The much-anticipated holiday season is on! We’ve got summer, sunshine and a little rest, and we want to share the latest news. The last six months have been really busy at our Academy of Skills: we’ve held a lot of confectionery training sessions, created a number of new chocolate decorations and plenty of recipes, and we’ve produced tons of photos and a great deal of inspiration.

In June, our pastry chefs – Ana Florencia Davila and Michał Świerad – went on an amazing journey in search of new confectionery techniques and the latest trends, as well as to improve their professional competency. They visited the best-known French culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, and took part in an exclusive customised confectionery training given by Chef Laurent Bichon, Technical Director and Chef Instructor Pastry. Ana and Michał came back full of excitement and new ideas. We’re happy for them and we’re looking forward to sharing the knowledge with you in our training sessions.

The last training we organised at the Academy of Skills Inspiration before the holiday break was ‘Summertime Desserts for Catering’ and it was remarkable. The excellent chefs and confectioners who participated in the training created 8 unique plated desserts under the guidance of our specialists. They got ideas for pairing chocolate with seasonal fruit, used molecular cooking textures, played with flavours, forms and decorations. The training received a great deal of interest, so we’ve decided to share one of the recipes with you here.

Sea Buckthorn Plated Dessert

Get to know a unique recipe for a plated dessert that will work great in your restaurant. The sea buckthorn berries have been recently rediscovered in the confectionery and food service sectors. It has an exceptional tart and bitter taste, a beautiful deep orange colour and lots of vitamin C. We decided to use it in our dessert. A well-composed plated dessert should feature a variety of textures, different and sometimes surprising flavours (but always well matched), a beautiful appearance and good quality products. It is to delight with form and decorations, and posses with flavours. So, this is what we suggest:

The main element of the dessert is a mono portion in the shape of a triangle, comprising a shortbread cocoa pastry, delicate white chocolate mousse with sea buckthorn and chocolate mascarpone cream.
Spread some sea buckthorn sorbet – the original mellow ice cream with a beautiful juicy colour and distinctive flavour – on a crunchy crumble made with dark chocolate and hazelnuts. Insert a piece of sponge cake, made with almond flour, into a Grillage Tube made of crisp and flavourful dark chocolate and place it beside the mono portion. The sea buckthorn and sweet orange gel is a perfect pair. Use it to decorate the plate, creating a beautiful arrangement and enhancing the flavour of the dessert itself. Add a bit of fresh thyme to enrich the flavour and use Barbara Decor Lacrima and Punta decorations as the ‘cherry on top’. Highly recommended!

Full recipe you will find here.

Summer in the confectionery and food service business is a truly great time to play with fruit, colours and flavours. Go ahead and don’t wobble! It’s holiday time. We’re travelling, discovering new tastes and gathering memories. See you in early autumn! We’ll have a surprise for you 😊

BL Team