Week Seven (Part I): Pate a Choux and Module I Final

We wrapped up the last lesson in our first module on Monday night.  The material was continued from the Thursday before, but with different uses of pate a choux.  We assembled petite croquembouches, a traditional French wedding cake.  I spun caramel angel hair to put a special touch on mine.

We also made gougeres, profiterals and Paris-Brest which we filled with lightened pastry cream or creme mousseline.

Module I concluded this evening with an examination.  The examination consisted of two parts: a ten question written exam followed by a practical.  The practical consisted of three parts: knife skills, chocolate piping skills and preparing a perfect flourless chocolate souffle.  

Our final score was an average of the two parts.  I received a 99%.  I would be lying if I said I was not slightly disappointed in being so close to a perfect score.  But I am happy to have my first exam behind me and to have finished the first module with a 4.0 GPA.

Week Six: Frozen Desserts & Pate a Choux

This week was a bit lighter, both in terms of the schedule and material - so my entry this week will be a bit shorter and lacking in photos.  We did not have class on Monday in observance of Memorial Day, and that extra time off was relished and enjoyed.

Tuesday and Wednesday were focused on frozen desserts: sorbets, granitas, bombes, Baked Alaska.  For the individual-sized ice cream bombes, I made an amaretto flavor, complete with crushed Lazzaroni amaretti cookies.  These cookies are used a lot on Everyday Italian, so I was curious how they tasted.  They are amazing!  I was completely addicted after my first bite.  The ice cream bombe was equally as delicious.

I also really enjoyed the granita, so much so that I actually created my own version (strawberry) for a small dinner party Mike and I hosted Saturday evening. 

Thursday we started to shift our focus to pate a choux and pastry creams.  I thought of Mummy as I glazed the praline eclairs with the chocolate ganache; I do not particularly like eclairs, but I remember these being one of her favorite treats when we were younger.

There is only one lesson left in this module and our exam/practical will be Tuesday night.  I have been uncharacteristically stressed lately and the upcoming exam is a huge contributor.  I will be relieved when it is over and we move on to our second module: breads!

Week Five: Sugar and Custards

On Monday, we wrapped up our lesson on sugar and each team created divinity, torrone, peanut brittle and dry caramel.  As my partner worked on the torrone, I started the divinity.  I incorporated the hot syrup into the egg whites and allowed the mixer to start whipping the mixture cold.  I watched it closely as I cleaned-up my area to prepare for the next recipe.

About five minutes later, the mixture was a complete mess: clumpy and grainy.  I asked the chef to come look at it and as she peered into the bowl, she simply said the mixture had crystalized.  A look of disappointment must have washed across my face, as she told me not to be too concerned about it - it could have just been a tiny particle in the pan or mixing bowl that caused the issue.  I understood sugar was very temperamental, but I was still disappointed.  I do not like to mess-up.

As the taste of the candy was still fine, she had me scoop it out so it could dry.  My partner finished the torrone and I helped her mix in the almonds and spread the mixture between the two pieces of wafer paper.

We started working on the peanut brittle, as I took extra care to be sure the pan was clean.  The sugar took a fairly long time to reach the required 300 degrees.  Once it did, the honey roasted peanuts, vanilla and baking powder were immediately stirred in and then the brittle was poured and smoothed onto a SilPat and allowed to cool.

As we made our dry caramels and worked on creating caramel decorations, we each individually met with the chef to receive our mid-module reviews.  I was happy to hear I was currently earning an A.  Even more assuring than my grade, however, was when my instructor again praised my chocolate piping skills and said she thought I would "do extremely well" in the industry.

The divinity was awful - every group threw theirs out - so I didn't feel so badly that I messed it up.  But I did bring home the peanut brittle, which I thought was delicious, and the torrone.  Mike was intrigued with the torrone once I explained it was a traditional Italian candy and taste tested a small piece.  I was informed I was not allowed to take the torrone to the office; it was to stay in the apartment.

Tuesday brought the introduction to custards, as well as our second quiz, on which I received a 100%.  I am not a huge fan of custards, but creme brulee, baked caramel custard (flan) and bread pudding were on the menu for the evening.  We made up the custards fairly quickly and they were ready to set overnight before tasting.  While the bread puddings went home, the baked custards and creme brulees me stayed in the kitchen to be unmolded and burned-off the next day.

I had been looking forward to Wednesday's class for awhile: cheesecakes!  Each team was assigned a different style: New York, Philadelphia and mascarpone.  We were then to take one of each home, refrigerate it for at least 12 hours and then taste each one.  I did my taste-testing last evening after my wine class.  

