a look in the window

Welcome to 2012. This is the year that I will graduate from pastry school and my desserts will graduate into a store front window. A girl can dream, right? Until then, welcome to my store front window. 

A shiny new toy that has been getting a lot of attention lately is my ice cream maker. I started out by making a plain vanilla, just to make sure I remembered the important details.

The makings of a protein shake? No. These are needed for a batch of creamy ice cream. Along with a lot of heavy cream and whole milk. This is not a treat for calorie counters. After making the custard and letting it sit overnight in the fridge, it's time to turn on the magic machine.

 And this magic machine fits right onto my handy Kitchen Aid mixer. Around 20 minutes later, you have a quart of ice cream to enjoy. With chocolate sauce and sprinkles, of course.

The difference between this smooth delight and your $4 half gallon ice cream from the grocery store is unbelievable. This is ice cream worth the work and the calories. Especially when David Lebovitz's ultimate chocolate ice cream recipe goes in for a spin. 

A quick taste test almost resulted in Greg and I drinking the whole bowl before it graduated to ice cream status. But since I was making it for my dad's birthday party (and let's not forget, he was Santa), we decided to save it to serve with my grandma's German chocolate cake after all.

The results: a chocolate dream. It was all gone before they left.

On a savory note, I mixed up a batch of herb buttermilk biscuits this week. The meal was very carb heavy and hearty, but let's not forget we're in Indiana and the temperature outside is now below freezing on a regular basis. No judgment.

In the spirit of staying warm, I also turned on the oven for some baked goods. First up was a batch of my peanut butter banana cupcakes. I almost have the recipe memorized.

 
And most recently I expanded my cookie horizon to a thin and crunchy variety. I saw a recipe for super thin chocolate chip cookies in a new recipe book that Greg gave me for Christmas and it caught my attention. These cookies are very easy to make and are especially nice for folks who like to forget they have the oven on. I, on the other hand, had to sit on my hands so I wouldn't pull the pans out of the oven before the cookies turned brown and crisp. It was worth the effort though, as what started out looking like this...

turned into this

caramel brown, crunchy goodness. Perfect for dipping into your morning coffee. Or ice cream.

Enough about what I've been baking at home, let's talk about class. I'm back in the school kitchen, but so far the ovens have not been turned on very much. Instead I'm in the midst of art and design and creativity. For a girl who likes to follow the recipes and rules, this is not the easiest term, but I have had fun so far. I'd like to be more creative and this is helping me to expand my horizons. 

Our first assignment was to bake a cake and apply a cake transfer to the top of it. Greg helped me with a transfer design, which I then traced onto parchment paper with tuile batter and baked before applying it to my cake. Here it is before baking:

And after a quick bake and flip:

It's Emma's debut on a cake! There are even three bones for her. Every dog should be so lucky. And the cake inside was divine.


Our next two projects involve pastillage. This is basically edible plaster, but it's not worth breaking a tooth over. You can mold and paint on the pastillage and then glue it together when it dries to make beautiful centerpieces and sculptures. We'll be working on the centerpieces next week, but first we have to draw a cocoa painting on a plate. Here is my blank slate.

Stay tuned to see what a little sandpaper and paint can do. Who knows, maybe you'll see it in a bakery store front window someday....