Sugar 1: Week 1: Nougatine Baskets with Marzipan Fruits

We started on the Sugar 1 section of Pastry 2 and learned how to make a Nougatine Basket and how to shape Marzipan fruits. The fun of marzipan is that when you shape it, it doesn't have to look "real". They are meant to look kind of cartoon-y (not sure if that's a word, but you get my drift, right?!) and fun. We shape it without color, then we just air brushed the color on. The cool part is that we learned how to layer color. And yes, even though it is not supposed to look "real", we tried to make the coloring look real by making sure that different colors kind of peaked out, like the real thing.

The Nougatine Basket was fun, but a little difficult and hot to make! You have to shape the nougatine while it is still hot and maleable. And if the nougatine gets too cold, off to the oven to heat up again, then try again... =( BUT - yes, there is always a but, isn't there? You can only reheat and try molding only a few times, because as the sugar caramelizes and gets darker, it exponentially gets less maleable and hardens much, much faster each time. In other words, try to get the job done within the first 3 tries - MAX!

Anyway, here's the final result... Chef Toni told us to try decorating it with the houndstooth and classically it is further embellished with royal icing - as seen here!

Day 65, 66 & 67 - Chocolate Candies and Chocolate Candy Stand

Tonight we finished up our Chocolate Candy Stands. I have to say I was extremely impressed with my class!!! I thought everyone did a WONDERFUL job! I've posted the pics on Facebook, so take a look when you have time!

On day 65, we made the chocolates to go into the bowl of the stand. We made 4 different types of candies: Chocolate Nuts, Rochees, Carres and another one I can't remember the name of! Shame on me... I know... I do know that it is basically a little bit of chocolate and then before it completely sets, we put 3 different pieces of either nuts or dried fruits on it. It's nice to make them kind of colorful, so we did combos like Pistachio, Coffee Bean and Dried Apricot. The Chocolate Nuts were bad. Well, bad for me because I couldn't stop eating them! It's one of those things that you just can't have one of... They are basically nuts, with crystallized sugar, then coated in chocolate, then rolled in either powdered sugar or cocoa powder. (cue in heavenly "ahhhh"). The Carres were also quite the delectable treat! This looks like a chocolate sandwich of sorts. It is a layer of chocolate with praline paste and feulletine (this stuff tastes a lot like crushed sugar ice cream cones) sandwiched between 2 layers of straight chocolate. Yes, it made the tummy happy!!! As for the Rochees (translated as "rocks"), can I just tell you that I am SO addicted to the Orange and Chocolate and Almond combo, that I finished all the ones I brought home almost all by myself and I still ate more of these at school tonight... And - I still want more!!!

Okay, so on to the Chocolate Candy Stand. We basically spent the last 2 classes completing these. They are made of all chocolate and need to have 2 kinds of chocolate. I chose dark and white chocolate. Another requirement was that it be at least 4 inches high - no problem with mine for this category since it was 8 inches high. Finally, the last requirement was that it should be at least 700 grams. Well, unfortunately, mine turned out to be about 462 at my final weigh in, so I was scrambling for ways to "pack the pounds". In the end, it still didn't add up to the 700 grams, but what can you do? The first picture is me scrambling put more chocolate in my already chocolatey chocolate stand! Then you have pictures of the final product. It's simple but I like it a lot!

Day 59: Fondant Chocolate Roulade Cake with Pistachio Butter Cream filling and New York Cheese Cake

We are another day closer to the end of Pastry 1. I can't believe Tuesday will be our last day in the crowded and warm Pastry 1 classroom! Today we baked New York Cheese Cake with a graham cracker crumb base. Truthfully, I haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to it! =)

We also had a recipe for a Neopolitano Cheese Cake, but we didn't get around to make it. I don't think I have ever had that kind of cheese cake before, but it sounds kind of interesting, except that it has raisins in the recipe. Yes, if you have been following my blog, you know that I'm not a big fan of raisins. Actually, my mother told me that I used to LOVE raisins as a child, but being the very impressionable child that I was, I followed my brother's lead with the raisin hating... He used to say things like, "Ewww... you like raisins?! YUCK!" and that was the end of my raisin eating days.

