And then there was 1

Last class! I cannot believe how fast this program has gone. It has been such a whirlwind but I feel like I have learned a lot. My skillset has completely changed. What I thought I would hate I ended up loving and vice versa (well, I don't think I hated anything). Wait, no more reminiscing. I can't do that until after this class.

I finished my last class strong. I actually got 100% on every practical exam in that class. Our last project was making a chocolate sculpture. This took about a week since we had demo days mixed in. I tempered a lot of chocolate, broke many delicate pieces and ended up with this swan.

For this piece we had to make a back piece out of dark chocolate, we had to make overlay pieces out of white chocolate (the wings on mine and the leaves), we had to make at least one flower, do some type of white chocolate filigree and make a base.

The wings were the trickiest part for me. I must have made about 20 and came away with 2 usable pieces. Luckily I didn't break them and my swan came away with 2 wings. I loved the flowers. They kind of looked like water lilies. The base was made of white chocolate, dark chocolate and cocoa butter. I dyed my cocoa butter so my base would look a bit more like water.


All in all I was happy with my sculpture. We made the back piece on a humid day so I did get some bloom on my dark chocolate so if I could go back in time I would redo it and try to get zero bloom. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of need for chocolate sculptures in the industry so I probably won't have the opportunity to try again. That is the only downside to such a fast program. I like to do things over and over until I get really good at whatever skill I am working on. I don't usually have the opportunity to do that though unless I practice at home. I guess I will have to make myself a chocolate sculpture at home!

Plate it up

I have finished the plated desserts portion of the class. We had to make six plates that were graded on taste appearance and whether or not all the correct components were on the plate. I got 100% on each of them!
For each plate we were given a list of requirements of what needed to be on the plate. Aside from that we are able to make them our own. I tried to make each plate different but there are some obvious trends in my plating style.

Plate #1 - Creme Brulee. This plate was tricky because we had to include a tuile (that waffle cookie looking thing), a brandy snap (the lacey thing), fresh fruit and a nut spear (basically a nut dipped in carmelized sugar). That is a lot to fit on a little creme brulee. Mine initially looked nicer than what is pictured but I forgot to snap a pic before being graded. My instructor broke up and tastes both cookies and took a small taste of the creme brulee. I tried to hide chunk missing from the brulee for a picture and used b-list cookies.




This was my favorite. It is a napoleon which is layers of puff pastry with a creamy filling. We used chocolate diplomat cream. This was also our first plate with sauce. We made a raspberry and a chocolate sauce. We had to include two different sugar garnishes. I piped sugar and used isomalt to make that blue sugar thing on top. We included orange supremes as well (oranges cut in a way that no pith or membrane is showing).





Not my favorite. Actually, I would have liked it a lot better if I hadn't made those things that look like arrows. Anyway, for this one we made apple and phyllo dessert, similar to a turnover. We had to include a caramel sauce, raspberry sauce, cinnamon ice cream, a tuile cookie and sugar work of our choosing. I made a sugar corckscrew and a nest that the turnover is sitting on. We were required to use these little cinnamon and sugar phyllo haystack things that the ice cream is on. I'm sure it has a fancy french name other than hay stack thing.

This dessert was a pineapple tart tatin. It is basically baked fruit with caramel and puff pastry. We served it with panna cotta, the haystack thing, a sugar garnish, an apple gastrique and tempered chocolate. This one was very tasty.

This was our chocolate dessert. We had to incorporate a whipped chocolate ganache, chocolate mousse, a tempered chocolate vessel, curl and cigarette, passion fruit sauce and dacquoise cake. having both chocolate mousse and ganache seemed a bit much to me so I put them together in the chocolate vessel to make a duo of chocolate. Or I guess it was a trio if you include the chocolate cup.

Last we made a pear poached in red wine. We then reduce the poaching liquid to made a red wine reduction. We also included vanilla diplomat cream, ice cream, the haystack and a sugar garnish. This one was also very tasty and extremely easy.



Now that we finished our plates we are on to candy!

Whirlwind

My life has been a whirlwind of adventure, hard work, some loss and mostly gain lately.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Shortly after my last post my grandfather-in-law died. He was an amazing man. The loss of him was felt deeply in our house and in my husband's whole family. That sort of put our lives on pause for a week while we helped with funeral preparations but it felt really good to be part of the process.

The next week I finished up my cakes class (with an A) and headed off to Hawaii. Boy did we both need that. It is maybe the first vacation we have ever taken with absolutely no agenda but to relax and enjoy the ocean. Hawaii is the perfect place to learn to relax. We kayaked, hiked, snorkeled and swam with dolphins. My husband made a fun video recap of our time. 

