Baking For Mom’ With Cordon Bleu Pastry Chef Nayantara Thomas

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Image for representation only

 

Nayantara Thomas

Today is Mother’s Day and nothing gives this young Cordon Bleu Chef more joy than baking a batch of warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies for her mother. (author Sudha Menon) What gives Nayantara even more joy is the fact that Sudha, who is not much of a chocolate fan, polishes them off faster than she says chocolate!

The secret, of course, is to eat them straight out of the oven, ideally with either a warm caramel drizzle or a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. It is a combination that mothers can’t resist she realised, thanks to the feedback from her loyal clients.

“I love baking these cookies with Belgian chocolate chips. That amps up the cookie by a few notches and makes it devilishly decadent” says this young pastry chef. Three years ago she went to the iconic Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Academy, London to learn the fine art of patisserie. She recently fulfilled a long-standing dream when she and a her business partner set up Parisserie, a cloud kitchen where they bake a variety of French-inspired fine cakes, entremets and desserts. They realized that by using a cloud kitchen solution, they could save a lot on business costs as well as offer a quicker service for their customers. They haven’t looked back since.

Nayantara Thomas is communications graduate who found her calling in pastry art. After a childhood spent in pottering around the kitchen, she decided at some point that she wanted to become a pastry chef.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

150g-salted butter, softened??, 70g-Brown Sugar??-90g caster sugar,?? 2 tsp-vanilla essence??,1 large egg, ??225g- flour??, ½ tsp baking soda, ??¼ tsp salt, ??180g-chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180°C .?Using a whisk, beat the sugars and the butter till creamy.?Add in the vanilla essence and egg and whisk till fluffy.?Sieve the flour, baking soda and salt.

Mix in the chocolate chips to the dry ingredients.? Mix in the dry ingredients to the egg until just combined.? Chill the dough for half an hour.? Use an ice cream scoop to scoop out the dough and place onto parchment paper and a tray. ?Bake for 8-10 minutes until light brown on the edges and slightly soft.

CHOCOLATE AND ROASTED ALMOND BARK??:

Chocolate & Almond Bark

One of the simplest yet yummiest snacks to make for your mom to have with her afternoon tea .Melt around 500g of dark chocolate and spread it onto a sheet of parchment paper.

Before it sets, top the chocolate with chunks of roasted almonds or any other nuts that she may enjoy. Once it has set, the chocolate can be broken into rough slabs and stored in airtight containers for up to two weeks.