Divine Dessert Tour 2010 finale - Sweet and savoury!

Divine Dessert end of year Home Bake - sweet and savoury!

To challenge ourselves, and those who are game enough to attend our half yearly home bake, we come up with themes so tricky, that means we have a lower turn out than we would like… then again, us obsessive compulsive dessert perfectionists won't settle with mediocrity … right? Besides, it's the end of the year! Gotta end DDT 2010 with something more than memorable!!

Our theme confused and baffled many. "Savoury? What contradiction! I'm lost for ideas! I'm afraid I can't make it then…"  But it really wasn't that hard. The most simple savoury dessert I have had was a chocolate 'goo' tart, with just a pinch of salt to break up the richness and adding a new sensation and indulgence. Or salted caramel, maple syrup and bacon (a classic Canadian breakfast), or simple pleasures of hot chips in soft serve.

Then creative chefs such as Heston brought the art of cooking to a new dimension, messing with our senses further. They created dishes that look savoury, but are sweet; or looks like a chocolate cake, but are in fact maybe a duck liver parfait. Some of us have experienced dessert sushis and Vietnamese spring rolls. In fact, it appears that modern cooking aim to break boundaries and perceptions!!

So come up with something that tastes both sweet and savoury. Or something that looks like a savoury item. Or something that includes ingredients that are normally associated with savoury dishes…   Think outside the rectangle of classic recipes and reach for the sky!! (or Google something)

Our brave CEO decided to attempt a chocolate ravioli - yes, pasta - chocolate pasta filled with chocolate creme patissier or peanut butter cream. The flavour was a hit, visually it just looked like very dark pasta (really messing with our perception!!), which unfortunately was a tad tough. I demand a repeat attempt and to be the taster!!

I was ordered to create savoury macarons, taking inspiration from the 2kg macaron recipe book carted all the way back from Lenotre Paris. The idea was to use macaron as the carrier only, ie plain shells topped with savoury ingredients and serve as finger foods. Smoked trout, double cream, avocado and dill adorned a dozen open macarons - visually pleasing, and of course tasty. Although this didn't look as pretty, the maple syrup baked crispy bacon was a hit with the DDDs, it was described as "crunchy and melty and creamy and crispy at the same time". Flavour and texture sensation!! I did cheat and make simple macs with salted caramel/peanut butter. I like them. I make them. People adored them. No complaints!!

One other simple offering: red wine and brown sugar poached pear with blue cheese - sweet and savoury. Phwaw the blue cheese was potent ... an acquired taste that. But the pear was nice :p 

June our first time DDD brought along a "Malay Cake" which probably originated from Malaysia, but there are now different versions adapted form different regions in SE Asia. It's a steamed brown sugar cake with deep fried shallots, which is very aromatic and adds a savoury touch to a lightly sweet cake.

Poor Martin. His initial intention was pumpkin pie - which was gunned down by our CEO (KT: I put the challenge to him to make mascarpone souffle and he chickened out!) So he brought along a yam and maple syrup pie with vanilla mascarpone cream topping - OH yum, aromatic flavour galore, and the fragrant luscious mascarpone cream, smooth pie filling, thin pastry. It would be lovely warm too, served with cold mascarpone cream. (KT: Ok, it looked pretty good, I appreciated the vanilla seeds in the cream, but improvement on the pastry next try please! ;)

Eat your vegetables - Zucchini anyone? It was hidden in a moist zucchini, date and maple cake, served with maple cream cheese (I see a certain flavour preference today! Maple syrup doing good business with the DDDs - KT: trying to butter me up?? LOVE maple syrup!). Couldn't taste the zucchini which was masked by the dates and the sweetness, but it certainly made the cake beautifully moist.

Ah I love all foods colourful: Beetroot and chocolate cupcakes with cardamon icing - this would have qualified for the last DDT home bake too - cardamon flavour was just right, it is a strong spice and can easily over power but it didn't; and just like the zucchini cake, beetroot flavour was undetectable except for the lovely rosy hue. Gorgeous cake!

Another colourful offer that was highly unusual - tofu and berry mousse, carefully blended with organic firm tofu, but apart from the texture we could not actually taste the tofu (unlike the tofu cheese cake from Ella's patisserie which tasted like soy). And it was lovely! There you go, ways of getting kids (big and little) to eat tofu and other vegetables. Disguise them in desserts!! A bit of a shame that it wasn't very chilled - Stephanie did come a long way to Chatswood!! 

Dessert to wrap up a dessert tour: crispy prosciutto baked with maple syrup, cracked over vanilla ice cream. This one had KT hyperventilating!

That's all folks, another culinary year - we had our ups (Paris!) and downs (canceled DDT for the first time! And it was to Adriano!), desserts that exceeded expectation or desserts that did not meet expectation. But all of our indulgent experiences add to our memories ... so we bid you farewell 2010, and wish that 2011 brings us a new heights in culinary explorations! INDULGE ON!!

CS

KT: Welcome, our first-time DDDs: June and Amy! :D