Tuesday 08/21
Despite the consistent downpour that was happening in NYC this Tuesday, I managed to get to school only slightly dampened as opposed to completely soaked. Storing my umbrella and rain boots securely, I got dressed and headed into the Pastry I Kitchen.
Day 4 of the Classic Pastry Arts program was probably the most jam packed so far. Each day is outlined on the front board and the one for 8/21 had TEN main tasks to accomplish in 5 hours. We started in with the Gingersnap cookie dough that we had made in class on day 3. The dough was cut into 20g pieces. Once those were in their 350 degree home, it was time for clean up and pressing onto the next task. (Each person made up their own individual tray with rows of 3 and 4 cookies...totaling 28 cookies per sheet, therefore 28 cookies per person. Each team did end up having extra dough, which we could take home to finish baking, etc.) Each 20g piece was rolled to lighten the consistency and ultimately the color of the dough itself. Once rolled, each ball of dough was then coated in granulated sugar and placed on a parchment lined baking sheet to go into the oven. They were staggered to allow proper air flow through the pan, therefore giving even spreading during the baking process.
Oh SNAP its the SNAPS!:
Clean up followed, then it was onto the Creme d'Amandes (almond cream with almond paste). Almond paste is essentially 50% almond and 50% sugar. It is also used to make marzipan. The almond paste is creamed together with butter (the process is called 'Blanchir' or to make white), then eggs are incorporated. Next, the pastry cream powder dives into the mix and you also have the option of adding rum or other alcohol for flavoring. Once everything is combined, the Creme d'Amandes must be refrigerated. It was super simple to make and smelled incredible!
**There are substitutions for the pastry cream powder if none is readily available to you. Try flour or cornstarch, but the amount you add should be increased (from the amount of pastry cream powder in the original recipe) by one-third.
With Creme d'Amandes in the fridges, it was time to move on to poaching the pears for our Tarte Bourdaloue. First task was to quarter the recipe used in the coursebook. Because each team was making their own seasoned/poached pears, there was no reason to make such a giant amount of Liquide de Cuisson. This poaching liquid was equal parts water and white wine, sugar, vanilla bean, and lemon juice. We were also allowed to make our own seasoning for the pears out of a myriad of spice choices. My tablemate trusted my judgement to create the mix, so I returned with a blend of cinnamon stick, ainse, fennel, pink peppercorns, cloves, and juniper berries. Pears themselves are a mild fruit that takes on what its cooked with quite well, so I thought that the combination would be amazing. Once all the ingredients of the Liquide de Cuisson were brought to a boil, the pears were added cut side down and the heat was reduced to a simmer. The ideal temperature for a poaching liquid is around 180 degrees farenheit, or just before boiling. This is because you want to cook the pears slowly and allow them to really absorb all the flavors from the spices you've added. The pears were turned cut side up after a few minutes in the 'hot tub' because we really wanted the sides that would face up on the tart for presentation to be spot on. They turn a lovely speckled fall shade of beige and brown. Testing for doneness involved a paring knife inserted into the middle of the fruit and very little resistance occurs. When the pears are cooked, they are set on a cooling/drying rack to settle before they are used for the Tarte Bourdaloue topping.
Pears are cooling and we are moving on to baking our pre-rolled Brisee shells for Tarte aux Fruit Fraiches. Some of the Creme d'Amandes that was made not too long ago was going to be used in this as a baked filling. When dealing with tarts or desserts in general that have a fresh fruit topping, this is common practice. The creme browns nicely in the oven and actually resembles cheesecake filling after its baked. The perfect round baked ring in the middle of the tart looked good enough to eat even without the fruit topping on it!
