Day 24: The One with the Petit Fours

Today was the last day of baking, as tomorrow is just pictures and diplomas and awards so a very bittersweet day to say the least.

When I think of petit fours, I think of little mini cakes that you get at bridal showers and fanncy tea parties. While this is correct it seems petit fours can really be any dessert made the size of about two bites. So today we made a smoked chocolate hazelnut petit four and a mango coconut petit four.

For the coconut one we made a mousse, a mango gel, and used the extra sponge from yesterday to create a white insert with a round mold. Once this was frozen we popped it out and dipped it in a chocolate shell just enough to create the effect that it looked like a coconut. We then used a wired brush to scratch the sides of the coconut to really give the fuzzy texture and make it lifelike. It was finished with some chopped pineapple and lime zest, and of course a little cocktail umbrella.

For the hazelnut petit four we made a smoked dark chocolate cremeux used a smoky black tea to infuse the cream. We then made a feuilletine layer and set them on top of each other the freeze. We also used a smoky chocolate mousse and set that and the insert in a mold to freeze as one. Once this was popped out of the mold we glazed it with a shiny black glaze and topped with a chocolate decoration and gold leaf.

Today when we made the chocolate decoration we used a mycryo which is a cocoa butter that it freeze dried and can be used to temper chocolate like the silk method we used a few weeks ago. This is probably the easiest way to temper as you just melt the chocolate and then when it gets to 35 degrees celsius you add 2% mycryo and then the chocolate is usable. The only downside is mycryo is expensive.

Tomorrow is the last day of the course, thank you to everyone who read my blog and supported my journey to get here! Can’t wait to share all the diploma pictures with you!