The Cotswold Food Year: eclair

Showing posts with label eclair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eclair. Show all posts

Assiette of desserts served in Thrupp near Oxford

Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Everyone loves sticky toffee pudding. Don't they?
It's certainly been a hit on the assiette of desserts since I added it to the equation (or equasion if you're in the US) last October. I think the spoon size sticky toffee works better than the normal size - like the equivalent of an espresso shot to a caffe latte.

Each assiette is slightly different. I served this one at this lovely house (1 of the 8 kitchens I cooked in that week) metres from the canal in Thrupp near Oxford. This assiette was:

Strawberry and champagne tart

Mini crème brûlée

Shot glass of mango sorbet - recipe link here

Spoon of sticky toffee pudding

Mini chocolate eclair - as seen here

Unfortunately some of the stags couldn't make it to the stag party so there were some extra mini desserts which I passed round at the end - had they been saving their appetites all week?


Related posts

Sticky toffee pudding
Other assiette desserts we have served
What does 'assiette' mean? Assiette of desserts 12 July 2008


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Assiette of desserts

Tuesday, March 09, 2010
I was really looking forward to serving this one.
Each assiette of desserts we serve is slightly different. This one, served near Cirencester last Saturday was:

Mini tarte tatin - apple - as seen here

Mini bread and butter pudding – traditional

Chocolate torte - smaller version of this

Mini chocolate eclairs

Mini blueberry and white chocolate cheesecake - also seen last week


When I received 2 bookings for an all canape wedding reception I thought it was time I extended the canape menu and looked for a few new ideas. Lemon curd bread and butter pudding has always been a favourite - and there's always another use for butter dishes. The tarte tatin works really well in the small version too.

Bad lighting I know. A bit of fiddling with the bulb had made the kitchen light work in the first place, though after the dinner party we cooked by candlelight for 32 during a power cut in January, one dud light seemed like nothing.....

Related posts:

Other assiette of desserts we have served
Our facebook assiette of dessert photo album
An all canape wedding reception
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Assiette of desserts

Friday, February 27, 2009
Our collection of 5 mini desserts has quickly become popular. I know the kitchens of the various cottages at Upper Court probably better than my own kitchen at home and this latest line-up was served earlier at the Courtyard Cottage for the same guests as last Sunday.

Each time we serve it, it is slightly different depending on what guests choose. This one consisted of:

Mini crème brulee in Japanese spoon
Shotglass of orange sorbet - see recipe
here
Glazed lemon tartlets - see physalis tip here
Mini chocolate éclairs - for chocolate topping see here
Raspberry shortbread (with crème patisserie piped in the middle) - for shortbread recipe see here (without the hazelnuts).

Related posts:

Previous assiette desserts we have served
What does 'assiette' mean? Assiette of desserts 12 July 2008



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Assiette of desserts

Sunday, January 25, 2009
Our collection of 5 mini desserts has quickly become popular. This latest line-up was served at Rectory Park last night on their wonderful Booths china - where we served the first assiette of desserts last year.

Each time we serve it, it is slightly different depending on what guests choose. While the assiette of desserts I delivered to Upper Court, on the same night, was the same as the one I served in December because they liked the look of that, this one consisted of:
  • Mini crème brulee in Japanese spoon
  • Chocolate dipped strawberries
  • Glazed lemon tartlets
  • Mini chocolate éclairs
  • Raspberry shortbread (with crème patisserie piped in the middle)
Mini chocolate eclairs The secret to successful eclairs is beating the mix after adding the flour and returning to the heat - that gets the air in there which means you have light airy eclairs rather than shortbread.

Piping éclairs earlier in the day

The thing that puts me off supermarket, and even some bakery eclairs is the thin coating of chocolate icing on top that, in any case, normally sticks to the bag on the way home. I prefer the Hugh version here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/chocolateeclairs_82376.shtml. With this thick, rich chocolate coating you've just died and gone to heaven! Related posts:

Previous assiette desserts we have served
What does 'assiette' mean? Assiette of desserts 12 July 2008

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