller to let set up.

• Make Joconde sponge while the tuile sets up. You dont want to spread the joconde sponge over the tuile unless it is frozen. Mixing it before will damage the two coloured layers.
• MOP: Melt butter and let it cool to room temperature. Place sifted almonds, confectioners' sugar, and flour into a your mixer. On low speed add whole eggs in stages using your paddle attachment. Increase speed to high and continue mixing until the batter turns into a pale yellow colour. Transfer to a stainless steel bowl.
  
  Clean mixing bowl throughly and whisk egg whites until foamy. Add sugar and continue whisking on high to a medium-firm peak.
  
  Fold egg whites into egg yolks, fully incorporate both batters. Drizzle butter slowly along the sides of the bowl and fold in the mixture. If you can assist someone else then have them drizzle in the butter while you whisk (like with mayonnaise).
  
  Make sure your stencil paste is set before pouring Joconde over the paste. Use your offset spatula to even out the batter. Use your fingers to clean the sides of the pan before baking.
  
  Bake at 375°F in a convection oven, bake until it is slightly golden in colour. About 7-15 minutes. In a deck oven bake at 400°F.

Petits Four Glace

This is very much a bakeshop staple. Coming out of Europe where marzipan and pouring fondant is a common finishing for cakes, usually they are enrobed in marzipan like it is done here, but on a larger scale even.

Formula:
1/2 recipe Almond cake
8 oz. Marzipan, more if you want to use for decorations
12 oz. Poured fondant
2 oz. Jam
2 oz. Simple butter cream for garnishing



MOP:

• Turn baked almond cake onto a parchment lined board. If you want to have take the caramelized crust off the cake to achieve a single colour through the cake then refrigerate the cake and gently brush off the caramelized layer after the cake has set.
• Spread a very thin layer of jam on top of the almond cake.
• Stack another layer of cake on top and press down gently, then spread another layer of jam.
• Place the last last, third, layer of cake down and press down gently to help the layers adhere. Spread another thin, very thin, layer of jam across and chill or freeze to allow the layers to set up to prevent shifting when cutting.

• Roll out marzipan to 1/16" on a very clean surface. The large amounts of sugar in the marzipan will pick up everything that is on your work bench and when the marzipan is so thin, it will show. Dust with confectioners sugar to aide in rolling out.
• Place the marzipan over the top of the cake, as a top layer. You will cut away the edges so you do not need to drape it over the sides, just make sure it covers as much of the cake as possible.
• Let the cake fuse together in the refrigerator or freezer.
• Take the cake out and trim down the edges.
• Cut the cake down to 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" squares (or proportionate sized circles, turn the cake upside down and cut with a circle cutter for cleaner circle cuts). It should be proportionally wide to high.

• Re constitute pouring fondant, if it has set up. You can reconstitute it with simple syrup (or hot water) and you can test it for consistency like you do with your finger and ganache. Be aware that if you heat the fondant over 110°F then it will be in danger of cracking and of loosing the shine.
• Place cake cubes (or circles) on glazing rack and enrobe the cake. Make sure you go slowly and get the fondant over the whole cake. It is less forgiving then ganache. You can colour the fondant when reconstituting it, just know that the colour goes a long way.

• Tap the cooling rack to allow the fondant to roll down the sides of the cake in a smooth manner.
• Lift the cakes off the cooling rack very carefully and transfer to a board to set up completely. 
• You can pipe designs on top of the cakes at this time.

Opera Cake

This is a cake that was popularized at the French Pâtisserie Dalloyau in the early 1900's. It was then called L'Opéra, but it was and still is a multi layered thin layers of cake soaked in coffee and then layered with coffee flavoured buttercream and ganache. It really is quite a sweet and lovely little cake that is very visually appealing.

This formula is adapted from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach, Pg. 719Formula:
4 7/8 oz.  Coffee French Buttercream
2# Strong coffee
One half sheet, thinly sliced Jaconde Sponge
6 oz. Chocolate ganache
2.5#  Glacage opera
4 oz. Melted Chocolate
2 oz. Pate glace


MOP: assembly
Petits four: glace

• Take cooled jaconde sponge and sprinkle sugar on top, generously before turning it out on to parchment.
• Cut the sponge in even layers. For a bigger make up or for a whole cake, cut the sponge into two even layers. For a smaller make up, for petits four size (aprox. 1 1/2" x 1 1/2") cut the sponge into three even layers. The procedure for a small make up and large make up are similar, and fills can be various. I'll describe the small make up as the way we did it has the more components then the large make up we decided to do in class.

The corners dont have to be perfectly
enrobed because you will cut away
the sides like in brownies. This shows
the layers really well though.

• Turn the sponges over, you want to assemble the cake upside down. Paint melted pâte glace in a thin layer on one third panel of sponge. Let this set up in the blast chiller.
• Take the set up sponge and place it pâte glace side down on parchment on a cake board.
• Soak the sponge in coffee using a pastry brush. Make sure to not over soak the sponge or else the next layer will start to slip when spreading.
• Spread a thin layer of coffee flavoured buttercream on top of the soaked sponge.

