The Supreme eG Pastry and Baking Challenge (Round 5)

[Kouign Aman]

Sour yet sweet icecream ought to work with your smoked fruit.

Isnt one of the classic barbecue styles based on vinegar and mustard? That'd be on the tangy side, no?

But what flavor sour, to compliment pears? Tamarindo perhaps?

[Mette]

It is looking very interesting - Can't wait to see the result! The idea of smoked friut is appealing - how about smoking fresh walnuts?

[Irishgirl]

I am trying to think of something better to clear the tongue of smoke flavor.

Rosemary sorbet would go excellent with the pears or apples, and would probably be bright enough to clean the palate.

Carry On!

[chiantiglace]

I very very much like the idea of rosemary sorbet. But I am set on something sour and have made up my mind to make a sour cream and lemon/grass sorbet.

I have skipped the pears because they just havent gotten very much appeal. But everyone seems to love the apples. They do have a very strong smoke flavor to them, more than what I need.

Currently I am think of dicing up the apples and forming them with maybe a cardamon or clove caramel and toasted walnuts.

with it will be lemongrass and white chocolate confections, more of the caramel sauce and possibly a lemongrass syrup or sauce of some sort, maybe like a lemongrass creme fraiche.

Who knows for garnish though.

Even though the smoke flavor is in only one component, I consider it the primary piece and it has enough smoke to carry over to everything.

I am still thinking about the butternut. I may post that on monday or tuesday as a bonus dessert. I kind of want to take my time on that one.

But the more I think about this, the better it is comming out. I am glad I have made the changes I have. Usually I make changes because the intended result was unaccomplishable. Now its being changed for simply, the better.

[K8memphis]

Clo-ove caramel!!! Oooh mmmm!!!

Whoever thought of that??!! Too cool.

I like curliques of any size and shape for any garnish.

Since I am cake deco oriented and not plate dessert

oriented I think smoke looking curliques are an idea.

Wafts of smoke cooked sugar maybe? Pour some cooked

sugar onto a silpat, take a fork and pull it out on the top

like smoke wafts and then when it cools a minute pull and

twist the rest of it to look like curling smoke.

Or use chocolate. Just an idea...

Edited October 29, 2006 by K8memphis (log)

[chiantiglace]

well I just got home from finally finishing this dessert, I hook my usb cord up to my camera and get ready to transfer the images. For some reason the images arent transfering.

I am more than angry right now. I have spent over 75 hours at work this week and only 47 of them were paid. I am going to let my computer rest for a bit and see if I cant transfer the images latert.

I pray its just because my computer has been on all day. If its not, I am going to kick something and kick it hard.

[chiantiglace]

Thankfully I figured out another way to get my pictures on to my computer. It only took 2 hours.

Anyways here it is:

It is Smoked Gala apple that has been diced and pressed to mold a circle and stacked with walnut nougatine.

With it is Sour Cream Lemongrass Sorbet and Lemongrass Gelee'. There is also some ground up walnut praline's and a clove caramel.

All the recipes are mine, I took nothing from anyone (that I know of). And kate, I also really liked the idea of clove caramel, I do not know where it came from but I am very thankful I thought of it and put it in because I goes very well.

For this being a very unusual dessert, it is currently my most favorite creation. I must say I enjoyed eating it.

The colors of the appl are absolutely goreous with a persistent aroma of smoke. I was cutting them up in the bake room of the bake shop (cold and 2 days old) and I still got comments from people walking through saying things like, "I smell bacon".

This drove me to curiosity and I made the effort to experiment on peoples tongues. I made them eat the apple without telling them what it was. I asked for the first flavor that came to mind, it kept comming back as "meat". It seems to be on of those things that would be very difficult for people to stray their minds from, but if possible I think they could easily enjoy this dessert; I did.

I have more to say, but I am pretty stressed out right now and need to take time and reflect. I hope you all enjoy, and I also hope their are a few questions or concerns out there.

