Graduation Dessert

Red Velvet Baked Alaska

Red Velvet cake with cream chesse ice cream, toasted meringue on top, with chocolate cookie crumbs, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, fresh raspberries, and although not pictured here, raspberry sauce.

This dessert is the one that my class partner and I designed for a project in the class that I just finished.  The point of this project was to determine how much we had learned about plating desserts and to pick a dessert to be served at our graduation.  To my absolute delight, my dessert has been chosen! So my parents and everyone else's families will be eating a dessert that I helped to design at my graduation from the AOS program at the Culinary Institute of America!

The dessert most likely will not be plated exactly as above because that may be difficult to make 300 of them for the graduation, but it will include all of my components most likely in a slightly different orientation.  

Either way, exciting news! (:

Love in a Pie Shell

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

This recipe has been being made by my grandma since the beginning of time... or atleast since my mom was younger (same thing, right?).  And it's phenomenal! It's my mom's favorite pie and a pie that I always think of these two women who have inspired me for years.  My momma of course inspires me everyday with everything she does.  She's crazy! She works a ridiculous amount of hours yet has still managed to have been around for so much of my life and to have made it to everything that matters from school events, to proms, to my little brother's football games.  She does everything!  She also managed to back to school while taking care of two kids at home and working so that she didn't graduate with an insane amount of loans.  To say she impressed me would be a bit of an understatement.

My grandma... wow, where to start?  She's an amazing woman.  Right now, she's fighting cancer which is hard on everyone and yet she still manages to be bright and excited to hear about what's going on in my life everytime I talk to her, which I can imagine is very difficult.  She's also one of the reasons why I gained such a love of baking.  When I was little my mom would take my brother and I to grandma's house on Sundays and we would have breakfast and then spend time at grandma's.  At the time, whenever I would bake with grandma, she always used to say that I had the "Angel's Touch," of course she tells this to all of the grandkids, but i don't know, something about it all just stuck.  I love it and I love them.

Strawberry rhubarb pies.  Above are gluten free, reduced calorie, my control, and sugar free.  All of the above recipes turned out perfect and absolutely delicious.  The gluten free was difficult to work with, atleast the dough was, but it turned out in my opinion the best pie.  

Control

Filling:
6 g Vanilla extract
230g Sugar
24g AP flour
60g Unsalted butter
206g Strawberries – diced
206g Rhubarb – diced
6g lemon juice
4g Lemon zest
4g salt

For the filling, just combine all the ingredients and place it in the pie shells.  You could use a pre-made pie shell or if you're feeling adventurous, you could make your own.  

Pie Dough:
190g AP flour
138g Butter
½ t salt
½ t sugar
4 T water

This dough is made by rubbing together the flour, salt, and sugar, and the butter until the butter is in pea sized pieces.  Next add in the water and mix just until the dough comes together.  Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Then you can roll it out and do with it what you please.

Bake Love, Not War <3

Ella's Bellas-- Beacon, NY

A few weeks ago, a shop called Ella's Bellas in Beacon, NY did some promotional work at a shop down the street.  Ella's Bellas is a gluten free bakery which also does salads and delicious soups.  It has recently opened and thus far has found itself many patrons and people who come back bringing with them family and friends.  Ella's Bellas is not just for the gluten intolerant however, even myself who has no issues consuming gluten or wheat would gladly eat one of the sweets sold at EB.  Carley Hughes does wonderful things in a baking niche that is not the easiest to work with.  In my opinion, her chocolate chip cookies or Gingerbread cookies (which i'm currently finish one of (: ) are most definately my favorites of the things that I have eaten.

For this event, there was a display of Fruition Chocolates, Pie-sicles, Macaroons, and mini cupcakes.  It was held in a women's clothing shop on Main Street.

These heart shaped piesicles are perfect for an all women's event.

Black raspberry shortbread cookies with what is basically the gluten free version of a mudslide cookie in the middle.

Fruition Chocolate:
These chocolates are from a shop in Shokan, NY.  They  are made from bean to bar, which is a process that not many places  bother with.  This process gives Fruition chocolate a flavor that cannot be purchased one that can only be created.  This chocolate is definitely worth the money and time.

French Macaroons:
Almond macaroons filled with buttercream, chocolate and what I believe to be jam in the center.  Delicious!