Just sweet talk

II don’t really remember when I started cooking first, it just happened. One day I was looking through my mum’s recipe book and soon I was preparing the weekly cake at home. Such is life! And I really enjoyed doing it. That went on for a while before I was sure (I was 14 then) that I wanted to become a chef.
And here I am, a German chef who has travelled five countries and is now in Hyderabad.

Germany to Italy
As a chef I’ve had the chance to savour different cuisines from different parts of the world. But the best tiramisu I’ve had was in this tiny restaurant in Germany. It was a small Italian place and I was out with a friend to grab some food. That was years ago, but I still remember the way it tasted. That’s what good food does to you — the taste lingers for years! However, tiramisu can be tricky to prepare, but I’ve found that when you have a traditional dish, sticking to the old method and following the recipe word by word is a good way to get it right. And yes, don’t forget to use fresh ingredients!

Moving to France
One of the coolest challenges I had was when I was working in a hotel a few years ago. We had to cater to a client who was hosting a meeting there. The client had a rather simple demand — he wanted a two-meter pyramid of Croquembouche (French profiterole tower). It was quite an uphill task, but after a lot of hard work we had a strong and high dessert tower ready and boy, were we pleased! Desserts might seem easy, but don’t go by their sweet looks, for they can be quite tricky to nail. Here are some tips that will help you prepare profiteroles and tiramisu.

As told to Priyanka Praveen
The chef is the Executive Chef, Park Hyatt, Hyderabad

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Tiramisu
Ingredients

For the finger sponge

• 20 egg whites
• 20 egg yolks
• 600 gm castor sugar
• 500 gm flour
• 50 gm corn flour

For tiramisu mix

• 12 egg yolks
• 300 gm sugar
• 1 kg mascarpone cheese
• 1 kg whipped cream
• For the coffee syrup
• 500 ml warm water
• 100 gm sugar
• 2 small cups of espresso

Method

For finger sponge: Sieve corn flour and flour together. Make meringue with egg white and castor sugar. Fold egg white and flour alternatively into egg yolk mixture. Pipe the mixture on silpat. Bake at 175ºC for 12 minutes.

For tiramisu: Whip the egg yolk on full speed in whipping machine. Boil sugar with 100 ml of water till soft ball temperature. Add hot sugar syrup into whipped egg yolk. Beat until it becomes cold. Add mascarpone cheese. Last, fold whipped cream into the above mixture.

Assembling: Pipe bottom layer with tiramisu mixture. Soak finger sponge in coffee syrup then place it on top of tiramisu mix. Repeat again the above method. Finally pipe tiramisu mix on top. Garnish with dusted cocoa powder on top.
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(2) Profiteroles

Ingredients

For choux bun

• 0.25 litre water
• 100 gm butter
• 150 gm flour
• 5 eggs
• A pinch of salt

For cherry compote

• 500 gm fresh cherry
• 80 gm sugar
• 0.2 ml cherry juice
• 2 tbsp corn starch

For Chantilly

• 200 gm Elle & Vire whipping cream
• 25 gm sugar
• 1 vanilla bean

Method
For choux bun: Boil water and butter together. Once it comes to a boil, mix flour and salt in boiled water. Stir it for a while on low flame. Remove from the flame. Add the eggs one by one in it. Pipe the mixture on silpat. Bake at 2000C approximately for 20 minutes till it’s golden brown colour on top.

For cherry compote: Deseed the fresh cherry and set aside. Boil the sugar with the cherry juice. Once it starts boiling, mix corn starch with 2/3 tbsp of water and add it to the mix. Then add the deseeded cherries. Stir it for five minutes on slow flame.

For Chantilly: Whip Elle and Vire cream, sugar and Vanilla bean together; For asembling, take baked choux bun and cut thin layer from the top. Fill it with cherry compote and top with whipped Chantilly cream. Then add the other layer of baked choux bun.

Tips:

1. Always use a wooden spatula while mixing the batter. While adding the flour with the wet ingredients, never add them cup by cup. Instead, add the entire flour together.
2. Once the flour is added to the wet ingredients, it needs to be put on a medium flame and the flour needs to be cooked. To do this, you need to continuously stir the mixture so that it doesn’t burn.
3. One way to know if the dough is cooked is to check the lower layer of the dough in the bowl. Once that turns slightly brown that means that the dough has cooked enough. Take it off the stove.