[Kerry Beal]

Looks gorgeous Anthony. I love the presentation, looks very striking on that plate. How did you find the various flavours combined? Did the clove caramel compliment the lemongrass components or was it more of a contrast?

[K8memphis]

I love the stack of apples with the nougatine--rather pagoda like peering over the other occupants of the plate.

What is the little purple or rose colored petal type thing on the gelee??

All the wildly different textures with the smokey (meaty) apples must have been amazing.

Excellent --apple pie on steroids plus plus plus. Plus lemon for balance and the clove caramel for autumn--and the sorbet (was it tart?) balancing the sweet gelee. And walnut praline??!! Wow. Over the top, really impressive.

--dang but you worked your can off, dude!

[Tweety69bird]

Very nice presentation Anthony. Nice serving dish too. Was the nougatine as hard as when it's made with sesame seeds? It wasn't too much or too hard when combined with the soft apple?

[chiantiglace]

Looks gorgeous Anthony.  I love the presentation, looks very striking on that plate.  How did you find the various flavours combined?  Did the clove caramel compliment the lemongrass components or was it more of a contrast?

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Well I felt that both the clove and the lemongrass complimented the smoke flavor and the apples very well, but at the same time were quite different. The lemongrass hit your taste buds initially and the clove followed up at the end. The lemon grass in the gel is very smooth and mellow while in the sorbet is decently sour. So when eating this dessert you get smoke from the apples, sweet from the gel, bitter and spice from the caramel, and sour from the sorbet. I thought it was quite and interesting composition for the tongue.

[chiantiglace]

All the wildly different textures with the smokey (meaty) apples must have been amazing.

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The petal is a purple orchid

[chiantiglace]

Very nice presentation Anthony. Nice serving dish too. Was the nougatine as hard as when it's made with sesame seeds? It wasn't too much or too hard when combined with the soft apple?

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Well nougatin is just a word, I suppose its just like a florentine or a tuile. It has a nice little snap to itif is crumbly but in large pieces (not like sablee).

If the same cookie was made with seseame seeds it is quite possible that it would be harder, but not much. The walnut is soft and absorbs a lot of the moisture in the mix.

When eaten, I had no problem splitting little pieces off without knocking over the "tower".

[Pam R]

Anthony,

Congratulations. Your desserts looks incredible and the flavour combinations are really appealing to me.

Don't forget to add recipes to RecipeGullet

[S_tran]

When I told my employee about this challenge she asked if marijuana brownies would count as a smoked dessert...I told her, only if it improves the flavor.

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Pot grates the throat as you swallow like dry parsley.

Hashish in brownies goes down much smoother.

But that's just what I heard...

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You should try the space cakes in amsterdam o0

[Shalmanese]

Wow, what a cool ass dessert. A great way to interpret the challenge. I would have loved to have tried it.

[Kerry Beal]

So Anthony, who is the next contestant on "The Challenge"?

[Kouign Aman]

I'd love to taste that dessert! oh my!

There are so many ways to plate that fascinating combination. You could serve it a dozen other beautiful ways and not repeat.

[chiantiglace]

I'd love to taste that dessert! oh my!

There are so many ways to plate that fascinating combination. You could serve it a dozen other beautiful ways and not repeat.

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Trust me, that was one of my biggest problems.

[chiantiglace]

Anthony,

Congratulations.  Your desserts looks incredible and the flavour combinations are really appealing to me.

Don't forget to add recipes to RecipeGullet

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I will get the recipes up. They need some tweaking and some organzing, but I will get them up. When I develop recipes my math is all over the place. I end up using a couple pages trying to get everything just right.

Round 6

Edited October 30, 2006 by chiantiglace (log)

[duckduck]

Amazing job, Anthony! I was looking forward to see where you would go with this one. We have someone that brings us in fire-roasted veggies and they brought us a sample of fire-roasted apples. I'd been wondering myself what to match them up with and your clove caramel sauce sounds like it would be right up my alley. I love to cloves. But to balance it with the tartness of lemongrass...brilliant. Great job.