Intro to Pastry Week 6 & 7

Intro to Pastry Week 6 & 7

The last few weeks have been a blur--with the downtown convention, the restaurant got swamped. We went through the cheesecake and the trifle rather quickly, but things settled down...and we're back to being very slow. I've learned to pace the dessert-making so there will be a steady supply of fresh desserts--that way, there will be enough for service, but not so much that they end up not getting consumed and have to be thrown out.

About two weeks ago, I baked a sample Eggnog Cheesecake w/Gingerbread crust for the upcoming holiday. Everyone loved it! So far, I've come up with eggnog cream puffs, eggnog trifle, eggnog creme brulee, kabocha pumpkin trifle, kabocha cheesecake...the list goes on. But it's all up to the owner's decision...and he had better make that decision quick. Once we're past Thanksgiving, the holiday chaos will arrive, and then we'll have only one month to serve them.

So that's what's been going on at work...

Here's the recap from Week 6. This week, we learned about puff pastry. It's one of those pastry elements that everyone finds very intimidating. I was kinda scared myself. But once I got my hands down and dirty, it wasn't as bad as I thought.

One of our products, done by J. Frangipane Torte with Dried Fruit Compote and pomegranate sauce. A nice, winter-themed dessert!

Done by N. Coconut Panna Cotta with Raspberry and Lime Sauce. He substituted coconut milk for the cream in the recipe, but didn't taste like coconut at all.

Done by G. Raspberry Napoleon Cake. Both he and I did our own puff pastry dough, just to get the experience. He wanted to do the Napoleon cake (i.e. layers of puff pastry and cream), so I did the vol-au-vent (i.e. cup-shaped puff pastry). Being the overachiever that he is, he started doing sugar work on raspberries for the garnish...then he got too distracted doing that and forgot about the pastry in the oven. He ended up burning one of his batches, and his other ones puffed up a LOT. He had to cut a piece horizontally to make the layer, and sandwiched pastry cream inbetween. They were very flaky and tasty, but G was definitely not happy with his work this time.

My work. Vol-au-vent with Persimmon Cream, Cranberry Compote, and pomegranate sauce. For the persimmon cream, I just pureed persimmon and folded it into the vanilla pastry cream. But being such a mild-flavored fruit, the persimmon taste was just barely there. Otherwise, it turned out pretty good--the pastry puffed up, was flaky...puff pastry isn't as scary as it used to.

Then on to Week 7....

We had a group change, which is nice....don't get me wrong, I got along fine with my group. But working with G for six weeks straight (he's a nice guy, but tends to be somewhat of a control freak) gets tiresome.

My new group members are 'R' and 'B' (no pun intended...). R is apparently quite experienced in the kitchen, and has been in the restaurant industry for a while. B, on the other hand...a nice guy, but very quirky. He's in the same Baking & Pastry Program like me, which is quite unusual for a guy. Most of the males are in the Culinary Program and the females make up the majority of the Baking Program.

While he's passionate about baking and cooking, his products tend to turn into culinary fiascos. In Week 6, he was excitedly telling me about his dessert...

B: "I'm gonna churn vanilla ice cream, and towards the end, mix in some grated cheddar cheese and crumbled ultimate bacon, then serve that over warm, sugar-glazed croissants. Behold.... the Ultimate Bacon & Cheddar Ice Cream Croissants! It's like, dessert-breakfast--the marriage of dessert and breakfast, two of the best meals of the day!! Don't you agree!!???"

Me: "....................."

The result? His croissants were heavy, doughy and flat (due to overworking the dough), his ice cream didn't have enough time in the freezer (he should've churned the ice cream the day before to freeze overnight) so it completely melted. And the flavor? Bacon overpowered everything, and was perhaps the only part of the "dessert" that was remotely edible.

So this guy is in my group. Things definitely got interesting with him around...

Our new recipes to do were strudel dough and cheesecake. I volunteered to do the cheesecake (since it's my specialty), R wanted to do a Panna Cotta, and that left B to do the strudel dough. After each of us did the initial tasks for our own desserts, both R and I helped B with the strudel dough. Unlike danish or croissants, strudel dough needs to be stretched, not rolled. Each of us grabbed a corner and slowly stretched it, being careful not to tear the dough. The dough needed to be stretched until nearly transparent (you can "read through it"). We wanted to try something different from everyone else, so instead of filling it and wrapping it, we baked it flat, in sheets. Our plan was to layer the sheets and pastry cream to make a napoleon-like dessert.

