Choux + Caramel = Glorious Pastries

Oh what a day. Yesterday's morning was....rough. It began with me turning on the burner I thought the tea pot was on, but instead, turning on the burner beneath the enamel coated colander. Now, this is where I learned the first important lesson. It's probably not best to let your pots and pans dry on the stove over night. But! This gets tricky when you only have 7"x18" of counter space. So, I usually let my pots and pans dry on the stove. But, I also happened to let my cute little teal colander dry there too one night. (At least I've never left towels on the stove). So, in about a minute and a half, of sitting on the wrong burner, the colander essentially turned to ash. Pretty instantly. And set the smoke detector off (make sure to keep those smoke detectors working!) And this is all before I've had my morning coffee. The day ended in me coming home to a kitchen full of ash. And having to wear a mask to keep the ash out of my lungs. Not an awesome start to the day. So, I headed off to school, where we continued to working with Choux dough. The morning was going fine, I had done some nice piping, made a good caramel, and was ready for lunch. Where I proceeded to drop my hamburger, and plate on the floor of the student lounge. Which resulted in a sad hamburger, and a lot of shattered porcelain. But, a really nice student in the level ahead of us helped me clean it up. So sweet. 

During these various disasters, we were working on the St. Honore Cake, which combines a pastry cream, stabilized with gelatin, and folded into an Italian Meringue, layers over Choux, and finished with the caramel little cream puffs. 

Named for the patron Saint of Pastries (who knew there as a saint for pastries) this is a few rings of Choux dough, piped in concentric circles (to look like the Target symbol) that is baked, and then stacked with baked cream puffs, filled with Creme Chiboust, and dipped in caramel. Then, the ring is filled with cream, and piped with this lovely special tip. This was a tricky dessert. But, it turned out okay. The filling is really tricky, because it if sits for too long, it begins to separate, so you have to make, and pipe this ring of Choux dough pretty quickly. 

So, needless to say, it was a long day. But, I decided, that if you can make it home from school after a day like that, through 3 o'clock San Jose rush hour traffic without getting in an accident, and you can pipe a nice Creme Chiboust, you're doing alright. So here it is - St. Honore Cake. And one I'm pretty happy with. I think it turned out alright. Then, I went home, cleaned up a disaster, and made some homemade ricotta. Turns out, ricotta is pretty comforting. And delicious when used to fill muffins, which I brought to class the next day.

We also made Gougeres,  which are lovingly referred to as "Cheesy Puffs" around school. There are Choux dough, mixed with Parmesan, Gruyere, Paprika and Cayenne, then baked unti puffy, and toasty cheesy. They make a delicious snack, and I even managed to lift up my face mask, and pop a few in my mouth while cleaning up ash. They made the afternoon quite a bit better.

Today! Glad to have yesterday over and done with, to start again on a new day. Which turned out to be quite a pleasant day. Today, we made croquembouche, which is the super traditional wedding cake of France. After class, we were discussing them with Chef Bruno, one of the Culinary chefs, who was born and raised in the Northern part of France, and he said the French use this dessert for nearly everything, from weddings, to baptisms, (he said  "baptismes"), family reunions and birthdays. This was a really fun, quite relaxing day, of piping little rounds of Choux, dipping them in caramel, and assembling them into a cone shape. This cone shape is deceptively hard to achieve too. It's definitely an exercise in thinking ahead, and using small incremental changes to create a big-picture finished product.  

Then, after class, we had a guest chef-demo with Matt Greco, the executive chef at Wente Vineyards up in the valley. We sat, drank wine from the vineyards, ate from a charcuterie platter he brought (Wente raises their own beef), and watched as he prepared an appetizer of clams and chorizo over homemade croutons. Then, at the end, a friend of mine snuck up through the crowds, and managed to snag the last little piece of charcuterie for me, as a surprise. Today was a better day. 

Something fun about the Croquembouche - meaning "crack in the mouth" - is that each turns out to be really indicative of the person who made it. 

