Week Twelve: Puff Pastry

I will open with the moral of the past week: just buy puff pastry.  That's right, buy the frozen stuff in the grocery store and don't think twice about making your own.

 

I advise this from the very bottom of my heart: your shoulders and respiratory system will thank you.  I also say this because, despite the past week being devoted entirely to puff pastry (with more to come next week), apparently even the top restaurants use the frozen stuff.  Surprised?  So was I.  But, according to multiple chef-instructors, there is little difference in the taste of frozen or freshly-made puff pastry.  Since it is incredibly time consuming to make even a small batch, I can now understand why restaurants would just use the frozen version.

We made a "quick puff pastry" dough last Thursday, which chilled over the weekend, and was used to create the hors d'oeuvres on Monday night.  My partner and I worked to create a smoked salmon mille feuille and baklava.

The salmon mille feuille was a light, fresh little bite.  It reminded me of a (very) mini version of the salmon in puff pastry my Mum makes for Christmas Eve dinner.  Just a touch of the dill-butter sauce would have made these even more tasty.

For some reason I was never a fan of baklava.  It was not because the quality of the baklava I was tasting was not good - we got it at Greek Fest every year - but I just didn't like it.  This was much to the enjoyment of my Dad, who every year would pick-up a few pieces for me, "forgetting" that I didn't care for the taste of this dessert.  Surprisingly, it never seemed to go to waste.

Looking at the ingredients, I could not figure out why I had not enjoyed this treat.  We ground up the nuts and added the cinnamon and sugar.  The process of actually assembling the baklava was quite time consuming: every layer of "dough" was six sheets of phyllo dough.  And each sheet of phyllo dough had to be completely coated with a wash of clarified butter.

But the work was absolutely worth it.  Fresh from the oven, it was coated with the cinnamon-infused honey syrup.  Delectable.

Tuesday evening was spent preparing our puff pastry dough for the remainder of the week.  It was incredible to see how much butter could be Incorporated into a seemingly small amount of dough (one pound of butter to one pound of dough).  The first hour spent rolling and folding the dough was quiet and relaxing.  The next three hours of rolling and folding the dough were not as enjoyable.

 

Wednesday morning, my arms and shoulders ached from all the rolling the previous night.  I was still battling a head cold from the week before and inhaling all that flour dust made it even worse.

That night we were able to use the industrial sheeter, which was basically a giant pasta roller.  I was at least thankful we did not have roll our dough into the necessary 14" x 16" and 11" x 22" sheets required for our desserts that evening.

The first dessert was apple strip, a rustic looking treat that seemed to beg for a hot cup of espresso.  This went over incredibly well the next morning at work.  In fact, it went so quickly, I didn't even get to take a piece.  Most people decided that this was in fact the best treat thus far, restoring my quickly fading confidence in them after the peach pie incident last week.

The second treat was a gateau pitthiviers, which was a mound of almond frangipane sandwiched between two large circles of puff pastry.  It was incredibly beautiful emerging from the oven.

I was even more surprised when we cut into it, the slices looked so pillowy soft.  They tasted wonderful and went over very well the next morning when I served a slice to Mike with his morning coffee.  So much so, I was forbidden from taking them to work and encouraged to make more whenever I wanted.

Thursday evening seemed to be a continuation from the previous night, as a mixed berry fruit strip and a napoleon were on the menu for the evening.

The fruit strip was similar to the night before, except the puff pastry shell was blind baked and, once cooled, filled with lightened pastry cream and topped with freshly-cut berries.  I chose raspberries, blueberries and strawberries.

The napoleon was a cute little treat, although the fondant dried very quickly, making it difficult to draw the lines through the chocolate.

Next Thursday will mark the halfway point in the program.  I can't believe how quickly it's going; in the middle of my long weeks, I feel like I will have this schedule forever.  But the weekends offer me a brief moment to catch my breath and reflect on just how fast the time has passed already.

Week Eleven: Tarts, Pies, Biscuits, Scones, Strudel

I have officially fallen a week behind in my posting.  So to get back on track and not stress myself out, the recap of last week's adventures in pastry school will be quite brief.  I did manage to take some nice photos of my work, so I'm hoping this, combined with some brief commentary, will serve as a nice supplement.

