This unit is by far my favorite unit so far. On the last day of the choux unit, our chef said, "And tomorrow, we'll be starting the Puff Pastry unit," and I blurted out (quite loudly...) "Fruit!" I am thrilled to be back working with fruit, after the Choux unit, which was so heavy in pastry creams and chocolates. While chocolate is always delicious, fruit always trumps. We made these little gems the first day of the unit. They're simply circles of puff pastry, stacked high with sliced apples. As the apples bake, they lose moisture, and shirk down. Before baking they're almost four inches high! Then they make down to these beautiful, simple, delicious fruit tarts. Cookies, almost. These little tarts exemplify what I love most about pastries - butter, flakiness, and cooked fruit. Those, are my favorite things.
We made these cute little things out of scrap dough (referred to as "demi"). They're called Papillon, meaning "Butterfly" in French. Traditionally made with five strips of dough before being twisted around, my partner was left with only three strips at the end, so she did one from three and it turned out really cute! I think I'll do that next time. But these are delicious. Very similar to Palmier, they're simply dough, rolled in sugar, so they caramelize when they bake. Simple, buttery (oh so buttery!) and caramelized. Lovely lovely.
Four strips turned out pretty cute too...
Now this was really delicious. Like some of the previous fruit tarts, we were instructed to totally mock the chef's tart. This one has a really neat assembly though. You cut a rectangle, dock it, so it doesn't have huge rise in the oven, and then egg was two-one inch strips to the sides, to make a nice little edge around the fruit. Then it's baked, and the fresh fruit is assembled. These tarts are even more delicious than the other fruit tarts, because the dough is just so, so flaky. We did the math in class, and believe that Puff Pastry has over 700 layers. Insane! But spectacular.
Mmmmm Napoleons! This gorgeous, and scrumptious dessert is made from three layers of Puff Pastry, filled with Pastry Cream, lightened with Whipped Cream (we added a bit of Kirsch to ours too!). Then, the top is sprinkled with a good amount of powdered sugar, and then branded! I'm thinking it would be quite spectacular if you knew a rancher, who could make a brand, and you could stamp a big ol signature on the top. The lines are made by taking metal skewers, letting them sit in a flame until they are red hot (they literally turn red) and then you simply touch the skewer to the surface, let it sit for no more than two seconds, then remove, and it's been nicely caramelized! The end flavor is similar to that of Creme Brulee. In class, we cook over Induction cooktops, so we had to go to the school's demo room to use a gas flame. We kept making Harry Potter joke after Harry Potter joke, as we took these wands (skewers) and made smoke! It got rowdy. Let's just say that. Teehee.
Look at that caramelization - it's just incredible!
Then scrap bits of baked Puff Pastry are smashed up and pressed into the sides of the Pastry Cream. It's such a nice, classy way to finish a dessert. And NOBODY complains about eating more Puff Pastry...
This was a really great day at school. First of all, my class is awesome, and tends to finish early each day, which leaves time for fun extra sort of things. Today, we made these little Puff Pastry cups - how cute are they? It's hard to tell in the picture, but these are only about an inch and a half in diameter. Then, because we had a spare hour at the end of the day, each team got to pick their own fillings (our first project without set recipes!) and assemble, and then we presented them to the class, and sampled everybody's. Some of the classes included - Pastry Cream with Sour Cherry Compote, Orange and Pineapple Marmalade, Flambeed Apples with Salted Caramel, and a Passionfruit Caramel. My partner and I chose to make a really deep Chocolate Ganache. She finished her's with Powdered Sugar - which looks so so cute. I sprinkled two of mine with Cocoa Nibs - which was so delicious. There were three really distinct textures and flavors happening, but they all melded really well.
THESE! I am very, very excited about the other two. For the second little cups, I filled them with the ganache, then made candied almond slices, and sprinkled them with sea salt. The sea salt was just perfect to cut the richness of the very deep ganache, and the buttery pastry. Then the almonds added spectacular flavor, and the perfect crunch to top off the creamy ganache. Just delicious.
*To make Candied Almonds* Bring a simple syrup to a boil, stir in the sliced almonds, drain off the excess syrup, toss thoroughly with turbinado sugar, spread thinly in a sheet tray, and roast at 375 degrees for about 7-8 minutes. Let them cool, and break them apart. So so yummy.
I think it's true that days that start off well, more often than not end well. After a lovely day at school, I was headed downtown to a coffee shop, to prepare for a wedding cake consultation, when I ran into a friend from school. It feels great to have friends around, and have these random things happen. We sat on a sunny downtown patio, drank a beer, and then I consulted a wedding cake for a friend, comin' up real soon. Carrot Cake, with Cream Cheese Frosting, and all fresh flowers. She's giving me total creative freedom (the best kind of bride ever!) which will be really fun come wedding day - March 9th!
Such a lovely day.
Cheers.
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