Ice Cream and Practice

I woke up bright and early Monday morning to attend ice cream class at school. That sounds weird, right? It was freezing cold, but I still managed to taste all of the ice creams, sorbets, and parfaits on offer.

I didn't have too much since I didn't want to walk out drunk and gassy. Why? Most of the ice creams were flavoured with alcohol and I'm also lactose intolerant. Oopsies.

I've been trying to practice the exam dishes such as the coffee eclairs, but I usually end up with more questions than when I began. The recipes are also a bit much so I always end up with leftover batter and stuff.

Wasting food is a pet peeve of mine so I made a gateau st Honore with the leftover choux dough and creme patissiere. I cooked up some caramel for the gateau and I used the leftovers to attempt some spun sugar. It turned out alright, but I definitely see the advantage of having a sugar tool for the job instead of just a fork. My kitchen shopping list keeps growing by the minute!

J's office couldn't believe their luck when I showed up with eclairs and a bonus gateau! I'm just glad that I have people willing to eat my practice pieces or I'd have to start rolling down the pavement!

Week 8: Cake and More Cake

It's been all about cakes this week, starting with the Gateau St Honore. It's a combination of pate brisee, pate de choux, caramel, and creme patissiere. I garnished mine with toasted almonds and crystallised violets. I was actually really pleased with how it came out! I just need to make my choux a bit smaller and make my piping more slanted for a more defined chevron pattern.

 

I really enjoyed making this cake as it tests a lot of the pastry making skills we should have by now and it's also an exercise in time management since you're constantly bouncing back and forth from all the different elements.

The next cake we had was the charlotte aux cassis, which is a cake with blackcurrant Bavarian mousse and a blackcurrant glacage with white chocolate piping. We watched as the chef demonstrated all the different borders that we could pipe on our cakes, and we were all depressed. Piping with chocolate is hard!

Luckily, mine turned out not as badly as I anticipated. Whew. My piping could still definitely use work, but I didn't feel the need to tear my hair out in frustration, which is a big improvement over earlier attempts!

We had a bit of a scare in the kitchen during this practical. In order to remove the cake from its mold, it's necessary to lightly blowtorch the metal mold. Can you see where I'm going with this? We have a bit of a Disaster Jane in our class, and she ended up blow torching a piece of parchment paper that went up in flames. Instead of tamping the fire out, she tried to put it out by blowing on it! Um, not a candle! My partner and I ended up pushing her aside to put the flames out, and I approached her carefully to turn the blowtorch off, which she had on this whole time. Geez.

Better luck next week!