AMERICAN & EUROPEAN PASTRY

August 29, 2013

Today was our final day of working with pate a choux.  We broke off into teams of two and made mini desserts.  My team was assigned Swans.  

Some of the other mini desserts were eclairs, baskets, split cream puffs and mice. 

Mini Eclairs

Baskets

Cream Puffs

Mice

We also complete Napoleons, which we started on last week with our puff pastry.  We cut puff pastry into three strips and layered with vanilla and chocolate pastry cream.

 

It was then topped with white pastry fondant.

Along with colored stripes of pastry fondant.

A knife was then dragged through for design.

A crumb coat was added to the sides and cut into individual pieces.

The tops were decorated with whipped cream and chocolate.

AMERICAN & EUROPEAN PASTRY

August 28, 2013

Continuing on with Pate a Choux, we made Croquembouche and St. Honore. 

Croquembouche is basically a pyramid of cream puffs held together by caramelized sugar.  It is a French tradition for Christmas and weddings.  We started by making the cream puffs.

Once the cream puffs were baked we filled them with pastry cream.

We made the caramel.

Then we had all the components to begin assembly and started by layers the cream puffs in a circle on a plate gluing them together with the caramel. 

We continued to layer them them into a pyramid shape.

Once the pyramid of cream puff was complete, we added strawberries to the outside along with some pulled sugar.

After completion of the Croquembouche we moved on to the make up of the St. Honore.  The St. Honore is a classic French dessert made up of puff pastry, pate a choux and pastry cream.

We started by cutting puff pastry into circles and docking the dough. 

Pate a Choux was then piped in rings on top of the puff pastry.

After baking, raspberry jam was piping in the rings.  

Cream puffs were secured to the top with caramelized sugar. 

Diplomat cream was piped in between the cream puffs with a special St. Honore tip. 

Chocolate shavings were placed on top.

 Then powdered sugar was sprinkled on top.

We had a tasting and the St. Honore was good but the raspberry jam was not that great in the dessert. Traditionally chiboust cream (pastry cream mixed with meringue) is place in the rings but the Chef indicated he does not care for it made that way.  I will have try making this dessert at home with some different creams and see if I can come up with a better result.

AMERICAN & EUROPEAN PASTRY

August 27, 2013

This week is all about Pate a Choux.  Today we made eclairs. We started by making our own batch of Pate a Choux. 

We piped the Pate a Choux out for a dozen eclairs and baked.

Each person made a different filling, glaze, and decoration for their eclairs.  Mine was a simple vanilla pastry cream filling topped with a chocolate glaze, Chantilly cream, and glazed strawberries.

Some eclairs from each person were put on display in the window. They tasted wonderful.

AMERICAN & EUROPEAN PASTRY

August 22, 2013

We completed make up and baking of all the puff pastries.

We started with the Fruit Strip. 

After baked and cooled, we pressed the center down and added pastry cream we had made.

The fruit was cut and arrange on top of the cream.

The fruit and the top of the tart was then covered with a glaze. 

Fruit Strip

After the apple turnovers were egg washed and scored with a design on top, they were baked. After baking was complete a pastry fondant was brush on top. 

Apple Turnovers

Chantilly cream was whipped up and the cream horns that were baked were filled.

We had made up some puff pastry with sugar rolled in and specially folded.  After baking, they were dipped in chocolate. 

Palmier

  
We also made an Apple Tartin. We first cut up apples into equal sized pieces. We rolled out and cut the dough to the size of a saute pan.

Next we made a caramel sauce with cream, brown sugar and cinnamon and saute the apples in it on the stove.

The apples were then arrange neatly in the pan. 

The puff pastry dough was placed over the apples and tucked in and then the saute pan was placed in the oven to bake. 

After baking, a plate was placed on top of the saute pan and turned over on to the plate.

The Apple Tartin was by far my favorite puff pastry dish made in class. It tasted like an apple pie with a beautiful crust underneath.

The puff pastry products were put on display in the window.

AMERICAN & EUROPEAN PASTRY

August 21, 2013

We started make up of the Classic Pastry Puff.  We were provide some basic information on seven different items for make up. Three were demonstrated today, the classic turnover, the fruit strip and the cream horns.  Once demonstration was complete, we made up the three items with our classic puff pastry dough.

The classic turnover was made by cutting large circles from the rolled out dough.

The circles were then rolled into an oval shape.

Almond filling was placed to one side of the center.

Sliced apples were fanned on top of the almond filling.

Cinnamon and sugar was sprinkled on top of the apples. 

An egg wash was brushed on the bottom edge to seal the dough.

The dough was folded in half and pressed down slightly on the egg wash.

The dough was then "turned over."

It was then placed on a sheet pan and given an egg wash. 

These were placed in the freezer (so the apple does not seep out) for final egg wash and bake tomorrow.

The next item made was the Fruit Strip.  The dough was cut into two large strips.

One strip was egg washed. 

The second strip was cut into six smaller strips.

Three of the strips were braided at a time.

The two braids were then placed on top of the larger egg washed strip.

The center was docked (holes placed in it) so it will not rise too much through the center when baked.

The edges were cut and the braids egg washed.

 The fruit strip was place in the refrigerator for final make up tomorrow.

The final item made up today was the cream horn. A strip of dough was egg washed

It was then cut into strips.

The strips were then wrapped around a horn, egg washed, and sprinkled with sugar.

The cream horns were placed in the refrigerator with the fruit strip for final make up tomorrow.