Handcrafted Happiness: Sunburned in March and Addicted to California

I love Sunday mornings here, because the timing just works out really well - I wake up early enough to relax, knit a little, drink some (okay...lots of) coffee, catch up on my favorite tumblr - modernhepburn...you should all check it out - and then head out to the farmer's market on my bike, and then to church. After church, I usually head back through the farmer's market, and over to the park, where I relax some more, study for the upcoming week, and munch on whatever fruit I just bought - right now its the most delicious strawberries.

So, I have a bit of time to post some photos of the most recent stuff we've been doing in class, and the wonderful mini vacation I took this weekend down to Big Sur.

We're still on the Petit Four unit, (which ends tomorrow, after our exam), and this was the second day's tray of goodies.

These are, from left to right:

Coconut Pate de Fruit - Coconut candies similar to the consistency of Haribo gummy bears, then rolled in sugar.

Opera Torte - layers of Hazelnut Cake, Coffee Buttercream, Chocolate Ganache, and Chocolate Glaze.

Madeleines - little shell-shaped cakes, flavored with a little orange zest.

Nougat - with Walnuts, Almonds, and Dried Cherries.

Coconut Macaroons.

Coconut Pate de Fruit.

Opera Torte.

Madeleines.

Lange du Chat - Cat's Tongue - little egg white cookies with some lemon zest, that get nice and crisp, but not tough at all. Quite yummy.

We had one rogue madeleine slip forward off the tray, haha.

This is my friend Ted's tray, which I thought looked really nice, so I managed to snap a photo from him before he took the tray to another class to enjoy.

This was the final tray we did on Friday, as a last bit of practice before the exam. I don't love how big the parchment is, but I kind of ran out of time to trim it down much more - and, I really, really hate the look of gorgeous, handmade pastries on harsh metal, so I always try to lay a bit of parchment. Tomorrow, for the exam, I am going in early to snag the big square tray I used above, because it works really nicely with a clean sheet of parchment.

And another disclaimer - between the 5th and 6th row on this tray, the negative space is a little off - the chocolate covered things need to be scooted to the left a bit, away from the powdered sugar cookies. After taking all the pictures, I did scoot them all over, because I just couldn't handle it, haha. (So OCD about pastries sometimes!)

From Left to Right:

Chocolate and Vanilla Swirl and Checkerboard Cookies - (like a shortbread). These were surprisingly hard to make perfect...

Classic Petit Four Glace - little almond cakes, filled with jam, and covered in a glaze. The one's with the line are my masterpiece, haha. Everyone did really out there stuff - like swirls and hearts and flowers and whatnot, but I am so minimalistic (and becoming more so everyday).

Vacherin - these are the weirdest little things. They are little meringue cups that are baked until they are dry, and then filled with curd (either lemon or passionfruit). They are...interesting. But they look cool! Like anemone..

Petit Four Glace

Vacherin

Florentine Bars on Shortbread - so delicious. A piece of shortbread covered with a Butter, Cream, Honey, Almond and Orange Caramel, then baked for just a few minutes. Super addictive little things..

Pyramid Glace - a layer of Cake, then piped with three rings of Buttercream (mine are Vanilla, Orange, and Almond), then covered in a little Chocolate Glaze. These are the ones that needed to be scooted to the left a little, hehe.

Pyramid Glace

Russian Tea Cakes/Mexican Wedding Cookies - always a classic, and always delicious. This recipe does seem particularly delicious though..

Dome Glace - similar to the other glazed ones, this is a ring of cake, covered with a dome of Buttercream, and covered in Glaze. Also super minimalistic on my part.

Little Lemon Cookies - Lemon Cookies, sandwiched with Raspberry Jam, and dipped half in Chocolate. My chef didn't notice unti I pointed it out, and it's easier to tell on the photo of the whole tray, but I alternated the cookies to make stripes - one Chocolate, one Lemon...you might have to squint to tell completely, but I thought it was like a little stroke of something very pleasing to the eye, hehe.

They really are quite fun to put together - the Petit Fours, as a unit, are an exercise in precision and consistency, which I love. I simply adore standing at my station, in silence, making sure that every cut perfectly mimics the one before...then arranging super straight lines. Quite satisfying. And tomorrow, for my exam, it is a lottery system, and the four Petit Fours I got all work really nicely together, and will make a very pretty tray I think. I have the tray all planned, and drawn out, so hopefully it goes over well. One of the other chefs in the school is coming in to assist our chef with the grading - his background is all in hotel work in New York, so he has arranged tray after tray of Petit Fours, and will be a very hard, and critical grader, which I am very much looking forward to.

Friday afternoon my dear friend Sarah and I headed down to Big Sur to go camping for the night, and to check out a certain beach. Along the way we found some great things, including the Big Sur Bakery, which has the best coffee I've had in California so far, and really, really excellent pastries. Not to mention, the MOST beautiful cookbook, and restaurant. Loved it.

Delicious cappuccino.

Such a cute sign! (Plan on coping this one day...)

They called this Strudel, but instead of Phyllo dough, it was croissant dough, and soooo good. I kind of hate Strudel normally, but with the croissant dough instead of the Phyllo, it was so delicious.

And here's just a long collection of photos from Pfeiffer Beach...they don't even need any captions, or explanation. This is the most gorgeous place on Earth. Enjoy.

She's so tiny!

We chose this beach (which is REALLY off the beaten path...there's not even a sign from the road...you just have to know which mailboxes to turn at) because it has Purple Sand!! We were freaking out.