Day 45: Tarte Flambée, Oat Bread and More Croissants!

Day 45 was a good day! Tarte Flambée, also known as Flammenkuchen is wonderful! When I went to Germany for work back in 2005 (I think - it's been a while) I tried this for the first time and I was hooked! I never thought I would ever have it again, let alone make it myself! Oh happy day!!! So the Flammenkuchen has a sort of custard base comprised of sour cream, creme fraishe, and egg, then toppings of your choice, we used carmelized onions, bacon and gruyere cheese. Oh, and did I mention that the dough we used was the delicious Baguette dough?! Yes, it sort of looks like a pizza but I think this tastes better. Mind you, I am a total pizza fan, but in the battle of Flammenkuchen vs. Pizza, Flammenkuchen wins in my book. And yes, I ate about 1/3 of this all by myself when I got home from class!!!














I haven't tried the Oat Bread yet - I put it in the freezer for now since I've got way too much bread to finish up already! When I get around to trying it, I will update my blog.














Croissants gallery! Yes, we made croissants already, but I guess we are sort of reviewing them since our Chef-Instructor told us that croissants will be on our test. We also learned different shapes for different fillings. The packet looking ones have ham and cheese in them! I didn't actually get to try this one because I gave it to my wonderful husband Mike who said that they were really good (yey!). He's not too into the sweet stuff that I bring home so I was happy that we had some meaty/savory stuff this class. The long one with the almonds has - you guessed it Almond Cream in it! And yes, that was scrumptious! Ahh... almond cream. Maybe one day I'll write an ode to Almond Cream and the joy it brings me!!! =)














Oh, we also made 5-grain rolls which looked really good, but since they just came out of the oven, I didn't want to bring them home while they were so hot, especially since I had a bunch of other things to bring. Our teacher offered to put them in the freezer for us for next class. I'll take pictures on Tuesday.

Day 44: Baguettes, Bagels and Austrian Danishes

This class was bittersweet for me! Everything we made was delicious - all my favorite carbs! The bitter part was that I was one of the 2 bakers for the week, so unfortunately, I left late and just missed the 9:35 PM train so I ended up getting home after 11:00 PM! The good news is that I got to enjoy 1/2 of a WARM and mouth-watering baguette on the train ride home! =) So here are pictures of the whole baguettes and also a pic with the one that I picked at on the ride home...
















I have to admit that I haven't tried the bagels yet, however I'm sure that they are scrumptious. They are authentic hand-rolled bagels, boiled and baked in the traditional way! I have those in the freezer for a day when I'm desperately looking for something to eat. We received recipes for a whole grain and the regular version. My team was chosen to make the regular and my classmate Jen's team made the whole grain version so we swapped so we could try each. Can you guess which ones are mine - yes, the boring sesame ones are. What can I say, I like sesame bagels!














Now, for the danishes. Oh my! These were the Austrian version (according to the recipe) and there are no words to describe these! I am a total danish fan and so, I was in danish heaven! I especially liked the swirly looking ones. We put almond cream, cinnamon sugar and chopped walnuts in the dough before swirling them, so those have an extra yummy surprise in them! Those were definitely my favorites... Unfortunately, since I was kind of rushing through finishing up all the different danish shapes, I didn't remember what I put in which danishes! The different fillings we used were pastry cream, almond cream (my personal favorite), cream cheese filling, cherry compote, blueberry compote, apricots, cinnamon sugar and chopped walnuts. We were allowed to make up our own combos which was nice and if you've been reading my blog, you can guess that I had a lot with almond cream and chopped walnuts! =) Sorry the pictures are not so great, but I was rushing (trying to get to the train that I missed anyway)!
















I'm excited for tomorrow when we make flammenkuchen!!!! Ah... takes me back to Germany! =)

Day 43: Back to Breads!

So tonight we went back to breads! We made Petit Pains and Pain de Provence. Our quickbread for the night was Irish Soda Bread.