With the cheesecake, I decided to do a trio of flavors: pumpkin, chocolate, and apple (since that was the only fruit available other than pomegranate...), each flavor with different crust. Pumpkin had the gingerbread, chocolate had chocolate, and apple had pecan crust.

And then I found out there's no cream cheese. I had to substitute mascarpone, which I've never used. The three different crusts were done by this time. I look at the clock--45 minutes until our 25 minute break. Our class is over an hour and a half after the break. The cheesecakes need at least an hour of baking time. If I didn't put the cakes in the oven before the break, I was screwed.

I quickly mixed the base for the cheesecakes, and had to ask...B for help.... After I dumped in the pumpkin spice into one of the bowls, I told him to mix in 1/3 cup of pumpkin puree into it. Then I told him to melt 3 oz. of chocolate. He grins and asks, "OK....8 oz???"

I told him, no, 3 oz. He grins back and asks, "Oh, so 6 oz?????". I tell him again, no, 3 oz. By this time, I was getting very, very annoyed. There was 15 minutes left til break.

He finally left to get chocolate. While he was measuring them out, he asks, "So...12 oz, right??????". At which point, I declared that if he doesn't measure out 3 oz. of chocolate right now, I'm going to flay him with a pineapple.

He finally relented and did as he was told...but goodness....

But I did get the cakes in the oven in the nick of time! An hour later, they came out OK. The next day, I made the garnishes--the brittle, chocolate work, and candied apple slices. I decided to use the sauce made by R, the caramel whiskey sauce. I figured caramel would be the only sauce that will go with these trios.

We got everything done on time!

R's work. Kahlua and Irish Cream Panna Cotta with caramel whiskey sauce...

B's work. Deconstructed strudel with pastry cream and fig filling...

And mine. Cheesecake Trios.

Due to Thanksgiving, we have Week 8 off. In two weeks, we have our final. Man, this quarter is going by fast...

Intro to Pastry Week 5--Blackbox Midterm

Winter is finally here. We had a bounty of apples from our tree this year, and I took the opportunity to cook and can them for--what else?--Apple pie!

Now that I can make some decent pie crusts (a dramatic improvement from horrifying garbage I used to make months ago...), I made several apple pies. One went to a potluck at church few weeks ago (and that I forgot to mention in the previous posts). Another lady also made an apple pie, but she was going around bragging to everyone that it's "the best pie" and "highly recommend it"...over other desserts that other people brought. HOW. RUDE.

But here's one of my apple pies....

I prefer the nut-streusel topping than the traditional two-crust or the lattice-top. The streusel provides a nutty crunch and textural contrast to the tender apples and the flaky crust. Another thing that I've started doing is rolling the pie dough via folding. It's a procedure similar to making laminated doughs (i.e. puff pastry, croissants, etc). This produces a very flaky crust with many layers, but it's tougher than the regular pie crust. But my family and friends said that the pie, especially the crust, is phenomenal and delicious. Maybe the Americans would prefer the more tender regular crust than this "laminated" version.

And speaking of apple pies--our friend Chef Toshi, the executive chef at Naked Fish, was one of the friends who ate my apple pie. He had fallen head over heels for it, and asked if I can make it as one of the desserts at the restaurant.

I sighed. Using some gross grocery store-bought apples that have been ethylene gassed will NEVER produce the same product no matter what. What made that apple pie delicious was the apples--organic, unsprayed, from our backyard. And using ingredients harvested from someone's backyard is frowned upon by the FDA. Yes, the pie is delicious. Yes, people would probably pay for it. But this is the limit of restaurant food--it can't duplicate the taste of homemade.

This is the Mocha Trifle, my own invention being served at the restaurant...Layers of chocolate syrup (made by me--we use Hershey's only during emergencies), chocolate and coffee custard, rum-soaked ladyfingers, and lightly sweetened whipped cream. For service, we dust it with cocoa powder and a tuile. So far, this has been our most popular dessert. I am stoked! :)

So on to our Blackbox Midterm!

Each group got an assortment of blackbox ingredients. Each student had to come up with unique plated dessert; we didn't have to use every ingredients given, but had to incorporate at least one of them--and we were not allowed to use the ingredients from other groups.

My group walked up to our table, which had: Blueberries, grapefruits, peanutbutter, cashews, almond extract, and white chocolate.I immediately thought, "Blueberry-White Chocolate Mousse", but dismissed the thought. Too common. Everyone will come up with that. So I turned my attention to the grapefruit. I started calculating....

Lemon + White Chocolate = tasty combo; Lemon = citrus; Grapefruit = citrus; therefore, Grapefruit + White Chocolate = potentially tasty combo

So just to double check, I ate a grapefruit segment with some white chocolate chips. Wow. Not bad at all! I finalized my dessert plan: Grapefruit-White Chocolate Mousse Profiterole with blueberry sauce, and cashew tuile.

