Wednesday, April 22, 2009

April 20 and April 22, 2009 -Tarts




It's been a crazy week, so I'm combining two posts into one. On Monday, we had pizza for dinner. The margherita was definitely my favorite, but there were some interesting combinations. Last night's dinner was by far the best yet: Halibut, mussels, oysters, potatoes, asparagus, and Caesar salad. Delicious and refreshing!





We were scheduled to work on tarts on Monday of this week and then bake pies, but an unexpected San Francisco heat wave shook things up a bit. Tarts can be made with a few different crusts, and the one we were primarily working with -- the sucree -- needs to be kept cold at all times. It was 90 degrees outside and even hotter in the kitchen with the ovens on, so working with and rolling out the dough was incredibly difficult. We kept having to stick dough in the freezer to cool it down every few minutes and it was softening so quickly. While most people ended up with at least one crust baked by the end of the night, only 5 out of 14 had a tart on the display table by 10 (not even our usual presentation time of 9:30). I had two mini chocolate tarts out of the oven, but they were too hot to serve, so all I ended up with was an empty crust to taste.






The crusts were tasty, and the completed tarts were both beautiful and delcious, but most of us left the kitchen exhausted and frustrated. Determined that everyone should have a chance to make a beautiful tart, our teacher Christa extended the lesson to Wednesday and put pies on hold. Fortunately, we were blessed with tart-compliant moderate San Francisco weather. Not only was working with the sucree in the heat torture, but working in the full chef uniform in the heat was pretty hellish too.






Some people had dough or pre-baked crusts left over from Monday night. The only thing I had saved was some chocolate filling, so I had to start over on the sucree. Even in cooler weather, the dough has to be chilled regularly. Making it, chilling it, rolling it, messing it up, re-chilling it, re-rolling it, chilling it again, then baking it took up a lot of my time. I have to admit, I'm still a little irritated with sucree. Though I did end up with one large chocolate tart and two small exotic fruit tarts made with Frangipane. Both were delicious and the crust came out perfectly flakey, so was well worth the time taken (I'm learning lessons in patience here).




So will I be making tarts again? Absolutely! I think tarts are one of the most gorgeous pastries out there...and I love the use of fresh fruit in desserts. It's fun to arrange, and adds so much color and flavor. The simple fresh fruit tart was my favorite, so please enjoy!


The Delicious Recipe of the Day: Fresh Fruit Tart
(Mary Risley)


For the pastry
  • 1 2/3 cups flour
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 7 Tbsp cold butter
  • 2 Tbsp vegetable shortening
  • Cold Water
For the filling
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 Tbsp flour
  • 4 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 cups scalded milk
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 Tbsp Kirsch or Cognac
For the glaze
  • 1 cup red currant jelly or apricot preserves
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • 2 Tbsp Kirsch or Cognac
  • Fruit
To make the pastry, in a bowl put the flour, the 1 Tbsp sugar, and salt. Cut in the cold fat. Add 3 to 5 Tbsp cold water. Bring together with the fingers of one hand and fraisage gently on a wooden board. Chill 1/2 hour covered in wax paper. Roll out and bake with a filling of parchment with pie weights in a 375 oven, 15 to 18 minutes. Remove the beans, prick with a fork and bake another 10-12 minutes until fully cooked. Cool on rack.


Make the custard filling: in a bowl beat the egg yolks until sticky, gradually add the sugar and beat until thick. Beat in the flours then gradually pour in the scalded milk, beating. Pour this mixture into a saucepan and bring to boil over moderate heat, stirring with whisk. When boiling, cook 2-3 minutes more over low heat. Remove Cognac. Dot with butter and and cool.


To make glaze: heat the jelly or preserves with the sugar and Kirsch or Cognac. Brush a thinn layer of this on the cooled shell. Spread over half and inch of pastry cream, cover with fruit, and paint with glaze. The fruits can be strawberries, grapes, bananas, raspberries, or poached peaches, apricots, plums, or pears.


