Petit Four Tray 3

Our final petits fours tray. This one includes: (from left to right) swirl sablée cookies, coconut palmiers, domed glazed petits fours, Russian tea cakes, pyramid glazed petits fours, checkerboard sablée cookies, square glazed petits fours, lemon cookies, caramel mou, and florentines.

We got our assignments for the petits fours exam in class yesterday. I have to make pyramid petits fours glacée, pâte de fruits, and lemon cookies. I'm not thrilled about having to make the pyramid petits fours glacée, but I'm quite happy with the other two. Plus I have to design and make a fourth petit four. I've chosen a chocolate sablée cookie sandwich filled with white chocolate and peppermint ganache. Yum!

Petit Four Glacée

Unglazed round and pyramid petits fours.
The pink buttercream is raspberry, the green is
pistachio, and the brown is coffee.

Glazed petits fours come in all sorts of varieties, we made three: domed, pyramid, and square. When we started these last class, the chef said that we would love to learn how to make then and, by the time we were done, love that we would never have to make them again (unless they show up on a test.) She was right. They were really interesting to learn and really nice to make and eat, but thank goodness we are done making them!

Glazed round petits fours.

Domed petits fours, which remind me (appearance-wise) of Sarah Bernhardts, are made with a small round of tender, almondy cake topped with flavored buttercream and coated in chocolate glaze.

Glazed pyramid petits fours.

Pyramid petits fours are made with the same cake with three flavors of buttercream. These are a bit harder though, they are strips of the cake, with stripes of buttercream to form a "pyramid." The whole thing coated in chocolate glaze and when the glaze starts to set but isn't totally hard, the log is sliced into petit four sized pieces.

Square petits fours

The square petits fours are two layers of the almond cake sandwiched together with apricot jam topped with marzipan, glazed with colored fondant glaze (as opposed to rolled fondant), and decorated with royal icing. These are a bit of a pain, because the fondant is very hard to get exactly right and I'm not the best with intricate decorations, but they are definitely my favorite of the three. I love how pretty they are (even if my glazing and decorating was less than perfect) and the marzipan adds a welcome extra kick of almond. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of the buttercream we make in class, it's too sugary.

Decorated square petits fours. I think the box is my favorite.

Lemon Cookies

These weren't quite lemon-y enough, but they were quite nice. They taste more like a light butter cookie with a hint of lemon. I think I'd add more lemon zest if I make these myself. They are sandwiched together with a very thin layer of raspberry jam (yum) and half dipped in glazing chocolate. Overall, tiny and yummy and very cute.

Christmas Tree Cookies

Inspired by my success decorating my tree with cookies last year, I decided to do it again this year. Because we have a new puppy we decided a small, tabletop tree would be sensible. That made my job easier since I needed fewer cookies. Fewer cookies meant I could spend more time decorating each one, so I opted for trying my hand at decorating with royal icing. I'm still not the steadiest hand with a piping bag, but I think they came out really lovely.

Goodie Bags

The reason I baked chocolate chip scones, spiced chocolate cookies, lemon curd (for the meringue shells), and peppermint bark was that we were having people over for the holiday. I didn't want any of them to leave empty handed--albeit it with full stomaches--so I made them goodie bags with scones and chocolate cookies. I think that they look really nice, especially because two cookies happened to be almost the same hight as one scone. I like these so much, I'm thinking of doing something like this as gifts for people who won't be getting an entire cookie plate.

Peppermint Bark

Have you ever had the Williams-Sanoma peppermint bark? It's incredible, right? Well this was pretty darn close to that! I made it with good quality bittersweet and white chocolate. In a nutshell, I spread a thin layer of dark chocolate on a silpat and let it set. Then I flavored melted white chocolate with peppermint extract, spread it on top of the dark chocolate, and, while it was still tacky, sprinkled crushed up peppermint candy on top. Quite easy actually.

Ideally I should have tempered the chocolate to give it more snap and shine (and to help it set up faster) but I haven't learned that in school yet and chocolate is too expensive for me to experiment with. Ah well, it was excellent and will be more excellent next year when I do know how to temper chocolate.

