C is for Coco Butter

Hello!
My, it’s been ages since I last posted here, and I apologize for that. The last two months or so have been very busy, and many a pastry has been baked in that time. Now, I could use this post to give you all a quick overview of the last dozen or so classes, but instead I will pretend that I have not been remiss in posting and simply tell you about last week’s classes.
I’m not sure how familiar you all are with the different components of chocolate. Good, basic chocolate has four ingredients. Coco solids, Coco Butter (the two combined are called Chocolate Liquor- don’t worry, there is no alcohol in it), Sugar and Milk (or oil/other substitution for parve Paskesz lovers). The percentage you find on commercial chocolate refers to the amount of Chocolate liquor – 70% bittersweet chocolate has only 30% sugar added, Baking Chocolate is 99% liquor and 1% sugar (don’t make the rookie mistake of eating baking chocolate- you’ll regret it). White chocolate, it might surprise you to know, has absolutely NO coco solids in it. It is made of Coco Butter, Milk, and loads of sugar (some foodie snobs claim to hate it and make snide remarks, refusing to call it true chocolate. We all know they have a stash of Hershey’s Cookies and Cream bars under their beds. But I digress).

Now that I have provided the background knowledge, let me set the atmosphere for my embarrassing story. Last week was Cookie Week. My classmates and I baked dozens of different types of cookies, making thousands of cookies in all. 0% exaggeration and about 150% sugar. There were loads of ingredients strewn around the room, with and without labels, and we were working double time to finish in time for Milk and Cookie Night- when we were allowed to invite friends and family to eat the cookies.

A running joke in my class is that while I don’t sample any of the baked good we produce, I eat more than any of classmates anyway- the raw ingredients that is. Oranges, figs, bananas and chocolate- ALWAYS chocolate. I was happy, on this Sunday night- the production frenzy night- to find every type of chocolate available. Bittersweet, semisweet, milk and white. As the night progressed, no one was surprised to find me snacking at the chocolate bags. To be tricky, I’m sure, Chef hid a small container of small white chips at the bottom of the pull box (for definition of “pull” see an earlier post, not sure which). Nonchalantly (I always “play it cool”) I dipped my hand in the container and popped a handful in my mouth. And then I chewed. Then I chewed some more. They were smooth, had an initial crunch, were NOT melting and had NO flavor, but were kind of oily. These were not white chocolate chips. I had no idea what I had just put in my mouth, which I risky, as they could have been a) something so rancid that had no discernable flavor or B) something not kosher (gelatin pellets? Did those exist?) In any case, I spit them out and continued my work, hoping no one would find out.

Finally, Cookie and milk night arrived. After days of crazy production, we made gingerbread, linzer cookies, chocolate chip, rugalah, ice box cookies, lemon bars, brownies, white chocolate macadamia, macarons, macaroons, spritz cookies, rum cookies, ginger cookies, snicker doodles and MANY more. Avi brought Trader Joe’s Cat Cookies (chocolate) and we snaked in the back and watched people sample and box up their holiday cookies. It was a truly great party.

The next day (two days after the initial incident), I was still pondering about these odd mystery chips. On a run to the equipment closet with Chef, I slyly asked her, as though the thought had just occurred to me, what the white small chips were. It took her a moment and then she said “Coco Butter”.
I had eaten pure cocoa butter. The stuff used in hand lotions. Apparently, it is one of the most stable fats, used as an emulsifier in baked goods. Again, it is also used in its pure form in Hand Lotion.

Happy Chanukah,

Sarah, the ultimate food snob who will only eat pure Coco Butter, none of that adulterated, sugary “chocolate” made for the masses.

PS. Fun Fact- Those poor souls who are allergic to Chocolate cannot eat White chocolate, even though it lacks Coco Solids- the butter is enough to elicit the allergic reaction. Learned that the hard way, Dad, didn’t we?

Sarah Goes to the Hospital and Other Thrilling Tails

Hello Everybody!
Due to my schedule insanity, this post will have to fill in the gaps of the last (two? three?) un blogged about weeks. If only I could fill in the gap on my finger…but I’ll get to that shortly. I believe I have already blogged about making two types of laminated dough (doughs with layers of fat rolled into it and folded in onto itself to create hundreds of layers of dough and butter/lard/shortening) namely Danish and croissant. The crux of the last few weeks has been a third laminated dough, the most widely used dough in a kitchen.
Lauded for its transformative properties, its abilities to straddle the line between savory and sweet and its visual heights is the Puff. Puff pastry is something found in many home cook’s freezers. Why would you make it yourself when you could easily find it in your grocer’s frozen section? Because chef tells you it’s a must. And then she tells you it’s actually more cost effective to buy it in most cases because it takes a long time to make. Truthfully, if you want really astounding height and even rising, you should make it yourself- but for what you would mainly use for, you could BUY IT. Being the fancy pastry students that we are, we made puff pastry three ways; a fast puff, a classic puff and a machine puff. I won’t go into the nitty gritty of making puff pastry because it is very similar to making croissants, just without the yeast. Besides, I have more gruesome tales to share.
One classic dessert you could make with puff pastry is a napoleon. Napoleons, for the uninitiated, are layers of crisp puff pastry, layered with pastry cream and sometimes berries, topped with either powdered sugar or glazing fondant. They are generally regarded as delicious (by me and my family) and are a cinch to make. They are not, however, a cinch to cut if you want to maintain the beautiful and delicate layers. To do so, you need to use a long, sharp, serrated knife. I was packing up a classmate’s napoleon for her as she washed dishes- (who wouldn't swap cutting napoleons for dishes?), when I carelessly cut my finger. I had cut myself before, and no one was surprised to find me heading to the first aid kit. Luckily, I have two ex-nursing students in my class and they were able to place bandaids on my finger like pros. Chef spotted some blood on the floor before I was able to clean it up and insisted I remove the bandages and show her my cut, then hailed in another chef to ask her opinion. The consensus? HOSPITAL. I put up a fight until chef held up one of her fingers and told me how she no longer has feeling in it because she didn’t make it to the hospital in time. A classmate gave me a lift to Bellevue (a lovely hospital) where I was super glued back together (literally- I didn’t want stitches and asked instead for Derma-Bond. I would recommend stitches). I came in my uniform and was asked by no less than five members of the hospital staff why I hadn’t brought them any treats- they are used to seeing people in the culinary field and were disappointed that I had left my napoleon back at school.
My finger is on the mend, and I was back in school this week in time to make Sfogliotelle, Cannoli and Breton. I would describe these foreign treats (Sfogliotelle and canola are Italian, Breton is from Brittany) but my half hour lunch break has expired. Suffice it to say that Sfogliotelle are as interesting to make as they are to spell, and require lard -Look out for an upcoming experiment using Crisco and butter as substitutes. Cannoli are awesome and probably the next trendy sweet treat and Breton is pleasant enough but not all that exciting (I hope I haven’t offended those of you hailing from Brittany).

-Power Puff Girl

Fun fact: I was not allowed into the adult wing, but was made to use the children’s emergency ward because I wasn’t yet 25. A special thanks to my Mom for picking me up!

Strudel Elves

Hi!
I took a pretty long hiatus from this blog, over two weeks since my last post, I believe. This isn't to say that I haven't been baking treats, just that I have been to tired to report about them, busy celebrating various holidays and doing all of that other stuff that fills my time in between culinary classes. In my last six classes, we have made pies and tarts galore. There have been pie fillings in nearly every imaginable flavor (alas, no banana cream) and have experimented with different doughs, from the flaky to the sweet and back again. When it came time to roll out and bake traditional pies (I was assigned pumpkin) I crimped and rolled my dough-a Pate Sucre this time-with gusto. I know you will tire of hearing this, but making pie is fabulously fun and I would be more that happy to bake some with/for anyone who asks- after all, I need that practice.
My personal favorite type of pie was a galette. Galettes are rustic pies baked without a pie pan, free formed on a baking sheet. The filling simply placed in the center of your dough, which is rolled into a rough circle, and then the edges are folded in onto the filling, leaving some peaking out. Brush with cream, sprinkle with sugar and bake! Chef described it as an open faced pie (bad description chef- all pies without a top crust are "open faced". I would just describe it as a rustic pie, which I did only a few sentences ago.)
Last Tuesday night, we made something unusual and incredible to make- Strudel. Good old fashioned, old world strudel. The old world I am referring to Austria, or perhaps Hungary. Though we haven't all hailed from such places, chances are you have all probably eaten/seen strudel before. It is a flaky pastry filled with either cheese or apple and topped with powdered sugar. If you are lucky, whipped cream is served on the side. They are very very tasty. To make strudel, you make a pretty basic dough with flour, water, eggs and the like. Then, once it comes together, you form the gluten by slamming the dough against the counter. 100 times. No exaggeration, I was in charge of counting for my team. You pick up the dough, throw it hard against the counter (floured, naturally), fold it up and repeat until the dough is smooth and pliable. Then, once the dough has rested (and recovered from the brute treatment), the real fun begins.
Roll out a clean, think white table cloth and cover it with flour. The dough at this point is about an eight by eight inch blob, four inches thick. With the help of two or three classmates, this changes fast. You begin to stretch the dough, from the center out. Palms down, with the back of your hands (fingers poke holes) bring the dough from the center outwards. The goal is to get the dough so thin that you can read a paper through it. The eight by eight inch blob becomes a five by five foot blob that you can, indeed, read through. We made it through the process with only minor tears (it is very hard to remember to stretch with your palms down- reflexes tell you to stretch it with your fingers!). Then, brush the entire thing with melted butter and sprinkle with either bread crumbs or cinnamon sugar, depending on your filling. Place filling on one end, and then using the table cloth, roll up the filling over and over in the paper thin dough. Imagine using a sushi mat to roll up a California roll, only infinity larger, flakier and butterier. (i'm getting awfully annoyed at spell check for insisting that butterier isn't a real word). Brush with more melted butter and bake. Once cooled, sprinkle with sugar and slice. Though I couldn't taste it, the cross-section of this thing was enough to tell me how flaky it was.
Chef claims that there are old women in Europe who can do this process by themselves. These super human woman apparently have a huge arm span and the ability to fly; strudel elves. Would you doubt anything Chef says? Neither would I.

