Baking and Pastry Journal Week 3
Tuesday Pastry Class 01-22-2008
This week will be short because yesterday was Martin Luther King day. Most often I would welcome a break but I am paying big money for school and get irritated when I pay tons of money for a “break”. But thats not important now, we didn’t get to make baguettes so that will be put off till next week on Monday.
Today we accomplished quite a bit. We watched a demo on pate choux (an eclair paste) and how to make swans out of the paste. It was very interesting and when Chef was showing us it looked fairly easy. I was very wrong!
When I got the chance to make my own pate choux I followed the recipe Boiled my water and butter, added the bread flour till it formed a ball and cooked it till it smelled like a pastry. I was on a roll. I filled my pastry bag and made swan bodies as Chef showed us. I made a Paris breast and it was way too big around, silly looking really. I proceeded on to making profiteroles, choux, and eclairs, they all need practice. I can’t believe how awkward I feel using a pastry bag. I was so excited that my eclairs and swan bodies looked good that I went ahead and put some more paste in my paper piping bag and began drawing my swan bodies, in the shape of a 2. Stupid me remembered that they need to be cooked on a different pan because they will cook MUCH faster than the others. Oh well, they are down, they will burn. I made my first careless mistake, got frustrated and threw the pan in the oven. Yep… missed yet another step… I didn’t egg wash any of them. Not quite sure why I spaced that step out but I did and it was too late to egg wash them because they were half way done. Two other people at our table did the same so I went around the room telling others of my mistake hoping they wouldn’t do the same. I didn’t want the whole class to miss a needed step the Chef told us to do. Anyways, I started making more swan heads on another sheet pan that turned out okay. Again they need practice.
I did go ahead and get all the pastry doughs docked for our table cover them and baked them for tomorrow. Because I have made all the pastry creams at our table with Joy I told our team mates they could try it. I would hate for them to miss out on learning something just because it is one thing I do sort of well. Guess that’s good considering pate choux is not on that list. Ha ha! So they pastry shells came out just as they were supposed to. I cooled them, then stored them for tomorrow. Matt wanted to practice the pastry cream and I think he did a good job. He did a chocolate one and vanilla one, he almost forgot to strain it but we were doing what Chef suggested… trying to watch out for our team mates. I really do like our team, we are still working well together.
Materials used today: Propane burner, rubber spatula, stainless steel bowls and pans, mixer with paddle attachment, spoons, and sheet pans.
Our list of materials used is getting to be similar each day but if I ever want to try these at home at least I can look back and see what I needed in class to know if I have it all at home. Two things I think I will invest in are a water color brush. Chef stated it will be easier to egg wash smaller works of art then a large brush that may drip too much egg on to the pan. And, a candy thermometer. Now Chef says that I should be using my fingers in ice and then pulling out a piece of the candy back into the ice. I tried it to say that I did but with my history of burns, fires, and other horrible heat accidents I think I will stick to the thermometer method. It is safer for me and hopefully will leave my accident prone, heated history in the past… Tomorrow we get to assemble some of what we started tomorrow and hopefully get to practice plating, that will be great practice for me.
Wednesday Pastry Class 01-23-2008
Today we watched another demo from Chef. He made fondant with chocolate to cover our Napoleon tops and then made royal icing. I never knew how easy royal icing was to make, egg whites and powdered sugar, easy! There were quite a few things we learned about fondant: it has a nicer sheen than just ganache, its inverted sugar with tartaric acid, and if you make it from scratch it is best if you have a marble slab to fold it over itself while its warm.
Once Bobby and I made our own chocolate fondant (pre-made fondant that just had to be melted) we were ready to start our Napoleons. I cut my puff pastry I made yesterday into four equal parts 3 1/2″ wide. I then put one of those slices on a cooling rack so when I put the fondant on it can drip through and be reused. I then used the royal icing to make to lines down the Napoleon top which I pulled to opposite sides with a skewer to make a nice design on top. I was worried that the fondant would taste as good as ganache because in the past I have noticed that the prettier the dessert the worse tasting it is. I was wrong, the fondant looked great and tasted great as well. I had four layers to fill so I used two vanilla pastry cream layers and one chocolate pastry cream layer. Chef stated we could put fruit in it but for my first one I wanted to do it right and nice so I opted out this time around. After I piped one layer of pastry cream I froze it so it would set up a bit first. Then I proceeded to the next level until I got to put the top on. I was very pleased with how it turned out and it tasted wonderful also.
I then proceeded to fill my eclairs, pate choux, and paris breasts. These I think could use some improvement, my grandmas look and taste better than mine. I need more practice for sure. I did decide to put some fruit on my two paris breasts, one raspberry and one with Mandarin oranges. I have grown up eating chocolate covered oranges and Chef said that wasn’t a good idea. I can’t say I agree but I do understand his point about not everyone liking citrus and chocolate. Guess I will have to test it on my family and see what they think.
I did think the swans were sort of neat. When chef was showing us them I thought they were neat but a bit cheesy, but I can see where they could be a good and impressive addition to a plate. My swans turned out better than I thought. I was nervous about them as well because of the mistakes from Tuesday, forgetting the egg wash… They looked great, next time they should look even better cause I won’t screw anything up.
I suppose I completed all the tasks for today but it was more of a challenge than normal. The table was constantly a disaster area. I felt like I was doing the dishes for the whole table and the second I stopped chef came over and mentioned our disaster of a table. Our group is a good one but we were completely off our game that day and I hope to not repeat this quarter. I am also not sure why but no one else seems to have listened to chef on the first day of class. We are all supposed to switch off who turns on the stoves, proof boxes, cleans up after chefs demos, get ice, etc. Everyone seems to have forgotten about that. Another thing that is getting old is having to go over these journals every week. We have spent a good two hours total talking about these journals when there was an outline given to us on the first day of class. Its not rocket science, write what you do good and bad, what was learned, a list of materials, etc. If we have to review the requirements for these journals one more time I am going to scream.
Pretty! Sorry you are the “cleaner”
Zach and I have been discussion recently why we seem so smart and can do well in school…..we’ve attributed most of it to the fact that people make things harder than they need to be and don’t follow directions.