When I got back it was time to start a new class, plated desserts and tempering chocolate. On top of that I have been staging like crazy in an effort to learn as much as possible and secure an externship site. I think both goals are being accomplished. I have started staging every Saturday at the best bakery in town (in my opinion) and I was accepted for my externship at the restaurant with the best desserts in town (fact). I'm excited. But exhausted. 

I'm in week three of my plated desserts class and loving it (I added my instagram feed to the sidebar so you can see what I am working on). It has been the area I am least comfortable with but I am gaining confidence. Cooking on gas no longer terrifies me. I don't sweat at the idea of making caramel, or sugar garnishes any more. In fact, I am less nervous in general in the kitchen. It has only taken 7 months to get there.

Where am I?

 What have I been doing lately? Making cakes of course! Last week in class we made 3 cakes and they were all pretty tasty. First we made a yellow chiffon cake. It was light and fluffy and we filled and covered it with whipped cream. It was basically a cake to practice on. We practiced cutting it into thirds, doing a crumb coat and then mixing pretty colors to decorate it with.

The next cake we made was serious. It was a chocolate butter sponge cake with a layer of chocolate mousse, a layer of raspberry bavarian cream and covered in Italian buttercream. It was a practical exam so we had a lot of requirements. It had to be pastel, have a shell border, have three roses and six leaves, say happy birthday in chocolate, have even layers of all the fillings and have no more than a 1/4 layer of buttercream over the cake. I managed all of these things and got an A.

The last cake we made was an angel food cake. I like angel food cake because it is easy to make and once it is done you don't really have to do anything else with it, unless you want to. We got together with friends over the weekend and I brought the angel food cake along with some whipped cream and strawberries. The strawberries did not get eaten. Instead we put bacon, whipped cream and maple syrup on the angel food cake and found heaven. It may sound like a train wreck on a plate to you but I assure you that it was fantastic.

Over the weekend I made cupcakes for my adorable godson's first birthday and a little cake for him to smash. The smash cake looked like a barn. He actually tried to pick it up and throw it. So cute!

I had another stage yesterday. This one was in a restaurant. Quite a different experience than the bakeshop I staged in last month. But I loved it! I'm kind of leaning towards working in a restaurant now. I like the fast pace. I'm going to do a little more staging around before I make any final decisions. I have another stage on Saturday and I am hoping that the nerves start wearing off soon. Eventually I should be able to walking into a kitchen and get to work without butterflies in my stomach right?

Cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

I really like making cake. Good think too since I will be making a lot of cakes. Last week I made 3 cakes and yesterday I made 3 more. We assembled 2 of them earlier this week.

One was the Sacher torte. It is named after the chef who created it. It is actually patented so if you wanted to make it and sell it you would have to call it something else or get sued. I really liked this cake, mostly because if turned out perfect. It is a European style cake so it is a little on the dry side. It is made with cocoa powder and almond flour, brushed with simple syrup and has a layer of apricot jam in the center. It is covered with chocolate ganache and then a layer of chocolate glacage which made it super shiny. The tricky part of the glacage is you get one shot at it. You pour it over the cake and try to get it to cover the whole thing. If it doesn't you are pretty much just screwed. Any attempt at a touch up will be very noticeable. If there is any dent or imperfection in the cake the glacage will highlight it. If done correctly though it looks awesome.

The carrot cake was a whole other beast. This cake is so full of stuff. Spices, nuts, carrots, oil. It is really dense. Almost the opposite of the sacher torte. The best part about this cake was getting to make the little marzipan carrots on top. I love marzipan. So. Much. I don't love carrot cake usually but this recipe was pretty good (except it was a little crumbly).


I have a yellow chiffon cake, devil's food cake and two chocolate butter genoise cakes in the freezer at school. I'm excited to see what they will become!

12 Step

This weekend I had some spare time so I decided to make bread. I kind of miss baking bread all the time. It is almost therapeutic. Besides, during our breads class we had an assignment to create our own original bread recipe and I wanted to see if mine would actually work and taste good. I made a variation of ciabatta bread with fresh herbs and pine nuts.

Making bread involves 12 steps. It occasionally involves a bonus pre-step as well. I actually managed to take pictures along the way as I made my bread so here we go.