Here's mine - very classic. Very, very classic. 

The decorations were intended to look like branches, although they may look more like sea coral than branches. When you look at it, just imagine branches. But I didn't dip my little cream puffs in any sort of topping. I think the deep amber caramel is really beautiful, so I stuck to that. 

But some of my class mates turned out really cool - here they are.

The green is pistachios, the brown is cocoa nibs, the white is pearl sugar, and then he also has some with almonds. All the extra decorations are extra Choux dough, piped.

The blue is coconut, mixed with food coloring in the food processor. 

This one has a bird, and the other has the "ICC", which stands for The International Culinary Center. It was really an exciting day for Pastry 1 students - this was our first project to be displayed in the hallway. Since we had the Wente Vineyards chef demo today, there were lots of people roaming the halls this afternoon, who got to take a look at the finished products. 

This is the whole table lined up..

I think the color gradient on this one is really neat.

Now, for an exam tomorrow. Eclairs and Paris Brest. 

Cheers.

A Cute Litte Cabbage.

This week's unit - a quick little unit! Only five days of class - is Pate a Choux. Choux, in French, means cabbage, and is used as a term of endearment. And after you see these little things, you're going to want to call them your little cabbage too. We made eclairs on Friday, but, I refrained from taking any pictures because we made so. many. eclairs. Turns out, they're the the favorite of the building! Everybody loves eclairs. Men, women, pastry students, culinary students, instructors, administrative staff, janitorial staff - everybody wanted an eclair. But I did manage to take some pictures of what we did today. The Choux is fun because we just make a huge batch in the morning, and then pipe it all day long into various shapes, filling these shapes with various cream bases.

First, we made little swans. Everybody got such a kick out of turning them into heart shapes, with the heads of each craning towards each other. As soon as our chef plated the dessert, everybody in the room let out an "Awwweee". Tis the season I suppose. These were piped choux, filled with vanilla pastry cream and fresh raspberries, then topped with whipped cream, and assembled.

Then we made profiteroles. A very classic dessert, these are little balls of Choux, filled with homemade vanilla ice cream, and finished with chocolate sauce. So yummy. 

 And finally, the Paris-Brest. Named for a bicycle race in France, this is a ring of three layers of Choux, piped and baked, then egg washed, sprinkled with almonds, then sliced in half. Next, we made a Hazelnut cream, made from Vanilla Pastry Cream, mixed with butter, and praline paste (a sweetened hazelnut and almond paste), and whipped until light and fluffy. Then, it is piped in shell shapes around the inside of the really lovely dessert. So classically French, and so delicious.

I just think the inside is so pretty...even prettier than the outside. Because that inner circle is so tight, the shells get really close together, and make a lovely design. 

Cheers.

I Heart Northern California

It has been pretty cold and rainy this week - on Tuesday it started raining around 9am, and didn't stop until about 7pm Wednesday evening, which is quite the concept for a Colorado Girl - but! Today I woke up to a wonderfully warm and sunny day. So, I packed up the bike basket, loaded the bike on the back of my little car, with "Explore The South Bay by Bike" in hand, and headed to the ocean. Today's adventure really sums up all of the reasons I love Northern California. I took the Freeway - California Freeways STILL amaze me! - went to a bakery, rode my bike through the mountains and the ocean in the same day, went to a produce shop to by pears, and found a cute little gift shop called Three Little Birds. I am constantly thrilled by seeing new things, and going places I've never been before. Here's my day in Aptos, California. 

The Pacific Ocean! I am currently reading Flyboys, by James Bradley (who also wrote Flags of Our Fathers), in which he writes, "If all the world's landmasses were placed in the Pacific, there would still be room left over for an additional Africa, Canada, United States, and Mexico." It's amazing to live by such a great ocean. 

The view from the road...

On the beach...

Knitting on a pier, overlooking the Pacific. While I was sitting on the bench, this woman walks past and says to her friend, "I can't imagine a better place to knit." And I couldn't agree with her more.

