More French pastries I can't pronounce

It seems like I should have taken French instead of Spanish all those years... at least then maybe I could remember (for longer than a goldfish can) how to say the names of the pastries we made today. In my notes, I wrote them all phonetically, so that when I went back to tell someone what it was, I could actually say it correctly. So jalouise became "ja-loos-ee" and pithivier became even simpler "PTVA". I thought that English was kinda crazy with its "silent 'e'" nonsense.... but it seems to me like at least half of the letters in any given French word are "silent".

So today, we made jalouise, pithivier, band de fruit, and we started making Napoleons as well. In addition to those completed products, we made chantilly (which if you remember from an earlier post is a fancy way of saying sweetened whipped cream), pastry cream and diplomat cream. Let me tell you... if given the option to make "authentic, hand-whipped, whipped cream".... ALWAYS say... "that's okay, I'll just wait for the mixer". That is, unless you haven't done your arm workout yet for the day, and you feel like squeezing in a good 15-20 minutes of pain. Try it... you'll see what I mean. I'll even give you a formula to follow: 8 oz heavy cream, 1 oz granulated sugar and about a half tsp of vanilla. Use a whisk to whip to the stiff peak stage (should hold together on the whisk without drooping or sliding off the whisk when you take it out of the bowl). Let me know how it goes ;)

Here are a few photos from today...

 This is for the jalouise... it's a pastry dough base with frangipane, sliced pears, cherries soaked in water and almond extract, and then sprinkled with a sugar/ginger/nutmeg mixture. 

 Here's the jalouise just prior to baking. I gave it a cream wash (which gives it a more rustic look instead of the egg wash), a sprinkle of sanding sugar, and then crimped the edges with a fork. 

 Finished jalouise.... I wish you could smell how yummy it was! 

 I just love these tools :) 

 Pithivier... not only does this have a complicated name... it has many complicated steps too. Essentially it is two layers of pastry dough with a layer of raspberry jam and frangipane sandwiched between. The cut marks are a little tricky and have to be very precise, otherwise you'll let steam escape where it shouldn't and the whole thing will be ruined. 

 Cream horns with sanding sugar waiting to go into the oven. 

 Close up...

 Here is the finished pithivier... I figured it would taste pretty good.. but I actually kind of forgot about it till I got home. Then I decided I should cut a slice so I could take a picture of it, and figured I might as well try it since I cut it. WHOA. It is SO SO SO good. (Yes- worthy of 3 "so"s.. and so good that I didn't even remember to put up the photo I took of it sliced).

 Band de fruit & other pastries set up for a buffet (and grading). 

 Finished cream horn

Top view of band de fruit

Close up of jalouise

...and I'm back in the game! :)

Hello everyone!

After a two-month hiatus, baking classes have started again! I have graduated from a total newbie to a person that other classmates go to to ask questions! It's so great to be back in the culinary arts building, doing more of what I love... and boy do I love it! My first set of classes is in "Classic Pastry", so I will be learning all about eclairs, palmiers, and tarts, to name a few.

We started out the day with a beautifully simple work space: a tidy pile of flour, small cubes of butter, a cold mixture of egg and water, and a pinch of salt. After working the butter into the flour and salt until it reached a sand-like consistency, I formed a little well then poured in (slowly) some of the egg/water mixture. Using my fingertips to swirl around the flour, making "hummus" per our chef's recommendation, I started to make my first batch of totally hand-made pastry dough. The trick with this is (well one of them anyway!)...  make sure that you never get so much flour in the well as you're incorporating the dry & liquid ingredients that you actually make a dough. If you make a dough clump too early, then that little dough clump is happy and wants to stay a clump! Then you have to work extra hard to get your dough an even consistency.

Later on in the class, we made Tarte Tartin, palmiers, and sacristans. Here are some photos of the day!

 "mise en place"

 making "hummus"

 locking in the butter

 pretty little palmiers

 my first ever batch of caramel

 raspberry jam sacristans

 cutting up strips for sacristans

 rolling up sacristans

 my homemade pastry dough

 sacristans with homemade dough and a ginger/nutmeg/sugar filling

 finished raspberry sacristans

 finished palmiers

 finished sacristans

 finished apple tarts tartin

a slice of tarte tartin