We started our new sections today, which puts our group in Viennoiserie, the section I don't even try to pronounce anymore. This is basically individual pastries, cookies, muffins, and things of that sort. We didn't complete anything today, but started a bunch of different things. Jean-Luc took it easy on the entire class today, because it was Friday, and I think everyone was tired from the week.
First, we started puff pastry. The amount of butter that goes into puff pastry makes me not want to eat it ever again, but also explains why it is so delicious. Essentially, we blended some butter and a little bit of flour until it was soft and then shaped it into a square. This was then saran-wrapped and placed in the fridge. After this, we got our ingredients for the dough together. We added the dry ingredients and then crumbled in our butter. The water we added was ice cold, and we added more as we mixed it in, to make sure the dough remained moist. We then made a vertical and horizontal cut in the top of the dough (a cross) but only part of the way through and covered it and set it aside. After it had rest for a while, we took started rolling it out. We rolled it into a cross shape, and placed our slab of butter in the middle. Then we folded the top and bottom and the sides over, not going more than halfway or pulling on the dough. After that, we flattened the dough a little with our rolling pins and then rolled it out to about the length of one and a half rolling pins. Then, we did a single fold, and rolled it out some more. I think what we were actually supposed to do is a single fold and then stop rolling, saran wrap it, and put it in the fridge, but we kept rolling... and then Jean-Luc came by and said to do a single fold and put it in the fridge. But we'd already done our single fold. So there was a bit of confusion on that front. We'll figure it out on Monday though.
We also made the dough for oatmeal cookies, which was simple enough. But, I think the rest of the week was getting to us, because we were definitely making silly mistakes. For example, I was getting the sugar and the flour, and for some reason, I put the sugar and flour into the same container, but we were supposed to cream the butter and sugar first, before adding the flour. So I had to start everything all over again. Whoops. The oatmeal cookies were pretty straightforward: cream butter and sugar; mix in dry ingredients; mix in oats. Then we used our small ice cream scoops to scoop them out onto a baking tray. We didn't bake them today, so we just covered them and put them in the fridge for Monday.
I don't remember the order in which we did anything today, but we also made Chocolate Indulgence, which is basically a really rich chocolate cookie. Yum. First we melted down some chocolate and butter. Then we whipped our eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Then we folded this mixture into our chocolate. Then we added our sifted dry ingredients and our white and dark chocolate chunks. Once this was folded in, we poured the mixture onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper into two equal(ish) piles. This then went in the fridge. Once it had set and hardened, we took them out again, and rolled them into logs. These we then saran-wrapped tightly and put in the fridge, to be baked next week.
No pictures today, because we didn't finish anything. Next week is our Christmas buffet, so that should be exciting. I am making a tart and a buttercream cake, and possibly something else. I am looking forward to experimenting with flavours and decorations. I also realized that since it's pretty much almost December, I should probably start hardcore practicing my piping skills, since the test is in the last week of school. Yikes.
---
Today's Recipes
Puff Pastry
Oatmeal Cookies
Chocolate Indulgence
Friday, November 29, 2013
Thursday, November 28, 2013
"You've stollen my heart..."*
*I wish I came up with that by myself.
Aaaaaand, we made it through the bread section. [Cue collective sigh of relief.]
Today, we started off relatively simple. We had to make three different doughs and there were three of us (eventually four), so we each took a dough and started prepping. We made a batch of Dutch bread, a batch of sourdough, and a double batch of focaccia.
Once those were done, we set them aside, and took the stollen out of the fridge. Before we rolled it out, we had to prepare the marzipan. This just meant we weighed it, weighed out half that amount in icing sugar, and blended it in using a Kitchenaid with a paddle attachment. Then we set this aside wrapped in saran wrap. To roll out the stollen, we separated it into pieces (the weight of which I cannot remember) and rolled them into long tubes, slightly thicker in the middle than at the ends. Then, we flattened these out with a rolling pin into an oval shape, leaving the sides a little bit thicker. Then we rolled up a little piece of marzipan (about 50 g) into a cylinder and placed it inside the stollen and folded it over. The oval had to be large enough that when it was proofed, the dough wouldn't expand and flip open again. After they were all ready, we waited until they got up to room temperature and then placed them in the proofer. [With a dough that is rich in fat, it is important not to place it in the proofer when it's still cold, because the fat will separate from the rest of the dough and it will not be good for anyone.] Once they were proofed, they went in the deck oven for about 20 minutes. After we took them out, we brushed them with butter, dipped them in sugar, and dredged with icing sugar. This had to be done while they were still warm. When I was making the dough yesterday, I thought that it looked like the least appetizing kind of dough, but after baking it, the stollen looked pretty tasty.
Next, we finished off the Bee Stings from yesterday. We made some diplomat cream, which is just pastry cream with whipped cream folded into it. The pastry cream was prepped by the pastry section the day before. As I whisked the pastry cream and folded the whipped cream into it, the bee stings were cut in half horizontally and then the top section was cut into six equal slices. This is just because if it wasn't pre-sliced, the cream would just all be squished out of it when you tried to cut through the hard sugary almond crust. After the loaves were cut in half, we spread the cream inside and then re-assembled the top layer. We had an extra one made out of the last little bit of dough which we obviously also filled with cream and then each of us tasted some. I cannot even describe to you how delicious it was. I don't even think I'm going to try. Let's just leave it at that.
For the batch of brioche we made yesterday, we separated the dough into 300 g pieces and rolled them into balls and then flattened them out with a rolling pin. We set these aside and made Streusel to put on top. This is essentially a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and a few other things. It is mixed together until the mixture holds its shape when squeezed. We let the dough come to room temperature and then placed it in the proofer. We didn't put the streusel on until after the proofer, because otherwise, it would just all fall off when the dough expanded. After the brioche came out of the proofer, we egg-washed it and then placed it in the convection oven for I'm actually not sure how long. But until golden brown. They looked beautiful when they came out. We were halfway through putting them on baskets when Jean-Luc said that we weren't actually sending these out to the cafeteria yet, because we still had to fill them. But we all tried one fresh from the oven, and it was delicious... Eventually, we cut all of these in half and placed a layer of pastry cream in the middle and then re-assembled. Brioche is so versatile and delicious. Seriously.
The focaccia was essentially the same as the other batches we've made, except we made a regular baking tray's worth, instead of a half tray. It was a lot of focaccia. So, we made the dough, set it aside and let it double in size. Then, it was rolled out to the size of the baking tray. We lined a baking tray with parchment paper and brushed this with herbs and olive oil and then placed the focaccia on top, then brushed that as well. This went in the proofer for at least a half hour, and then we made finger depressions along the top of the dough and brushed it again. After that, it went in the convection oven for about 15 minutes and then was flipped over and went in for another 15 minutes or so. Then we sliced it up and sent half to the restaurant and half to the cafeteria. [We later had to get the baskets we sent out to the cafeteria, because there wasn't enough for the restaurant. Apparently.]