Friday, April 17, 2009

April 15, 2009 - Meringues and buttercream


I must confess, I did not love the dinner this evening...I guess you win some, you lose some. We had a Grande Aiole and a Caesar Salad. It wasn't really filling enough and the shrimp tasted extra fishy. More room for baked goods!!


Meringues...I wasn't sure how I felt about them before, and I'm still not really sure. I've never loved meringue, the texture and over the top sweetness just leave the feeling of instant cavity in my mouth. However, I do now have a greater appreciation for them after experimenting with a few different recipes. A lot of the issues I had with texture before didn't bother me so much when accompanied by other textures such as fresh fruit or whipped cream. The combination of flavors and textures in the Raspberry Almond Dacquoise was pretty amazing, and that's the one I'll share today.


Making meringue requires a lot of whipping, and a lot of patience. The eggs must be whipped to the correct stiffness, then sugar is added in very slowly. Add the sugar too quickly, and your meringue won't turn out right. Different kinds of meringue have different levels of stability, and are therefore used in different recipes and can be kept for varying levels of time.



My assignment of the evening was: Pavalovas with poached strawberries and a honey lavendar whipped cream. We ended up using fresh berries rather than the poached strawberries because 1. they were not ready and 2. poaching drained quite a bit of the beautifl strawberry red color. I'm not a big fan of warm soft fruit, so I was much happier with the fresh raw version. The honey lavendar whipped cream was interesting...we ground up lavendar in the spice grinder and it was strong. On its own, it actually tasted kind of gross. But when combined with the meringue and the berries, it was quite nice.


While I'm still not a huge fan of meringue itself, it can be used as a base for buttercream frosting, which, of course, I absolutely love. I must say that it really is quite shocking just how much butter goes into a butter cream. It is borderline sickening, but oh my gosh it just tastes so good!! Add some chocolate or fruit puree and it only gets better.



For those of you who are interested in playing with meringue, I give you....



The Delicious Recipe of the Day: Raspberry Almond Dacquoise
(Mary Risley)
  • 3/4 cup sugar (for almond mixture)
  • 4 oz almonds
  • 6 egg whites
  • pinch cream of tartar
  • 3/4 cups sugar (for meringue)
  • 1 cup cream
  • 1 cup fresh raspberries
  • mint leaves
Preheat oven to 250 degress. Draw 8-4 inch circles on a piece of parchment, turn over, and line a baking sheet with it. Process sugar with almonds in food processor until fine. Put egg whites and cream of tartar in bowl of stand mixer and beat with whip until stif peak. Beat in 3/4 cup sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Fold in almond mixture. Pipe mixture onto parchment circles, about 3/4" thick. Bake for about 60 minutes, or until dry.


Whip cream. Pipe cream on one meringue round, arrange raspberries around edges, then fill in middle. Place another meringue round on top. Decorate with additional cream, berries, and mint. Repeat with remaining meringues.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

April 13, 2009 - Custards (stirred and baked) and caramel


Week 3! It's amazing how quickly time is passing by. Tonight's dinner was by far the best yet. For the first time, we ventured away from the standard green salad and had two salads -- Nicoise and Pear, Walnut and Gorgonzola, followed by Fettuccine Alfredo and Spaghetti with Sauce Basquaise. It was all so delicious I had to force myself to stop eating to save room for all the custard we would be making. 

For those of you who are curious, all custards are made with:
  1. whole eggs and/or egg yolks
  2. milk and/or cream
  3. sugar
The texture and richness of the custard is determined by the use of eggs vs yolks and milk vs. cream. The scale of richness goes from Creme Caramel (flan) on the lighter side, to Pot de Creme in the middle, to Creme Brulee on the very rich end. We began by making Creme Anglaise, which is both a sauce and the base for ice cream. We poured all of our vanilla Anglaise into one bucket, which was cooled, and then churned into ice cream today for us to use tomorrow. Anyone who has had home made ice cream before knows that this is pretty exciting, and I'll have a full report on the deliciousness.

