the butter's back in town

Almond filling and chocolate. Delicious in pastries. Particularly in croissants. Croissants mean that something else is involved as well...butter. That's right - the butter was back in town on Saturday. You may recall my battles with butter last year and realize that I may not have been all excited to work with it again. This time, however, I showed the butter who was boss and ended up with splendidly rolled out dough without squirting butter out the sides.

This go around we made Danish dough and croissant dough. They are mixed up in a very similar way, but the croissant dough is not as sweet as the Danish dough. It is very different than opening a can of Pillsbury crescent rolls though. (If that's normally the croissant route you take, I would recommend adding in some dark chocolate for an extra pinch of happiness.) Made from scratch croissants obviously have a much fresher taste, but they also give you a sense of accomplishment that you can't get from popping open a Pillsbury can with triangular shaped perforations in the dough. Even though they look very similar on the pan...

The taste of these would cause the Dough Boy to really squeal when they hit his stomach.

The Danish dough turned out beautifully as well and I practiced making the various pastry shapes we learned last fall. A squirt of strawberry filling or lemon cream cheese and they were good to go.

Before these pastries were made on Saturday, I spent Thursday evening in my kitchen at home whipping up another batch of my peanut butter banana cupcakes. All of these goodies made the journey to Fort Wayne and while the pastries only made it to my parents' house, the cupcakes were delivered to my bridal shower and more specifically to my Aunt Linda. She was in town to help throw me a fabulously fun shower and I wanted to make sure she had a sample of these cupcakes while she had the chance. Little did I know that she was bringing some of the tastiest pieces of baked happiness my mouth has ever known... Black and White cookies from New York City. That's right, delivered from NYC. I was practically drooling with happiness.

They were large and in charge just like the Big Apple, but I still managed to eat one. Okay, I ate two. And my happy taste buds thank her.

art on a tart

So I made art on a tart and let me tell ya, it was a thing of beauty. I'm going to keep this short and sweet - kind of like tart crust.

Here's the low down: I made two tarts and the crusts both turned out great, no shrinkage or breakage. My pastry cream turned out great as well, creamy and smooth without lumps. A variety of lovely fruit formations were artfully placed on top of the tart and I was one proud baker. But what grade would this tart art garner me?

If you said an A, you are correct! This grade A tart doubled as my Father's Day present for my dad. Only the best for the best dad in the world! 

a tart by any other name

What's the difference between a pie and a tart? I'm sure there is a lovely scientific answer to this question, but I'm going to share my thoughts on the matter after baking several tarts this weekend. First, tart dough has more sugar in it to give it more flavor than pie dough and is rolled out more so it's thinner. Which makes the dough a heck of a lot harder to work with - patience is key here. Basically, tarts are like the stuck up, snobby girl you knew in high school while pies are the average, goody two-shoes girl.  I'm proud to be a pie girl, although I did have fun being a tart this weekend. Oops, I mean baking tarts.

See, even the pan is fancier. Look at those ridges around the sides. These pans are way more interesting than normal pie pans. Not only does the bottom come out so you can easily slide the tart off of it after baking, you also get to cut off the the excess dough by rolling over the top of the pan with a rolling pin. Yes, I'm easily amused.

This is a basic fruit tart. It starts with a blind baked crust, then it's filled halfway with pastry cream and topped with as much fruit as you can put on it. The fruit can be in any design that you choose. I call this my sectioned look. This weekend we have our first practical exam and have to make our own fruit tarts. I plan on bringing my A-game - this will be art on a tart.

Tangy lemon tarts are also popular. I brought home a version with cherries in it and my family had no problem scarfing it down.

Cobbler seems to be the opposite of a tart to me. It's like the messy little brother you hide from when you're the cool girl. But this peach and blackberry tart was quite good, even if it was quite messy.

We also made Linzer Torte. It's an Austrian dessert with a more crumbly crust and a fruit jam. It also usually has a lattice design on top, but we decided to go with streusel instead since the dough was so hard to work with. Chef mentioned that he uses this recipe to make cookies and I plan on adding that to my to-do list.

After eight hours of slaving away in a hot kitchen on Saturday, I spent a few more hours in my kitchen at home on Sunday morning making banana peanut butter cupcakes for my mom and aunts who came down for a visit. Delicious as always, and much more my speed than a fancy pants tart. Except this Saturday I'm tarting it up. I'll have pretty pictures to share and hopefully a good grade to go along with them!

bakers and shakers

Shakers are known for their religious beliefs, but also (and more importantly in my case) for their delicious pies and distingushable pie crusts. So I took it as a compliment when Chef called our group "Shakers" last Saturday. Our baking task list included several pies and we managed to crank them all out at a good rate despite the fact that we were down a group member. It must have been the Shaker mentality. 

Pumpkin Pie

Strawberry Chiffon Pie

Lemon Chiffon Pie

Chiffon pies have beaten egg whites folded into the other ingredients so this makes them light and airy. A refreshing pie for summer, although they don't hold up extremely well in the heat.

Lemon Meringue Pie

This pie isn't finished without a light (or heavy) scorching of the meringue. A shout out to my partner Russ for the lovely toasting seen below.



Pecan Pie

This was my favorite of the pies we made this weekend. And I couldn't believe how easy it was to make! Basically, if you have a large bottle of dark corn syrup and pecans, you're well on your way to making pecan pie. 

We also made a chocolate silk pie which is not pictured because a) I forgot to take a picture of it and b) it didn't taste very good due to the fact that we used a recipe with cocoa powder instead of real chocolate. Not recommended for a taste of happiness.

Overall, I feel more confident in my pie making skills and I am looking forward to moving on to tarts next week. Also, I will never buy a pre-made pie crust again. Neither should you. Free pie crust making lessons will be offered if necessary. 

On a closing note, I'd like to share my very favorite dessert of the week with you. The plate full of scrumtrulescent chocolate dipped strawberries that awaited me when I arrived home from work on Thursday. Much thanks to my fiancé, Greg, who always seems to know how to make me happy.