'Chocolate to Savour' & Dessert Night

Kirsten Tibballs and her team from Savour created this amazing edible

chocolate garden to celebrate the launch of Kirsten's new book...

'Chocolate to Savour' & Savour's 10th Birthday!

This garden has to be the best I have ever seen...

My garden of Eden!

...'Magic Mushrooms'

.... Honeycomb moss

...Macarons of all flavours

..and even little chocolate butterflies!

Believe me when I say they taste as good as they look!!

Check out who else was there...

Yes my lovely friend Anna Polyviou

But the gentleman sanding between the two of us is the one and only

Paco Torreblanca!

If you don't know who he is...Google him! 

You're missing out!

A pastry genius!

And the woman of the moment herself....

Congratulations Kirsten!

Your new book is fantastic!

I can't wait to get stuck into some of the recipes...

These are some of the delights you can cook from Kirsten's book

'Chocolate to Savour'

In celebration of Kirsten's new book

I'm going to share with you my one of my little chocolate recipes

(by the way it is very basic- nothing like the creations from Kirsten's book!)

Chocolate Truffles

300g Dark Chocolate
300mL thickened Cream
Pinch of salt.
250g Tempered Chocolate

Pop the cream in a pan over a medium heat and bring up to a simmer.

Melt the chocolate in a large bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water below it.

When the cream is simmering, remove the pan from the heat, add the salt, and add to the melted chocolate a third at a time, making sure that the cream is thoroughly incorporated after each addition. 

Allow to cool slightly.

Pour the chocolate mixture in to a lined tray (20cm x 20cm) 

and leave to stand at room temperature until cool, 

then place in thefridge for 5-6 hours or until set.

Using a small melon baller, scoop balls of the chocolate out of the ganache then roll in tempered chocolate....

(This is a good video to show you how to temper 

http://gourmettraveller.com.au/tempered-chocolate.htm) 

....then cocoa powder before serving.

These are great! The tempered chocolate gives it a crunch on the outside before you get the almost gooey ganache middle. Yum!

Great as a petite four!

Enjoy!

The next big event for the week was

"Dessert Night"

at Burch & Purchese!

The lovely shop front of Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio

was revamped-

Tables where brought in, 

cutlery set and candles on tables...

To create an ambience fit for the delicious 

degustation of desserts created by Darren Purchese...

Ross & Darren creating the nitro

Hendrick's Gin & Tonic marshmallow...

Rose, Apple & Beetroot crumble...

Passionfruit Cloud....

Avocado, Pear, Cucumber, Eucalypt and White Chocolate...

Chocolate, Mandarin and Salted Caramel...

Another fun event at Burch and Purchese!!

Especially with these two in the kitchen :)

There will be more Dessert Nights in the future...

Email Burch & Purchese to get info on these events!

Thankyou to Kirsten for the invite and being able to celebrate 

your book launch & 10 year birthday of Savour!

And to Darren for giving me a go at his amazing creations!

Learning so much!!

Love it!

Photos were taken on my Nikon V1

The Dessert Queen Battle at Burch & Purchese

Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio 

This has to the the mecca for anyone who likes anything sweet!

They have some incredible things....

  ....'Clouds' 

... Tube Desserts

.... Layered Cakes

.... Eclairs 

...Gourmet chocolates

...And my personal favourite

Salted Caramel

SOLD IN JARS!!

They also have an amazing team headed up by Pastry guru

Darren Purchese...

Check out Burch & Purchese website here

I visited Burch & Purchese whilst in Melbourne for 

the top 50 MasterChef Auditions...

And was absolutely blown away by the shop, the kitchen

and the sweets!

So naturally,

 I managed to find my way back to the shop...

And into the kitchen!

Julia also returned to jump in the kitchen

Two MasterChef Dessert Queens in the one spot!

That could only mean one thing...

Challenge time!

The brief:

Create a delicious dessert canape

to serve to the guests at Burch & Purchese....

My creation...

"Jammy Doughnuts"

Cinnamon Sable

Raspberry Jam

Doughnut Panna Cotta

Dehydrated doughnut

Cinnamon Sable

300g brown sugar

350g plain flour

300g cold unsalted butter

2 teaspoons cinnamon powder

In a mixer with a paddle attachment, on a slow speed, 

mix the flour and sugar together until well combined.

Crumble in the butter and continue to mix until the mixture resembles sand.

Turn out onto a bench top and lightly knead until the mixture comes together.

Roll out to about 3mm in thickness, then pop into the fridge until hard.

Take out of the fridge and cut into desired shapes...

I did circles...

But you could do squares or even ginger bread men shapes!

Pop on a lined oven tray and bake at 170 degrees celcius for about 15mins or until a caramel brown.

For a neat finish, recut your desired shape while the sable is still hot, then leave on the tray to cool.

These are great just as they are or even better with a topping...

In my case panna cotta, but you could do a flavoured cream, jam, ganache....the sky's your limit!

Serve with a good cup of tea..

Enjoy! xxx

Some more pictures of the day....

"Jammy Doughnuts" & "Black Forest Macaron"

"Rex" :)

Got to meet some lovely people Jackie (above) and Nafisa (below) who brought Julia & I

a cool little gift...

A maamoul mould! 

The boys came in for a visit too...

I think they heard that there was a few samplers to be tasted!

Ky was absolutely wrapped to meet the boys :)

So was Ross....

And on the flip side I think the boys where chuffed to meet the girls!

Great day!

For all those that came in 

Thanks!

Was lovely to meet you all...

Make sure you come back again to say hi!

Photos were taken on my Nikon V1

Casa!!!

Welcome to.....

 Casa!

(Meaning home)

Location:

Devonport, Tasmania!

Ben's home....

And the site of our next little cooking endeavour...