MONDAY: Apple Galette

I absolutely loved this free-formed mini apple pie.  They were the perfect size to make it seem quite special to have one all to yourself, even if it was not much larger than a slice of apple pie.  These are currently being held in my freezer so a special visitor next week can taste it with the cinnamon ice-cream.

MONDAY: Peach pie

I was beyond disappointed that we had to use canned peaches to make this pie.  How am I supposed to rival the best peach cobbler I've ever tasted (at the "Troth" in Georgia) using canned peaches?!  Despite my disgust, this dessert was a huge hit at work, with many people saying it was the best yet.  Which leads me to question some people's qualifications for being my taste testers...

TUESDAY: Linzer tart

I had only ever had linzer in the form of a cookie, which I remember coming across in a cookbook when I was pretty young.  I begged Mum to make them one New Year's Eve and she did so, despite the intricate nature of the dough and the fact that I was really the only one who liked them.  A few years later it was my turn and I chose to make the tart with the darker dough, which used hazelnuts instead of almonds.  The raspberry jam could have been better - but I still loved the taste of this treat.

TUESDAY: Biscuits

What can I say?  There were four versions made Tuesday evening; my version was a sweet biscuit.  Upon tasting this foreign biscuit recipe, my involuntary reaction was to spit it back out into a napkin and reach for a large bottle of water.  My chef-instructor laughed and said, "You must be used to a more Northern biscuit."  Precisely.

TUESDAY: Scones

I was excited to make scones as I had been having an unusual craving recently for a small, delicious scone and a good cup of coffee.  But I was disappointed to find that all but one of the recipes used currants.  The chocolate scones were tasty, which was confirmed by Mike the following morning.

WEDNESDAY: Pear Breton

I hated working with the breton dough.  HATED.  At first, it wouldn't roll out enough.  Then it started breaking.  Placing both the bottom and top layers in the pan ended up being quite a frustrating venture.  I froze this tart and transported it to upstate New York for the Fourth of July weekend.  Despite my frustration in assembling the tart, it was quite tasty.

WEDNESDAY: Individual tarts

These were quite time-consuming little treats, but I enjoyed making them.  We could choose which flavor to make from a list of about twenty versions and I immediately claimed almond - only because the butter cream in the middle had amaretti cookies (my newest obsession) crushed into it.  In fact, the only thing that made this tart "almond" was the almond slice on top of the awful-green colored marzipan.  I did not like the taste of the marzipan at all, so I removed it from the top to better taste the amaretti butter cream.

THURSDAY: Strudel

Have you ever seen someone make strudel dough?  I had not.  But it is quite an incredible sight to watch and even more-so to do yourself.  The dough is stretched paper-thin; so thin, in fact, the entire dough is stretched over a table! (See example)  I created the classic apple strudel which was scrumptious.

Happy Fourth of July Weekend

I will be in Upstate New York this weekend celebrating the Fourth of July with part of Mike's family.  So I will continue to run a bit behind on my weekly post - but I hope to be caught up by early next week.  

I love this weekend - the summer is just beginning, family and friends gather together and our freedom is celebrated with good food and good company.

I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Fourth of July weekend.  A special thank you to those in my family who have protected our freedom over the years and their wives who have tirelessly supported them.

Week Ten: Sfogliatele, Canoli and Tarts

I'm running a week behind on my posts from school, but as I was lucky enough to squeeze in some time to go visit family in Florida, I feel I have a good excuse.  So my recap of last week's classes will be rather brief, but hopefully the photos will serve as a good supplement.

 

It was a tough week of classes, not due to the material or work load, but I was still recovering from my emergency oral surgery the previous Friday, which left me with four gaping holes in the back of my mouth and an inability to eat anything requiring chewing for a week.  I was still on pain killers on Monday and Tuesday, which made class especially interesting.

 

On Monday night, we used the sfogliatelle and canoli doughs we had so painstakingly created the week before.  The little pastries came together quite quickly and, at least visually, I could appreciate the effort required to produce them.