Spiced Chocolate Cookies

This photo does not do these cookies justice, but I was too
busy eating them to take a decent picture. Sorry!

Oh my goodness these were amazing! They are from Jacques Torres' cookbook, A Year in Chocolate, and are based off his famous wicked hot chocolate. They are basically a really nice, chewy but still crackly on the outside, chocolate cookie with ooey gooey chunks of chocolate studded throughout...except for one major addition--ancho chili powder. I love his wicked hot chocolate and I love chocolate cookies, so the combination of the two was divine.

Chocolate Chip Scones

These scones are based off the recipe we used in school for currant scones. I replaced the currants with chocolate chips and used half whole wheat flour and half normal white flour instead of all white flour (for two reasons: it seemed healthier and I was running very low on white flour.) They came out very well indeed. The change of flour didn't make them too dense or tough as I had worried about and chocolate chips are always an improvement over currants.

Lemon Curd in Meringue Shells

Remember those meringue shells I made in class? Well, I made some thick lemon curd (with Meyer lemons, yum) and piped it into the shells. How cute are they?! And so delicious too!

Coconut Palmiers

Basically these are like every other palmier I've made, but so much better. They're better for two reasons. First, we used real puff pastry, not quick puff or demi puff (which don't have as much rise or quite as perfect a flavor).  Second, we mixed unsweetened, desiccated coconut into the sugar that we coated the puff pastry in to make the palmiers. Coconutty, buttery, sugary goodness! I think that these would be amazing with a tropical fruit something (sorbet, salad, grilled kabobs, something.)

Meringue Nests

An adorable leafy nest that, once filled with lemon curd,
will look somewhat like a sunflower.

These little Vacherin meringue nests were delicious on their own and so simple (though not necessarily easy) to make. The meringue isn't hard to make but (at least for me) is difficult to pipe. I don't have the steadiest hand and I have terrible hand eye coordination (to the point of I see where my hand needs to go to make the shape I want, but I don't quite do it right) so it's really hard for me to pipe these small nests so that they look elegant. But I managed and I think that mine actually came out pretty well! We baked them at a very low heat for quite a while to dry them out. They are really quite nice plain (they taste like nicely dried meringue), which is good considering we didn't fill the in class. I have people coming over in the next few days because of the holidays, so I'll make something (probably lemon curd) to fill them with and then serve these. Stay tuned!

Seasonal shapes:
snowpeople, trees, and a lollypop

Caramel Mou

My chef calls these caramel mou ooh ooh, because they are just so good. She's completely right; they're incredible! They aren't quite caramel tasting, but they are very chocolaty. They have an incredible soft (but not too soft) and slightly chewy texture. The sea salt on top brought out the subtle sweet caramelized sugar flavor, which worked perfectly with the dark chocolate that was a major component of the recipe. I think the closest thing I can compare this to as far as texture (and taste to some extent) is good quality chocolate fudge. Yum!

My partner and I didn't quite cook the sugar mixture enough so, unfortunately ours came out slightly soft and cracked a bit on top. I tasted some that came out perfectly and I think ours tasted just as good, the texture just wasn't quite as great. And trust me when I say that the not quite perfect texture didn't stop me from eating it!

Russian Tea "Cakes"

These "cakes" are really cookies and they are really nice. They are nut based and sort of melt in your mouth, yum!

Checkerboard, Swirl, and Marbled Sablee Cookies

These were easier than I expected. This is not to say they are are easy, though. They certainly aren't a piece of cake (no pun intended) to make, because you have to let the dough sit and chill between each step, so it takes quite a while to make them.

Uncooked checkboard cookies.

The checkerboard cookies are made by slicing planks of chocolate and vanilla dough that have been rolled out to be about a 1/4 in thick (depending on the size you want the final cookies to be), egg washing then stacking the planks, slicing the stacks into planks in the other direction (so each plank is comprised of squares of chocolate and vanilla dough), then egg washing and flipping every other plank so that the pattern of chocolate and vanilla is reversed. Now you have a log with the checkerboard pattern on the square sides and stripes on the long sides. If you want to make them really fancy looking, use excess chocolate or vanilla dough to wrap around the checkerboard log. Then slice.

