Happy Birthday Momma!

Strawberry Shortcake

So the week went splendidly. The homestretch was the mousse cake we had three weeks to prepare for. I turned over idea after idea in my head searching for the right flavor combinations. Which sponge cake to use? What mousse am I sure will set up in the three hour timed allotment? Yes, I did lose sleep over it. I think we all did. Pracitals are stressful and this was our own inflicted misery. No chef to tell you what to do, it was all on our shoulders. A new and exciting venture on our own. I settled on a play on strawberry shortcake. Layers of bavarian cream sandwiched between a ladyfinger sponge cake and fresh strawberries. It turned out beautifully and just as I had envisioned it. Although I couldn't even eat it (the whole gelatin, vegetarian thing again) I was more proud of that cake than anything I have done here. When it was my turn to bring it to the chef to be graded I was so confident. I can't explain the feeling of going to the chef with a product, you are either fixated on its flaws and scared to death (which is mostly how I have felt every week.) But to present something you have created from idea to completion and to be proud of it is amazing. The chantilly on the day was the chef was proud of me too.

Mousse! Souffle! Ole!

As badly as my second week of custards went, my third week went the exact opposite of that. Everything was going my way this week. (I think I may have even managed to impress my chef this week, no small feat!) All the flavor combinations and creations are mine and I think the chef particilarly liked that I took some risks. Lemon and black current frozen mousse cake. Frozen mousse can be made three different ways: meringue based, fruit and syrup based and custard based. My digestive system was happy that none of them contain gelatin because they are set by freezing and not with gelatin. I made a gingerbread spice ice-cream, molasses, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon ... I think I'll pair it with some hot apple pie. (sorry, not photos, ice cream isn't very photogenic.) We made crepes and souffles. I made a lemon crepe souffle topped with creme anglaise and pineapple coulis. Crepes and souffles are simple and fun to make, not at all scary like they seem to be portrayed. Although, if you are thinking of serving a souffle keep in mind... Souffles will fall as quickly as they rise. They only last a moment out of the oven. Along with ice cream we also churned sorbet. Going back to my southern roots I decided to make a Mint Julep sorbet; mint, lime and bourbon. When I served it to the chef she really liked it and I said that I would add more bourbon next time. (Since alcohol and sugar effect ability to freeze I was shy on the bourbon ...) She said I should serve it with flambeed bourbon. So we did. Everyone loved it.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Check-offs!

That is my line of check-offs waiting for chef to critique. That is my friend, Lori, in the background plating her rose water panna cotta.

Filigree, filigree, filigree, filigree ...

Piping practice. You just pipe rows and rows until you get it right. Consistancy and flow are key.

Gelatin anyone?

Since most of the people reading this blog are friends and family (who am I kidding? its really just mom and dad reading.) I feel it necessary to be honest with you, this custard stuff isn't a piece of cake. Seriously, its tedious work that I find a very easy to screw up. I can't tell you how many products I have started over this week. That said, every mistake is just a learning opportunity and I'm starting to get the hang of working with gelatin.
This week was heavy on production so I'll just give you a taste of the things we created. A blackberry mousse sits in a tempered chocolate tulip cup topped with chantilly and filigree. (Be glad you missed Lori popping the balloon covered in still wet chocolate!) Bavarian cream molded in a fleximold, topped with chantilly and filigree (yes everything is garnished with chantilly and filigree!) The lemon bavarian creams were also molded in fleximolds. They sit on a base of ladyfinger sponge and are plated with creme anglaise and a pineapple colis. Almond panna cotta (chef says my garnish is more expensive than the dessert itself!)

Jiggling Brain Cake

So since we are just over half way through our education at (our soon to be newly named school) Le Cordon Bleu Portland, I feel it necessary to share a little trip down memory lane...
It was our first week of school our small class was learning about sanitation from the awesome Chef Bruce. The subject matter was a bit dry and we were all tired of sitting and very antsy to start playing with our new tool kits when Chef Erica came in with it. "It" was a Jiggling Brain Cake! Alright, "it's" real name is Charlotte Royale. So this week it was our turn to make the mysterious brain cake. (Oh come on, look at the picture, doesn't it look like a brain? AND it is made of gelatin so it jiggles ... like a ....ok, you get it.) First you make a jelly roll sponge and fill it with raspberry jam. Then it is sliced to about 1/4 inch thick and used to line a round mold (we just used mixing bowls!) Then once your mold is prepared you can begin making your bavarian cream. The bavarian cream is poured into the mold and chilled for at least 45 minutes but overnight is best because the gelatin becomes stronger the colder it gets. Once set the rest of the slices of jelly roll are placed on the bottom of the cake the edges are trim then it is flipped out onto a cake board and decorated with chantilly cream and chocolate filigree. Ta Da. Brain cake!