My favorite was the New York style - and not just because my partner and I made this version.  The Philadelphia style was fine, but did not have as much flavor.  I unexpectedly enjoyed the mascarpone.  I thought the pate sablee (cookie part underneath the cheesecake) could have been much more flavorful on all three - it was just kind of there and did not really add anything to the overall flavor of the cake.  For the mascarpone, I think some amaretto liquor or a chocolate hazelnut base would be delectable.

We also made creme anglaise Wednesday night as well as our ice cream bases for Thursday night.  Each team had two different ice cream flavors to prepare - my partner and I had praline and cinnamon.

Thursday night was fun.  We took turns freezing our ice cream bases in the industrial ice cream machine.  The base comes out like a soft serve and is then placed in the freezer to become a hard serve.  But we were able to try each flavor before they were quickly whisked away to the freezer for next week.  

Cabby would be proud of me, as the ginger ice cream was one of my favorites.  My top-pick was the cinnamon ice cream - sweet, spicy and homey.  I think it would be absolutely amazing over a warm piece of Mummy's apple pie (any takers for Thanksgiving?).  The chocolate and coffee flavors were also very good, but the team that did both flavors added a ton of add-ins which, in my opinion, distracted the taster from the simple flavor of the ice cream.

It was another enjoyable week - I am starting to gain confidence in the kitchen and am becoming more relaxed during the recipes.  I only have four more classes left in this module, with the exam and practical taking place on June 2nd.  That will put me a quarter-way through the program - its amazing how quickly it has already gone!

Healthy Kidney 10K

It seems like it's been forever since I have written about running.  This is not because I'm not running anymore, but because the pastry program has pretty much taken over my life and, honestly, I am way more excited to share my weekly pastry updates than my squeezed-in lunchtime treadmill runs.

 

I am still running - three or four times a week in fact.  After recovering from the half-marathon, I shifted my focus my attention to shorter-distance races, as summertime is the season for 5Ks (3.1 miles) and 10Ks (6.2 miles).  

 

I ran the Healthy Kidney 10K last Saturday in Central Park.  This was my first 10K and while I was not worried about finishing, racing a new distance is always a learning experience - how fast should I go out, where shoudl I back-off or push the pace, at what miles will I feel strong or miserable?

 

The morning was cool and overcast, as the afternoon was supposed to bring rain showers.  The start line was on the West side, so I hopped on a cross-town bus to make my commute a bit easier.  I felt a little guilty take the bus to go run a race, but I was relieved to find many other runners sporting race bibs in my company.

 

The race was almost at full capacity (5,000 runners) and, for some reason, my starting position was much further back than usual.  I nervously hopped in place in my corral, waiting for the piercing noise of the start gun.  "Runners...on your mark...get set....BANG!"  As soon as the gun went off, the skies opened up - it was pouring.  For the first mile and a half, I not only dodged too-slow runners, but felt like I was running through a waterfall.  I couldn't see very far and the heavy raindrops kept getting under my contacts.

 

At about the second mile marker, the rain stopped as suddenly as it had started.  The rain shower left behind soaked runners with 96% humidity.  I'm pretty sure the "slosh, slosh, slosh" of 5,000 pairs of sneakers could be heard throughout the city.  My right shoulder started whining in pain - I had probably tensed my upper body way more than I should have during the first few miles.  Then my shoelace came untied, which wouldn't have been too much of a problem, except I couldn't get my shoulder to cooperate long enough to tie it.

 

Fifteen seconds later, I was back in the race, completely regretting wearing a black sports bra under my white running shirt.  I distracted myself for the next mile wondering if Mum would be upset with me if she was here.  Her philosophy of "A lady never wears a black bra under a white shirt" had crossed my mind while I was getting ready that morning - but my new, hectic schedule wasn't leaving much time for laundry during the week.  I concluded that she would probably let it pass, just this once.

 

Despite another untied shoe, I finished the race very strong.  Mike was away for the weekend, so I started on my way home as soon as I crossed the finish line.  I thought about catching another bus, but decided against it due to being drenched in rain water and sweat.  Back in the apartment, I enjoyed a nice, hot shower, climbed back into my pajamas and put together a little breakfast for myself.  As soon as the groceries were delivered, I hopped back into the unmade bed to enjoy a couple hours of relaxation - blog writing and Food Network.

 

The results of the race were posted quickly and I was happy to have finished the 6.2 miles in 48 minutes 38 seconds - putting my average split time at 7 minutes 50 seconds.

 

I felt like I had found a good race distance for my new schedule.  As my only opportunity to run during the week is my lunch hour, I usually cannot squeeze in more than three miles at a time.  10Ks would allow me to do shorter training runs during the week and a longer run on the weekends.

