Hi everyone!
Writing this as a super belated post so hopefully I remember all the details :p
When I first saw this recipe (or more like the name of the recipe), I thought it was really strange that we were doing something with maple syrup. The first thing that ran through my head was – how’s maple syrup even vaguely close to anything French?
Also, when demo started and I saw that there was a generous serving of chantilly maple cream, I figured that I wouldn’t be a fan of this dessert (cos too much cream always makes me feel sick). However, I realised during tasting that I was very wrong. The base of this tart was amazing – a deconstructed sable crumble with hazelnut and milk chocolate. It was pure decadence. Even the chantilly cream, lightly flavoured with maple syrup, had an amazing texture and flavour that was well complemented by the choquettes on the side, filled with coffee pastry cream.
Needless to say, this tart had quite a few components, hinting at the fact that we’d need to be quick during practical (+ the fact that we needed to temper chocolate for the squares on top).
We got Chef Park for practical, something that I was very happy about. She’s always very calm and the aura that she exudes during class really gets us (me at least) into this rhythm of doing work. The whole practical went very smoothly except for a point where I put my wire rack with the parchment paper and sable on it on top of the stove (we have the induction kinds and I didn’t realise it was on), burning the paper a bit. Oops!
Because I’d done piping with the St Honore tip before, the piping part of the tart went pretty smoothly 🙂 Really loving all the piping work we’ve had to do.
As it was CNY weekend, I rushed home, grabbed my bags & took a train to London to spend the new year’s with Mena Jie and family 🙂 (+Amanda Jie & a couple of Mena Jie’s friends were there so that was awesome). It was a caloric-filled weekend with lots of Asian cuisine that was amazing and making my stomach extremely happy, made even better because I got to see Syaz & Pin that weekend too.
Anyhoo, going to try update more frequently over the next few weeks. I’m a good 6 classes behind right now :S
xx,
Eug
