My pastry stuff

[formula400]

The professional photo of the egg in its display case just outside the restaurant

basket of flowers by lewis wilson, on Flickr

[Count Steer]

The professional photo of the egg in its display case just outside the restaurant

basket of flowers by lewis wilson, on Flickr

Wowser!

[Skub]

Just think how far you could have gone if you'd applied yourself.

[Mr Moofo]

Can you make nice custard slices ?
I really fancy one - and they see to be very "off trend " in the Republic of Brighton ...

[formula400]

Can you make nice custard slices ?
I really fancy one - and they see to be very "off trend " in the Republic of Brighton ...

you know what, ive never made a custard slice, I am sure I could, ive made plenty of mille-feuille's in my time.

[Mr Moofo]

Can you make nice custard slices ?
I really fancy one - and they see to be very "off trend " in the Republic of Brighton ...

you know what, ive never made a custard slice, I am sure I could, ive made plenty of mille-feuille's in my time.

Mille Feuille is definitely the Hove version of the cream slice, esp if you could shove some Tonka Bean into it - the custard slice is deffo more Worthing / Lancing

Great skills BTW

[formula400]

Can you make nice custard slices ?
I really fancy one - and they see to be very "off trend " in the Republic of Brighton ...

you know what, ive never made a custard slice, I am sure I could, ive made plenty of mille-feuille's in my time.

Mille Feuille is definitely the Hove version of the cream slice, esp if you could shove some Tonka Bean into it - the custard slice is deffo more Worthing / Lancing

Great skills BTW

I bloody love tonka, but can't beat the plain old vanilla version, unless you add hazelnuts

[Mr Moofo]

you know what, ive never made a custard slice, I am sure I could, ive made plenty of mille-feuille's in my time.

Mille Feuille is definitely the Hove version of the cream slice, esp if you could shove some Tonka Bean into it - the custard slice is deffo more Worthing / Lancing

Great skills BTW

I bloody love tonka, but can't beat the plain old vanilla version, unless you add hazelnuts

Good quality vanilla, I trust - preferably Madagascan ...
Tonka is a strange one - jumped from the fragrance industry into flavour segment. I used to work for a company that made loads of the extract. If you ever fly into Geneva, then travel by road into France, you will smell it!

[formula400]

I use a Madagascan and tahitian, depending on what I am doing.

with certain things tonka is the nuts, chocolate, caramel, strawberries

[Mr. Dazzle]

Speaking of "plain old custard slices".

I've always said to Mrs D that if I won the Euromillions, or had what you might term too much money, I would pay a high end chef to make me elevated versions of high street chocolate bars.

You know...like a Snickers, but with proper nougat, toasted peanuts, salted caramel, high cocoa chocolate etc.

I think a Mars bar is actually a pretty good concept. I'd love to see a really really good one.

[Count Steer]

Speaking of "plain old custard slices".

I've always said to Mrs D that if I won the Euromillions, or had what you might term too much money, I would pay a high end chef to make me elevated versions of high street chocolate bars.

You know...like a Snickers, but with proper nougat, toasted peanuts, salted caramel, high cocoa chocolate etc.

I think a Mars bar is actually a pretty good concept. I'd love to see a really really good one.

I seem to remember a shop doing exactly that - it may have been in the USA and it may have been only classics that aren't available any more but it was definitely high-end versions of choc bars. I'll have a delve.

[ChrisW]

You know...like a Snickers, but with proper nougat, toasted peanuts, salted caramel, high cocoa chocolate etc.

Bon Appetit do quite a bit of stuff like that on Youtube - here's the Snickers:

[Count Steer]

I found another version of the clear, edible 'sugar dome' by a chap called Philip Khoury*. (Instagram - philkhoury - and Youtube). The sugar mix is poured into a metal ring on a membrane stretched over a cylinder. The cylinder isn't evacuated you just press the metal ring down down and the membrane pushes up into a dome and the sugar mix sets.

Apparently it isn't an uncommon technique. Still looks like magic though.

* He's Head Pastry Chef at Harrods apparently.