The tiger bread was placed in the divider once it had risen and we made smaller rolls again instead of loaves. Once shaped, they went into the proofer and we started making the topping. After they had proofed, we gently brushed the topping on. Then we put them in the deck oven at 400 with steam. I think that one or two of the trays didn't proof for long enough, because the rolls split open while they were baking. But they still looked and tasted good. When these were nicely browned, they went out to the restaurant too.
The sourdough was the last thing we made, and we essentially just shaped it into large loaves. Then they went in the proofer. Once we took them out, we sprinkled a little flour on the top of the loaf and then used our baker's blade to cut three lines. These then went in the deck oven at 400 as well and we used steam for these too. So much bread...
Today didn't seem AS crazy as the day before, aside from the confusion regarding the rolls from the restaurant. But, we managed to pull it off. Tomorrow, we're onto our next section, so, it was a good last day in bread.
---
Today's Recipes
Stollen
Dutch Mottled Bread
Brioche
Streusel
Bee Sting
Focaccia
Sourdough
Aaaaaand, we made it through the bread section. [Cue collective sigh of relief.]
Today, we started off relatively simple. We had to make three different doughs and there were three of us (eventually four), so we each took a dough and started prepping. We made a batch of Dutch bread, a batch of sourdough, and a double batch of focaccia.
Once those were done, we set them aside, and took the stollen out of the fridge. Before we rolled it out, we had to prepare the marzipan. This just meant we weighed it, weighed out half that amount in icing sugar, and blended it in using a Kitchenaid with a paddle attachment. Then we set this aside wrapped in saran wrap. To roll out the stollen, we separated it into pieces (the weight of which I cannot remember) and rolled them into long tubes, slightly thicker in the middle than at the ends. Then, we flattened these out with a rolling pin into an oval shape, leaving the sides a little bit thicker. Then we rolled up a little piece of marzipan (about 50 g) into a cylinder and placed it inside the stollen and folded it over. The oval had to be large enough that when it was proofed, the dough wouldn't expand and flip open again. After they were all ready, we waited until they got up to room temperature and then placed them in the proofer. [With a dough that is rich in fat, it is important not to place it in the proofer when it's still cold, because the fat will separate from the rest of the dough and it will not be good for anyone.] Once they were proofed, they went in the deck oven for about 20 minutes. After we took them out, we brushed them with butter, dipped them in sugar, and dredged with icing sugar. This had to be done while they were still warm. When I was making the dough yesterday, I thought that it looked like the least appetizing kind of dough, but after baking it, the stollen looked pretty tasty.
Next, we finished off the Bee Stings from yesterday. We made some diplomat cream, which is just pastry cream with whipped cream folded into it. The pastry cream was prepped by the pastry section the day before. As I whisked the pastry cream and folded the whipped cream into it, the bee stings were cut in half horizontally and then the top section was cut into six equal slices. This is just because if it wasn't pre-sliced, the cream would just all be squished out of it when you tried to cut through the hard sugary almond crust. After the loaves were cut in half, we spread the cream inside and then re-assembled the top layer. We had an extra one made out of the last little bit of dough which we obviously also filled with cream and then each of us tasted some. I cannot even describe to you how delicious it was. I don't even think I'm going to try. Let's just leave it at that.
For the batch of brioche we made yesterday, we separated the dough into 300 g pieces and rolled them into balls and then flattened them out with a rolling pin. We set these aside and made Streusel to put on top. This is essentially a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and a few other things. It is mixed together until the mixture holds its shape when squeezed. We let the dough come to room temperature and then placed it in the proofer. We didn't put the streusel on until after the proofer, because otherwise, it would just all fall off when the dough expanded. After the brioche came out of the proofer, we egg-washed it and then placed it in the convection oven for I'm actually not sure how long. But until golden brown. They looked beautiful when they came out. We were halfway through putting them on baskets when Jean-Luc said that we weren't actually sending these out to the cafeteria yet, because we still had to fill them. But we all tried one fresh from the oven, and it was delicious... Eventually, we cut all of these in half and placed a layer of pastry cream in the middle and then re-assembled. Brioche is so versatile and delicious. Seriously.
The focaccia was essentially the same as the other batches we've made, except we made a regular baking tray's worth, instead of a half tray. It was a lot of focaccia. So, we made the dough, set it aside and let it double in size. Then, it was rolled out to the size of the baking tray. We lined a baking tray with parchment paper and brushed this with herbs and olive oil and then placed the focaccia on top, then brushed that as well. This went in the proofer for at least a half hour, and then we made finger depressions along the top of the dough and brushed it again. After that, it went in the convection oven for about 15 minutes and then was flipped over and went in for another 15 minutes or so. Then we sliced it up and sent half to the restaurant and half to the cafeteria. [We later had to get the baskets we sent out to the cafeteria, because there wasn't enough for the restaurant. Apparently.]
The tiger bread was placed in the divider once it had risen and we made smaller rolls again instead of loaves. Once shaped, they went into the proofer and we started making the topping. After they had proofed, we gently brushed the topping on. Then we put them in the deck oven at 400 with steam. I think that one or two of the trays didn't proof for long enough, because the rolls split open while they were baking. But they still looked and tasted good. When these were nicely browned, they went out to the restaurant too.
The sourdough was the last thing we made, and we essentially just shaped it into large loaves. Then they went in the proofer. Once we took them out, we sprinkled a little flour on the top of the loaf and then used our baker's blade to cut three lines. These then went in the deck oven at 400 as well and we used steam for these too. So much bread...
Today didn't seem AS crazy as the day before, aside from the confusion regarding the rolls from the restaurant. But, we managed to pull it off. Tomorrow, we're onto our next section, so, it was a good last day in bread.
---
Today's Recipes
Stollen
Dutch Mottled Bread
Brioche
Streusel
Bee Sting
Focaccia
Sourdough
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Did you think this would be easy...?*
*Sometimes Jean-Luc asks us things like this as a joke when he can tell we're feeling the pressure. It's okay though because I didn't actually think this would be easy, so, you know, there's that.
Today was intense. The morning felt pretty good and it seemed like we had everything under wraps and then it all sort of exploded at around 10:30 when we got back from break. I think it's probably because the morning consisted of prepping dough and waiting for it to rise, and 10:30 onwards was shaping, proofing, and getting things out to the restaurant/cafeteria/doing a billion things at once. There were three of us today (out of five) which meant that we had to split things up to keep everything moving efficiently. Everything was definitely a group effort. I couldn't even tell you the order in which we made things today...
