We actually baked things today.

Today was our first day actually baking in the kitchen which was really exciting. Jean-Luc said we would be starting with something easy.

So, obviously this is what we made...

I need to get a little better at my food photography. [Foodography?]

We didn't get to eat these, so I have no idea what mine tastes like. Alas.

Not too shabby, right? 

First we made a sweet dough, then a pastry cream, then baked the dough, then added the pastry cream, then sliced and arranged the fruit, then glazed it. Even though the description fit into one sentence, we were pretty much in the kitchen from 7:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. with a twenty-minute break around 10:30. Easing us nicely into the wonderful world of baking. (Seriously though, I am pumped.)

Everyone's dough/pastry cream/crust/finished product looked completely different. But that's what happens when you have 25 other people making the same thing as you. That and it also gets very hot and very crowded very quickly. I have to admit that my hands were shaking like crazy when I was trying to arrange the fruit; I added a bit too much vanilla to my pastry cream so it was a bit darker in colour than it should have been; and I don't think my crust was entirely even. But, even though I have the pictures to prove it, I still can't believe I made this! The whole morning sort of felt like an episode of Top Chef or something [but without the competition] -- it was pretty awesome.

--- 

Today's Recipes*

Sweet Dough
400 g all-purpose flour
200 g sugar
4 g baking powder
200 g unsalted butter
2 eggs

Pastry Cream
300 ml milk
75 g sugar
3 egg yolks
27 g corn starch
A pinch of vanilla powder
 
Glaze
[We didn't actually get the recipe for this because J-L just made it for us. But he said he would give it to us later.] 
  
*Our "recipes" are simply the ingredients and we have to document the procedure Jean-Luc describes while he is describing it. Is it really nerdy of me that I am excited to type up all of my newly learned recipes and then add them to a (probably colour-coded) recipe book? Once I do that, I might add them here as well.