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🛒 Shopping List — Block 49–50: Pastry — Desserts

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This block uses a lot of cream and chocolate. Buy the best chocolate you can afford — Valrhona, Callebaut, or Guittard. For cream, ultra-pasteurized heavy whipping cream works for everything except crème anglaise, where pasteurized (not ultra) is noticeably better.

⚠️ Equipment Check

  • [ ] Ramekins — 6–8 oz, for crème brûlée and panna cotta (4–6 needed)
  • [ ] Kitchen torch — for brûlée-ing the sugar crust; a hardware store torch works better than culinary models
  • [ ] Deep roasting pan — for water bath (bain-marie)
  • [ ] Cake pans — 9-inch round × 2 or 3 (for layer cake)
  • [ ] Offset spatula — for frosting the layer cake
  • [ ] Cake turntable — optional but helpful for smooth frosting
  • [ ] Instant-read thermometer — for chocolate tempering (critical)
  • [ ] Fine-mesh strainer — for coulis and sorbet
  • [ ] Shallow metal pan — for granita (9×13 works)

🥚 Eggs and Dairy

  • [ ] Eggs — 2 dozen (custards, mousse, cake, ice cream base)
  • [ ] Heavy cream — 2 quarts (brûlée, panna cotta, mousse, ice cream, ganache, whipped cream)
  • [ ] Whole milk — 1 quart (crème anglaise, cake)
  • [ ] Sweetened condensed milk — 1 can (14 oz) (no-churn ice cream)
  • [ ] Unsalted butter — 1 lb (cake, caramel, ganache)

🍫 Chocolate

  • [ ] Bittersweet chocolate (65–70%) — 1 lb (mousse, ganache, truffles)
  • [ ] Dark couverture chocolate (60–72%, high cocoa butter) — 1 lb for tempering; Valrhona, Callebaut, or Guittard; must be couverture-grade (not chips)
  • [ ] Cocoa powder, Dutch-process — 4 oz (truffle coating, cake)

🍎 Produce

  • [ ] Raspberries — 2 pints fresh or frozen (coulis, sorbet)
  • [ ] Lemons — 6 (granita, coulis brightener, various)
  • [ ] Fresh mint — 1 bunch (garnish)

🧂 Pantry

  • [ ] Granulated sugar — 3 lbs (caramel, brûlée, sorbet, cake, meringue)
  • [ ] Powdered sugar — ½ lb (dusting, buttercream)
  • [ ] Vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste — 2 oz
  • [ ] Pure vanilla beans — 2 (brûlée, panna cotta)
  • [ ] Gelatin — powder or sheets (panna cotta; 1 envelope = ~2½ tsp = 4 sheets)
  • [ ] Cornstarch — small box (cake flour substitute if needed)
  • [ ] Kosher salt — Diamond Crystal
  • [ ] Instant espresso powder — for coffee ice cream variation
  • [ ] Vodka or limoncello — 2 oz (keeps sorbet softer at serving temp; optional)