Swirl Cookies

The swirls are somewhat easier. Just roll out rectangles of both doughs, thinning one end of each. Lightly egg wash one side of one dough (it'll act as glue), stack the doughs, and roll up from the thinned end. Slice and bake.

Marbled Cookies: the cookies in the two columns on the left
were not rolled in sugar, the two columns on the right were.

The marbled cookies are the easiest. Take all scraps of dough and mix together to marble (don't overmix or you end up with light brown dough rather than marbled swirls of two different doughs.) If you want to make these a little snazzier very lightly egg wash the outside and roll in sugar before slicing and baking. (You can sugar the other two types as well, but I don't think they need any more snazz.)

Florentines

Are these a cookie or a candy? I'm not sure. I've heard them called cookies, I usually think of them as candy. However, the way we made them makes me think more cookies than candy. Instead of a layer of caramel and nut mixture coated in chocolate, it was a layer of sweet tart dough covered with the caramel and nut mixture. While I miss the chocolate, I have to say, these are really good!

Cookie Plates

I made a few cookie plates as gifts this year. They were really quite nice, if I do say so myself. They had brownies (the same cocoa brownies I made for the cookie plates last year), my own recipe chocolate chip cookies, cream cheese mints (see recipe here), gingerbread cookies with Meyer lemon glaze, and rum raisin cookies (the same ones we made in class). I wasn't a fan of the gingerbread cookies, they were too ginger-y not cinnamon-y enough, but I loved the glaze with them. I got the idea for that flavor combo from Nigella Lawson's, who does proper gingerbread (cake, not cookies) with a lemon glaze. I cut these into isosceles triangles and drizzled them with the glaze to look like garland on a tree.

Wouldn't you love to get a gift like this?

Petit Four Tray 2

My second tray of petits fours. On the tray are: madeleines, pate de fruits, opera cake, passion fruit tartlets, nougat, and langue de chat. I love all the different shapes on the tray and the variety of flavors--I'd be very happy with this if I was served this at a party or fancy restaurant.

Madeleines

You may notice the absence of the distinctive shell pattern on these madeleines,
that's because they are supposed to be served plain side up. I find that odd.

My madeleines--a petit four that's cross between a cookie and a cake--didn't come out perfectly. They didn't puff up and crack on the top like they should. Plus a few of them fell apart when I took them out of the mold. Even though they didn't look perfect, they certainly tasted incredible! They were tender and had a subtle citrus flavor. The only truly unfortunate thing is that their tiny size and light texture made them terribly addictive--how could they be bad for you when they are that small?

Langue de Chat

Langue de chat literally means cat's tongue, probably because their shape and slightly rough texture that resemble that of a cat's tongue. They aren't my favorite cookie. They're kind of bland and dry. Plus they are a pain to pipe properly. Now some of this (not the piping, but the taste and texture) could have been because they got somewhat over baked.

Passion Fruit Tartlets

How cute are these?! They are tiny tart shells are made with pâte sucrée--sweet tart dough--rather than pâte brisée--it puffs up too much to make such a small, shallow shell--in the same barquette molds we used to make the financiers. We just filled them with passion fruit curd and topped them with fresh berries, yum.

Pate de Fruit

These are surprisingly good! I say "surprisingly" good because I'm not usually a fruit jelly fan, but these aren't like typical fruit jellies. They are less jello-y and more melt-in-your-mouth-y. These are raspberry flavored and there is something really delicious about the tartness of the raspberries paired with the sweetness of the sugar in the recipe. Once they are cut into shapes (my partner and I chose triangles, but squares or circles or really any small shape works) you toss them in sugar. Yum, yum.

They are not too hard to make, but they do have ingredients that are seldom found in a home kitchen, so I doubt I'll make them outside of school. At least it makes such a large batch that I'll have pate de fruit for quite a while.