While I could not taste either the sfogliatelle or canoli, Mike gave a thumbs-up on the canoli.

We spent the entire class on Tuesday preparing doughs and fillings for the following two evenings.  Pate brise, pate sucree, pastry cream, various flavors of frangipane (walnut, praline, almond and pecan) and various flavors of curd (lemon, lime and orange).

 

We started using these components Wednesday evening as we created tarts and tartletts.  The design of the fruit on each large tart was to be created by each individual in the class.  I decided to form my design using all berries, not only because I love these flavors together, but also because berries are especially ripe during the summer months.

I took the fruit tart to work the following day and it seemed to be hit among the co-workers.  I also took in the individual chocolate praline tartletts, which I thought were especially tasty.

 

On Thursday night, we were assigned a new chef-instructor for the following few weeks.  Her personality and teaching style was quite different from our previous instructor and it put the class in a whirlwind for the evening.  Teams worked to create a sheet pan tart and 12" and each individual chose a 10" tart to create.  My team worked on the rhubarb cheese sheet pan tart and the fromage blanc.

 

I was excited for my trip to Florida the following day and kept this in mind while selecting which tart I would create that evening.  I chose the blueberry tart, but decided to use walnut frangipan as the filling instead of the suggested almond.  I love the flavors of blueberries and almond together, but if we were given to room to be creative, I was going to take the opportunity to create something I thought would be a bit more rustic. 

 

The result was beautiful and after freezing it overnight, it transported beautifully the following morning. 

It had been strongly hinted that my hosts would enjoy a sampling of my pastry school activities, so it was not entirely unexpected that I gave up half my suitcase to ensure this request was fulfilled.  It was immediately cut-into upon taking it out of my luggage and the reactions were quite in favor of my flavor combination, despite the usage of New Jersey blueberries.  It was such a treat to watch everyone nibble at it over the weekend.

Week Nine: Savory & Sweet Breads

Monday provided the opportunity to cross into the more savory side of pastry, as teams created classic focaccia bread and individual pizzas.  My partner and I began with the preparation for the focaccia dough, as it would go through the typical process of fermentation, punching, shaping, proofing and baking while we worked to prepare toppings for the pizza.  We had several classic focaccia types to choose from, but as my partner didn't care which version we made, I was happy to decide on rosemary, as it is my favorite type.

 

The four teams were assigned one pizza which had to be completed before we were able to come up with our own flavor creations.  We were assigned a double-spinach pizza, which involved sauteing wilted spinach with garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper.  After this was completed, we began preparing the other ingredients to be used by the class later in the evening.

The focaccia dough was very easy to work with and shape and despite a slight catastrophe with the olive oil, the bread emerged from the convection oven as  golden, textural  and fragrant sheet.  Teams allowed the focaccia to cool as we got down to business with the pizza dough and toppings.

 

The consistency of the pizza dough and techniques employed were much different than the quick version I usually make at home.  Our instructor taught us how to shape the dough into various-sized round forms.  I saw lots of different shapes throughout the evening, but very few actual circles.

In my readings I have learned that Sicilian pizza is actually an American invention; after working with the pizza dough, I would have to imagine American's created this shape because it is relatively easy to create a rectangle out of the dough.

I made a total of five individual pizzas using a combination two or three ingredients, including: tomato sauce, red peppers, cheese (fresh mozzarella, goat cheese or Parmesan), spinach, sausage and prosciutto.  As they emerged from the oven, the crusts crisped nicely, I sprinkled some freshly torn basil on top.  The fragrance was magnificent.

By the end of the evening, I was over the thrill of shaping pizza doughs and was just ready to eat them.  Teams were supposed to sample their assigned pizza flavors, although one one other team besides mine actually did so.  The other flavor was carbonara pizza - which I am anxious to make at home, although I hope to control the saltiness a bit more.  

Each team handed out a sample of their focaccia bread, which were actually about half the size of a regular focaccia loaf.  I tried a bite of each of the four versions: sage, onion, rosemary and cheese.  The rosemary was my favorite, although I already knew I was partial to this flavoring.  The cheese was tasty, but reminded me more of an asiago bread than true focaccia.  