"Bee Stings" - We used the brioche dough that was prepared yesterday to make these. They were rolled out to the [approximate] size of a cake ring and then placed inside while they were rising. Then we made the mixture for the top, which was a combination of sugar, cream, honey, and sliced almonds. Possibly some other things as well. We brought this mixture to a boil on the stove and it had to be at 112 degrees before we removed it from the heat. Instead of using candy thermometers, Jean-Luc showed us how to tell the correct temperature by consistency. So, if we could see the bottom of the pot when we brought our spatulas towards us through the mixture, the consistency was right. The mixture thickened dramatically as it was heated. Once removed from the heat, the almonds were folded in and we spread this mixture in a thin even layer on top of the brioche circles. Then we set these aside to rise. Once they had risen, they went in the oven for about 25 minutes. They looked delicious. Tomorrow I think we are going to slice them and fill them with pastry cream. Yum.
Focaccia - This was the same as the focaccia we made last week, which is a favourite of the class. A few pieces may have mysteriously gone "missing" when we were slicing them to take to the cafeteria. Once the dough was made and had doubled in size, it was rolled out to the size of a small baking tray and brushed with olive oil and herbs. Then it went in the proofer. Once sufficiently proofed, we used our fingers to make depressions in rows in the dough and then we brushed the oil again, just so there were no pools of olive oil on the dough. This went in the convection oven at 350 for about 10 minutes, then we flipped it over and brushed the other side with the olive oil and herb mixture and then put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. We sent the first loaf of focaccia to the restaurant (only a few minutes late!) and the "rest" to the cafeteria.
Southwestern Cornbread (aka jalapeno cheddar rolls) - We have made these so many times, but I kind of love them. I also enjoy the repetition, because it lets you feel like you're actually getting the hang of something, which is nice. So, this dough is a sponge (rather than straight dough) method, which just means some of the ingredients are mixed together first including the yeast so it has a chance to ferment before adding the rest of the ingredients. So, we made our sponge and set it aside, allowing it to double in size. Once that was done, we got the rest of the ingredients together and made the actual dough. A sponge method means that the resulting dough is ready to use right after you've mixed it, so you don't have to set it aside again to rise. We rolled out the dough to a square the size of our rolling pin and sprinkled the cheese and jalapenos (no seeds this time) on top as per usual, and then instead of the regular giant rolls, we cut the square in half horizontally, resulting in 32 smaller rolls instead of 16 big ones. After they were cut, they went in the proofer. Then, they were egg-washed and placed in the convection oven at 350 for about 10 minutes. I probably could've taken a picture, but we were trying to get them done in time for the restaurant and they basically looked the same as the other ones we made, except smaller.
Sourdough - Making the sourdough was a straight dough method and one of the ingredients was a portion of the sour that we made yesterday. (It was gross-looking though.) When we were mixing our sourdough, Jean-Luc came by and checked the consistency and said that it was good. This was great for a couple of reasons, first because positive feedback is great in general but also because the measurements for liquid (usually water) in the second round of the bread section are kind of off on purpose. We have to know by consistency when to add more water so that the dough isn't too tough. Once the dough had doubled in size, we cut it into 400 gram pieces and shaped it into balls. These were then placed in the proofer. Once they were ready, we used our baker's blade to slice three slits in the dough and then baked them at 400 in the deck oven, with steam. This is one of the only recipes from today that I have photographic evidence of. So, here a bunch of pictures.
Challah - The challah was one of the last things we did and the process was essentially the same as last time. The dough takes a long time to build elasticity because it has a high fat / egg content, so it mixes on the second speed for a pretty long time compared to some of the other doughs. Once it was done and had doubled in size, we cut the dough into 150 gram pieces and rolled these into long equal pieces that were slightly thicker in the centre than at the ends. These were then braided together. After we were done, we put these in the proofer. We unfortunately forgot to egg wash them when we removed them from the proofer and put them in the oven, so that was really sad. We also put them in the convection oven instead of the deck oven, which was also sad. They were salvageable though, because Jean-Luc still told us to send them out to the cafeteria. So, even without the egg wash, they still looked good. That's saying something, right? (They did look good. Just a little less shiny.)
Stollen - We are going to make stollen tomorrow, which is a Christmas bread that Jean-Luc demonstrated one morning. In order to make it tomorrow, we had to make the dough today. The recipe was a little overwhelming because there were about a thousand (read: exaggeration) ingredients we had to put together, including a lot of spices and a lot of random things like candied orange peel and chopped glazed cherries. The dough was a straight dough method and once it was ready, the final ingredients were added (walnuts, hazelnuts, cherries, orange peel, and raisins soaked in brandy, which I forgot initially but then remembered once the dough had already been wrapped and put away) and mixed in. I am not a big fan of fruit and nuts in bread (or cake or ice cream), so the dough didn't look particularly appetizing, but it at least looked right.
[More] Brioche - The actual final thing we made today was more brioche dough, which we will use for Streusel tomorrow. I honestly thought streusel and streudel were the same thing, so tomorrow is going to be enlightening. I had very little to do with the actual making of the brioche dough, which I am totally okay with since I did the exact same thing at the end of yesterday's class.
I think by the end of the class Jean-Luc could tell we were all exhausted and also that we felt really bad about not egg-washing our challah (we did). He said that this section is sort of about getting us all used to doing a bunch of things at once and that it could have been only making a couple of breads in a day, but then we wouldn't really get a sense of what the Real World was actually like. He did say that we were doing a good job though. And in the morning he even said that we were "ahead of the game" so yay for encouragement and positive feedback and also bread.
---
Today's Recipes
I don't even know right now. I am in the middle of a sneezing fit, so I'll have to update this later.
Today was intense. The morning felt pretty good and it seemed like we had everything under wraps and then it all sort of exploded at around 10:30 when we got back from break. I think it's probably because the morning consisted of prepping dough and waiting for it to rise, and 10:30 onwards was shaping, proofing, and getting things out to the restaurant/cafeteria/doing a billion things at once. There were three of us today (out of five) which meant that we had to split things up to keep everything moving efficiently. Everything was definitely a group effort. I couldn't even tell you the order in which we made things today...
"Bee Stings" - We used the brioche dough that was prepared yesterday to make these. They were rolled out to the [approximate] size of a cake ring and then placed inside while they were rising. Then we made the mixture for the top, which was a combination of sugar, cream, honey, and sliced almonds. Possibly some other things as well. We brought this mixture to a boil on the stove and it had to be at 112 degrees before we removed it from the heat. Instead of using candy thermometers, Jean-Luc showed us how to tell the correct temperature by consistency. So, if we could see the bottom of the pot when we brought our spatulas towards us through the mixture, the consistency was right. The mixture thickened dramatically as it was heated. Once removed from the heat, the almonds were folded in and we spread this mixture in a thin even layer on top of the brioche circles. Then we set these aside to rise. Once they had risen, they went in the oven for about 25 minutes. They looked delicious. Tomorrow I think we are going to slice them and fill them with pastry cream. Yum.
