Typifying the pastries......

Types of Pastries

Alleluia (ah-lay-‘loo-yah)  - A citrus flavoured French confection made during the Easter time. It is believed that the cake is named after Pope Pius VII. Legend has it that a dying soldier found the recipe during battle and gave it to a pastry chef, upon hearing the story, the Pope baptized the cake and named it Alleluia, which is French for “hallelujah”.

 Ardechois  -                a chocolate and chestnut confection.

Won the first prize in Flambe competition in Inter College
competition held at IHM, Chennai (1st March 2012)

Baba au rhum -  is a small yeast cake saturated in liquor, usually rum, and sometimes filled with whipped cream or pastry cream. It is most typically made in individual servings (about a 2" tall slightly tapered cylinder) but sometimes can be made in larger forms similar to those used for Bundt cakes. The batter for baba is even richer than that for brioche, and includes eggs, milk, and butter. The original Baba was introduced into France in the 18th century via Alsace and Lorraine. This is attributed to Stanislas, the exiled king of Poland. TheLarousse Gastronomique reports that Stanislas had the idea of soaking a dried Kugelhopf (a cake roughly similar to the baba and common in Alsace-Lorraine when he arrived there) or a baba with alcoholic spirit. Its history is that when Stanislas brought back a baba from one of his voyages it had dried up. Nicolas Stohrer, one of his pâtissiers (or possibly just apprentice pâtissiers at the time), solved the problem by addition of adding Malaga wine, saffron, dried and fresh raisin and crême pâtissière. Also, Courchamps states in 1839 that the descendants of Stanislas served the baba with a saucière containing sweet malaga wine mixed with one sixth of Tanaisie Licquor.

Mocha Bavarois with Creme anglaise

Bavarois   is a classic dessert that was included in the repertoire of chef Marie-Antoine Carême, who is sometimes credited with it.It is similar to  flour- or cornstarch-thickened pastry cream but thickened with gelatin instead and flavoured with liqueur. It is lightened with whipped cream when on the edge of setting up, before being molded, for a true Bavarian cream is usually filled into a fluted mold,chilled until firm, then turned out onto a serving plate. By coating a chilled mold first with a fruit gelatin, a glazed effect can be produced. It may be served with a fruit sauce or a raspberry or apricot purée.

Beignet synonymous with the English “fritter”, is the French term for a pastry made from deep-fried choux paste.  The term beignet can be applied to two varieties, depending on the type of pastry. The French-style beignet in the United States has the specific meaning of deep-fried choux pastry

A canelé is a small French pastry with a soft and tender custard center and a dark, thick caramelized crust. The dessert, which is in the shape of small, striated cylinder approximately two inches in height, is a specialty of the Bordeaux region of France but can often be found in Parisian patisseries as well. Made from egg, sugar, milk and flour flavored with rum and vanilla, the custard batter is baked in a mold, giving the canelé a caramelized crust and custard-like inside.

Cannoli are Sicilian pastry desserts. Cannoli consist of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling usually containing ricotta.

Charlotte Russe prepared during
College practicals

A charlotte is a type of dessert that can be served hot or cold. It can also be known as an "ice-box cake". Bread, sponge cake orbiscuits/cookies are used to line a mold, which is then filled with a fruit puree or custard. It can also be made using layers of breadcrumbs.
Classically, stale bread dipped in butter was used as the lining, but sponge cake or ladyfingers may be used today. The filling may be covered with a thin layer of similarly flavoured gelatin.

Charlotte Royale in the 'Savera' plate

Charlotte russe is a dessert invented by the French chef Marie Antoine Carême (1784–1833), who named it in honor of his Russianemployer Czar Alexander I (russe being the French word for "Russian"). It is a cold dessert of Bavarian cream set in a mold lined withladyfingers.[1]
Alternative to this is a Charlotte Royale, which has the same filling as a Charlotte Russe, but replaces the ladyfinger lining with Swiss roll.

Choux Swans

Choux à la crème or profiteroll or creampuff is a choux pastry ball filled with whipped cream, pastry cream, or ice cream. This treat is usually very sweet. The puffs may be decorated or left plain or garnished with chocolate sauce, caramel, or a dusting of powdered sugar.

The term profiterole is traditionally used for small versions filled with whipped ice cream[1] and topped with chocolate[2][3] although the usage varies and can include other fillings.

Clafoutis is a baked French dessert of black cherries arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter. The clafoutis is dusted with powdered sugar and served lukewarm.

Crème brûlée, also known as burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel. It is normally served cold.

