Pate a Choux Exam

Well I just had my second exam. I didn't make any stupid mistakes like I did last time, and I finished on time, so good on both those counts. However, the presentation of all my items was slightly off. The eclairs were slightly wonky shaped (though the chef did say overall they were good) and the coffee glaze was too hot when I used it and the chocolate was too cool. At least he said they were well filled and the cream filling was perfectly lightened. The Paris-Brest wasn't filled high enough and the filling came out the inside too much. He did say the filling's taste and texture was right on. And my choux was well made and well cooked, also good.

Overall, not a stunning success, but nothing too bad either. I'm happy.

Croquembouche

My finished croquembouche.

Well this was very hard, but kind of fun and bordering on pretty darn amazing. A croquembouche, for those of you who don't know, is a traditional French wedding cake made of cream puffs stacked to form a conical tower. Since we were just practicing technique we didn't fill the cream puffs, which saved time so that we could finish it in one class.

Decorated choux puffs waiting to be stacked.

To make a croquembouche make small choux puffs (as it turns out mine were a little too big) and fill with cream (if you are going to). Then dip the choux in caramel and (if desired) in nuts, cocoa nibs, pearl sugar, coconut, etc. Using caramel as glue, stick the puffs in a ring on a base (we used pâte brisée). Then stack a ring on top, but slightly off set so (at least in theory) you use one fewer puff to complete it. That makes the cone eventually come to a point. Continue to do that all the way up. Decorate with choux that you pipe into different shapes (if desired) and that's it, an impressive showpiece.

My croquembouche before I added the choux decorations.
I think I actually like it plain more.

Unfortunately it's easier said than done, and mine came out ever so slightly lopsided and with large gaps between the choux (I assume that's because my puffs were too big, so it was harder to fit them together.) Still, I'm proud of mine. It looked pretty and relatively like it was supposed to, so I'm happy!

Gateau Saint-Honore

My unfinished Gateau Saint-Honore

Yikes this was hard to make! Unfortunately much of the class didn't even finish theirs (and I was among that bunch.) Basically it's a cake made of choux piped onto a tart dough base topped with a ring choux puffs that are filled with crème chiboust (a pastry cream mixed with gelatin and Italian meringue) and decorated with caramel. In the middle of the ring is a decoratively piped layer of more chiboust. Honestly, I'm sure it would have been good and very pretty had I finished, but I'm not terribly enthralled with it, so I'm not too upset that I didn't finish. At least I finished the grougeres. They were excellent!

Grougeres

The photo does not do these justice.

Basically a cheese puff, these savory choux puffs are amazing. They're simple to make and absolutely delicious. All you do is make a batch of pâte à choux and, while it's still slightly warm, mix in finely grated gruyere and (if you want) salt, black pepper, ground chili pepper, and/or dried mustard. They are light and crispy and just amazing!

Paris-Brest

Named for a bicycle race from Paris to Brest, this choux paste cake is meant to look like a bicycle wheel. I don't think that it is terribly wheel-like, but it is really pretty. And it tastes really good too. Basically it's a ring of choux (eclair or cream puff dough) covered in almonds, filled with praline crème mousseline (pastry cream with butter and praline paste), and dusted with powdered sugar. It's not the easiest thing to make and it's definitely hard to make it look perfect. I don't mind though, it was excellent and relatively fun to make, even if it wasn't easy. The only problem with mine was I ran out of cream for the filling because the ring spread a little too much (probably because I didn't do a great job piping it, so it was slightly flat and wide.) Still, as I mentioned, it tasted very good!

Profiteroles

Yum! The were little choux puffs filled with fresh vanilla ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce (both the ice cream and the sauce were made by the chef and were excellent). Since the ice cream wasn't transportable, I had to eat them in class. That wasn't a problem; they were delicious. Basically they were the same choux we've been using, made into nice small rounds. Cut the top off (just a small amount, not the whole top half), put a scoop of ice cream on the bottom and top with the top and chocolate sauce. So good!

