Which pastries for a buffet dinner ?

[filipe]

I haven't been baking for a while because I'm moving from one house to another, and I guess that in about 3 weeks things will be ok enough to invite some friends to my new place. Since I'm also making 30 by those days I thought on doing a buffet dinner to celebrate both ocasions : my new place and my 30th birthday (not that I think getting older deserves a party, but...)

I don't like buffet dinners : neither attending one nor cooking one (and cooking one is even worst) Anyway I don't have a 20-something places dinner table neither budget to hire some staff to serve dinner, so there's no other option than the buffet one. I don't like them mainly because I thing that one can't trully apreciate food while standing on their feet, chatting, allways wondering where our glass of wine was left by the last time we've dropped it somewhere... A true dinner is ment to be served at a dinner table, with guests sitted on some confortable chairs that allow them to enjoy the food, the wine and the company.

But as I've told you, in this case it can't be an option.

I won't hide you guys that I'm still having troubles about the savoury menu, but that's another thread...

Even if about deserts things seem to be a little bit easy - at least one can eat them with only a spoon or a fork - I still don't know what to bake.

Any ideas? Don't forget it's Summer... and it's damn hot in here (like 32-37 ºC)

[Kerry Beal]

How about some nice tart mousses (? plural), rhubarb or apricot piped into a chocolate cup, or perhaps a chocolate lined sand tart crust in view of the temperature you are dealing with.

Teeny little creme brule or creme caramel on asian spoons? one bite!

I make the little sand tarts 3 1/2 C AP flour, 1 C fine sugar, ! lb butter. Press into those oval fluted tart molds, bake 325 for 30 minutes, fill with a mixture of pear and raspberry thickened with a bit of cornstarch, decorate with a bit of chantilly cream. Perfect finger food.

[dejaq]

Kerry's right,

Tart's and more tart's on top of that, there easy, fast, much appreciated,and "very fresh and lovely", to qoute my buddy Mike Smalley and if you going to have to focus a bit more on cuisine, they can be stamped out in a flash, allowing you to focus on "other stuff".

Michael

[tryska]

Palmieres perhaps for a sweet yet light option to go with coffee?

[Tweety69bird]

How about some fancy cookies.... brandy snaps... tuiles..... madeleines?

[Desiderio]

A nice lemmon flammery served with fresh strawberries in little cialda's baskets.

[ludja]

Check out Patrick S's passionfruit chocolate ganache tartlets in the dessert thread today. They have a beautiful piece of poached apricot on top...

Cream Puffs are nice and light in the summer and are easy to create a individual servings. A tangerine-flavored cream pastry/whipped cream filling could be a good variant.

(I'm not sure how high the humdity is where you are because that could prove a challenge in preserving some of the crispness.)

[Chufi]

I don't like buffet dinners : neither attending one nor cooking one (and cooking one is even worst) Anyway I don't have a 20-something places dinner table neither budget to hire some staff to serve dinner, so there's no other option than the buffet one. I don't like them mainly because I thing that one can't trully apreciate food while standing on their feet, chatting, allways wondering where our glass of wine was left by the last time we've dropped it somewhere... A true dinner is ment to be served at a dinner table, with guests sitted on some confortable chairs that allow them to enjoy the food, the wine and the company.

←

I agree with you. I have done many buffet dinners for the reasons you state (no dining table big enough, no servers etc.) but for my last birthday party, (about 25 guests) I did things a little differently.

I just made sure I had enough light folding chairs (and they are easy to borrow or cheap to rent) and an odd collection of tables (one from the balcony, an old folding table with a broken top (covered up by a nice cloth), little side tables etc.), all this besided my regular dining table.

Dinner was actually a buffet, but you could also say it was dinner, served family style. When it was time to eat, everybody had a chair, even if they had the plate on their lap instead of on a formally set table. I served some of the dishes straight from the pan, others were on the tables for people to help themselves. It really was so much nicer to have everybody sit down and eat instead of walking around.. much more relaxed. It was the best birthday 'buffet'dinner I ever gave and my guests agreed!

Edited June 1, 2006 by Chufi (log)

[Trishiad]

I like wandering meals with stations of food so you don't have 25 people hovering around the decked out dining table. A fondue pot on the coffee table so people can sit on the floor casually and share an experience, an omlette station in the kitchen, a dessert bar in the dining room, things like that keep people moving and allow them to nibble and enjoy the experience of the food. I don't mind a buffet without seating as long as I'm not expected to eat my entire meal at once. As a hostess, I like to bring out new trays of things every 30 mintues or so, parade them through a room or two and place them strategically to mix up the groups of people.

