Chocolat

We started chocolate this week and working with chocolate is NOT FUN. It has to be tempered by one of three methods: Tabling - where you pour a portion of the liquid chocolate onto a cool surface, Ice-Bath, or Seeding - where you add whole pieces of chocolate to the liquid chocolate to bring the temperature down. There are temperature ranges you need to work within, otherwise you have to the process all over. And it all depends on room temperature because if the room is too cold, the chocolate will set too quickly, but if it's too warm, it won't set, etc...

Here are some of the things we made this week:

3.26.08: Chocolate Leaves - we covered organic lemon leaves with tempered chocolate

the decorated chocolate leaves (actual leaves removed) on a Chocolate Fruit Cake (figs, apricots and walnuts). The cake tasted like a big brownie!

3.28.08: Chocolate Box

the chocolate box filled with bite-size Orange Truffles. I wrapped the filled chocolate box with three layers of thick plastic wrap so I could give it to Caren after class today. Stupid me wasn't paying attention and wacked the top of it, crushing the box. I still gave it to her though - it's all edible. Sorry Caren, but this is what it was supposed to look like!

A chocolate bow I made:

My partner, Emily, placing dried cherries, pistachios and hazelnuts on tempered chocolate to make little chocolate candies:

Next week we have a chocolate candy stand project due. It has to have a bowl that will hold truffles of candy and it has to be at least 5 inches tall. This should be interesting.

No More Cake!

So... today was our written mid-term and Cakes practical exam. I think I did pretty well on the written portion and I think I did ok on the practical. As stated in my last post, I chose to make an "Easter" cake. We had to draw a diagram of our cake and hand it in, so there wasn't much leeway while preparing it today.

I ended up having five layers of cake with four layers of filling. I made a lemon bavarian cream which was SUPER SUPER tart! But I balanced it out by alternating layers with a lemon curd/mascarpone filling. The combination of the two tasted really good together. Yum. Love me some lemon. :)

I've also decided that fondant SUCKS. It's just a real pain in the ass to deal with. I should specify - I don't mind making the decorations but it was really hard to cover the cake with the lavender layer. I rolled it out too thin so towards the base of the cake there were lots of cracks. I tried to cover it up as much as I could.

My "special occasion" cake:

We start our section on CHOCOLATE tomorrow! I think most of tomorrow is going to be lecture which will be a nice change.

Cakes, Part II cont.

Over the past few days we've made a couple of more cakes. We started learning how to use marzipan and fondant to cover our cakes. It's pretty exciting because our cakes look like those you would buy in a store for a lot of money - the exact reason I came to school! I forgot to take pictures of some, but below are two that I remembered to get pictures.

3.20.08: Black Forest Cake
The cherries on top of the rosettes are brandy soaked and sooo good. This cake is covered in fresh whipped cream and chocolate shavings

It's filled with a cherry compote and Creme d'Or (basically chocolate mousse). And yes, my mom was watching CNN on the tv in the background.

3.20.08: Chocolate Roulade Cake with pistachio cream filling.
The inside of this cake was built differently than most we've done. Instead of horizontal layers it spirals out from the center. This cake is covered in fondant, which is basically lots and lots of sugar and the dots are made with royal icing.

Our midterm written exam and Cakes practical exam are both on Monday. For the practical we have to make a "special occasion" cake. We have to choose the theme but we're told the basics of what we're to do. We had to draw a piece of paper out of a bowl stating the type of cake, the filling and what to cover the cake in, but we can add and choose any flavors we want. I'm making a cake made from the same batter we use to make lady fingers - I'm not happy about this. The filling is to be Bavarian cream - another thing I'm not happy about. And it's to be topped with fondant - which I'm ok with.
For my theme I appropriately chose Easter and keeping with that theme I'm making a Lemon Bavarian cream and a lemon curd/mascarpone filling that I'll alternate between the layers.
We got a head start and I made the cake layers and lemon curd in class on Friday. On Monday I have to make the Bavarian cream, build the cake, make some fresh fondant and then decorate.
Pictures to follow on Monday evening after the exam!

Cakes, Part II

We started Cakes, Part II on Friday. This section seems a lot more interesting and intricate than our last Cake section. We finish up with this section on Friday and then have our mid-term on Monday. Why would give us a mid-term the day after Easter???

3.14.08: Bûche de Noël ("Yule log")
This is a traditional dessert served during the Christmas holidays, for obvious reasons... The little mushrooms were fun. We also made snowmen, but I didn't put any on my log.

3.17.08: Fraisier
Derived from the French word fraise, strawberry, Le fraisier is a classic French cake made with a sponge cake sliced in two halves, each of which is brushed with kirsch liqueur. The cake we made used an American milk sponge and we filled it with a creme mousseline (think LOTS of butter, then think of some more!) It's topped a green marzipan and decorated with royal icing. The strawberries on top are made of marzipan too.