Anyways, we also finished up our Chocolate Roulade with a Kirsch (cherry for those of you who may be wondering) soak and Pistachio butter cream filling. It was fun finishing it off with the fondant. Unfortunately, though, I didn't have time to decorate it at all. *sigh* Well, at least I think I did a pretty decent job actually putting the fondant on the cake. Fondant is kind of fun to work with... I was secretly reminiscing back to my younger days playing with Play Dough! Take a look at my handiwork. Then take a look at the cake itself - pretty cool, huh?




This one was definitely a fun cake. My husband liked this one a lot because the cake was not too sweet (though the fondant was extremely sweet).


Now, it's time to crack the books and start studying for my mid-term written test. We already started with the practical test by baking and building our cakes. I wanted to do a Kahlua soak, but I couldn't find any, so I went with an Amaretto soak with coffee butter cream. I was a little nervous about the combo, but when I actually tried it, it tasted pretty good! YEY! So, again, wish me luck and send all your happy and studious thoughts my way! =)

Day 58: Back to cakes! White Cake with Peach Butter cream filling and Marzipan Frosting and Black Forest cake

We are back to cakes and quickly approaching the end of Pastry 1! I can't believe it... In fact, we have the start of our Mid-term tomorrow and I'm a little nervous about it. We get to bake our cake and build it up tomorrow then finish it off on Tuesday. For the mid-term, we pick the kind of cake we have to make out of a hat, or rather in our case, a quart container! So, UNfortunately for me, I picked a Chocolate Genoise with Butter Cream filling (that's not the bad part) with CHOCOLATE GLAZE frosting. UGH! I'm terrible at glazing... *sigh* oh well, c'est la vie... Not like there's anything I can do about it now except pray to Saint Honore for a pastry miracle!

So, on to happier things before I get myself all worked up over this darn mid-term!

Let's start with the oh-so-yummy White Cake! I really liked this cake a lot, I just couldn't stop eating it!!! Luckily, I didn't get a tummy ache like my poor partner from all of our snacking on the scraps. We filled our cake with a Peach Butter Cream. Yes, you read that correctly - PEACH! We learned how to make fruit flavored butter cream and I'm uber excited about it! The bonus is that it tastes absolutely divine! The extra bonus is that we got to learn how to work with Marzipan as a frosting. Can I just say that I'm addicted to marzipan as well? I'm surprised I have not gained 5 pounds in class just making this cake - because you know where the scraps go, right? Yes, that would be my stomach... Anyway, I digress... I have always wondered how it was done and lo and behold, I now know! Not too shabby, right?













The next cake is our Black Forest cake. Traditionally, this is frosted with whip cream or stabilized whip cream, but the classroom was SO hot, all of our whip cream kept breaking! Luckily, we didn't throw out our Creme D'Or which was used as one of the fillings, so Chef said we could use that to finish up our cakes. Traditionally too, it should have chocolate shavings on the bottom, but as you can see from the pic, I didn't quite get around to it. Now, for your added viewing pleasure, I'm adding a picture I took of the Black Forest when I was in gorgeous Germany. =)















Now, back to work on my sketches for my mid-term cake! Wish me luck - I need it...

Ube Petite Four Experiment and the Unbroken Egg Yolks

I am utterly and completely in love with Gerbet Macaroons. Actually, a few years ago, we had a baby shower for one of my dear, dear friends Natacha and we ordered food from Wegman's for the party. We ordered some of these scrumptious macaroons, but they called them Nicolettes. Ever since then, I have been searching high and low for some where else I could purchase these. Never did I imagine that I would be learning to make this at the FCI! (yay!)

