Chocoholics, anonymous. Welcome to the Smooth Festival of Chocolate!

Welcome to the best city in the world!! 

And this was made even better with lots of velvety delicious chocolatey desserts. With brilliant weather like this, The Rocks gets incredibly busy - but thanks to the forethought of the organisers, the event was spread out to avoid heavy crowds at any one spot. 

However, queues are not avoidable... Especially the popular stalls like Black Star and of course, Zumbo, whos endless creativity had fattened up who knows how many sweet tooths like myself. 

Two out of 4 Zumbo goodies here. After consuming so many items, it was really hard to remember what they were... one with chocolate mousse, pastry, passionfruit custard; the other was chocolate, raspberry, caramel, custard... Something or other. Both yum, not over sweet, classic Zumbo! Thanks for existing.... 

The most popular Zumbo goodie however was the reinvention of the Golden Gaytime. And I believe that was the most popular dessert of the event!! Ice cream + caramel sandwiched in chocolate macaron shells, coated with chocolate and nuts. It was Golden Gaytime on steroids. Amazing was not enough of a word to describe it! 

If I had to find fault in it... It was not easy to eat. Too big for a mouth, and it was quite ready to fall off the meager popsicle stick. Thankfully the chocolate and nut shell stayed put so we were able to hold on until they were consumed!

There were of course plenty of other goodies - some I managed to devour, like the Profiterole Project's freshly piped creme patissiere that lured me to their stall and the crunchy toffee didn't disappoint; Others I could only look at while my pancreas protested.... I stared at the gorgeous creations from Black Star and Textbook Patisseries and could only say, NEXT YEAR ... At least the watermelon cake (this year it's white chocolate watermelon cake) should still be available from Black Star. But the other desserts? Hopefully they will stay on in their respective patisseries for at least a little longer. 

I did have one of these colourful croissants - how beautiful are they! It was a cherry ripe croissant - chocolate croissant with cherry custard. Flaky croissant, light tang of the cherry, excellent breakfast :D

From a distance, that smoke was a tantalising advertisement for something savoury! We could spot the smoke from Circular Quay! This was a very welcome break from all the sweetness - charcoal chicken/pork skewers with a deliciously thick and sticky sauce, which was gloriously sweet and savoury and finger licking good (better than KFC, by far!!). And with that, we soldiered on for more sweetness....

However apart from having to queue to get my food (and these food stalls were really quick so the wait was minimal), I refused to queue to enter the chocolatiers' hall or the Lindt Lounge. But it was a great idea having chocolatiers indoors - the sun wouldn't have been too kind to the delicate chocolates!

This year unlike the previous two, I missed out on the blogger/social media special treatments because I didn't check the emails early enough. Oops ... So I missed out on VIP passes to the dessert demonstrations... but my trusty camera zoomed in to one of the goodies just to say, yup I was there.... even if I was on the side line, watching other VIPs eat what should also have been mine :p

Thus passed another glorious Spring weekend at the most beautiful place of the most wonderful city in the world. One never grows tired of it.... <3

CS

Macarons by Vincent Gadan at Signorelli Gastronomia - Dessert Masterclass Series

We first tasted Vincent's signature vertical garden last October and were keen to gobble the Dahjeeling panna cotta. Alas we missed out. But Vincent is back and to kick off a series of dessert masterclasses, the flamboyant pastry chef shared some tips on macarons and sweet art to wow your friends.

First and foremost, the evening began with dessert (chocolate fondant cake) and wine (prosecco): definitely the right kind of class to be in... Canapés also included the three-cheese puffs that were warm and lush (blue, goat & gruyere), and some gluten-free spinach-pumpkin-fetta mini muffins, moist and tasty.

Now that we're a little more relaxed, on to the serious part: making macarons. Well, at no stage during the evening was there a "serious" vibe except for when we're competing to see who boiled the sugar the fastest, who made the better meringue, and who piped perfect macaron shells... The adrenalin rush was in overdrive!

The three ingredients in a macaron are: almond meal, egg white and icing sugar. For the first step, mixing the almond meal and egg white was easy. To make the meringue, Vincent chose the Italian meringue which adds sugar syrup boiled to 120 degrees to the egg white/icing sugar mixture (there are also French, Swiss and Japanese meringue). He also reminded us that the older the egg whites the better, at room temperature. Once the meringue is ready and the machine is switched off, we have 5 minutes to fold the meringue into the almond meal mixture. Time is of the essence!!!

We worked in a group of four and while Steph worked on the almond meal mixture, Nancy kept a keen eye on the sugar thermometer. John had the honour of pouring the sugar syrup into the mixer in action. The mixer should never be switched off once the meringue mixing has begun, just lower the speed to add the sugar syrup and then back to full throttle ahead for 5 minutes. 

The most important step of making macarons is folding the meringue ("macaroner", but of course) into the almond meal mixture, one-third at a time. Under-folding means the air stays in the mixture and the shells become crispy as opposed to chewy; over-folding means runny mixture and "extended feet" - a little unsightly!



We think Steph has done a fantastic job, so does Vincent. So on to piping we go! Who says we can't have yellow hearts? And the forever teacher's pet in me meant that more love had to be shared... *grin*

Leaving the shells to "dry" is important too, however this will be element-dependent because humidity is the root of all evils! Okay, maybe not all evils but it can be frustrating and disastrous.

While our shells were in the oven, Vincent showed us how marshmallow is made: similar to the meringue but add gelatin. Filling macarons with marshmallow means that they are more stable for a show piece. He recounted the horrific story of buttercream centres melting on the way to an event... It could be messy, literally and career-wise. To make it palatable, add flavouring. That whiteness is all bubblegum! To make it fun, add colour. What about pinkish marshmallow that tastes like pistachio? Stop teasing us!!!

Vincent kindly made royal icing beforehand and prepared these gorgeous sugar-coated foam balls to serve as the palette of our show pieces. He also prepared glittery and colourful shells so we can pick and choose to express our inner artiste. Oh making macarons and sugar art is too easy, complemented by the wine... Sure, it's fun but perfecting macarons will take a life time. Even the executive pastry chef himself will not say with certainty that his meringue has been folded to perfection. He only has 30 years of experience after all, but that's 30 years more than us!

The frenzy is on: get your shells, choose your flowers, grab a piping bag of marshmallow, spin the angel hair sugar and ASSEMBLE!!!

While we're busy creating our master pieces, our names were called: our shells are baked and it's time to add some glitter! Light brushing will suffice, NOT dowsing the glitter and making a mess. Noted. These mini shells may  have been left in the oven a bit too long but they have perfectly formed feet and are biscuit-crunchy! 


Et voilà! Our efforts are paid off and don't they look just as perfect as the one "prepared earlier"  by Vincent (left, yellow)? Three hours and we're all macaron masters! These euphoric delusions must be reinforced regularly... We were all feeling chuffed walking home with our macaron centre piece which screamed "Look at moi!!!"

Thanks to Vincent Gadan and Signorelli Gastronomia for providing some cheeky fun!


Did you know, the longer the macarons are left in the fridge, the chewier they become? That's why the Ladurée macarons are still yum after flying across the globe!

Why not join a masterclass and show us your inner dessert artiste?

Hsinner ;)