I was assigned the flan -- not my favorite dish but interesting to make. First, a caramel is prepared and poured into the warm baking dish, then the custard is prepared and poured over the caramel. When removed from the dish, the caramel creates the golden topping and sauce on top of the custard. Others made vanilla, chocolate, and coffee pot de creme and creme brulee. Fortunately, there were enough creme brulees prepared for everyone to have a chance carmelizing the tops with the torch...power tools + baked goods = too much fun. A torch for my home usage is now the number 1 item on my shopping list and you bet I'll be torching everything for months to come.

While waiting for our custards to bake, we made some more caramel and played around with it making shapes. Mine pretty much looked like a 3rd grader made them, but there were some natural caramel masters in the class! We learned how to make caramel nests, pulled caramel, spirals, squiggles, swirls, zig zags, etc etc. I'm also planning to practice this a lot at home....so anyone I bake for can expect some sort of torched aspect and a caramel garnish until I've mastered both. 

I'm not a coffee drinker, but I love coffee flavored things, and the pot de creme did not disappoint, so enjoy!

The Delicious Recipe of the Day: Pots De Creme Javannaise
(from Mary Risley)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 Tbsp water
  • 1 2/3 cups light cream (half and half)
  • 1 oz semisweet chocolate
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 5 egg yolks, plus one whole egg
  • 2 Tbsp instant espresso
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 6 candy coffee beans
  • salt
In a small saucepan, dissolve 1/4 cup sugar is 2 Tbsp water over low heat. Increase the heat to moderately high and cook the sugar until it is a light caramel. Add the light cream, heated, the rest of the sugar, the semisweet chocolate cut in bits, the espresso and the vanilla. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until it is combined. 

In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and the whole egg lightly with a whisk, pour in the cream mixture in a stream. Add a few grains of salt. Pour this through  a fine sieve into six one-third cup pots de creme of ramekins and skim off any remaining froth. Cover with lids or foil, put in a small baking pan, carefully fill the pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides. Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until they are just set. Remove from water, let cool uncovered, then chill covered. Serve decorated with rosettes of whipped cream and candy coffee beans. 

Sunday, April 12, 2009

April 11, 2009 - Review and Afternoon Field Trip to the Ferry Building


First Saturday Class! Shouldn't it be illegal to get up at 6 am on a Saturday?! As a non-coffee drinker, I am not a morning person, so my willingness to give up sleeping in every other Saturday speaks volumes to how much I really wanted to do this. Fortunately, a delicious breakfast was there waiting for me. We sampled the breads that came out of the oven too late to plate on Wednesday night -- chocolate banana marble bread, cinnamon streusel sour cream coffee cake, ouzo-scented almond yogurt and olive oil cake, and pumpkin walnut bread. It's tough to pick a favorite, they were all pretty darn good, but I'm leaning toward the chocolate banana marble bread.

We watched a few review demos on pate a choux, caramel, and chocolate ganache and then one new one on lemon curd. Then, it was time for work. We were all responsible for presenting:
  1. 3 empty profiteroles of equal size
  2. 1 ramekin of pastry cream
  3. 1 ramekin of lemon curd
  4. 1 ramekin of chocolate ganache
  5. 1 ramekin of caramel sauce
  6. plated quick bread from the Wednesday leftovers
  7. plated profiteroles
There are a list of pastry fundamentals that we each need to be proficient in upon completion of the course. Numbers 1-5 each represent one of those fundamentals and today was an opportunity to get those crossed off the list...and I did, phew! It was a lot of work to do so early in the morning, and around 11:45 I realized that I was borderline starving. Coffee cakes are delicious, but they don't have the fuel power as my usual peanut butter and banana toast. Today was the first time I realized that I can't live off of baked goods alone. Since we weren't done and wouldn't eat lunch for about another hour and a half, we had a delicious snack of bread and cheese. Everyone knows I'm not big on a lot of cheeses, but when you put really nice cheese in front of me, I can't stay away.

