the ghost of baking past

Last week's syllabus listed one of my least favorite standard pastry items, but this time I had my piping bag ready. It was pate choux round two (or the ghost of baking past). Unlike my previously horrific experience with pate choux, this time around there were no swans to be made. Just the basics - cream puffs and éclairs. And I now know the tricks of the dough to make the finished items turn out nice and puffy after baking. Plus, we made them taste better by squirting Bavarian cream in the middle and dipping the tops in chocolate.

We even dipped some of them in caramel and put an almond slice on top. A huge pile of these puffs are what make up French wedding cakes, also known as Croquembouche. 

We made almond tuiles as well. These are very thin cookies that are shapeable after baking, so you can fold them over a rolling pin to give them a nice cup shape. They taste sort of like fortune cookies, but you can flavor them however you like before baking. And they're great dipped in coffee in the morning.

The upcoming weekend brings my first cookie practical exam. We have to make checkerboard shortbread cookies, spritz cookies and almond tuiles. Hopefully mine will all turn out as good as they did the first time around!

A tidbit of happiness for the week: it's peach season. I love peaches - especially this variety.

checkers anyone?

I literally felt like the Pillsbury dough boy last Saturday. Except instead of churning out hundreds of the same cookies over and over again (and being poked in the stomach for fun), we made several varieties of cookies that I'd never made before. I have exceeded the Pillsbury dough boy's repertoire. View them and weep.

This plate of cookies includes a few varieties of shortbread cookies, linzer cookies, batons marechaux and gingersnaps. We also made a very toffee-ish cookie that I didn't bring home because it stuck to my teeth. 

My favorite of the bunch has to be the checkerboard shortbread cookie. This was the most time consuming cookie to make, but it's definitely eye-catching and was fun to prepare. To make these cookies, we mixed up three different kinds of shortbread and rolled them all out. Two of the shortbreads were then put on top of each other and cut into strips. Four of these two-toned strips were glued together with egg wash to make the square shape. Then the whole log was wrapped up in the third dough. These have to chill in the fridge for awhile before baking, but after they're chilled all you have to do is slice them up and bake for 7-8 minutes.

One day I will play checkers on a set of these. Have I mentioned that I love baking cookies? I can't wait to experiment with new recipes and even alter ones that I currently use based on my new knowledge of cookie characteristics. But in the meantime, I made homemade waffles for dinner last night. In my opinion, the Hungry Jack mix in our cupboard tastes just as good, but there is something satisfying about making waffles from scratch. And it's always nice to know exactly what's in the food you're eating.

ps. Greg made the whipped cream. A happy kitchen includes two newlyweds using mixers at the same time. And perhaps playing checkers on cookies someday.

this is what i did on my summer vacation

I'm baaaack! Okay, so I wasn't technically on vacation and the past six weeks have been filled with a variety of tastes. Unfortunately, I simply did not have the time to share them with you. But after finishing up my school term on cakes, getting married to a wonderful man two weeks ago, honeymooning in Maine, and then arriving back in Indianapolis just in time to start my next term of school, I'm ready to jump back on the blog wagon. 

We'll start by playing catch up. I may not have been writing much, but I did manage to snap some photos to capture my life in the kitchen (and out of it) over the last several weeks. Enjoy...

Two key ingredients of my cake class: lots of butter and hot sugar

Preparing Italian buttercream frosting and decorating cakes was not my favorite thing to do in the kitchen...

but I got a lot of practice.

And by the final practical exam, I could whip up an Italian buttercream frosting with my eyes closed.

We also made a Black Forest Torte (complete with chocolate shavings),

a Sachertorte (basically a brownie-type cake covered in chocolate ganache - YUM.),

and an absolutely delicious seven layer almond cake with chocolate buttercream frosting.

In the midst of all of this baking at school, I was knee deep in wedding planning and didn't have much time to bake outside of class. Or cook for that matter. This is Greg's favorite dinner from the past few months. Leftover pizza and cheese balls. No judgment.

Surprisingly, I didn't put a ton of thought into our wedding cake. I knew I was in good hands with one of the best bakeries in Fort Wayne and the cake turned out perfect (as did the rest of the wedding). This baby contained four different cake flavors: vanilla, chocolate raspberry, almond and lemon. And they were all good - I sampled several of our guests' pieces at the reception while mingling with everyone.

We ate a lot of good food during our honeymoon in Maine, but while Greg seemed to favor the lobster, I thoroughly enjoyed this delectable chocolate covered smores bar from a candy shop in Portland. And French pastries from an adorable bakery called Mornings in Paris.

That brings us up to present day and my new class at school. This term we'll be focusing on cookies and frozen desserts. Cookies are one of my favorite desserts to make and I'm excited to learn more about them over the next few weeks. They seem easy to master, but there's still a lot to know. For instance, why some cookies spread and some don't, what causes a cookie to be crispy versus soft, and how important it is to only just incorporate the flour at the end of a batter and not overmix it. 

 
The cookies on the left are the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. And the citrus shortbread cookies in front were soft and light. Move over Pillsbury dough boy, there's a new kid in town.