Gallery
2019
Winter
DECADENT
Baking Glossary
Here you will find definitions to any technical terms or french terms I have used in my posts
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Ganache
A ganache is a mixture of the following base ingredients: cream and chocolate. The chocolate is melted and then mixed with the cream. You can make a ganache in different ways:
Example 1: Boil the cream and then pour over chopped chocolate, the chocolate will melt because of the boiling cream.
Example 2: Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water and then add in the warm cream.
etc...
Crème Montée
A Crème Montée is a whipped icing, this meaning it could be a whipped ganache, Italian meringue buttercream, etc...
A whipped icing should be:
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airy
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form stiff peaks
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thick
Crème Diplomate
A Crème Diplomate is a cream obtained by incorporating whipped cream and gelatin into a crème pâtisisère. It makes the crème pâtisisère lighter and is used in fruit tarts, the famous Saint-Honoré and many more patisseries.
Fun Fact: If you don't incorporate gelatin, then the cream is called a crème Madame.
Slurry
A slurry is a thickener made of cornflour and water. When wanting to thicken a mixture, if you directly put some cornflour in the mixture, the cornflour would go all lumpy, so to prevent this, you make a slurry.
A slurry is rather liquid but has the property of being solid and liquid at the same time so it will feel a bit strange whilst making it. Instead of using cornflour, you could use cornstarch or potato starch.
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To form a ribbon
When a batter forms a ribbon, this means that when we take a spoon and lift up a bit of batter and then let it drop back down, it keeps it's shape. For it to form ribbon, the batter must be a little runny, or else it won't fall off the spoon, so the batter is definitely not stiff.
We use this term in baking to describe a batter so that you know what he texture should be like.
Bain-Marie
A bain-marie is when you place a bowl over a saucepan of water.
Make sure the bowl is not touching the water. You also want to take a big enough bowl or a small enough saucepan so that bowl doesn't fall into the saucepan, it should be resting on the top and be way bigger than to rim of the saucepan so that there is no risk.
You do this usually to melt chocolate and to be sure to not burn it.
The steam form the water under the bowl is what melts the chocolate really gently.
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Crème Mousseline
A crème mousseline is a crème patissière whipped with butter to become lighter ironically. It is commonly used in fraisiers and fruit tarts.
To make it, you make a crème patissière and whilst it is still hot, incorporate a little butter so that the butter melts with the pastry cream and then leave to cool. Whip a large amount of butter to make is light and fluffy. Take back your cooled pastry cream and whip it. Whilst the stand mixer is whipping, gradually add in the whipped butter until it is all incorporated.
Crème Chibouste
A crème chibouste is a crème patissière folded with Italian Meringue to become lighter and fluffier. It is commonly used in Saint-Honorés as the Saint-Honoré was also created by chef Chibouste. It isn't very commonly found in desserts as it's a little more time consuming to make, which is a shame as it's so airy and delicious.
I love making it for these reasons but also because for the creme patissière, you only need egg yolks so if you incorporate Italian meringue, you also use the egg whites!
Crème Anglaise
A crème Anglaise is a light pouring custard used as a sauce or cream.
It is made out of sugar, egg yolks and milk often flavoured with vanilla. To make it, it's exactly like making a crème patissière, only without any flour or cornflour; whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale in colour and then pour over half of the milk that was just brought to a simmer. Whisk and then pour the mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining half of milk. Whisk continuously on a low heat until the mixture thickens and reaches 82-84°C.
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