A sample of the fruit and vegetable desserts

With the next few months that I spent in Chef Trotter's kitchen I taught myself to walk, and shortly after to run. My knowledge of pastey was realistically nothing. I can now say that with confidence. Chef was not the only one looking to me to create; my new family, endless number of guests and friends guilded me to "push" more then ever before. Chef Trotter would always tell us to be poets when we cooked. "Every time you open that drawer, you must be like a poet". The pastry world was a push to not only educate myself but my peers as well. 

Every day we experimented with new ingredients and flavor profiles for such VIP guests such as Mr. Gaby, Mr. Gabrisyk, Mr. Stone and Mr. Harris. These fine clients (as Charlie called them) amongst other chefs and friends of the restaurant would never receive the same dish twice. Below is a few of the fruit based desserts we played with that year.    

Third harvest of some incredible strawberries 

Yogurt sorbet, candied pistachio, tarragon purée, Granny Smith apples, and warm pistachio cake. 

Pistachio cake:

2c (445g) - sugar 

400g - butter

2c (440g) - pistachio paste

8 each - eggs

1c - cake flour

4 each - meyer lemon, zested 

cream butter and sugar

Add paste

Add eggs one at a time 

Add flour and zest

Line 2 1/4 trays and bake at 350

1770g total 

885 in each 

Each cake yields 20 - 2 1/4 inch pieces 

Hazelnut and toffee financier, whipped pineapple, caramelized bananas, date jam, and candied hazelnuts. 

Guava mousse, coffee crumb, fresh passion fruit, passion fruit curd, pink peppercorn meringue, blossoms, and caramelized white chocolate pudding 

Black berry sorbet, chantilly creme, almonds, mint and herb pudding, with a black berry cobbler 

Served on one of Chef Trotter photographs, right off the wall 

Bourbon and vanilla ice cream, toasted free form creme brûlée, smoked pecan crips and candied crumb, grilled / marinated peaches, angostura oil with anise hyssop. 

Black tea and butterscotch free form Creme brûlée:

1000g – Cream

3 - Vanilla beans

15g - black tea, toasted 

300g – Sugar, brown

100g – Maple syrup, bourbon

50g - Glucose

50g – H20

50g – Scotch, Laphroaig

200g - egg, yolks

100g - sugar 

  

• Bring cream and vanilla to a simmer
• Bring sugar mixture to 325 F
• Strain cream and slowly whisk into caramel
• Add Scotch 
• Temper mixture into eggs, bring to 180F

To use as free form 

 

1000g - Maple butter scotch cream

1g – Iota carrageenan

1.75g kappa caragenan 

1g – gellan gum 

• Shear gums, simmer mixture and pour over flat ½ sheet tray lined with acetate to mold, freeze and cut to shape with ring cutter
• Or heat and pour to order, any shape 
• Toast with smoked sugar 

Smoke sugar (to toast for creme brûlée)            

Poached, pickled, fresh, dried apricot. Tarragon, toasted pinenuts and citrus granita 

Apricot Fondant drops

705g- Fondant

 

3g - Apricot oil based flavoring

84g- Apricot 2:1 syrup

Coloring as needed

 

Apricot 2:1 syrup:

 

500g - Apricot juice

1000g - Sugar

 

 

 

• Microwave fondant for 30 seconds
• Combine apricot mixture, coloring, and fondant over a double broiler
• Fold mixture and cook to 155 F
• Using a sauce gun pipe out fondant discs
• Store in a dry cool place

 

Warm zucchini cake, ricotta ice cream and stuffed crispy squash blossom, pickled basil seeds, basil oil, olive oil jam, whipped basil and carrot / ginger reduction

Zucchini cake:

Wet Mix

70g oil

215g. Sugar
1 1/4 cup + 2 tsp. water

370g sauteed zucchini

Salt

 

Dry Mix
270g flour
5g baking soda
5g baking powder
2.5g nutmeg
5g cinnamon
2.5g ground cloves
5g salt

Sauté zucchini add all wet ingredients

Boil for 3 min, chill

Sift dry ingredients 

Fold wet mixer into dry 

Bake at 325° for 50 minutes.

