Pastry School Nightmares

You know that dream, or rather nightmare, where you are going to the final exam for a class in college and you show up to take the test and can't find the room?  Well, let me tell you what a pastry school nightmare is like, as I've just woken up from one.  I was dreaming that I was running late for class and when I finally got into the kitchen our assignment was to bring a pot of water to a boil and then add sugar.  As everyone began moving around and filling their pots with water I realized I didn't have a pot!  I frantically opened every cabinet and drawer and could not find a pot anywhere.  Then I started going to other kitchens and finally got a pot, but when I was on my way back to my class I realized I didn't have my kitchen uniform on!  Disaster!

Anyway, I think this dream means I am in baking withdrawal.  I plan to begin the baking today and make at least one item today, tomorrow, and Friday.  I know I'll be making eclairs today and some form of puffed pastry tomorrow so anyone that wants to stop by for a visit or a sweet is welcome.  Call or email me for the appropriate time to visit and I'll look forward to seeing you then!  I'll also be posting pictures of my creations so we can compare the product from a home oven versus the product from an  industrial oven.  Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.  Merry Christmas!

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 26: Graduation Celebration!

I am officially a graduate of Basic Pastry!  Yea!  As some of you may know I was under the impression that the school recognizes the top three graduates in each program.  Since I was certain I was not going to finish as one of the top three students then my only goal was to pass the class so I could continue on with Intermediate Pastry in January.  However, it turns out I was wrong and that the school actually recognizes the top five graduates from each class.  My good friend Lydia was number 1 for all of Basic Pastry and my good friend Josephine was number 2.  Another girl from our group was number 3 and a girl from another group was number 4, but you'll never guess who number 5 was...Me!

So, to all of you who have been following my blog or encouraging me over these past five weeks or even encouraging me to pursue this passion for the last few years I need to say thank you.  I would not be in pastry school, I would not be in Paris, and I would not have been dedicated enough to show up at school every day rain, snow, or shine without your support.  

After the graduation ceremony we had a reception including champagne, small bites, and petit desserts prepared by our chefs.  We had a great time and took a lot of pictures.  Here are some of the pictures from our day.

Our Main Demonstration Room

Josephine, Naama, Lydia, Maggie, Me, and Esther

Group A Gals-Lydia, Maggie, Me, and Josephine

Josephine, Maggie, and the desserts as usual!

Until next time (which may be a few weeks) Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 25: The Exam

Rest assured all of my apple peeling was not in vain; my recipe for the practical exam was in deed Tarte Aux Pommes!  If only Chef Bernarde had been there to see my apple peeling and apple arranging skills in action I think he'd have been very impressed by my improvement.  I've come a long way from Day 4 and backwards apples.

I began my day at 6:10am when I woke from a restless sleep and decided not to wait for the alarm, but to get up and resume studying for my 8:30am practical exam.  I ironed my apron, took a shower, packed my bag, and went to the coffee shop next to school to keep reviewing the ten recipes that could potentially be my project for the practical exam.  When I arrived at school around 8:15am I was informed by my friends that the recipes we were going to be assigned included Tarte Aux Pommes, Pithiviers and Sacristains, or Apple Turnovers and Palmiers.  Puff Pastry, really?!  I was just as glum as everyone else.

When we got to our kitchen we were greeted by Chef Daniel Walter who would be presiding over our kitchen for the exam.  We really lucked out as he is everyone's favorite chef because of his positive attitude and his laid back manner.  This was definitely going to be a plus for our group.  He had each of us choose a plastic chip from a bowl and he assigned our recipes based on the color of our chips.  I chose a green chip along with my friend Maggie and three other girls in my class.  When he assigned us to our spots in the kitchen we saw the recipes for Pithiviers and Sacristains in front of us.  I looked at Maggie and I knew the overwhelmed look in her eye was probably reflected in mine as well, but just as we were trying to determine what to do first Chef Walter took our recipes away and told us he'd made a mistake.

He then shuffled a bunch of papers and gave us the recipe for Tarte Aux Pommes instead!  Relief swept over me in an instant.  While this was not going to be easy it was certainly going to be much easier than the other options because Tarte Aux Pommes means no puff pastry!  No rolling and rolling and rolling the dough and no folding and counting turns either.  I'd really dodged a bullet!

The second part of the exam was the same for everyone.  It was a straightforward skills test.  Each of us had to make one recipe of Sweet Short Pastry and line a tart pan.  This was even more of an advantage for me because since I had to make the dough and line the tart pan for my Tarte Aux Pommes anyway I could line both pans and then choose the best looking one for my tart.  The second pan I lined looked much better than the first one and I was very happy to use it for my main project.

