The Langham: Christmas in July pudding making workshop
Disclosure: I attended this event courtesy of The Langham and Media Moguls.
So it’s July, and you know what that means, don’t you? Time to think about Christmas! Okay, perhaps it’s not quite time to plan for Christmas, but it will be right about the corner before you know it. Isn’t that a scary thought?
Last week I headed to the Langham with several other food bloggers and food media for a Christmas in July event. I was particularly excited by the fact that we would be having a Christmas pudding making session.
After a series of canapés and glasses of bubbles (I didn’t take pictures of the canapés, but check out some of the other bloggers linked below for details), we put on aprons and chefs’ hats and headed down to the pastry kitchen. Being a food geek, I was very excited at taking the big elevator down and checking out the commercial kitchen. Oooh. It was so shiny! And clean! And bright! And shiny! Plus you should have seen the massive commercial mixer – ahhh. It was almost as tall as me – which is not saying much, to tell you the truth. I wish I had thought to take a photo of it!
We were split into two groups and into two different kitchens. My group were introduced to pastry chef Zara, who talked to us about tempering chocolate and about chocolate truffles.
Zara dipped pre-filled truffles in melted white chocolate, and showed us how to make the spiky pattern – by rolling it around on the rack with a fork. Easy! Well, she made it look easy anyway.
The white chocolate truffles were filled with elderflower liqueur and raspberry ganache. I always say that I don’t really like white chocolate… but I made an exception for these truffles! They were delicious and the sweetness of the white chocolate really highlighted the elderflower and raspberry.
Zara had also prepared some rum balls that she dipped in Lindt milk chocolate and decorated with cocoa nibs. She confessed that she put rather a lot of rum in them. She certainly did! Wow wee. They were great!
And… can you believe she told us we were free to taste the items on this bench?!
I would have loved to have spent more time listening to Zara but we had to move on. We swapped with the other group and headed into the kitchen next door to make pudding. Chef Anthony Ross was in charge of this session, and he started things off by tipping a large amount of butter, almond meal and hazelnut meal on to the bench.
He told us to get our hands into it and start rubbing the butter into the almond/hazelnut meal. (Yes we washed our hands first!)
After the butter and almond/hazelnut meal were well mixed, the fruit was tipped in. The fruit had been prepared earlier, and had been macerating in a brandy mixture. When it was tipped out, a heady scent of brandy and spices wafted around the room. It smelt amazing!
After more mixing, it was all piled up and a well was formed in the middle, into which liquid was poured – I think it was a combination of juice, milk, eggs and spices.
Plus a couple of cans of stout and a touch more brandy.
After more mixing, we had pudding! Well – almost.
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We each selected a charm to put into our puddings (the charms were wrapped in tinfoil for hygiene reasons) and then the pudding was placed on top. For some reason I selected a ballerina (?!).
And look – all the puddings ready for steaming! They were taken away to be steamed for a couple of hours, and we’ll receive our puddings in about five months time. Pretty cool, huh? I’ll let you know how it tastes in December!
For more posts see:
Sarah Cooks
Iron Chef Shellie
I Eat Therefore I Am
Addictive & Consuming
The Langham
1 Southgate Avenue
SOUTHBANK 3006
Phone: 03 8696 888
Web: The Langham – Melbourne
penny aka jeroxie
July 28, 2010 @ 11:23 pm
Ok… pressure now to get the post up soon!! I can't wait till December as well 🙂
Hannah
July 29, 2010 @ 9:35 am
You could help yourself to that bench? I think I would've chained myself to it.
I'm confused by one thing, though. You said you "put on your chef hat". I was under the impression that you walked around all day everyday wearing your chef hat?
Dany
July 29, 2010 @ 7:51 pm
NOM! I shall bring the cream and custard ;o)
Agnes
July 29, 2010 @ 10:03 pm
Penny: No pressure! It's still 5 months until Christmas. 😉
Hannah: Yes we could eat anything on the bench – I did think of you, but unfortunately I wasn't carrying my bag nor did I have any pockets to stash any chocolate into! Haha, you should see the sexy chef hat – it's SO HOT. :p
Dany: Haha, okay!
Cherrie Pie
July 30, 2010 @ 9:14 am
looked likes fun but I'm guessing since you were taking the pics, you didn't get your hands dirty? lol
mademoiselle délicieuse
July 30, 2010 @ 10:56 pm
Ooohhh, so much fun squishing stuff with fingers – butter! dough! Can't wait to see you unveil the final product come year end =)
Tv Food and Drink
July 31, 2010 @ 2:12 pm
You were given permission to play with your food the way you probably did when you were eight! But this time, you had the added benefits of stout, brandy and rum. Were you even able to make it home? Well, with that big shiny super-clean industrial kitchen, why in God's name would you want to leave? -Gary
My Restaurants Melbourne
August 2, 2010 @ 7:50 pm
Those chocolates look so delicous!!! Looks like lots of fun getting messy with your hands too.
Agnes
August 2, 2010 @ 10:22 pm
Cherrie: Hehee, I DID get my hands dirty – I rubbed in some butter. And then decided I wanted to take photos so I washed my hands and that was that. 😉
mademoiselle: I don't even really like Christmas pudding, but I can't wait to taste this one!
Gary: Oh, I definitely didn't want to leave!
My Restaurants Melbourne: It was heaps of fun – though I must admit I only got my hands dirty for the first part and soon gave up to take photos. Haha!
Maria@TheGourmetChallenge
August 4, 2010 @ 5:20 pm
ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!! Theres a head in the chocolate!!!! It scared the shit out of me!!!!
How did you not put on 5 kgs on that day?? and you have to wait until December…..you better be a good girl or you might just receive a lump of coal!
Agnes
August 6, 2010 @ 1:19 pm
Maria: Hah, you crack me up! I was all, "Head in the chocolate? What head?" when I read your comment. I get it now – oh THAT head. :p (And I was very restrained and didn't eat very much chocolate. Truth!)