Franz, by road bike, all rigged up. Usually, I can carry enough stuff in my jersey pockets (phone, Driver's License, keys) but today, I wanted to carry a little more. I knew I'd end up on the beach, so I packed an Asian Pear, my knitting, and some crackers. Lucky for me, my bike basket, that usually lives on my townie bike fits perfectly between the bars on my road bike. Needless to say, got a few hoots and hollers from other riders, wishing they had rigged their bikes up too. Love it.

Gayle's Bakery in Capitola. A Peach and Ollalieberry Galette. Lovely. 

And a Peanut Butter Cookie! I adore Peanut Butter Cookies. Especially like this one...crumbly, crunchy...rolled in sugar...yummy.

Things in the cute home decorating store Three Little Birds. This was a big ol dead tree, covers in little knitted sleeves. So cute! And a great use for scrap yarns that don't necessarily need to match..

This really beautiful window-turned-shadow box, with the house and flowers all made from paper..so pretty. 

The ride home. 

Cheers.

Tarts No More!

This afternoon wrapped up the Tarts and Cookies unit of Level 1. While I'm excited for the next unit, I must confess a deep sadness sweeps over me, as I will not be bringing home a batch of cookies every day for my freezer. The tarts quickly became too much for one person to bring home, forcing me to find people who would eat them, but the cookies? The cookies always came home with me, for I adore them. Pull a few out from the freezer each night, make a cup of tea, dunk and sip. My oh my I love them. Particularly for days like these, where its been raining since about five in the afternoon yesterday, and I have my mother's blanket draped over my lap as I write.
So as I eat my cookies, and drink my tea, I'll wrap up this week. Beginning on Tuesday, (since we had Monday off!) we worked on Quick Tarte Tatins, a French Caramel Nut Tart and Bourbon Pecan Cookies.
The Quick Apple Tarte Tatin is called this because it is prepared by placing caramel, then apple slices in a tart ring, and topping it with Sucree (tart dough), instead of the traditional Puff Pastry. And although these were delicious, rumor around the school has it that they are nothing compared to the real deal. Having had a Tarte Tatin in Paris, I can hope that our recipe will be quite similar. For a true Tarte Tatin can be truly outstanding. These did turn out quite cute though, because you drape the dough over the apple slices, and it sort of falls around the apples as it bakes, making a wavy bottom crust. So intensely looking forward to the Puff Pastry unit, where we do this for reals.

So the main lesson objective for Tuesday was caramels. I am continually so intrigued by the order the class is laid out. Having come into the school with a basic understanding of all the units, the structure seemed fairly random at first. However, now that we have completed a full unit, I think it's simply brilliant. Starting with a tart unit was a great way to incorporate basic dough mixing methods, various caramels, an introduction to chocolate work, and an introduction to caramels, we have really covered some ground with tarts and cookies alone. 

After making the Caramel for the Tarte Tatin, we made a more complex caramel for the French Caramel Nut Tart. The Tatin caramel is simply burnt sugar - water and sugar brought to a boil, past a few of the candy stages, onto a nice amber color. This caramel has the addition of Milk (used as a fat source) and Glucose (for texture) and Walnuts. It is then spread over a crust, and topped with almond cream, and baked to perfection. Rich, but not over-the-top intense, this made a really lovely dessert. 

Then for the cookies. Man oh man. A basic pecan shortbread dough, but with a slight addition of Bourbon, rolled up, sliced, brushed with an egg wash and topped with a pecan half...these suckers are addicting I tell you. So buttery, so tender, so wonderfully nutty and toasty. 

My love for Bavaria and Austria flourished on Wednesday when we made Linzer Torte. At my job in Germany, I ate a Linzer Cookie every singe afternoon, at the end of my shift. I would change out of my uniform, snag a powder sugar covered cookie, and stroll the streets of Regensburg, ofter to a small park overlooking the Danube. This park is neatly tucked back in a corner, gated with brick walls, and a very serene place to unwind after a day of learning to bake in German. But here, I walked away from school, eating my Linzer Cookies, and over looked Steven's Creek. not quite the Danube, but, for today, I can imagine I'm back. 

