Pastry 
All people love desserts. Although people frequently believe a dessert to be unhealthy, this dish can be beneficial when choosing the appropriate ingredients. Many cultures around the world follow a tradition of consuming a dessert after the meal. This splendid dish served at the end of the dinner notifies the consummation of the meal and creates a sense of benignity within a person. Apart from the cultural significance and the role of a feel-good agent, a dessert can also provide a person with a wide variety of health benefits. Therefore, healthy desserts can aid in digestion and supply additional vitamins and fiber to the diet. They also can boost immune system and lower the blood pressure level. It is known that healthy desserts can balance hormones in the organism and lower the level of LDL (bad) cholesterol. Finally, healthy desserts can act as anti-depressants. The current paper will provide a dessert menu consisting of five desserts, each of them including four major components. The paper will also provide a recipe for all four components of one desert and demonstrate a total price of this plated dessert.
Plated Desserts
Plated desserts are very important as artfully presented food has a tendency to taste better. A plated dessert presentation has a specific purpose. Thus, a presented dessert has three major objectives. The first one stands for an attempt to satisfy the customer. This objective actually accentuates taste above anything else. Nevertheless, some professionals argue that the visual design of the plate satisfies the customer as well. The second objective stands for complementation of the venue’s theme and design. This objective stresses the visual and creative assertions of a dessert that have a tendency to bring customers back. The final objective is to create a dessert that is affordable in the terms of any specific restaurant. This objective regards complicacy and the cost of a dessert. If a dessert is too complex, its production will take too much effort of the kitchen employees and the chef. On the other hand, complexity creates a high price, and customers will rarely order an overpriced dessert. The price should be objective and allow the establishment making money and not losing the costs.
A successful plated dessert should include four components, incorporating the main item, ice cream or sorbet, sauce, and a composed garnish. The dessert itself is the main item of a plated dessert. This dish should weigh between 90 and 150 grams, but it can often weigh as much as 240 grams. Nevertheless, the main item is not supposed to be so large because its major purpose concerns overwhelming the dessert. The main item has to be the central point of the plated dessert or a dessert presentation. The main item inspires the guest’s selection and impedes customer distraction from the other constituents of the presented dessert. Thus, the main item is the most significant part of the dessert and should not be overwhelmed or dissolved among the other components. The main item usually takes more time to prepare in comparison with other components in the plated dessert. The major rule of the main item states that it should also be the main source of savor and aroma of the plated dessert while the other components oppose and supplement it. The other three components should be prepared with as much care as the main item. They should be outright and well considered. An intelligent client can easily understand which constituents are required for the contrast or supplement of the flavor and which are merely fillers. Therefore, it is not recommended to merely pour caramel sauce or put a cookie onto the dessert plate only because a presented dessert is supposed to include a sauce and a crunch component. The reason is that other components have a specific objective as well and should be utilized in a proper manner. These components are supposed to be visually attractive and assist in guiding the customer’s eyes to the main item . Nevertheless, the taste and aroma perform the most important role any of these components serve.
Ice cream or sorbet creates a contrast of taste and temperature. In fact, temperature is not significant for taste, but it is essential for the way this taste is perceived. Thus, for instance, the aroma of ice cream is not as expressive as the aroma of hot main item. Therefore, it is essential to add some extra flavor to the iced dessert or sorbet. Ice cream and sorbet demonstrate extensive taste and color potential, and this component can powerfully transform the main item in a number of ways. Firstly, it contrasts the temperature of the main item and enhances the perception of the presented platted dessert. Secondly, ice cream muffles the flavor of the plated dessert because the mouth of the customer feels numb while the flavor becomes fresh and amplifies. Finally, ice cream and sorbets perform the function of surprise that amuses the customer, especially when the component is hidden. This is a significant factor, which will make the customer order the platted dessert again.
A plated dessert should have no more than two sauces. The sauces should not weigh more than 30 to 60 grams with the exception of an overflowing design. Sauce is very significant for dry items, including pies and cakes. However, a sauce can be added to any dessert. While there are so many various types of sauces, the conjugation of tastes, aroma, colors, and textures is almost innumerable. Nevertheless, the sauce should be conveyed in a tasteful manner and aggravate the plated dessert. If the two sauces are utilized, they should be approximately of the same consistency. This will allow sauces not to run into each other. The sauces should be able to stay close to each other or even inside one another, and preserve their own shape. Only then, the chef can use and manipulate the dessert sauces like a tincture in order to create funny and original designs.
