The very last activity in Brisbane on day 6 of our #Room753 Bloggers Trip to Queensland itinerary was to go to a desserts cooking class! Its no secret that I’m a fan of cooking, chocolate, sugar, desserts, and everything related to food that is and a chocolate desserts cooking class would, to me, be one of my ideas of having a good and relaxing time. We do have cooking schools who give out cooking classes in Kuwait but its different when you are abroad. I remember a coffee preparation class I’ve wanted to go to in Dubai but never had the time, and when in the UK I’m always a bit intimidated and would chicken out at the last minute.
Was the Brisbane chocolate desserts class my very first cooking class, ever? I believe it must be! At least, the first official full fledged and not home economics school class. I was to make my way via Taxi to James Street Cooking School at 6:30 and spend the evening in class until 9:30. We arrived to a place with modern buildings surrounding a parking lot, a very interesting looking James St. Market was there and I so wanted to spend an hour or so browsing the aisles there, have I not shown you what I found in Australian supermarkets? I should do so soon in another post. Anyways, next to the market there was another building with a “cooking school” written on it and I knew it was where I needed to go.
I was among the first students to arrive that day for the evening chocolate desserts class. When you first enter the class room you are met with a long steel table with chairs surrounded by shelves stocked with interesting products that you could purchase. Then there were the cooking stations, each with its very own colourful mixer, flame top knives, utensils, the works.
Two chefs where already there waiting and bustling around the room making sure everything was ready. I headed up to Chef Jo, introduced myself, and she was asked me find and choose my name tag and wear it throughout the class. I was with my husband who insisted on accompanying me because it was an evening activity in a entire new continent and we asked if it was possible he could sit through the class and take some pictures on my behalf for the blog. The instructors were very welcoming and even chatted with him, friendly Australians as always. I have to say his English did improve rapidly when we were in Australia, by the last week I couldn’t get him to stop talking away to everyone he met. Taxi rides took twice as long because he wouldn’t stop chatting with the drivers all the way to our destinations.
After putting on my name tag I went ahead to a cooking station and waited for the rest of the students to arrive. On each station the ingredients needed for the class were packed neatly, ready for us to use. Also present was a folded James St. apron folded neatly on a chopping board, a sharp knife lay waiting nearby.
The class commenced when all the students where aproned and ready. Everyone was friendly and welcoming, didn’t mind all my picture taking at all, and we had a blast! I made my first meringue ever and when I held the mixing bowl over my head and the meringue stayed put and didn’t fall over my head -thankfully- everyone clapped and its been so long since someone clapped for me, I believe it must been back in school or perhaps university or something equally ancient. Hello *waving*.
Now what did we cook? Well, the sheets we had on our cooking stations included detailed recipes for gluten-free brownies, passionfruit chocolate truffles, chocolate ganache, orange & white chocolate mousse on a nest of kataifi pastry topped with raspberry coulis, and chocolate and amaretto tart made with sweet pastry that’s made from scratch. Sounds guiltily delicious, no?
We started first with the gluten-free brownie that was made, to my surprise, with lots and lots of dates. Good old dates that’s been laying around every corner of everyone’s house in Kuwait, along with egg whites, and pistachios, and some delicious chocolate, and you do have excellent brownies that are quite different and really good!
Perhaps they don’t look the part but when cut into squares and served, the taste is out of this world! I could totally bake batches of these and sell them in local farmers markets as “paleo friendly brownies” and they will be a hit, I know they will be. Maybe next year…
Next came the truffles, and I enjoyed making those truffles so very, very much! Why? Well, look at the pictures, won’t you? On my farmers markets booth menu I might include those truffles, who knows :p
Next was the chocolate & amaretto tart, which involved pushing and kneading and flattening of the sweet pastry then placing it in the tart moulds. Not an easy task, and I can tell you that I didn’t much care for the effort that goes to make pastry basis especially since I personally tend to discard the tart bases and consume the toppings only. I doubt I’d be trying that recipe anytime soon but it was quite an experience.
Sadly because it was a chocolate and Amaretto tart which means alcohol is used to make the filling I didn’t make it nor taste it afterwards, muslims aren’t supposed to handle alcohol even, but they sure did look delicious and turned out quite fine in the end. I might very well remake this recipe with ready made tart shells and the same filling recipe by substituting Amaretto with apple juice if I’m not mistake, just like in Tiramisu. Or was it orange juice? I’d have to look that up one day.
The last dessert of the night was the orange & white chocolate mousse on a nest of kataifi pastry topped with raspberry coulis. The raspberry coulis was sitting in a big pot on the stove waiting to be used, the chocolate mousse was easy and fun to make. The kataifi pastry is actually vermicelli that was made into nests that reminded me very much of kanafa.
Once the vermicelli was baked all we had to do was scoop a dollop of the mousse on top of each then drench it with the couli, how good does that look?
The end result was really tempting, with slices of blood oranges arranged on the side. However, the vermicelli were mixed on the spot with grand mariner which meant I couldn’t shape them nor taste the dessert afterwards. I must be making this dessert soon at home, what do you use to substitute grand mariner? I will have to look it up as well and if the recipe is a success I might be adding it to my booth’s menu :p
Once all the cooking was over there was a spread ready for the participants on the long steel table at the entrance. You know how when you watch a European cooking show they’d be preparing a few dishes for their guests and then they’d serve it up for everyone while they sat around the table talking and laughing and enjoying their food? It felt exactly like that, with bowls of crisp green salad, excellent potato salad that I would have seconds and thirds and tenths of if I could, and a grilled chicken with the meat so white and the skin so crisp I wished for a second that I liked chicken so I could take a bite and enjoy it.
What was passed around for the diners? A platter of those cocoa-dusted bombs! Unbelievably good, I’m actually quite hungry now myself.
Once the class and dinner was over, everyone packed up their own made desserts to take them home with them. There was a lot of calories scarified on the altar of sugar that night.
I had a blast with my chocolate class in James St. Cooking School! Very fun, learned a lot, had delicious food, and interacted with locals who were very friendly and welcoming. Even though I was thousands of miles away from home, I felt like I belonged to my team and that I wasn’t much of a stranger, that felt good, very good indeed. Thanks to my two instructors for sharing their knowledge with us, patiently, and for letting my husband stay that night, the next time I’m in Brisbane I will make sure to take another class for sure.
For more information regarding cooking classes in James St. Cooking School you can check their website (link), follow them on instagram (@JamesStCookingsShool), or check their Facebook page (JamesSt.CookingSchool).