My Tart from Day 4

My Tarte Aux Pommes and My Tart Shell

At the end of the exam we were each assigned a number and told to set our projects out with our number in front of them.  When everything was finally cleaned up I was happy with my results.  I thought my tart looked better this time than last time and certainly was not the worst one on the table.  I cannot believe Basic Pastry is over and I'm not sure what grade I'll end up with for the program, but one thing is for sure I did not fail.  At the end of the day all I really wanted was to graduate into the intermediate program in January and after this morning I am confident that this will be the case.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 24: Celebration!

You know you're in France when, at the end of your final demonstration class, your chef tells you good luck on your final exam and then cracks open 6 bottles of champagne to celebrate the end of your program!

Today at 12:30pm we gathered to have our last demonstration class.  Chef Cotte had finally returned from his vacation and showed us a demonstration on how to make Chocolate-Bergamot Mousse Cake with Orange Crisp.  It was a really fun class and the cake looked like a double chocolate mousse cake from Filomena inside and was covered with a chocolate ganache glaze outside.

Chef Cotte's Chocolate Mousse Cake

After the demonstration our Chef cut up the cakes and we all enjoyed cake and champagne as an afternoon snack.  The cake was delicious and the champagne hit the spot too!

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 23: Finished!

Saturday was my last official practical class!  We had a demonstration at 8:30am for Alhambra, or chocolate cake, went out to breakfast, and then came back to make the cake in our practical class at 3:30pm.

The Alhambra was baked in a rectangular mold similar to one you might cook banana bread in but a little smaller.  The cake was taken out of the mold, cut, and put back together with thick layers of chocolate ganache in between.  The cake was then decorated with ganache piping, candied violets and flowers made from modeling chocolate.

My Alhambra

A close-up of my rose.

Our group breakfast was equally as exciting as making the cakes.  We went to a restaurant named, and I'm not making this up, Breakfast In America!  It is a diner that serves American specialties from cheeseburgers to eggs and bacon to thick milkshakes.  It is a great place.  We had some of everything on the menu, but my favorite item was the Obama Milkshake consisting of vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and delicious peanut butter.  It all really hit the spot after all of the pastries and French food we've been eating in general.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 22: Buche Pistache-Chocolat

Snow and Christmas lights means it is finally holiday time in Paris.  Today we made a Buche Pistache-Chocolat or a Chocolate-Pistachio Log Cake.  It was referred to as a Yule Log by a few Americans in our demonstration class, but this is not actually what it is.  While it was made in a log shaped pan it was not rolled up, it was baked, cut, and layered back together with chocolate ganache and simple syrup.  Here are a few photos:

My Buche Pistache-Chocolat

The green and brown layers inside my Buche.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 21: Baking, Baking, Baking

Thursday was a busy day!  We made a cake called a Mogador at 8:30am, went to a demonstration on Puff Pastry, and made a Pithiviers in the afternoon.  The Mogador was my kind of cake.  It was a chocolate and raspberry mousse cake decorated with raspberries.  The base of the cake was a chocolate genoise sponge cake that was layered with a raspberry glaze and then covered with the chocolate mousse.  It looked very elegant, but was pretty easy to make.

My Mogador

In the afternoon we used puff pastry again to make another traditional dessert called Pithiviers.  The dough was rolled out and filled with an almond cream.  Then another layer of dough was put on top and the cream was sealed inside.  We cut a flower shape out of the dough and scored the top.  Using the excess dough we made twisty cinnamon sugar bread.  We all agreed that they would have been much better with parmesan and asiago cheese.  We are all pastried out!

My Sacristains

My Pithiviers

The layers of my puff pastry up close!

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 20: Cuisine

Wednesday, since we only had one demonstration class, my friend Maggie and I decided to sit in on a demonstration class for the Basic Cuisine program.  The cuisine class was not the same as the pastry class at all.  There was a lot of stuff going on everywhere.  The chef was simultaneously preparing four dishes at the same time.  We learned to make Parisian-Style Gnocci in a Bechamel sauce, Chicken Saute with Tarragon, Roasted Italian Vegetables, and Poached Apples on Brioche Toast with Italian Meringue and Raspberry Coulis.

Paris Style Gnocchi

Tarragon Chicken and Roasted Vegetables

Poached Apples with Meringue

Everything the chef prepared looked beautiful and tasted delicious!

