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
