Preparing Desserts

Soggy — damp and heavy, as poorly baked bread.

Casseroles — any food, usually a mixture, cooked in such a dish.

Yoghurt — a thick custard-like food prepared from milk that has been curdled by bacteria, often sweetened and flavored with fruit, chocolate, and others.

Flavonoid — any group of organic compounds that occur as pigments in fruits and flowers.

The Importance of Desserts:

• Aids in Proper Digestion

  • Desserts high in fiber content are most beneficial to attain proper digestion, while those that are fat-filled and have more calories may do more harm than good to your overall health.

• Helps Balance the Nutrients Absorbed in the Body

  • The courses in menus are often determined relative to how those foods compliment each other, particularly in balancing the nutrients of the entire menu.

• Serves as Anti-Depressants

  • The sweet flavor of desserts, particularly those that are based on fresh fruits, increase the secretion of happy hormones, which also helps alleviate stress.

The tradition of eating a dessert after having a meal is being followed by many cultures across the globe. This delectable dish served at the end of a dinner signifies completion of the meal and creates a sense of goodness within you. Apart from cultural importance and the feel good factor, a dessert can also offer you a variety of health benefits.

Classification of Desserts

Baked Desserts — Made by putting the ingredients in a hot oven.

• e.g. cakes and muffins, sweet breads (banana bread and raisin bread), and cookies such as chocolate chip cookies.

• Can also include puddings and custards.

Fried Desserts — Made using a cooking process called deep frying, where a large pot filled with oil is heated, and then the food is placed into the pot.

• e.g. doughnuts, butchi, banana fritters, and banana roll.

Frozen Desserts — Made by blending the ingredients in a freezer. 

Chilled Desserts — Where desserts are made without using the oven or the freezer.

• e.g. trifle

Trifle — English dessert made by soaking ladyfinger biscuits in sherry, covering them with whipped cream, and then letting it chill in the refrigerator.

Custards and Pudding — Creamy custards and puddings typically include a thickened dairy base. The thickener used determines whether it is custard or a pudding. Generally, custards are cooked and thickened with eggs.

Pastries — can either take the form of light and flaky bread with an airy texture or unleavened dough with a high fat content. Pastries can be eaten with fruits, chocolates, or other sweeteners and are often eaten with tea.

Miscellaneous Desserts — Some desserts do not fit nicely into any one category. Cheesecake is one example. Though it is called cake, it more closely resembles a tart, but the filling is basically custard. 

Tools, Equipment, & Utensils Needed in Preparation Of Desserts:

1. Apple corer

2. Blender or food processor

3. Bowls

4. Custards cups

5. Decorating bag

6. Eggbeater

7. Electric mixer

8. Grater

9. Juicer

10. Knives

11. Measuring cups

12. Measuring spoons

13. Metal spatula

14. Mixing spoon

15. Pancake turner

16. Pastry blender

17. Pastry brush

18. Rolling pin

19. Rubber scraper

20. Strainer

21. Timer

22. Wire racks

23. Wire whisk

24. Baking tray

25. Blender

26. Cake tin

27. Casserole dish

28. Chopping board

29. Colander

30. Flour dredger or shaker

31. Fork

32. Frying pan

33. Freezer

34. Ladle

35. Molders

36. Oven

37. Pastry cutter

38. Patty or bun tin

39. Peeler

Plating and Presenting Desserts

Plating — The art of plating a dessert begins with a blank dish and ends with beautifully constructed masterpiece.

• Dessert is to a chef what painting a blank canvas is to Picasso.

Compote — Fruit stewed or cooked in a syrup, usually served as a dessert.

Accompaniments — Something that accompanies or is served or used with something else.

Coupe — A dessert of fruit and ice cream layered with fruit sauce and whipped cream, usually served in a glass goblet, bowl, or ice cream cup.

Bombe Glacee — A dessert of ice cream lined or filled with custard cake.

• Includes molded and cut ice cream bases and other bases, such as dacquoise assembled using specialty molds in much the same way as mousse cakes.

Vacherin — An airy dessert consisting of a crunchy meringue shell filled with whipped cream, ice cream, fruit, and others.

Profiteroles — A small, light cream puff pastry dough (containing only butter, water, flour, and eggs) with a sweet or savory filling, as of cream and chocolate sauce.

• Compared to French pastry, pate a choux puffs which have been split and filled with ice cream.

Cobbler — A deep-dish fruit pie with a rich biscuit crust, usually only on top.

Factors and Techniques in Plating and Presenting Desserts

Texture — Always include multiple textures such as soft, creamy, and crunchy elements.

Colors — Spice-up plated desserts with a nice blend of color without going too over the top and do not forget to consider plate choice when deciding on the color direction.

Flavor — As with any dessert, balancing the flavors on the plate is important to ensure the flavor of each component blends nicely.

Temperature — Pairing hot and cold is always pleasing to the palate, so consider a frozen element combined with a warm sauce.

Four Components of a Plated Dessert

Plated Dessert Presentations — Desserts that are served by an establishment after it is ordered by a guest and enjoyed on site.

Main Item — The main item of a plated dessert is the actual dessert itself, which should be the main focal point of the dessert presentation.

Sauce — when plating individual desserts such as cakes, pies, cheesecakes, or other pastries, one of the techniques used by pastry chefs is paint the plate with dessert sauces.

Crunch Component — It is an added component that adds a crunch to the dessert. This is especially important to soft desserts like custard and ice cream.

Garnish - The final component of a plated dessert.

• e.g. fresh mint leaves, powdered sugar, chocolate piping, fruit, chocolate and sugar work, and sorbet.

Categories of Plated Desserts

To compose plated desserts as well as assemble them, the pastry chef must understand a range of base ingredients as well as processes for making everything from cake bases to meringue to mousse to ice cream.

Examples of Frozen Desserts:

• Coupe

• Bombe Glacee

• Vacherin

• Profiteroles

• Baked Alaska

Baked Alaska — Layers of ice cream and sorbet that have been sealed with thin layers of sponge cake, masked and decorated with Italian meringue, and baked in a high oven until the meringue is golden brown.

Warm and Hot Desserts — These are desserts that are served warm or hot and allow for a great deal of personal interpretation. 

Custard and Cream-based Desserts — Most custard served as desserts are variations of the basic creme Anglaise.

• One of the most traditional and commonly found custards.

Fruit-Based Desserts:

1. Fresh Fruit 

2. Grilled Fruit

3. Baked Fruit

4. Dried Fruit

5. Poached Fruit

Examples of Chocolate-Based Desserts:

• Mousse — commonly found in dessert cups, molded and formed into numerous shapes, or layered with cakes or biscuits

• Classic Gateau — Batter baked with a molten chocolate center tarts filled with truffle-like filling and served warm and gooey, or soft and dense

• Numerous chocolate-based custards, creams, and parfaits

Cheese-Based Desserts — Many dessert menus include a cheese plate or a dessert with some kind of cheese ingredient.