-Sarah, das strudel stretcher

All Hail Butter

This week, Butter was king.
Rich, wonderful butter was featured prominently in all recipes, used as much for texture as for taste. Sunday night’s class began by baking our pre-made Brioche dough (from way back when- Tuesday night). They came out of the oven golden brown and delicious, and most prominently ended the reign of Yeast Breads. Onto bigger and better and Buttery-er things.
We began with Croissants and Danish dough that same night- both are in a family called Laminated Doughs. Why such an odd name? Because the layers of dough are insulated and separated by, layers of butter. To do this, we pounded out a pound block of butter into a thin sheet- about a quarter of an inch thick. We then rolled out our dough and wrapped the butter in it like a business letter. We rolled out our dough, sandwiching the butter and folded it again. Roll out thin and repeat. The layers of dough and butter multiply exponentially until you have about 80 layers of alternating dough and butter-impossibly thin and impossible delicious.
Monday night’s class was devoted to rolling out our croissants and making a dozen or so fillings for our Danishes. Apple, prune, cheese, raspberry, chocolate, almond, crumb and so on. There were endless flavor combinations and endless shapes you could make your Danish into. As for the croissants, we stuck to the basics and the universally familiar- crescent shaped plain croissants, chocolate croissants and, optionally, ham and cheese pocket croissants. I opted out of the last one. Interestingly, chef recommends making the croissants with part whole wheat flour. “Wont that make them taste healthy?” I asked. She looked at me like I had said something ridiculous, which I guess I had- the idea of a healthy croissant is laughable. Chef explained that the whole wheat gave the pastries a deeper flavor.
When we took them out of the oven, they were puffy, and flaky, and golden brown (the French like their croissants a dark brown on top, Americans prefer golden) and sizzling slightly around their edges where the butter had oozed out and melted. The kitchen smelled heavenly. Making the laminated dough is a long process from start to finish, and require strength, endurance, patience, perfection and a deep love for butter. Anyone up for helping me practice?
Onto Tuesday night. Finally, the class I had been waiting for- PIE
We didn’t actually bake pie this week, but we made pie dough and other baked good using similar doughs and similar methods. Pie dough is a type of Pate Brisee, literally meaning "broken dough" in French. This is because the butter is broken up in the dough, and when baked properly, produces a flaky (broken) crust. Other baked goods using this method include biscuits and some scones- they too are best when flaky and buttery. A similar dough, called pate Sucree, or mealy dough, has you break the butter up into smaller pieces, until it ultimately looks like corn meal. Scones, tart doughs and short cakes use Pate Sucre- it has a finer texture than Brisee.
As Chef introduced this topic, I got so impatient to begin I literally couldn’t sit still- I began to play with the bowl of flour sitting in front of me. I tried hard not to finish Chef's sentences for her and allowed others to ask questions and attempt to answer hers so as to not give away my pie-freak tendencies. After what seemed like ages but what was actually about a half hour demo, we began making our dough. Thankfully, we weren’t asked to do this with a partner- I very much doubt I would have allowed my teammate to touch our (my) dough.
Begin with flour (a mix of all purpose and cake flour) and a bit of salt. If you have no faith in the leavening ability of the butter (I will explain soon) you can also add some baking soda. But this is for the faint of heart! You see, the reason you must keep the butter cold and in large-ish chunks is so that when it bakes and the butter melts, the water in the butter creates steam. The steam pushes the dough apart and then the protein structures from the flour form around these air pockets, creating the flaky result- no chemical leavener needed! Back to the ingredients. To the flour mix, quickly add the butter and try to break it up into small pieces- around the size of a cranberry. Once this is accomplished (if your warm hands and the heat of the kitchen hasn’t already melted your butter and ruined your dough) add in cold water and mix just until the dough forms. Don’t over mix! Gluten will form and butter will melt, and that can only lead to heartache later on.
We froze our dough, to be used next week when we prepare, fill and bake PIES.
The second half of class was happily and hastily spent making quick breads- the genre used to describe scones, biscuits and short cakes. They are a really a mix between a cake and a bread (and cookie of you over bake them), the word “quick” is used because they use chemical leaveners and not yeast to rise, making them much quicker to make than bread.
My team made chive cheddar biscuits and currant scones, both of which I am eager to try on my own, swapping out the currant for chocolate, of course.

-Sarah Baer, Flaky and Proud

Bakin' with Bacon

HI!
It has been a very long time since my last post- I’m sorry about that. A lot has happened culinary-ily wise, and I’ll do my best to fill you all in now.
First of all, I made the best looking focaccia I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t too greasy, it wasn’t too hard or crunchy. It was fluffy and soft, with just the right amount of good olive oil pooling in its nooks and crannies, rosemary baked right in and caramelized tomatoes and onion on top. Hungry yet? Just wait.
Sunday night we made home-made pizza. It was the most cooking we’ve one in class- and the most we’ll ever do to be sure. That class started with more knife skill drills (and onion chopping). Chef was worried that I wouldn’t be able to use my school knifes at home to practice, due to my kosher-ness. You can guess what this said about my performance in class. Alarmed at her deep concern and how close I got to chopping off my thumb, I promised to practice in class to make up for it. We made all sorts of pizzas and calzones in class, with a dozen or more topping to choose from. These toppings included (though weren’t limited to) three different variety of meats. Pepperoni, sausage and…you guess it, BACON. I was surprised at how weird I felt with all the meats- I just wasn’t comfortable or used to cooking with them. I think I literally stared at the bacon for three minutes straight. The sausage wasn’t nearly as fascinating, and pepperoni just looks like little slices of salami, or really more akin to the play-dough ones I used to make when I was younger. That bacon, though, was mesmerizing. And watching people put real meat on a cheese pizza? Fascinating. The most exciting moment of that class was when I discovered that the goat cheese was kosher. Suffice it to say that I have had enough goat cheese to satisfy any craving I might have ever had for it (which is to say no craving at all).
Monday night was bagel/bialy/soft pretzel night. It was also the night of the Sour Dough.
Let me tell you the sad sad saga of the sour dough. You are all probably sick of reading about this pre-ferment by now, and believe me so were my classmates and I. No one wanted to look at the stuff anymore (or more accurately, smell it anymore). We had the option to make either white, whole wheat or rye based sour dough. Feeling adventurous, I went for the Rye. That was my first mistake. As we were all kneading our dough, I noticed that mine wasn’t getting as bouncy and firm as everyone else’s- my gluten wasn’t developing. And so I added more flour. The dough was still sticky. More flour. The dough still wasn’t elastic. More flour. Mistake number two. After twenty five minutes straight of kneading and nearly double the amount of flour, I gave up and put my dough in the proof box along with everyone else’s, and moved onto bagel making (cinnamon raisin!).
After two stretch and folds and proofing sessions, it was time to form our loaves. Due to the nature of the rye (it just doesn’t get as firm as regular flour- it doesn’t have as much gluten), I couldn’t make a free-form loaf and instead put in a cast iron pan. Mistake number three. You see, things baked in cast iron will bake at a different rate as the loaves put directly in the oven. This is obvious to anyone, and should have been obvious to me, to chef, and to any of my classmates. But there were bagels to be boiled and pretzels to be consumed. When we took out bread out of the oven, mine looked great, and so I didn’t check for done-ness. Mistake number Four. I should have used a thermometer to read the internal temperature (bread is done at around 180 degrees). Can you guess the mournful result of all of these mistakes? I could have made some play dough pepperoni with the inside of my loaf. At least my bagels were good. But it was last night, doughnut night, that I shone.
First I had a written exam, which went about as smoothly as my sour dough. Kidding! It was fine. And then we made dough for brioche (both regular and chocolate)- to be baked on Sunday night. Then we moved on to the doughnuts, or in my partner and my case, zeppole (Zeh-Po-Lee).
Zeppole are Italian style doughnuts. They are made using a batter, as opposed to a dough like a doughnut, making for a very fluffy end result. They aren’t shaped like American donuts, but are free-form dropped in oil and end up looking more like fritters. They are very similar to funnel cakes, just roundish. I was told that they were the best things made that night. Who doesn’t like deep fried dough covered in sugar?
We are all sick and tired of yeast based dough and are excited to move onto a new topic- one that required less fermentation.

-Soured by Sourdough Sarah

Braiding Bragging Rights

Good Evening!
Last night I came ten minutes late to class. As a result, I had no partner, and instead of grouping me with another pair, Chef had me work alone for the first part of class. While I really do like my classmates and enjoy working with them, this was a rare treat. I should come late every night! What freedom! Unshackled by my anxiety of being bossy and controlling, unfettered by fears of screwing up not only my own product but a partner’s, I began baking. [ Note: doing things by yourself is more time consuming and often more confusing than it is when doing it with a partner.]
I made my own soft bun dough and my own Biga starter (this pre-ferment was a lot thicker and drier than either the sour dough or polish, but it should make for some good Ciabatta next week). Because I was working alone and Chef didn’t want to over load me, I didn’t make hot cross buns. I had never seen, let alone eaten a hot cross bun, but I did offer to play it for Chef on my recorder. I wish I was making that last bit up, but I did tell her that. When she stared at me blankly, instead of letting it go, I continued to explain how we learned to play the recorder in the fourth (?) grade. Then, to my horror, I started singing it…except the only words I know to the song are “hot cross buns” and I was forced to just hum the rest. Thankfully a classmate backed me with her own elementary school story and I was spared further embarrassment.
What hot cross buns actually are, are small sweet buns with a thin dough/paste piped on top in an X (or cross depending on how you hold them). Once they come out of the oven, the whole thing is basted in a light syrup. They looked delicious. I believe they originated in England, which makes them even more endearing.
Because I didn’t make the Hot Cross Buns, Chef gave me the great honor of feeding her sour-dough starter (yes, I’m STILL talking about that sour dough starter/pre-ferment. The hurricane threw everything off, and now we aren’t baking our sourdough until Tuesday). When I feed my own starter, I don’t measure anything. Apparently, we are supposed to use only a pound of starter and add eight ounces high gluten flour and nine ounces water. I only know this because I looked it up in a panic after contemplating messing up Chef’s pre-ferment, and after feeding hers I went right back to my hap-hazard ways with my own pre-ferment. Old habits die hard.
Soft bun dough is different than the other dough we had been making in that it has fat in it- Eggs and oil. For someone such as myself who has only ever made bread with an egg dough, this wasn’t so strange, but classmates were exclaiming over how smooth and springy the dough was. Chef demonstrated how to shape the dough- either into braided loaves (read: Challah) or small rolls that were shaped like garlic knots (read: challah rolls). The dough itself wasn’t quite the same as challah dough (which is more similar to brioche dough) but it was close enough for me to segue into my own experience and rhapsodize about it to both Chef and classmates. Now, I have attempted to make challah many times to various degrees of failure, but this time was different. Normally they come out misshapen and doughy. While I cannot vouch for the taste of my loaves from last night’s class, they looked great- large and round and nicely brown, shiny from the egg wash. A classmate took them home to her mother.