Cygnes (Swans)

Yes, I made swan shaped cream puffs. They are really very fun to make, and surprisingly not hard. First you pipe a tear drop shaped choux puff and some almost "s" shaped choux decorations (for the neck and head). Then, after baking, cut the top third (or so) off the tear drop and cut the top part in half length wise. Now there's a body to fill and two wings. We filled the body with pastry cream and then piped whipped cream on top to make it swan-like and full. If I do these again, I'd probably leave out the pastry cream, it's kind of overkill and I like whipped cream so much. Then we stuck the neck/heads in the whipped cream, dusted the wings with powdered sugar and stuck them in, and voila, swans!

Eclairs

This was not an easy lesson! It was our first attempt at pâte à choux. For me at least, the choux wasn't too terrible to make, mine took the right amount of eggs at least, so that was a good start to the day. Unfortunately after that the wheels came off the wagon. It not easy to pipe one even eclair shape, let alone a whole half sheet pan of consistently sized and shaped eclairs.  It could have been worse though. Then we made the three flavors of pastry cream (vanilla, coffee, and chocolate). That was fine, a different recipe, but still the same principle as the pastry cream I've already gotten used to making. The problems came when we piped the cream into the eclairs. It was messy and sticky and I ran out of time and cream. Then we had to dip them in pate à glacé (chocolate glaze) and vanilla or coffee fondant. They were hard to melt without over heating them and then they were messy and we were running out of time. I didn't end up doing the vanilla fondant, instead I did chocolate on the vanilla cream filled ones (and obviously on the chocolate) and coffee fondant on the coffee). I actually like the chocolate glaze more than the fondant, but I know that wasn't quite right. Ah well, it saved time so I was actually able to finish glazing them.

I have to say for all the effort, they were really good. I'm not sure they were worth all those hours (yes, they took hours) of work. Ah well, I did really enjoy eating them, so that's something!

Coffee eclair

"Studying", con't

Oops, forgot pictures of what I made when I was studying. Here they are:

Nectarine and Raspberry Tart with Pastry Cream

Gingersnaps

Candied Lemon Peel

Mini Lemon Tartlets with Candied Lemon Peel

"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!

My First Exam at the FCI, con't

Here's the photo I promised:

Don't they look good!?

My First Exam at the FCI

I practiced a ton for this, this weekend. I'll post what I made later. Let me tell you, I'm really glad I did because I ended up getting the recipes I practiced for. Basically the practical exam is structured so that you are randomly assigned one of four sets of recipes and you have to make them in the allotted time. You don't know the recipe set you'll get until you walk into the exam. Right there, yikes. Of course there was one set that was much harder than the others (I'm not the only one who thought that, by the way.) So that's what I practiced. And of course, knowing my luck, that's what I got for the exam.

I had to make a lemon curd tart, two banana cream tartlets, and gingersnaps. I managed to do this almost in the 3 hours and 15 minutes; I only went five minutes over. My cookies came out perfectly! I'm very happy about that, because I love making cookies! My tarts came out nearly perfect, except for one giant, stupid mistake: I accidentally made one banana cream tart and two lemon curd tartlets. That's how we'd done them in class, and I just spaced. 

I was the last to present my tray to the chef and I did so thinking I was in big trouble because of that mistake. Well I was...sort of. He said that that mistake would cost me. He then went on to say that my tart dough was the best he'd had all night! I was the last person to go so, other than the hand-full of people judged by the other chef, mine was the best in the class! I'm really happy about that! My gingersnaps were good, cooked just the way he likes them, apparently. Another plus! My rosettes on the banana cream tart were even and the way I smoothed the cream and then made a little swirl in it got praise. He liked the meringue on the lemon tartlets, although I should have covered them completely, rather than leaving bits of the lemon underneath showing. That'll cost me a little, I'm sure, but still not too bad. He even approved of my candied lemon peel, which I was worried wasn't quite right.

All in all, I would have done really well had I not been so stupid and switched the tarts, but I still think I did okay. I hope my excellent tart dough and cookies coupled with my nearly perfect decorations will begin to make up for my mistake. I think it will, since the chef did say that overall he was happy with what I presented.

In any case, it's done and over with, and I have a nearly perfect lemon tartlet waiting for me for breakfast.

P.S. I'll post a photo of what I presented tomorrow.

