Spanish Desserts with El Farol @ Las Cosas

I attended the Spanish Desserts with El Farol class on Saturday morning Las Cosas which means I got to have dessert for brunch. My husband Shawn attended this class with me.

Class description: Join pastry chef extraordinaire Taylor Burns from the fantastic El Farol and learn to create some of the world class Spanish desserts found on the Canyon Road institution’s menu. We will also discuss and practice garnishing and learn a variety of sauces to accompany our goodies. Our menu includes: Churros with Rich Drinking Chocolate, Citrus Olive Oil Cake with Gelato, and more. Our luncheon will be Jamon, Cheeses, and Spanish Olive Oil Crackers that we will also make. Delicioso! (Hands-On)

Per usual the menu items are split up among class members. While it looks like there are only three items, each one had a lot of parts to it. Shawn and I worked on the Spanish olive oil crackers that would be paired with the salad dish.

Spanish Olive Oil Crackers

We put the warm water, yeast and olive oil in the stand mixer bowl and let it sit for several minutes.

Next we added the flour and salt and used the mixer’s dough hook attachment to mix the dough.

After the dough finally came together, we had to let it sit for about 30 minutes.

We were supposed to let it chill overnight but we did not have that kind of time in class so we started working with the dough right after it was done proofing. We used a pasta rolling machine to make the cracker dough uniformly flat. Everyone got a chance to flatten some cracker dough in the machine.

Then we placed them on baking pans. Egg white was brushed onto them and we used a fork to dock them. Then we sprinkled seasonings like salt, pepper, and rosemary.

These crackers were not the same thing I was expecting when I first read it on the class menu. They were large but very tasty and quite crunchy.

The Other Menu Items

El Farol Salad consisted of mixed greens, piñon sherry vinaigrette, balsamic pears, and the olive oil cracker.

Piñon Sherry Vinaigrette – sherry vinegar, egg yolks, toasted pine nuts, honey, grated manchego, blended oil (canola and olive oil), salt, pepper, and thyme.

Balsamic Pears – pears, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, and honey.

And to get a better idea of what the balsamic pears looked like …

Churros with Rich Drinking Chocolate included churros, rich drinking chocolate and whipped cream.

Churros – milk, salt, vanilla bean, lemon zest, butter, all-purpose flour, and baking soda. Coating – cinnamon and sugar.

Rich Drinking Chocolate – whole milk, heavy cream, vanilla bean, salt, brown sugar, instant expresso powder, bittersweet chocolate, cornstarch, and milk.

Whipped Cream – heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.

The guest chef brought in the machine that is used at her restaurant to form the churro dough before frying. She warned us that churro dough is thick and while you can use a piping bag, it is a lot of work. She has to make so many of these a day that the machine is worth it. Each one of us a turn at the machine.

Here is my husband Shawn making some churros. The dough is in the vertical canister and he is turning the handle to push the dough through the star-shaped press.

The churros after frying and coated with the cinnamon sugar blend.

And the rich drinking chocolate with whipped cream for dipping.

Citrus Olive Oil Cake with Blood Orange Caramel and Honey Ice Cream consisted of olive oil cake, blood orange caramel, candied orange zest, and honey ice cream.

Olive Oil Cake – all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, eggs, orange zest, lemon zest, whole milk, orange liqueur, vanilla extract, extra virgin olive oil, almond flour, and powdered sugar.

Blood Orange Caramel – sugar, corn syrup, water, and blood orange puree.

Candied Orange Zest – orange, water, sugar, and corn syrup.

Honey Ice Cream – whole milk, sugar, salt, heavy cream, egg yolks, and honey.

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