Petit Four and Fondant Nonsense

Petit Four isn't small 4 desserts. Nope, Four is actually Oven in French. Betcha didn't know, well so did I! We made Petit Four and Flavoured Meringue the previous week, followed by our second assessment, last week, which tested us on Petit Four, flavoured Meringue and Coconut Macaroons.

Petit Four done by Classmates

Petit Four is a small confectionery usually served after meals or as part of dessert, it was named small oven as it is usually baked at low temperature, particularly when the coal powered brick ovens were cooling. The bakers did not want to waste the heat and decided to bake smaller desserts during the cooling process. There are 3 types of Petit Four: the Secs, the Sales and the Glaces. The Petit Four Secs are those dried baked goodies such as Macaroons, Scones, Dainty Biscuits & Baked Meringue. The Petit Four Glaces are basically decorated or iced mini desserts e,g Tartlets, Eclairs and sponge cakes covered in fondant. Lastly, the Petit Four Sales refers to savoury products such as mini quiche or any puff pastry with savoury filling.


We started off by making the heavy genoise which is an italian sponge cake named after the city of Genoa. Genoise is something like a pound cake, it is dense, elastic and somewhat dry. After it is baked and cooled, we rolled out a layer of marzipan and stuck it to the top of the Genoise, using the apricot gel as the "glue". Marzipan is a confection consisting mainly of sugar and almond meal, it can be used to fill chocolates, layered between cakes or even shaped into edible figurines; however, we used them for glazing as they provide us with a nice even surface for glazing.

Petit Four Glace

After covering the top of the genoise with marzipan, the cake was left to chill as it becomes easier to handle. The chilled cake is firmer and does not crumble easily when sliced/ cut. After cutting out the desired shapes, it's time to prepare the fondant. Fondant means "melting" in French, its mainly made up of sugar and water but exist in many different states. The poured fondant differs from rolled fondant as the latter has gelatine/ glycerine which allows it to be rolled out like a  play dough. In short, the poured fondant is a pain in the ass, one has to mix it with sugar syrup (as if its not sweet enough) and test its consistency at the ideal temperature of 37 C, no more no less. The consistency of the fondant is really important, if it is too thick, the fondant would not flow down the cake nicely. However, too thin a fondant would result in a barely iced Petit Four. I cheated a little and disguised the ugly sides of my Petit Four with those multi coloured beads.

 

The disguise

Petit Four Glace aren't fun to make

Colourful Petit Four done by classmates

The second part of class was devoted to making flavoured meringues. Flavoured meringues are easy to make; all you gotta to do is whip egg whites and sugar till stiff peak. The meringues were given some colour and flavouring before being piped onto the baking tray. The only troublesome thing about meringue is the baking time; it takes ages to bake as it has to be baked under low temperature to prevent cracking.

Flavoured Meringue sandwiched with apricot gel

Flavoured meringue done by classmates

We had our 2nd assessment on my birthday, but it wasn't bad at all as my classmates sung me a birthday song :) We were tested on exactly what we made the previous week; with the coconut macaroons being the only exception. The coconut macaroons were easier to make as there wasn't a need to sift the almond meal. I absolutely love these coconut macaroons as it wasn't too sweet and had added texture from the dessicated coconut. I managed to steal some right out of the oven and omg it tasted soooooo good! It was crunchy and yet chewy. It sort of lost it's crunch as it cooled though.

Coconut Macaroons

They say second time's the charm ok maybe third; my Petit Four was slightly better looking as I was told not to cheat and wasn't allowed to have coloured beads :(

Slightly better looking Petit Four

Mine vs Chef's Petit Four 

Meringues, the trick is to not mix the colours