0.5. Bonus pre-step. Make a preferment. This is a bit of dough that you ferment 12-24 hours ahead of time. It gives the bread a lighter texture with more air bubbles (the sign of a good bread). I made mine the night before. This preferment is called a poolish and it made by mixing yeast, bread flour and water. It is really important whenever you are mixing yeast with water to have the water between 90 and 95 degrees. Warmer and you will kill the yeast. Cooler and it may not activate and ferment as much as it should.

1. Scale. It is important to measure all the ingredients accurately. We always use a scale.


2. Mixing - Bring all the ingredients together in a bowl first. Once they come together you can start kneading the dough on a lightly floured surface. Most breads get about kneaded about 140 times (or turns). You can see if it is ready by checking for what is called a windowpane. You pull up a bit of dough and stretch it out til it is a little bit translucent. If the window tears quickly it needs a few more turns.

3. Ferment - Cover the dough and leave it alone for about an hour or until it has doubled. You can check if it is ready by poking it. If it collapses it isn't ready. If the hole stays there and doesn't close up it is ready.






4. Punch - Once it has doubled punch it. Squish it down, fold it over, squish it down, repeat.

5. Scale Again - If your recipe is for 2 or more loaves now is the time to divide the dough. Weight it to make sure you have equal amounts.



6. Round - Pretty much was it sounds like. Roll the dough into a nice smooth ball.








7. Bench - Cover again and let the dough sit for 15 to 20 minutes.

8. Make-Up - Now is the time to make the final shape of the dough. I made mine into kind of an oval shape.








9. Proof - You need to let the dough double again. In bakeshops you would use a proof box, a warm and humid environment. Most people don't have those at home. You don't really need one, it will just take a little longer to proof. Put your dough in a warmish place like on top of the fridge. I had my oven on earlier and it was still a little warm so I put my dough in there with some hot water. If you do this make sure your oven isn't too hot. about 90 degrees is perfect for most doughs. Either way you can tell if your dough it ready when it doubles or when it springs back a little if you tap it lightly.

9.5. Score - Another bonus step I guess. If your bread needs scoring (cuts with a serrated knife), now is the time. If you want to egg wash the bead or add any kind of topping, like sesame seeds, now is the time.

10. Bake - Finally! Bake your bread. Most breads bake at around 450 degrees and will take 20-30 minutes.

11. Cool - Let your bread cool all the way before you cut or store it. I think this is impossible. I usually cut my bread when it is still a little warm. I just can't wait.

12. Store - Another important step. If you are making a crisp crusted bread store it is paper once it is cool. For a soft crust bread store it in plastic.

There. You did it! Or, at least I did. Don't worry, you can live vicariously through me this time. My bread actually worked! it is soft and tasty. It made a great sandwich for lunch today. I'm excited to try making my own dough recipe again.

All at once

Yesterday it seems like every thing came together at once. We have worked for a week on components of various items and yesterday we finally assembled. We were also surprised to find out that we would be graded on two of the items. 

First up was the Gateau St. Honore. This is the most complicated item we have made so far. It has a pastry crust, alternating rows of chocolate and vanilla diplomat cream, pate choux balls filled with cream and dipped in caramel. I made some caramel spirals just for fun. 

We made these little pate choux circles filled with cream called paris brest. Apparently they were named after a pastry served on a train in France that went from Paris to Brest. 

We made chocolate souffles as well. They were pretty simple to make.

We knew going in to this class that we would be evaluated on 13 items. In our last classes we were evaluated on 3-4 different items. We have also been able to practice the items a couple times before the test in the past. Not anymore. We have to do it right the first time and get graded on it. So far we have been graded on the souffle and the gateau. I got 100% on both! I actually think it helped not knowing that I would be graded on them. I was a lot less nervous that I normally am when making a practical item. Hopefully the winning streak continues!

My new love

Crepes.

I have never really cared much for crepes, or really tried them very often. We made them in class last week and the light bulb finally went on. They are so easy to make and so versatile! You can make them savory or sweet depending on your mood. The batter whips up quick in a blender and then you can store it for about a week in the fridge. They take less than a minute to cook on a hot pan. And, they taste great. AND! They aren't too bad for you, especially if you fill them with fresh fruit.

On Saturday my husband and I filled our crepes with strawberries and blueberries. Today some friends picked up savory ingredients to fill them with. We had grilled chicken sausage, sauteed red pepper, green onions and a little cheese in our crepes. Amazing. As a final treat we had crepes with strawberries, nutella and whipped cream.

I see crepes happening every weekend.