As I'm sure you've all heard Europe, and specifically Paris, has had a lot more snow this winter than usual.  Since I was at school until 6:30pm on Wednesday I was a little surprised to find A LOT of snow on the ground when I came out.  I took this picture of L'Hotel National des Invalides on my walk home.  Les Invalides is a series of buildings that house museums and monuments all pertaining to the military history of France.  This building is a few blocks from my apartment and on the way to the Metro so I pass by it a few times everyday.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 19: International Meringues

I feel like I have been running around in circles for months now and it has only been four weeks!  I had my last demonstration and practical class for Basic Pastry yesterday and will now be using the entire afternoon to catch you up on all of my adventures since this past Tuesday.

First of all, someone needs to email me a terrific recipe for Tiramisu because on Tuesday I learned how to make my own lady fingers!  We learned to make a dessert called Charlotte Aux Poires or Pear Charlotte.  It was a beautiful dessert.  We used the batter for ladyfingers to make shapes that we constructed into an edible box.  The filling inside the box was a mixture of sauteed pears and a mousse.  The mousse consisted of a pear flavored whipped cream and an italian meringue.

One important thing I have learned since attending pastry school is that there are different types of meringue.  There are actually three types of meringue-French meringue, Swiss meringue, and Italian meringue.  All meringues are a mixture of beaten egg whites and sugar, but the difference between these three types of meringue is in the method behind how you combine the two ingredients.

French meringue is whipping egg whites until they form peaks and then gradually adding sugar while continuing to whip the mixture into a glossy, shiny state.  Since the mixture was made with raw ingredients you have to cook the meringue before eating it.  Swiss meringue is egg whites and sugar beaten in a bowl over the heat of a bain marie and then constantly whisked until cooled.  Italian meringue is a little more complicated and definitely the tastiest.  For Italian meringue you whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, but then you add very hot sugar syrup and keep whisking until you get a shiny delicious meringue that can be eaten right away and used as decoration or frosting on many cakes.

The sugar syrup is a simple syrup made from equal parts sugar and water.  You must bring the syrup to a boil and then continue cooking until it comes to a "soft ball stage."  Then you may add a flavoring or liqueur to the syrup if desired and then you whip the syrup into the meringue.  To determine whether your syrup is at the soft ball stage you put the tips of your thumb and index finger in very cold water, then you dip the tips of your fingers in the hot syrup pot all the way to the bottom, and then you immediately put your fingers back into the cold water.  When you take your fingers out of the cold water for the second time you rub them together  and they should form a "soft ball" of sugar between them.  Once the sugar is in this soft ball stage you know the syrup is hot enough to put into the egg whites and finish your meringue.

My Pear Charlotte

A close-up of my marzipan rose.

I loved the way the Pear Charlotte looked when it was all put together, but again I'm just not a fan of pear flavored desserts.  I think this would be especially delicious with cherries or peaches.  While we have not done much work with berries up until now I wonder if this could also have been made with raspberries or blueberries.  I cannot wait to have an oven to finally be able to try these recipes out at home and make my own adjustments.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 18: Brioche

First things first, I have to let you know about my Sunday night girls dinner.  Four girls from my class and I went out for dinner to a famous Paris steakhouse called Le Relais de l'Entrecote.  The atmosphere was kind of like a New York Steakhouse with a lot of wood and brass everywhere and all of the waitresses wore your typical French maid uniform.  When we sat down we were immediately given a lettuce salad with a dijon mustard vinaigrette and asked by the waitress how we'd each like our steaks cooked.  She also took our beverage order and we ended up with a bottle of the house red wine and a carafe of water.  Next the waitress cleared our salads and served us dinner.  Our plates were filled with a thin steak cut into strips resting in a thick brownish sauce that tasted like a dill bernaise sauce and a heap of french fries.  After we'd finished our steaks we were immediately offered seconds on the dinner course.  Finally, since there was only one choice for our dinner we were given an extensive dessert menu with at least 20 items on it and asked if we'd like a sweet and/or coffee.  We shared some ice cream, some chocolate cake, and a lemon tart, none of which were as good as things we had made at school.  It was an interesting experience and fun for a group, but not necessarily as gourmet as you'd expect considering we had to wait in line 20 minutes for a table on a Sunday at 9pm.

