Week 5

 

Choux, Choux and more Choux!

This was our last week of pastries and we finished off with choux pastry - my favourite!! This is a very easy pastry to prepare, great to pipe, versatile and it tastes amazing!!

A few people had some issues with their dough, with adding too much egg - therefore the dough is too wet and doesn't hold its shape or rise - the trick is to add small amounts of egg so you can control the consistency and stop when no more is needed.  I didn't have any troubles, luckily!

We started the week with Chocolate Éclairs (my favourite) and Paris Brest (my new favourite!)

We piped 9cm long éclairs and the Paris Brest were 8-9cm piped circles.  Both were baked at 220 on a greased and lightly floured tray (I find this the best method as if you use silicon paper - the items get a 'foot' and don't sit very well). 

Once cooked and cooled, we topped the Éclairs with hot apricot jam (required to help with fondant keeping its shine and shelf life) and then with a chocolate fondant mixture.  They were then halved and filled with a  chocolate custard. 

The Paris Brest were topped with apricot jam and roasted almonds and then halved and filled with a hazelnut praline cream.  I had never tasted hazelnut praline paste and am so happy I have now - it is unbelievable!

Chocolate Éclairs and Paris Brest 

Next up was a Gateaux Pithivier and a Gateaux St Honore.  The Pithivier was made of puff pastry and filled with a frangipane mix and apricot jam.  The top of the Gateaux was lightly scored to create a pretty effect.  The Gateaux St Honore consisted of a puff pastry base which was docked, then we piped a ring of choux on the outer edge of the puff circle and another choux ring was piped in the centre.  This was baked and then filled with custard and then topped with custard filled and toffee dipped profiteroles.

 

 

Gateaux Pithivier before baking

Gateaux Pithivier after baking

Gateaux St Honore after being baked with choux and puff layers



Gateaux St Honore finished with custard and profiteroles (I apologise for weird shape profiteroles...)

On our third day of making choux pastry came the masterpiece... The Croquembouche!! Everyone was really excited for this as it is one of those desserts which looks absolutely stunning and there are all of the horror stories and classic scary episodes on masterchef that everyone thinks about.  Toffee is also something I was very worried about, due to all of the severe burns you hear about.  I wore a cotton glove with a latex glove on top and didn't have any issues.  I would recommend this!

We did ours by building the layers of profiteroles on the outside of a cardboard and aluminium foil covered cone and by using toffee to connect each profiterole.  The profiteroles were filled with a custard.  The cone was removed before the top few layers were assembled and the rest was done freehand.  We spun some sugar for decoration and finished with some handmade chocolate butterflies.  I was extremely happy with the finished product and would definitely make this again.

Here it is!


The Croquembouche before adding the chocolate butterflies
 



The finished product!

Next week, we start on our cakes!! We have some amazing cakes coming up and I cant wait to get started! Keep an eye on the blog for what products we complete next week!