Desserts for the Summertime!

We made sorbets, ice creams, and delicious iced entremets last week.  These are all of our sorbet preparations about to be mixed in the machine!

This was so much fun--we made the pattern with our fingers.  It's striping for "jaconde" (kind of like a really thin cake)

The batter is spread over the striping very thinly.

And it looks like this when it comes out!

Here's another one.

We used it to line the bottom of our iced entremets.

Almond "dacquoise" bottom with the striped jaconde as a border

So we have the jaconde striping, the almond dacquoise, and then ice cream is spread around the edges.

Then, a pre-made round of coulis and parfait layers is tucked inside the ice cream.

More ice cream is spread over the top, and it's decorated.  Then the ring is taken off.

Beautiful, no?  This one is called "Fraîcheur d'Été" and has lemon coulis, strawberry parfait, and mint ice cream.  Refreshing and summery :)

"Fraicheur d'Eté"  lemon coulis and strawberry parfait with mint ice cream

There are so many flavor possibilities, but they're all made the same way.

I made this one!  "Bourgogne" with Black-currant coulis, Blackberry parfait, and Raspberry sorbet

This one was my absolute favorite.  It's called "William" I'm not sure why, but it's delicious.  Maybe it's because William is a somewhat classy name, especially the way the French say it.  Anyway, this one is made with a Pear coulis, Caramel parfait, and Vanilla bean ice cream. mmmmmmmm!  Notice my striped jaconde lining the edge :)

"William" Pear coulis, Caramel parfait, and Vanilla ice cream

"Roussillon" with Raspberry coulis, Pistachio parfait, and Apricot sorbet

Then we learned how to work with sugar a bit.  It's so hard! But it was so fun to watch the demonstration.  Notice how translucent and bright green it is when it's first poured onto the mat:

Then he kneads it a bit, and stretches it.

Lots of turning it over onto itself.

And then it's ready to be worked with.  It's placed under a special lamp to keep it at the right consistency.  Notice how the color has changed dramatically--it's kind of pearlescent.

Then it can be shaped or molded like this:

We worked with nougatine again last week and made these cute little pots to put the leftover sorbets in. 

Here's a finished pot with some little leaves made from the sugar.

We also made baskets out of the nougatine!  Isn't it adorable?

Nougatine basket!

There are some macarons in it, garnished with black-currant sorbet.

So that was last week.  Today, I had my Final Exam for my bakery class.  We had 6 hours to make 7 kilos of baguettes, 5 loaves of whole wheat bread, a braided loaf and ring of "pain au lait," 10 croissants, and 9 pain au chocolat.  Here are my final products, waiting to be graded.