Chef’s Tips: Top Three Pastry Hacks by Chef Jenni

How do you create a sweet, gourmet garnish to elevate your dessert? And how do you master the process of making the perfect caramel?

Chef Jenni, Master Pâtissier at Le Cordon Bleu Adelaide, has given us a quick look into her top three hacks for those interested in improving their pastry techniques.

Pasty Hack #1:
How to Perfect Your Caramel

Have you ever wondered how a recipe which uses just two ingredients, sugar and water, can have the potential to go so wrong?

Chef Jenni showed us her trick to stop crystallisation forming when making a ‘wet’ caramel. In the demonstration below, she has made a caramel using 500g sugar and 100g water.

As the caramel is cooking, lightly wash down the sides with water using a pastry brush.

The water will run into the syrup and stop any crystallisation from forming, which can be caused by stirring or impurities in the sugar or the pan.

Pastry Hack #2:
How to Create a Caramel-Dipped Hazelnut Garnish

After you have mastered the perfect caramel, you can create a stunning dessert garnish by dipping hazelnuts into the caramel using the following technique. This garnish is an artistic take on classic caramel-coated hazelnuts, and a simple yet elegant finishing touch to a showstopping dessert.

1. Whilst your cooked caramel is cooling to a thicker consistency, attach a hazelnut to each pointy end of some bamboo skewers.
2. Dip the hazelnut into the caramel and give it a little swirl. Then carefully allow any excess caramel to trickle and ensure you hold the skewer horizontally so the caramel forms a single long drag of caramel, resembling a glassy icicle.
3. Holding the skewer horizontally, carefully move the skewered caramel-dipped hazelnut to the edge of a table and place the skewer under a heavy object (such as a plate) to secure it. Allow the caramel to set on the hazelnut with the drip-side down.

Pastry Hack #3:
How to Glaze Like a Pro

Glazing can be messy business. From chocolate ganache to mirror glazes, there is a lot of excess mixture which can be wasted when perfecting the finishing touches of a glazed dessert.

In order to ‘catch’ the excess glaze, you can minimise waste in just a few simple steps!

1. Line your benchtop with cling wrap and place your rack over the cling wrap.
2. Arrange your pastry items on the rack and glaze, so the cling wrap catches the excess glaze.
3. Move the rack aside for the glaze to set. Gently fold up the cling wrap into a long shape and squeeze out the excess glaze into an airtight container, ready to store or re-use!

Bon appetit!