We had done profiteroles before, so to jazz it up, many people flavored their choux or the pastry cream. We had chocolate cayenne, lemon raspberry, spiced choux, coconut pastry cream, etc, etc. I must say that my Ginger-Pear Napoleon with caramel sauce was pretty knock your socks off good. I've been snacking on the leftover gingerbread for 24 hours straight now, and am seriously contemplating whipping up some caramel and picking up some pears to make some more for dinner. Since I can't get it off my mind, this will definitely be the recipe for the day.

After tasting and clean up, we all made our way over to the Ferry Building for lunch. For those of you who don't live in San Francisco, or those of you who live under a rock in San Francisco, the Ferry Building is madness on Saturdays. The Ferry Building is a great place for us poor people to walk around and dream of delicious things we can't afford (chocolates, cheeses). Luckily, the gelato place (can't remember the name) and Miette are there to provide an affordable afternoon treat. After we were done, I stopped by Sur La Table to pick up some baking essentials for my home kitchen. I get a 15% student discount, which is quite nice, seeing as I went just a little crazy...

This is all I have for today so I leave you with the highly recommended gingerbread.

The Delicious Recipe of the Day: Gingerbread-Pear Napoleon with Caramel Sauce
(Gingerbread from Rosemary Manell, Napoleon recipe from Mary Risely)

For the gingerbread
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 cup unsulphered molasses
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1 extra large egg, beaten
  • 3/4 cup diced, candied ginger tossed with 2 tsp flour
Measure the dry ingredients into a large sifter and sift into a mixing bowl. In another bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. In a third bowl, combine molasses, baking soda and boiling water. Stir to mix

Stir the molasses mixture into the butter mixture and add to the dry ingredients. Add beaten egg and candied ginger. Pour and scrape the mixture into a 8 or 9 inch square baking pan, which has been buttered, and place in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20 minutes. Turn oven down to 350 for next 20 minutes. Test with skewer. Cool on rack in pan 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from pan and place gingerbread on rack to cool completely.

For the poached pears:
  • 6 pears
  • 1 quart water
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
  • 1 lemon, juice
For the caramel sauce:
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup heavy cream, hot
  • 4 Tbsp butter
In a large heavy saucepan, combine the water, sugar, lemon juice and fresh ginger. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.

Meanwhile, peel pears with a vegetable peeler. Slice pears in half and remove core with a melon baller. When sugar syrup is clear, put pears into it, simmering gently until they are tender when pierced with a small knife or skewer. Remove pears and let cool.

To make caramel sauce, place sugar and water in small heavy pan. Cook over medium hear, stirring or swirling occasionally, until sugar has dissolved. Turn heat to high and boil, without stirring, until caramel turns desired color. Remove from heat and add hot cream, being careful because it will bubble up. Stir in butter until smooth.

To serve, cut 3 or 4 inch rounds (or triangles) from gingerbread. Slice each round in half or thirds. Slice cooled pears. Place a generous spoonful of caramel sauce in middle of dessert plate. Layer gingerbread pears and caramel sauce to make a "napoleon". Serve with softly whipped cream, if desired.

Friday, April 10, 2009

April 8, 2009 - Continue Quick Breads


In just two weeks, the full time culinary students have come a long way. It's fun to see to their progress, and it's getting more an more delicious every day. Tonight we had savory rice with assorted vegetables, broccoli and cheese, and a delicious Sole, accompanied by the usual green salad.