Nougat

Not my favorite to make or eat. It's a nightmare to make. My partner and I had to redo ours because we overcooked the honey mixture the first time. And you know what happened the second time? We overcooked it again. That's because you can take it off the heat a few degrees low, bring it over to your mixer, and, by the time you pour it out, it's far too hot. Oops. Overcooking the honey makes the nougat hard. That's a shame really, because had I managed to achieve a softer texture I may have liked it a bit more. Still though, it's a little too sweet for my taste and the nuts don't have quite enough flavor to cut through the sweetness (that's that not entirely this nougat, so much as all nougat). Ah well, it's good for me to have something that I don't want to eat a ton of. (I should point out that my mom and pops both really enjoyed it, too sweet or not.)

Opera Cake

I really like opera cake. It's made with a hazelnut based cake, layered with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache, and coated with chocolate glaze. We decorated the tops by piping the glaze on in decorative patterns. Oh so delicious.

Petit Four Tray

Every other class during the petit four unit, we tray up our creations like we would if we were making a petit four tray at a restaurant. My partner and I made this tray with our tuiles, financiers (with chocolate chips), chocolate and raspberry macarons, rum raisin cookies, and Sarah Bernhardts. If I had it to do over again, I'd switch the financiers and rum raisin cookies so that the colors and shapes would be a bit more varied. Ah well, it still looks good and every tasted delicious.

We all bring our trays to the front at the end of class.
Aren't they pretty?

Macarons

These macarons could rival those at Ladurée. Well maybe not this batch exactly, but if I hadn't slightly overcooked the sugar they would have. They were delicious and beautiful. The outside shell was crisp and the inside was still tender. The jam was very nice (not that I made it, but still) and complemented the cookies wonderfully. They only problem was there were a couple spots with pieces of overcooked sugar that couldn't incorporate into the batter. Still these pieces of sugar did not make a noticeable impact on either taste or texture, they just made the few affected cookies look a bit less perfect.

In case you were wondering, this type of macaron is called a macaron gerbet.

Tuiles

Tuiles, still in their mold.

These cookies, named for their resemblance to curved roof tiles (tuiles), are delicate, crisp, and have a nice citrus zing. It's really easy to make the batter and they aren't too hard to pipe (the chunks of almond make it a little bit harder, but apparently you can just toss them on top of the piped cookie, which makes it easier to pipe and really isn't much more work.) The difficult thing is baking them and transferring them to the molds. You have to make sure they are cool enough to hold together, but if they are too cool they will crack when you try to bend them into the molds. You have to do this in small batches, which can be a bit tedious. The only unfortunate thing about these cookies is they don't last very long. That's not too much of a problem though, as they didn't really get a chance to last very long...they are far too delicious to eat just one or two.

Sarah Bernhardts

These were very, very good. Basically, a Sarah Bernhardt is a plain almond macaron cookie (made with almond paste) topped with crème d'or and coated with chocolate glaze. Yum, yum!

On a side note, they are named after the actress, Sarah Bernhardt. There are two theories as to why they are named after her, both having to do with their shape. Either they are meant to emulate her tears, after all she was a dramatic actress, or her breasts, which apparently were quite voluptuous. I prefer to believe that it's the former, but I have to say they do look a bit more like the latter.

Macarons au Chocolat

These macarons are made with a traditional almond paste method rather than the still-traditional-but-slightly-more-recently-developed meringue base method, so they don't have quite the same elegant look as the macaroons that Ladurée and other patisseries have made so popular in recent years. Honestly, I like them a little more. They have a more distinct flavor and a very slightly chewy texture that I really enjoy. We sandwiched them together with chocolate ganache which made them pretty much perfect!

Financiers

Financiers were traditionally made in rectangular molds; that coupled with their golden color made them reminiscent of gold bullion, hence the name. They are really delicious and not too difficult to make. The hardest part is making the brown butter (beurre noisette), and that really isn't hard, you just have to take a little care not to go past brown to burnt. After piping the chilled dough into the molds, you can put toppings on them. We used pistachios, fresh mango, and mini chocolate chips. I'd never seen that before (but then again, I don't eat or bake financiers terribly often.) They were nutty and spongy but not too light--sort of a cross between a cake and a cookie. In other words, wow they were good!

