Mignardise Practical

At the end of our mignardise block we had a practical. I had to make 24 Harlequin Cookies, 24 Almond Rochers, and 8 oz of milk ganache.Pictured above are my harlequin cookies. The main emphasis with these cookies was to ensure that the cookies were uniform, with a bright red stripe on them, a thin layer of fondant that did not drip, and an even coating of apricot marmalade that sandwiched the two cookies together. These turned out well, even though my fondant did drip slightly down the cookie.

Pictured below are my almond rochers (or rocks). For these we had to toast almonds in the oven, and then temper chocolate to coat them in. My chocolate was tempered correctly, but the rochers could have been a slight bit more domed, and more consistent in shape. As well, the chocolate set slightly too quickly as I was working with them…

My milk chocolate ganache is in the plastic container in the above picture. We had to prepare exactly 8 ounces of ganache. This was fun because 8 oz is a very small amount. The chocolate required 2 ½ ounces of cream, and that is a very small amount of cream to boil. I had to boil extra cream, and then measure it out as I poured it into my chocolate. The chocolate did not fully melt in the ganache, therefore I had to slowly heat it over a double boiler!