Christmas allies: Creams and Sauces!

The holiday season brings family and friends gatherings and with that, special occasion meals and pastries. We want to highlight our culinary skills and create beautiful desserts for our loved ones to enjoy. That is my case at least! I love to put my imagination to dream and create cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and fancy desserts that I have either enjoyed at a restaurant or just seen a picture of in a magazine. One of the most important aspects to creating something special comes with the filling and decorating of pastries, and so at the Auguste Escoffier Culinary School, we have learned about creams and sauces. Doing so at a professional level, taking into consideration elements as using the right technique, temperature, texture, flavor (or a mix of flavors) can make all the difference in creating unique desserts that melt on the palate. I will show you what I have done lately: Pastry cream, chantilly cream, and chocolate ganache.

The velvety pastry cream

A basic but so versatile cream, you can use pastry cream for fillings, toppings, sauces, or even to create a main dessert (as a pudding for instance); you can mix it with different flavors (I just used it with almond and orange) and you can add other textures (more butter for Mousseline cream or German buttercream). It is not difficult to make but the key is to keep it moving. One Chef recommended I use a whisk to avoid lumps. It did not work for me. I found the wooden spoon easier to manage and to mix the cream…ahhh, and the type of movement is also important. When you use the “eight-mixing technique” for moving the cream, especially when it starts getting harder as you cook it, doing it following an “8” makes sure all the liquid is being moved, it avoids lumps and scorches at the bottom of the saucepan. I was happy overall with the result and so was my instructor (I got a 10 in this task). The final product had a delicious flavor and it had a smooth, velvety consistency. The basis of pastry cream is the tempering of a mix of egg yolks and sugar, with a liquid (milk and sugar) taken to a scald (almost at a boil). A few learnings from the entire experience: a) to wait until the liquid of milk and sugar is at scald before starting to whisk the eggs with the sugar. This prevents the egg yolks to start coagulation with the sugar before its time; b) to be consistent in the 8th technique of mixing the cream in the pan as it is cooking, to make sure smoothness of the cream; c) to spread the pastry cream on a sheet to speed up the cooling process.

The magnificent chocolate ganache

A chocolate ganache is made from heavy cream and chocolate mixture until reaching a smooth and lush combination. The amount of chocolate or cream can be adjusted depending on the dessert it will be used for. However, it can be tricky since getting the right consistency is key to obtaining that soft luxurious appearance.

I made the ganache for using it on top of eclairs. However, I was not sure I had the right consistency for the ganache. The lesson video showed a thicker consistency, and I tried to replicate it. However, the ganache's hard texture did not allow for a smooth process once I tried dipping the eclairs. So, I warmed the ganache a little bit and finally got the right consistency. I also learned that the heavy cream needs to be very hot before melting with the chocolate. I had to place the mixture over a bain-marie to finalize the melting and mixing process. The good thing is you can use this technique to get the right consistency of your ganache to use it for either a sauce or a topping. I was able to use the same ganache for both topping the eclairs and as a sauce to decorate a plate.

The reliable Chantilly cream.

The classic Chantilly cream is the perfect addition to all sorts of desserts. You can mix it with fruit, chocolate, with pies and it always adds a delicate and elegant touch. I tried to whip the cream with my hand using a whisker, but it was too hard. I had to use a hand mixer to achieve the result faster. I also learned that it is best not to leave the heavy cream sitting for too long in the bowl and always chill all your tools before starting to whip. A good practice before making the cream is to chill the bowl. Then to pour the cream into the cold bowl and start whipping it using a hand mixer, until the cream creates soft peaks. Finally, adding the powdered sugar little by little and finally the vanilla extract, until everything was combined, getting medium peaks. On my first try, I overmixed the cream but it was still good for decorating purposes. On a second try, this time adding some raspberry puree, the consistency was much better!

Do you have a favorite Christmas ally? let me know in the comments!