The thickening agent is vital while making any kind of custard. It should be noted that it is this agent that acts as a thickener, and it helps in increasing the viscosity of the liquid food, without remarkably altering its taste or composition (Souzy et al. 2014). While various kinds of thickening agents are normally used for custard, any one thickening agent, that can be used in stirred custard is thickening starch, and the two examples of the same are flour and cornstarch.

Usually, there are four components used in making plated dessert. Any three components of the same, that can be mentioned here are :

1. Main Item
2. Sauce
3. Crunch Component

The example of the main item is the actual dessert itself or the cake. It is the final product served. The example of the sauce component is kiwi puree or a rich caramel sauce, while the examples of the crunch component can be dry cookies, Tuille or nougat (Albuquerque et al. 2017).

Garnishes are common while serving any type of plated dessert. Garnishes are usually used simply because it helps in enhancing the taste as well as improving the appearance of the custard, making it far daintier and tastier than before. Usually, in case a person is making a home-style dessert, he can easily keep it ungarnished (Adedokun and Mustapha 2015). However, garnishing is must especially when a plated dessert is to be served in a restaurant. Garnish is most often used in order to add depth and complexity to the dessert. It is needless to state that the dessert garnish items usually add colour as well as new, unique flavour to  the dessert. Though it si less acknowledged, but it is important to note that garnishes are also known for offering great textual balance to the plated dessert as well, and should not be dismissed as a mere fanciful, decorative ingredient. For example, sugar work as a garnish ingredient is not only visually pleasing, but it does add firmness to the custard as well. Fruit garnish and nut garnish are the two common types of garnishes that can be used for a plated custard.

There are multiple factors that require serious consideration while making a plated custard. The first factor that requires to be considered here is texture. Texture in its literal sense implies how the person served with the custard would feel when he eats it. If the custard is too hard, it will take harder to taste the food, while if it is too soft, the taste may dull after a single bite. Hence, ensuring the right texture is important. The next factor to be taken care of, is size. The custard should not be too small or too big (Marina and NurulAzizah 2014). The third factor is temperature at which the custard is being served to the customer. It is to be noted that the trick to temperature contrasts is to ensure that the plated custard arrives to the customer at the exactly desired temperature.  A scoop of sorbet, for example, will begin melting the very moment it is placed on a plate so it must should necessarily be served quickly to prevent ruining its appearance. Next, garnishes, serving vessels, colour and height of the dessert should also be taken care of, and are important factors as well.

Syneresis is a method whereby any liquid substance is being extracted from a gel, for example this method is involved when whey is collected from the surface of yoghurt. While making plated custard, this method is being used, as when the custard is left overnight, the watery liquid within it starts leaking from the gel structure and forms Syneresis, which is totally edible (Vareltzis et al. 2016).

Frozen desserts are one of the most popular desserts made by freezing liquids or even semi-solids, and there are various kinds if frozen desserts. The six most popular kinds of frozen desserts are as follows:

The two crunch additional components that can be used while making plated custard are cookies and chocolates.

There are various factors that can affect a prepared how plated custard tastes to its customer. However, any two factors that can remarkably affect it are the temperature at which the custard is served to the customer and the vessels in which the custard is provided.

While plating the dessert, care must be taken to ensure that the garnish items are not unnecessary and do actively contribute to the taste and flavour of the custard served, and that each garnish item is edible. It is important to ensure that each ingredient used as a main item  or sauce does complement the other parts of the custard, so that the finished custard product is a sum of its products, rather than individual delicacies (Almasco and Sales 1969). While plating a custard, balance in taste should be ensured. For example, if the custard is too soft, a crunchy component such as a piece of chocolate or a couple of nuts must be served on the top of it. While different items of different colours can come as attractive, too much colour and fruits can end up jumbling the final product. Hence, only those ingredients which are complementing in taste should be included.

The basic components of a still-frozen desserts are cake, ice cream, sorbet and mousses. The texture of the dessert refers to the mouth full quality of the same. As far as the still-frozen desserts are concerned, these are rich in high fat content and consequently these tend to have a much smoother mouth feel.

Reference List:

Adedokun, O.A.O. and Mustapha, I.O., 2015. Full Length Research Article.

Albuquerque, T.G., Santos, J., Silva, M.A., Oliveira, M.B.P.P. and Costa, H., 2017. Multivariate characterization of salt and fat contents, and fatty acids profile of pastry and bakery products. Food & Function.

Almasco, N.C. and Sales, S., 1969. A study of the value of coconut in custard making. Res, 5, pp.21-22.

Amatayakul, T., Sherkat, F. and Shah, N.P., 2006. Syneresis in set yogurt as affected by EPS starter cultures and levels of solids. International Journal of Dairy Technology, 59(3), pp.216-221.

Marina, A.M. and NurulAzizah, S., 2014. Use of Coconut Versus Dairy Milk Products in Malaysian Dishes: Comparison of Nutritional Composition and Sensory Evaluation. Journal of Food and Nutrition Research, 2(4), pp.204-208.

Souzy, R., Suau, J.M., Kensicher, Y. and Guerret, O., Coatex, 2014. Cosmetic formulation containing a non water-soluble amphiphilic copolymer as thickening agent. U.S. Patent 8,790,622.

Vareltzis, P., Adamopoulos, K., Stavrakakis, E., Stefanakis, A. and Goula, A.M., 2016. Approaches to minimise yoghurt syneresis in simulated tzatziki sauce preparation. International Journal of Dairy Technology, 69(2), pp.191-199.