Pesach Treat: Nutty Dacquoise with Chocolate Ganache

A dacquoise is a baked meringue that has been combined with ground nuts and then baked and frosted. This dessert will look like a cake but taste like a crispy nut cookie covered in chocolate, or filled with any of your favorite fruits or fruit purees. How bad can that be? CKCA Senior Chef Instructor shares the following deceptively simple recipe for a delicious and sophisticated dessert for a Passover Seder (along with the afikomen, of course) or any other time.

You can also make mini-dacquoises, and style them like extra-classy sandwich cookies. They are sure to be incredible crowd pleasers.

CKCA contributed this wonderful dessert to our friends at kosher.com. Get the recipe here!

Now, if you ask CKCA’s Senior Chef Instructor Avram Wiseman about Passover desserts, he will say that the very first thing you should do when you enter your kashered kitchen, is to prepare fruit purees, also known as fruit coulis. These can be turned into sorbets or used as sauces to complement other desserts. They add enticing flavors and colors to plates and they dress up any dessert. The first thing you have to do to make fruit puree is prepare simple syrup.

Simple syrup is just that, very simple. Boil one part water to two parts sugar until dissolved and then cool. To make a fruit puree, add one cup of crushed fruit to one cup of simple syrup. There, you’re done!

Strudel-Pulling at CKCA Pro Baking & Pastry

Pro students in the Baking & Pastry program had a great day making strudel from scratch. This classic apple strudel is an intensive process, but the taste of this delicious treat is certainly worth the effort.

On April 19th, Begin Your New Career as a Professional Baker

CKCA is pleased to announce the new semester of our career-altering, intensive kosher professional training program in Baking & Pastry Arts, which begins immediately after Passover, on April 19th.

This is the only kosher program of its kind in the US.

Classes are open to men and women ages 16 and above and appropriate for anyone who is passionate about food and looking to expand his or her knowledge and skill set in an intensive, professional environment. For more about the school's environment, see this recent video made by CUNY.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS PROGRAM IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE

The dates for the Spring program are as follows;
150 hours
April 19 - June 24th
Mon - Thurs
2 pm - 6 pm

Please contact Jesse Blonder at the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts for more information and an application at 718-758-1339, or visit http://www.kosherculinaryarts.com.

Croissant Day!!

Croissants always makes for an amazing photo opportunity. And they tasted as good as they looked! And now, registration is now open for the next session of CKCA professional baking and pastry. It starts April 19th, right after Pesach! Call for an application at 718-758-1339.

Tri-Color Cream Tart

Enjoy this amazing recipe by tart expert extraordinare Lynn Kutner, who will be teaching a class on all you ever need to know about tarts and tartlets on Sunday, March 7, 2010, from 10am-2pm. To sign up for Lynn's class, call 718-758-1339.

More about the class: "Contrary to popular belief, a tart is more than just a pie without the top crust. In this hands-on class, we will discover exactly what makes the tart, and her little sibling the tartlet, so unique and exciting. We will make several different types of crusts including graham cracker, shortbread, nut pastry, and pie pastry as well as a variety of filling types such as pareve chocolate cream, banana and berry cream, pecan, lemon, seasonal fruit and linzer cookie. Each student will take home several tartlets to share with their friends and family. Discover the tart and add another impressive technique to your dessert repertoire."

Tri-Color Cream Tart

ALMOND TART CRUST Yield: 8 Tarts

1/2 cup almonds, with skin, roasted at 320° for 10 minutes

6 tablespoons margarine—3/4 stick

1/4 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cups Hecker's Flour (or other unbleached)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Grind almonds fine with flour in food processor. Add salt.

2. Cream margarine and sugar until smooth.

3. Add extracts and egg yolks.

4. Stir in flour and ground almonds. Wrap in plastic wrap.

5. Chill 1 hour or overnight.

6. Divide the dough into 8 pieces, and form into balls. Press balls evenly into tart pans. Line with parchment and beans and bake at 350° for about 12-15 minutes. Remove paper and beans, and bake 3-4 minutes more to set.

Tri-color Cream Filling (This cream will be divided in 3)

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup corn starch

pinch of salt

6 egg yolks (white strings removed)

2 cups vanilla soy milk

1teaspoon vanilla per part (see below)

In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, starch, and salt.

Beat yolks in a bowl. Gradually whisk in soy milk. (If you have not removed the white strings from the eggs yet, put this mixture through a strainer.)

Gradually whisk soy milk-egg mixture into saucepan with sugar, etc.

Cook over low to moderate heat, stirring constantly with whisk. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Be sure to whisk constantly to prevent scorching. STIR THOROUGHLY BUT GENTLY. CORN STARCH WILL THIN OUT IF BEATEN!

Remove from heat. Divide into 3 parts. Flavor one part with 2 ounces chopped or melted bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, before chilling. Then chill all parts using an ice bath, stirring frequently. Then add vanilla.

Flavor the other 2 parts as follows:

1/4 to 1/3 cup raspberry jam in one part

1 teaspoon espresso coffee powder dissolved in 1 teaspoon boiling water in the other part. (If you do not want a coffee flavor, simply add another teaspoon of vanilla to this part)

Neatly layer the 3 flavors of cream in the baked tart shells--ending with raspberry on top. Decorate tops of tarts with chopped nuts, chopped chocolate, or cookie crumbs. May also be decorated with fresh fruit.