Anyway, Monday morning came bright and early and we learned how to make brioche.  We had made the dough for our brioche on Saturday after the croissants and had left our dough in the refrigerator to rise a bit over the weekend.  For those of you who don't know, brioche is a soft, light yeast dough similar to challah bread.  It is a little bit sweet and traditionally served as a breakfast food with butter or jam.  Mine looked very nice, but definitely needed to be mixed with something or have a spread on it to be fully enjoyed.  Brioche is usually baked in a special molds and is formed into specific shapes.  We each made one loaf pan of brioche, one round fluted pan of brioche with a round head on top, and two mini round pans with small heads on top.

My loaf of Brioche

My Traditional Brioche

We also rolled out the brioche and layered it with pastry cream and raisins and made raisin buns.  They were pretty good considering I do not usually like raisins in my bread.  One of the other groups got to fill their buns with pastry cream and chocolate chips, theirs were delicious!  If I ever made these rolled up buns at home I'd either fill them with chocolate chips or I'd fill them with pastry cream and a heavy layer of cinnamon.  I think both of those options would be delicious.

My Raisin Buns

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 17: Croissants, Can it Get More Parisienne Than This?

SUCCESS!!!!

I have been anxiously awaiting croissant day for months now and I can officially tell you it was a great success!  First of all, I must say that croissant baking got a lot of hype and I was really scared to try and make them, but they ended up being much easier than I anticipated.  Don't get me wrong, they were not a walk in the park, but they were nothing compared to puff pastry.  Puff pastry required rolling and turning and rolling and turning, but the croissant dough only needed rolled out a few times and we ran it thru a professional machine to make it super smooth.

We actually made our croissant dough on Friday even though we wouldn't be baking our croissants until Saturday.  Apparently 3 or 4 degrees Celsius is the ideal temperature for croissant dough. So we assembled our dough and froze it overnight.  Then, Saturday morning, our chefs took the dough out of the freezer and put it into a refrigerator that was set at about 6 degrees Celsius.  When the dough had defrosted, but was still colder than the inside of the refrigerator, it was time to roll it out and make croissants.

My Croissants

After we made one batch of croissants we used the remaining dough to make Pain Au Chocolat.  I'm sure you've seen these pastries before even if you're not familiar with the name.  They are generally rectangle shaped pastries that are flaky like croissants but have chocolate inside of them.  Mine turned out kind of small, but were delicious nonetheless.

My Pain Au Chocolat

Up close they looked kind of like HoHos.

As I mentioned in an earlier post we used dry butter for the croissant dough.  While we probably can't buy dry butter in the US our chef assured us we could make a pretty good croissant substituting regular butter.  Maybe this year we'll leave croissants for Santa instead of cookies!

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 16: A Piece of Cake

Friday was by far the worst day I have had since moving to Paris.  To the average American, me included, living in Paris probably seems like a fantasy, and most of the time it is, but sometimes it is not all that it is cracked up to be.  It can be lonely, tiring, especially cold, you have to take public transportation every day multiple times, and to top it off, there is dog poop on sidewalks EVERYWHERE just waiting to be stepped in!

While Friday started off like a seemingly perfect day, it quickly turned into the worst day ever.  My group was only scheduled for one class from 12:30pm to 3:30pm and we were going to be making a cake called a Mocha that we'd observed in our demonstration class the night before.  The cake seemed like an average two layer iced cake that could potentially have been served as a gourmet birthday cake.  It seemed like it would truly be "a piece of cake" to make.

When we entered our kitchen we were greeted by Chef Deguignet.  While we had watched him perform demos we had never had him as the Chef in our kitchen for a practical class before.  It was clear from the beginning that he was going to be especially strict.  He didn't really want us talking, he constantly wanted to hear "Oui Chef!" and he was forever telling us to do everything faster and faster.  His presence in our practical class made everyone tense and put us all in a bad mood.  There was suddenly no positive energy in our kitchen.

As we went along trying to put our cakes together things got worse.  The cake proved to be much tougher than it looked to assemble.  It required a glaze, icing, and creative, yet traditional, decorations on top.  I cannot explain what happened during that class, but it was the first time I felt like I wanted to quit. I just wanted to walk out of that kitchen and not look back.  It was a terrible, angry feeling.

Then, just when things seemed to be getting really dark, our favorite chef, Chef Bernarde, walked in and asked us to stop what we were doing so he could talk to us.  He told us that he was sorry to be informing us that he was leaving the school and today would be his last day.   It was truly as if someone had sucked the air out of the room.  No one knew what to say at first, we were all heartbroken.  Then we asked What?  Where are you going?  When are you coming back?  And he told us, smilingly, that he was going away to pursue a new adventure.  And just like that with a few smiles and blown kisses he was gone.  I really think every single person in the room was close to tears and from the looks in my friends' eyes they had the same distinct idea in their heads that I had in mine, I'm ready to throw this cake at the wall!