-Sarah, the Recorder Prodigy

Dead Roses

Good Morning!
We returned to school last night, sour dough starter in hand, ready to make some baguettes (not with the sour dough starter, but with the Poolish pre-ferment from last week- don’t you remember?). Baguette dough is very sticky (there is more liquid in it than in regular old white bread) and this helps makes the inside airy and light with a nice crisp crust. After the dough went into the proof box, we had a salt tasting. Chef laid out four different types of salts (table salt, kosher salt, Flur de Sel and another one that I can’t remember) and the proceeded to claim that she could taste the difference between all of them. The only difference that I could discern was texture- ranging from fine to chunky to flakey. They all tasted salty. Pastry chefs rarely use Kosher salt in baking because of its coarse texture; it doesn’t melt or incorporate as easily as a finer salt, so there is a risk of biting into salty parts of a cake or over kneading/mixing to help incorporate it. Chef then casually mentioned the following anecdote. After seeing Alton Brown (of Food Network fame) use kosher salt while baking, she was intrigued. Did Alton Brown, foodie/Chef extraordinaire know something that she didn’t? She quickly called Alton’s food scientist (who is featured on his show regularly) to ask about this phenomenon. Do you know what Alton Brown’s food scientist said? That Alton doesn’t know any better and doesn’t really care about baking. Absurd! I’m going to need to rethink my Chef heroes (Don’t worry Ina, you’re safe).
Back to class. Once the baguette dough had its first tuck and fold, we began mixing dead dough.
In stark contrast to our precious sour dough starter which we struggle to keep alive and well, feeding it so that it thrives and grows, dead dough is…dead. It has no yeast, or leavener of any sort for that matter. The point of dead dough isn’t to be eaten, it is to be decorative. It resembles (in consistency and taste) play dough. We made two colors- “red” and “yellow”. The red is more of a reddish-purpley-brown, and the yellow is more of a vomit green (beet powder and turmeric were our dyes). Fancy pastry chefs make elaborate bread show pieces with bread, akin to the chocolate and sugar showpieces many of you know from watching Food network challenge. There is also an international bread competition called the The Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie (the French usually win) where amazing bread sculptures are made. We attempted to make roses.
Chef demonstrated how it was done, then after our first stretch and fold of our baguettes, we started making our own. This is a lot of fun to do. The whole class sits around a table, rolling and pinching dough, chatting and comparing our products. Midway through our roses, we are called by Chef to form our dough into baguettes. As you know by now, bread rises and poufs up when it bakes. There is a risk of the loaf shape changing even after it has been shaped, (especially during oven spring) and so the dough must be slashed. To retain the baguette’s thin, long shape, a series of straight lines must be slashed in at an angle. Using a very sharp razor, you move down the log slashing very quickly (so as to not tear the dough). I slashed my thumb on the last loaf. Thankfully, I spared the bread and quickly ran over to the sink before I could get my blood anywhere. As I was losing copious amount of blood, I was thinking that if could only add it to the dead dough, perhaps we could actually achieve a true red color. Ill attribute this thought to light-headedness induces by blood loss.
A classmate helped bandage me up, and I though I resisted slashing any more bread, I did help load them into the oven, and of course I resumed rose making. One thumb down, making the roses was a bit harder, but I rose to the challenge. Pun not intended.
-Nine Fingered Sarah

Our Science Project

HI!
Last night was lesson two of ten completely devoted to bread. We made sourdough starter (I will explain soon), poolish starter (ditto) and either walnut, pecan, raisin or olive bread. I was in the Walnut group. Everyone was given the same basic dough and told to add in their ingredient, dispersing it evenly throughout the dough. For any of you who have worked with elastic bread dough before, you know how difficult it is to knead in nuts. It’s like trying to add three pounds of chopped nuts to ten pounds of stiffly chewed gum. They simply won’t incorporate. The more you try, the springier the dough gets, forcing you to double your efforts and put in A LOT of energy into kneading this unwieldy lump of dough. Between the hand beating/whipping from last module and the kneading of large batches of bread from this one, my upper body strength is going to have to triple.
After ten minutes of this, most of the nuts were in the dough and we let it proof before doing the first “tuck and fold”, also known as “punching”- a gentle knead. As the dough rested (and the gluten thankfully relaxed) we went over baker’s percents- I won’t go into detail about this, as it is silly math that I don’t find interesting and don’t see how it will actually be useful in the kitchen. After the first (of three) tuck and folds, we began both of the starters, also known as Pre-ferments.
Sounds gross.
And it is exactly what it sounds like. To add to the flavor and texture of the bread, you make some of the dough days before. For the poolish, you just mix bread flour, water and yeast and let it sit refrigerated at least over night. On Sunday we will mix in the rest of the ingredients and make it into baguettes. For sour dough starter, it’s a bit more complicated. It starts with a mixture of rye flour, water, honey and either grapes or chopped onion. We let it sit out uncovered for an hour to attract the wild yeast spores in the air. Doesn't this sound like science class? Every day, you measure out a pound of the starter (throughout the rest) and feed that pound with more bread flour and water- and don’t refrigerate it (remember, we want it to ferment). The longer you do this, the better tasting the end product. There are bakers who keep portions of the pre-ferment going endlessly. Ours will be baked on Tuesday, giving it a week to mature. We all took home our starters and flour to feed it over the weekend. It felt like we were taking home the class pet for a week.
After the pre-ferments, we did another tuck and fold on our walnut/pecan/raisin/olive bread. Chef showed us how to shape each of the loaves- most of them were standard except for the olive bread. This was made into “Fougasse” or ladder bread. It only rises about an inch and has slits in it reminiscent of ladders. After a final proof, all loaves were loaded into the oven to bake (all but the Fougasse got the steam treatment, naturally).
My job this week was cleaning out the ovens. In module one the job didn’t really exist- things in pans don’t make messes. However, when we bake bread the loaves don’t go into pans (at least not free form ones) and are instead thrown into the oven via pizza peels covered in corn meal. Burnt cornmeal smells bad and makes a mess in the oven (so do raisins and nuts that fall off during baking) and so the ovens need to be swept. The brush used to sweep ovens is very long. The broad head has soft bristles that are never to touch the flour and the handle extends six feet. And because your back is towards your classmates as you sweep the hot ovens (due to time constraints, this happens soon after the bread is taken out and the oven are still about 400 degrees) it is hazardous. I accidentally poked a classmate or two. It is going to be a popular job, second only to dishes.
-Sarah, the oven sweep

Is that clear to you?

Good Morning!
Last night was the first day of Module 2, and we jumped right in. I walked into the room to find others busy measuring and sifting—fifteen minutes before class started. Not to be left out, New Chef (I’ll start calling her plain old Chef from here on in) asked me to find the bread proofer from another classroom. I had no idea what a bread proofer was and failed at my mission, but at this point (seven minutes before our first class) Chef didn’t know my name, so I didn’t mind.
Chef introduced herself briefly (read: she told us her name) and began making bread. Because bread making is a long process, we needed to begin right away, otherwise we wouldn’t have time for the bread to bake and risked going home empty handed! Once she demo-ed a large batch of country white bread (to be made into 30 or so loaves), and we began our small batch (to be made into 15 or so rolls) and everything went into the proofer, she began to talk. Chef explains things clearly and has no discernible accent. She must be American (though she never told us anything about her background. There is a chance she is Canadian.) Every other sentence she would slip in “Is that clear to you?” or “Do you get that?” but I think that was first day nerves and will become a less frequent phrase.
Chef is more into homework than Old Chef, and has given us work for tonight’s class- one of the things she did tell us about herself is that she is on the homework committee at school (I don’t think it’s actually called the ‘homework committee” but that’s the gist). Five points to the person to read up on and explain baker’s percentages and the maillard reaction to me.
Learning how to bake bread is entirely different than other types of baked goods. With bread making, everything you do is towards the bettering of the gluten. Gluten is king in bread, whereas with most other baked goods you try to avoid gluten at all cost. Gluten is responsible for the chewiness and texture of bread, but wouldn’t it be awful to have a chewy cake? Chewy pie crust?
In bread making, your schedule is determined by the bread. If the bread needs more proof time, give it to the bread. If it is ready to be kneaded, drop everything and do it. If it needs steam, you had better go take care of it or else a disaster of monstrous proportions will occur- namely, weird bread. A word about steam. It is very important to keep your bread dough hydrated throughout this process- dry dough will yield dried out bread. This is true even when the dough goes into the oven. The first stage of the baking of the dough is Oven Spring, where the yeast in the dough is still alive and is still making the dough rise. It is important not to let the crust form at this point, because otherwise there is no room for the bread to expand and weird tumor-like things will grow out of the bread. How can you prevent the outer layer from baking in a 475 degree oven? Steam! Professional deck ovens have steamers that do this, but at home you can put a cup or two of water into the oven along with the bread to keep things moist. About halfway through the baking, once the yeast has died (140 degrees internally) you want to start crust formation and so you stop adding steam. Crust forms, the inside cooks (to around 180 degrees) and the dough has turned into a beautiful, golden brown loaf of bread.