I was thinking a nice panna cotta with a fresh berry coulis would be refreshing and could be done in individual cups for easy eating.

[filipe]

Thanks for all the tips till now This is why these forums are unmatchable

[filipe]

I took some time to sit at my sofa, gathered some books and started to draft a menu. I'll tell you the whole menu as this way you can tell me what you thing about the flavour combinations and variety. On what concerns to deserts and petit-fours I know there's a lot of chocolate, but I just can't help it - that's what I am!

It goes like this:

amuse-bouches

cold :

- tulips with prawn paste

hot :

- shitake mushrooms with spinach pesto topped with a thin lobster slice

- pate filo baskets with genovese pesto and duck confit

soup

aspargus créme with mozarella and corn croutons

main course

yuzu and garlic chicken stripes with lime-vanilla mash

deserts

orange crépes cake (from Cordon Bleu)

parfait glacé au chocolat (from PH's Larouse du Chocolat)

petit-fours

chocolate-coated candied citrus peel (from PH)

chocolate-dipped candied mint leaves (from PH)

chocolate and banana brochettes (from PH)

mini-ecláirs au chocolat et matcha

ice-cream petit-fours

mango bars with yogurt+black pepper ice cream (from El Bulli)

crackled pineapple ice-cream with marshmallow heart (from El Bulli)

Edited June 2, 2006 by filipe (log)

[dejaq]

alright, that's it, I am getting on a plane right now, let me just tell my Executive Assistant, that I got lost coming back from Reagan National. Dude, your amazing, but you already know that!

your Menu e mais complicado do que eu pessava, bravissimo, tanti graci...

I don't know how you are the doing the crepe cake, but as for me, the addition of Grand Marnier and orange rind, augments the dish, you know a life in heaven without Baileys or Grand Marnier would warrant a refund...

Sinceramente,

Michael

[filipe]

I don't know how you are the doing the crepe cake, but as for me, the addition of Grand Marnier and orange rind, augments the dish, you know a life in heaven without Baileys or Grand Marnier would warrant a refund...

←

I saw that recipe on a Cordon Bleu "Just Desserts" book I've bought at Selfridge's.

Get a ring and cover its base and walls with crépes in a way that half crépe sits outside the ring shape to be wraped over the filling, like a flower or something similar to it.

Fill it with an orange mousse - which takes Grand marnier, of course - wrap it up and brush it with a peach (or other flavour you like) jam/coulis and decorate it with some orange slices. That's just it.

[dejaq]

I don't know how you are the doing the crepe cake, but as for me, the addition of Grand Marnier and orange rind, augments the dish, you know a life in heaven without Baileys or Grand Marnier would warrant a refund...

←

I saw that recipe on a Cordon Bleu "Just Desserts" book I've bought at Selfridge's.

Get a ring and cover its base and walls with crépes in a way that half crépe sits outside the ring shape to be wraped over the filling, like a flower or something similar to it.

Fill it with an orange mousse - which takes Grand marnier, of course - wrap it up and brush it with a peach (or other flavour you like) jam/coulis and decorate it with some orange slices. That's just it.

←

hey Filipe,

I was thinking of something more like a layered crepe flan, baked and sliced into obliques, served with a burnt Orange Grand Marnier coulis, with rind, Delicioso!

Michael

[filipe]

Michael,

that sounds great but that way i would have to be plating and burning it one after another... and that would take some time and concentration, which while hosting a buffet dinner i won't have.

[dejaq]

Michael,

that sounds great but that way i would have to be plating and burning it one after another... and that would take some time and concentration, which while hosting a buffet dinner i won't have.

←

I am sorry Filipe, aloow me the opportunity to recap, this thing is baked and layered as a "terrine" layered with crepes alt. with an anglaise or freshly made stiff Pastry cream-build, set, cool, serve, with coulis in a boat off to the side, enjoy, work off the calories on the stair master!(not necc. in that order, but you've got the jist of it.)

Actually I made this one, years ago with PastryKrafters as Frozen wholesale plated entremet, that was in 1989-a long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

Good luck my friend.

Michael