The garnish is the final component of a presented dessert. This broad category can include almost anything. Typical garnishes incorporate fresh mint leaves, various fruits, powdered sugar, and chocolate. While the garnish category is so wide in its nature, it provides the chef with the possibility to augment to the deepness and complicacy of the plated dessert. Nevertheless, he or she should utilize a garnish with a lot of reticence for it to look tasteful. When a garnish is overused, it loses the overall effect and can even ruin a plated dessert. The most typically over utilized garnish is the mint leaf. Despite the fact that it provides a refreshing flavor and bright green color to plated desserts, it lacks originality as anyone can utilize a mint leaf.
Nevertheless, the combination of four constituents of the plated dessert requires the knowledge of flavor rules. The majority of chefs, particularly pastry chefs, have a tendency to adhere to the three-flavor rule. It consists in the fact that the plate should not present more than three expressive flavors on in, incorporating the main item, the garnish component, and the sauces. In case a chef utilizes too many flavors, they may be insuperable for the customer as the customer will be confused with such a great amount of different flavors. This rule concerns distinct and strong flavors. Nevertheless, fruits are a good exception to this rule because they have a tendency to combine well with one another, like in a fruit salad.
Finally, serving plays a crucial role for a plated dessert. Therefore, after the dessert is complete and all of the flavors have been sharply evolved, the time comes for service. The person preparing a plated dessert has no right to merely put the dessert on a trite round white plate and hand it to the customer. Too much time and efforts the chef has put into the dessert and its components to locate it on a plain plate. This will be an offense to the chef’s hard work and to the customer as well. Serving vessels are considered the last push to amaze the customer. Therefore, serving should not be overlooked. It is highly important to understand that serving vessels should contrast or supplement the dessert successfully. Thus, a white dessert will look whiter on a black plate than on a white plate. In addition, it is better to attempt avoiding the utilization of round plates. The popularity of square plates is growing in popularity, as it provides an excellent opportunity for shape contrasts.
Dessert Menu
The current dessert menu will consist of five plated desserts, each of them including four necessary components. It will include ‘Ice Cream Plated Dessert’, ‘Chocolate Tart with Cranberry Sorbet’, ‘Planet Plantation’, ‘Brownie with Panna Cotta and Stewed Pear’, and ‘Floating Praline Islands’.
The main item ‘French Meringue’ consists of ice cream inserted into the meringue. This dessert combines various tastes, which supplement each other. While the dessert is based on vanilla cream, it is rich in the vanilla favor, which perfectly combines with the orange and lemon caramel sauce. The sauce prevents the dessert from being too sweet and luscious. Cooked peaches provide a touch of freshness and goodness to the overall flavor and aroma of this dish.
This main item, which consists of Tart itself, is served hot. The tartlet has to run inside the main item. Dark chocolate, utilized as a sauce, sharpens the taste of the dish, and strawberry sorbet makes the dessert fresh and sweet. The bitterness of the chocolate combines with the delicious taste of hazelnuts, which supplement the flavor of the main dessert and the sauce.
The main item is called ‘Chocolate Earth’. The lower level of the main item consists of a chocolate mousse covered with an edible ‘earth’. The latter is cooked from cocoa nibs, sugar, fresh bergamot zest and cocoa short crust. The dessert perfectly combines the tastes of chocolate, apples, lemons, and vanilla. The dessert has a unique and original building as it is presented in the form of an edible earth, surrounded with chocolate sauce, with East Indian Crest planted in the middle of the dessert as a garnish.
Brownie is a first layer of the main item, which is prepared from sugar, eggs and dark chocolate. Panna Cotta is the second layer, created from milk, sugar, and vanilla. This is a perfect combination of dry and crunch lower layer with soft and delicate upper layer. They intensify the flavor of each other, making the main item light and unforgettable. The chocolate taste of a dessert is supplemented with the help of vanilla caramel sauce and pear and lime garnish. A brownie panna cotta is placed on the plate, while a chocolate piece is located on top of this layer. Stewed pears combined with vanilla caramel sauce surround the main item, enhancing the taste and providing it with lightness and freshness.
The main item is called ‘Praline Islands’. It is cooked from eggs, sugar, and praline. Egg white creates foam, which transform into a soft peak form after adding sugar. Then, praline is added with a spoon, and the dish is poached into a sweet sherry. The dessert has a unique taste and aroma. The main item, which consists of praline, perfectly combines with a honey sauce and pecan nuts, which are used as a garnish. The dessert is very light; the nuts neutralize the sweetness of the honey sauce.