New Beginnings

New class this week! International pastry, cake formula and assembly. So far we have made many components of items but have not yet assembled anything. We are back to the lecture one day, production the next schedule which also slows things down quite a bit. I am very excited about this class though. It is all about technique. This is the first class we have had where the teacher critiques almost everything we do. Awesome and frightening at the same time. 

So far this class has been going well except for burning myself yesterday. It was bound to happen. I grabbed a hot pot handle and wound up with an inch long blister on my index finger. At least today is Friday so I will have the weekend to heal.

More bad news. I made a cake last weekend and forgot to take a picture. Growl! What is wrong with me? Friends! You are now in charge! Take pictures of things I bring you and send them to me. Please.

And then there were 3

Another class done. 3 down, 3 to go.

Our last week was a pretty mild one. On Monday we made apple strudel. We made this one before in our last class but we used pre-made phyllo dough. This time we made the dough and stretched it out. It had to be stretched to 3 feet by 4 feet, it was pretty much transparent and looked like an animal hide. The difficult part is not tearing holes in it. You end up filling it with apples, cinnamon, sugar and raisins so if you get a hole in it all your fillings will ooze out. It was a pretty fun and I managed to not tear any holes. Other people weren't so lucky. One of my classmates asked our instructor for help and he replied, "I usually let you guys sink or swim on this one." He pretty much cut us off on all help the last week of class.


We made another batch of cinnamon bread this week too but the make up was a little different. We used all purpose flour instead of bread flour so the texture of the bread was quite different, much softer. Then we spent 2 days making croissants for our final practical. Shock of all shocks, I got 100%. I didn't think it was possible actually. That has never happened. Just look at those flaky layers!

This week was my husband's birthday. I made him a tiny cake filled with crushed Take 5 candy bars (his favorite). Valentine's day came and went. My husband made me the cutest video Valentine ever and got me cupcake earrings. I got him ramen, so romantic. Once Valentine's day was over I was feeling guilty that I didn't really make anything so yesterday I made a silly amount of heart shaped macarons. Flavors included lychee, anise, raspberry mint, orange blossom, creme de cassis, and cayenne chocolate.

Next up: Cakes!

Home Stretch

Things are heating up at school. Next week is our last week of this class already. We have a whole lot less down time and a whole lot more "oh crap I have five minutes to get this in the proof box" time. We are on to croissants and danishes right now. They are a lot like puff pastry in that they require folds that can only be done every 30 minutes but they have the added steps of dough that needs to ferment and rise for an hour and then the final products need to be put in the proof box to rise again for 45 minutes or so. It would seem like a lot more waiting around but we have 3-4 products going at once so it has become more of a slow and steady marathon instead of sprints here and there.

So far we have made classic croissants, pain au chocolat (chocolate filled croissants) and standard fruit filled danishes. They have all been delicious.

I have noticed a shift in how I view the things I make. For some reason I view them as this product I make. I don't really see it as food and I have no desire to eat the things I make. Maybe it is because I try the samples of the version our chef instructor makes first and his is better. Maybe it is because I don't want to compare the two. Maybe it is because I know that down the line it is not going to be ok for me to be eating things that I make. Maybe I'm all sweeted out. Maybe after putting hours and hours into one little pastry the last thing I want to do it be responsible for its destruction. All I know is that I am much happier giving them away.

Also I need an iphone. The pictures today are courtesy of the food photo app on my husband's phone and they are much better than anything I have ever put up here.

Puffalufagus

Bam! I got an A on my pithivier. I felt like I was screwing everything up during the practical. It never helps that the instructor walks slowly in front of each table, just watching what you are doing and saying nothing. I was pleased that my puff pastry did indeed get puffy, there were no leaks or air pockets and the coloring came out nicely. It pretty much looks just like the last pithivier I made. And now that I am comfortable with puff pastry it is time to move on.

There are 3 types of laminated doughs puff pastry, croissant and danish. We are now on to croissants. They pretty much follow the same process as puff pastry in terms of making it but the dough in much stiffer so it is more difficult to roll out. I love croissants though so hopefully they are worth the pain.

We made cinnamon rolls yesterday, seemingly just for fun. They are fun and easy to making after spending hours and hours on one batch of puff pastry. What? All we have to do is mix it, let it ferment and roll it out? I forgot what that was like.

In other news I will be taking a giant leap this week by doing my first stage. Yikes. I am incredibly nervous. I talked to my chef instructor about it and he assured me that I will be fine. So have all my friends. They are all probably right but I'm still nervous. It is at a bakery I really like so if it doesn't go well and they hate me I will be asking my friends to go in and buy stuff for me since I won't be able to go back. Ever. I maybe should have given a fake name. That is the worst case scenario. Best case, they love me,  I do well and I am helpful, they give me a french macaron.

