Pastry Maestra
Free Video Tutorials on Baking, Pastry making and Creating Desserts. Have a sweet life!
C
ream puff is one of the most known desserts ever. It is a ball of baked choux pastry, cut and filled with Chantilly cream or crème pâtissière. These little sweet snacks are not difficult to make, especially if you already know how to make perfect pâte à choux. However, that won’t be enough for today’s recipe.
D
ecorations made of chocolate are the most beautiful and sophisticated display of pastry chef’s skills when done properly, but they are also fun to make! That’s what I like the most about being a pastry chef – you get to play with chocolate all day long and on top of that – you get paid! It’s a sweet life!
‘H
ey chef, hit me again, and just keep ’em coming!’, yelled the leading actor, ordering another Piña Colada Tart. Chef just rolled his eyes, knowing that this is going to be another long night in his pastry shop…
W
hen translated from French, vol-au-vent [vɔlovɑ̃] means “windblown”. And if you have never seen this small, hollow puff pastry case, it is time to try something new. You can fill vol-au-vents with savory fillings such as mushrooms, chicken, tuna or bacon, and if you have a sweet tooth like I do, you can play with all kinds of sweet creams and toppings.
E
asy guys, relax! It’s not what you think! Blondies, NOT blonds!
Blondie [ˈblɒndi]
Noun: blondie
Plural noun: blondies
P
assion fruit – a fragrant, bright yellow and tangy pulp that reminds me of summer! The sun, the sea, romance and wild passion, like a cheap postcard, or a plot of a cheesy romantic novel, right? Well – maybe I’m a hopeless romantic, but, that is the meaning of the word ‘passion’ for me. However, when it comes to this fruit, it seems that it was named by the 16th century Spanish Catholic Missionaries in the Amazon region of Brazil, no less! They called it “flor passionis” (passion flower) or “flor de las cinco llagas” (flower of the five wounds) after its purple flower which they believed resembled the five wounds of Christ.
O
blong and elegant, simple, but sophisticated, éclair is one of the French classics. The combination of freshly baked, crispy pâte à choux shell, light crème pâtissière and sweet fondant icing is a symphony of flavors and textures for your taste buds. No wonder the French are so proud and sensitive about their éclairs! And when it comes to making them, you’ll learn that it’s always the most difficult task to achieve perfection within simplicity.
A
vocado (Persea Americana) is a fascinating fruit, native to Central America. The Aztec word for avocado was ahuacatl, which means “testicle tree.” I’ve learned that it is also called “alligator pear,” funny, but when you take a closer look, the skin of the avocado does resemble the one of the alligator.
M
endiants [mɑ̃.djɑ̃] are small chocolate discs topped with dried fruits and nuts. There are so many great things about these sweet little snacks! First, you can use either dark, milk or white chocolate. Even better, you can put any nuts, dried or candied fruits you like, so can easily make different mendiants for each member of your family! And last, but not least, they are so attractive that you can wrap them in a cellophane bag, put a ribbon, and you will have the most beautiful handmade edible gift ever!
H
ave you ever bought a chocolate bar or a chocolate bonbon, and when you impatiently opened the sweet package, you discovered an unappealing layer of something white on the surface of your supposed-to-be-pleasurable snack? And if you took a bite of that chocolate, it crumbled in your mouth in a kind of sandy way? Well, don’t worry, that chocolate bar wasn’t old or spoiled, and the white thing is not fungus, no – the problem is in a process called the ‘tempering’.