After those got slid into the ovens, it was onto our first baked custard: Pots de Creme au Chocolat. A couple of the processes in this (particularly for the finished product) were some of my favorites for the day. But first, lets talk about what a baked custard really is. Simply put, a custard is a mix of liquid and egg that thickens when heated (due to coagulation of egg proteins) The consistency of a custard is related to the amount of eggs in the mix. For baked custards (one of the three types of custards), the liquid (milk and heavy cream) is scalded before the addition of the eggs. It reduces cooking time overall and helps the custard cook more evenly. The actual baking takes place in a bain marie (or water bath) at a temperature no higher than 300 degrees F. As in any custard, too much heat too fast could have an adverse effect on the finished product. Here a higher temperature increses the chance of curdling. For our Pots de Creme, we melted chocolate into the boiling milk/cream mixture then added it with egg, egg yolk, sugar, and salt. The entire thing was strained through a chinois to eliminate any lumps that might have occured. To save time, we all strained our mixes into communal pots then poured ourselves 2 ramekins per table of pots de creme. Sometimes there might be a foam that develops on the surface, which you never want to bake because it just doesn't look right...that is easily skimmed off the top with a piece of plastic wrap or paper towel. Once the custards are baked, they are immediately removed from their water bath and put somewhere to cool off. If they were left in the bain marie, they would just continue to stew and become over cooked. And lets be honest, no one wants overcooked chocolate custard. Highlights of the day: The use of the ramekins really excited me because I like the idea of individualized desserts. The bain marie is close to my heart because I use that when I'm 'cheesecaking.'
Pots de Creme ready to go and we were cleaned up and getting right into finishing our Tarte Bourdaloue. One thing to keep in mind readers: when you see Bourdaloue, automatically think of pears and almonds. We took more of the creme d'amandes we from earlier and used that as a filling. Our cooled poached pears (5 halves per tart) were then sliced across the core and fanned in a star pattern on top of the creme d'amandes. Any open spaces were filled with raw sliced almonds. By the time the Bourdaloue's were ready to be baked the Pots de Creme were out of both the oven and their water baths. A rosette of Creme Chantilly and chocolate shavings completed the presentation.
My Bourdaloue!As for the finish for the Tarte aux Fruit Fraiches, we had free range as to how we could decorate with Orange supremes, sliced kiwis, and fresh strawberries. Peeling and slicing fruit can be not only a tedious, meticulous task, but quite a messy one as well. Nothing compares with the job of extracting orange supremes or the de-pithed segment of orange in between membranes. I'm not sure the de-pithed is really a correct term to use...but its my blog, ha. Again, I apologize for the tardiness of the photo postings all. Once another copy of FinePix viewer makes it to my hands, the photos of the deliciousness will be all yours! With the last few minutes of time left in the day, everyone whipped up another batch of Pate Sucree to use next class. We're getting pretty good at the doughs now simply because we've been making them over and over again. The only one we haven't delved into yet is the Pate Sablee ('sandy' dough) which is more of a shortbread than anything else. In then end, both the Bourdaloue and Tarte aux Fruit Fraiches were topped with the Apricot nappage. Yet another night where Ms Jones had her arms and backpack full with things to bring home.
Finished Tarte aux Fruits Fraiches:
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Thursday 08/23
DAY 5 - Another HUGE itinerary awaited myself and my fellow Pastry I classmates today. Two large tarts, batches of both Brisee and Creme Patissiere, Vanille Kipferls, and a lecture on conversions.
First up, Pate Brisee. If I haven't mentioned this before, making Brisee is one of the most tedious processes we've encountered in the Pastry I kitchen. However, the end result of Brisee, if done correctly, it worth all the labor that goes into the dough itself. After sablage, frisage, division, wrapping, chilling, and cleanup, everyone whipped out their recipes for Vanille Kipferls (Viennese Vanilla Crescents). These remind me of the crumbly butter cookies covered in powdered sugar that you see running rampant around the holidays. High flour content, ground hazelnuts, and held together by butter and powdered sugar. **You can get ground hazelnuts as hazelnut flour OR just toast, cool, and grind your own in a food processor.** When the dough was mixed, it was left at our stations to sit at room temperature. Since it was to be hand rolled later, we didn't want it TOO cold to handle.
From this point on in the day, it was really about preparing for finishing works in progress. We rolled out the two rounds of Pate Sucree we had made at the tail end of Tuesdays class for 1 large tart ring and 4 tartelette shells (which were to be saved for use next class). We also took one of the chilled mounds of brisee that had been formed first thing that afternoon and gave it the good college try to roll that into a large ring as well. Each brisee shell had to Cuire a Blanche, and that took place after it had been rolled and filled with baking beans.
When they were CAB'ing, we were wrist deep into our second go at Creme Patissiere. Again, the real key to the texture you want out of your pastry creme is the whisk action. If you are not constantly and consistently whisking you'll end up with lumps from coked eggs. After 2 minutes of circling (ie: when your hand/wrist feels like its going to fall off), the creme was left to cool in plastic wrap on a baking sheet. The cuire a blanche was done on the brisee shells and they were cooling as we geared up to assemble the Tarte Alsacienne.