 

I do not always look forward to running during my lunch hour; lack of sleep and the mind-numbness of my job usually put me in autopilot mode until 5 PM.  But knowing what the evening's class will hold in terms of tastings sometimes offers me all the motivation I need - like tonight, when we "have" to try nine different flavors of ice cream, accompanied by freshly made cones and four different sauces.  I've never been more inspired to finish my tempo run!

Week Four: Field Trip, Lectures & Sugar

This week was a bit different the previous three.  On Monday, we were not even in the kitchen, as we took a field trip to several different bakeries.  We sat through two hours of management lectures on Tuesday and Wednesday, which only left enough time for either more lecture or a bit of piping practice.  We finally returned to our normal schedule on Thursday, with a brief lecture, chef demo and then the remaining three hours were for completing recipes.

The main focus of our field trip was to a dessert bar in the East Village, Chikalicious.  The outside was unassuming and stark, with only a tiny sign on the door denoting the name.  The inside was small, intimate and we were warmly greeted by the chef behind the "dessert bar".  We all poured over the tiny menus, composed of both signature items and daily specials.  I decided on the warm chocolate tart with pink peppercorn ice cream and red wine sauce.  I was most intrigued by the ice cream.

As part of our prix fix menu, we also received an amuse before our chosen entree and petit fours afterwards.  The amuse arrived in tiny oval cups: a yogurt panna cotta swimming in a cold carrot and ginger soup.  The flavor was light, refreshing and a perfect pallete cleanser before our main course.  It was not technically an amuse, because it took about three spoonfuls to finish.

As the chefs were plating all of our desserts in front of us, our mouths were watering as we bombarded them both with questions on the industry and their experiences.  We were not their typical customers but they answered all of our questions patiently and thoroughly.  The kitchen was clean and organized; both chefs were very efficient.

My entree finally arrived - and I say finally only because I was ready to leap over the counter to grab my plate, that's how good it looked.  I started with the pink peppercorn ice cream.  Hmmm - spicy ice cream?  It was interesting, something new and unique.  The spoonful on the plate was just enough, this was not the type of ice cream you would want to eat straight from the container with an oversized spoon.  The tart was small, with a molten lava center.  Delicious and well executed, it added a traditional contrast to the ice cream.  I did not think the sauce added much to the taste of either the tart or ice cream, but it did make for a lovely presentation.

After our desserts were finished, we were presented with petit fours - coconut marshmallows, strawberry pate de fruit and Kahlua-white chocolate truffles.  Even though I am not usually a fan of coconut, I enjoyed the marshmallows.  The pate de fruit was delicious.  This was one of the first recipes we made in class and I had not particularly cared for it - the sweetness was a bit overwhelming.  But these tiny versions had a thicker texture and were less sweet.  And the truffles?  They didn't even stand a chance!

All of us shared our desserts so we could try many of the offerings on the menu.  Some I was impressed with, others I was not.  I was pleasantly surprised how portion size can really affect the customers experience.  The portions were small here, but I really appreciated that quality.  It not only allowed me to try and enjoy other desserts, but it was refreshing to finish dessert and not feel "stuffed".

The management lectures were informative, but quite boring after sitting all day at work.  The lecture on flour was equally as tedious.  But Friday we started working with sugar, making chocolate fudge, Italian meringue buttercream and lemonade.  My partner this week was the know-it-all in the class.  Surprisingly, we worked quite well together, although I'm still happy it was a lighter week in terms of workload.

Friday evening, I began my 6-week Wine Essentials course, which was offered as a "complementary "addition to our program.  I was excited to take the course, as I have enjoyed my fair-share of red wine, but really had no idea why I liked certain tastes over others.  The first class mainly focused on white wines, which I never liked, with the exception of Champagne.  I did find one style of white that I really enjoyed, Riesling, probably because it was light and sweet.  Our instructor suggested spicy foods as a perfect complement.

Last night, I was back at school, volunteering for a recreational savory pastry class with 12 teenagers.  It was a long four hours - the AC was broken, I did not know too much about the recipes and some of the other volunteers were a bit difficult to get along with.  I forgot how awkward teenagers are!  Some of them were quite obviously forced to be there and were not happy about it.  Some of them wanted to know everything and everything about what they were doing.  Either way, I really enjoyed watching

After the class, I treated myself to take-out from my favorite Thai restaurant - I could think of no better reward for a a successful 10K and night of volunteering .  I had picked up a bottle of Riesling earlier in the day and, after two glasses, I can confirm it goes with with spicy food!