SOFT NOUGAT ISLANDS

I was looking for a recipe for Soft Nougat filling for making Chocolate confection.  My friend found a recipe called Nougat Centers.  I gave it a try.  It is good.
The white blob you see in the picture is the original soft nougat center.  For variation I added walnuts, raisins, candied cherries, and rum.  But the candied cherries didn't have distinct flavor, so I added maraschino cherries, marachino juice + rum.  That's the pink blob you see on the plate.  If you like maraschino cherries, then this is good.  The other pink blob is with extra chopped raisins and maraschino juice with rum. 

 

Squeeze the parchment paper to separate the chocolate cup off of it.

This nougat is mixed with melted milk chocolate.  Then fill with nougat with cherries...

Canneles de Bordeaux - Delicious!

After acquiring a copy of soft nougat center recipe from Debra, my friend on Thursday evening, I decided to test it out right away on Friday.    As I have never made nougat before, I was very delighted when Debra said she is coming to stop by.  Then, we got talking about our good ole' Canneles de Bordeaux and this "Polytech 'Lille".  (http://caneleiaal.free.fr)    A group of students who conducted study and reported on their in depth testings and findings on How To's of Le Canele de Bordeaux.    We read it ones together back in 2007, but this time I listened more intentively.    There's the reasonings for why scalding the milk - to infuse vanilla bean, why use the rhum vieux agricole, why or why not of refrigerating for 12 hours, etc, silicone mold vs, copper, and aluminum, etc.   Well, my soft nougat turned out successfully and my family members validated them over the weekends, but tonight... well, last night I decided to venture one more time in the baking the second batch of Canneles de Bordeaux for year 2010. And what a great joy and satisfaction.   This time around, it passed my sight, texture, taste, aroma, and clean kitchen test.  Bees wax and butter mixture for the molds in the past is something you would think twice of if the product didn't turn out the way it should. They can be messy to clean after.

  As mentioned in my past blog on Canneles, the ingredients are so simple, but yet, the baking them is extremely challenging.  This time, I got 'the' best result compared to the ones in the past.

Outer shells are nice dark brown.    A couple of them in the back of the oven turned close to 'burnt' looking, but when I tasted, it was so delicious.  And also figured out how to get this RUM aroma I love so much in Cannele at its best.    Thank you Debra for your visit Friday nite, it paid off.

 

As cannele is quite sweet, I decided to fill the molds only to half way rather than the usual three-fourth.   This prevented the batter to rise afloat above the rim of the mold (normal, during baking), thus, minimized/prevented bees wax+butter coating in the molds to spill out to the baking sheet.

It was the best idea.  Also, this produced two-bite size Canneles that is more appealing.   And I am sure my family would love that, too.

This time I decided not to indulge in my Madagascar vanilla paste and only use 1 tsp of it rather the usual 1 Tbsp that I like.  

Can't wait till morning, . . . I can have one in the morning for breakfast.

Ice Cream over Lotus Tuile Cookies Drizzled with Very Berry Sauce and Banana on Angel Roll Cake Lake

 

My plated dessert project #2 at home turned out lovely and fun.  Over the weekend, I had two special guests at home to entertain.  To end the evening with pleasant finale, I presented them with this long winded plated dessert name:  "Ice Cream over Lotus Tuile Cookies Drizzled with Very Berry Sauce and Banana on Angel Roll Cake Lake".  Well, it seems to be the appropriate description of the plated dessert and my two special guests didn't mind.  After all, each got their favorite sprinkles on top of it.  To make Tuile Lotus Cookies, I took Bo Friberg's advice and purchased plastic binder index pages.  I traced the Tulip patterns in Bo Friberg's, 2003, "The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef", page 717.  After making the pattern, I scrape the excess off, wash, and ready for next use.  And, page 695 for "Vanilla Tuile Decorating Paste".  One of his dessert photo illustration #58 - Red Currant Sorbet in Magnolia Cookie Shells (between page 274 and 275) is my inspiration.

Ingredients

Yield:  for two guests

2 Thin Slices of Angel Roll Cake with Creme Chantilly and Orange Zest

1 C Frozen Nature's Three Berries (Kirkland brand - Costco)

1/3 C Sugar

Creme Chantilly

1/2 a Banana - sliced diagonally - total of 8 slices

Tuile Cookies in Tulip flower shape

Neopolitan Ice Cream - total of 10 ice cream balls - size of grape/each

Melon Scoop

Sprinkles

Method

Berry Sauce

Cook berries with sugar in saucepan until berries are soft and sugar melted.

Cool.  Press berries through sieve.  Save the rest of berry sauce for later use, except 2-3 Tbsp.

Tuile Lotus Cookies

Prepare Tuile batter from Bo Friberg's, 4th edition, "Advanced Professional Pastry Chef", page 695, "Vanilla Tuile Decorating Paste".

Slices of Angel Roll Cake with Creme Chantilly and Orange Zest (Ref: http://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/2010/02/angel-cake-roll-with-creme-chantilly.html that is from http://schneiderchen.de/465Angel-Cake-Roll.html
Cut two thin slices.
Assembling:
When ready, with everything within reach, place a slice of Angel Roll Cake in ice cream serving dish.  Drizzle with Very Berry Sauce.  Place 4 slices of banana.  Pipe Creme Chantilly all around the rim.  Place the molded Lotus Tuile Cookies on top (floating); scoop ice cream with melon scooper into a separate bowl.  5 ice cream balls per servings.   Ice Cream ball is about the size of a grape.  Collect all ice cream balls at finger tips and give a gentle squeeze.
Place on top of Lotus Tuile Cookies.
Drizzle with Very Berry Sauce.
Decorate with whip cream or in this case with Sprinkles of guests' choice.
(double click on photos to view larger image.)

Enjoy!