And so, I tried making this at home using Ube for the filling. I am a HUGE fan of Ube (I think it is also called a water yam or purple yam). I love the result! It was just heavenly - at least for me. So here's a pic that I snapped before I gobbled up the rest!


















As for the next picture - I was just so fascinated with the fact that I did not break 1 yolk in this tub of egg yolks! Mind you there are more than 50 egg yolks in that container! That has never ever happened in the history of my egg cracking! I know, I'm a dork sometimes... I just couldn't resist taking a quick pic!

Day 46: 5-Grain Rolls, Sweet Potato Brioche, Ciabatta, Soft Rolls, Pissaladière, Banana-Crumb Bread

Yes, day 46 was a rough day to be bringing home the fruits (or rather - the breads) of our labor! I was so exhausted when I got home, I went straight to sleep - a rare occurrence! It seems that the 5-grain rolls alone weighed it's weight in healthiness... =)

I haven't tried the 5-grain rolls yet, but I've been told that you actually feel healthy when you're finished with one! So what are the 5 grains included you ask? Flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and rolled oats. These rolls used the sour dough method (liquid levain).














With our Sweet Potato Brioche dough, we made 2 different items: Shallots and Craqueline. In the Shallots version, well, of course, there were shallots cooked in butter and olive oil. We also added Bleu Cheese - a very welcome addition. Everyone who tried this one loved it - EVERYONE!














In the Craqueline, we added sugar cubes which had been marinated in orange liquor and orange zest. Because of its name, I thought that it would be crunchy somehow, but the places where the sugar cubes were turned out to be kind of gooey (in a good way) instead.














I'm going to skip ahead to the Banana Crumb since it is in the picture above with the Craqueline. So, this really had a lot of bananas in them! I think they would have been even more spectacular if we added some walnuts to them, but I suppose I could just try that on my own someday... Anyway, I was a little worried that these wouldn't turn out so good because our bananas looked a little green and of course, the perfect bananas would be ripe to over ripe for banana bread. However, they turned out to be just fine and rather delish in fact! This was our quick bread of the day, using the creamed butter method.

Now, for the Ciabatta, this was probably one of the easiest, but messiest breads we've made so far. For those of you who don't know, Ciabatta actually means "slipper" and this bread is named so because supposedly it is sort of shaped like a slipper. Okay, just to warn you before you see the picture, these are probably the ugliest Ciabatta you will ever see... Chef said not to fuss with it, so I didn't. I'm thinking I probably should have fussed with it, at least a little...














The Pissaladière is a French-version pizza (at least that's what I think Chef told us...). It has onion, anchovies and Niçoise olives. We used pizza dough so I was really, really excited because I wanted to toss it up in the air like in my favorite commercial, but unfortunately, we didn't have enough time for fun and games... =( Anyway, the toppings on mine got kind of burnt (I'm guessing it was on the top rack of the oven) so we ended up composting it. I did manage to take a picture before saying farewell, simply because supposedly this will be on our final and I want to make sure I keep a record of how everything needs to arranged - "classically".














And finally, the Soft Rolls. These were so good! I had a lot of fun making these and eating them too!!! We used this dough to learn to make different shapes. I wish we had more time so we could play more, but of course, we are almost always rushing (I guess sort of like a real kitchen) NO DILLY DALLY!

Allergy Foodie!!!

Hi everyone! My friend Anu has started up a new blog which is really a GREAT resource for anyone with food allergies. She's got a degree in food and nutrition, which really came in handy when at the age of 4 months, her son was diagnosed with allergies to all of the following: wheat, soy, dairy, nuts, tree nuts, fish and shell fish. She is truly amazing and she has done all kinds of experimentation in the kitchen. She even shares some wonderful recipes along with tips for people living with these food allergies. I love her motto: "Thrive with the top 8 food allergies!" So, if you have food allergies or know someone who does, I truly recommend this site!

ALLERGY FOODIE