There will be a lot more production in module two then there was in mod one- we made thirty loaves of bread and 75 rolls last night. The first ten lessons are devoted to bread, which is nice, but I get impatient. Breads are slow, and the more time you give them the better. Chef kept contrasting bread dough to pie dough- which is faster. By the end of class it was clear to her that I have a thing for pie, and she directed all pie questions to me. “Bread dough needs to be kept warm. What about pie dough? Why keep it cold?” What do you do to pie dough if it is browning too quickly- add steam?” and so on. I know my pie. Bread? Not so much, but I guess that’s what the next ten lessons are for.
- “I’m in it for the Pie” Baer

Mission: Precision

Hi!
Exams are over (for now) and I am a quarter done with my course! Last night went as follows: When we walked in, Chef gave us our schedule. No one wants anyone opening their oven while their soufflé is baking, so we were each given a window of time to use an oven. My soufflé had to be in Chef’s hand at exactly 8:07. The last person to go had to have hers in Chef’s hand at 9:45. I’ll describe this in more detail in a moment.
The first forty minutes of class were devoted to our written exam. It wasn’t too difficult, only one or two tricky questions. After the first ten minutes, though, my hand started to cramp (I was over enthusiastic and wrote very quickly) which worried me, as my hands were going to be invaluable to the practical portion of our exam. Don’t Panic! Perhaps a lesser being would allow this to get to her and ruin the rest of her life, but not me. Like a pro, I shook it off and continued, catastrophe avoided. I finished the exam a little bit early and began to prep for my crème anglaise.
There are not enough induction burners for all sixteen of us (remember, we usually work in groups of two), so we were grouped into Group A and B (Group A people presented their products to Chef first). As the Group A person (me) was prepping for her crème anglaise, the group B person would use the burner to melt the chocolate for her soufflé. Once A finished her crème anglaise (which can sit out for a bit and needs to chill anyway), she would melt her chocolate and prep for her soufflé. Once her B partner was done with her crème anglaise and chocolate melting for soufflé, the A would swap out the burner for a stand mixer and continue on with making her soufflé. All the while, Chef was circling and taking notes on technique and cleanliness. It sounds complicated and seemed like it would never work, but class actually flowed like clockwork. We were courteous to our partners and there was no complaining about anyone hogging burners or outlets. There were seven minutes allotted between every person’s soufflés, and so every seven minutes from 8 until 9:45 Chef was sampling another chocolate soufflé. I was impressed with his eating abilities.
Back to my own harrowing experience. Like I said, my soufflé had to be in front of chef at 8:07. Every part of the process had to be timed precisely, and I made myself a schedule. It had to be pulled out of the oven at 8:06 to be transferred to a plate a dusted with powdered sugar. It had to go into the oven at 7:53, so I had to start beating the egg whites at 7:37…I am not a precise person. I don’t like having to time things to a T. If, for some reason, the egg whites take longer to beat than the five minutes I have allotted, then I am going to beat them until they are just right (ironically, I under-beat them. Nerves.) Anyway, I manage to get my Soufflé and Crème Anglaise to Chef sometime between 8:07 and 8:08. We each made three soufflés and chose the best one to give to Chef (just like they do in cook offs). Chef critiques your product right then and there. My crème anglaise was very nice and smooth (“just like your Chef”) but my soufflé could have benefited from a grain or two more salt. The flavors weren’t “punchy” enough. All in all, not terrible. I also got a point or two deducted from my presentation due to the sides of the ramekin having some shmutz on it (I used dirty tongs when transferring the piping hot ramekin to the plate. Oh well). Once Chef pointed this out, everyone in the class who went after me (nearly everyone) made sure to use clean tongs. You're Welcome Class!
By 8:11 I was done. In the end, the exam was actually a lot of fun. Inst culinary school great? Even the tests are a treat. Module two begins on Monday.
-Sarah Baer, for all your Creme Anglaise needs

Whining (not Dining)

Hello!
Our Externship Workshop session was last night. An enjoyable four hours spent listening to externship coordinators and experts in the field stress us all out about Trailing, Volunteering, Experience, Resumes, Cover Letters and Pitching. The first two hours were about Trailing.
Trailing is the equivalent of a job interview in the culinary world, only the two experiences are so different that the comparison is laughable. A trail begins as an ordinary interview would, in business clothing and resume in hand. Also on your person should be your uniform, a lock, knives and tools. Arrive fifteen minutes early for what will be a 7 to 12 hour interview process, in which you will be another kitchen hand, doing whatever task the chef asks of you, as well as the standard interview questions. You must spend an entire shift there, straight through until clean up. You must trail at least three different restaurants. You must devote your life to landing this externship.
Who has three entire days to spend in kitchens? Answer: People who have Saturdays or People who don’t have full time jobs. If you recall, I don’t have Sundays off entirely, as I have class on Sunday night (shifts routinely end at midnight). I need to begin my externship within fourteen days of ending class or I get kicked out of the program. This is problem #1.
Problem #2: My totally lack of experience. Most people in the class have no experience, only most are also in the position to get it. To gain experience, you need to volunteer at charity events, or “stage” (pronounced Stodge) which is basically an unpaid internship you don’t get credit for that lasts at least 6 weeks. I could make it to some volunteer events (some means maybe one or two), so maybe it’s not hopeless!
Problem #3: Even if I had all of the time in the world to volunteer, stodge, trail, network and wash my uniform, I don’t have any place where I really want to work. I mean, how many upscale kosher bakeries do you know of in the area? How many four start kosher restaurants are there? Even the “fancy” restaurants aren’t known for their desserts. For one thing, they usually have to be parve, which limits things A LOT. If anyone has any ideas, any desserts you were impressed or excited by in any restaurant or bakery, let me know!
As you could imagine, we left this session stressed out. As of yet, my classmates and I don’t have the skill set to make it in any restaurant or bakery kitchen, and the thought of doing this in just two short months is daunting. No time to dwell on it though, as our exams are tonight. Sorry for the short-ish post, but I have studying to do in my remaining lunch break time!
-Sarah Baer, Extern Extraordinaire

Resume Dismay

G’Morning!
Last night’s class focuses, once again, on Pate Choux. I’m not complaining- cream puffs, éclairs and profiteroles are fun to pipe fill and eat. I’m just a tad disappointed, you see, because I thought we were all going to make a croquembouche. Croquembouche is a tower of small pastry cream filled pate choux stuck together with caramel. A cone of caramel colored wonder. But with all of the other things we had to do in class, we ran out of time. Instead Chef demo-ed making a small version of one, just to let us see how it’s done. Chef, I watch a lot of food TV. I’ve already seen a trained professional make one- I wanted to do it! Granted, now that I know how to make all of the elements and have seen it done from a foot away, it will be easier for me, but the disappointment lingers. And I don’t even like croquembouche (I find that the individual pastries get soggy and break when you try to remove them from the “tree”).
I think Chef believes that I have an unhealthy obsession with croquembouches. I was the only one who watched the entire demo (after all, it is pretty repetitive. You glue one cream puff with sugar to another. Repeat endlessly. It is mesmerizing). I also chatted with him throughout our four hours together about how best to serve it, how to prevent sogginess, possibilities of gluing them with chocolate and not caramel. Chef might right about the obsession.
Now that I have told you what we didn’t make last night, I will take you through what we did bake. Little cream puff shells, profiteroles (larger shells, filled with ice cream and covered in a chocolate sauce- the rich man’s ice cream sandwich), cream puffs (filled with whipped cream/Chantilly cream), more éclairs that we topped with fondant. Fondant is boiled sugar and water, folded onto itself as it cools over and over again, making it white and shiny and hardened. It is just plain sweet, though you can add colors and flavors to it. It is often rolled out and used to decorate cakes due to its pliable and transformable nature. We heated it a bit and thinned it out with simple syrup so that dipping would be easier.
Chef got all of us nervous for our practical by going through the procedure on Tuesday. I’m not sure why, but he can make even the simplest things seem so complicated. He truly has a knack for it. I had obviously gotten some information mixed up- this isn’t entirely my fault. I was fasting when it was announced and so clearly NOT paying attention (though this doesn’t explain why I regularly get details mixed up). Moving on, the day practical and written exam are to be on the same day. Exam fest is on Tuesday and tonight is internship awareness night. We need to bring a culinary resume and a list of well researched possible internship sites. As of 1 pm. I have neither (and my lunch break is quickly slipping away). If I could only do one, should it be a list of sites or a resume?
You should note that while I have a regular resume at hand, I have NO culinary experience to put on a new one …unless I could count soufflé night.
-Sarah Baer, Power Puff Girl (remember them?)

Flare for the Eclaire

Morning Everyone!
As promised, last night we made Pate Choux. And with the Pate Choux we made pastry cream. And with that Pate Choux and pastry cream we made éclairs and Paris Brests. I will describe these in a bit, first I will describe the process.
If any of you have ever eaten an éclair (and I sincerely hope you all have), then you know that the pastry shell which holds the dough isn’t terribly sweet or flavorful. Pate Choux recipes don’t always call for sugar, and if they do it isn’t much. Admission: I do not like Pate Choux, and I never have. If you cover it up with enough cream its fine, but on its own I find it hard and plain and waxy. It is a very rich dough, made with a lot of eggs and butter and when baked it is sturdy enough to withhold cream (the more the better in my opinion, as the cream is the redeeming part of the éclair/cream puff.
The recipe in our book was off. Each team was instructed to make a large batch of pate choux, which called for 20 eggs (not a typo). First you boil water and butter in a sauce pan. Then add flour and cook it off until you are left with a paste (a panade if you want to get technical). Then, you add eggs one at a time until you come to the correct consistency. The thing is, some groups dough was ready after 16 eggs, others after 18. Word has it that one group used 21!
I was SO good when we were preparing the dough. I let my partner do most of the work, and said nothing when I thought she should be doing things differently (read “correctly”). I think the fasting had a lot to do with my weakened will to boss and take the lead (though this laziness also meant that she still had to do the bulk of the prep work).
The dough is soft and loose. It is place into piping bags and piped out, the éclairs into uniform strips and the Brests into fat circles. One must take care to leave room in between the dough, because as the high heat of the oven (400+) degrees) cooks the dough, the water in the dough steams and they puff into chubby logs and rings. Paris Brests are named after the famed bicycle race from Paris to Brest, Brittany. They are shaped like bicycle wheels (which is to say that are circular) and slit in half, filled with cream, like éclairs.