 

I had been looking forward to the Tuesday night lesson since we began this module: bagels and pretzels.  But before we could begin, we had another quiz.  I am pleased to report I received a 100%, meaning I still hold a 4.0 GPA in the program.

The bagel recipe in the curriculum is ridiculously simple: within fifteen minutes of beginning the dough, the bagels were shaped, poached, sprinkled with toppings and in the oven to bake.

 

I could hardly wait for the bagels to cool once they were out of the oven.  I had never had a freshly-baked bagel still warm from the oven, much to Mike's disapproval.  While the other class members slathered their bagels with cream cheese, I chose to eat it without any toppings - and it was amazing!  

I toasted them for breakfast Wednesday morning and they were still tasty, but nothing close to fresh from the oven.  Because the recipe is so simple, I cannot wait to make and share these with other people.  I'm thinking of debuting them next week during my trip to Florida.

 

I was disappointed with the pretzels as they were quite doughy, even after baking to a golden brown color.  As they came out of the oven right as I was leaving class, I taste tested them at home with Mike.  We both agreed we would have enjoyed something a bit crunchier.

 

As much as I had anticipated Tuesday's class, I was not looking forward to Wednesday's lesson: doughnuts.  I am the only person I know who does not like doughnuts.  This worked to Valerie's advantage when we were younger because she always wound up with double the sprinkled doughnuts (at least until Dad caught on and started getting me muffins instead).  

My partner and I were assigned a chocolate sourdough doughnut.  We made up the dough and chilled it while we kneaded the Brioche dough, which was to retard overnight and be baked during Thursday's class.

 

The problem with the doughnuts was the inability to control the oil temperature on our induction stoves.  We did not have deep fryers at our disposal, so the oil temperature could not be held at exactly 375 degrees.  

In our case, the oil stayed too hot, even after turning off the heat completely, rendering the outside of the doughnuts burnt and the inside still doughy.  You could taste the grease in all four types of doughnuts.  Most people, including myself, did not take any doughnuts home.

The bright spot of the evening was my whole wheat sourdough bread.  We have been caring for our sourdough starters for the past two weeks - allowing wild yeast to develop, as no commercial yeast was to be used in the bread.  I was pleased with my shaping technique and even happier with my improved slashing skills (no doubt due to freshly sharpened knives).

 

The loaf was rustic and hearty looking as it cooled.  When I got home, I sliced off an end of the bread to find a beautiful crumb structure, one of which I feel I have reason to be very proud of.  The texture and taste was equally as delightful: crunchy crust with a soft, flavorful crumb.  The taste was not as overwhelmingly tangy as commercial sourdoughs, which was a welcome surprise.

There were three things on the table for Thursday night: brioche, cannoli dough and sfogliatelle dough.  We began with shaping brioche a tête and then divided the rest of our brioche dough to create one sweet and one savory bread.  The savory brioche included garlic sausage while the sweet incorporated toasted walnuts with an almond frangiapan.

As our brioche proofed and baked, we worked on creating the dough for the two Italian pastries we will be creating during Monday's class: cannoli and sfogliatelle.  The dough was not particularly difficult to create, but after the dough was chilled, it had to be quartered and then rolled smoothly through a pasta maker 12 to 15 times each.  At that point, the cannoli dough was finished for the evening; it was placed into the refrigerator to keep fresh over the weekend.

But this was just the beginning of the sfogliatelle dough.  After the initial stretching through the pasta machine, the incredible smooth dough was rounded and returned to the refrigerator.  

Once the dough finished resting, it was time to coat the tables with an emulsion of butter and lard.  The dough was then stretched paper-thin and placed very gently on the table.  We carefully brushed the butter-lard on the top of the dough and then stretched it even thinner - 12 inches across.  The long, thin dough was then rolled into a log.

This process was repeated for the remaining three pieces, leaving plenty of time for me to wonder how this recipe came into being.  Who had enough time on their hands to think up this many processes involving so many delicate parts?  I'm hoping all the work will be worth it Monday night once we bake and fill these interesting pastries.