AMERICAN & EUROPEAN PASTRY

September 26, 2013

This week was finals week.  We had to make so many things for our practical final, Puff Pastry, Pate a Choux, Spritz Cookies, Pie Dough, Apple Tarts, and a St. Honore.  Due to the number of items required for the final, this was a two day group practical. My group did well except for a little issue with the puff pastry.  We ended with a 91 for the practical final test. 

Next up Contemporary and Classic Cakes.  This is the class I have been waiting for all year long.  I found out today though we will have a different chef teaching this class. I was extremely disappointed to hear this news but the chef that will be teaching the class is the same one that taught the Intro to Culinary class.  He is a pastry chef and was a good teacher so it should be a good class.

AMERICAN & EUROPEAN PASTRY

September 19, 2013

Today we made Rugelach, Linzer, Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal, and Spritz Cookies.  We also made French Macaroons.

The Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal are standard cookies and we had made them in Introduction to Baking class. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal Cookies

For the Rugelach, the dough was rolled out and jam and walnuts spread over the dough. 

The dough was then rolled up, covered with nuts, cut into slices and baked.

For the Lizner Cookies, the dough was made with a hazelnut flour, rolled out, cut into circles, and raspberry jam added to the center. 

The dough was then shaped into to triangles. 

Other groups formed different shapes with the Linzer dough.  These cookies were really tasty!

Triangle Linzer Cookies

Linzer Cookies

The Spritz cookies were another cookie made in Intro to Baking class and are very tasty as well. We made rosettes filled with jam and drizzled with chocolate. 

Spritz Cookies

The last cookie we made was the French Macaroon. This cookie was made on the stove, piped on a silk pad, and then baked. 

Now I have had several different macaroons (generally either the ones like the Coconut Macaroons or ones that were ultra sweet) and I never really understood the big hype surround macaroons until today. I absolutely loved these French Macaroons!

AMERICAN & EUROPEAN PASTRY

September 18, 2013

This week's focus is petit four sec a/k/a cookies. Today we made Hazelnut Biscotti, Coconut Macaroons,  and Checkerboard Cookies.  

Biscotti is baked twice.  After the dough is mixed, it was molded into to a roll and baked the first time.

After baking, it was cut into slices.

As seen below the center is not quite dry and requires a second bake to complete.

After the second baking the centers were dried out.

To finish them off, one end was dipped in dark chocolate.  If made again, I would definitely cut the hazelnuts into small pieces prior to mixing in the dough.

Hazelnut Biscotti

For the Coconut Macaroons, most of the ingredients needed to be heated on the stove first to 130 degrees and then the extracts and zest added before dropping the batter on a sheet pan to bake. 

Once the batter was on the pan, an indent was pressed in the center of the batter and filled with pineapple.  The macaroons were then baked in the oven for about 20 minutes.  

After baking, the macaroons were a nice golden brown.  

Coconut Pineapple Macaroons

Some were drizzled with chocolate and others were dipped in chocolate.  The ones that were dipped in chocolate almost tasted just like a mounds bar.

Coconut Pineapple Macaroons Dipped in Chocolate

The Checkerboard Cookies took a little bit of time and work. First the dough is made, one with chocolate and one without.  One was placed on top of the other.

Then the dough was cut in half and place on top of each other again.

Next the dough was sliced lengthwise in strips.

Each strip was then layered on top of one another alternating the colors.

Once the strips were layered, it was then wrapped in a thin layer of chocolate, the excess cut off and then refrigerated.

As an alternate, the same dough was used to make a Pinwheel Cookie. The process began the same way with placing one dough on top of the other. 

Then the dough was simply rolled up and refrigerated.

Once the dough had been refrigerated long enough, the dough was then be sliced and had a nice clean cut. 

The sliced dough was then rolled in sugar and baked. For the amount of work and time required for these cookies I thought that they would be the best tasting cookies ever but I found them to be just another cookie.

Checkerboard Cookie

Pinwheel Cookie

AMERICAN & EUROPEAN PASTRY

September 12, 2013

Today we focused mainly on pie dough.   We made mini apple pies, apple tarts, mini banana cream pies and blueberry cobbler.

For the apple pie, we created a flaky pie dough (made with hazelnut size chunks of butter).  We rolled out the dough.

We then cut the dough with a cutter and placed it into a small mold.  

A basic apple pie filling was made with cinnamon, sugar, vanilla, lemon and flour.

The pies were filled with the apple filling and either topped with a struesel or lattice pie dough.

For the lattice top, we cut the dough with a fluted pastry cutter.

We created the lattice and then flipped it over on to the pies after brushing with an egg wash.

The apple pies turn out beautiful with a nice golden color.

Mini Apple Pie

For the banana cream pies, the dough was required to be blind baked (baked without a filling).  We cut the dough and placed in molds and then place another mold inside it and turned upside down to bake.

Half way through the baking process, the shells are turned over and the inside mold is removed and the shells are put back in the oven to complete browning and baking. 

After baking was completed and the shells were cooled, they were filled with pastry cream and layer of bananas.

The bananas were then covered with more pastry cream.

The cream was then topped with a Creme Chantilly. 

The pie was then finished with chocolate shavings and powdered sugar. 

Mini Banana Cream Pie

For the apple tart, we used left over sweet dough from yesterday to create the crust.  The dough was placed in a ring mold, a layer of pastry cream was added and then apples were arranged on top. 

Once the apples were fanned out, the tart was baked.

Even though Banana Cream Pie is one of my favorite pies, the Apple Tart was my favorite dessert made today. 

We also made a blueberry cobbler. Cobblers are generally made with leftover fruits, but we made this cobbler with frozen blueberries. 

It was really quick to mix up and put together and top with stuessel but the baking took over an hour to complete. We did not get a chance to taste the cobbler or take home due to the baking time frame.