But that's not what a pastry chef does.  No matter how bad your day is or what's wrong inside, you have to make the outside shine.  You have to finish the project no matter what because someone is counting on that cake. While it was only a practice cake on Friday, it could be a birthday cake or even a wedding cake someday soon and that thing needs to be completed to perfection.  So, I took my time, I finished my cake and when it was done Chef Deguignet told me I'd done a good job.

My Mocha Cake (It really was kind of pretty.)

I can't really explain how or why this did not make me feel better, but it did not.  I took the cake down to the communal hall and left it there for everyone to have a piece.  Then I went to a cafe with my friend Lydia to drown our sorrows.  We talked about Chef Bernarde and we talked about the class we'd just finished.  We also talked about living in a foreign country and how hard it can be.  After two glasses of Vin Chaud, or hot mulled wine, we both went our separate ways to decompress.  Around 8pm I went out with Lydia and two of our other friends for dinner and while we had a really great meal, something was still amiss.  We couldn't stop talking about how awful we all felt about our day.

I think the positive thing that really resounds with me after this experience is how quickly people can grow together when they are working in a very close environment.  While it was a crappy day it was fantastic to know that in only 4 weeks I've made some awesome connections and some great friends.  Our night ended up very fun and we all got in bed at reasonable times anxiously awaiting Saturday and the culmination of French pastries-Croissants.  So, thanks for listening to me complain.  I know it can't always be a bowl of cherries every day, but let me be clear, a bad day in Paris usually does beat a bad day anywhere else!

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 15: Queen of Tarts

Thursday was a really fun day!  We learned to make Tarts.  Our Chef demonstrated how to make chocolate tarts, orange tarts, lemon tarts, and raspberry tarts, but for our practical class we only made chocolate tarts and orange tarts.  Both were really good, but would have looked much prettier with more filling.

Our Chef's Assorted Tarts

My friend Lydia was the Queen of Tarts for sure.  Her tart shells were flawless.  They had perfect edges and were cooked just right and her filling was smooth and glassy.  My tarts tasted very good, but were nothing in comparison to Lydia's.  I'll definitely have to work on my aesthetics next time.

Two of My Chocolate Tarts and One of My Orange Tarts

As for tart making at home, I'd definitely recommend this activity.  The tarts can be decorated to look absolutely gorgeous, but they are also one of the few desserts that taste as good as they look.  Plus, along with petits fours I think tarts are fun to make and something everyone can master.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

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!

Day 13: Pears Are Not In Season

After Gateau Basque on Monday we had a demonstration class for Tarte Meringuee Aux Poires Caramelisees, or Caramelized Pear and Crisp Almond Crust Tart.  The demonstration was such a comedy of errors that it is truly a miracle I was able to pull off the practical class at all let alone successfully.  There were many problems on Monday including the assistant not measuring the ingredients for the dough correctly, something falling when being taken out of the oven, and the chef being so distracted by everything else that he forgot to include half of the butter in the recipe for his tart filling.  I guess the moral is we all have bad days.

So, on to Tuesday and my try at the pear tart.  As I said, pears are not really in season here, so we were making our tarts with canned pears.  I am not personally very fond of canned pears so I did not even taste this cake.  However I think it would have been really good with canned cherries or maybe even canned peaches as a filling.  The dough recipe was for a sweet pastry dough and turned out much nicer than the day before.  The dough was put in a tart ring, filled with a cooked pear/almond/raisin filling and topped, creatively, with meringue.  It was then baked at 160 degrees Celsius until the meringue started to brown.

The pear tart was really pretty and I liked making the swirls of meringue, but I really did not like the taste of the cooked pears and raisins mixed together and would not make this again unless I had to.  While my Gateau Basque was ugly to look at it really was a delicious cake!

My Pear Tart

After our 8:30am tart class we had a 3:30pm demonstration followed by our class dinner.  Each semester halfway thru classes the students are invited to a class dinner at a fancy restaurant somewhere in Paris.  The higher the level the nicer the restaurant.  Basic Pastry and Basic Cuisine were invited to dinner at a Guy Savoy restaurant called L'Atelier Maitre Albert.  There were about 70 students and faculty who gathered for a lovely dinner in a private room at the restaurant in the 5th arrondissement of Paris at 7:30pm.  We began our evening with champagne and several passed hors d'oeuvres.  Our starter was a pumpkin soup with carrots and celery.  I cannot impress upon you how amazing this soup was.  I would study cuisine just to be able to someday recreate this soup.  The fish course was a spit roasted sea bass over green lentils in a red wine sauce followed by a meat course of spit roasted veal shank with spinach and mushroom gratin.  The veal literally fell off the bone it was so tender and left our mouths watering for dessert.