Rum Raisin Cookies

Today was the first day of the petit four unit. I can tell already that this unit is going to be a little tedious, but I think it's also going to be kind of cool. These cookies were a good indication of that: they were a pain to make but really nice to look at and eat.  The thing is, you have to pipe each cookie, which is made difficult by the chunks of raisins in the cookies. Plus, once they come out of the oven you have to glaze them. It's totally worth glazing them, it makes them delicious (and is where the rum comes in), but it's another step and there are an awful lot of cookies! It was worth all the tedium, though. The cookies were tender--almost cake-y--and deliciously sweet and rum-y.

Bread Unit Exam

They really threw us a curve ball for this exam. We knew we would have to make brioche and croissant (and presumably pain au chocolat) because we prepared the dough the class prior to the exam. However, we didn't know that we would have to make another yeasted bread (of our choice) and a quickbread muffin (that we were randomly assigned.) I got cornbread for my muffin! I'm very happy about that because I love cornbread and it's quite easy to make. For my choice of yeasted bread, I picked vienois, because it was incredible and one of the simpler breads to make.

So the brioche à tête came out pretty well. Definitely tasty and even though the heads came out a little wonky, the chef said that they looked quite nice. This is especially good because about half the brioche dough (mine included) wasn't defrosted before class, so I had to wait over an hour before I could use it. The croissants were under proofed and slightly underbaked because there wasn't enough space in the proof boxes and then I ran out of time. Ah well. At least the pain au chocolat were closer--they were pretty much proofed and properly baked--and the chef said they looked nice. The cornbread came out almost perfect and oh so yummy! And the vienois was pretty close to perfect (although I didn't do the cuts on top quite deep enough.)

Overall, not a great success, but not too bad either. 

Focaccia

I really like focaccia, and this was no exception. This is a relatively simple recipe and actually pretty fun to make. I topped mine with chopped up fresh rosemary, slices of fresh mozzarella, tomato, sea salt, and plenty of olive oil. My only complaint is we were running out of mozzarella and tomato so I didn't end up with enough topping. Ah well, it was still darn good!

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I was really excited about these, but unfortunately they were a bit of a let down. They weren't as tart as I like and mine got taken out slightly too early--they weren't undercooked, but they weren't quite browned and crisped enough on top. Ah well, I'll have to try these again...or maybe just another recipe.

Pizza

We made homemade pizza dough and then made pizzas for dinner! Sorry there isn't a picture, by the way, I was far too hungry and excited about fresh pizza on homemade dough to remember to take a photo.

Anyway this was really good. I admit, the dough wasn't anything special, but it was good. It's always nice having good quality, fresh pizza dough, but I don't think the effect was much better than I get when I use the fresh pizza dough I buy at Whole Foods from time to time. The toppings were great. The chef made a lovely, slightly spicy tomato sauce, which I then topped with fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, and sopressata. Yum!

Oatmeal Bread

This wasn't my favorite bread we made, but it was quite nice. It was a whole wheat bread with oats, nuts, and dried fruits. Nice, not amazing. But then again, I don't tend to like chunks of stuff in bread, it makes the texture a little too not bread-like. You know what was nice, eating this fresh (or toasted) with cream cheese.

Danish, revisited

I like danish, but they aren't my favorite breakfast pastry. So I was a little disappointed that we had to make more danish after having made them already in the first bread unit. These were not disappointing! In fact they may have been the best danish I've ever eaten. The dough is moist and tender and the taste is greatly improved by a bit of citrus zest. Then we got to have fun with fillings. We used cream cheese filling (which has egg in it so it puffs up nicely in the oven), almond cream, raspberry jam, pastry cream, and fresh apricots. I personally prefer cream cheese or almond cream fillings to pastry cream and fresh fruit. We had to practice certain shapes:

The pinwheel, with cream cheese filling (technically I was supposed to put an apricot half on top, but I'm not a fan):

The bear claw, with almond cream and raspberry jam (as is traditional):

The package, with almond cream:

The two headed baby (no, that's not the real name, but I don't remember what it is), with pastry cream and apricot halves: