I attended the Decadent Chocolate Biscuits class at Savour Chocolate School a few months ago, which was an amazing experience. I went back recently to go to their Macarons class.
I learnt some great techniques for both macarons and fillings - previously I only used the 'French method' for macarons, which involves folding icing sugar and almond meal into beaten egg whites, but now I know a method which creates a much sturdier macaron!
We made six flavours all together - bergamot cream, salted caramel, peanut brittle, passionfruit lime cheesecake, coffee hazelnut and these really cute burger macarons (ganache 'patty', white chocolate 'cheese' and raspberry jam 'tomato sauce').
This is the salted caramel macaron - dusted with demerara sugar and filled with an amazing caramel.
This is the peanut brittle - my favourite! Filled with chopped brittle and brittle-infused ganache (that actually tasted like peanut brittle!) We splashed these with red-tinted cocoa butter which was really fun.
Next up is the passionfruit lime cheesecake. I'm not a huge cheesecake person but my brother loved this. The filling was a tart passionfruit lime jam surrounded by fluffy cream cheese buttercream.
This is the bergamot cream macaron - the biscuit itself was infused with tea and the bergamot cream filling was smooth and a bit tart. I'd never used bergamot before but it tastes kind of like lemon, but different.
Hello all!
Last weekend I took the Decadent Chocolate Biscuits class at Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School - 'decadent chocolate biscuits' only scratches the surface of the amazing desserts I learnt how to make! The class was instructed by Paul Kennedy and together we learnt 5 recipes and lots of new skills including tempering chocolate, dipping, breton biscuits and fruit marshmallow.
This is the 'Almohada', a lemon crumble biscuit base with blackberry jam, pistachio praline and blackberry marshmallow - all dipped in chocolate. When I first saw the recipe and the combination of flavours, I was a bit dubious; but everything came together and turned out to be absolutely delicious! Using real fruit puree in the marshmallow made for wonderful taste.
This is the 'Drunken Raisin'; gianduja, hazelnut crunch, chocolate sponge and rum-soaked raisins in a bar shape. It's finished by being dipped in chocolate and brushed with copper lustre dust.
I'm a sucker for gianduja and hazelnut praline paste! (And the lustre dust was so much fun to play with...)
Next is the 'Menta', a shortbread base with mint-infused caramel and mint ganache.
I'm so glad that I learned how to make nice, chewy caramel.
These are the 'Circle Your Wagons' - coconut jelly and pineapple and ginger marshmallow sandwiched between gingerbread biscuits.
So delicious! The pineapple and ginger flavour was so beautiful!
Finally, the 'Pacana', the simplest of the desserts! They have a pecan breton base with caramel and a toasted pecan, dipped in chocolate.
I'm so glad I was able to attend the class, I had so much fun!