The custard base is traditionally flavored with vanilla, but is also sometimes flavored with lemon or orange (zest), rosemary, chocolate,coffee, liqueurs, green tea, pistachio, coconut, or other fruit.

A croquembouche or croque-en-bouche is a traditional French dessert. The name comes from the French words croque en bouche, meaning 'crunch in the mouth'. This is a form of choux pastry that is generally served as a high-piled cone of chocolate, cream-filled profiteroles all bound together with threads of caramel. It is also decorated with sugared almonds, chocolate, flowers, or ribbons. Sometimes it may also be covered inmacarons or ganache

Croquignoles are shortbread and a specialty of the region Pithiviers. These are a shortbread pastry made ​​with eggs, butter, sugar, flour and milk, cooked large frying in fat. The shortbread can take the form of rectangles, strips, branches, twists, braids.They are sometimes sprinkled with powdered sugar . They are usually prepared in winter and they were once a popular dessert or snack.

Délice aux noix - Delight with Nut.

An éclair is an oblong pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with icing.

The dough, which is the same as that used for profiterole, is typically piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside. Once cool, the pastry then is filled with a coffee- or chocolate-flavoured[1] custard (crème pâtissière), whipped cream, or chiboust cream; and iced with fondant icing.[1] Other fillings include pistachio- and rum-flavoured custard, fruit-flavoured fillings, or chestnut purée.

A financier is a small French cake, often mistaken for a pastry. The financier is a light, moist teacake, similar to sponge cake, and usually contains almond flour, crushed or ground almonds, or almond flavoring. The basis of the cake itself is beurre noisette (brown butter), egg whites, powdered sugar and flour. Financiers are often baked in shaped molds. The name "financier" is said to derive from the traditional rectangular mold, which resembles a bar of gold.

Flan is an open pastry or sponge case containing a (sweet or savoury) filling. A typical flan of this sort is round, with shortcrust pastry. In France, the term "flan" carries the first meaning as described above, but often has the second meaning: a sweet custard which is baked in a mould in the oven until set, when it may be served in the mould or turned out.

Fondant au chocolat  Hot Chocolate Fudge 

Forêt Noire  


Named after the cherry liquor kirschwasser, forêt noire consists of a 55% chocolate kirsch mousse with a kirsch soaked chocolate genoise sponge.It is balanced with a sour cherry jelly and finished with a pistachio daiquoise

Fraiser

In the 1700's a man in london was fancy on a woman who had lost her huband in a wagon accident.
this woman, being alone and having children to support, invited the man for tea and pastry.
she made a cake that is now referred to as a frasier cake, cause that was the mans last name, and she had found out he had a fancy for strawberries. everytime the man came over, she made the frasier cake, dubbed so by the other women in the building, or 'hood.
today they call it, a shower cake, to be served at a girls shower, that thing before the wedding.
beatrice and henry frasier lived happly ever after. yellow cake, strawberries, and devonshire cream. all the ingriedents were given to beatrice
by her friends who wanted to help her land frasier. the end.










Framboiser

Cottage cheese mousse and mascarpone, raspberries, sponge cake. Decorated with ivory velvet coating, glazing and raspberries coulis.

Galette

Galette is a French term signifying a flat cake that can be either sweet or savory. They can be made from puff pastry, yeast risen doughs like broiche, or with a sweet pastry crust. The toppings can vary also; ranging from fresh, candied or dried fruits, creams, nuts, and jams for sweet Galettes, with savory ones being topped with an assortment of meats and/or cheeses

Gateau au yaourt

Yoghurt cake

Gateau Marbre

The “marble” effect is achieved (more or less) by making a few quick swirls through alternating layers of light and dark batters.

For the light batter, you can also use grated lemon or orange rind instead of vanilla.

Gaufres

Its a waffle, a dish of dough lightly cooked between two metal plates, hinged together by a hinge or, with designs that are printed in the dough and give the cake its characteristic shape.

Gland

Leave it to the French to create a pastry called “the Gland.” Sounds a little strange in English, right, but what does it mean in French? Well, it means “acorn.”Like most of my favorite French pastries, the Gland is made from pâte à choux and is filled with a pastry cream (like the religieuse or its more famous cousin the éclair). Usually, the Gland is glazed with a green, white, or pink icing with chocolate sprinkles, or jimmies, at one end to help evoke the image of an acorn.

lunette au abricots

French pastry called "Oran", or sometimes "bezel Apricot", "growing apricots", "abricotine" 

Macrons

A macaron is a sweet meringue-based confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food colouring.[2] The macaron is commonly filled with ganache, buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies. Its name is derived from the Italian word maccarone or maccherone.

