It is a Mystery

The deeper we dug ourselves into plated the harder things got. Ever thought about playing with sugar that is 320 degrees? It is as intimidating as you think it might be, but once you start working with it caramel garnishes are a beautiful addition to a plate .... you just have to be really careful.
The last week was amazing. We made pear charlottes. I plated mine with caramel garnishes (spirals and pulled caramel) and a pear chip.
On Wednesday we walked into class not knowing what we would be working with. Mystery ingredient day ... turned out to be one of my favorite ingredients, pumpkin! A lot of the class had never chopped up a whole pie pumpkin and made use of it! It was a really fun day. I had a lot of tricks up my sleeve but I decided to try something I'd never done before. I made a pumpkin mousse with mascarpone (not too sweet) and then I put it in a pate sucree crust brushed with melted chocolate, topped the whole thing off with chocolate chantilly cream and a drizzle of chocolate ganache. I just happened to have the pumpkin chocolate cut-out garnish. I made the colorful cranberry coulis the hard way, cooked down cranberries, pureed and then food milled for a really beautiful sauce. It was so tart and tangy. Chef couldn't believe I went to all the work ... cranberry puree doesn't come in a tub, you gotta to do what you gotta do.