The pastry cream is a starch bound custard (though some call it stirred) and is very thick when cooled. After making the cream, we chilled it quickly in the blast freezer. Unfortunately, this worked a bit too well and when we tried to use it to fill out pastries it was too thick. To make it more manageable, my teammate and I added Grand Marnier (I might have added a wee bit too much) and then we piped this into the éclairs. The cream we added to the Paris Brests was butter cream mixed with praline- this looked delicious. To decorate the tops, we dipped the éclairs daintily into a chocolate sauce and powdered sugar-ed the tops of the Brests. I don’t know what goes into the chocolate sauce, as it was then that I ran out of class to stuff my face and break my fast. I also missed the different ways one can fill éclairs.

Chef didn’t notice my absence, but upon my return I asked what I thought was a good question but had previously been answered during my gullet-stuffing seven minute dinner. Don’t worry, I managed to parlay the bad question into something less embarrassing (I hope. It’s best not to dwell on these things).
-"there is no such thing as a bad question unless its already been asked" Baer

da-Bombe

Good Afternoon All!
Monday night's class began with a review for next week's written exam. What, you didn't know that we were having a written exam in addition to our practical? Me neither, shame on us all. After our review, chef gave us our schedule for next week. Exam on Sunday, Practical exam on Monday and internship meetings with advisers on Tuesday. This schedule is subject to change once I talk to my classmates and find that I have gotten them mixed up. Next week will mark the end of Module One, and I will be a quarter done with the course! On a sadder note, we will be getting a new chef instructor (you wont notice, I'll be calling him/her Chef as well). This last piece of news wont be greeted with such regret by some of my classmates. Chef's instructions have become more and more confusing over the last few classes, and last night's was no exception.
We were making Pate a Bombe, a French mousse-like concoction that is later frozen into a mold. The end result is like an ice cream, but not as hard or cold. It is part of a genre called "Static Frozen Desserts", static because as it is frozen it is not churned, like ice cream. It does not freeze into a solid ice block, however, because of the high sugar content and because of all the air that was beaten into it (remember, mousse is beaten egg whites combined with a base flavoring and beaten whipped cream. That's a lot of air). You line molds first with one flavor, then with another. Un-mold, cut it open and surprise! Two flavors! My partner and I made raspberry liqueur with raspberry mousse flavored bombs. Then, decorate with melted chocolate. Beautiful. Since we had time after un-molding, Chef followed this with a demo of what we would be doing in tonight's class. Pate Choux.
Pate Choux is the base for cream puffs, éclairs and croquembouche. It is a dough that puffs when baked, resulting in an outer crispy shell with an air pocket in the center...perfect for filling with ice cream, pastry cream, caramel... I have made pate choux and pastry cream before, but learned a lot during the demo, none the less. I LOVE making cream puffs, and I will do my best to allow my partner to help me out in tonight's class. This is something that I've noticed; Unless I actively try to control myself, I often take over whatever my partner and I are doing. I wind up doing the majority of the active work and allow my partner to do most of the annoying prep work- this does NOT make for a good partner. Some of you may have baked with me in the past and have noticed this yourselves- I am bossy in the kitchen and distrusting of helping hands. I tend to take over. I need to learn self control, and to this end I will attempt to be very sensitive to allowing for 'teamwork' tonight. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.
Sorry for the late and short post, but I'm getting hungry and tired (and if we weren't making pate choux tonight I might have just skipped class altogether).
-Bossy Pants Baer

Having Souffle and Eating it too!

Before I begin describing last night's class, I must tell you all about Soufflé night at my cousin Wendy's. Since I need to practice for my practical final exam and since soufflés are fun and fancy, I decided (at Wendy's urging) to make flour based chocolate soufflés at her apartment. I had the help and critical taste buds of six others to find out how I was progressing in my culinary skills-particularly in the art of the soufflé, and found last night’s activity very useful-and delicious! My soufflés were not quite A material, but weren’t bad, and now I know what I have to tweak (custard base) and what I am comfortable with (French meringue). Thank you friends! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Continuing in the frozen desserts theme, last night we made sorbet and granita, with tulips to go along with them, acting as cones and sorbet receptacles. We made the granita in groups of four. Granita is kind of like flavored crushed ice. You add water, flavoring and some sugar to a large shallow pan and freeze. After a half hour, you crunch up whatever has frozen into a slush. Re-freeze. Re-crush. You do this four or five times until the whole thing is frozen and crunched up into small icy bits. My team made coffee flavored Granita, which of course was the worst tasting flavor, but it froze better than the pomegranate, chocolate and margarita flavors, so there! We began with the granitas, but as it is a long (albeit simple) process we sampled it last, after it had three hours of freezing and slushing. On to Sorbet.
Though my teammate and I were assigned banana flavored sorbet, we disobeyed. We couldn’t go three days straight making the worst flavors in the class- it’s bad for the moral when no one wants to eat your products. We decided to make grapefruit instead! I worked up the courage and boldly told chef what we decided to do…and he didn’t care. Sure, whatever you like, he said. Triumph! We made our grapefruit sorbet base by mixing grapefruit juice (fresh) with simple syrup for sorbet- water, sugar and sorbet stabilizer or gelatin. Obviously I chose to use sorbet stabilizer, which is basically pectin- you remember Pectin, right? See the Pat De Fruit post if not!
For the citrus flavored sorbet, we also had to add some Swiss meringue (Swiss meringue, not French because it is more stable than French. Not Italian because that takes too long and we were in a rush). This helped add some body to the very watery sorbet base and turned ours from translucent to a pretty pale pink. You churn sorbet the same way you do ice cream- by putting it in that really cool machine!
As some groups base was being churned into sorbet, we made Tulips, which are very thin cookies that are malleable when taken out of the oven and can be used as cones or decoration for plating. Nothing terribly exciting to report about that- I am no better at plating sorbet than I am at ice cream. This sad discovery was made worse by the fact that as we were plating, Chef was coming around with a clipboard grading us-though I’m not sure for what (hopefully for getting along well with others).
And now I will tell you about the best part of class.
Scene: Chef was about half way through churning the class’s Sorbet flavors. He had just finished Orange, so I jumped in there to offer up Grapefruit as the next flavor to be churned. Also around this time, the tulip batters were complete and people were milling about with nothing to do, so Chef decided to give a demo about making the batter into beautiful thin cookies, using stencils and piping bags. Chef had the rapt attention of the class, with the exception of myself. Our sorbet was in the machine with no one to watch it! What to do? Chef said that if it churns too long, it will become rock hard, impossible to extract! So I step up and man the machine myself, testing for doneness and extracting it at precisely the right time. Or, more exactly, a minute or two early due to over eagerness and nerves. Boy, was it fun. As Chef was still busy at the front of the class once our sorbet was done, and the Lemon team wanted to make their base into sorbet, I took the reins again, but even more expertly this time. By the time I had almost completed extracting all of the lemon sorbet, Chef came back and shooed me away. My five (to ten) minutes of fame and glory over, I returned to my mediocre sorbet plating with the knowledge that I need an industrial ice cream maker. Need.
-Sarah, the (self appointed and self imagined) Sorbet Queen
Shout out to Wendy, Naomi, Arielle, Sara, Vive, and Rivky, my Souse Chefs and Soufflé tasters! Also a special thank you to Wendy, who bought the perfect sized ramekins!

Ice Cream Mondays

Last night was more relaxed than Sunday night, and the kitchen was cooler. The air wasn’t fixed, but the ovens were off and we were making Ice Cream, so everything was vastly more enjoyable- if your kitchen turned into an ice cream shop you would be feeling pretty good too. We began by making sauces for our ice cream. Each group made a different sauce, which were later circulated so that everyone could use every sauce…but I’m getting ahead of myself. My partner and I made a port wine reduction sauce. I’m not sure how we managed to get the worst flavors two days in a row- Ginger ice cream and Port Wine Sauce? What about caramel, chocolate fudge, strawberry? At least I didn’t have to eat any of it. Next we made Pizzelles (pih-zels). These are basically fancy ice cream cones. Imagine making thin (in this case) hazelnut flavored waffles with pretty floral designs. You have just imagined Pizzelles- congrats!
As we used the special iron press to make the pizzells, chef took each team aside to turn their Crème Anglaise into Ice Cream. He showed us how to use the machine, how to tell when the ice cream was ready, how to taste every batch as it came out…The machine is amazingly fast, it makes the custard into soft serve like ice cream in under ten minutes. They’re just like the machines used on Iron Chef! The weird thing was, Chef didn’t clean the machine between most batches. He went in flavor and color order so that vanilla was first, Ginger was second, cinnamon third, and so on, ending with chocolate and praline flavors. The chocolate team complained about the coffee flavor from the espresso ice cream, but the only one Chef cleaned up after was pistachio. Wise move. Side note- only two people in class liked our Ginger ice cream- and Chef wasn’t one of them. (Not to worry, it was put to good use- more on that later.)
The Pizzelles were a bit unwieldy, hardening before we could mold them into any cool shape. Unless you count flat circles as cool shapes (after four failed attempts, you would). They smelled darn good though, buttery-nutty-sugary waffles, soon to be topped with ice cream and hot fudge sauce. And port wine sauce.
Once all of the ice cream was made, we put them into the blast chiller for about a half hour to harden as Chef gave us a demo on how to plate ice cream if you want to be fancy about it. He swirled and dotted and painted on the plates with all of the different sauces (except the port wine sauce) and made really beautiful designs. He needed some ice cream to use for his demo, and I hastily offered up Ginger- no use in wasting some else’s delicious chocolate ice cream. Then it was our turn.
While Chef made it look easy, plating ice cream is difficult. His Pizzelles were delicate bowls, mine circles. I ended up smashing two scoops of ice cream between two of my flat Pizzelles, and voila! Gourmet Ice cream Sandwich! I drizzled chocolate fudge sauce on top (poor man’s decoration) and sprinkled some chopped nuts. I may be surprisingly bad at plating ice cream, but I’m resourceful in my un-talent. The biggest problem I had with plating was that the ice cream kept melting, ruining any nice design I had on my plate. Ice cream belongs in cones or cups, or maybe in a sandwich. I don’t think it’s meant to be pretentiously plated- leave that for the petit fours.
Once the ice cream was cleaned up, we unmolded our cheesecakes! Chef did the first one-poorly. He ruined a classmate’s cake because he didn’t run his knife along the outer edges of the pan. Rookie mistake Chef! After that we all managed to turn our cakes out beautifully, and I gave my cheesecake to the poor soul whose cake was ruined, so all was well. I simply decorated my mascarpone cheesecake with strawberries. It didn’t melt.
-Sandwiching Sarah

