Day 14: Petits Fours=Macaroons

Wednesday marked my 10th lesson which means I have now officially completed the first half of Basic Patisserie and much to my surprise I received a midterm grade.  There are three groups of Basic Patisserie students and I am in Group A.  Each student was given a sheet containing our group's average and our own average, both out of 5, for the first half of the program.  Group C had a 2.7 average, Group B had a 2.9 average, and Group A had a 3.2 average.  Right from the start I was excited to find out that my group seems to contain some of the best patisserie students.  I was even more excited to find out that my average was a 3.5!  I'm by no means an expert, but ranked next to my fellow students I really feel like I'm holding my own.

You really do learn something new every day.  Wednesday I learned that the Petits Fours Bethany and Justin gave out as wedding favors at their September wedding are only one of a variety of small cakes or desserts that can be classified as petits fours.  As a matter of fact the currently very en vogue macaroons that you generally see in bright pinks, greens, and yellows are also a variety of petits fours.  They are called Meringue Petits Fours.   While we learned to make these petits fours in our demonstration class and we got to eat them, they were not a part of our practical class.

Chef Deguignet's Macaroons

For our practical class we made Palets Aux Raisins or Raisin Biscuits and we made Batons De Marechaux or Marshal's Batons.  They were both pretty straightforward and easy to make and were actually both very small tasty treats that could have easily become addictive.  The raisin cookies had a little bit of a rum glaze and the batons were like almond cookies dipped in chocolate, delicious.

My Various Petits Fours

I would definitely recommend making these at home because as I said they were pretty straightforward and easy to make.  The macaroons looked like they'd be much more of a challenge, but I hope to try making them at home as soon as I get an oven!

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!