whirlwind en francais

It's been a whirlwind week. Here's the photo play-by-play...

Orange chocolate chip cookies made last week to make myself feel better about slightly under-achieved practical. Just in case you wanted to see these.
 

Class last Saturday consisted of several specialty cakes, gateaux and pastries. First, the Dobos Torte (which we made last term with a more traditional feel), topped with caramel covered cake slices.
 

Next, the Gateau St-Honore. A French pastry made with short dough, pate choux and puff pastry. The pate choux bulbs are stuck on with sugar and the top should be dipped with sugar as well. Vanilla and chocolate crème is normally piped in the middle with a special piping tip, but we only had vanilla crème. Still, you get the picture.

Flashback to the Napoleon. Also made last term, but no one was upset to make this delicious flaky pastry again. Or devour it in large slices long after the puff pastry has turned soggy...I don't want to name any names of who did this. Starts with Gr and ends with eg.

Plus Francais? Oui! The last item of the day was a Mirabelle Pithivier. This beauty starts out with a bottom circle of puff pastry topped with a good amount of sweet almond cream filling. It's all covered up with another layer of puff pastry. Then the top is egg-washed and a design is drawn on for kicks. Also, fall foliage adds a nice touch.

Lesson of the day: whatever you do, don't say it looks like ravioli. Chef P is offended by pastry being compared to culinary items. This is just a beautiful dough ready to rise and brown to perfection.

And was it ever tasty. Perfect for every meal. We also prepped a few cakes for baking this weekend, including a Swiss roll. But the week ended with a Sunday breakfast of French toast, sausage and fruit. What better way to begin the whirlwind all over again?

who needs icing?

I practiced. I read. I prayed. And perfecting the petit four glace practical was not my destiny. What can I say? I'm better without icing. I prefer to keep things simple. Who needs all of that extra sugar anyways? Okay, you're right - it does make pretty much anything more delicious. But my clumsy, messy hands need even more practice than this.

These bites (without fondant icing) are the result of a practice round at home last Thursday. I was left with several ounces of chocolate decorations on a piece of parchment paper and even more chocolate running all over my hand from the top of the paper piping cone that I hadn't managed to fold up quite right. Greg was unprepared for operation chocolate rescue, but immediately insisted on licking both items thoroughly so none would go to waste. Good man.

My Saturday practical didn't turn out quite as I had hoped, but I gave it my best effort and now know what needs to be done for better success in the future. For example, the top layer of almond cake for the petit fours should be placed close to the bottom layer before flipping it on top to avoid the cake breaking in the middle and falling on top in pieces mid-flip. My personal flip out moment number one. Luckily I had some assistance saving that one. Also, when egg washing the tops of eclairs you should not use a fork to indent them with small lines or they will puff up and crack a bit, eventually looking like mini hot dog buns. Sigh. Here are my chocolate covered hot dog buns...with a mighty delicious pastry cream hiding inside.

And the final lesson: yes, chocolate makes anything taste better and can sometimes cover flaws, but the designs drawn on petit four glaces should be very thin and delicate. And the fondant should be thin enough to easily glide over the whole bite and cover every centimeter. Much unlike this.

The saving grace is that everything tasted delicious. And I made orange chocolate chip cookies yesterday to make myself feel better. No icing necessary.
 

bite-sized happiness

I know what you're asking yourself...Was Jaime able to bake successful petit four (aka bite-sized) cookies for her exam last weekend? And could she really keep her cookies under 6 inches?

The answer:

Yes! And I am damn proud of these cookies. I was focused and precise, and sometimes not breathing regularly, but I managed to produce some of the best cookies in class. I know, they look tiny and you're not sure they're real. Here's a closer view:

Convinced? I am convinced that I still love baking cookies. I'm not sure about the petit four glace section of the exam - coming to a kitchen near me this weekend - but I'll do my best. For this practical, we have to produce a dozen of the éclairs we made last weekend AND a dozen iced petit four cakes. We are making bite-sized almond cakes with jam in the middle and fondant icing on top. And a lovely design of chocolate. Practice results from last weekend:

One of these babies can cure your sweet tooth for the whole day. Unless you're my mother and then you need to eat three of them for breakfast...sigh. I should know better by now. Do not leave any sweets out on the kitchen table that you don't want promptly devoured. Greg wasn't too upset though because his favorite item of the weekend was the chocolate pistachio biscotti. Delicious dipped in coffee, but quite crunchy by itself.

I'm off to practice drawing with chocolate. Time to channel Picasso!

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.
 

taste buds world tour

Any desire to visit Italy? Tour the French countryside? Or perhaps meet a Russki? Whether your answer is yes or no, I bet your taste buds would like a sampling of the sweets for each of these countries are famous. Last Saturday in class we made three world-famous items, which took us all day because of the detailed steps involved, but the end results were totally worth the effort. I had a taste of Italy, France and Russia after eight hours of baking and assembling. And no passport was needed.

The first stop on our world sweets tour is Italy. Most people are familiar with the coffee flavored dessert of tiramisu. There are easy ways to make tiramisu, by using already made ladyfinger cookies, spreading on already made coffee syrup and an already mixed up mascarpone filling. But making this classic cake from scratch takes some time and detail work. First, we whipped up a lady finger sponge batter which we piped into a pan, baked and cooled. The mascarpone cheese filling is quite a process in itself because it starts with pouring boiling simple syrup into whipped egg yolks - very similar to making a butter cream frosting. This is something I could use a little practice on to say the least.

Once the mixture is complete, you add in the mascarpone cheese and fold in some freshly whipped cream. That's the white frosting-like stuff on your tiramisu. Next, you can heat up another simple syrup with an addition of coffee extract and Marsala. Then assembly begins.

Brush a good coating of coffee syrup on half of your ladyfinger sponge cake and spread a good amount on top. Repeat. Then top with sifted cocoa powder and chill for at least 12 hours. Most of my portion was gone in that amount of time, but what can I say? It was delizioso! See for yourself.

A visit to Russia is up next, with the lesser known Russian Cake. This is one seriously delicious cake and people should be more aware of its existence. The layering process is much the same as it is for tiramisu, however, the sponge cake has almonds involved and the filling is a praline butter cream frosting. Oh and the bottom of the cake is painted with melted chocolate. This baby has three layers on cake and frosting and the very top is coated with an apricot glaze. After assembly, the edges are chopped off for visual purposes.

And then each piece of cake is decorated with more butter cream icing, toasted almonds and powdered sugar. Or in my case, just toasted almonds and powdered sugar. A surefire way to impress any Russki (or any man in general for that matter).

Last, but definitely not least in my cookbook, is the famous French napoleon. This is a delectably rich pastry made with layers of puff pastry and pastry cream and topped with sweet fondant icing. We used frozen puff pastry that had been thawed and majorly docked (i.e., poking holes in the dough to prevent rising and poofage while baking) and let it bake until crispy and pretty brown. I managed to put my distaste for burnt things aside and let the French style take over. Instead of using the classic vanilla pastry cream, we decided to make a chocolate variety. Again, the layering process is used to build this pastry and the white fondant icing with chocolate design on top makes it complete. This is one treat that I must try en France at some point in my life. 

This concludes our world tour of pastry. Bon nuit!