3.17.08: Lemon Chiffon Cake
This three layer cake is filled with lemon curd. We learned how to do a basket weave with buttercream today and I'd have to say that my cake came out looking pretty damn good for my first try. This cake is also delicious - the cake was moist with visible lemon zest and the curd was perfect, thanks to my partner Kathryn. I am so proud of this cake!

We also learned two other designs: lace and "dotted Swiss". Since we're practicing we each did both on the top of our cakes.

I'm thinking of making this cake for Easter this weekend. First, it's just fabulous, and second, George loves lemon/lime flavored desserts and I will be seeing him this weekend. He's been in Chile since the 8th and is returning to the states tomorrow! I'll be seeing him either Thurs night or on Friday and I'm so excited!

Petits Fours

Petits Fours is over!!! Here are pictures of some more little bite size pieces and the exam tray is at the bottom.

3.11.08: Chocolate/Vanilla Swirl & Checkerboard Cookies

3.11.08: end of day "Tray up"

piped meringue filled with passion fruit curd (we were having fun with the shapes), Coconut Macaroons, checkerboard cookies, Tuiles (the flat discs)

3.12.08: Lemon Cookies sandwiched with raspberry jam, dipped in chocolate

3.12.08: Petits Fours Glacés, iced petits fours
these are tiny cakes covered in colored fondant icing. this is a try of the entire class'. Reesha and I made the blue ones on the left and the light blue ones in the middle that look kind of green. The little domed ones are filled with buttercream. I put one in my mouth and then spit it out - it was way too sweet for my taste, shocking!.

3.13.08: Petits Fours Exam tray
Reesha and I each had to make 4 petits fours each and tray up together. We decided to to theme our tray around a variety of fruits and colors. Mine are the 4th in from the left- mini puff pastry filled with a sweet pineapple cream with a sliver of pineapple, the big 4th one from the right- mini chocolate/orange cupcakes topped with an orange/cream cheese frosting, the 3rd from the right- mini fruit tartlettes in a chocolate rimmed tart shell, filled with a light pastry cream, covered with blueberries, and the last one- opera cake filled with raspberry buttercream and crème d'Or (similar to chocolate mousse).

tiny little bundles of yummy goodness!

I just want to do post a quick to show some pictures from Petits Fours last week. I've been slacking with the individual photos, but I did get some pictures of our "Tray's" showing what we had made every few days:

3.5.08: Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies

3.5.08

On Thursday of last week my partner Reesha was out so I partnered up with Corn for the day. Here are a couple of pictures of her pouring chocolate glaze over some "Sara Bernhardt's". They are named after the famous French actress. Actually, they are named after a famous part of her anatomy. :)

3.7.08: I forgot to take a photo of the full tray.
Friday was a wonderful day - George came to visit me at school! He had lunch with the class and then stayed for the remainder of the afternoon. The Chef's were all really nice to him and we all fed him well. Now he understands my pain of trying to not eat everything in class every day!

Opera layer cake: layers of chocolate ganache and coffee flavored buttercream.

Nougat

This Thursday we have a practical exam. It's pretty exciting because we each have to come up with a menu of 4 Petits Fours. We can use any of the recipe's we've made in class, but we have to put our own twist on the recipe to make it unique. It's actually our first opportunity to be creative. At the end of the day Reesha and I have to present our Petits Fours together on a tray for the Chef's to evaluate. I hope they all turn out ok. I'm not going to write what I'm planning on making until I see how everything turns out on exam day!

I love BREAD!

We started Pastry II last Monday with Chef Dianne and Chef James. We continued the section on Breads and Viennoiserie that we started in Pastry I with Chef Christopher and had our exam today. I don't think I can stress enough how much I LOVE BREAD! I haven't stopped eating since last Monday. Seriously.

2.25.08: Irish Soda Bread

2.25.08: Petite Pains (basically mini baguettes)

2.25.08: Pain de Provence (olive bread)

2.26.08: English Muffins
Did anyone know that English Muffins are pan fried before they're baked??

2.26.08: Danish
One is obviously filled with a blueberry compote. The other has a cream cheese filling.

2.26.08: Baguettes!

2.28.08: Ham & Cheese filled Croissants

2.28.08: plain Croissants

2.29.08: Bagels
My partner, Emily, and I had a little problem keeping them attached and round. Chef Dianne ordered up some smoked salmon, cream cheese and tomato for us to enjoy alongside our bagels. Yum!

2.29.08: Lemon Poppy Seed muffins
These were spectacular! We applied a lemon/sugar glaze on top to add a little more bite.

2.29.08: Cornbread
Not your average cornbread; we topped these with a glaze made of honey, maple syrup and butter.

3.3.04: Exam
We each had to present the chef's with 4 chocolate croissants, 4 plain croissants, 4 petite pains and 4 of another item, or "quick bread" - I had to make the cornbread, while other students had to make either the lemon poppy seed muffins or scones.

We start on Petite Fours tomorrow. At the end of the section my new partner, Reesha, and I will have to present 8 petite fours of our choice and flavor. It's our first opportunity to be creative with the food. I hope it all turns out well!