Day 22: Conversations, Poire En Cage, Galette de Saison

Alright, I have to say that I am enamoured with the Conversations! Lucious almond cream encased in puff pastry with a layer of royal icing on top, then decorated with more puff pastry, and baked until brown. The traditional design on top should be a simple "x" but we were allowed to get creative to a point (we didn't have any cool cutters so we had to make do with the round ones that we had). I was a little disappointed that some of them cracked and broke, but I certainly was not disappointed with the taste! Absolutely and utterly delicious!!!















The Poire En Cage (literal translation is Pear in a Cage - the glamourous flow of the French name is definitely lost in translation!) was pretty good too and I think they look fabulous. We poached our pears using caramelized sugar, water, white wine, fresh ginger and cinnamon. I think the pears turned out pretty good. Now, with a tiny bit of almond cream on the bottom, this dessert was as yummy as it was attractive.

Our Galette de Saison on the other hand.... Well, we made an apple compote with rhubarb. It was my first time trying rhubarb and apparently, the rhubarb we got was not completely ripe yet and we kind of put a lot and, well, the compote turned out to be kind of sour. At least too sour for my taste. No, I did not throw them out, they were actually finished up by our army of workers! They all seemed to like it, or if they didn't they certainly didn't tell me and they finished them quite quickly! Just not for me...

Day 21: Mille Feulletage, Fruit Bar, Papillion, & Vol Au Vent

So I think I'm going to make a new work-out video called "The Perfect Body - Pastry Way". The only catch is, you make everything, but you can't eat it! Anyway, I'm kind of sore today in the ab area. Yes, the abdomen area. Rolling Pate Feulletage (puff pastry) will give you a work out! Actually, my shoulders and arms are kind of sore as well, though that could be from carrying my back pack around...

The Mille Feulletage is basically a round Napoleon, but it has powdered sugar on top with the burnt on (or rather branded on) Quadrillant design on it. The traditional Napoleon has Fondant and Chocolate on the top.















The Fruit Bar was delicious!!! I guess it helps when the fresh fruit is uber fresh and sweet, PLUS it has almond cream and from past experience, anything with almond cream is yummy!!!















Papillion is French for Butterfly. These are basically made the same way the Palmiers were made, but it was cut and shaped differently. Mine do not necessarily look like butterflies, but again, they sure were fun to make and eat!
















Vol au Vents are basically casing for a filling. These can be used for both savory and sweet fillings. In class, we made savory fillings which were quite delicious! Check out the rise on my puff pastry!!!! Not too shabby, huh? =)

Day 20: Tomato Tart, Fruit Strip, Palmier & Apple Tartlettes

Today we completed a bunch of things! The Tomato Tart I think was more for practicing our knife skills. Currently, my knife skills still need a lot of improvement, though at least I am not as scare of the knife as when I started! Our Chef Knife looked so intimidating to me! But now I have to say that it is my friend. =) Anyway, this savory tart was very good. Strange as the "tomato custard" sounds, which is essentially what it was, it was quite good!!! My mom took a good portion of it home and I had a nice sized slice for lunch the next day!















We also made a Fruit Strip and the Apple Tartlettes - more knife skills cutting up fruit! The Fruit Strip has a little Creme Legere on the bottom and I thought it was really quite tasty! The Apple Tartlettes were also very good since we sprinkled some Vanilla Sugar on top before putting it in the oven. It was a very good combo!





























With our puff pastry scraps, we made Palmier. It is also known as Elephant Ears. This was fun to make and even more fun to eat!