• Let set up in the blast chiller if necessary. Place another sheet of sponge on top.
• Soak the second sponge in coffee identical to the last sponge. Spread a thin layer of ganache (or you can just use buttercream again, or a gelatin set mousse can also be used for the upper level as it does not need to support a lot of weight).
• Place the last layer of sponge on top. Soak this with coffee and spread a very thin layer of the coffee flavoured buttercream on top. Let this set up in the blast chiller.
• If you are doing a large make up enrobe the whole cake in chocolate glacage (your dont need to worry about the sides in the large make up because you will cut this away for presentation). If you are doing a small make up you can enrobe the whole cake to achieve a reveal during the final make up. Or you can cut the cake down to strips to achieve a partial reveal on two sides. 
• Let this set up in the blast chiller.
• For the smaller make ups, use a hot knife to cut it down to smaller pieces, 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" is a good proportionate width to height size.

A traditional finish for the large make up is pictured below: Opera is written in cursive with melted chocolate and a staff with a treble cleft and notes is piped below that. Traditional finishes for the 

smaller ones include notes, treble cleft, two base clefts, a division sign on an angle, other piped designs, etc.

Tartlets

With fruit, you can either use a fresh fruit application or a cooked fruit method. The cooked fruit method is similar to that for a pie. You want to make sure that you are cutting the pieces smaller then you would for a pie though, as always appropriateness should rule all your decisions. And also as always there are many different ways you can garnish your tartlet shells after you get your various mis en place together. A few good rules to follow are:

• Less is more
• Think about rule of thirds
• Think about where the fruit is leading your eyes
• Moisture is more of a problem for the smaller shells, there is a less forgiving factor with the small size
• Monotone colours still look really pleasing
• Curds set up quite nicely, so you can with it more generously
• Unbaked tarts will need to bake at a higher temperature then shells, 375°
• If you are baking custards with a light consistency (short bake time) you will need to blind bake the shells before filling. Almond cream has a heavy consistency and longer bake time so you can bake this off without blind baking the shells.

Below are a few options for how to finish various shells:

• Line tartlet shells with melted white chocolate or chocolate to act as a barrier against moisture
• Line rim, dipped in apricot glaze and then a flour or coconut shreds (like for bouchee)
• Meringue shells are a nice finish, make sure to not burn the crust when scorching the meringue. You want to have an equal meringue to curd ratio if you are finishing with meringue.
• Can line shells with jam
• Can top with streusel, or left over dough
• Can pipe almond cream in as a filling or a top to the tartlet. Do not over fill as the almond cream will golden and expand slightly.
• Cooked fruit, like the poached pears, do not need to be glazed because they wont oxidize after cooked. But you can glaze it if you want that aesthetic.

Unbaked and baked almond cream tartlet with cooked fruit rhubarb and orange filling. Extra crust is used as a garnish.

 

Different varieties of fresh fruit tartlets with pastry cream and or lemon curd fillings.

 

Lemon curd tartlets with a hidden layer of raspberry jam underneath which is hinted at with the fresh fruit garnish. Italian meringue garnishing which has been torched.

 

Poached pear, poached whole so that the colour did not seep through to the interior. When baked off as the garnish for a tart filled with almond cream it gives quite a nice rustic look while still adding a few hints of colour.

Tartlet Shells

Tartlets are just like they sound, smaller tarts.  You can fill tartlets with pretty much anything you can think of, keeping in mind that it is a very small item that can only pack so much inside of the shells. Essentially a tartlet consists of a crust, a filling, and a garnish. Below some variations are detailed, Chocolate Crémeux Tartlet and a Turtle Tartlet. There is also a brief description of many variations that you can use.

Crust: pâte sucrée (chocolate/vanilla/nut meal), pâte sablée, pâte à foncer (for more savoury fillings), linzer
Fillings: there are two loose categories for this, although some cross over slightly
   Baked: almond cream, frangipane, custard (pot du crème / crème brûlée)
   Unbaked (cooked): mousse, crémeux, curd, pastry cream, caramel filling, chiffon filling, bavarian,
                                  cooked fruit (this can be for baked applications as well)
Garnish: two different loose categories for this too. The accent just tells the story while the feature is the center of the dessert.
   Feature: Italian meringue, fresh fruit (can be accent), ganache (can be accent), geleé (can be accent)
   Accent: candied zest, citrus chips, appricot glaze, chocolate decos, chocolate curls, fine line piping,
                roasted/candied nuts, gold leaf, silver leaf, edible flowers, herbs

Chef Kelson demonstration cutting.

MOP: tartlet shells.
Time: 24 shells takes roughly 40 minutes to mold

• Cut off a small portion of the dough and reserve the rest of the dough, wrapped, in the refrigerator.
• Roll out dough as thin as possible to roughly 1/16" thick, almost transparently thin.
• You can either do the next step individually or for a few molds at a time. If doing multiple shells, note that the finish might not be as refined, but it will be faster. Cut out a strip of the dough and place it over a few molds (silicone). Cut around each mold. Press the dough down into each individual molds either with your fingers or with a tamper. You can wrap extra dough in plastic and use this to press the dough into the corners.
• Trim edges.
• If you are using a metal mold you can still do this in production method. Place several molds close together leaving a slight gap between each. Reserve one mold to use as tamper if you dont have one. Place strip of dough over molds, tamper dough into the molds. Cut around each mold releasing them. Press in corners as done with the silicone molds. Trim the edges down.
• Par bake tartlet shells fully. Bake at 375°F for roughly 15 minutes, or until it takes on golden colour.