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