The Curdle Hurdle

Last night was exhausting. And draining. And hot. Exhausting because we cooked/baked a lot. Draining because it was somewhat confusing and Chef seemingly spoke in circles when giving us instruction. There was a lot of head scrathcing. Hot BECAUSE THE AIR CONDITIONING BROKE AND WE WERE USING INDUSTRIAL OVENS. At least i wasn’t assigned dish duty. Now that the complaints are aired, I can continue.
We began by making cheesecake. I have made cheesecakes before, but last night I made a mascarpone based cheesecake. Mascarpone is kind of like Italian cream cheese. It has a bit less tang- more of a mild flavor, and is used in such pastries as canolies and tiramisu.
When making cheesecake, it is important to have all of your ingredients at room temperature. This ensures easy incorporation of all ingredients, resulting in a smoother cheesecake. To this end, we prepped our Mise En Place (MEP), meaning we got all of our ingredient out and measures and preprared before beginning to bake. This MEP thing is new to me. I usually grab things as I need them, only to find out half way through a recipe that I’m missing a key ingredient, like butter or eggs, and now need to scramble around to either substitute or procure these ingredients. Setting your MEP beforehand makes baking so much easier and more enjoyable.
Once the MEP was set, we moved on to making our crust, made from Sablee dough. Sablee means sandy in French, and this dough has a sandy and crumbly texture prior to being rolled out and pressed into the cake pans. The dough is made primarily from powdered sugar (“10X” in the biz) and egg yolks.
Once the dough was in the ovens, Chef said that our ingredients still hadn’t come to room temperature, and we should begin our Crème Anglaise. Or Ice cream base. They are the same thing. There are two separate recipes with different measurements, but the same ingredients. This is where chef began making less sense and the room reached eighty degrees. Things were getting hazy. My partner and I were assigned caramel ice cream, but by the time we got our milk and cream infused with vanilla bean, another team had started on their caramel. I guess we weren’t assigned caramel, though I could have sworn.... Anyway, we went with the flow and decided to change things up and make lemon ginger ice cream base instead. Unbeknownst to us, adding lemon to half and half (half whole milk, half cream)would separate the milk- the lemon should be added to just the cream because cream has a higher fat content and is therefore more stable. Our base curdled.
By now, so many people were having problems with their Crème Angalise, that chef told us to ignore it and continue on. I think most of the confusion came because Chef and our recipes often contradict one another. Adding to this, Chef himself will do one thing in the demo, then tell us to do another (probably because what he did takes more skill which we are yet to develop). Let me stop here to say that Crème Angalise is simple. Any pastry Chef knows how to make it. It’s part of the ABCs of pastry. I will have to execute it perfectly for out final exam. I have made it before. But for some reason I couldn’t do it last night. When do you strain the custard? Do you add the hot cream to the yolks or the other way around? Do you wait for it to cool before doing anything? Why is Chef saying NOT to let it cool- didn’t he say we need to have an ice bath at hand? (Around this point we decided to get back to our cheesecake-partially to regain some confidence and partially because our cream cheese was slowly melting. Our cheesecakes were finished, placed into a hot water bath, and baked until just barely set. They have been chilling in the fridge over night, and tonight they will be sliced and devoured). We rallied and finished our Creme Anglaise/Ice cream base, making something that looked respectable by the end, but tonight (or is it tomorrow? Chef wasn’t clear) will be the true test, when it is churned into ice cream and sampled by all. Mostly All.
-Fazed by Creme Anglaise

Its "Custard", like "Mustard"

Last night was all about custards, and we began with a demo from Chef of the three different types- stirred, starch bound and baked. Thankfully, the names are very descriptive of the custards themselves, which makes them easy to memorize- no mnemonics necessary!
Stirred custards are typically crème anglais. This is a thin custard used as a sauce or as an ice cream base. You add cream to egg yolks and sugar, then simmer until it reaches the point where it coats the back of a spoon and when you run your finger against the back, a clear line/barrier stays between the top and bottom half of the spoon coating. This is called “Na Pont” in French. I still have never seen this word in print- I just tried googling it but no luck, I had only ever heard Chef use it. So when he asked until what stage you cook the crème anglais, I said “napont”, praying I had pronounced it correctly. I hadn’t, but I dropped my voice at the second syllable enough for Chef not to notice. Bullet dodged. I felt better about it by noticing that Chef says “cuh-stid” and not “cust-ird”. True, that is his accent talking and not lack of knowledge, but still- we all got problems.
Starch bound custards are also cooked stovetop, but are much thicker (because they use starch as well as eggs as a thickening agent). A good example of a starch bound custard is pastry cream. Thick, smooth, delicious and no confusing French words. Baked custards are started like stirred; warmed milk/cream added to eggs- but its not thickened on the stove. Rather, you bake it- either on its own or in combination with other things to create entirely new delicacies and desserts.
Using a baked custard base is how we made Flan, B&B and Crème Brule. The caramel on Monday night was for Flan, in the end, cooked into little individual cups that we lined with our caramel. Fun fact: Crème Caramel is just like Flan and sometimes Chef uses the terms interchangeably. Pour the custard base into the molds, bake, and unmold when cool. Voila! Flan.
B&B is Bread and Butter pudding. Here, the base is poured over pieces of cut bread and studded with raisins. The ones my partner and I made lacked some of the raisins due to the fact that I ate half of them. But that’s neither here nor there. These smelled heavenly and were described as the best French toast my classmates had ever had. This seemed like a long process to make something that tastes like French toast, but I’ll still try to make it. They smelled so good.
Finally, Crème Brule. These are made by baking the custard base in special dishes (a thin layer only!) in a hot water bath. Once cooled, coarsely granulated sugar is sprinkled over the top and torched. Repeat the sugar/torch process three times until a nice hard shell has formed at the top. Let cool and dig in! Or, let cool and watch others dig in!
Finally, Chef had us make Chantilly Cream. What, you haven’t heard of Chantilly Cream? Well, you’ve eaten it. It is just sweetened and flavored whipped cream. When you make whipped cream by hand (I’m not sure why any of you would) always beat with cold cream, over a bowl of ice. This helps the cream whip up faster and prevents it from separating into butter. Interesting to note that my partner confused vanilla extract for Rum and used that instead. Also note that it worked well, if you like rum flavor, and that i'm not entirely sure that it was a mistake. It was a nice accompaniment spooned on top of raisin studded bread pudding in any case.

-Custard-Crazed Sarah

Confection, not Perfection

Good Morning!
Class was hectic and busy last night, so I will jump right into the action. And believe me, nothing is more action intensive than a pastry chef’s kitchen. Especially when you are dealing with making candy. Or as we like to call it in the biz, confections. This week we are concentrating on sticky confections, it seems, and we made Torrone (Italian nougat), Divinities (a nougat like candy/cookie), peanut brittle (a teeth shatteringly delicious treat) and a diluted caramel in preparation for tonight’s dessert (a custardy treat!).
All of these things, like Sunday night’s fudge, have a boiled sugar base. The higher temperature you cook the sugar to, the harder the end result. For example, the peanut brittle is cooked to the hard crack stage- about 300 degrees. It is crunchy and, well, brittle. The nougat and fudge, in comparison, are cooked to lower degrees and are pleasantly chewy. Or at least they should be. If you remember from yesterday’s post, my partner and I scorched out fudge, bringing it over the specified heat. Our fudge, after sitting overnight, was not fudge like at all. It was crumbly. Let this be a lesson learned for all of you. If you are going to listen to your classmate read your horoscope, do so with one eye on your fudge.
In all seriousness, when cooking/baking/candlestick making, you really need to use your eyes, ears, hands and nose just as much as your mouth. Take it from someone who isn’t tasting anything- the other senses are very important. You can see when sugar is boiling too ferociously (I wouldn’t recommend touching this, though Chef does it). You can train your nose to pick up the lightest burning smell, and hear when your confection is crunching when it should be smooth. I did learn a thing or two about being a Leo though, so the whole fudge process wasn’t a total waste.
An important thing to note about class this week is that I’m on sink duty, along with two of my classmates. Normally this isn’t a big deal; every week we switch jobs, from garbage to floors to countertops. But sink duty is normally the worst, and when you mix in boiled sugar and nuts you get a real hard knock of a job. You ordinarily need to stop your work every once in a while to check that things aren’t piling up and quickly wash a pot or two. But boiled sugar hardens in an instant and takes an extreme amount of scrubbing and soaking and very very very hot water. Because everything needs to soak, the sink and its surrounding area becomes covered with dirty pots and equipment. Standing there, washing, is like Sisyphean feat. The load is never ending. After helping my partner prep, I run to the sink and wash a bit. I don’t actually know how to make Divinities, but I know how annoying it is to clean nougat. I would liken it to scrubbing melted laffy taffies.
You might have noticed that I demurely resisted from telling you exactly what we were using the caramel for- I didn’t name tonight’s dessert. This is because I didn’t catch what Chef was saying about the different types of custards (starch-bound, stirred and baked) and what we were to do tonight, over the nuts/boiling water geyser going on in the sink in from of me.
The sink water, which slowly boiled my hands, had pasticcios, almonds and peanuts floating all over. It was a murky brown color for the caramel. It smelled weird. But my classmates and I carried on..and on and on. Unfortunately, we also overflowed the sink, getting water all over the floor. I would like to blame the nuts which clogged it and wouldn’t allow for proper drainage. Others blame the thick nougat which didn’t dissolve in time. Others still blame us for attempting to drain the sink as we were re –filling it with more water.
The last thing we made, dry caramel which we later diluted, burned a finger or two, but soaking it in the very hot dish water helped a bit. I know, this was a whiny post. Rest assured- I’m chipper about the dishes in class. In comparison to my Chef cursing, caramel lamenting, grumbling teammates I seem like I love nothing more than scalding my hands while chipping solidified caramel off of the sides of pans.
- Sob-Story Sarah

