ʼTis the Season!
When I think of Christmas catering, the first thing that comes to mind is desserts—the sweets that call to mind the Christmases of my childhood. So, when a client called and asked us to cater his group’s Christmas party, I was quick to ask if he would be interested in a buffet of traditional holiday desserts. He asked what that might include. And when I described the delicacies I had in mind, he gave me an enthusiastic YES!
Pride of place on the buffet table went to a traditional croquembouche. Our team started by making pâte à choux, which we piped and baked into 150 light, crispy, golden cream puffs, all filled with homemade Bavarian cream (the rich, yellow cream you usually find in éclairs). Using hot caramel as our glue, we assembled the cream puffs into an impressive tower, dipping about a third of them in chocolate for some variety in color and flavor. And then, when the whole croquembouche was built, I got to do the fun part: spinning the then-cooling caramel into golden threads to decorate the tree. It was a thrill to see those golden threads sparkling in the colored lights of Christmas!
Next on the buffet were our two Bûche de Nöel cakes. The first was Black Forest: a chocolate Swiss roll cake filled with chocolate-cherry cream. We covered the cake in rich chocolate ganache, and then used chocolate shards to form the bark. Some homemade meringue mushrooms, a few sprigs of rosemary to look like evergreen, sugared cranberries placed to look like holly berries, and a dusting of powdered sugar to look like snow, and we had a traditional Yule log cake. The second bûche de Nöel was made to look more like a birch log. Fresh lemon curd formed the flavor foundation of our spongy lemon cake, which we filled with some fresh raspberry cream—tart, sweet, and creamy all at the same time; it complemented the lemon cake perfectly. Then it was time to decorate again: white-chocolate ganache, white-chocolate shards for bark, more meringue mushrooms, rosemary, and sugared cranberries, and we had another beautiful Yule log cake.
Now, in our house, Christmas always means two kinds of pie: pumpkin and pecan. For the buffet, we decided to make mini tartlet versions of these traditional holiday desserts. The pumpkin tartlets got topped with bruléed mini marshmallows, and the pecan tartlets were topped off with bourbon whipped cream—each one a tiny baked bundle bursting with holiday flavors.
Finally, to complete the buffet, we gave a holiday twist to mini pots de crème, flavoring them with gingerbread spices and finishing them off with gingerbread cookies nestled atop a dollop of fresh whipped cream.
Croquembouche, Bûche de Nöel, pumpkin and pecan tartlets, and gingerbread pots de crème: If this collection of holiday treats leaves you with visions of sugarplums dancing in your head, call The Gourmet Guys. We’d be delighted to lay out your holiday table with the sweet treats of the season!
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!