Pate a You!

These weeks move so quickly I feel I can hardly take a breath between weeks. Well to finish off the first week of custards we made Paris Brest and Gateau St. Honore. Both are made with pate a choux paste.
The Paris Brest is made with pate a choux paste piped into rings (like a doughnut) and sprinkled with sliced almonds, then baked. They are cut in half and then we piped praline pastry cream in the center. The tops are decorated with a thin striping of dark chocolate and dusted with powdered sugar.
The St. Honore is a little more complicated. Ok, a lot more dificult. First you need a blind baked base of pate brisee with rings of pate a choux paste piped on top. We also baked off pate a choux paste in rounds or puffs. The puffs are filled with chocolate and vanilla diplomat cream (pastry cream and whipped cream.) Then we made caramel (sugar cooked to 320 degrees) and dip the tops of the puffs in the hot caramel. (carefully!) Then the bottoms are dipped in caramel and attached to around the edge of the pate brisee base. The center is filled with a decorative "V" pattern piped with the contrasting diplomat creams. The whole thing is topped with spun sugar. Did I mention this was a challenge to make?!

Blue Cheese Cake?!

Creamy goodness. My lunch today: Blue cheese cheesecake. Panko and walnut crust, cream cheese and blue cheese with a dash of Tabasco. Yummie! I was the only one in class brave enough to make it. I guess the cheese stands alone!

Clafoutis!

Alright then, now that I'm caught up with Viennoiserie we can talk about custards. This is a clafoutis. From the Limousin region in France, it is traditionally made with cherries but alas cherry season in Oregon is over and the peaches are abundant so we made peach clafoutis. It is baked in a brisee crust. The peaches or other fresh fruit is arranged in the blind baked shell and then the custard is poured over the top and it is baked until set. It was tasty but not as good as my White Chocolate Bread Pudding ... look out Grapevine!

Phyllo, Polonaise, Phun!

In the last week of Viennoiserie we worked with Phyllo dough, the commercially produced product in your local grocery store. We also made Brioche again. We have done a lot of Brioche and what was kind of tricky and seemed so hard in the beginning has gotten a lot easier with practice. We made a tete and nanterre loaves out of the brioche but with a much higher fat level this time. It can be made with as low as 15% fat and as much as 80%. We stayed in between with 35% and 50%. The phyllo is very delicate and hard to work with. It is important to keep the dough covered and moist while working with it and it needs to be brushed with clarified butter between each layer. Never handle frozen phyllo it will crack. We made strudel from the phyllo and assisted chef with a demo on real strudel. I remembered watching some little old ladies in a church basement in Wisconsin making strudel, really neat stuff. We also made cups and purses filled fruit filling out of the phyllo. What do you do with day old brioche a tetes? Cut off their heads, core their centers, fill with pastry cream, put their heads back on and pipe on french meringue, torch and devour. Or at least that is what we did and it is a real pastry, it is called Polonaise and it is so delicious. With the leftover nanterre we made toast covered in almond cream and almonds. I sure wish I had some Polonaise leftover ...

Danish anyone?

This is amazing. It seems like we only were just starting Viennoiserie and now here we are in Custards. So sorry folks I have some catching up to do. We will start with the second week of Viennoiserie and work forward from there. In the second week we made Danish and croissant doughs. They are laminated doughs and formed much the same way as I described the puff dough. We working the butter into the dough through turns. The big difference with these two doughs and the puff is the amount of turns and the fact that the danish dough is enriched (with milk and egg.) These two doughs need less turns because they have yeast in the dough acting as a leavener and no longer relying solely on mechanical leavening. By the way, real danish is a far cry from the "danishes" on the breakfast buffet at the hotel you stayed at last week. On the same note, croissants should always be light and airy with a buttery flavor, if they are dense and chewy send them back. The photos are of the pinwheels and rosettes filled with pastry cream or almond cream and topped with fruit filling. The two croissants are the chocolate and almond cream filled and the plain. The pain au raisin is filled with pastry cream and rum soaked raisins. Think these will sell in my bake shop?