Focaccia - This was the same as the focaccia we made last week, which is a favourite of the class. A few pieces may have mysteriously gone "missing" when we were slicing them to take to the cafeteria. Once the dough was made and had doubled in size, it was rolled out to the size of a small baking tray and brushed with olive oil and herbs. Then it went in the proofer. Once sufficiently proofed, we used our fingers to make depressions in rows in the dough and then we brushed the oil again, just so there were no pools of olive oil on the dough. This went in the convection oven at 350 for about 10 minutes, then we flipped it over and brushed the other side with the olive oil and herb mixture and then put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. We sent the first loaf of focaccia to the restaurant (only a few minutes late!) and the "rest" to the cafeteria.
Southwestern Cornbread (aka jalapeno cheddar rolls) - We have made these so many times, but I kind of love them. I also enjoy the repetition, because it lets you feel like you're actually getting the hang of something, which is nice. So, this dough is a sponge (rather than straight dough) method, which just means some of the ingredients are mixed together first including the yeast so it has a chance to ferment before adding the rest of the ingredients. So, we made our sponge and set it aside, allowing it to double in size. Once that was done, we got the rest of the ingredients together and made the actual dough. A sponge method means that the resulting dough is ready to use right after you've mixed it, so you don't have to set it aside again to rise. We rolled out the dough to a square the size of our rolling pin and sprinkled the cheese and jalapenos (no seeds this time) on top as per usual, and then instead of the regular giant rolls, we cut the square in half horizontally, resulting in 32 smaller rolls instead of 16 big ones. After they were cut, they went in the proofer. Then, they were egg-washed and placed in the convection oven at 350 for about 10 minutes. I probably could've taken a picture, but we were trying to get them done in time for the restaurant and they basically looked the same as the other ones we made, except smaller.
Sourdough - Making the sourdough was a straight dough method and one of the ingredients was a portion of the sour that we made yesterday. (It was gross-looking though.) When we were mixing our sourdough, Jean-Luc came by and checked the consistency and said that it was good. This was great for a couple of reasons, first because positive feedback is great in general but also because the measurements for liquid (usually water) in the second round of the bread section are kind of off on purpose. We have to know by consistency when to add more water so that the dough isn't too tough. Once the dough had doubled in size, we cut it into 400 gram pieces and shaped it into balls. These were then placed in the proofer. Once they were ready, we used our baker's blade to slice three slits in the dough and then baked them at 400 in the deck oven, with steam. This is one of the only recipes from today that I have photographic evidence of. So, here a bunch of pictures.
Challah - The challah was one of the last things we did and the process was essentially the same as last time. The dough takes a long time to build elasticity because it has a high fat / egg content, so it mixes on the second speed for a pretty long time compared to some of the other doughs. Once it was done and had doubled in size, we cut the dough into 150 gram pieces and rolled these into long equal pieces that were slightly thicker in the centre than at the ends. These were then braided together. After we were done, we put these in the proofer. We unfortunately forgot to egg wash them when we removed them from the proofer and put them in the oven, so that was really sad. We also put them in the convection oven instead of the deck oven, which was also sad. They were salvageable though, because Jean-Luc still told us to send them out to the cafeteria. So, even without the egg wash, they still looked good. That's saying something, right? (They did look good. Just a little less shiny.)
Stollen - We are going to make stollen tomorrow, which is a Christmas bread that Jean-Luc demonstrated one morning. In order to make it tomorrow, we had to make the dough today. The recipe was a little overwhelming because there were about a thousand (read: exaggeration) ingredients we had to put together, including a lot of spices and a lot of random things like candied orange peel and chopped glazed cherries. The dough was a straight dough method and once it was ready, the final ingredients were added (walnuts, hazelnuts, cherries, orange peel, and raisins soaked in brandy, which I forgot initially but then remembered once the dough had already been wrapped and put away) and mixed in. I am not a big fan of fruit and nuts in bread (or cake or ice cream), so the dough didn't look particularly appetizing, but it at least looked right.
[More] Brioche - The actual final thing we made today was more brioche dough, which we will use for Streusel tomorrow. I honestly thought streusel and streudel were the same thing, so tomorrow is going to be enlightening. I had very little to do with the actual making of the brioche dough, which I am totally okay with since I did the exact same thing at the end of yesterday's class.
I think by the end of the class Jean-Luc could tell we were all exhausted and also that we felt really bad about not egg-washing our challah (we did). He said that this section is sort of about getting us all used to doing a bunch of things at once and that it could have been only making a couple of breads in a day, but then we wouldn't really get a sense of what the Real World was actually like. He did say that we were doing a good job though. And in the morning he even said that we were "ahead of the game" so yay for encouragement and positive feedback and also bread.
---
Today's Recipes
I don't even know right now. I am in the middle of a sneezing fit, so I'll have to update this later.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
They see me rollin'...
I don't know if it's that we haven't been in the kitchen for a few days
or what but I was definitely exhausted after today. We ended pretty
early on Thursday, class was cancelled on Friday, and Mondays are theory
days, so it has been a while. That said, the bread section is pretty
intense this round, because not only are we learning how to make a bunch
of new things, but we also have to keep the restaurant stocked with
rolls in time for lunch.
Today we made:
- Dutch Mottled Bread (large loaves instead of little ones this time)
- Sticky Buns
- Red Wine Bread with Walnuts and Onions
- Whole Wheat Rolls
- White Rolls
- Sour for Sourdough
- Brioche
For the Dutch mottled bread (aka "tiger bread"), it was pretty much the same process as last time, except we made larger loaves instead of individual ones this time. You can really see the crackle effect on the large loaves and it looks super cool. More giraffe/leopard than tiger, really, but that's okay. They went in the proofer after they had been shaped, and then we made the topping for it. After they had proofed, we brushed the topping on gently and then put them in the oven with steam at 400 for about 15 minutes. We thought they were a little on the dark side when they came out, but Jean-Luc said that they were perfect. And also that North Americans tend to undercook things, whereas in Europe things are cooked until they are crispier and darker (he didn't say the same thing when we really did overcook some stuff later. Whoops).
The whole wheat and white rolls were the same as what we've made before; they were just what we needed to give the restaurant for lunch. Speed rolling! [Needless to say, no breaks today.] I kind of love rolling the dough though. It started to hurt my arm after a little while, but I still think it's my favourite part of the section. Is that weird? Maybe.