Savory Onion Tart, take two

I loved this the first time, so I made it again. Not for practice (though obviously it was practice) but for fun. This time I used more onion and tomato (and a much less expensive blue cheese.) It was very, very, very good!

Quiche Lorraine

These were excellent! They were a very plain quiche lorraine; just the eggy base with bacon and gruyere. I think in future I may try to add sauteed onion or perhaps scallions. Although maybe not, they were really good this way!

Possibly the best thing about these is that they are really easy to make. I would never have thought that a quiche would be easy to make, so that was a pleasant--and delicious--surprise.

Linzer Tart

This is not an easy tart to make, but it is well worth the effort. First you have to make the linzer dough, which is a very nice dough and not too difficult to make. Then you have to make the jam. That's right make the jam, from scratch.  Granted, you could use regular bakers jam, but this is so much better! And jam making while tedious is very satisfying. You also have to make almond cream, delicious. Finally, you compile the tart. That's done by lining the tart ring with a round of the dough (which by now you've let chill and have rolled out...it's a soft dough so that's no easy feat.) Put a thin layer of almond cream in the bottom, then spread the completely cooled jam on top of it, taking care not to smudge the almond cream with the very thick jam. Then cut another round of dough into strips and make a lattice pattern--not to be confused with a basket weave in which the strips are woven rather than just laid in one direction than the other. Egg wash the dough on top, but not the jam. At that point it goes into the oven until browned (hard to tell since the dough is already brown...). Let cool and enjoy. Phew, done!

See what I mean about not being easy. Well at least it tastes absolutely superb! The nutty, spiced dough pairs so well with the raspberry jam and the almond cream. It's almost like a linzer cookie, but better!

Bourbon Pecan Cookies

Sorry, not the best picture, but you get the point.

These are really good!  They are tender, crumbly, and nutty with a lovely, but not to strong, bourbon flavor. And the whole pecan on top is a nice touch. They are pretty easy to make as well, so that's nice!

The coolest thing is that we have to give a bunch of the cookies to the FCI to use at events and in the restaurant. My cookies are going to feed real people! Of course that means I get fewer cookies, which is unfortunate, but good for my waist line I suppose.

Tarte Tatin Facon Rapid

Meh. These weren't my favorite. Firstly, I don't love tarte tatins at their best. Secondly, these were not tarte tatins at their best. Yes they had the traditional slightly burnt caramel flavor, there were apples, and they had lovely tart crust bases. However the apples were too soft and overripe and ended up disintegrating making the tarts look messy. Plus the crust was too thin, I think. At least I prefer a thicker crust on a tarte tatin. And the caramel oozed all over the place making them impossible to budge from their cardboard rounds in order to plate them. Granted none of that stopped me from eating one of them, hot out of the oven and right off the cardboard, with dinner!

Tarte aux Noix Caramel

According to the chef my caramel nut mixture didn't come out quite right, and I see that it was lighter and more opaque than most people's. But I don't care; it was incredible! Seriously, I'm not even a huge caramel fan (I like it, I just don't go crazy for it) and I thought it was amazing. Also the nutty almost cake on top of the caramel was really great. So to sum up: YUM!

I'm sorry I'm not being more articulate tonight; but it's late and I just had a large slice of this tart, so I'm a little wired but should really be asleep.

Apparently the half glazed, half sugared look is the traditional way to decorate this tart.
Unfortunately it was still a little too warm, so the glaze soaked in slightly and the sugar
melted a bit. That didn't affect the taste though!

Chocolate Bavarois Tart

A bavarois or bavarian cream is made of three main components: a crème anglais (or fruit puree) base, gelatin, and whipped cream. You can add flavoring to it; in this case we added chocolate, which we melted into the crème anglais. While not officially a mousse (after all it's a bavarian cream) it is quite similar in taste and texture, though because of the gelatin this is somewhat denser and smoother while still being light and airy. We spread the cream into a full baked tart shell, decorated the top with chocolate shavings and sweetened whipped cream, and voilà an incredible, light, delicious, chocolate tart. Yum!

I actually bought a plain white plate so that the food shows
up better in photos. I think it worked well!