Three awesome nights held at the local Devonport Football club

hosted by us...

Andy, Ben, Beau & Me!

Entree:

 Ceviche Tuna Tostadas

with pickled jalapeno, corn puree and chipotle mayonnaise.

Main:

Adobo Braised Beef

Shimeji mushrooms, pomme puree and cherry truss tomatoes

Dessert:

Masa Gaznates

with blistered raspberry cream, white chocolate meringue, raspberry gel

and toasted coconut parfait.

Toasted Coconut Parfait:

Step 1

'Coconut Caramel'

100g Toasted Coconut

300mL Thickened Cream

200mL Full Cream Milk

115g Liquid Glucose

140g Caster Sugar

3 Gold Gelatine Leaves Bloomed

Pop the cream and milk on the stove and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat, toss in the toasted coconut and leave to infuse for 1 hour! :)

Strain the liquid and discard the coconut. Then pop the liquid back into a pot, onto the stove on a medium heat until it simmers again.

Meanwhile, heat a heavy based saucepan over a medium heat.

Sprinkle in a spoon of sugar and wait till it dissolves. Gradually add in the remaining sugar and stir constantly ntil al the sugar has melted and is a light golden brown.

Slowly pour the hot liquid into the caramel (be careful here there is a lot of steam!!)

Whisk until combined.

Add in the gelatine and strain into a large metal bowl and set aside to cool.

Step 2

'Bombe'

50g Caster Sugar

20g Liquid Glucose

60mL Water

160g Yolks

Pop the sugar, glucose and water into a small bowl and bring to the boil. Brush down the sides of the pot with a wet pastry brush to make sure the syrup does not crystalize.

Continuew to cook until the syrup reaches 118 degrees celcius.

In the mean time, pop the yolks in a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on a medium speed.

Once the syrup has reached the desired temperature, remove from the heat, reduce the speed of the mixer and slowly pour the syrup down the side of the bowl into the yolks.

Once all the syrup is in, crank up the speed and mix until cool.

Step 3

'Combine'

200mL Thickened Cream

(whipped to stiff peaks)

To combine, remove bowl from mixer and gently fold in the caramel into the bombe, then fold in the whipped cream.

Pour the parfait into a 30cm x 30cm square tin lined with baking paper.

Then pop into the freezer for a few hours until firm.

To serve, 

turn the parfait out, then chop into the desired size...

(you can eat any off cuts...chef snacks!)

Enjoy! xx

A great night...

An even better team!

Photos & films were taken on my Nikon V1


(Please excuse my poor movie editing skills. My computer is so old so it doesn't display the good quality of film & photos from the Nikon V1...)

Sydney Pastry Club!

The name says it all……

‘Pastry Club’

Oh happy days! What more could a sugar head like myself want!

I was very fortunate to be invited along to the Sydney Pastry Club by The Bather’s Pavillion’s executive pastry chef Anna Polyviou to enjoy an afternoon full of sampling delicious ‘Cheese inspired’ desserts and chatting about all things pastry.

The Sydney Pastry Club is all about “creativity, sharing and generosity. The idea is to get Pastry chefs together to revisit dessert themes….gateaux Opera, the Baba, the Black forest.”

At each gathering each chef brings along their masterpiece to be tasted by other chefs….

What a great idea! For me it was so nice to meet such lovely people who are so dedicated to all things sweet!

The afternoon started with a guided taste test by Dom from Australia on a Plate who took us through tasting some of the world’s most delicious cheeses and Steve from San Pelligrino who matched sparkling and flavoured waters to the dishes presented.

 Then dessert!!

(These as just a few..)

Julien Pouteau & Tamas Pamer from Intercontinental Hotel's creation..

 Jean Michel from Baroque

Lux Bite's Blue Cheese & Fig tart

Fabien from the Park Hyatt Sydney and his truffle creation.

Bathers Pavilion signature cheese course, created by Anna Polyviou and her rocking crazy team

  

Samuel Yeo's Japanese style baked truffled goat's cheesecake with umeboshi and oat 

Locantro

Yves from the Casino Sokyo

 Some pretty incredible and inspired dishes!

Finally my dish was plated…

Spiced honey mascarpone panna cotta with blistered grapes, toffeed walnuts, walnut crumb and goat’s cheese ice cream.

My favourite part would have to be the panna cotta..so smooth in texture and flavourful from all the spices with just a touch of sweetness from the honey…delicious!

So….I’m going to share this little recipe with you J

Spiced Honey & Mascarpone Panna Cotta

4 Gold strength gelatine leaves

350mL thickened cream

300mL milk

70g honey

80g sugar

400g mascarpone

2 sticks cinnamon

3 cardamon pods

2 cloves

1 vanilla bean

Pop the gelatine ins some iced water until it has softened.  Squeeze out the water then place in a small bowl until ready to use.

In a pot, pop the cream, milk, honey, sugar, cinnamon, cardamon, cloves and vanilla bean and bring to a simmer. Turn off and leave the spices to infuse for 10 mins. Turn the heat back on and bring to a simmer again, pop the gelatine into the liquid and stir until completely dissolved.

Strain the mixture into 10 125mL dariole moulds and pop in the fridge for about 4 hours or better still overnight!

Once set, turn out the panna cottas by dipping the bottom of each mould into very hot water, tip it upside down and give it a little shake and it should slide out…be ready with a plate! J

If you don’t have dariole moulds you can set the panna cottas in glasses…this makes it easy cause you don’t have to worry about turning them out!

This is so yummy!!

Enjoy! xx

This was such an enjoyable event! Would love to say a massive thankyou to all the chefs involved in particularly Anna! If you would like to check out more of their amazing desserts check out their facebook page here…

 

These photos where taken on my Nikon V1