The red wine bread was a straight dough method, so we just added all the ingredients to the mixer. Once the dough was mixed, the walnuts and then the sauteed onions were added and blended in. Once the dough had risen, we split them into 400 gram pieces and Jean-Luc showed us how to roll them out. Basically, we just made oblong shapes and then they went in the proofer. After they had proofed, we floured them slightly and used a baker's blade to cut a line right down the middle. The reason for this is so that the dough can expand more (and because it looks good). These went in the oven for about 20 minutes at 425 with steam, but they were slightly on the darker side. So, they probably could have been done in 15, or even 20 minutes at 400 instead. According to Jean-Luc, they were "borderline" which though not ideal is still better than burnt...
The red wine bread was the last thing to come out of the oven. Then we had to make four times a batch of sour for our sourdough [the one from last week had to be thrown out because it wasn't 'replenished'...] and make a batch of brioche. Actually, we were supposed to make two batches of brioche, but I only found that out after the fact. But we're just going to make more tomorrow. I did the brioche while someone else in the group did the sour and someone else took charge of taking our giant stack of dishes to the dishwasher. TEAMWORK. I think we were all losing steam pretty fast towards the end of the day, so we were just trying to get it all done as quickly as possible so we could go home.
The bread section seems a lot more intense this time around... it also feels like we've been in it FOREVER, even though this is only technically our second day. Um. Because class was cancelled on Friday and we spent Thursday making our cakes, Wednesday was our only day actually IN the bread section. So, this rotation will finish on Thursday.
Next week, we are working on a Christmas buffet, which will be exciting! We are all divided into groups and there are a bunch of things that we have to make and everyone will make two things. It's cool because even though there is a set list of things that we have to make, for a lot of the stuff we get to choose the specifics. The buffet is on December 4th and 5th so half the class is going to work on the first buffet and the other half is going to work on the second one. Each group has the day before their buffet to prepare everything. It's going to be intense, but awesome, I think.
---
Today's Recipes
Dutch Mottled Bread
Sticky Buns
Red Wine Bread
White Rolls
Whole Wheat Rolls
Brioche
Sour for Sourdough
Today we made:
- Dutch Mottled Bread (large loaves instead of little ones this time)
- Sticky Buns
- Red Wine Bread with Walnuts and Onions
- Whole Wheat Rolls
- White Rolls
- Sour for Sourdough
- Brioche
For the Dutch mottled bread (aka "tiger bread"), it was pretty much the same process as last time, except we made larger loaves instead of individual ones this time. You can really see the crackle effect on the large loaves and it looks super cool. More giraffe/leopard than tiger, really, but that's okay. They went in the proofer after they had been shaped, and then we made the topping for it. After they had proofed, we brushed the topping on gently and then put them in the oven with steam at 400 for about 15 minutes. We thought they were a little on the dark side when they came out, but Jean-Luc said that they were perfect. And also that North Americans tend to undercook things, whereas in Europe things are cooked until they are crispier and darker (he didn't say the same thing when we really did overcook some stuff later. Whoops).
The sticky buns were a sponge method, so we combined the first set of
ingredients and then set that aside to double in size. Once this was
done, we combined two in a mixer, and added the rest of the ingredients.
We mixed on the first speed until blended and then on the second speed
for no more than a minute. After this, we rolled it out into a square
the size of our rolling pin and spread a topping that we had made
earlier on the inside, rolled it up, and cut it into sixteen (or, in my
case, fifteen) pieces. Then, in large ridged paper cups, we poured some
glaze into the bottom and then placed the rolls on top. These went into
the proofer for a bit and then into the oven at 350 until they were
golden brown. After we took them out of the oven, we flipped them out of
the cups and they looked delicious. They were really hot though, so I
may or may not have burnt myself multiple times. One of which was when I
just randomly touched the tray. That had just come out of the oven.
The whole wheat and white rolls were the same as what we've made before; they were just what we needed to give the restaurant for lunch. Speed rolling! [Needless to say, no breaks today.] I kind of love rolling the dough though. It started to hurt my arm after a little while, but I still think it's my favourite part of the section. Is that weird? Maybe.
The red wine bread was a straight dough method, so we just added all the ingredients to the mixer. Once the dough was mixed, the walnuts and then the sauteed onions were added and blended in. Once the dough had risen, we split them into 400 gram pieces and Jean-Luc showed us how to roll them out. Basically, we just made oblong shapes and then they went in the proofer. After they had proofed, we floured them slightly and used a baker's blade to cut a line right down the middle. The reason for this is so that the dough can expand more (and because it looks good). These went in the oven for about 20 minutes at 425 with steam, but they were slightly on the darker side. So, they probably could have been done in 15, or even 20 minutes at 400 instead. According to Jean-Luc, they were "borderline" which though not ideal is still better than burnt...
The red wine bread was the last thing to come out of the oven. Then we had to make four times a batch of sour for our sourdough [the one from last week had to be thrown out because it wasn't 'replenished'...] and make a batch of brioche. Actually, we were supposed to make two batches of brioche, but I only found that out after the fact. But we're just going to make more tomorrow. I did the brioche while someone else in the group did the sour and someone else took charge of taking our giant stack of dishes to the dishwasher. TEAMWORK. I think we were all losing steam pretty fast towards the end of the day, so we were just trying to get it all done as quickly as possible so we could go home.
The bread section seems a lot more intense this time around... it also feels like we've been in it FOREVER, even though this is only technically our second day. Um. Because class was cancelled on Friday and we spent Thursday making our cakes, Wednesday was our only day actually IN the bread section. So, this rotation will finish on Thursday.
Next week, we are working on a Christmas buffet, which will be exciting! We are all divided into groups and there are a bunch of things that we have to make and everyone will make two things. It's cool because even though there is a set list of things that we have to make, for a lot of the stuff we get to choose the specifics. The buffet is on December 4th and 5th so half the class is going to work on the first buffet and the other half is going to work on the second one. Each group has the day before their buffet to prepare everything. It's going to be intense, but awesome, I think.
---
Today's Recipes
Dutch Mottled Bread
Sticky Buns
Red Wine Bread
White Rolls
Whole Wheat Rolls
Brioche
Sour for Sourdough
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Silent Night (Noisy Day)
Well, our Christmas/holiday cakes are done and after class today I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. I didn't totally entirely LOVE our cake, but I think for both of our first attempts, it was pretty good and it also was completely different than a lot of the other cakes (e.g. not Christmas-y). But I just have to say that all of the cakes looked beautiful and amazing and everyone pulled out all the stops in terms of creativity and general awesomeness. Our class is full of really talented people with such a range of skills and skill levels and it's so cool that we are all in it together. [You can tell that I feel a little less stressed because of all the overtly positive thinking.]