Testing the Taste

How about Murg Mughlai with Cranberry sauce..?? or Petit pois Ala Flamande with Nariyal Chutney..? Well, certainly u won't try out such weird combinations.. hehe .. but definitely you would like to try out some dishes with a NO-MATCH accompaniment.. may be just to try out, or for any other reason.
In my case, I actually don't try it but make others try. My family and the relatives who have tasted my dishes had a common thing : their response after having the dish..lol . When they start to swallow up the bite.. their facial expressions explain everything. Neither they can complaint, nor they want to say that its complicated.. he he.. They might be liking the dish but certainly not as much wherein they could just jump out of the seat to congratulate and say.. " wah!! kya cheez banai hai"
     Its probably because of the kind of dessert which they get to eat after the kind of meal they had. What would you expect from a person who likes to have ''desi daal-roti'', if hes been given choux pastry as ''meetha'' after the maincourse. He would certainly like to screw you up or yell out some nice desi muhavare aur shlok(refers to the evergreen gaaliyaan)  for spoiling his taste. This is the problem which I face when I make dishes at my home.On one side, I try to find the accuracy to match the characteristic taste of a dish, but on the other, I miss out on the tastes and preferences of the people who are going to have it. And ofcourse, why would they like to have mousses.. strudel.. tarts.. and all. I can't blame them for this because they have developed a taste in which they like to have traditional Indian Desserts. But I prepare the basic desserts of the Pastry Section, in the strive for becoming one of the Best Pastry Chefs ever. And so, I would not like to take this blame of creating products which they don't like because I have my own desired results which I aim for, while making the product.Well, I said earlier that the desserts are 'Complicated' .. because they don't actually match the taste of the maincourse. With a regular Indian thaali, if you serve a Strawberry Pavlova instead of Gajar Ka halwa, then ofcourse no one would like this combination.
      But, after much of dislikes and "have no taste for" Facial expressions.. somehow I found out a way.. to get both the tasks done.. getting the accuracy & impressing the one who have it. I tried out Baba au Rhum in our desi way.. wherein I soaked the Baba in the Sugar syrup flavoured with Kewra water..lol..also, I explained the very rich, and one of my favourite dessert Baklava as the Indian Chandrakala or Balushai. I prepared Veg Wellington with the Aloo parantha filling and described it as a new shape of the patties. To add one more.. I prepared Conversations( a puff pastry product ) with the filling of dry fruits and nuts, rather than the actual Pastry Cream. This is how I got my " wah!! kya cheez banai hai"!!
                            
So, the gist is that there is some point which you need to strike.. which would give you an idea to make a balance. I got it.. after much of trying out.. created something new.. in a traditional way.. and am happy about it.   So.. Keep Going on!! and diversis.cogitare!!!

Cliché

Clockwise ....errr .. or anti-Clockwise?  10 o' clock position or 6 o'clock ??
Well these styles of Plate Presentation have become cleshade now or you can say irrelevant. With the much newer trends of the Plate Presentation coming up, this ages back style of presentation doesn't go well now a days. The Culinary Master Chefs have come up with the new ideas.. latest trends which now are followed in our industry.
  In olden days, it was considered to be somewhat sheer wastage of time and money but today it acts as a productive tool which can't be done away with. I don't completely do away with these Basic Principles of Plate Presentation, but somewhere I do feel that these have become extraneous in this 21st Century, where the Presentation or the way the food is served to the guest, is given equal or may be more importance to the quality of the product to add onto the supremacy of the product. In such competitive industry, where every restaurant chain or any food outlet is trying its best to get ahead of the others, Plate presentation does play a very important role. An impressive or an eye catching plate does leave an ever lasting impression on the guest. Some restaurant chains go for a standardized plate presentation for all their outlets whereas some put on innovation and creativity to make it look different every time it is served to the guest.
   Well, my personal views are that its good that such changes are taking place creating a scope for innovation and creativity, though no doubts that our industry revolves around these only. But, in the strive to impress the customer with something new , which shouldn't forget our basics. There must be some rules or principles laid to guide the chefs to think out of the box as well as keeping it simple. You can't just make decoration with chocolate sauce in a plate, in which entree is going to be served. You need to have some common sense when you try something different, and always try in small batches and take reviews from other people before finalizing it. So, the next time you go for a plate presentation, don't just stick to what you know or what you are being taught, diversis.cogitare!!!