We each had two baking assignments, but were only to plate one at the end of the night, creating a dessert presentation. The first was another plain scone recipe and we were all to come up with our own flavor combinations to incorporate into the recipe. I replaced some of the flour with cocoa powder and added orange zest and chocolate chips to make a chocolate orange scone. It was super rich, but also super good. I finally stopped holding out on my coworkers and brought some to work the next day -- everything else has gone to the roommates.  There were some really creative and delicious combinations with chocolate, fruit, and various extracts including lavender and rose. All in all a very fun experiment!

Our next assignments included a variety of breads. I had the Gingerbread-Pear Napoleon with Caramel Sauce.  It looked harmless at first glance, but upon closer look I realized I had about a million steps to get through in less than an hour. The gingerbread itself was enough steps, but I got it done quickly and got it in the oven. Next I had to peel and poach pears and make a caramel sauce. Everything went along pretty smoothly, but the gingerbread ended up taking a lot longer to bake than the recipe stated, so at plating time, it was still too hot to cut. So I ended up plating a scone and the caramel and pears went into the fridge for Saturday.  

I haven't tried any of these yet because they weren't finished in time, but I'm picking the one that is the least familiar to me to share

The Delicious Recipe of the Day: Ouzo-Scented Almond Yogurt and Olive Oil Cake
(Bon Appetit May 2007/FERW)
  • 2 cups whole almonds, divided
  • 3/4 cup ouzo (or Pernod)
  • 3 1/2 cup flour
  • 3 whole star anise, ground (about 1 3/4 tsp)
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
  • 4 large eggs, separated
  • 1 1/2 cups plus 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 cup extra light olive oil (or 1/2 extra virgin, 1/2 canola)
  • 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp plain whole-milk yogurt
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush 2 loaf pans (8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2) with butter. Line bottoms with parchment paper. 

Toast 1 1/2 cups almonds in oven for 10 minutes, cool and then coarsely grind in food processor; set aside. Finely chop the remaining untoasted almonds in food processor. 

Place ouzo or Pernod in small saucepan and cook until reduced to 1/2 cup. Sprinkle 1 1/2 Tbsp of untoasted almonds over the bottom of each loaf pan.

Mix flour, star anise powder, baking powder, salt and toasted ground almonds together in a large bowl. 

Beat egg yolks and 1 1/2 cups sugar together until well blended. Add olive oil and beat for 1 minute. Add ouzo and yogurt and beat until well blended. Gradually add flour mixture to yolks to form a thick batter. Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Fold in one-third of egg whites into batter. Fold in remaining whites whites in two additions. 

Divide batter between two pans. Sprinkle with remaining untoasted almonds and then the 2 Tbsp of sugar. Bake cakes until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes and then turn out onto cooling rack. 

Garnish with greek yogurt and honey or whipped cream and honey as desired. 

April 6, 2009 - Quickbreads, muffins, scones, cornbread, biscuits


My wish came true...we are off of soup this week! Dinner this evening was roasted eggplant sandwiches with the most delicious tomato chutney. I need to remind myself to get the recipe for that one.  This week we are learning about chemical leaveners (baking powder and baking soda), which react in quickbreads immediately, making the bubbles in the product bigger. These mixes have to be prepared quickly and go into the oven right away for best results. Yes....we do more than eat beautiful pastries here, we learn about the chemistry too. 

My assignments were a basic scone with dried fruit and streusel-topped raspberry muffins. We were using two different scone recipes and one ended up being vastly superior to the other. Sadly, I had the inferior one, so I didn't love my scones. In scones, you look for a flakey texture, but this recipe was much denser and very bready. And I swear it wasn't just me....everyone's came out this way! The muffins were much better, though I didn't love the tartness of the raspberries in a muffin. I am a classic blueberry muffin gal all the way.  There were some blueberry muffins which were amazing, along with some other scone varieties, and few savory products such as feta, roasted pepper, and basil muffins and corn sticks (like corn bread, but in a stick form, with jalapenos, roasted peppers).