I arrived in the kitchen at 6:30 a.m. today because that's when Jean-Luc said he got to school usually. I really wanted to get my cake iced so that I could stop worrying that it wouldn't be done in time. I made a Swiss buttercream (I didn't overwhip it this time) and cut my cake into three layers. I also made a soaking syrup to spread on the cake before I put the icing down. I iced between the two layers and then did a crumb coat on the outside. Then it went in the blast freezer so that the icing could set. Other people started to arrive as I was icing the cake and I wasn't partner-less today, so that was great. What was also great was that she actually liked my idea, because it would have been hard to come up with a totally new one if we disagreed on what to do. She coloured the marzipan a bunch of different colours for the decorations and I worked on getting the fondant to be a "navy" blue.
There wasn't actually food colouring for navy, only royal, sky, turquoise, and basically every other blue that there is. I started with royal blue, because I thought it would be the darkest. It wasn't. I added some black to make it darker. It didn't really work. (I also accidentally started doing this on the wooden bread table. WHOOPS.) Eventually, I just went into the decorating room and experimented with a different blue. Jean-Luc helped. Apparently sky blue is actually the darkest. So, I put in the blue and then added a LOT of black and mixed it in for what seemed like a really long time. I didn't get it quite as dark as it was in my head, but I think it was satisfactory for the moment and given the time constraints. [Side note: my fondant colouring process was so intense that even though I wore gloves, I still have blue spots all over my hands... HOW?]
Once that was done, we made our decorations. The marzipan decorations were a brown park bench, a black lamp post, a pair of red mittens, some grey (read: purple) and black rocks, and trees in two different shades of green. We were going to try to use green royal icing to pipe onto the trees to give them a raised effect, but it didn't really work. I tried to pipe royal icing "stars" to put in the blue fondant so that it looked like a lake reflecting the stars, but that wasn't that successful either. The royal icing wasn't being very nice today. I eventually just started making asterisks instead of stars... which is pretty much the same thing, right? Right. The lamp post kept falling over, so we just stuck a LOT of toothpicks in it and prayed that it would stay... I hope it will. The "lamp" is an isomalt half-globe with gold dust in it. I wanted to use the smaller one but I dropped it on the floor and broke it. [This is why I should never rush...]
After this, we were almost ready to put the fondant on our cake. I was starting to get anxious, which, in retrospect, I didn't need to do because we actually finished with lots of time left. Before we could roll out the fondant, I took the cake out of the freezer and smoothed out any bumpy parts of the icing with a palette knife. Then, we rolled out the fondant, "flouring" the table with icing sugar. Our first attempt at placing it on the cake failed miserably, partially because the fondant got dry really fast and partially because the cake was still on the cake stand, so gravity worked against us and made the sides crack. Whoops. My partner suggested we might have to colour the fondant again because it was so dry, but we just re-kneaded the pieces and they got better, which was good. Because I was not ready to make more. We took it off the cake stand (why is that so difficult?) and rolled out the fondant again. Then we used the rolling pin to lift it up and cover the cake, smoothing out the top first, then the edges slowly from the top to the bottom. Then we trimmed off the excess and picked up the cake (seriously, I am really bad at this) and placed the fondant under the sides and put the cake back down.
While initially, I wanted to make patches of snow with fondant, we still had a bunch of royal icing, so it made sense to just use that. So, I spooned some "snow" onto the cake in two patches and basically spread it out with my fingers into an abstract shape that also went down the sides of the cake. We made it look textured intentionally because, you know, snow. Then, we placed the trees in one patch and the bench, lamp post, mittens, rocks, and a couple more trees for good measure on the second patch of snow. After that, we placed the royal icing "stars" onto the patch of blue in the middle. Then, we dredged the whole thing in icing sugar and I also found some silver glittery stuff which we added as well. It looked cute. It wasn't exactly what I pictured, but it was cute. Also, someone came by and said, "I like this. Sort of like a "Silent Night", right?" And that made me really happy because that sort of is what we were going for, I think, so that is what I am calling our cake.
After it was all finished, we took a bunch of pictures, and then had to move it to a box. Neither of us did this and we must have sounded quite apprehensive (read: terrified) about it, because someone else in the class removed it from the table and put it onto the clean piece of cardboard for us. Then we put it in the box. (And took more pictures.)
Jean-Luc came by afterwards and we had already closed the box, but he told us to open it again, because he was taking pictures of all of the cakes. He said, "You guys did a good job." Which maybe he would say to everyone, no matter what, but I'll take it!
And then it was clean-up time. We got to leave super early today because Jean-Luc basically decided that we wouldn't start any rotation-related thing today. So, the rotations will go until Wednesday instead of Tuesday next week. By about 10:45 a.m. we were pretty much all cleaned up and got to go home! It was nice to finish early after feeling like we are always the last ones done cleaning up.
Now that I've worked with fondant once, I am not as terrified of the prospect of working with it. I do definitely want to practice making figurines and decorating cakes in the meantime and now I know how. So, yay. Also, making cakes is going to be super easy at home now because MY KITCHENAID ARRIVED IN THE MAIL. I can't wait to take it out of the box and make something amazing.
---
Today's Recipes
Chocolate Genoise
Swiss Buttercream
I arrived in the kitchen at 6:30 a.m. today because that's when Jean-Luc said he got to school usually. I really wanted to get my cake iced so that I could stop worrying that it wouldn't be done in time. I made a Swiss buttercream (I didn't overwhip it this time) and cut my cake into three layers. I also made a soaking syrup to spread on the cake before I put the icing down. I iced between the two layers and then did a crumb coat on the outside. Then it went in the blast freezer so that the icing could set. Other people started to arrive as I was icing the cake and I wasn't partner-less today, so that was great. What was also great was that she actually liked my idea, because it would have been hard to come up with a totally new one if we disagreed on what to do. She coloured the marzipan a bunch of different colours for the decorations and I worked on getting the fondant to be a "navy" blue.
There wasn't actually food colouring for navy, only royal, sky, turquoise, and basically every other blue that there is. I started with royal blue, because I thought it would be the darkest. It wasn't. I added some black to make it darker. It didn't really work. (I also accidentally started doing this on the wooden bread table. WHOOPS.) Eventually, I just went into the decorating room and experimented with a different blue. Jean-Luc helped. Apparently sky blue is actually the darkest. So, I put in the blue and then added a LOT of black and mixed it in for what seemed like a really long time. I didn't get it quite as dark as it was in my head, but I think it was satisfactory for the moment and given the time constraints. [Side note: my fondant colouring process was so intense that even though I wore gloves, I still have blue spots all over my hands... HOW?]
