Melt, temper, repeat.

I missed yesterday's class, which happened to be the last day in the restaurant section. That said, I spoke to my group today and the restaurant wasn't even open. We had pretty much made everything in the booklet, so they got to choose something to make and they chose raspberry macarons from the Chocolate Affaire package of recipes. They also plated the rest of the chocolate pates (they decided how to plate them) and sent them out to the cafeteria. So, all in all, it seemed like I didn't miss too much which is great.

Today was the first day of our new rotations, so it's back in the decor room for us. I somehow feel less wary about piping chocolate all of a sudden, so when I found out we were working on the chocolate butterflies today, I wasn't too apprehensive. I also knew that work in the decor room can go a lot slower, so that was good too. I don't know if the nervousness is going away because I am getting better at it, or if I was just really excited to do the butterflies, but either works for me.

First, we melted and tempered some dark chocolate and made a bunch of cornets. Then, we started piping the outlines of each butterfly wing and basically kept going until we either had at least twelve good ones or filled up our sheet of acetate. Once those were done, we melted and tempered some white chocolate and added chocolate food colouring to it (fat-soluble rather than water soluble). I actually didn't have to add the colour because I was using some already made blue chocolate. The rest of the group made a light green, which was nice as well. With the blue (or green) chocolate, we did either the inside or the outside of the butterfly. I did a bunch of insides and a bunch of outsides in blue. Then we melted and tempered some white chocolate and filled in the unfilled parts. Jean-Luc told us after the fact that this does require working a little quickly, because otherwise the dark chocolate would curl and the white chocolate would seep under and make the wings look not as good.

The wings on acetate before being joined together.

This is the back.

Once we were all done with the dark, coloured, and white chocolate, we let them dry for a while and went on break. When we got back, we melted and tempered some more dark chocolate (anyone sensing a theme?). Then we gently removed the wings from the acetate and placed them between two bars on a piece of parchment paper, with a small amount of space between each wing. Then we piped the centres of the butterflies, making three to four blobs or chocolate going all the way down the middle. We let them dry on the bars, so that when they were removed, they kept their shape.

Chilling on the bar.

In the end, they looked pretty cool. Even if the backs looked kind of sketchy, the front looked really smooth and awesome. They weren't perfect, but can't expect perfection on the first try, right? It's sort of crazy to think that the only thing that these are is piped chocolate...

Here are a bunch of pictures from various angles:

 
A few more for good measure:

[Can you tell that I loved these? Because I did.]

Our piping test is in about four weeks, so I am hoping to use the time in the decor room to practice my piping skills. At least I've chosen my ten designs. I'm a little nervous, but I feel like the only way to get rid of that is to just practice a lot.

We spent most of today working on the chocolate butterflies, but we did one more thing before calling it a day. We made a raspberry pate a fruit, which is basically a jelly candy that will eventually be cut into squares and rolled in sugar. We brought some raspberry puree to a boil, added pectin and sugar, whisked it in, added glucose and sugar, whisked that in, brought it all to a boil again and after about a minute, added a few drops of tartaric acid. After this, we immediately poured the hot mixture into a silicone pan lined with parchment paper. We left them in the pans to set and we'll likely cut and coat them with sugar tomorrow.

OH, I almost forgot, today's demonstration was how to make Stollen, which is a traditional Christmas bread that I think only Jean-Luc can pronounce correctly. The dough was made yesterday and, like brioche dough, it has to rest overnight because otherwise it would be hard to work with. It has a lot of fruits and nuts in it, so given my dislike for things in things (...), I don't think I would particularly like it. But, anyway, Jean-Luc shaped it into a ball and rolled it into a log shape, then rolled it out with a rolling pin, leaving the edges thicker. Then, he took a bunch of high-ration marzipan (60% almonds), rolled it into a small cylinder and placed it in the centre of the dough. Then, one side of the dough is folded over. Then this is baked for around half an hour (or less if you are making smaller ones). The story behind the stollen? It's supposed to represent Baby Jesus (the marzipan) in a swaddling cloth (the dough). No comment. This was just the beginning of what I think will be lots of Christmas-themed baking stuff. 'Tis the season.

Also, Jean-Luc mentioned this a week or so ago. We have to start thinking of marzipan figures to put on a Christmas/Holiday-themed cake that will be donated to the Festival of Trees, which raises funds for the Mental Health Foundation of NS. So, that's pretty cool. I think he said that the cakes are auctioned off? He mentioned that it's important to remember to give back to the community, so it's pretty cool how we're incorporating that into our classwork. And especially when the community project this time around [mental health] is something that is already something close to my heart. I have no idea what my cake will look like yet, but there is still time to figure that out. I think we're supposed to know by the 21st. We may also have to work in groups of two.

I like being in the decor room because it feels slightly more relaxed. I think I get why it comes right after the restaurant section. Though, I have to say, this rotation of restaurant wasn't actually too bad. Looking forward to making this coffee-flavoured ganache that's in our recipe package... yum.