Vols-au-Vent

Goat cheese filled round puff pastry cases. So cute!

Fruit Tart using Puff Pastry

This tart was filled with Creme Legere which is pastry cream lightened with whipped cream.

Oooooooooooooh Palmiers

crunchy caramelized sugar. flaky dough. buttery goodness. perfect.

Pate Feuilletee

Pate feuilletee, or puff pastry has always been surrounded by mystique. It's delicate, rich, flaky, and crispy dough can be used for countless savory and sweet items. Pate feuilletee literally means "leaved dough" which refers to its layers. It is made by wrapping a layer of butter with dough and then rolling it out, folding, rolling it out, folding until many layers have been formed. The layers grow exponentially as it is folded. When the butter in between each layer of dough melts and creates steam it leaves air pockets that give this dough its flakiness. I make it sound much simpler then the whole process really is. It is quite time consuming and care must be taken at each step. However the end result is very impressive. We learned how to use this dough to make paillettes- spicy cheese straws, palmiers- better known as butterfly wings by us Americans, fruit tarts, goat cheese filled vols-au-vent, mille-feuilles: napoleon, and fruit galettes.

...and now the bride will cut the Croquembouche

Croquembouche is the French traditional wedding cake. It is a high cone made of pate a choux cream puffs stuck together with caramel. The name croque en bouche literally means "crunch in mouth". It is eaten by cracking off pieces of cream puff one at a time. How fun! This pastry may look easy to make and harmless but put a bunch of novice pastry students in a room with hot boiling sugar and it spells disaster! This was my first time making caramel and it burnt before I could even say "Holy Croquembouche!" All of us burnt our finger tips dipping these little cream puffs. We had to work super fast because the sugar kept hardening in the pot. Poor Sara got a spoon that was coated with the searing hot caramel stuck on her arm. She reacted before she could think and yanked the spoon off skin and all! Not so festive when you think about the blood and tears that goes into one of these croquembouche!

Let us pray to our Saint

St. Honore is the French patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs. I guess he'll be the one I'll be praying to when I take the pate a choux test and practical! This cake was made to honor St. Honore. It is essentially a disc of pate brisee with rings of pate a choux piped inside. Individual pate a choux cream puffs are attached on the outside with caramel and the center of the pastry is filled with creme chiboust which is pastry cream lightened with a meringue that is set with gelatin.

I wonder if Lance Armstrong eats this before every race

Pate a choux piped in a ring topped with sliced almonds and filled with praline creme mousseline, this pastry is named after a bicycle race thus its resemblance to a wheel tire.

"Mon Petit Chou"

Mon petit chou is a term of endearment and some think the name of this dough may refer to the pastries as "cherished little things". Only the French could come up with something so charming! Pate a choux, or cream puff pastry is one of the basic pastry doughs in French pastry making. The dough is made by whisking flour into boiling water, butter, salt, and sugar. The dough is then cooked on top of the stove to dry out the mixture (this is called dessecher). At this point you have to stir wildly so that the dough does not burn on the bottom. I say "wildly" because the dough can get quite thick so you really have to get your arms working here. It is ready to be thrown into the mixer with a paddle attachment when a thin film forms on the bottom. Eggs are added one at a time until the right consistency is reached. At this point gruyere cheese and black pepper can be added to make gougeres. Different shapes are piped out according to what is being made and then baked. This dough is the only French dough that gets cooked twice. Pate a choux pastries are leaved by steam, a method of mechanical leavening as compared to chemically leavening. It is the steam created by the moisture and eggs in the dough that expand forming the cavity inside the pastry. This dough is used in many classic pastries such as cream puffs, eclairs, profiteroles, swans, and gougeres.

The Dancer in the Kitchen

School has been very busy. We just finished the tarts section and I'm studying for the test and practical. I am a little nervous! Class is a bit daunting. College for me was over years ago. Being back in school is a strange feeling. I'm not used to having teachers telling me what to do and grading me! I feel like I am constantly being scrutinized and watched. I realized it's because as cooks you want to be precise and efficient with your movements. Just like food you don't want to waste. If you watch a cook in action in the kitchen it is almost like a choreographed dance. Every movement is planned, controlled, and has a purpose. Every movement has been rehersed over and over again until it has become second nature to the body.

Once Upon a Tart

Chocolate Ganache Tart

Linzer Torte

Caramel Nut Tart