Pastry School Fail: Laundry Edition

We have a handy-dandy pocket in the arm of our chef's coat that holds both our thermometers as well as a pen for taking notes on technique, recipe changes, etc. Too bad I've lost the thermometer. At least the pen came in handy when project runway came to visit pastry school.

 I decided to the blot look was very 'in' this season. I also thought white for chef's was so passe, so we settled for a muted, denim blue instead. 

At least if this whole pastry chef career doesn't end up panning out, I can start a line of fashion-forward chef's wear!

Week 9: Butter Cakes

This evening's class may not have produced the most tantalizing photos, but it certainly produced the most tasty array of goods our class has made in one evening. After 9 weeks, we've all kinda hit a wall when it comes to the consumption of sweets.

I never thought I'd actually crave vegetables or exercise, but the allure of constant butter and sugar intake has finally worn on me. That is, until I tried every single one of these butter cakes; I just couldn't resist. Luckily, two of my classmates have started coming to weekend zumba with me so we can shake our asses to 'like a G6' while we think about the pastries we'll be making the following week.

This was another momentous week because we each developed our own recipes for the first time! I must say, my pumpkin bread was pretty kick-ass; even the assistant/former graduate asked for the recipe and took some home!

While butter cakes are pretty simple (afterall, a pound cake is simply a lb of each: butter, flour, sugar, & eggs!) the Pave Royal was the most complex recipe of the evening. You start with a butter cake made with liquor-soaked raisins and maraschino cherries. Then, you cover it with marzipan and egg wash for a cute little individual cakes:

Despite the tartness of the cranberries, this Cranberry & Walnut Cake was simple but delicious!

I loved this adorable Almond Financiers:

While this Spice and Ginger Cake looks like a brickhouse, it was the most delicious ugly dessert I've had (and that's saying a lot, given some of the monstrosities I've produced in my time):

And, of course, the true triumph of the evening was my own Pumpkin Spice Cake:

If you own a food scale, and would like the recipe, just holla at ya girl :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry, not tips here on pies or anything like that. Although, apparently Google is crossing over into recipe territory (hover over the doodle for any of the featured items):

 And, if you have ever been fortunate enough to imbibe one of Jackie Wright's famous pumpkin whoopie pies, than you know what I'm thankful for again this year.

 Oh, and I guess you, too!

In the words of the great Paula Dean: Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!

Week 9: Cheesecake

So when it comes to pastry, I don't think there is much room to argue that the French kick ass; in fact, I'll be generous enough to extend that to the entire culinary field. While I have previously questioned their use of marzipan, I'll let it slide because even I have enjoyed some of the end results.

However, one topic where I firmly stand my ground is when it comes to cheesecakes. For some reason, most of our recipes use a classic pie dough (pate brisee or pate sucree) in lieu of a graham cracker crust. Call it 'classic' or 'classy' I call it plain wrong. Despite a class-wide revolt on the use of pie crust (very French of us, no?), we were still forced to 'master' this 'classic' method. 6 strong wasn't strong enough.

Perhaps, at an unconscious level, this is why we all royally screwed up our cheesecakes (note to class, water bath does NOT mean fill your cheesecake pan with water...). Nothing some caramelized apples and chocolate dipped strawberries can't fix. Regardless, enjoy the photos!

First up, I got stuck making the Raisin Cheesecake. The top didn't turn out too well so we just covered the top with caramelized apples:

The big hit at work was the Strawberry Sundae Cheesecake:

Allsace Cheesecake with a Raspberry topping:

Yummy Coconut Chocolate Rum Cheesecake:

And, finally, my favorite of the night was the Caramel Pecan Cheesecake:

Lady fingers for the bottom

Pastry School Fail:My Fingers

'Hey Libra, you gonna cut yourself you know'

'NO I'm....OUCH!'

After wrapping up my finger in the appropriate bandage and finger condom, I returned to trimming my cake, only to immediately slice open my second finger. Oops.

With my first week off in 10 weeks, I'm celebrating with a forbidden manicure. Oh nail polish, how I've missed you!

Week 8: Biscuit and Sponge Cakes

It's pronounced 'bisquee'. Learned that the hard way. I love making an ass out of myself before we've even begun the baking.

This class was the closet I've been to actual bakery production; we made about 10 batches of different cakes to use in various upcoming classes. For this class, we saved most of what we made, but did complete this one classic French cake: The Fraisier.

You start by lining a chilled cake ring with sliced strawberries:

Next you line the ring carefully with Kirsch (cherry liquor) Buttercream:

Then, there is a layer of White Genoise soaked with more kirsch:

Then more buttercream & berries:

And VOILA!

Overall,. not bad for a cake named after Kelsey Grammar ;-)

Week 8: Italian Cookies

Italian Cookies was a night of epic fails for me and Jaimie. Things usually turn out alright when we work together, but I think we had to remake every single thing we did that night. The first of these epic fails resulted in making marzipan THREE times. Why, you ask? Oh I  just can't read my thermometer.

Marzipan is actually a fairly simple recipe, started by bringing your sugar and water to 235 degrees, at which point you stir in the almond flour and egg whites, mixing it to paste. Then comes the fun part using goods from the hardware store to smush it all about on a marble surface until it's smooth:

I know you wanted to see the goofy hat

Once it's finished, you can use it for a variety of bases for cakes and cookies, or you can mold into stuff like these:

I didn't have the patience to do this

We used the marzipan for these Raisin cake-like cookies who's name is currently escaping me. But it's in italian so you wouldn't know anyway. We'll call them galleti raisenetti:

Next up on the list were these Espresso Biscotti-a coffee flavored cookie to dunk in coffee? What's not to love? The only problem we had here is that 2 OUNCES of salt is a lot more than the 2 TEASPOONS the recipe called for. Oops like woah, especially with the size of the batch, but I was just happy this one wasn't on my head:

We were so happy the second batch didn't come out like a salt lick that I actually forgot to take a photo. But you all know what biscotti look like right? So no loss there. 

Finally, because we can't resist anything with coconut, we made some Coconut Meringues:

Here is the work by the rest of my class. First up is the Florentines, which I hate to say, resemble the fake cat throw up you can buy at Spencer's gifts. I know, gross, but now that I've said it can't you see it? A great gift for the fruitcake lovers in your life (if they exist):

Next up were the Lengues de Chat ('Cat's Tongues' aka Milanos). They are a pretty delicate cookie resulting in another pastry school fail for the evening (again, not mine this time!) before getting it right:

oopsies

better this time

Hope you enjoy my continual screw ups. Ciao for now!