Many of the tarts we had done before had shells that needed to be docked to allow for steam ventilation during crust baking. Not so with the Tarte Alsacienne. The filling for it was quite runny so anything we put it into before baking had to be sealed properly. If it wasn't, then there would have been custard all over the inside of the ovens. It would have smelled great, but clean up would have been horrendous. The filling had two components: caramelized and flambeed apples and a custard out of egg, sugar, milk, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Apple slices were first browned in butter on the stovetop, then sugar was added and caramelization began. Once they had turned a nice rich brown color, brandy was added to flambe the apples and allow any liquid in the pan to thicken up. Flambe is truly an art. The hand have to move in time with the arms and in harmony with the alcohol and heat source. Definitely not for the faint of heart. The apples were then set aside to cool as the custard was prepared and pushed through a strainer to make sure it was smooth and sleek. We took our pre-baked brisee tart shell and arranged our apple slices in the bottom of it. Once they were places, the fine custard was poured in and filled the inside the rest of the way. It was then put back in the oven an 250 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. With custards, time and temperature are very important. The cook time on this would have been much longer and, consequently, the custard would have been overcooked, if we didn't pre-bake the shell. This wasn't one of my favorite projects but that's just because when the tart cooled, the custard began to pull away from the sides of the appled. This left gaps everywhere and I'm not sure how they could/can be prevented. The finished product is beautiful right away, but I think this is one that should be served immediately simple for aesthetic reasons.
Creative control was give to us once again as we shifted gears to the individual Tarte aux Fruits. This particular shell was docked, then filled with creme patissiere and topped with graham cracker crumbs. Cake crumbs could also be used if you had them readily available. The supply list for the day apricot halves on it, therefore, that's what we used. Each half was split into thirds (after they had been freed from their aluminum jail and thoroughly drained) and placed round side down in a sort of bulls-eye formation on top of the graham crumbs. It was then baked at 350 degrees until the shell was completely baked through.
WIth the Tarte in the oven, Vanille Kipferls kept our hands and minds busy. Balls of dough were hand rolled and shaped into 20g crescents. The hand rolling really aided in the dough softening process, which was much needed because the texture was so crumbly to begin with. Each student made 20 crescents each and they were sent off to the 350 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes. As soon as they came out of the oven, they were rolled in vanilla sugar and left to cool. Its imperative to roll them in the sugar when they are still warm, otherwise whatever you're rolling them in will never stick the way its supposed to.
They came out right after our Tarte aux Fruits were done too! This tarte was particularly difficult to glaze with apricot nappage just because no matter how long you baked it, the graham and the apricots were definitely not securely rooted down. It was the same way with the almonds on the Tarte Bourdaloue. It takes a light touch and an even lighter glaze to do the job right.
Tarte aux Fruits:
Day number 5 was rounded out with a lecture on US-Metric volume, weight, and temperature conversions. AND we received our first real homework assignment. Converting all the US volume/weight measurements in the recipe for Chocolate Heaven Cookies into metric so we could bake them for the next class.
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Saturday 08/25
DAY 6 - Shorter itinerary due to more sanitation lecture! But despite the less labor intensive beginning to the class, then rest of it held Chocolate Heaven Cookies, Fig Newtons, a 'galette' brisee dough, and Tartelettes aux Fruits Frais.
This Serv-Safe portion of lecture covered Food Safety Management Systems, active managerial control, the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) philosophy, standards for water supplies, plumbing, sewage, backup control, cleaning and sanitizing equipment, and Integrated Pest Management. While I'm sure you're all dying to know the 5 steps in Active Managerial Control focusing on controlling the CDC's 5 most common risk factors responsible for foodborne illnesses, and the proper balance of chemicals in 3-compartment sinks...I'll spare you those details. I will tell you that while we were getting our brains filled with rules and regulations, our tartlette shells we rolled out on Thursday were being Cuire a Blanc so that we could fill them later on in the afternoon. Those came out of the ovens, lecture was over, everyone did a quick round of calisthenics (ok, that part is a lie...lol) and it was into Chocolate Heaven Cookies.
