Cold Desserts, Day 7

1. The day started off with more ice cream. We first made a french base, that we could flavor however we chose. My group decided to do sweet potato. We used baked sweet potatos, that we peeled and mashed. We mixed the potato into the ice cream and added clove, cinnamon, ginger, mace, and allspice. The idea was to make it taste like pie. I then had the idea to take the pie concept one step further, and fold in pie crust. To do this we made a quick pie crust, wich we baked in sheets then crumbled up. Once the crust was ready, we churned the ice cream and folded in the pieces. It turned out so well! The crust stayed nice and crispy (even 4 days later, when the ice cream was finally polished off), and the ice cream had a warm spicy flavor. Definatly a success!

Crust pieces.

2. Next we worked with commercial ice cream base. The base is essentialy just sugar and stabilzers that you add milk to. The benefit to commercial base is that it doesn't require heating, so it is very quick to make. The down side is that it lacks the consistancy and dept of flavor of homemade. The chef made about 6 gallons of base, which was then divvied up between the groups to flavor and churn. We added banana flavor to our base. We wanted to add a chocolate swirl, so we put ganache in a piping bag. After the ice cream was churned, and as it was being extracted, we pushed the piping bag into the ice cream and squeezed ganache into the ice cream. The flavor was nice, but the conistancy is a little icy compared to our french ice creams.

3. Baklava was next on the agenda. We made a walnut and pecan filling for ours, since one of our group members dosn't like pistachios. All we really had to do was layer phyllo dough with butter and ground nuts. Once the baklava was layered, we scored to top. Otherwise the baklava would just crumble when it is cut. We baked it until golden, then poured a syrup of honey, water, and spices over the baklava. It turned out well, but it was a little sweet for my taste.

4. The day finished with apple strudel. We made the dough, which is increadably easy. You just throw everything in a mixer with a dough hook and turn it on and let it run for 10 minutes. We then portioned the dough into four pieces, and let it rest. Whhile the dough rested, we prepped the filling. We peeled and sliced apples, which we tossed with brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. We made enough filling for 2 strudels, even though we had four pieces of dough. The chances of successfully stretching all four pieces was pretty slim.

Next we had to strech the dough. The 24 ounce balls had to be stretched to cover half of the table. You lay out cotton sheets to put the dough on once it is stretched. The dough needs to end up thin enough to read through. This is actually easier than it sounds when you have 3 people. It is just like stretching a giant pizza. You have to grab it from below and stretch it from the center outward. Once the dough is thin enough you drape it over the edge of the table and lay it out on the sheet.

I obviously couldn't photo my own group stretching the dough, so these two photos are of the chefs demo.

Once the dough is streched, you cover it wth melted butter. Then you sprinkle the dough with bread crumbs. Beacuse the dough is so thin, and the cooking apple produce juice, you need to crumbs to soak up liquid and prevent sogginess.

The apples are then piled along one edge of the dough.

You then have to use the sheet to help in rolling the strudel up. Here is an internet photo to show you what I am talking about.

The strudel is then transfered to a sheet pan, brushed with butter and baked.

Again, this isn't ours but it gives you idea of what it looks like when it is finished and sliced.