Productive or what??
People dream of baking delicious things on a daily basis... I am doing that!
This past week has been great and I feel like we have produced a lot of amazing stuff and I am getting a lot more confident in the kitchen.
Along with cooking amazing delicacies, we have theory lessons in the afternoon which flow into what we do in our practical classes in the kitchens. We have been working on methods of cookery which included information on poaching, boiling, frying, simmering and blanching. This past week we have been working on hygiene and will be tested on what we have learnt next week!
Onto the important stuff...
Day 1 of week 2:
We used our fantastic puff pastry we made in the first week and made pasties and lamb shank pies!
My bench partner and I decided to make our pasties vegetarian as she is vegetarian and they were delicious! We simply omitted the beef and used seasonings and the vegetables for flavour.
The lamb shanks for the pies were seared in a hot pan and then cooked low and slow in the oven, covered in red wine, beef stock, shallots, garlic, rosemary and marjoram. They were falling off the bone and smelt amazing! We filled them into pies ready to bake!
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| Pre-cooked lamb shank pies
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We baked the lamb shank pies and the pasties until lovely and golden and the outcome was amazing! The puff pastry was flaky, buttery and delicious - I have never had homemade puff pastry before and will definitely be making this at home in future - shop bought puff doesn't even compare!
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| The finished products! Lamb shank pies and vegetarian pasties. |
Day 2 of week 2:
We used the sweet pastry we made the week before and shaped them into gorgeous little tartlet cases. We blind baked 6 of these to make Crème Pâtissière filled fruit tartlets and the remaining 10 we used for frangipane tartlets.
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| Prepared tartlet cases for Frangipane tartlets and Crème Pâtissière filled fruit tartlets. |
We prepared the fillings for the tartlets - the Crème Pâtissière and the Frangipane mixture. The Crème Pâtissière was fairly easy and we had no issues with the mixture not thickening/eggs scrambling etc. We filled the blind baked tart cases with Crème Pâtissière after brushing the tartlet case with melted white chocolate to stop them going soggy. Once filled, we decorated with fruit and glazed with a sugar/pectin mixture which was cooked until dissolved. These tartlets looked absolutely stunning once finished and I was very pleased with the finished product. (They tasted amazing too!)
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| Crème Pâtissière filled fruit tartlets |
The frangipane mixture for our frangipane tarts was made with an almond paste instead of almond meal and was creamy, almondy and super delicious. We lined the tartlet cases with apricot jam using a piping bag and then followed with the frangipane mixture also using a piping bag and then smoothing down with a palette knife. These were baked and topped with more warmed apricot jam and then with roasted sliced almonds, fondant and a glace cherry. Super cute!
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| Frangipane Tartlets |
Day 3 of week 2:
We had a busy day, making two delicious desserts and also worrying at the same time as one of these dishes will be in a practical test next week...
First, we made poached pears which were poached in a lovely spiced syrup including lemon, cinnamon, cloves and vanilla. Next was the Crème Anglaise... This was definitely a little trickier than the Crème Pâtissière. Warmed milk is slowly added to a sugar/egg yolk mixture and then cooked over a double boiler very slowly. There is a fine line between the mixture being under or over cooked and sadly - mine went over! Luckily our lecturer was able to fix it with a bamix - but unfortunately this isn't good enough for next time when we make Crème Anglaise for our practical test... Crème Anglaise is on the menu this weekend for breakfast, lunch and dinner...
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| Poached pears with Crème Anglaise |
Our last dish of the day was crepes with apple compote. It took a while to get the hang of making the crepes and keeping them even and thin, but they turned out well. The apple compote consisted of diced apples which were sautéed in butter and then we added sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and finished by glazing the pan with calvados (an apple liqueur) and thickening with corn flour. The compote was rich and sweet and is a great accompaniment to crepes.
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| Crepes with apple compote |
Day 4 of week 2:
This was a busy day and resulted in a delicious dessert which was served in a cup. We first started by making a Swiss Meringue mixture and baked these as gorgeous little rosettes, pyramids and what ever other shapes we fancied.
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| The Swiss Meringues baking in the oven |
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| The finished Meringues! |
The next step to our dessert was a pineapple jelly which we made from scratch. This was fairly easy and has given me lots of ideas for other fresh fruit jellies.
While this was setting, we prepared some pineapple which we roasted in honey, rum, cardamom and vanilla. The result was gorgeous, sticky and sweet pineapple which would top the dessert.
The last step to the dessert was a beautifully rich and silky mousse which we made with coconut milk, Malibu and cream. This was layered above the jelly and then topped with roasted pineapple and meringue. Delicious!
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| The finished products! |
This week was full of information, important methods and delicious desserts! I thoroughly enjoyed this week and look forward to what's to come!
Next week we have a practical test in which we have to make Crème Anglaise, a poached pear, chocolate piping and Chantilly crème piping. We also have a theory test on hygiene and a full day on first aid so next weeks blog definitely isn't going to be as interesting or mouth watering as this one!!
The recipes for what we made this week are listed below. Enjoy!
Recipes
Lamb shank filling (Makes 8 small pies)
3 lamb shanks
200ml red wine
600ml beef stock
2 Bay leaves
2 Garlic cloves
5 Baby onions
Sprig rosemary
Sprig Marjoram
Pepper to taste
40g cornflour
Brown lamb shanks in frypan over high heat.
