Lemon Tarts and Pate au Choux....Gesundheit!

Pretty Little Swans

Tonight in B&P we got a visit from Amy who works in the Career Services Department of CCA, and she came today to talk to us about our upcoming externships. There wasn't any new information, but it was a nice reminder that I really need to figure out what I am going to do. After the visit from Amy, we got a nice demo from Chef Richard on the makings of Creme Chantilly and a chocolate glaze he named 4-2-1 Glaze. Then he showed us how to put together Creme Puffs, Eclairs, Paris Breasts, and those fancy little Swans. And then we all got to work!

Eclairs

We had already baked our Pate au Choux dough last night, and made our Vanilla Pastry Creme, so those were all ready to go. The Pate au Choux dough is different in that it is a hot dough. So you actually mix the ingredients over heat in order to sort of cook out some of that flour flavor, and this is the dough we used to make our creme puffs, eclairs, Paris breasts and swans...

Profiteroles

We then quickly whipped together our creme chantilly, and got to work on cutting and poking holes in  the profiteroles and eclairs and swans, then filled them with pastry creme, topped them with creme chantilly, and dipped some in chocolate. It was tedious work, but kind of right up my alley! These are the parts I enjoy most about baking, the finishing touches and making all our hard work look beautiful. My eclairs turned out on the thin side, so by the time I filled them with pastry creme, then went to top them with a big cloud of creme chantilly, they were wanting to fall over. Well, some of them did! So I struggled a little with that, but I wasn't the only one... I kept hearing one of my classmates saying "man down!". Ha! 


I put together my pretty little swans last, I kept checking other swans to make sure that I put the wings on the correct way, because I didn't want "angry swans"! And I must say, they sure are pretty! 

Paris Breast

Lemon Curd Tart with Swiss Meringue

Once I was finally done, (this basically took us about 2 hours I think), I put all my work on one sheet pan as chef instructed, and carefully walked my tray over to be graded. We were also graded on our Lemon Curd Tarts with the Swiss Meringue from the other night. And as we are winding down on our third week of B&P, chef gave us each individually a little overview of how we are doing thus far. He had all good things to say, that I "do nice work", and while not everything has been perfect, such as the piping work on my lemon tart, he could still sell that in a bakery, and that this is just my first time ever making any of this, so he is really grading on technique. It all makes sense to me, and I agreed. It was nice to hear and makes me feel good in that I am on the right path.