Once again, everyone finished in time. We actually finished so much on time, that we were all assigned the first grouping of recipes from the next class -- biscuits.  Everyone picked a biscuit and we went to work. The basic buttermilk milk biscuit will always be my favorite. It's only been two weeks in class but I'm learning that I definitely have an appreciation for simple classics. When given the choice between a buttermilk biscuit or a cheddar and dill biscuit, I went straight for the buttermilk. With 13 students making 3 recipes each, you can imagine what a bread filled kitchen we had by the end of the night. For those of you wonder what happens to all of this food, we:
  1. Taste everything
  2. Create to-go bags of items we each would like to take home/to work
  3. Box the rest up for pick-up by Food Runners to deliver to shelters and neighborhood programs for the hungry (www.foodrunners.org
And finally, to mix it up a little, I think I'll go with something savory today....

The Delicious Recipe of the Day: Feta, Roasted Pepper and Basil Muffins
(From The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet)
  • 10 oz all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 oz feta, crumbled
  • 4 oz finely roasted red pepper, patted dry and diced 1/4"
  • 3 Tbsp basil, finely chopped
  • 8 oz (1 cup) buttermilk
  • 2 oz (1/4 cup) olive oil
  • 1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly coat muffin tin with butter or pan spray. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large mixing bowl and set aside. In another bowl, stir together feta, roasted red pepper and basil and set aside.

Whisk together buttermilk, olive oil and egg until well blended. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour buttermilk mixture into well, and stir gently with a rubber spatula. mix only until there are no more streaks of flour or pools of liquid and batter looks fairly smooth. A few small lumps are fine. Gently fold in the feta mixture  until evenly distributed. 

Using a large scoop, evenly divide the batter among muffin cups. Bake 18-20 minutes, until tops feel firm and skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes, then run a thin spatula around each muffin to release.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

April 1, 2009 - Pate a Choux and pastry cream; chocolate sauce, praline




Dinner today was French onion soup and/or Asparagus, Lettuce, and Pea Soup with cheese bread and a fresh green salad. I didn't try the French Onion, but the Asparagus with pea was amazing. I'm not a big soup person, even when it is cold (current SF weather = 75ish degrees), so although I liked it, I was hoping that the next week the class would move on to something more substantial. 



Now onto the baking....did someone say cream puffs?!?! We learned to make Pate a Choux - the pastry used for profiteroles (cream puffs), eclairs, and the oh so divine Gateau Paris-Brest (a pastry created to honor a bicycle race between the cities of Paris and Brest, shaped to resemble a bicycle wheel). Not only is Pate a Choux incredibly easy to make, but it's also super impressive. Everyone I have shared my baked delights with since has thought that I am already some sort of pastry goddess. My roommates especially loved the profiteroles I filled with different flavors of ice cream. The star of the evening was the Paris-Brest, so that is the one I will share.


Delicious Recipe of the Day: Gateau Paris -Brest
(courtesy of Mary Risley)
 Choux Paste
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 oz butter
  • 1 cup flour
  • 4 eggs
  • pinch salt
  • 2-3 Tbsp sliced almonds
Praline
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup almonds
Pastry Cream (lighter version)
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 1/4 cups milk
  • pinch of salt
Whipped Cream
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 2 Tbsp dark rum
  • Confectioner's sugar

Choux: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. To make the pate a choux, combine the butter, salt and water in a small saucepan. Melt butter, then bring to a boil. Off the heat, add the flour all at once, beating with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a ball and comes away from the sides of the pan. Return to the heat and cook 1-2 minutes, until the dough forms a shiny ball. Transfer dough to the bowl of Kitchenaid, fitted with a paddle. Mix at low speed until dough has cooled somewhat. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until incorporated. Place dough in pastry bad with round tip. On a parchment-lined sheet tray, pipe a ring. Pipe another ring inside the first ring. Pipe a third ring on top. Eggwash and sprinkle with almonds. Turn up oven to 425 degres and bake about 40 minutes, until very brown. Remove from oven and pierce bottom a few times to let steam escape. When cool, slice in half lengthwise, forming a top and bottom. 