Place lamb in baking dish and add wine, stock, bay leaves, garlic, baby onions, rosemary, marjoram and pepper.
Cover and baker for 3-4 hours at 160° or until the meat comes away from the bone.
Remove and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
Cut lamb from the bone and set aside onions, garlic and herbs.
Bring remaining juices back to the boil and thicken with cornflour slurry.
Add lamb to the thickened mixture and stir to combine.
Mixture is ready to fill into pie cases.
Pasty Filling (Makes 15 pasties)
350g Potato
100g Carrot
45g Turnip
80g Peas
80g Corn
150g soaked bread or bread crumbs
350g minced beef
30g onion flakes
20g beef stock/booster
100g Water
Salt and pepper to taste
Egg to egg wash
Wash and prepare vegetables into small dice or desired size and place into a bowl.
Mix through minced beef.
Add flavourings and soaked bread/bread crumbs and water and mix well.
Place filling onto prepared pastry pieces (circles)
Completely seal filling within pastry and brush with egg wash.
Bake in 220°oven for 20 minutes or until golden.
Crème Pâtissière (Makes 1kg)
60g Corn flour
40g Caster Sugar
6 Egg yolks
150ml Milk
600ml Milk (additional)
40g Caster Sugar (additional)
Blend cornflour and 40g sugar and stir in cleanly separated egg yolks.
Dilute with 150ml milk.
Boil 600ml milk and 40g sugar in a separate pan.
Slowly add blended mix to the boiling milk and sugar, then whisk constantly until the custard is smooth and thick.
Remove from the head and pour into clean bowl to cool and then cover to prevent a skin forming.
Poached Pears (Makes 1 poached pear)
1 pear
75ml white wine
500ml water
275g sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
1/2 cinnamon stick
1-2 cloves
1/4 rind of a lemon (zested)
Heat the water, wine, cinnamon cloves, lemon and sugar in a small pan and bring to the boil.
Peel the pear and leave the stem in tact - cut in half and core or leave whole.
Place into prepared syrup and cover with a cartouche, reduce to a simmer.
Poach until tender and store syrup to use when serving.
Crème Anglaise (Serves 6)
600ml Milk
1/4 vanilla pod
100g sugar
6 egg yolks
Bring milk to boil with vanilla bean.
Set double boiler to boil and whisk egg yolks and sugar in bowl of double boiler.
Once milk has boiled, temper sugar and egg yolks by adding a small amount of boiling milk to the mixture, mixing while slowly adding the entire contents.
Heat over water bath until mixture coats the back of a spoon and thickens, or reaches 80°.
Put into ice bath to stop cooking if required.
Pass through a fine strainer and transfer into a container and refrigerate until use.
Apple Compote (Serves 4)
2 Granny smith apples
100g Caster Sugar
5g Cinnamon
1/2 Vanilla bean
50g unsalted butter
50g Calvados
15g Cornflour
Peel Apples and dice or slice into required pieces.
Heat butter in a small pan and sauté apples until tender.
Add cinnamon, sugar and vanilla bean and cook for a further minute.
Deglaze with calvados, leaving a little liquid in the pan.
Add cornflour and stir in well.
Cook until sauce thickens.
Crepes (Serves 2)
2 Eggs
10g caster sugar
70g Flour
180ml milk
Whisk eggs and sugar together.
Whisk in flour.
Gradually whisk in milk.
Pass through fine strainer.
Use mixture straight away or store in refrigerator. Add more milk if mixture is too thick.
Swiss Meringue (makes around 30 small meringues)
2 Egg whites (30g each)
125g Caster sugar
Warm and whisk egg whites and sugar over double boiler until sugar has dissolved (45-50° approx).
Whisk until stiff peaks and mixture has cooled using electric mixer or by hand.
Prepare baking sheet with silicone paper and pipe meringue mixture into required shapes.
Pineapple Jelly (makes 12 serving cups)
400ml pineapple juice
10g caster sugar
10g gelatine
1/4 vanilla bean
Warm juice, sugar and vanilla bean until almost boiling.
Bloom gelatine in 5 x its amount of water, eg 10g gelatine for 50g water, until water dissolved.
Add softened gelatine to juice mixture.
Strain mixture and pour into 12 x 100ml cups.
Roasted Pineapple
6 pineapple slices
1 vanilla bean
250ml honey
5 cardamom pods
20ml white rum
Cut pineapple into 6 1cm thick slices and then cut in half and place in a single layer in shallow oven proof dish.
Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into honey, bruise cardamom pods and add to the mix with the white rum and heat over low heat to soften.
Pour mixture over pineapple and roast at 200° for 15 minutes.
Turn slices over and roast for a further 15 minutes or until soft and cooked.
Coconut Mousse (makes 12 serving cups)
6 Egg yolks
200g caster sugar
200ml coconut milk
12g gelatine
50g Malibu
500g Cream
Warm the egg yolks and sugar over heat and whisk until creamy - do not cook.
Bloom gelatine and then heat over flame. Once liquefied, add coconut milk and Malibu and bring to around body temperature (37°).
Add gelatine mix into egg and sugar mix and whisk to combine.
Semi whip cream and fold into egg mix until combined and no lumps are visible.
Pour into prepared cups and chill.
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