So, let me tell you about the Petit Pains - OMG, they are SO good! They kind of remind me of the bread I had when I was in Europe. I already ate 2 of them since I got home tonight!!! They are sort of like mini baguettes... sort of...















I haven't tried the Pain de Provence, but it certainly smelled very good! It had olives and a special assortment of herbs supposedly native to Provence. I'm sure that it will be delish!















And finally, the Irish Soda Bread. Sorry, but I wasn't really into this one. The texture was nice and tender as a quick bread should be, but I just wasn't feeling the taste and I can't quite put my finger on what exactly was bothering me about it... *sigh* I really wanted to like it! I remember my second grade teacher (Ms. Bernadette Boland - yes, can you believe that I remember?!) made some for us on St. Patrick's day and I remember loving it!!! I haven't been able to find a version like that ever since... Oh well...














Anyway, I'm pretty excited about next class because we will be making bagels - regular and whole grain! Yes, FCI is now becoming more health conscience! We even had our first "nutrition" class today. This is a good thing.

Chef Cynthia Peithman

So, let me tell you about our wonderful Chef-Instructor: Chef Cynthia! I like her a lot. In addition to being incredibly talented, I think she is a great teacher too. I was trying to explain to my brother why I like her, saying that she is very nurturing but kind of strict at the same time, but in a good way. My brother's response to that was, "oh, sort of like you!" and I guess that's true! I suppose that's why I like her! =) Anyway, she is a wealth of knowledge and she makes some pretty awesome cakes too - here is her website - Cakeline. Oh, and did I mention how humble she is?! She has never once mentioned that some of her wedding cakes have been featured in magazines such as New York Weddings and Marth Stewart Weddings. Hopefully someday I can be even half as talented as her!

Day 42: Cakes 1 Test Day

So, today marked the end of our Cakes 1 unit. We had our written exam and our practical exam. It was back to the basics for our practical exam. Here is a list of all the elements we needed to include:

Basic Genoise
Butter Cream icing
Raspberry Jam filling
8 Rosettes piped on top
Bottom border of nuts
Plaque with "Happy Birthday" inscribed
2 Marzipan roses with leaves

I think my cake was nice to look at but unfortunately, I over heated my genoise so it was kind of crumbly inside, then I didn't cut my layers evenly, even though when I was scoring the cake it looked even to me! There was also the issue of too much icing on the top and not enough on the sides. Chef Peter could tell that I was fitzing with it... What else? Oh, and apparently I put too much filling. On the bright side, Chef Peter did say that I was very organized and very clean and it was evident in my work. He seemed pleased with the overall appearance of the cake.

Day 41: Fraisier and Lemon Chiffon Cake

Hurray, hurray for the Fraisier (pronounced fre-see-ay)! OMG! This one was REALLY REALLY good!!! I think it helped a lot that the Strawberries were perfectly ripe and just delectable! So, the cake we used on this was the American Milk Sponge and the butter cream was a Mousseline (also known as German Butter Cream). The green top was made of Marzipan and we practiced our piping with royal icing. I'm so happy about how mine came out! It's by no means perfect, but it came out a lot better than I imagined! And yes, I did pipe that all by myself (but thanks to Chef Peter for showing me a nice but simple border for this one)!!!
















The next cake was the Lemon Chiffon Cake with Lemon Curd filling. We really just used this cake to practice our decorating on, so here's a sample of what I did. I know this one is not so great, but hey, I'm learning!!! So we learned the basketweave, Swiss dots and swags (I think that's what they're called). Our teacher told us that the swags come out much better with Royal Icing compared to Butter Cream - thus all the lines that fell... =(

Well, regardless of how it looks on the outside, the cake on the inside is very tastey! And I'm so sad that I forgot my scraps in class! I was SO planning to snack on them on my way home *sigh*. Oh well... The class tomorrow is probably going to put it in the compost. *bigger sigh* Well, at least I've got the recipe and can make it again! =)

Thus ends the CAKES 1 unit! So day 42 = TEST! Wish me luck!!!

Day 40: Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse Cake and Bouche Noel