The Linzer Tart consists of tart dough, a layer of Almond Cream, a layer of Homemade Raspberry Jam we made in class - first time learning about Pectin - and topped with a gorgeous lattice. 

And the cookies - just so cute! I first became obsessed with these after Martha Stewart Living Magazine published square Linzer Cookies on the cover of their February issue, with heart cutouts in the center. Those are Pecan with Cherry Jam, and quite scrumptious. Perhaps even more so than these. But, these are truly a classic. And look at em. It's hard not to love them. 

As I am writing this, I had to stop mid sentence and come back, because I forgot the Quiche! Made with Lardons (like big fat French Bacon - which beats American Bacon every time) and Gruyere, it was so yummy. Eggy, fluffy, rich, filled with Bacon, it was truly, truly delightful. 

That wraps up Tuesday and Wednesday's classes, which brings us to today. Exam Day. After 12 days working on Tarts and Cookies, we were put into a lottery system for the practical exam. We were required to produce 1-8" tart with a Sucree dough (tart dough), 2-4" Tartletts with Brisee (like American Pie Dough) and 5 Cookies from a single batch. As for the lottery system, there were four sets, each with three recipes. One included the Classic Apple Tart, Clafoutis, and Spritz Cookies. The Second included the Baked Fruit Tart, Banana Cream Tart, and Gingersnaps. The Third was the Nut Tart, the Chocolate Ganache Tarts, and the Bourbon Pecan Cookies. And the Fourth included the French Caramel Nut Tart, Quiche, and the Austrian Kipferl Cookies. If you're curious about these combinations, just hop back a few posts to see. I kept telling a classmate over and over last night that I just really didn't want the Baked Custard Tart. I thought it was slightly dull, and among the least challenging. She told me I was going to get it for sure then. But, the pastry forces worked in my favor, and I was chosen to produce and present the Nut Tart (my favorite of the entire unit), the Chocolate Ganche Tartlettes (which are a wonderful exercise in piping chocolate, and creating a perfectly smooth ganache) and the Bourbon Pecan Cookies. Which is excellent! More cookie for my fridge! I was particularly thrilled to receive this set of pastries because of all the combinations, it has the most creative freedom associated with the finishing. The template for the Nut Tart, and the piping design for the Chocolate Ganache Tart are left completely up to the baker. There are absolutely no requirements, which is quite fun.

We had from 9:30 to 1:30, with a mandatory 30 minute lunch break to do the practical exam. Then, the chef marked the time we completed it on our sheet tray, we wrote our name, and she called us one by one to examine the products. The pastries are graded on Presentation, Taste and Texture. The practical as a whole is graded on Cleanliness, Organization, Mise En Place, Timing, Tool Skills, Attitude and Technique. So in addition to critiquing the pastries, she discussed the other aspects of production as well. During the test, she was simply strolling the room, taking notes on those categories as she went through the class. 

And here, here is my finished sheet tray from Exam 1 - Tarts and Cookies. 

And now for some Pride and Prejudice, knitting, and going out for Cajun food tonight with some Pastry 2 students. What a wonderful day. It feels very rewarding to wrap up a unit with an exam I'm pleased with. 

Cheers.

Home Sweet Home.

Mostly intended for my dear mother and sisters, who have been asking for pictures of my apartment, here's what you can do with a mere...235 square feet. It's small, but it's cozy. We have today off of school (MLK Day), which is nice for two reasons. One, I finished decorating the place, hanging everything, and arranging my bookcase. And Two, it's good to have a chance to get a solid amount of studying before the big first exam on Thursday. (Yikes!)
A very, very talented friend of mine painted this gorgeous painting, which I bought soon after seeing it. She's incredible in all mediums, but I just fell in love with this piece. And the colors are stunning! It then became the inspirational piece (*for those of you that know...I'm saying that in an Argentinian accent hehe) for my cute little apartment. Here is is. Love nudes, love backs, love this painting.

