"Studying"

I love that this is studying. Yes, there are written exams and I do have to study for those like for any other written exam. But baking, something I love to do, is actually studying!

I made lemon curd, tart shells, pastry cream, a fruit tart, candied lemon zest, mini lemon tartlets, and gingersnaps. In one afternoon.

The lemon curd came out pretty darn well, though perhaps a little less thick than it should be. The large tart shell didn't come out great...it cracked in places. I think I may have rolled it a bit too thin. Ah well, it still tasted good! The little tiny shells I made (I did them in mini-muffin tins) came out quite well. They did puff a little on the bottom, but that's because I was too lazy to attempt to properly weigh down such tiny shells. The pastry cream came out way too think. I think the book's suggestion of substituting cornstarch for pastry cream powder by increasing the amount by 1/3 wasn't quite accurate in this case. It tasted good, but the texture was wrong. At least that's just an issue with too much starch...nothing that can't be fixed with the right ingredients. The fruit tart looked excellent, but since it was made with the slightly defective shell and too think pastry cream, it wasn't great. That didn't stop me from eating it though, since it was still good. The  candied lemon zest was perfect! I rolled it in cane sugar while it was still tacky, so it's great to eat plain, not just as a garnish. The lemon tartlets were also quite good, basically they were lemon curd piped into the mini tart shells and topped with a piece of the candied zest. What isn't good about that?! Lastly the gingersnaps came out quite well. Granted, I'm not a huge gingersnap fan, so I can't be sure that these are great (because nothing with ginger will ever seem great to me). Still, the texture, while not snappy, was just what the recipe said it should be, they looked pretty, and they tasted quite nice.

Overall a successful and very edible study session!