Skip to main content

Bavarian Cream Is Like Riding Your Bike

In which you have not ridden your Bavarian Cream bike in a long time, but once you get going, you think, Hey! I remember this!  This is fun!  This is easy! Wheeeee!  And then you make a teeny little mistake, miss that teeny little rock in the road, and suddenly you've wiped out, big time.

I don't think I've mentioned it here, but a friend of mine asked me to do the food-providing for her small-group business holiday party next week, and of course, I've been testing and pairing recipes like madcap.

I'm in the shower this morning, and I realize I have the ingredients on hand for Bavarian creams.  And even better, I'm going to divide the creams out, so I can play with flavors.

But, first...a creme anglaise.  So far, so good.

This right here is what is referred to by pastry chefs as "nappé" (nap-pay).  I wanted my egg-sugar-cream mixture to cook at a low temp long enough to get thick enough to coat a spoon...and then hold the line I drew through it.


And everything else was going swimmingly...I'd divided out my warm anglaise out and one was chocolate-and-coffee flavored and the other was porter-and-chocolate flavored.

And here, things go a bit south.  I set both mixtures in the freezer to chill slightly before adding the whipped cream.


The bowl on the left is the porter and chocolate, which set up EXACTLY like I wanted it.  The mocha, though, overchilled and I did not get my smoothness when I folded in the cream.  Meh.  I can't pour that into cups!

Then.  I finished folding the cream into the porter mixture, and I soon realized I'd overbeat my cream.  The extra agitation during the folding rendered my porter not very pourable either, and in the end, the porter mix was so stuff that I had to pipe it into serving cups.  Not a horrible thing, honestly, but not what I wanted.  Fortunately, it tastes great, so it wasn't a total loss.

While I did not end up with a final product I would be comfortable serving to my friend, I feel pretty good about the fact that a.) the FP tasted pretty damn good and b.) I know exactly what to do differently for next time!

Edited to add the picture of the final product.  That's a chocolate-porter ganache on top.  I've got beer on the brain, as you can probably tell!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

(She) Blinded Me With...Citrus

Excuse my attempt at tying today's blog entry with an iconic Thomas Dolby song.  What a terrible pun-ishment. Har har har. So, we're on the backside of Winter Vacation/Christmas Break/Holiday Hiatus here.  The kids return to school tomorrow, the freshman and I start back to our respective colleges next Monday. The clock is ticking and suddenly, I am whipped into frenzy to Get Work Done.  I suspect this phenomenon happens to many, many educators who try to avoid that panic-stricken night before they go back to work. And believe me when I say, I had the deepest, most earnest of intentions to write lesson plans, write quizzes, and generally prepare for the restart of my classes next week.  Like, really. And then...I was distracted by...citrus.  This happened. Okay, so....the lemons on the far right are no big deal.  They're available year-round.  But Meyer lemons...MEYER...I only find around here in the winter.  I first read about them i...

Spaghetti Cake

Yes. You read that right.  Keep reading, friends, it's about to get good. Photo by Brent Nelson...who doesn't quite know about shadows and things in photography. Photo by your trusty author, who doesn't quite know about taking knockout food pictures. So, the caboose (Elliot) was in charge of meals this weekend...as part of his requirement for one of his Boy Scout badges.  Even though we'd be eating meals easy for a 12-year-old to put together (usually not healthy), I was totally ready to hand over the reins for the weekend. Saturday night's dinner was supposed to be simple.  Spaghetti.  But then, I remembered I had Justin's Chapple's Mad Tips article for Pasta Bundt Loaf .  I handed that over to the Boy Scout...and things just got awesome. The ingredients here seem to be a cross between those of a lasagna and an alfredo.  One pound of spaghetti noodles is cooked, and to which a bunch of cheese, milk, eggs, and seasonings are added.  All...

Keeping It Short, Keeping It Real

Today marked the penultimate day of Cake Decorating...and it was by far the most stressful of the last three weeks...and I mean, to quote the youth, I was a hater . But, that time is done and gone.  Here's what happening right now: A glass (which may turn into a bottle) of a Riesling I have not had in quite some time (read about that here ), and a episode (or more) of AMC's The Walking Dead . Let me clarify...quickly because TechMeat's got the Netflix cued.  School friends of mine went on and on about this TV show, so I got nuts one night and watched the first episode (with Brent, natch)...and now, we're kinda interested.  We're on episode 4 of Season One, so yeah, a long ways to go to catchup. Honestly, the last time we had this much interest in a TV show was Spin City and Dharma and Greg in the early 2000s.  For real.  We don't do a lot of TV around here.  Movies, yes.  TV, no. I'm going now.  To recover my strength and gear up for t...