Playing Soft Ball

Hi!
Before I regale you with the life lessons learned in Sunday night’s class, I would like to share that on Saturday night I finally put my spatula where my mouth is and baked lemon soufflés for my family. They were…rustic. That might be an oxymoronic idea- a rustic soufflé- but these were uneven at the top and not quite folded enough. They were light, airy, fluffy, gooey, tart, sweet-but not good enough. I could blame it on the lack of professional equipment and ingredients, but if one can’t make darn good soufflés at home for her family, what good is culinary school? I will keep working on it until I can whip up restaurant grade soufflés anywhere, using any ingredients- as long as I have some ramekins.
Back to class. I walked in last night at six o’clock on the dot to find my classmates already bustling. I called out to see if anyone was partner-less, and jumped right in, gathering ingredients before I actually knew what we were making. As it turned out, we were making glucose for lemonade. I shudder to imagine making lemonade with something so banal as granulated sugar, so this process- which lengthens lemonade making considerably, sits well with me. Sugar is boiled with water and either a bit of corn syrup or cream of tartar (to prevent re-crystallization of the sugar) until it reaches the soft ball stage. It is then cooled into something with the look of glass which is, as it turns out, very hard to mix with water and lemon juice. We microwaved it to allow for better incorporation. From start to finish, this took over an hour.
While our molten glass was cooling, however, we began the process of making fudge. Sugar, half and half and a dash of salt are brought to a boil. Chopped chocolate (unsweetened) is added and then the whole thing is boiled until it reaches…soft ball stage. I keep mentioning this “soft ball stage” but maybe I should elaborate. On a candy thermometer this is anywhere between 232 and 238 degrees Fahrenheit. For those poor cavemen who lack candy thermometers, this is the stage where, if you plunge your hand into the boiling sugar and grab some then submerge into ice water, you can form a soft, flexible ball with the sugar you pulled out of the pot. Once this consistency is achieved, (not once the bottom begins to scorch as mine did) take the pot off of the heat and let cool until it reaches a balmy 110 degrees. Then add chopped walnuts (optional) butter and vanilla. Attempt to stir these ingredients into the now nearly solid fudge. When you fail at mixing in the last ingredients, call Chef over to do it for you. When Chef fails, heat over a low flame (or induction burner, like we use) until the fudge becomes more mobile, allowing you to finally stir in the nuts, butter and vanilla. Pour into buttered tray and wait a day. I will clue you all in on the results after class tonight, when we cut and sample our fudge.
In between the fudge’s 236 degrees and 110 degrees, Chef sat us down for a chat about the Facts of Flour. For what seemed like forty five minutes (because it was), he taught us about the differences between hard flours and soft flours, the physical properties of each, non grain flours (buckwheat, corn, soy, etc.), what allows for glutton to form and what prevents it, the horrors of over kneading, the triumph of mixing flours to create the ultimate in flavor and gluten making abilities. I doodled lovely images of breads and cakes and cookies in the margins of my notebook, applying the theoretical ideas of flour into my everyday life in a practical, tangible way.
-Le’ Artist Baer

Piping and Griping

Good Morning!
When we got to class last night, first thing we did was rehash Monday night’s field trip- I love debriefing. We discussed the staff working at each place, the inflated prices, and, of course, the product. Oh, the euphoria of describing the chocolate brioche from Amy’s Bread and the macarons from La Maison Du Chocolat. I nodded earnestly to all comments-even the contradicting ones, wanting to fit in. Also, I didn’t have enough energy to speak for most of last night’s class, so I generally just nodded a lot.
In fact, on three separate occasions classmates called me out on this and called me a Zombie, or just stared at me quizzically waiting for me to notice (which took a good fifteen minutes. This elicited even more good natured teasing. ) During our debriefing, we sampled the gelees and panna cotta from Sunday’s class. The gelee didn’t look like anything special (and my classmates told me I want missing much). They are like fancy flavored Jellos. The panna cotta, however, looked fantastic. Like a mix between jello, pudding and mousse. A trifecta of textures. The milk chocolate flavor in particular looked amazing- note to self, figure out how to kosher-fy panna cotta.
Chef showed us how to quickly ID three different types of flour- all purpose, cake flour and whole wheat. The two fast ways to tell are color and how easily they cake when you squeeze a handful in your palm. Cake flour binds easily into a single clump under the pressure of your fist. Regular is a bit less uniform and breaks easily and whole wheat barely forms a clump at all. Next week we are going to go more in depth with the different types of flour, but Chef rushed the lesson a bit so that we could move on to Nut identifications and Italian butter cream making. And one and a half hours of piping said butter cream. I’ll get to that.
Much like our dairy product and fruit IDs, Chef laid out dozens of types of nuts (whole, ground, cooked and raw) into unmarked and unlabeled cups and had us all sample them and then describe them. Boiled chestnuts were described as “putting an old man in my mouth” and raw tapioca pearls as “chewing on plastic beads”. I kno, we use such specialized culinary terms. If you want me to decode these terms later, let me know.
We then made our Italian butter cream for the second time. Remember, this starts with an Italian meringue base (Hot sugar at the soft ball stage slowly added to beaten egg whites at the soft peak stage) that has been cooled. Pounds (literally) of butter are added until everything is combined into a smooth, fluffy, artery clogging butter cream. Then Chef gave us a demo on how to fill a pastry bag and pipe out simple shells, roses, hearts and fleur de lis. He makes it look so easy, with a flick of the wrist and a quick squeeze he pipes out so many roses I nearly ask him to do the flowers for my wedding. Then we try. From eight untill 9:45 we pipe. After the first hour, my classmates are feeling mutinous. It is hot in the kitchen and the butter cream is melting and our hands are cramping and we feel greasy and there is FOURTY FIVE MINUTES MORE OF DOING THE SAME THING.
I am happy to report that I am a natural at shells, but my roses leave much to be desired. To an untrained eye, they look great. This is why I triumphantly called Chef over to see after a half hour of practice. Unfortunately, Chef has a very well trained eye, and pointed out three things wrong with my roses. After a lot more(pipe onto parchment paper until bag runs out, scrape your lovely work back into bowl and refill your bag. Repeat endlessly) my roses were marginally better. Chef came over again and told me I had the hand motions right, but I am not consistent. “You will have to pipe a thousand or so more until you have perfected it and can make a perfect rosette every time”. I actually smiled and started to laugh at his obvious exaggeration. He wasn’t joking.
- "I wanna panna cotta" Baer

The Return of the Pate De Fruit

Hi!
As promised, last night we had our field trip. Not wanting to blend in even without his tall Chef’s hat, Chef showed up in a Hawaiian shirt. This made him easily spottable on the subway and crowded streets of New York (though I don’t think that was his reasoning behind wearing said shirt). We were all in street clothes- a true test of whether or not we knew each other’s names. I hope I passed this one, though I can’t be sure. I made a mental note (and now a written one I suppose) to make sure to memorize everyone’s names tonight, aided with our monogrammed Chefs jackets.

Our first stop was La Maison Du Chocolat, an upscale chocolate shop with “Haut Couture” chocolates. This place makes Godiva look like a bargain basement store. The prices were high, the pieces of chocolate small, and the temperature freezing. Everything looked fabulous and I wanted one of each. Truffles in dozens of flavors, chocolate bark, bonbons and yes, even Pate De Fruit (remember our lovely Fruit Gels that no one liked?) were all sold there, by the pound. There was also pastries- cakes, cookies (macarons, obviously) their famous chocolate éclairs, and a new line of ice cream. Chef bought some macarons for everyone to share, though he did laugh at their price, and told us they cost nothing to make. My classmates were, however, really impressed with their products and gushed over every piece of chocolate and macaron they ate. Apparently, it’s worth every penny. Even if you don’t buy/eat anything on the shop, it is fun to go and just take a look around.
Our next stop was Financier Pastry Shop.
This place was…less snobby. They had wonderful looking French pastries, mainly single serving sizes (packed with calories for two!) of beautiful looking tartlets, little cream cakes, chocolate bomb cakes, macarons (obviously) and…Pate De Fruits (surprisingly). Everyone got a pastry and dug in. I went from person to person sniffing appreciatively and asking prying questions, such as mouth feel, flavor and “is it worth it?” Classmates, in return, asked me many questions about Kashrut. Only, they didn’t say “Kashrut” and instead asked “wait, what cant you eat?” “why can’t you try this napoleon? You’ve never eaten a napoleon?!” Don’t worry, I quickly rectified this blasphemous thought and reassured my classmates that I can (and have eaten) most of the pastries they were all sampling. Albeit, never from some fancy pastry shop in the middle of Rockefeller Center.
After Financier, we went to Bouchon Bakery, located (among other places) in the Time Warner Center. At this point, I was craving some dessert, and knew (who doesn’t?) of the Godiva located in the Time Warner Center. I asked Chef if I could make a detour and meet them in Bouchon. He agreed and I ran. Literally, I couldn’t get there fast enough. Once there, I whipped out my Godiva Club Card (you should all get one ASAP) and got myself a free truffle of the month. Key Lime. Refreshing, sweet but not cloying and rich. It helped ease my jealousy and stave of pangs of pastry deprivation. Thank you, Godiva (bargain basement or not, you have my allegiance). Of course, once I got to Bouchon and told Chef about my truffle, he asked the obvious question. Why could I eat Godiva chocolate but not Maison Du Chocolat chocolate? Quick as a whistle, that Chef. I explained. Then he explained why Bouchon was fabulous and praised their raspberry almond croissants. Now, Bouchon is French in heritage (Chef would only take us to French places- a true Frenchman) but they seem to be catering to an American crowd. Among their French pastries (including macarons and Pate de Fruit!) were HoHos, Fuhgetaboutits (like 100 Grand Bars) and Nutter Butters. Somehow, I don’t see French Pastry Chefs toiling over Nutter Butters.
The rest of the class went on to Amy’s Bread in Chelsea Market. By this time, however, I was hungry, tired, and had a fast the next day to consider (and no promise of freshly baked bread to bolster my spirits). Also, I had a nine o’clock showing of Harry Potter I needed to catch. NEEDED. And so I bowed out, Chef not putting up a fuss because of how guilty he felt for taking me to such unpalatable establishments. I wonder what allowances he would make tonight if I told him I was fasting?
-Sarah “I Have My Priorities Straight” Baer

