Yesterday I finished the individual production rotation of this class. Finishing the class involved another practical….we had to make 12 portions of vanilla napoleons, 12 chocolate mousse barquette or french tartlette, and four containers of Bavarian cream. Since we have a practical almost every other week, I try not to stress too much over them. I focus on learning from them, rather than the grade. With a three hour time limit and so many components, you definitely have to push yourself to get everything done. I wasn’t exceptionally happy with my final products, but I think I did okay and I learned something new, which is what this is all about.
The quick puff pastry for the napoleon set me back a bit as it was very crumbly and almost shattered when I tried to move it. I knew something was wrong, but worked with what I had to finish my product(The quick puff was made the day before the test as it requires numerous folds and rests which take up time). After talking to the chef during evaluation, we determined that I probably rolled the dough out too thin when I was folding it, which smeared the butter throughout the flour instead of making layers of lamination. So..lesson learned about quick puff. Today during class the chef mentioned this to the whole class, as it seems I wasn’t the only one that had this problem…so lesson learned for the whole class.
Today we started the mignardies rotation. These are bite size treats, often sent out at the end of the meal in restaurants. We made raspberry and chocolate french macaroons, coconut macaroons and financiers. The macaroons were quite delicious…crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The colors are also appealing and fun. The other team made pistachio macaroons which are shown in green.
We garnished our financiers with candied orange zest and a slivered almond. This little cake is made with browned butter and baked in molds. These are also tasty, but not my favorite dish. The browned butter gives it a good flavor, but other than that, it is kind of boring in my opinion.
Below are a few pictures from last week. Enjoy!
Opera Cake-Layers of sponge cake soaked with espresso syrup between layers of coffee buttercream covered with a chocolate glaze. This is a beautiful and delicious cake. I will definitely be reproducing this in the future.
Lemon Roulade
Coconut Chocolate Torte-I should have taken a picture of the inside of this beautiful little cake. There is a surprise behind the sponge cake…chocolate mousse! The white cream on top is coconut Bavarian cream. One might thing coconut doesn’t really sound like it would flow with everything else, but it was very subtle and had just the right amount of flavor to compliment the chocolate.
These pictures are actually from the last class, basic and classical cakes.
Chocolate Soufle Cake
Flourless Chocolate Cake
From left to right…flour-less chocolate cake, ricotta cheesecake, caramelized pear cheesecake, chocolate souffle cake, and hazelnut cake.
And finally…I leave you with some piping homework. Good night.
