Puratos Carat Ganache | Live Demo of Chef Hasset Go

I've never been to live cooking demos—the closest that I can get to such things like that are through cooking shows like the Asian Food Channel. Haha! So I really considered myself lucky when I was invited to Choco Confections at the Treston International College: a live demonstration of Chef Hasset Go on chocolate recipes and techniques using Puratos' newest product: Carat Ganache. (Much thanks to Mark for the invite!)

Chef Hasset Go is a famous 24-year-old pastry chef who is currently the senior chef instructor at the Culinary Institute of Cagayan de Oro and owner of MedChef, a pastry shop along Quezon City. He has also appeared on local TV in programs such as Junior Masterchef, Umagang Kay Ganda, 24 Oras, and Unang Hirit among others. And just last February 8, he worked his magic with Puratos' Carat Ganache at the Treston International College (BGC, The Fort) in front of food entrepreneurs, press people, bloggers, and foodies.

Puratos, on the other hand, is an international manufacturer of ingredients for baking, confectionery, and chocolate; and one of their recent innovative productions is the Carat Ganache. I'm no pâtissière (yet!) but from what I do know, ganache is a sauce, filling, or glaze that is used on cakes and pastries. This is usually prepared by melting or blending chocolates with cream—it takes some time, and it's actually tough for chefs who live in a tropical country like ours to deal with regular chocolate because we have too much heat and humidity. So, to answer that problem as well as to simplify the process and optimize baking time, Puratos came up with this ready-to-use ganache that is made from premium compound chocolate.

Now I have no right to further discuss the specifics of this product because I really don't know what it would mean (haha!) but I do know that I have readers who are bakers and pâtissiers so I will lay out the information for this Carat ganache in the latter part of this post. But for now, since I'm a foodie, let me show you first the unforgettable chocolate feast that was laid out before us!

First up was Chef Go's Whoopie Pie; this was made up of two round chocolate cakes sandwiching the creamy Carat ganache filling and then dusted off with confectioner's sugar on top. Watching Chef Go prepare this chocolatey treat sent off alarm bells in my head because I was expecting an abomination of sugar! ...But I was wrong. It didn't taste too sweet and I liked the moistness of the cake followed by the smooth velvety texture of the Carat ganache. For a short say: it was addicting!

*The picture below shows the actual whoopie pies that some of the participants help prepare; and Chef Go used two round cookies instead of cakes. But what I tasted were made of chocolate cakes and were more aesthetically pleasant.

Next were the Toffee Muffins injected and topped with Carat ganache and drizzled with dulce de leche. It was sinfully full of ganache and I just loved how there were toffee bits in these muffins!

The Almond Cappuccino Bars are, as the name goes, cappucino bars topped with Carat ganache and dredged with roasted almonds. I'm not much for cappucino-tasting pastries, but this was a sweet ride for my tastebuds.

For a quick heavenly bite, there were Fun Hazelnut Fingers made of two rectangular butter cookie shortcrusts sandwiched on Carat ganache and praline hazelnut fillings. Some of us have joined in decorating the top by sprinkling on some confectioner's sugar—these weren't called 'fun' for nothing!

Meanwhile, Chef Go mentioned that bakers and pastry chefs would usually have a lot of leftover cakes or cut out scraps, so he helped present an easy-to-do recipe so there wouldn't be a need to throw those away: Cake Pops! You'll just have to mix leftover cakes, Carat ganache, and some roasted nuts. Afterwards, you'll roll those into balls and let it freeze; for the final touch, you dip them into melted Carat ganache and you're done!

To spoil us even more (which I really didn't mind!) Chef Go went on to prepare some delectable cakes! First was the Mocha Cake Roll. This was made of sponge cake roll with dulce de leche filling, topped with Carat ganache, choco bits and thin chocolate strips (which were decorated with colorful stripes made from a chocolate transfer sheet.) It was really fascinating how he made this cake with such flawless movements! (Gaah, now I really want to start learning pastry-making!) The taste, of course, didn't disappoint! Though it was full of such sweet, chocolatey, and creamy flavors, it wasn't really too overpowering to make me shy away and say no.

Second cake was the Chocolate Tart piped with lots of Carat ganache.

And then to outdo himself, Chef Go prepared an Almond Ganache Torte. With a moist chocolate cake as a base, it was first filled and topped with ganache and then placed in the freezer overnight (this was done beforehand). And then finally: glazing, which is what I particularly enjoyed watching Chef Go do! End result: it made me feel like it was such a crime to destroy the wonderfully decorated cake; but still, I'm glad I did because the cake was sufficiently moist and the Carat Ganache was just the perfect match for it!

Aaaah, I can still remember the taste of all of these chocolatey pastries and cakes! And yes, ladies and gents', the filling, glazing, and decorating parts were all done in a breeze! Surely, Puratos' Carat ganache could really help the food entrepreneurs.

As promised, here are the specifics of Puratos' Carat Ganache:

Puratos actually offers seminars and workshops in their head office; therefore, you can contact them directly to taste and to know more about Carat Ganache as well as their other products. Simply call them at (02) 838-5110 to 15.

Chef Hasset Go
(02) 732-3355
hassetgo@gmail.com

Puratos
info@puratos.com.ph
www.puratos.com

Treston International College
inquiry@treston.edu.ph
(02) 871-6179

"Foodie from the Metro" : Puratos Carat Ganache | Live Demo of Chef Hasset Go