In class, we have moved from yeast breads to desserts. I am personally loving every second of this pastry module, but my classmates are growing weary of the lack of savory foods and the slower pace of the class. At the beginning of last week, we made various forms of "petit fours." To most people that means a miniature cake, but petit fours are actually just a bite-sized treat of any kind. Our petit fours consisted of vanilla bean marshmallows, almond buttercrunch, biscotti, and macaroons. We spent a full day making all of these fun treats, while the next day we learned how to temper chocolate to dip the petit fours in. I have always heard the term "tempered chocolate" but have never quite understood the importance of it. It's amazing because by raising the chocolate to a temperature of 130 degrees F and then stirring it to cool it down to 85 degrees F, the chocolate is able to harden at room temperature into a shiny and appetizing coating. If you don't temper chocolate, it hardens in a dull, grayish color and melts too quickly in the hand. Many agree that tempering is the most important thing you can do with chocolate. After the tempering was complete, we spent the rest of class dipping and coating our petit fours in our chocolatey goodness.
*Vanilla bean marshmallows with a dark chocolate drizzle
*Almond Biscotti, Pine Nut Macaroons, Sea Salted Truffles, and Rose Marshmallows
*Almond Buttercrunch topped with Chocolate, Coconut, and Toasted Almonds
After petit fours, we moved to cakes. Now, if you want to see a group of culinary students become uncomfortable in the kitchen, just ask them to decorate a cake. Everyone in my class was having a very difficult time. I looked over and one guy had 3 finger cots on because he kept cutting himself trying to slice a cake horizontally. We spend one day baking various kinds of cakes and the next day preparing the frostings and fillings and actually decorating the cake. Chef Scott took us through the icing process step by step and showed us how to make a cake look perfectly frosted. His demonstration made me think back to all of the many cakes I have iced and how horribly wrong I was doing it. At home I would always get impatient and frost a cake while it's still warm- and I wonder why they always lean awkwardly?!? Although it tested our patience, made us angry, and took much longer than it ever should have, we all ended up with decent-looking cakes. I think it was the proudest my class has ever been of ourselves.
*My (not leaning) Lemon Coconut Sponge Cake
The latest kind of desserts we have learned to make are custard-based desserts. This includes ice cream, creme brulee, and bread pudding. The ice cream part was fun. All the partnerships got to choose their favorite flavor and make the ice cream base. The next day, Chef Scott rolled in this very large, very professional, and very expensive ice cream freezer that turned our liquidy bases into ice cream in minutes. My partner, Lindsey, and I chose cinnamon and it was HEAVEN. There is nothing like the taste of freshly frozen ice cream. I swear it has the power to turn cynics into optimists and solve world wars. All of us, including Chef Scott, were giddy and beaming as we tasted flavor after flavor. Other flavors made were caramel, coconut, vanilla bean, coffee, pistachio, and ginger. All of them were amazing (even though I am biased with my cinnamon). I think tasting all of these ice creams has been my favorite part of pastry. We also made very traditional bread pudding and creme brulee recipes that used real vanilla beans and the freshest of ingredients. I have never been a huge creme brulee fan, but the ones we made it class were really delicious. It was really fun torching the caramelized sugar topping on the creme brulee, once Lindsey and I figured out how to turn the torch on. Overall, it was a fantastic section of our pastry module.
*Chef Scott showing us how to properly torch the Creme Brulee
*Creme Brulee: the most fat-filled, high-cholesterol dessert you can find :)
*Bread pudding. It looks dry on top, but its very custardy and delicious once you dive into it
We only have a week left in Pastry before we move on to our final module with Chef Chris again. Time is flying by and my classmates and I only have a month left to finalize our externships and enjoy every last moment of class time. It's going to be fun to see where we all end up in this ever-changing culinary world.
Happy Eating!!!
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