I think I'm turning Japanese...

How well do my friends know me? (Thanks for sending Kris). And how genius are the Japanese? My only complaint-what happens if you want more than one donut??

http://en.item.rakuten.com/keitaistrap/336-910230/

Pastry School Nightmares

Literally, I've been having nightmares about pastry school all week. Granted, it may have something to do with my nightly WooWoos, but I'm a bit concerned with actually receiving my certificate.

 At this point, standing between me and completion of the program are: a project due on Tuesday, a quiz on tuesday, a quiz on Wednesday, a final portfolio (oh did I mention my hard drive with all my photos has been wiped clean?), a final exam, and a final 8 hr practicum.

First up is the project-where we have to design the menu, press statement, recipes, and P&L statement for a restaurant/bakery concept of our choosing. Does anyone have any ideas for 'classic homemade' comfort dessert ideas? What was your favorite treat as a child?

Week 11: Ice Cream & Sorbets

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and, like me, consumed about a week's worth of delicious calories over the course of the day!
Apparently Santa was a bit distracted this year because I had a sweet Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker waiting for me under the tree yesterday morning. Fittingly, we've also come to the week we made ice cream and sorbet in class. I kind of was expecting they'd make us stir the ice cream for 3 hours while standing in the walk-in freezer, ya know, to build character. But surprisingly they let us use the machines as well. So, it was a bit hard to f*ck up this one.
But, never one to disappoint, I decided to add some real class to this lesson. Why make coffee ice cream when you can make COFFEE OREO ice cream? I think our instructor was a bit disgusted when I ran across the street in my chef's uniform to buy oreos from a gas station (ok ok and admittedly some Doritos). Oh well, it was deeelicious. I also faced my fears and revisited the evil cigarette cookies of weeks past. Luckily, my fingertips were a bit less seared this time around!

We also made some cherry sorbet. Betc thinks I have a future in food design/photography because I really know how to 'tart up' our desserts. I'll take that as a compliment!

Now that I'm the proud owner of my own ice cream maker,  first up on the list is incorporating my beloved Tim Tam into a new flavor. Who else some some yummy requests/ideas? And an important follow-up question: who is going to arrive at my door to pry the tubs of ice cream from my cold, chubby hands??

Italian Desserts

 'Esse nufesso qui dice male di macaroni'
Translation: One has to be an idiot to speak badly of macaroni. 


I'd argue the same can be said of most Italian Desserts. 

While I don't particularly identify with my Italian heritage, I do figure that I can attribute my love of food to good 'ole Nicolina Palazzola (actual grandmother's name). It was also pretty fun to see our French Master Pastry Chef squirm as he told us all about Tiramisu while trying to maintain France's supremacy in all things culinary. While overall, we were a bit heavy on the Gran Marnier that evening, but I still think these are the pastry equivalent of Dolce & Gabbana models.

Contrary to my assumptions, the Mimosa Cake was not named for the delicious breakfast beverage, but rather, a bush that is native to Northern Italy (or Southern, or Australia, according to Google.) This point of contention proves that pastry school may not be the best place to go for an accurate history lesson):

The cake itself consists of a Citrus Pastry Cream, and a Lemon & Ginger Biscuit Soaked in Lemon Syrup. The leftover cake was than fastidiously cubed by Ms. Kristina before gracing the cake:

Next was the Mara Cake: Almond Macaroon, soaked in strawberry syrup, and layered with Grand Marnier cream, topped with a Strawberry Glaze:

The quintessential Italian Dessert, Tiramisu, was made with gran marnier cream, coffee soaked coffee biscuit, cocoa powder, and marbleized chocolate:

The man, the myth, the legend: Chef Delphin

SF: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

After a few stressful days and an intimate familiarity with Craigslist, I've returned home to Boston before the big move mid-January. To summarize my trip;

The Good: I found an apartment!
The Bad: The kitchen and stove are both teeeeeeny tiny. As in, where will I put my dishes, or my food? (never mind my mixer or two bags worth of pastry school supplies).
The Ugly: The apartment is situated one block from La Boulangerie Patisserie in one direction and Swenson's Ice cream in the other.

Holiday Cupcakes!

Ever since making Barefoot Contessa's Coconut Cupcakes*, my coworkers have been asking when I would bring them in again. So, I decided they'd be a great addition to our annual ugly christmas sweater party/white elephant gift exchange. *note: the almond extract is a no no, unless you're into that sort of thing.

But of course, after doing some Googling of holiday cupcakes, I knew Martha wouldn't let me get away with cupcakes frosted with a spatula. Thus I present to you, how to waste your time and look like a crazy person at work:

All you need are some toothpicks, marshmallows, jimmies (yes, jimmies, not chocolate sprinkles), junior mints, some candy corn, and nothing better to do with your time. Also, please note that the candy corn is in fact a carrot nose, not a tongue sticking out (ahem, you know who you are!).

Week 10: French Cakes

This was that we made five different classic French cakes out of countless recipes of meringue, glaze, mousses, buttercream, and all the cakes we made in previous weeks. It required the aid of one of those very large plastic bags to transport the goods, as well as some extra large eating pants!

The Triomphe is made with a walnut cake, caramel buttercream, caramel mousse, topped with a caramel glaze:

The Citron consists of: one layer of white genoise soaked in a citrus glaze and topped with lemon mousse. The second layer consists of a meringue shell, topped with more lemon mousse and surrounded by lemon buttercream. After the lemon glaze is applied, crumbs from the genoise are used to decorate the sides. The flower on top is a sugared orchid from our seminar on exotic fruits, spices, & herbs:

Once we finished the mousse-lined cakes, we moved along to the cakes lined with even more cake!

The Charlotte Helena, while not my favorite, I must say looks pretty cool. It's lined with ladyfingers (the one recipe I have mastered after making them a bazillion times) and filled with chocolate genoise, chocolate mousse, poached pears (that's where the recipe loses me). More chocolate mousse and chocolate curls are used for the decoration:

I liked this Spring Passion a lot more than I expected. It was the lime mousse that initially made me squirm, but I've since been eating spoonfuls at a time from the leftover container in my fridge and freezer (different consistencies!). This cake was made of lady fingers soaked in strawberry syrup and layered with the lime mousse. A decorative jaconde cake is used to line the rings, and the lime glaze and candied limes finish off the cake:

Rounding out the evening is the Success. Please note, praline is delicious (even if it's $160 for a 10lb bucket!). The cake consists of success macaroon (a hazelnut meringue); Chocolate Praline Mousseline and praline buttercream. My stenciled cake top didn't quite work out, but nothing a nice thick coat of powdered sugar can't hide!

I'm off to Cali for a week to find a place, so posts will probably be non-existent for the next few days. I'm so bummed to be missing out on croissants, that I actually considered flying back and forth the country twice within 3 days-I guess all the fat I've been consuming is restricting bloodflow to my brain!

Have a great week, everyone. And if you have any recommendations for delicious pastries in LA or SF, holla at ya girl :-)