Of Spices & Fruits, An Autumnal Baking Masterclass
by Darinee Durai
@ 26 Oct 2016
“Apples, pears and spices. These are some of the things that first come to mind when I think about autumn” says Chef Jenna White of Brettschneider’s Baking & Cooking School.
While Singapore does not experience autumn, nothing stops us from enjoying the myriad of ingredients that autumn brings with it.
Thus, we sook out Chef White to give a comprehensive baking masterclass to three SHATEC students (Claire Lim, Yeo Wern Ting and Doralyn Lim)
on exactly how to best leverage and showcase nature’s wonderful autumnal bounty.
Chef Jenna White starts by pouring the sugar into
a pan, and heating it until it becomes a caramel. “A
little trick I use is to leave it in the pan until it just starts
to liquefy and caramelise around the edges before
I stir it, this stops the caramel from crystallising.”
She explains to the students. Meanwhile, while
Chef White is preparing the caramel, Yeo Wern
Ting and Doralyn Lim are peeling and coring the
Granny Smith apples, before roughly dicing them
into small pieces. Once the caramel is done, Chef
White adds in the diced apples, as well as star
anise, cinnamon sticks, cloves, vanilla pods, lemon
juice, a strip of lemon zest and brown sugar. These
ingredients are then cooked down until they are
soft, and set aside to cool completely before use.
Chef White has pre-prepared the parsnip ice cream,
as it requires several hours to freeze until harden.
The ice cream is prepared by peeling, coring and
finely cutting parsnips, before cooking them in
milk and cream until tender. After which, egg yolks
and sugar are whisked together, before the cream
mixture is poured over the egg yolks and whisked
until fully combined. Chef White then places this
mixture back into a pot and cooks the mixture,
stirring at all times until it reaches at 80°C. The
mixture is then blended with a hand-held blender,
and strained into a bowl that is placed over an ice
bath. The mixture is then left to cool completely,
before being transferred into the chiller to infuse
for a few hours. After which, Chef White churns the
mixture with an ice cream maker.Chef White heats the milk, cream, ground cinnamon
and vanilla pod in a pot. At the same time, she
gets Claire Lim to whisk the egg yolks and sugar
together. Once the milk mixture is hot, Chef White
tempers the egg yolks with half of the milk mixture
by gradually adding small amounts of the hot milk
mixture while whisking the eggs. She explains to
the students that this step is of critical importance,
as doing it wrong may cause the eggs to scramble.
Once that is done, Chef White pours the mixture
back into the pot and continues cooking until it
thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Then,
this mixture is strained into a bowl that is sitting
over an ice bath, and cooled in the chiller.
Chef White begins by having Doralyn scrape the
vanilla pod, while she explains to the students how
to select, prepare and use these pods. “Generally,
Madagascan vanilla beans are seen as the highest
quality, and have a better flavour” she explains.
Chef White also specifically requests for her to
retain the husk of the vanilla pod, elaborating that
these pods still contain flavour, and can be used
to produce vanilla sugar. After which, Chef White
beats the eggs yolk, vanilla, sugar and corn flour
together, while she gets Yeo to boil some milk in
saucepan. Chef White then pours the hot milk
over the mixture, continually beating the mixture
as she pours. This mixture is then returned to the
saucepan and simmered over a low heat for about
two to three minutes, taking care to have the
mixture continually stirred to avoid burning.
Once again, Chef White begins by flouring her
workbench before starting to roll one portion of
puff pastry until it is about 3-mm thickness. She
then has Wern Ting to help cut out three 8-cm
circles using a cutter. Chef White then places a
dollop of crème pâtisserie in the middle of each
circle, followed by a tablespoon of the spiced apple
mixture. Chef White then has Doralyn eggwash the
edges of the 8-cm circles, before cutting out three
9-cm circles, which will form the lid of the pithivier.
Claire then places the 9-cm circles on top of the
8-cm circles, taking care to push the air out as she
places the edges together. She then egg washes the
top, and presses around the edges with a fork to
ensure that the edges are sealed. The pithiviers are
then baked at 230°C for about 12 to 14 minutes.
Once the pithiviers are done, Chef White then
places each pithivier on a plate, and serves it with
the crème anglaise, a quenelle of the parsnip ice
cream and garnish with micro mint.
Chef White lightly beats the sugar and softened
unsalted butter until it achieves a light, creamy
consistency. She then adds the eggs, vanilla essence
and ground ginger, where she enlists the help of
Wern Ting to continue mixing until the ingredients
are fully combined, cautioning the students not to
overmix the pastry, as this will result in a product
that is too elastic and doughy. Following that, Chef
White allows the students to add the flour and
stir the entire mixture until it forms a paste, once
again taking care not to over mix the pastry dough.
Once again, Chef White begins by beating sugar
and softened unsalted butter until light and
creamy. She then adds two slightly warmed eggs,
taking care to add them gradually, explaining
that this will avoid curdling. Doralyn then helped
to add the ground walnuts and flour, before
mixing until the filling was smooth, and had a
cream-like consistency.
Doralyn and Claire helped peel and core the pears,
as well as create small, round balls of pear flesh
by using a melon baller. Chef White then has the
students toss the pear balls with lemon juice,
explaining that this step not only prevents the pear
from browning, but also adds a hint of acidity to
the dessert. When this is done, Chef White boils
the water, sugar, cinnamon stick and vanilla pod in
a small pot, before adding the pears and leaving
them to simmer until they are tender. These are
then left to cool.
Dried figs were also prepared by Chef White. She
slices the figs into thin slices, before brushing them
with a syrup glaze, made by boiling equal parts
water with equal parts sugar. These fig slices are
placed in a parchement-lined baking tray and bake
in a pre-heated oven at 100°C for about an hour,
the oven is then turned off, and the figs left to rest
in the oven for another 30 minutes. Chef White
explains to the students that these slices must be
kept properly, as Singapore’s high humidity causes
the slices to turn soggy very quickly.
Chef White begins by lightly flouring her
workbench, before gently re-working the sweet
pastry dough. She then rolls out the sweet pastry
dough into a 3-mm thickness sheet, and uses the
pastry to line a 15-cm tart ring. Claire then helps
Chef White dock the pastry with a fork, and fill the
shell until two-thirds full with the walnut crème
filling. The tart is then baked at 180°C for about 25
to 30 minutes. Chef White then heats up an apricot
glaze, before having Wern Ting apply the glaze to
the tart with a pastry brush. She mentions to the
students that “it is very important that both the
glaze and the tart are hot when you are applying
the glaze, as the glaze will set extremely fast.” Once
the tart is cooled, Chef White, together with the
students, garnish the tart with the poached pear
balls and glaze the tart again to gives the tart a
nice, appealing sheen. “The tart is then finished
with fresh figs, dried fig slices, edible flowers and
herbs. During this step, Chef White explains to the
students on the importance of colour and contrast
when decorating a dish. It helps make the dish
more colour, and also makes the colour of both the
pear and of the flowers pop out a bit more.” She
explains.
This article was published in Cuisine & Wine Asia September October 2016 under Sweet + Bake Segment. In our printed edition, we spelled SHATEC wrongly as Shetec.
