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.