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?

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!