Tarte au Ganache Chocolat

This was a tender, not-too-sweet tart shell filled with rich, bittersweet chocolate ganache...need I say more? Seriously, this was amazing! Unfortunately my crust fell apart a little, but no matter, a bit of melted chocolate used like spackle to fill in the cracks and we were good to go.

The decorations on top were surprisingly easy to do. We learnt how to make a coronet to pipe melted chocolate and then all we had to do was pipe a pretty design. I admit I wasn't very creative, I just did what the chef had done in his demo. I think it's really pretty though!

Lemon Tartlets

These were really good! I love lemon tarts and these were not a let down. The filling was slightly looser than I usually like. It was properly a lemon curd, you see. I'm pretty sure that normal lemon tarts are made with lemon curd that has some gelatin in it because they're much firmer. But that's alright, I actually really liked it this way. The meringue on top was easy to make and really good, plus bruléeing it was not as hard or scary as I thought it would be! And when you brown it with the blow torch, it starts to smell like toasted marshmallow, yum.

The candied lemon peel wasn't as hard to make as I expected. Unfortunately, I had problems with the burner I was using and I ended up boiling the syrup instead of just simmering it. So the peel ended up tougher than it should have. It still tasted really good, but the texture was off.

I'm a little unhappy with my piping on them. I think I did a good job to a point, my stars and shells were good, they just weren't touching well enough, I must work on that. It still looked nice and it didn't effect the taste at all, so it wasn't the end of the world.

Tarte aux Noix

This was really good! Basically it's a tart shell with a little jam (we used raspberry but the chef said that apricot is really good too) and slivered almonds in the bottom and filled with a flourless cake. The cake part really can be baked on its own as an actual cake, the chef baked two little loaf cakes to show us this. I'm going to have to try that, because it'll be really good! Don't get me wrong part of what was great was the whole combination of the jam and cake and crust, but I'm sure the cake alone will be good. That's because the cake was made with almond paste and almond and hazelnut flour so it had a strong nutty flavor. Plus it was tender and moist and excellent! The decoration on top was really easy to do, I just held a cardboard circle over part of the the cake and sprinkled powdered sugar over the whole thing. Apparently this crescent moon version is the most traditional, but you can also use a stencil to make fun shapes with the sugar if you want.

Look at that lovely layer of jam and almonds, yum!

Spritz Cookies with Pistachios and Chocolate, con't

As I mentioned yesterday, these are incredible cookies! They are the smoothest, buttery-est spritz cookies I've ever had. They are made with almond paste, which is certainly an improvement over the almond extract of the spritz cookies I've made before. They have a distinct almond flavor, but aren't overly strong.

These were not terribly easy to shape. I usually use a cookie press to make spritz cookies, but with these we had to pipe them with a pastry bag. The dough was pretty stiff and I found it very hard to make the rosette come out right. That said, they still looked really nice and the fact that they were slightly oblong certainly didn't impact the taste!

We had a choice of toppings: pistachios, milk chocolate chips, or raspberry jam. I know that jam is the most traditional topping, but it's my least favorite, so I made mine with chocolate and pistachios. Yum!

Spritz Cookies with Pistachios and Chocolate

I'm actually quite tired and want to go to bed, so I'm not going to write anything about these right now. They were very good and I want to give them their due, which will be easier when I'm not so sleepy. I will say one thing, they taste even better than they look!

Berry Clafoutis, con't

As promised, here's the photo of the berry clafoutis. It's not the most elegant looking thing, but it sure tasted good!

Berry Clafoutis

This is a twist on a classic clafoutis, which is traditionally made with unpitted black cherries. We used fresh berries--blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries--instead. I like cherries, but I like berries more, so I'm very happy with that substitution. The custard was easy to make and the tart crust was the usual pâte sucrée crust that I've gotten so used to making. Unfortunately I'm still not great at cutting the crust evenly after lining the tart ring. I really need to work on that. Ah well, it didn't look great but it tasted pretty darn good!

P.S. I'll upload the photo and post it tomorrow.

