MallaryMade

New Orleans, Louisiana The next stop on my road trip to California was New Orleans, and this might have been my favorite stop of the trip. Maybe. We only had a few goals on this quick stop; beignets, chicory coffee, Bourbon street.  Success! We did make all of this happen in just 3 short hours.  The adventure began... with parking. A complete disaster that took 30 minutes within itself, but once that was secured, it was onto Cafe du Monde.  You can get beignets at a number of cafes in the area, but we wanted the entire experience.  We read our rule book the night before, yes there are actually certain rules you should know before heading into the cafe. Don't wear black.  The massive amount of powdered sugar WILL end up all over your black shirt or pants, stick to light colors! Know what it is you want to order, you'll really only see your server twice, once for the order, again with your food and the bill.   With that, an order of beignets has 3 beignets,

Mississippi To start, did anyone else not know that "Mississippi Mud Pie" isn't even from Mississippi?  I was on a hunt to find some of this famous dessert and after looking online at every restaurant and bakery in Biloxi, I got nowhere.  So I started looking into the history of the dessert and I found out that a "Mud Pie" was invented in San Fransisco by  Joanna Chiyo in 1957.  Right before that in 1953 "Mississippi Mud" referred to any kind of chocolate pudding, because it looked like the muddy banks of the Mississippi River.   But before all of that there was a song titled; " MISSISSIPPI MUD" by James Cavanaugh in 1927, and somehow between all of these things there became the "Mississippi Mud Pie" which has literally nothing to do with state itself, and no you cannot find a "Mississippi Mud Pie" in Biloxi Mississippi. Okay, I can move forward now, I just needed to get that whole pie thing off my chest. 

Chocolate and Tempering: Tempering chocolate is creating stable crystals in cocoa butter by controlling the heating and cooling temperatures.  If done properly, the cocoa butter should set up quickly (3 minutes), and be smooth, shiny and create a good mouthfeel.  The controlled heating and cooling temperatures are as follows:   Type of Chocolate: Heating Temperature: Cooling Temperature: Dark 122F 90F Milk 115F 88F White 115F 86F Chefs Notes: Good quality chocolate for tempering is a minimum of 30% cocoa butter.  This is referred to as the coventure, which translates to; “to cover” in French. 30%  Cocoa butter is called coventure because of it’s perfectly smooth consistency when melted, making it good for “covering.”  Any cocoa butter from 22%- 25% is considered to be your “regular” chocolate you would find in say a Hershey bar.   The two ways you may potentially have problems while tempering are fat bloom and sugar bloom.  Fat bloom is a separa

Hello Everyone!  If you follow me on social media, you might've seen some of my recent dessert pictures.  Those photos were captured in my "Advanced Pastry" class that I just completed.  This class covered chocolates, frozen desserts, mousses, custards, and plating.  I took this class as a Sunday lab, this means I took it for four Sundays from 7am-7pm. My class began with nine students and by day two, we were down to six! I really enjoyed having this mini-class because it was extra hands-on because everyone got to do everything!  The final for this class had a hands-on practical, combined with a written exam.  I finished the class with a 19/20 on the practical portion and 95% on the written exam. I have tons of recipes to share with you all.  As a part of my practical, I actually had to make a packet of all of my typed notes and converted recipes with pictures.  So I'm working on getting those all into blog posts for you all!  I'm super excited about all of the

Chocolate Crumble: 14g. Cocoa Powder 35.5g. Granulated Sugar 64g. Pastry Flour 35.5g. Butter, melted Pinch Salt Method of Procedure: Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Slowly add the melted butter and mix with your hands to combine.   Do not overmix, you want crumbs, not powder. Bake between 300-325F for approximately 10-15 minutes. Stir halfway through to ensure even baking. Chefs Notes: Soils can be used for many reasons on a complete plate.  They provide a textural contrast between the elements, as the soil is crunchy.  They can add an additional subtle flavor to the dish or create a color contrast by adding nuts of any kind, graham crackers or other flavorings.   Soils can be used to hold a frozen component such as ice cream or sorbet by stabilizing the frozen component and avoiding it from sliding.  When used with ice cream it will also help to absorb any melting ice cream, to keep your plate looking clean for a slightly lon

French Vanilla Ice Cream: 170g. Milk 170g. Heavy Cream 85g. Granulated Sugar ½ bean Vanilla Bean 50g. Egg Yolks Method of Procedure: Prepare an ice-water bath. Combine milk, cream,½ the sugar and vanilla in a saucepot.  Scald. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks and half the sugar.  Temper with the scalded mixture.  Pour the entire mixture into the saucepot and cook until nappe.  (175-178F) Stir constantly.   Pour the mixture into a bowl and cool down in the ice water bath.   Cool according to safety regulations. Churn and freeze to 20% overrun. Freeze in the blast chiller, and store it in the freezer.   HACCP NOTE: When making ice cream it’s important to follow a HACCP plan to ensure proper food safety.  Ice cream is a ready-to-eat,  'potentially hazardous' food.  This means that it is more susceptible to support the growth of pathogenic bacteria related to food poisoning and must be kept at certain temperatures to m