Week 2

Donuts

This week's plated dessert consisted of plain and chocolate raised donuts tossed in a spiced sugar, along with a vanilla bean parfait and layered hot chocolate. The garnish was a dark chocolate circular plaque. Again, I plated it as shown in the text book and a second way as well. 

The donuts were the main component on the plate and I wanted to do something unexpected in terms of the shape, a filling, etc..  Further, I love the chocolate and peanut butter combination and since I had made peanut butter ganache to make chocolates, I wanted to incorporate it into this dessert. I decided to make small pillow-like chocolate donuts, similar to a ravioli, filled with peanut butter ganache. I had a vision of three of the donuts fanned on the right side over a puddle of the layered hot chocolate . And on the left I wanted to create a tower with the vanilla parfait, rolled in chopped peanuts, layered between chocolate plaques. I was excited about the vision in my mind, and thought it would look great on the plate!

The execution of my vision did not turn out as I had expected. The donuts puffed up quite a bit when frying, and therefore were not as delicate and small as I had envisioned. Three of them together looked too big. The vanilla parfait and chocolate tower turned out alright. Overall, all the components just didn't work as well as I thought they would. I learned that the vision in my mind doesn't always translate onto a plate. The photo below is a variation that Chef Sid helped me with that worked a lot better with the elements I had created.

I am working on my ability to envision how elements will work together on a plate. I'm learning this is a process and takes practice.

Chocolates

Chocolate making was great fun! I have made rolled truffles before, but this was my first time making filled chocolates in molds. Each person made a different ganache, and I chose peanut butter. I learned so much about the chocolate making process, and thoroughly enjoyed it. All the chocolates looked so professional, and were so tasty!

                                          Plated as show in the textbook.

                                         A variation that Chef Sid help me with. 

                                          Molds lined with chocolate.

                                          Filling with peanut butter ganache.

                                           The final product!