Note I did NOT take any of the photos seen here. I did, howeveer, search for them on Google images.

Two Fat Ladies on a Saturday Night

Hi Everyone,
Last night we had our first written quiz. I walk into the locker room only to find my classmates with pages of written notes, spewing terms I hadn’t ever heard of. Apparently they took they review sheet Chef had given us and ran with it, viewing it as a bare bones analysis of what we needed to know. I took it as gospel. As it turns out, I was safe with my limited knowledge and the quiz went well enough. Chef gave us 45 minutes to complete it, but it only took us about a half hour. As of yet, laziness hasn’t defeated me.
We dove into the world of Gelatin last night, making Marshmallows, Panna cotta and Gelee. Gelatin comes in two forms, powdered and sheets. Powdered gelatin is stronger and more commonly used in pastry kitchens. Leaf gelatin is just weird- thin, translucent rectangular sheets that need to be soaked in ice water before using. How do you know when your gelatin is ready for use? “When it looks and feels like what you would wear on a Saturday night” says Chef, referring to Lycra or spandex. I can’t make this stuff up.
As we were watching Chef do his demo, we picked his brain for what cooking shows he likes to watch. He thinks everything is crap, basically, and says they are just doing it for drama, not teaching anything. I beg to differ. Ina, Anthony, Alton and Bobby have taught me much. But, the show he says, that used to be really good? TWO FAT LADIES (yes, that’s actually the title). I don’t know of many of you are familiar with Two Fat Ladies, but you should acquaint yourselves if you’re not (now it’s on the Cooking Network, not the Food Channel). The show follows two middle aged/older fat English women as they cook in their English Country kitchen and drive around in their motor bike visiting different sites on the English countryside. So English. So wonderful.
Back to gelatin. First we made marshmallows. My teammate and I made vanilla flavored ones, others made rosewater or orange. They are a mixture of egg whites, sugar, corn syrup, flavoring, gelatin and water, heated and then beaten until impossibly fluffy and sticky. Spread onto a baking sheet and let stand for two hours. At the end of the class, we sliced them and coated them with corn starch (to prevent sticking and moisture) and decorated some with chocolate. The texture- springy, light, chewy-looked marvelous, though I can’t swear by the flavor- I was told they tasted a wee bit “off”, but that they were “extremely marshmallow-ey.” I’ll take what I can get.
The Panna Cotta (think of milky, thin Jello) and Gelee (kind of like Jello- we made Caramel flavor) need to set up over night, so I can’t report on those as finished products. The marshmallows and panna cotta used powdered gelatin, the Gelee used leaves/sheets, which don’t set up as quickly.
Tonight we have our field trip to fancy patisseries and chocolate shops in lower Manhattan. Sure, it’s supposed to pour and be really hot, but I won’t let my lack of umbrella, frizzy hair or inability to sample any of the baked goods stop me from having a great, educational field trip. That and the fact that I will have to write a paper about the experience- otherwise I would cut.
- Food Network Lover and Proud

Falling for Souffles (having never tried one)

Hi All,
The Soufflés Craze continued last night with flour-based soufflés. But I’ll get to that soon.
First, we had a cornet drill, where we piped new stencils- ones for petite fours. I lost all skill in piping for some reason (the coffee I chugged while running to class might have unsteadied my hands) and the petite fours I piped were gloppy and sloppy (technical terms, you wouldn’t understand). This will need some at-home practice, as I have a practical piping quiz coming up.
Back to soufflés. Flour based soufflés are a tad sturdier than flourless. This means they have four minutes from the oven until falling time, not two (double the shelf life!) They also look yummier, the inside not as foamy, and a little creamier looking than the flourless. I am told that the consistency has a better mouth feel. I can’t wait to find out for myself!
The base of these soufflés is a pastry cream of sorts (add a rudimentary pastry cream to my repertoire). Everyone in the class made a chocolate soufflé first, and then each team made a different flavor. My partner and I made Mocha. Obviously, this was assigned to us and wasn’t what we would have chosen to make. There were lime, passion fruit, pistachio, praline, coconut, caramel and gruyere cheese soufflés coming out of the oven left and right. Here is the procedure for removing soufflés from the oven:
1) The student paces in front of the oven, wondering if she should have removed it thirty seconds ago or if it needs another fifteen seconds.
2) She opens the deck oven door- making all other students with soufflés in the oven worry that the open oven door is messing with their soufflés. It is.
3) She carefully removes the scalding hot baking sheet with the ramekins on it and puts it on one of two large steel work tables. Everyone converges on the soufflés, asking what flavor they are and grabbing plastic spoons.
4) The baker rushes to get her camera out, pleading with everyone to hold off digging in until they can snap some pictures, before the soufflés fall.
5) Just as the last picture is taken, spoons dig into the small, lovely ramekins and they are each oohed and ahhed over, everyone complimenting the baker. At least one student claims that This flavor is her favorite flavor
6) The fallen, half eaten soufflés are left, and eventually tossed. Sad, deflated, forgotten.
Repeat this process eight times in fifteen minutes. I am not above said procedure and am the worst offender, claiming that every flavor is my favorite, and getting away with it because I can’t taste any- who would contest the claim of the poor girl who can’t taste any soufflés?
After the soufflés are done, Chef teaches us how to chop an onion. Yes, this is odd considering that we are learning Pastry and Baking arts and onion are rarely, if ever, used in pastry kitchens. No, we do not bother to ask Chef why he is teaching us and instead grab our huge chef knifes and begin. This is a very useful skill and everyone should learn how to properly dice an onion. They can be used to make onion soufflés, after all.
Next class is my written quiz, covering all topics up until now, but none of the fun practical parts. Food safety, recipe conversions and chemistry. Maybe I’ll study piping skills instead.
- Sarah "onions-dont-make-me-cry-but-chemistry-does" Baer

Souffles Craze!

Welcome Back!

After a week of break, classes resumed last night. I would like to say that after a week off, I was refreshed and ready to go, but this was not the case. I left my hat, recipe binder and a clean apron at home. Thankfully, I borrowed, camouflaged and faked my way through without comments from chef.

First thing that happened when we get into the kitchen is a surprise from Chef, a practical quiz on knife skills. Nothing crazy; we each have to peal, wedge and slice an apple and a pear. Characteristically, I cut myself within three minutes. I wait until Chef’s back is turned then casually saunter over to the first aid and grab a band aid (bloody fruit will not be given high marks) and resume the cutting. I finished the “quiz” first, but no one wants to be the one who calls out “done” - that girl is annoying. I decide to be Annoying anyway and raise my hand to admit that I am done first and Chef walks over to grade me. My slices are great, my wedges need a bit of work (they should be uniform- apparently Chef does not like the artistic license I took to my pear) and the very inside- where I had cored the fruit- had browned a bit due to lack of lemon juice. All in all pretty good though! Way to go, Annoying!

Once Chef grades everyone, we gather around for a demo on soufflés. Embarrassing Confession: I have never eaten a Soufflé. After last night, I still haven’t, but I know how to make one! First, let me give you some background. They are made in ramekins (you can still purchase mine from my registry!), small ceramic cups. There are two genres of Soufflé- starch based and flourless. Last night we made flourless, and tonight we will be making starch/custard based soufflés. Soufflés are light, airy and foamy desserts. They aren’t terribly hard to make once you have the technique down, but timing is imperative to a good soufflé’. You make the flavoring base (chocolate, fruit pure, even cheese) then fold in French Meringue. I hope you all know what characterizes a French Meringue by now. What’s that? You don’t? Don’t worry, neither did 70% of my class. Anyway, five minutes makes a huge difference between an undercooked or overcooked soufflé, and they should be eaten within minutes of coming out of the oven. They have a shelf life of five minutes. But wow, are they impressive coming out of the oven, rising one, two, three inches over the top of the ramekin. Pictures WILL come, I promise.

Chocolate soufflés were made first, then fruit soufflés. I am pleased to report that my partner and my strawberry soufflés were used as examples of a proper soufflé to the rest of the class. So much for not being Annoying.

A quick note for the un-initiated: The inside texture of a soufflé should be foamy, creamy, barely cooked. Chef used a French term to describe it (sounded like “bouvles” but goodness knows what he actually said). I won’t quite understand them until I bake some again, and more importantly, eat some. I will have to practice them a lot, as soufflés are part of my final practical exam. Soufflé party anyone?

- Chef Annoying