Pastry Cream: Combine the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. Add the cornstarch. Temper mixture by gradually whisking in heated milk. Pour mixture into saucepan. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Cook 1-2 minutes, until thick. Add the vanilla and butter. Cool covered with plastic or buttered waxed paper to prevent skin. When cool, mix with praline.  



Whipped Cream: When ready to assemble, whip the cream with sugar and rum until stiff. Pipe praline pastry cream into c]bottom of pastry. Pipe whipped cream on top of praline cream. Cover with top pastry and dust with confectioners sugar. 

Friday, April 3, 2009

March 30, 2009 - Simple Cookies



First Day of pastry school!! I arrived at 5:30 to change and eat dinner (the full time culinary students make us dinner before they leave....yes, guaranteed delicious gourmet dinner every Monday and Wednesday night). We had a delightful vegetable soup with fresh green salad and spread of cheeses, bread, and fruit.  

Class starts at 6 pm sharp. After a short intro to Tante Marie, we jumped right into a brief demo and then were put straight to work! There are 13 or 14 students and were each assigned two recipes (each one made by two people). With recipes in hand, we have 2 hours and 15 minutes to finish. Finishing on time means you have everything prepped, plated, and displayed on the front table and your station is clean.  The kitchen is pretty much chaos for the next 135 minutes, some organized and some not...mostly not, though everyone did finish on time.
My assignments were Mexican Wedding Cookies and Almond-Chocolate-Thumbprints. I'm not a huge fan of crumbly cookies like the Mexican Wedding, but they came out alright so I was happy. The thumbprints I like much more and have already made them again at home, which leads me to....



The Delicious Recipe of the Day: Almond-Chocolate-Thumbprints 
(courtesy of Tante Marie's Cooking School, about 3 dozen cookies)

For cookies:
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 4 oz whole almonds
  • 12 oz unsalted butter, but into large chunks and slightly softened
  • 4 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 13 1/2 oz all purpose flour
  • sanding sugar or grain sugar, for rolling
For chocolate:
  • 2 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate
  • 5 tsp unsalted butter
Process the sugar and salt in a food processor until it looks powdery and a littler finer, 30 to 60 seconds. Add the almonds and process until finely chopped, about 20 seconds. Add the butter and vanilla and pulse until the butter is smooth, scraping the bowl as needed. Add the flour and pulse until a soft dough begins to form around the blade. If there are still patches of flour, transfer to a bowl and stir briefly with a rubber spatula. 

Roll dough into 1" balls. Roll each ball in sanding sugar and set on waxed-paper lined tray. Press your finger or the end of a wooden spoon into each ball to create a depression. Refrigerate until firm (1-2 hours). Remove cookies from refrigerator and place 1" apart on parchment-lined sheet tray. 
Bake at 325-degrees for 10 minutes. Gently redefine the depressions with finger or wooden spoon end. Rotate sheets and continue to cake until the tops are lightly colored and bottoms are golden, another 8-12 minutes.  Cool completely.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Fill each depression with mixture.

OMG I’m going to pastry school!!


So first things first, how did I end up here? Let's go with the short version...I've tossed around the idea of culinary and pastry school for years. I always thought about it as something I would do someday in the distant future...when I had the time and money (the future seems to be where the concepts of time and money usually reside). So time passed, I didn't make any more money, and I wasn't getting any closer to my dream.

Just as I started getting pretty depressed about my current state of being, a miraculous series of events led me to an amazing woman who had graduated from the full time culinary course at Tante Marie's Cooking School and gone on to open her own successful business planning cooking parties. Through her, I found Tante Marie's part time pastry course. So in a whirlwind of two months I visited Tante Marie's for a tour and an interview, submitted my application, was accepted, found and moved into a cheaper apartment to save, scrounged up the money....and here I am!