Pastry Chef School: Gummy Bears, Marshmallows, Nougat, Pate de Fruit
This week in pastry school we focused on sugar candies: gummy bears, marshmallows, nougats, pralines, mallomars, pate de-fruit and more. We also made our first crepe cake.
These Passion Fruit Gummy Bears were super fun to make. They’re just fruit puree and 4 kinds of sugar (sugar, glucose, dextrose and sorbitol) heated to 240°F, and then combined with more glucose, acid and a lot of gelatin. The mixture then gets poured into silicon molds and left to cure overnight. Here’s the recipe:
Why use dextrose and sorbitol in confections? The use of sorbitol and dextrose in sugar confections helps reduce the water activity rate and increase shelf life stability in confections.
These classic Pistachio and Almond Nougats were delicious, had great texture and really brought back flavours from my childhood. These classic nougats are just italian meringues using a bit of honey with an addition of nuts, cocoa butter and 10x sugar.
What’s the white stuff on the top and bottom of Nugats? That’s rice paper / wafer paper. It makes it easier to work with and hold the sticky nougat.
These pate de fruit had a perfect texture. Most of these followed the same overall ratio of sugar, acid and pectin. Since the fruit puree used has different brix and consistencies there were minor differences in recipes but overall they all followed the same ratio. Here’s the basic recipe:
What makes for a bouncy texture vs. dense texture? I normally cook my fruit purees and sugar mixtures to 237°F which gives my pate de fruit a deep fruit flavour, matted appearance and non-bouncy texture. These were cooked to 224°F which gives them a glossy appearance, shiny transparent look and they bounce back when pressed.
These mallomars are just beautiful. They’re marshmallows piped on a chocolate soble and then coated with dark chocolate. The soblee was extra salty which made for a great contrast.
What’s interesting about these is that the marshmallow was just plain-old marshmallow piped on a biscuit. It wasn’t marshmallow fluff or at all loss once cold. I’m used to other chocolate coated marshmallows biscuits to the the marshmallow not being as set as a marshmallow.
These Green Apple Marshmallows has a unique flavour, texture and appearance. The flavour and texture was unique since these marshmallows actually contain green apple fruit puree heated up to 230°F with the sugar. It also had more fruit puree alongside the gelatin and even more glucose waiting for the sugar syrup in a kitchenaid bowl.
How is that sugar green? How do you make colored sugar? That green sugar is sanding sugar rubbed with green food dye and citric acid (for extra tartness) and left to dehydrate overnight.
These praline meltaways are just ridiculously simple to make and taste amazing. It’s just 8:3:1 ratio of milk chocolate : praline paste : coconut fat emulsified, chilled, cut and tossed in cocoa powder. This recipe is a testament to how expensive ingredients being enough without any fancy techniques.
These Pecan Pralines are super fussy to make. It’s just sugar, brown sugar, cream, milk, butter and pecans heated to 237°F. That part is pretty easy. After that you stir with hard spatula for 45s until the mixture becomes glossy and than matted. Then you scoop out 1oz with a cookie scoop.
However, as you can scooping crystallization increases each time you agitate the mixture. So just scooping out a bit makes the whole thing crystalize further. Portioning these pralines is an exercise in working fast and directed.
This crepe cake is just so pretty. Assembling a crepe cake is all about having beautiful crepes facing down, making consistent layers of pastry creme in between crepes and then flipping the whole thing over. To make those beautiful consistent layers it’s important to first spread the pastry creme almost all the way to the edges, then level off the pastry creme and only then add the next crepe.
Making beautiful crepes: the first crepe in the pan is always going to be wonky as it absorbs fat and seasons the pan. To make beautiful crepes it’s important to ladle the mixture on a pan without it sizzling too much and swirling the mixture around to coat the crepe a few times. Make sure to always reinforce the borders with mixture as you swirl it around to avoid burning the lacey edges.
Read more about my in pastry school journey by reading about last week’s chocolate and confections:
