Back for Breakfast?

Last week we were back in the kitchens beginning a new class: Viennoiserie (or laminated dough.) For those of you that haven't studied your morning pastry before enjoying it, Viennoiserie is a Viennese style pastry. It is a high fat, rich baked good product similar to bread. The breads are enriched with butter, sugar, milk and eggs. They can be either sweet or savory. Last week we made and studied puff pastry. There are three types of puff pastry: ordinary, reverse and blitz (literally meaning "lightning.") The ordinary is made of a beurrage (butter) encased in detrempe (dough) to create a laminated dough. The paton (package) is then rolled out and given several tourage (turns) or folds that create the layers to the dough. The reverse is just the opposite, the butter is on the outside and is wrapped around the dough. Yes, this is a very difficult dough to work with. The Blitz dough is made like flaky pie dough by combining all the ingredients at once and then rolling and folding the dough. The blitz is easier to make and much less time intensive however you will not get the rise you would with the other two doughs.
Pictured are several of the products made from the ordinary and reverse doughs: The vol au vents are filled with pastry cream and topped with fresh fruits. The pithivier is a almond creme filled pastry meant to bring prosperity with a sunburst scored on the top. The chausson aux pommes are essentially apple turnovers in a circular shape. The bouchees are the circular shaped pastry filled with a mushroom Newburg sauce. The fruit band is a larger version of the vol au vents filled with pastry cream and topped with fresh fruit.
Next week we are making croissant and danish doughs. Until then, I hope your morning pastry is less of a mystery and more appreciated.

Rich Bread, Sweet Bread

This week was all new. Sweet, enriched and laminated doughs. Sweet dough, like the kugelhoph makes a really sticky dough that is hard to work with. Brioche, the enriched dough, is easier to work with but the shaping is a challenge that would take practice to perfect. The nanterre loaf pictured is the easier shape. We also had a brief intro to our next class by creating classic and chocolate croissants with a laminated dough. We will continue work with lamination doughs in the next section: Viennoiserie. We also made my favorite this week Panetonne. Christmas in July!

Bounty of Bread

And ... back to Bread again.
The first week of this class has been a lot of repetition from our intro bread class. Baguettes everyday, Focaccia, white pan loaf, pita, tortilla ... with a few added bonuses like ciabatta (which is more like batter than dough), honey buttered oat and fougasse. All of these doughs are straight dough method (everybody in the bowl and mix) or sponge method (make a sponge with the yeast and ferment that before adding the rest of your ingredients.) Next week we will try some poolish breads and starter breads. I was assigned Anadama bread for my final project in the last week of class. Stay tuned to learn all about it ... or if you have some knowledge on Anadama you can share it with me!

Elvis Has Left The Building!

Bye Bye Buffet.
We finished up buffet this week with Opera cake, petit fours and Battenburg cake. The final two days of class were devoted to our final practical (a project we have been planning since the first day of class.) We had to produce five products, each filling a different category. My chocolate and fruit themed menu consisted of: New York Cheesecake with a chocolate crust and a raspberry swirl, White Chocolate and Grapefruit Truffles with hazelnuts, Elvis Pie ... peanut butter and chocolate pastry cream with banana and chantilly in a flaky crust, Chocolate Orange Madeleines dipped in white chocolate and Cacao Nib Macaroons sandwiched with a strawberry ganache. For my centerpiece I candied lemons, limes and oranges and dipped them in tempered chocolate along with fresh strawberries.

Tarts, Tarts, Tarts

From Bread to Buffet.
We are into our second week of Buffet. Buffet is the opportunity to learn how to produce and plate smaller size (2-3 bites per piece) items for .... yes, a buffet.
Last week we worked on dough products. I made 60 tartlets, cheesecake bars and apple pie bars. On Monday I had a chance to plate all that work on a mirror.
The small plates are from my practical (test) on Monday: chocolate chiffon with chantilly creme and frozen fruit pie filling in a pate brisee crust with a streusel topping.
On top of all that production work at school I started a new job at the cutest little cupcake bakery ever. Check us out: http://www.cupcakejones.net/
Enjoy the spread... I'll make lots more!

Tortilla Thursday

Whew.
Today was a whirlwind. We made dinner rolls, tortillas, pita bread, baguettes and pizza - in 4 hours. Yeah. Try that at home without chef supervision why don't ya? Although I have to say this. You could make all these things, you just need to know the technique.
Dinner rolls.
Made with pain au lait dough. A slightly sweet milk bread. If it isn't fabulous enough on its own we stuffed them with goodies like brie, sharp cheddar, chives, walnuts and dried cherries ... some sweet, some savory.
Pita bread.
If you have never made pita bread this is so fun. You put them in the oven and they puff up, I mean completely puff up. Neat.
Tortillas.
I may never purchase a tortilla again. Flour, water, fat and salt. Mix. Knead. Rest. Roll out. Cook in dry pan over low heat. Seriously, don't buy them. Make them.
Pizza.
Fresh pesto, cheese, olive oil, red pepper. Lunch.
So much food. So little time.

Loaves of fluff

White Pan Bread.
Maybe a future pastry chef and baker should not admit this but ... I LOVE this bread. White fluffy goodness. Oh well, everyone else in class was chowing down on the stuff too! I smeared mine with pb & j.

The dough knows

Bread. Baguette. Focaccia.
We will make Pain Ordinaire (baguettes) everyday this week. Normally you make something once and move on. But baguettes are hard. They might look like a simple long loaf of bread but to get that beautiful interior texture takes technique. Even the slashes on the outside take a careful hand.
Focaccia is an easier bread to make. Not an easier dough to handle. It is nearly 75% liquid and that makes for a really wet sticky dough. Kneading a dough that wet takes patience and this bread tested all of us. We put fresh herbs in the dough but only salt on top. The traditional way. It was just as delicious as it looks. Sandwiches all around!

Hot out the oven!

Hello to friends, family, co-workers, customers and just those dropping in to see what's cooking. Come with me on my new journey, my dream come true. 

I'm about to start my sixth week at Western Culinary Institute, the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Portland, Oregon. It has been a wild couple of weeks so far and the veteran students say it only gets harder. 

By seven a.m. we are lined up for inspection. Chef's coat, check pants, apron, side towel, commis cap, cravat, nametag, student id badge, sharpie, pen, thermometer, no jewelry, no nails, hair tucked under cap. We start our day in demo, chef describes each step while showing you what to do. After demo its our turn to make what the chef has demoed. We get out of class at noon but most of us stay for lab to work on our projects usually not leaving until 2 or if we can get away with it 3 p.m. 

I've burned myself twice, only one of which did I have to go to the doctor for. I've gained about five pounds. (Taste, taste, taste...) I've made dozens of cookies, cakes, muffins, pies, custards and tarts and that's just the intro class. 

Each day is new chaos and discovery. Who knew I could make a cake like the one in the bakery display case or that I'd even think of whipping batter by hand for thirty minutes so that my cake would be the desired texture. 

Monday we start a week of breads (real food opposed to the sugar we've been eating every morning!) This is our final week of Intro to Baking then we go into specialized classes for different subjects. 

I'll post photos along the way of the best work (and maybe a few of the worst!) If you are wondering about the missing piece of each item ... that's how the chef grades you!

Until next time ... sweet dreams.