Once that was done, we made our decorations. The marzipan decorations were a brown park bench, a black lamp post, a pair of red mittens, some grey (read: purple) and black rocks, and trees in two different shades of green. We were going to try to use green royal icing to pipe onto the trees to give them a raised effect, but it didn't really work. I tried to pipe royal icing "stars" to put in the blue fondant so that it looked like a lake reflecting the stars, but that wasn't that successful either. The royal icing wasn't being very nice today. I eventually just started making asterisks instead of stars... which is pretty much the same thing, right? Right. The lamp post kept falling over, so we just stuck a LOT of toothpicks in it and prayed that it would stay... I hope it will. The "lamp" is an isomalt half-globe with gold dust in it. I wanted to use the smaller one but I dropped it on the floor and broke it. [This is why I should never rush...]
After this, we were almost ready to put the fondant on our cake. I was starting to get anxious, which, in retrospect, I didn't need to do because we actually finished with lots of time left. Before we could roll out the fondant, I took the cake out of the freezer and smoothed out any bumpy parts of the icing with a palette knife. Then, we rolled out the fondant, "flouring" the table with icing sugar. Our first attempt at placing it on the cake failed miserably, partially because the fondant got dry really fast and partially because the cake was still on the cake stand, so gravity worked against us and made the sides crack. Whoops. My partner suggested we might have to colour the fondant again because it was so dry, but we just re-kneaded the pieces and they got better, which was good. Because I was not ready to make more. We took it off the cake stand (why is that so difficult?) and rolled out the fondant again. Then we used the rolling pin to lift it up and cover the cake, smoothing out the top first, then the edges slowly from the top to the bottom. Then we trimmed off the excess and picked up the cake (seriously, I am really bad at this) and placed the fondant under the sides and put the cake back down.
While initially, I wanted to make patches of snow with fondant, we still had a bunch of royal icing, so it made sense to just use that. So, I spooned some "snow" onto the cake in two patches and basically spread it out with my fingers into an abstract shape that also went down the sides of the cake. We made it look textured intentionally because, you know, snow. Then, we placed the trees in one patch and the bench, lamp post, mittens, rocks, and a couple more trees for good measure on the second patch of snow. After that, we placed the royal icing "stars" onto the patch of blue in the middle. Then, we dredged the whole thing in icing sugar and I also found some silver glittery stuff which we added as well. It looked cute. It wasn't exactly what I pictured, but it was cute. Also, someone came by and said, "I like this. Sort of like a "Silent Night", right?" And that made me really happy because that sort of is what we were going for, I think, so that is what I am calling our cake.
After it was all finished, we took a bunch of pictures, and then had to move it to a box. Neither of us did this and we must have sounded quite apprehensive (read: terrified) about it, because someone else in the class removed it from the table and put it onto the clean piece of cardboard for us. Then we put it in the box. (And took more pictures.)
Jean-Luc came by afterwards and we had already closed the box, but he told us to open it again, because he was taking pictures of all of the cakes. He said, "You guys did a good job." Which maybe he would say to everyone, no matter what, but I'll take it!
And then it was clean-up time. We got to leave super early today because Jean-Luc basically decided that we wouldn't start any rotation-related thing today. So, the rotations will go until Wednesday instead of Tuesday next week. By about 10:45 a.m. we were pretty much all cleaned up and got to go home! It was nice to finish early after feeling like we are always the last ones done cleaning up.
Now that I've worked with fondant once, I am not as terrified of the prospect of working with it. I do definitely want to practice making figurines and decorating cakes in the meantime and now I know how. So, yay. Also, making cakes is going to be super easy at home now because MY KITCHENAID ARRIVED IN THE MAIL. I can't wait to take it out of the box and make something amazing.
---
Today's Recipes
Chocolate Genoise
Swiss Buttercream
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Back in Breadness
Today was the first day in the bread section, which I was generally
pretty excited for. I loved this section the first time around. I think
the stress from the holiday cakes is infringing on my bread-related
excitement, because I just felt very anxious while we were making
everything today. I may have just been trying to figure out when would
be a good time to make my genoise. Which I managed to do eventually. I
tried to make a Swiss buttercream for it after class was over, but
rushing is not a good technique for me and I overwhipped it so it looked
pretty sketchy. Oh well. I am just going to go in early tomorrow and
try to get as much done as possible. I think I would rather make a
German buttercream than a Swiss anyway.
The demonstration today was how to decorate a yule log / roulade, which he made earlier last week. At this point, it was baked and iced with Swiss buttercream and rolled into a log. Then he iced the outside and decorated it. After the demonstration, he asked our group to decorate the second one and then take them out to the cafeteria. The decorations were made out of marzipan, meringue (or royal icing), and chocolate.
The demonstration today was how to decorate a yule log / roulade, which he made earlier last week. At this point, it was baked and iced with Swiss buttercream and rolled into a log. Then he iced the outside and decorated it. After the demonstration, he asked our group to decorate the second one and then take them out to the cafeteria. The decorations were made out of marzipan, meringue (or royal icing), and chocolate.
Today we* made:
- Dough for "tiger bread" or Dutch Mottled Bread
- Dough for focaccia
- Mixture for cornbread
- Dough for Challah
- "Sour" for Sourdough
*By "we" I sometimes mean one person from our group and sometimes I just mean "I".
Aside from the cornbread, they are all a straight dough method (so, everything in the bowl at once). The cornbread we already made, so it was exactly the same as the first time we did it.
Once the dough for the tiger bread had doubled in size, we took it out and put it in the divider, then rolled the pieces into balls. These then went in the proofer. Before we did any of this though, we made the "topping" for the tiger bread, which is what makes it have the cracked appearance. It is important to time it well, because making the topping too early or too late would reduce the amount of cracking when it is brushed onto the rolls. After the rolls had been in the proofer for a bit, we took them out and brushed them with the topping and then baked them in the deck oven for about 15 minutes, until golden brown.
For the focaccia, we chopped up rosemary, basil, and sage and mixed them with olive oil to brush on our dough. We spread some of this onto a sheet of parchment paper on a baking tray and rolled the dough out (just with our hands) to the size of a small baking tray. Then, we brushed the top with the olive oil / herb mixture as well. This also went in the proofer. Once out of the proofer, we used two fingers to poke holes along the surface of the focaccia (the "pattern"). I think it may have been brushed with olive oil / herbs again, but we were all sort of working on a bunch of different things at this point, so it's hard to say.
At some point, I made my genoise, which is almost exactly the same as a sponge cake except that melted butter is added at the end, so it results in a heavier cake. Otherwise, the method is the same. Bring egg whites and sugar to room temperature, whisk until quadrupled in size, fold in sifted flour and cocoa powder (and then add melted butter). This took about 25 minutes in the deck oven at 325 degrees.
One person in the group also made the "sour" for the sourdough, which was essentially three ingredients mixed together and then put in a bucket for tomorrow. The recipe was multiplied by five so there would be enough for everyone, but we didn't each make our own batch.
The jalapeno cheddar cornbread was pretty straightforward because we had all done it before. The only thing is that some of them got a little well done in the oven, so that was too bad. I didn't take any pictures [or samples], but at least I know they were good the first time...
