Week 3 and Week 4

 

And 10 Kilos heavier...

 

The last two weeks have been quite full on, however we have produced some amazing products and I feel I am getting more and more comfortable being in the kitchen and with various methods we are regularly using.

 

Week three was one day shorter in the kitchen than we usually have (4) due to a day of first aid which was required and another day in the kitchen was a practical test where we made a couple of the things we had done in our previous week (Crème Anglaise with poached pears, some piped shapes and some chocolate piped Filigrees).

Chocolate piped Filigrees

 

We did however make a larger fruit tart along with some smaller ones again and these are something we are all feeling quite confident in - especially the Crème Patisserie which we have made four times now!



Large Fruit Tart filled with Crème Patisserie

 

Small fruit tarts filled with Crème Patisserie
 

 

We also made some Jam Berliners as a group, they turned out looking very delicious and were filled with soft strawberry jam.  Not being a big fan of jam - I didn't try one of these but everyone else said they were gorgeous.

Jam Berliners

 

Week 4 was definitely a lot busier and we produced a lot more.  We are currently focusing on Pastries, whereas the last section (Weeks 1-3) was methods of cookery - so getting to know the basics. 

 

This week we made sweet pastry, Linzer pastry, 3/4 puff pastry and a rough puff pastry and made some impressive items out of them.  When doing our puff pastry, we have been mostly using the French method to combine the fat into the dough and we have been doing four full book turns (I will put a diagram explaining this on the blog later).

 

We started the week with making some absolutely amazing passionfruit curd meringue tarts.  I have never tasted something so delicious in my life!! The tartness of the passionfruit with the creaminess of the meringue and the crisp, short sweet pastry were matches made in heaven!! I will definitely be making this again!  We piped the Swiss meringue onto the filled tart cases and then blow torched them to finish.



Passionfruit curd meringue tarts prior to blow torching



Passionfruit curd meringue tarts after blow torching

We also used our sweet short pastry to make an apple pie and an apple crumble.  The crumble was made by simple grating some refrigerated sweet pastry and then topping the apple filling with it.  Unfortunately the pastry didn't set the best on the apple pie, and the detail I did on the pies just seemed to sink and disappear.

Apple Crumble and Apple Pie

A Linzer torte was next - an Austrian dessert which is named after the city of Linz in Austria.  The dough consisted of hazelnut meal, a small amount of flour, butter, egg yolks, ground cinnamon and cloves and lemon zest.   The dough was very short and quite difficult to work with but we still managed to add a lattice design top to it after filling it with the traditional filling of raspberry jam. 

Linzer Torte prior to baking

Linzer Torte after baking

We made Viennese biscuits which turned out beautifully buttery and crumbly.  We topped some of these with piped chocolate or dipped them in or simply left them as is.  This mixture was quite thick and proved to be difficult to pipe but once the mixture softened, we were able to pipe rosettes and swirls with the dough.

Viennese Biscuits

We used our 3/4 puff pastry next and made some Vol Au Vents, Windmills and Palmiers. 

The Vol Au Vents unfortunately didn't turn out the best (they were toppling over slightly) but with practice, I hope to get these right. 

Vol Au Vents

The windmills looked very impressive and were filled with a little bit of Crème Patisserie and topped with half an apricot.  Once baked, we glazed with melted apricot jam and then some fondant. 

Windmills prior to baking

Windmills after baking and glazing with jam and fondant

The Palmiers are a favourite in our class and something we can whip up if we have any left over puff pastry left.  They are such an impressive little pastry and just look so cute, especially when the sugar caramelises.  Did I mention that they taste amazing too?



Palmiers


On our last day of week 4, we made Mille Feuille and a Jalouise using our rough puff pastry.  This was quite a stressful day and we have since determined that we do not enjoy working with fondant when making a Mille Feuille...

A Mille Feuille is a French pastry which means 'a thousand layers' and is very much the same as a vanilla slice.  Ours was filled with Crème Légère (a crème patisserie combined with whipped cream and gelatin) and then topped with liquid fondant and we finished with a feathering technique.  This is where the problem was as the fondant sets very quickly and you need a very steady hand to do the feathering... Overall the Mille Feuille came out OK considering it was my first time!

Mille Feuille

The last dish of the week was a Jalouise which is a puff pastry case, filled with a frangipane mixture and apricots.  The Jalouise is baked and then glazed with softened apricot jam for shine and extra sweetness.  We halved these for serving.

Frangipane and Apricot Jalouise

Next week we are focusing on Choux pastry which I am really looking forward to as I not only LOVE eating choux pastry products, but I find it is quite a nice pastry to make and work with.  We will be making éclairs, Paris Brest, Gateaux Pithivier, Gateaux St Honore and wait for it.... A Croquembouche!!!

I cant wait to put another post on here at the end of next week and showcase the amazing creations!! What I am not looking forward to, is working with toffee for the Croquembouche. :)