Inside Les Madeleine's Kitchen Week 2 Part I

Each and everyday, we "Morning Bake" crew come in at the wee hours of 5AM to bake off the dough/batters that were prepared the day before, and to restock the display cases.

Romina, the owner chef of Les Madeleine's, provides us with a list of items to bake, assemble, and make.

We were running low on Coconut Macaroons, Peanutbutter cookies, and Butter Toffee Cookies, so we arranged the already-portioned dough on the sheet pan.

We also baked off the Carrot Cake Cookies and Black & White Cookies (two of the most popular items) as well.

And remember that Strawberry Dome that my friend bought for me a few weeks ago (it's in my previous post)?  Well, I got to witness the whole assembly.  But for today's post, I'll just show how the domes are finished.

The strawberry mousse is prepared in a dome-shaped silicone mold and frozen.  Here they are, right after being unmolded, ready to be glazed with strawberry glaze.

Glazing going on here...

Once the entire dome is covered, it's left to sit for a bit, to allow the excess glaze to dribble off.  The dome is carefully transferred onto a gold cardboard plate, and decorated with white chocolate crispy pearls...

...Then topped with a quartered and glazed strawberry.  Each must be done by hand--but that's what makes them artisan.
Here are the pics of other goodies...

Coconut Macaroons and Butter Toffee Cookies, baked til nice and golden, ready to be placed in the display case.

Black & White Cookies.  After the cookies are baked, the bottom of each cookie is iced, half with a white glaze and the other half with a black (i.e. cocoa) glaze.

Carrot Cake Cookies.  A generous piping of fluffy cream cheese frosting is sandwiched between two raisin-studded, cake-like cookies, just like whoopie pies.
Next in Part II: Marjolaine, Zucchini Tart, more Strawberry Dome, and the chef herself in action!