Lessons with Sarah

A delightful surprise hit my inbox in November - an invitation to a pastry lesson at a friend's house. How fun is that?

{And how did my friend, B, know that taking a cooking class was on my 101 List?}

Of course I accepted and this weekend's class with Chef Sarah was a blast!

Panacotta - you're no match for the Chef!

A small group of girls gathered to master The Art of The Custard, focusing on panacotta, creme brulee and bread pudding. {Major YUM!}

{Now this is weird...how did my friend, B, know that learning how to make creme brulee from scratch was on my 101 List?}

We started off with creme brulee.It took all of us to separate the eggs, whip them, add sugar and gently stir in scalded cream. Chef Sarah assured me that it was possible to do it all oneself, with the help of a silicone trivet to hold the bowl in place.

She also taught us how - and why - to use a water bath. Interesting!!

After the creme brulee baked and cooled slightly, it was time for the torch. I must confess that I felt a special connection to my dad throughout this process. Growing up, he'd use a blow torch to light fireworks. Seriously!

I'm not that daring, but the creme brulee sugar toppings were no match for me and my super-duper torch!!

Jumping back a bit, while the creme brulee were doing their thing in the oven, we turned our attention to bread pudding. More eggs, more sugar, more cream and challah bread...then on to a good soaking and the assembly line.

We layered chunks of chocolate and pecans, but I could just imagine this with dried cherries and bittersweet chocolate, and perhaps a splash of rum. YUM!

A decidedly non-custardy portion of our lesson focused on making coulis. Though I, thanks to life in the UK, knew what a coulis was, I'd never actually made one.

It turns out that making a coulis is pretty simple, really. Some fruit (or vegetable or chocolate), a dash of sugar (if needed), a dash of liquid (as needed to achieve the right consistency) and you're done!

Mashing the mango.

In no time at all, we whipped up raspberry, mango and chocolate coulis.

Now I need some plastic bottles for my kitchen!

I learned about sheet gelatin - strange stuff, indeed. It looks like thin plastic, but gets soft and pliable after a five minute (or so) soak in cool water. You use it for dishes that need the structure that gelatin can provide, but without adding the massive amounts of liquid that normal gelatin powder requires. We used it in our passion fruit panacotta.

Sheet gelatin out of the package.

Though I didn't take a photo of it, we also used liberal amounts of vanilla bean paste. It is cheaper (and easier) than scraping vanilla beans and adds wonderful intense vanilla flavor for recipes where required.

Finally, we made tuiles (pronounced "tweel"). These are simple cookies made with butter, powdered sugar and milk. Working immediately upon removal from the oven, you can twist and roll them into fun shapes.

Another thing to get for the Hayley house - Silpat!

And the final products!

Chocolate chunk and pecan bread pudding, with chocolate coulis, blackberries and raspberries:

Passion fruit panacotta, embellished with a tuile, raspberry and mango coulis, and fresh raspberries and blackberries:

And my lovely creme brulee, garnished with a tuile, chocolate and raspberry coulis, and fresh raspberries and blackberries.

Such a fun afternoon - even though we did eat far too many sweets at the end. But that was the point, right?