Poppy seed, raspberry, mint, milk, and mixed berries 

huitlacoche sorbet, textures of corn, lime emulsion, blossoming cilantro, and caramel 

St. Germain sorbet, lemon, candied honeycomb, textures of pear, warm honey, spiced whipped cream, vanilla, and chamomile cotton candy 

Huckle berrie sorbet, textures of huckleberry, candied hazelnuts, candied ginger pâté fruit, and bourdoux consumme

Huckleberry Juice "tuile"

Juice tuile

 

230g - Huckleberry Juice

60g - Sugar

10g - Lemon juice

 

20g - Sugar

6g - Methocel F50

 8g - Ultratex 8

 

 

 

• Seer gums into liquid base
• Allow to hydrate over night
• Blend until smooth
• Spread out over acetate or mold and dehydrate until a film is formed
• Cut to shape
• Bake at 225 F, 100 C 10-15 minutes
• Remove, form to desired shape 

Duet of carrot sorbets, golden raisin confit, cardamom carrot cake and cider 

Yellow, and orange carrot cider sorbet 

Cider syrup:

1,300g – Sorbet base

Clove

Cinnamon, sticks

Star anise

Cardamom

50g - Sugar

8g - Stabilizer 

2g – Xanthan gum

- Toast spices and pour over sorbet base

- Combine the sugar, stabilizer, and xanthan, whisk into sorbet base 

- Bring mixture to 185F, remove from heat and steep covered for 20 minutes

- Stain and chill 

1,325g - Carrot, juice, yellow, purple, or orange

1,175g – Cider syrup

- Create cider syrup

- Combine cool liquids, freeze and pacotiz (pipe sorbets onto a frozen sheet tray, swirl and freeze at least 2 hours

- Cut to shape (#5 ring cutter) and reserve on anti griddle

Version #2

Carrot cake crumb

185g – Flour, bread
1.5g - Baking powder
3.5g - Baking soda
205g - Sugar, brown
3g - Salt
145g – Oil, grape seed
75g – Eggs, whole
230g – Carrots shredded

15g – Ginger, crystallized, chopped very fine
2.5g – Cinnamon, ground

5g – Ginger, powdered

3g –- Clove

4 each- Black cardamom, ground

• Line a quarter sheet pan with a Silpat and spray with nonstick spray.
• Sift all dry ingredients, other than sugar. Mix the sugar and oil in a stand mixer with paddle attachment. Mix in the eggs in two additions.
• Toss the carrots with 75g of the flour mixture (to keep the carrot from sticking together). Add along with ginger
• Add half the remaining flour mixture to the batter, then add the other half.
• Finally, mix in the carrots. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 325F until done 18-25 min
• Cool briefly, then invert the cake onto a rack and let cool before using cutter #5.

Spiced cranberry sorbet, rosemary walnut stuffing, and gravy panna cotta, with celery bubbles

Spiced cranberry sorbet

4,000g - Cranberries, fresh

20g - Clove

6 each - Cardamom pod, black 

10 each - Oranges, rind

4g - Sodium citrate

3g - Salt 

3,664g - Cranberry puree

68g - Glucose powder

1720g - Sugar

20g - Stabilizer

1184g - H2O, Fiji 

- Bring ice cream base to 85C / 185F

- Chill and age under refrigeration for at least 2 hours

- Blend with cranberry puree 

Turkey cream and "Panna cotta" 

4000g - H2O

25Lb  - Turkey bones, roasted

100g - Carrot

100g - Celery

1500g - Turkey stock 

1000g - Cream 

100g - Maple syrup

50g - Sugar 

2 each - Turkey necks

100g - Grape seed oil 

3g  - Xanthan gum 

4g - Thyme, fresh

10g - Rosemary, fresh, leaves only

TT - Salt 

       

- Brown bones, deglaze with H2O 

- Add celery, and carrot to H2O mixture 

- Bring to a light simmer, reduce by half

- Strain then reduce to 1500g 

- Steep in fresh thyme and rosemary for 5 minutes, remove

- Render turkey necks with grape seed oil 

- Add cream and maple syrup

- Mix sugar and xanthan gum, bur mix into cream

- Add turkey stock, and chill mixture 

For Panna Cotta

22g (8.5 sheets) – Gelatin, sheets

132g – H2O

2500g – Finished turkey cream

- Bloom gelatin with chilled scaled H2O

- Bring cream to 185F, and completely melt bloomed gelatin into cream

- Pour into molds, chill, cover and freeze

- Unmold and thaw in cooler

For  Panna Cotta

3000g - Finished turkey cream 

9g - Iota carrageenan

30g - Sugar 

- Combine sugar and iota, seer into cream

- Hydrate, gels at 70C / 158F

- Quick setting gel, (melt and pour on plates/molds)