Doing the actual US to Metric conversions wasn't difficult at all. One just has to keep in mind that volume is different than weight. All ingredients have different densities and it is important to pay attention to what type of amount is used in each recipe. For example: in VOLUME 1 fluid oz. is equal to 29.57 milliliters. 1 pound is equal to 454 grams. In WEIGHT 1 ounce is equal to 28.37 grams. Yadda yadda yadda. This particular recipe is as close to a flour-less cookie as we're probably going to get here at the FCI. only about 43 g in the whole thing! The main ingredients were three different kinds of chocolate (regular, unsweetened, and chips), sugar, butter (again, a small amount), eggs, and pecans. Also small amounts of coffee and vanilla extract, salt, and baking powder. The regular and unsweetened chocolate as well as the butter were melted over a bain-marie on the stove. That mixture was then folded into the light and fluffy mix of eggs, sugar, extracts, and NaCl. Lastly, the chocolate chips and pecans were folded in. The job of placing these was definitely one of the messiest we've had so far. I honestly thought they were going to spread alot more just because of the runny texture to the main dough, I mean, there's only so much stability added by chocolate chips and nuts. Much to my delight, they barely spread at all and the final product was crisp on the outside and chewy inside. The best part about the cookies is that they weren't overly sweet. The different kinds of chocolate really gave it a more bitter taste and as far as chocolate goes, the more bitter, the better. I would eat all chocolate desserts if they were prepared with 85% Cacao or more. Anyway, all's well that ends well in the land of Chocolate Heaven Cookies.
Two prep processes were then completed for our homemade Fig Newtons. The dough was different than the sucrees and brisees we had been dealing with up to this point. It was its own delectable entity. Pretty basic: butter, sugar, egg, salt, and flour. But there was something different about the texture of it...and paired with the fig filling...I couldn't wait to see how they would turn out! Anyway, the dough was done super quick. Blanchir the butter and sugar, then add in the eggs slowly, mix the flour and salt just to combine. The filling was made in a similar manner to the poached pears in that the base was water and seasonings. This time around, the figs were simmered until tender in a mix of sugar and lemon juice. I had never cooked with figs, dried or fresh before, so I was very interested to see their 'cook-down' process. The smell was incredible and the cook time was efficient. You just really had to make sure that everything was tender. Chef(s)said the easiest way to tell was to actually squeeze the figs and even taste one. No one complained about either of those. Both the uncooked dough and cooked filling were set aside to chill until we could use them (ie: Tuesdays class).
Just two more tasks to complete and that would be a wrap on week two. We grabbed one of our Pate Brisee doughs from the refrigerators and proceeded to roll it out 'galette' style. Ms Jones you say, what in St Honore's name does that mean?! Galette style means rustic, free form, or plainly, not using a tart ring. Think thin crust pizza style. Then we hand (or finger) folded the edges into themselves using an egg wash as a 'glue' to hold the edges down. FYI: basic egg wash is 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, and a pinch of salt. The galettes were hotel wrapped and put back into the fridges to chill so we could use them on Day 7.
The final project for this Saturday afternoon were the Tartlettes auz Fruits Frais. The four tartlette shells that were rolled and chilled on Thursday, and cuire a blanch this morning had sufficiently cooled enough for us to handle them. We took some of our Creme Patissiere from Thursday and also made a Creme Fouettee out of some heavy cream. Again, that process involved a lot of wrist grease I suppose you would call it, to hand whip the heavy cream with a balloon whisk until stiff peaks form. The Creme Patissiere was smoothed out through whisking and lightly flavored with liquor. It all depends on your personal palatte. The type of liquor or even use of liquor in general is totally optional as is the case in many of the recipes that include some sort of spirits. The Fouette was folded gently into the Patissiere to make a Creme Legere. The Legere was placed in a pastry bag and then piped equally into the four tartelette shells. Decoration was free range again with a selection of fruits including orange, kiwi, strawberries, and blueberries. The most important thing about the decoration though was that each tartelette had to look the same! I fashioned a topping of all the fruits that looked like a blossomed flower. Pictures are on their way, lol...I promise! Each tartlettte got a nice apricot nappage on top and they were ready to transport home. If you were going to serve them right away, no nappage would be necessary, but you could dust them with a bit of powdered sugar.
Tartelettes!
Carrying everything home was and still is a daunting task. Although I must say I enjoy seeing how wide people's eyes get when I pass them with a plethora of sweets in my scrawny arms. I am still on a high each time I leave the FCI building. I know my heart and mind are in the right place.
Week Three is next...Onion Tarts, Sanitation Exams, and giggling over Chef Tim...
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