We had two days to do this. On the first day, I baked the choux pastry shells and experimental Grapefruit-White Chocolate mousse (since I've never made this before). Second day, I checked on the mousse. Oh boy. Too stiff. I had to come up with a different method--and decided to make a grapefruit curd with white chocolate, then fold in whipped cream to make the mousse. I crossed my fingers and let it chill in the fridge. In the meantime, I made the blueberry sauce, and baked the tuiles.

It seemed like I didn't do much, but each task took me a while, mostly because I was unfamiliar with some of the recipes. Plating time approached fairly quickly, and all of us managed to plate ours on time.

One of my team member, J's midterm: Blueberry & White Chocolate Mousse with Cashew Cookie.

This one is done by G. I think it's Blueberry & White Chocolate Frozen Souffle in tuile cup, with grapefruit sorbet.

...and this one is mine. Grapefruit-White Chocolate Mousse Profiterole with blueberry sauce and grapefruit curd.

Chef said that most of our products are way too big, but did a pretty good job for a midterm. But she asked the important question: Is this worth ten hours of work? She had a point. We had ten hours to do this--and now that I think about it, I guess I could've done more.

I am now determined to do better for the final in a few weeks.

Intro to Pastry Week 3 & 4

Intro to Pastry Week 3 & 4 Recap

Finally, an update! With the part time work at Naked Fish Japanese Bistro and classes, I haven't been this busy since I quit my job at the plasma collection center.

But here are the pics from Week 3. Our project for this week involved frozen mousse, meringue, truffles, and classical (not frozen) mousse.
This is our Raspberry-Cappuccino Frozen Souffle:

It's called a 'souffle' (even though it's not baked) because it's molded in a ramekin, with the top above the rim. That's the only reason. One of the guys in my group, G, did this one, and he topped it with Italian meringue, which he torched for that Baked Alaska look.

And this is my French Meringue Swan! It was very airy, light and crispy. Filled with Classical Chocolate mousse, with Blueberry Cream sauce...which Chef thought looked a bit too unnatural. Next time, I'll just stick with the regular blueberry puree.

...And being the overachiever that I am, I made an additional dessert plate. White Chocolate Mug with Chocolate Mousse, Meringue, and Chocolate cake layers...with a Meringue spoon. I had the hardest time molding the chocolate! The molding chocolate was brushed on a sheet of acetate, and left to thicken up a bit (so chocolate won't dribble all over the place while molding), then rolled into a cylinder. Sounds easy enough, but when I started on this, it took me three tries until it finally came out with a decent-looking product. The chocolate needs to be at just the right consistency; not too runny, not too thick. First time around, the chocolate was too runny, and I ended up with a very thick-bottomed cup with a very thin wall--which promptly broke. Same thing happened on second try. Finally with the third try I came up with the above product. *phew* Learned something new today...

Coffee Truffles. Not exactly considered a plated dessert, but the other guy in my group, M, did his best.

Overall, everyone did very well, and Chef was quite happy. :)

Then on to Week 4. Our projects this week involved Angel Food Cake, Japonaise Meringue (meringue with ground nuts), Linzer tart, and several kinds of Creme Brulee--the contemporary, stovetop version and the traditional baked version.

This is our Apple Creme Caramel--basically another name for flan. It tasted great, but couldn't really taste the apple. Chef thought the plate looked a little bland...

Raspberry-Strawberry Angel Food Cake w/Japonaise meringue. Cake turned out a bit dry, but pretty good.

Black Sesame & Nut Tart with Orange Sauce--my own creation! Black sesame filling with Caramel-Nut topping, all encased in crispy almond crust...but it scared Chef. She said she was afraid to try it! Apparently, using black sesame in sweets/desserts were a strange concept to everyone. I mean, seriously...Asians have been doing it for centuries! As for the tart...the topping turned out a bit too chewy. I probably overcooked the caramel :P. But the flavor was awesome--very nutty, from the sesame and all the nuts in it. Truly, every nut-lover's dream!

And then our Creme Brulee. Holy Crap. The guy who did this, G, has got some talent! He made the tuile cups, the stovetop version Creme brulee (all flavored differently; mango, vanilla, and pomegranate), and decorative sugar work, to put together this beautiful plate!

Here's the closeup pic. The sugar work is like glass!

So that's it for the Intro to Pastry. Next week: Blackbox Midterm!!!

...and I'll post an update on the situation at the Naked Fish as soon as I get the chance.