The Recipe
‘Ice cream plated dessert’ is the first dessert dish on the dessert menu. It consists of four components, including French meringue, caramel sauce, ice cream, and cooked peaches.
The first component, known as French meringue, is the main item of the plated dessert, and it will include three ingredients. It is recommended to take 200 grams of egg whites, 200 grams of granulated sugar, and 200 grams of icing sugar.
The second component is vanilla ice cream. It consists of eight ingredients. It is recommended to take 1150 grams of whole milk, 200 grams of cream, 290 grams of sugar, 130 grams of egg yolks, 70 grams of dextrose, 60 grams of dry non-fat milk, 60 grams of crescendo vanilla paste, and 40 grams of stabilizer.
The third component is an orange and lemon caramel sauce. It includes six ingredients. It is recommended to take 250 grams of icing sugar, 40 grams of Sicoly lemon puree, 40 grams of Sicoly blood orange puree, 200 grams of heavy cream, 1 teaspoon of crescendo vanilla paste, and 15 grams of cubed butter.
The fourth and final component, which stands for a composed garnish, incorporates cooked peaches. It will include six ingredients. It is recommended to take two fresh peaches, 20 grams of butter, 30 grams of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of lemon zest, 1 teaspoon of a fresh ginger zest and a dash of ground cinnamon.
The Cooking Steps and Methods
In order to make a meringue, it is important to combine egg whites with the granulated sugar. Then it is crucial to blend these two ingredients with a mixer and add the icing sugar with a rubber spatula studiously and gradually. Afterwards, it is important to pipe the ready mixture on the desired shape and bake at 100˚C for about 2 hours or until the meringue feels dry and crisp.
In order to make vanilla ice cream, it is significant to make a crème anglaise, combining all the ingredients and cook to 85˚C. Afterward this crème anglaise should be passed via a fine cone strainer and cooled down rapidly. The result would be better when the crème anglaise rests in the refrigerator for 7 to 8 hours.
The next step concerns the cooking of orange and lemon caramel sauce. Thus, it is significant to blend the two types of purees with the icing sugar and cook until the caramel creates. Then the mixture should be removed from the plate and deglazed with the average temperature heavy cream, which is conjugated with the vanilla paste. The mixture should be put on the cooker again and boiled for additional two minutes. Then it is important to add the cubed butter. Now, this sauce can stay aside until all components are ready.
The next step regards the preparation of the cooked peaches. The prepared cooked slices of peaches will be utilized to garnish the dish. Firstly, it is significant to melt the butter with the sugar, add brown sugar, lemon zest, fresh ginger zest and a dash of ground cinnamon and put slices of peaches on all of those ingredients. The slices of peaches should be cook over medium heat. It is essential not to overcook the fruits. When the peaches are ready, they should be kept aside for the building of the plated dessert.
Building, Decoration and Price
The phase of building and decoration is very important for this dessert. First, it is crucial to take a desired sized rectangular plate and place it in the freezer. When the plate rests in the freezer, the vanilla ice cream is filled into the French meringue. The whole meringue should be filled with the ice cream. In addition, the French meringue can be decorated with chocolate top, which will hide the ice cream from the customer and amuse him/her when the person tries the main item. After the plate is removed from the freezer, it is crucial to display the meringue on the one side of this plate. The caramel sauce is located along the entire length of the other side of a plate towards the French meringue. Finally, the cooked peaches should be subdivided into two parts. They should be located on the both sides of the caramel sauce, with one part being closer to the French meringue and the other one being located on the opposite side.
The dessert consists of four constituents. The cost per portion of the first constituent - main item (French meringue) makes $4. The cost per portion of the second constituent - vanilla ice cream makes $10. The cost per portion of a third constituent - an orange and lemon caramel sauce makes $5. The cost per portion of a fourth constituent - cooked peaches (garnish) makes $6. A total cost of a dessert for one person makes $25.
Conclusion
A dessert is the most important constituents of a meal since it is the last thing and the last impression the customer will remember after the meal. The dinner should be complete to be satisfying. Plated desserts are pieces of art as they typically incorporate four components, which ideally oppose the taste of the main item or supplement it. A plated dessert typically includes a main item, which can stand for a piece of cake, pie, etc., an ice cream or sorbet, a sauce, and a garnish. All of these components should be ideally selected and combined in order to reveal the taste of the dish and amuse the customer. The process of food consumption starts from the moment when a person starts observing the dish. Plated desserts are particularly created to bring pleasure to the customer by not only the dessert’s favor, but also its visual presentation.