[formula400]

* He's Head Pastry Chef at Harrods apparently.

https://instagram.com/philkhoury?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

No apparently about it. They have an exc, then Alister birt, then Phil.

They churn out some great stuff

[Mr. Dazzle]

I see two things already about that chap.

He makes fancy aerated chocolate. AKA gourmet aero bars. Stole my idea!

He used to work with/at Zumbo. Therefore he must be into some mad stuff

I've actually got time to kill in London in a few weeks. Hmmm...I sense a trip coming on. Unless you know any particularly good "uncharted" patisseries in London @formula400?

[Count Steer]

* He's Head Pastry Chef at Harrods apparently.

https://instagram.com/philkhoury?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

No apparently about it. They have an exc, then Alister birt, then Phil.

They churn out some great stuff

I only added the edit with apparently as I'd been watching his Instagram (christmas baubles) and I didn't pick up on it, then disappeared down an Instagram patisserie rabbit hole surfaced and found the info via Google.

I imagine it's quite a small world at that level - the few on Instagram seem to follow each other.

[formula400]

I see two things already about that chap.

He makes fancy aerated chocolate. AKA gourmet aero bars. Stole my idea!

He used to work with/at Zumbo. Therefore he must be into some mad stuff

I've actually got time to kill in London in a few weeks. Hmmm...I sense a trip coming on. Unless you know any particularly good "uncharted" patisseries in London @formula400?

what's Zumbo???

he is well in to his plant based pastry

maitre choux
bafarat cafe
harrods
Cedric grolet at the Berkeley (hazelnut and pain Suisse )

[Mr. Dazzle]

Adriano Zumbo, aussie pastry chef who first hit my consciousness when he was on Masterchef Australia a few times. He also has an eponymous business I think.

I saw the chap from Harrods mentioned Zumbo in the the description of a few of his items.

[Silly Car]

I went to the Station House Cookery School (https://stationhousecookeryschool.co.uk/) in Kirkcudbright yesterday for the Patisserie day, which was thoroughly enjoyable.

The morning was a demonstration of Pate Sucre, Choux, Crème Patisserie and sugar work, Nick was a great trainer (teacher in a past life) who took us through, step by step, stage by stage, process by process and potential pitfall by pitfall through each recipe.

Once we’d enjoyed a tarka dhal and rice lunch, followed by the tarts and Croquembouche he’d made in the morning, it was our turn.

We were split into two training kitchens, think school home economics crossed with bake off (sans tent) with Nick and a local chef keeping an eye on us throughout each step, allowing us to work at our own pace. Sadly I didn’t get any photos of my finished dishes as due to a combination of travel / staying in a wooden lodge, I elected to keep it all in component form.

Observations:

Pate Sucre - needs to be properly cold before working it, then it behaves, I managed to singe the edges of the two I baked due to a combination of high sugar content, not being used to the oven and relying blindly on timing the bake.

Choux - having previously had a mixed bag of results previously, I ask Nick for a bit of extra guidance throughout and discovered that I’d previously not dried the paste out sufficiently before beating in the eggs / too much egg. Once I’d mastered the ‘furry bottom’ stage, i.e. when the paste just started sticking to the pan, then it was plain sailing, in fact the oven is heating up now to bake off the last of the pastry.

Crème Pat - pretty straight forward as long as you tempered the eggs with the hot milk and then kept everything moving 8n the pan as it cooked, among 12 of us on the day, one load of scrambled eggs and one burnt pan, neither mine! It really needs cooking out for longer than you’d expect for it to hold its shape.

Sugar work - slowly slowly, brushing down any sugar crystals, and stopping it as soon as it gets to light golden syrup colour was my saviour as many pans ended up with dark brown toffee in them. Spun sugar was fun but messy, as the sugar cooled (and darkened) I managed a fair few baskets / cages on the back of a ladle, then the fun started as the molten sugar got to the stage where you could pull it, whereby I was happily pulling spirals around the sharpening steel for ages.

I think I have found a new way to decorate desserts!

[Silly Car]

Playing around this afternoon…

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