For the challah, we divided the dough into 150g pieces and then rolled each of these into a long strips. We then braided three of the strips together which took me a second to get and I had to unravel mine a few times, but eventually I understood it. Basically, it is the same as braiding hair but for some reason I was doing a weird thing where I thought it wasn't. There was a bit of extra dough left over, so in true form, I made a baby challah which I got to take home. Yay! I haven't tried it yet, but I'm definitely excited to. The challah went into the proofer as well. After it came out, we egg-washed it and then put it in the deck oven. They turned out beautifully golden brown and looked delicious.
The clean-up seemed like it took forever today, but that's probably because we all wanted to try to do it as fast as possible so we could work on our cakes. When we were eventually done cleaning up, I tried to make a Swiss buttercream because I thought it would be the easiest one to make. I was doing okay until I overwhipped it or did something weird once the butter had been added and it just looked really gross. I think that if I went in early enough and made a batch of pastry cream, I could pull of a German buttercream in enough time to cut the cake into three layers, ice it, and put it in the blast freezer. Even as I'm typing that, I don't think it's true. So, maybe I'll just come early and then make the Swiss buttercream better. Sounds like a plan.
Tomorrow for the holiday cake, I really wanted to have it sliced and iced in the hour before everyone else comes, because that will put me in a spot where what we have to do is just decorations. I worry that 7:30-11:00 isn't that much time to make a lot of decorations and cover a cake in fondant; sometimes it seems like forever and sometimes it seems like no time at all. I guess we'll find out...
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Today's Recipes
Dutch Mottled Bread
Focaccia
Southwestern Cornbread
Challah
Chocolate Genoise
Sour (for Sourdough)
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
The last chocolate.
Today was the last day in the decoration room. I'm not sure I'm ready to
re-enter the kitchen tomorrow, though I am excited to be in the bread
section again. It looks a little bit more complicated this time around
but we get to make a lot of really cool things like focaccia and
challah. So, that will be fun.
The other big thing happening this week is we are making our Christmas/Holiday/Winter-themed cake for the Festival of Trees cake auction this Thursday. Jean-Luc's demonstration today was how to cover a cake in fondant, which was exciting. Although cakes covered in fondant may not be my go-to method of cake decorating, I am glad that we are finally going to experiment with it. He then showed us a bunch of different decorations that he made out of various ingredients, mostly sugar and isomalt. He also made some snowflakes with royal icing using a stencil. We also have to have at least three marzipan figurines on our cake. He made adorable polar bears on a pressed sugar base. I have some ideas, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to execute them as well as it all looks in my head. I have some marzipan to practice with at home tonight. So, we'll see how that goes.
It didn't seem like we did that much today, but what we did do apparently took up a lot of time. We started by making nougatine to put on top of the Arabica chocolate. Nougatine is essentially a dry caramelization of sugar mixed with sliced almonds. This is then poured onto a sheet of parchment paper to cool. Once it cooled down, we crushed it into smaller pieces by rolling a rolling pin over it. After this was done, we were ready to start dipping our chocolate ganache. We used our dipping tools for the first time this semester and dipped the coffee-flavoured ganache pieces into a bowl of dark chocolate. Then we set them on a baking tray and sprinkled a bit of nougatine over it. It was relatively straightforward, it just took a LONG time. The chocolate needed to be melted and tempered and if we didn't work fast enough (which I didn't, obviously), we had to re-melt and re-temper it. Although it was pretty repetitive, it was still fun. And the chocolates looked so good and tasted delicious. I ran into Larry as I was taking my plated chocolates down to the cafeteria and he stopped me and asked what they were. He took a bite of one and said, "These are delicious. You made these, eh? You should be very proud." (First he said, "Nah, I don't like it," and almost put it back on the plate. Do all chefs have weird senses of humour?)
After the chocolate was done, we went on our break. When we came back,
we cut up our pate de fruit into 36 pieces (smaller than the previous
group) and then rolled them in sugar. Again, pretty straightforward.
Then we put these on plates and sent them out to the cafeteria as well.
The last thing we did today was put our chocolate covered almonds in little bags tied up with ribbon. So adorable.
And that was pretty much it. We did a lot of cleaning today because there are always more cleaning duties at the end of the rotation. The one good thing about moving out of the chocolate room is that everything will no longer be covered in layers of chocolate. And I will have to wash significantly fewer marble slabs.
---
Today's Recipes
Arabica
Nougatine
Pate a Fruit
Covered Almonds
The other big thing happening this week is we are making our Christmas/Holiday/Winter-themed cake for the Festival of Trees cake auction this Thursday. Jean-Luc's demonstration today was how to cover a cake in fondant, which was exciting. Although cakes covered in fondant may not be my go-to method of cake decorating, I am glad that we are finally going to experiment with it. He then showed us a bunch of different decorations that he made out of various ingredients, mostly sugar and isomalt. He also made some snowflakes with royal icing using a stencil. We also have to have at least three marzipan figurines on our cake. He made adorable polar bears on a pressed sugar base. I have some ideas, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to execute them as well as it all looks in my head. I have some marzipan to practice with at home tonight. So, we'll see how that goes.
 |
| Jean-Luc's adorable polar bears |
It didn't seem like we did that much today, but what we did do apparently took up a lot of time. We started by making nougatine to put on top of the Arabica chocolate. Nougatine is essentially a dry caramelization of sugar mixed with sliced almonds. This is then poured onto a sheet of parchment paper to cool. Once it cooled down, we crushed it into smaller pieces by rolling a rolling pin over it. After this was done, we were ready to start dipping our chocolate ganache. We used our dipping tools for the first time this semester and dipped the coffee-flavoured ganache pieces into a bowl of dark chocolate. Then we set them on a baking tray and sprinkled a bit of nougatine over it. It was relatively straightforward, it just took a LONG time. The chocolate needed to be melted and tempered and if we didn't work fast enough (which I didn't, obviously), we had to re-melt and re-temper it. Although it was pretty repetitive, it was still fun. And the chocolates looked so good and tasted delicious. I ran into Larry as I was taking my plated chocolates down to the cafeteria and he stopped me and asked what they were. He took a bite of one and said, "These are delicious. You made these, eh? You should be very proud." (First he said, "Nah, I don't like it," and almost put it back on the plate. Do all chefs have weird senses of humour?)
The last thing we did today was put our chocolate covered almonds in little bags tied up with ribbon. So adorable.
And that was pretty much it. We did a lot of cleaning today because there are always more cleaning duties at the end of the rotation. The one good thing about moving out of the chocolate room is that everything will no longer be covered in layers of chocolate. And I will have to wash significantly fewer marble slabs.
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Today's Recipes
Arabica
Nougatine
Pate a Fruit
Covered Almonds
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