We've only just begun...

 As predicted, as soon as I got very comfortable with the 12 step process of making bread, we have moved on. Not before making a last few delicious loaves and learning how to formulate our own bread recipes though.

A couple weeks ago we made our own "wild yeast" starter. Every time I mention this to people they like to picture me lassoing yeast with a very tiny lasso (now you can picture it too). There is yeast all around us so as long as you are willing to put in the time (6 days or more) you can lure them out of the air to make a starter for bread. This starter works especially well for sourdough breads. We made sourdough, rye sourdough and marble rye sourdough with ours. The marble rye was beautiful which means I forgot to take a picture of it.




Now we are on to laminated doughs. So far we have focused exclusively on puff pastry. Puff pastry can be a tricky little expletive to work with. It is kind of a messy business, you can only work with it for a few minutes every half and hour and if you don't do it just right your puff pastry won't rise evenly or your butter will leak out and it won't rise much at all. Classic puff pastry requires you to roll it out, fold it a specific way and then chill for a half hour. Then repeat four more times.

Despite the tediousness of puff pastry, it is fun to work with and there is a huge satisfaction when you finally get to bake it and it rises correctly. We have made a variety of puffy good so far and they have all been tasty. The prettiest was probably the napoleon pastry but I didn't take a picture of it before I fed it to my book club (shock!). If you google it that is pretty much what mine looked like.

Today I start my two day practical exam. We will made the puff pastry today and tomorrow turn it into a pithivier (an almond cream filled pastry that looks like a flower pictured above). If all goes well I will consider myself queen of the puff, or puff master flash, or something clever that someone else thinks of.

Blah, blah, blah

 All I talk or think about is bread. Bread, bread, bread. I have started planning my meals around what will go well with the bread I just brought home. The only trouble is, our instructor doesn't abide by the syllabus so I can't plan ahead. I guess that also makes it kind of exciting.

Last week was baguette ridiculousness. We made 2 on Tuesday, 2 on Wednesday and 2 on Friday. On Wednesday we had a banh mi party at our house to help get rid of the baguettes.

This week we have made quite a variety of things. Pretzels were delicious and we even made pretzel rolls which I have been meaning to make for months. They taught me a very important lesson as well. Proper cooling and storing is crucial. I threw the rolls into a ziploc bag while they were still warm and they ended up wrinkly and disturbing and found a new home in the trash. Sad. You must cool bread all the way before storing! Must!

We also made bagels this week. I wasn't super excited about these since I can't eat them (I broke my jaw long ago and wound up with a list of thing never to eat again) but my friends were happy to take them.

I love challah bread but I wasn't sure what to do with two loaves of it. Luckily I had a friend with a plan. She invited us to dinner where we paired the challah with a bohemian goulash dish. A match made in heaven!

I love just looking at the challah bread. It is so shiny and it was fun to braid. I am really starting to love my breads class. Kneading practically puts me in a trance. Getting something to rise and double perfectly has become a new obsession. Just when I am getting used to it all we are preparing to switch to laminated doughs and  a new learning process will begin. I wonder what my new obsession will be?

*New thing of last week - I walked into a bakery I have never been to and inquired about doing a stage.
*This week - new foods, kolache, a super yummy bohemian dessert. Like a yeasty cookie. I feel like that isn't really enough so I'll try to squeeze something else in.

Moves like...

On Friday in class we made cute little dinner rolls. Our instructor showed several different to prepare them including braids, knots and Mick Jagger lips (not pictured). One of my favorite parts of baking is trying to make things look fancy or adorable. I like making loaves of bread and baguettes but it is so much less satisfying to just dump dough in a pan than to work with it and try to give it a very specific look.

We also made tortillas on Friday and they were delicious. I had no idea that real tortillas contain lard. That is probably why they were so delicious. I made them again at home with shortening and they were good too. So good that of the 24 tortillas I have made I got zero pictures of them. They will be made again!

Earlier in the week we made pizza and pita bread. That was a delicious day! I have made pizza and pita bread many times before but I always enjoy it. These turned out kind of rectangular because we had to form them on half sheet trays. The pizza dough recipe we made was different that my usual and it was so easy to work with. We let it ferment overnight and when I took my dough out of the fridge the next day it was so light and fluffy it could have been a pillow. Or a pizza cloud. Or something else that I can't think of.

This week I think I will learn how to make my own yeast starter!