The dessert course was more than disappointing.  After the delicious dinner and several bottles of red and white wine our dessert was pear crumble with caramel ice cream salted butter.  Again, pears are not in season here and I am not a fan of cooked pears anyway so it was a huge letdown.  However, all in all, dinner was a lot of fun and the restaurant's atmosphere was really lovely.  There was a huge fireplace in our private room and the waiters were constantly stoking the fire.  In fact 5 other girls and I had so much fun that we're going out to dinner together somewhere new again this Sunday.  Although our night out wasn't a complete success, I did make a few closer friends and have a great meal!

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!

Day 12: Let It Snow

I've dodged plenty of icy bullets over the years, (i.e. Boston, Buffalo, and CT) but I never imagined that moving to the City of Light would bring me my earliest and coldest winter in recent memory.  While it snowed, and snowed, and snowed last year we still had plenty of sunshine and warm days and none of it started in November.  Much to my dismay when I stepped out of my house on Monday morning, November 29th, I was met with frigid temperatures and snow covering cars, grass, and some sidewalks.  Not okay.  Not having watched TV or read a newspaper in about 5 weeks I'm not sure what it was that led me to wear two pairs of pants that morning, but I'm sure glad I did!  I walked to the metro, went to school, and was all too happy to begin baking my Gateau Basque in practical class.

On Saturday we had our demonstration class on how to make Gateau Basque and since my family was still in Paris my Mom, Dad, and sister, Jex, were able to come observe the class.  They had a great time and it was all we could do to get Dad back on the plane to Dulles on Sunday morning after seeing what I do every day.  He was sold after the first five minutes and is seriously considering signing up for next year's intensive 5 week program to study either Basic Cuisine or Basic Pastry.  I told him if he studies Basic Cuisine maybe I'll join him.

Gateau Basque is a traditional dessert from the Gateau region of France and consists of a cake base with a pastry cream and cherry filling covered with a pie shell.  It is traditionally decorated with two hooked S shapes and it looks like a pie, but tastes more like a cake.  After the demo the chef was very nice to my family and offered them one of the extra cakes he had prepared.  After being told the Gateau Basque is best eaten two or three days after it is made my Mom bought a tupperware container and brought the entire cake back to Virginia.  They had it for dessert on Sunday night about 36 hours after it had been baked.

Chef Cotte's Gateau Basque

Monday morning was my turn to try my hand at Gateau Basque and from the beginning it did NOT go well.  When we go to practical class we have to bring our recipe and any notes we've taken on how to prepare the dish we'll be baking.  My first mistake was leaving the recipe for the dough in my locker.  While this was not a detrimental mistake, as I could share a friend's recipe with her, it made things difficult because I didn't have my own reminders to look at and subsequently ended up with dough that was much too sticky and very hard to work with.

My next task was making pastry cream.  I did have the recipe for that and since it was the same cream we made to fill our eclairs with on Friday it turned out very well once again.  While making my cream, my dough spent about 10 minutes chilling in the refrigerator.  It started to firm up, but not enough.  The dough was still very soft and was therefore pretty difficult to roll out and move into the pan.

As I mentioned, this recipe traditionally contains cherries.  It can be made with whole cherries or chopped cherries or cherry preserves, but for our purposes we were using whole cherries.  This would have been fine, but after I piped in the pastry cream and topped the dessert with cherries I didn't realize I needed to push the cherries all the way into the cream.  So since my dough was so stretchy and sticky when I put the top layer on my pie the dough fell into the mold and looked very bumpy because it had cherries poking through all over the place.  Again, this was a challenging day!

When it was all said and done Chef Bernarde told my three friends and me that he was very pleased with our organization and our ability to work so quickly.  He told me that my cake was still very tasty and that since my mistake had been making the dough too thin, it was something I could easily change for next time and have the perfect Gateau Basque.  While I appreciated his words of encouragement, and my cake was very delicious to eat, I was so disturbed by my first terrible result that I forgot to take a picture of my cake!  Oh well, I'll try to remember next time!

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!