This painting then inspired me to use this teal and red color combination to schnaz up my desk, turned all-purpose desk/kitchen table.

Formerly an all-black hand-me-down desk from my older sister, I repainted it a dark grey, with red and teal drawers. If you only live in 235 square feet, you really have to capitalize on the drawer space wherever you can. And I got this cute little stool from a really special flea market shop down the road called "Not Too Shabby." 

While rearranging my bookcase, I took the cookbooks off the shelf, and just sort of threw them onto my little stool. And they looked so cute there! But, I need the stool for sewing, and eating and such. But I did snag a photo before putting them back on the bookcase. 

                                       

Being a creative person, I've always needed an outlet and a place for freely hanging things. In my old apartment, this involved a three foot wide, twelve foot long piece of butcher hung across the wall, so I could stick anything and everything up there. 

Here, it is a collage of things I've collected, or been given, that have some sort of special meaning, all hanging about my desk. 

From the painting, and the desk, it's really just been an explosion of red and teal hues around here, in my tiny little home. 

A red card with a ball of yarn, my Aunt and I bought on a trip to Iowa,
 to watch my cousin compete in the Big 10 Men's Gymnastics tournament.
Next to a teal staff invitation for a trip to the MOST delicious
soft serve ice cream shop in Colorado. It hung on the door of
The Little Bird's walk in fridge. And it was a great staff field trip.

A card, from my former boss, when I left for Europe. Perfect.

An ornament my Aunt made for
Christmas - the bay, in red and teal.

A painting I bought in Madrid this fall.
It's hard to see here, but the tan is actually copper. 

Even the magnet and the magnet strip follow suit

Part of this wall hanging my dear sister gave me.
 It reads, "Just wait until you see what is possible when you shine
your little light on the world!" and "There are very few who
possess something of that spirit that will brighten whatever they touch."
Such a special gift. 

Even the napkins are teal in a red drawer!

Knitting bag my sister made, and a set of crafty books. 

My mom makes each of us an afghan when we graduate
from high school (the GREATEST graduation gift!)
It often hangs on the back of my futon bed,
or folded up as a cushion on the stool. 

 Around the rest of my little kitchen...

A basket in the kitchen for cookbooks, and house plants,
and a plethora of aprons. Oy yoy yoy.
You know you are a baker when...you move across the
country, and the majority of your car is taken up with
boxes of cookbooks and aprons. 

The top portion conveniently doubles as a place for
dry produce, like onions, potatoes, garlic, and the occasional shallot. 

I have so many artistic and talent friends! My dear, dear friend Averie made me these awesome "utensils" for my birthday present. Made of contact paper, I could freely stick them anywhere! And they fit perfectly between my counter and cupboards. So big, so bold, and so perfect for a kitchen. 

  The living room/dining room/bedroom very much an all-purpose room...

 The book, Sweet Paris, was a gift from my parents, this past Christmas, after I retured from a three-month solo trip to Europe, where I fell madly in love with Paris - the pastries, the people, the unending charm which radiates from everything, the sounds, the art, the shoes. Oh the shoes. Even the homeless people. It's really true, that everything in Paris is beautiful. While I was sitting on the couch as Christmas, flipping through the book, remembering my trip, I came across a page, with the face of a Chef I had the pleasure to meet at what I consider to be the single-most outstanding pastry shop in all of Paris. And there he was! In this book. Such a special book.
The wood is from the same trip. I picked it up as I was strolling along the English channel on my last day in Europe.
The sea glass if from a family vacation to Norther California several years ago. And here I am again.
The wooden biscuit cutter was a gift from my parents after they visited a Shaker village in the Midwest this past fall.

The best cookbooks out there.
If you are looking to buy a baking book - these are the one's to buy.

And a bird, clipped on to a Snow and Graham calendar.
We are a family of bird lovers, my mother, aunt, sisters and I .

Cheers.