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On July 28, 2010, Festival intern Hifsa Arshad along with the Festival’s Media Crew visited the . The 3-hour class was directed by Pastry Chef Marco Ropke, owner of the pastry school. In the perspective of a designer with some experience in architecture, I (Hifsa) found his school to be spacious and well-layed out. He even had a large mirror angled above him so the entire table could see inside his pots without having to crane our necks. He taught how to create Rye Bread: Chocolate Cherry, Crème Brûlée: Chocolate Cardamom & Coffee, Crumble/Streusel: Cocoa, and Jelly Orange & Saffron. During the Festival, Chef Ropke will be hosting which are listed under the calendar events.
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Our first recipe was “Rye Bread: Chocolate Cherry.” Chef Ropke explained that all purpose flour is the midpoint of cake flour and bread flour – it’s not good for just bread or just cakes. I partnered with Mark Robins as we tackled these new and amazing recipes. Creating the dough was a sticky situation. The more we kneaded it, the less sticky and rough it became though. As we knead the dough, the yeast become active and the dough seems to grow; yeast like warm temperatures. Next, we rolled the dough in chopped-up chocolate and mixed it with dried cranberries. We let it sit under saran wrap so that the dough could grow without drying out.
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The next recipe Chef Ropke showed us, was for Ice Cream: White Chocolate. He mixed it and put it into the ice-cream churning machine. Funny thing was that the one out of 5 eggs was a yellow-coloured yolk while the rest were a rich orange colour. The colour of the ice-cream was a beautiful peach-yellow colour.
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We then created crème brûlée with chocolate cardamom and coffee. We got to take a look at 2 types of cardamoms: one was green and is quite common while the other was dark brown and larger with a spicy aromatic scent. Chef Ropke receives ingredients as gifts by his students such as saffron from Kuwait and vanilla beans. The wafting scent of each ingredient is so pure that it makes cooking so much more enjoyable.
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We grinded the coffee beans with cardamon in a mortar and pestle before putting them into the heated crème. After taking it off the stove, we whisked it together with some sugar and egg. We then strained the mixture to clean off any impurities. We poured it into pretty serving dishes called ramekins – I found I actually own this at home and use for serving nuts, etc.
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Chef Ropke collected the crème brûlées and put them in water filled shallow trays into the oven. When they were ready we sprinkled sugar over the surface of the crème brulee and used a blow torch to turn them into a crispy brown. Below are festival interns Thomas Li (left) and Hifsa Arshad (right).
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At this point our bread has gotten quite large. We cut it into half, rolled the 2 pieces into nice balls and used a razor on a chopstick to slice cuts on the top of the bread. These slices help to control which way the bread will expand in the oven. I made 2 horizontal parallel cuts with an intersecting vertical line while my partner, Mark created star slashes. Chef Ropke explained that it is usually the most experienced in the kitchen to slice the bread well. You have to be very quick with the right amount of pressure when slicing bread.
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Our next recipe is “Crumble/Streusel: Cocoa.” This recipe is very easy to make: mix sugar, soft cake flour, nuts: almond powder and cocoa powder together, then melt butter and work the liquid butter under the ingredients until it reaches a crumbly texture.
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Above are Mark Robins (left) and West Coast Chocolate Festival president Farid Jamal with his wife, Tazeem Jamal (right) getting the crumble/streusel ready for the oven.
Chef Ropke showed us how to create an elegant Jelly Orange & Saffron. He bloomed gelatine in cold water, mixed it with glucose and fresh orange juice, and then mixed sugar and pectin and added it to the liquid. He boiled the mixture for 1-2 min and then added it to the gelatin.
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He placed the Jelly Orange & Saffron in a glass with a bit of the crumble on the plate. Next to it was the Crème Brûlée with the white chocolate ice cream on top. Everyone got to eat this dessert and it was scrumptious!
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The bread is ready! We got to take it home fresh from the oven. My family was so impressed when I showed it to them. The taste was marvellous.
For those wishing to learn about the art of pastry, Chef Ropke offers a number of different classes including:
• Artisan bread baking classes
• Basic and advanced pastry classes
• Serious chocolate classes
• Serious pastry classes
• Cake decorating classes
• Corporate team building classes
It was a pleasure learning from Chef Ropke. He is an inspiring individual and great teacher. For more information regarding his classes please visit the or come visit Chef Ropke at 818 Renfrew Street, Vancouver, BC. During the Festival, Chef Ropke will be hosting which are listed under the calendar events.
Photos Courtesy of Hifsa Arshad and Mark Robins.
1 Responses to "WCCF Media Visits the Pastry Centre of Vancouver"
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said on 08/20/11 at 12:59 AM
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