Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Resort

Artist Point Desserts, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Resort

I’m here at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and baking my heart out! I work in the bakeshop of the Lodge that supports our three restaurants: Artist Point (our signature restaurant), Whispering Canyon Cafe, and Roaring Forks. We make a variety of desserts — caramel apple pie, chocolate mousse cake, peach cake, roasted peach ice cream, blueberry cobbler, raspberry and blackberry ice cream with chopped blackberries, salted chocolate ice cream, Valrhona chocolate ganache sponge cake, berry mousse, and bread pudding.

I love working here, and I was so happy I was able to share my desserts with my family when they came for a recent visit. Everything was a hit, and it made me appreciate our products even more, experiencing them as a diner!

Final Practical: Citrus Trio, Plated

For our final practical, we had a “mystery basket” feel to it and had to create a dessert of our choice with or without ingredients that were had ordered ahead of time. I chose to make a plate of mignardises, and included a trio of citrus-flavored desserts.

Desserts listed as plated:

• Grapefruit Cake: grapefruit cake layered with grapefruit-infused ganache and lemon Italian buttercream, garnished with fresh grapefruit zest and a grapefruit reduction
• Orange Chocolate: a molded chocolate candy filled with Grand Marnier ganache, garnished with Grand Marnier ganache
• Limoncello Lemon Drop: a shot of house-made limoncello and fresh lemon juice, garnished with a sugared rim and candied lemon peel

Fruit and Cheese: Molded Chocolates with Raspberry-Cream Cheese Ganache

Raspberry-Cream Cheese Ganache

• 64% couverture, chopped  8 oz
• raspberry puree  4 oz
• cream cheese  4 oz

Makeup:  Heat cream cheese and raspberry puree together until melted and combined. Pour over chocolate and stir until combined. Chill to set. Pipe into prepared chocolate molds.

Kahlua Ganache (1/2 recipe)

• cream  4 1/4 oz
• inverted sugar  1 oz
• 64% couverture, chopped  9 1/8 oz
• butter 1 1/2 oz
• Kahlua  1 oz

Makeup:  Boil cream and inverted sugar, then pour over the chocolate. Stir together to form an emulsion. When the mixture reaches 95ºF, add the butter and stir until completely incorporated. Add the Kahlua and stir to combine. Chill to set, then pipe into prepared chocolate molds.

Preparing Chocolate Mold

Use a soft, dry cloth to wipe out each space in a desired plastic mold. Pour tempered chocolate over the mold, being sure each candy space is covered. Tap a side of the mold with the handle of a trowel to bring air bubbles to the surface and ensure a smooth top coat. Flip the mold over, letting all excess chocolate spill out; once all excess chocolate has spilled out, use a trowel to run across the surface of the mold, removing any excess. Chill to set.

Filling Chocolate Mold

Once the top shell has set, fill a piping bag with ganache and snip off the end to leave a small, controlled space for ganache to come out. Pipe ganache into the center of each candy space, filling to just under the top of the space. Drop the mold onto work surface a few times to evenly spread ganache and bring any air bubbles to the surface. Let ganache firm up a little.

Sealing Chocolate Mold

Pour tempered chocolate over the mold, covering all of the candy spaces. Scrape off excess chocolate with a trowel. Chill to set.

Removing Candies

Set up a piece of parchment paper to work over. Twist the sides of the mold twice, like twisting an ice cube tray. Flip over gently and allow candies to fall out. Move candies out of the work area. Bang one side of the mold against the work surface once, allowing any candies to fall out. Repeat until all the chocolates have come out. Handle product with gloved hands to avoid putting fingerprints on the candies.

Notes:

We made the raspberry-cream cheese ganache as another fruit and cheese pairing. It turned out nicely, though there was more raspberry than cream cheese taste. I made half a recipe of Kahlua ganache just to experiment with, and filled half my mold with Kahlua and half my mold with the raspberry. Both set up nicely and my taste-testers enjoyed both candies. 

Fruit and Cheese Plate: Phyllo-Wrapped Cheeses with Fruit Garnishes

Phyllo-Wrapped Cheeses

• various preferred cheeses  2 oz (of each portion)
• phyllo dough  3 sheets
• butter, melted  4 oz

Makeup:  Keep phyllo covered with damp paper towels before use. Cut cheeses to desired shapes; we used rectangles for Manchego, triangles for Brie, and formed bleu cheese into balls for easier handling to make purses. Generously brush butter on a phyllo sheet, then fold in half and brush with butter again; fold in half, and brush with butter. Place the cheese in the middle of the sheet, then continue to fold phyllo according to the shape of the cheese, always brushing dough with butter so it will stick to itself. Once all servings have been wrapped, place on a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake in a 350ºF deck oven for 10-15 minutes, or until phyllo is puffed and crisped and slightly browned.

Fruit Garnishes

• raspberry coulis (see makeup in Souffle entry)
• cherry coulis
• pear chutney
• wine gelee (see makeup in Panna Cotta entry; ingredients here were 1 bottle of flavor-appropriate wine, 4 oz gelatin, and 1/4 c sugar)
• grapes
• candied walnuts

Notes:

The cheese course is an important part of French cuisine and comes after the main course and before dessert. There are numerous kinds of cheese - soft, hard, triple cream, cow’s milk, sheep’s milk, goat’s milk, etc. - and all are used for different purposes, according to each cheese’s smell, flavor, and texture. Phyllo dough, on the other hand, is very neutral and, therefore, good for working with cheese because it will not interfere with a cheese’s flavor profile. Each sheet and fold of phyllo is brushed with melted butter so the dough will seal to itself. When baking cheese and phyllo, it is more important to make sure the dough is crisped and puffed, rather than how golden or brown it is in color.

When we baked them, all of our rectangles, triangles, and purses leaked, leaving about half of the cheese inside. It was disappointing but not unexpected. Plating proved to be a challenge, as there were so many components that needed to go on the plate; this may not have been my favorite to plate, but I enjoyed working with cheese and fruit pairings.