Chocolate Heaven Cookies

Oops sorry, I forgot to post these! I made these last Wednesday, the same time I made the pots de creme and vanilla kipferl and the fruit tartlets. The name of these cookies says all you need to know; if you like chocolate these are heaven! They are made with melted semi-sweet and unsweetened chocolate in the batter (plus coffee extract, which brings out the chocolate flavor) and chocolate chips mixed in. They also have pecans in them, though you can use another nut or, I suspect, you can leave them out altogether.

If you've ever had a good flourless chocolate cookie, you know what I mean--the ones that are relatively thin and slightly crisp on the outside but are almost brownie like on the inside--that's what these are like. Of course these do have flour so they aren't quite as flat or chewy, not that I'm complaining, mind you.

These were a hit and I have a little extra dough left over from class so I think I'll make mini ones with it soon.

Savory Onion Tart

This was a nice change from sweet tarts. This savory onion tart was relatively easy to make and absolutely delicious! This was a free from tart or a galette. We used pâte brisée dough (the same as we used for the Tarte Bourdaloue) to make the crust, which is just a flat disk with a raised decorative edge. We sautéed onions slowly with some butter and oil. We put the caramelized onions on the crust, topped those with incredible blue cheese (I believe the chef said it was roquefort), arranged some sliced tomatoes on top, and scattered on some chopped walnuts. We seasoned with pepper and maldon sea salt. We baked them and then ate them. Unfortunately mine puffed up a little on one side and the onions in that spot got a little overcooked. It still tasted really, really good (in that spot and all over). I really liked it. Honestly, it's one of my favorite things I made at school so far. (Although the fig newtons, the Tart Bourdaloue, and the fresh fruit tart(lets) were really good too!)

Fig Newtons

Oh wow these were good!!! They taste just like fig newtons, but better! The filling is a perfect figgy compote. The dough is tender and sweet and, well, perfect. I love them!

They aren't the easiest things to make, but they are well worth the effort. The dough is simple enough and the compote isn't too hard (though not easy either). The hard part is when you compile them. You can't add too much compote or the dough won't wrap around it all the way, but if you add too little they don't end up full enough. Plus the dough cracks a bit when you wrap it around the fig compote, which makes things harder. You also have to cut them at the right time after they come out of the oven--if they are too hot they'll break, if they're too cool they'll be too hard.

Have I mentioned that they are great and that I love them? Yes, I have. Ah well, they were just that good!

Pots de Creme au Chocolat with Vanilla Kipferl

This was our first plated dessert! We plated them yesterday, though we made them last week. The pots de creme were basically a baked chocolate custard, that was akin to pudding. They were quite nice! However they baked unevenly, so some were slightly underdone and some were overdone. Ah well, they were good for a first attempt. We topped them with sweetened whipped cream and chocolate shavings. We plated them on a doily and served them with two vanilla kipferl. Yum!

By the way vanilla kipferl are Austrian molded cookies. They are made with hazelnut flour and lots of vanilla paste, which gives them a lovely flavor. To mold them you roll small balls of the dough between your hands to make a log that is tapered on both ends (but not too pointy) and then bend it into a crescent shape. That is not easy to do. It isn't necessarily hard, it just takes a lot of practice and slightly bigger hands than I have. After they were baked, and while they were still warm from the oven, we rolled them in vanilla sugar, which stuck to them. That was a really nice touch. They are a very sweet cookie (not too sweet, in my opinion). They have a dense, dry, crumbly texture--like shortbread. I really like them and could see making these again on my own time.

Fruit Tartlets, con't

One fruit tartlet

As promised, I'm writing to tell you about my fruit tartlets. They are almost exactly like the fresh fruit tart I made last week. Happily, the tart shells didn't collapse. However, they didn't come out terribly neatly either--I think I messed them up when lining them with parchment paper for the blind baking. Ah well, they still tasted great! We filled them with pastry cream that had been flavored with liqueur (I used Poire Williams) and lightened with plain whipped cream. We piped the filling in, rather than spreading it, which was much easier, so that was a nice technique to learn. Then we topped them with the fruit and glazed the fruit. Yum!

Another tartlet

Fruit Tartlets

I'm very tired and don't feel like writing tonight, but here's a picture of the fruit tartlets I made in class. I'll write about them and the three other things I made tomorrow or Friday. 

Aren't they so cute?!