AMERICAN & EUROPEAN PASTRY

August 20, 2013

We are starting American & European Pastry this week with a focus on Puff Pastry.  We scaled and made the dough for the classic, blitz and reverse puff pastry that we will be making this week.

The classic puff pastry dough has 1280 layers of dough and butter and is required to be refrigerated for 24 hours before you can do the final make up of the dough. This allows time for the dough to relax so it will not tear and the butter to cool down so it does not melt in to the dough. Today we locked in the butter and made two book folds with the dough before placing in the refrigerator overnight.

Classic Puff Pastry Dough

The Blitz Puff Pastry is a faster method for making puff pastry dough.  This dough will only require 2 hours of refrigeration before completing the folds and makeup.  This dough is considered a brother to pie dough as it is made much the same way as pie dough.  We made this dough by cutting the butter into the flour and water and mixing by hand.  

Blitz Puff Pastry Dough

It looks like a rough dough at first but after rolling out and folding it looked much the same as the other puff pastry dough.

The final dough made for the day was the Reverse Puff Pastry. This dough is made the same as the Classic but has the butter folded on the outside and the dough in the center.  The butter has 2 oz of flour added to it to dry it up a bit so that it can be worked with on the outside. 

Reverse Puff Pastry Dough

In the end, after rolled out and folding twice it looked very similar to the Classic Puff Pastry dough.  The difference will be that it will be a darker color and will be crispier than Classic when baked. This dough is also required to be refrigerated for 24 hours.

Reverse Puff Pastry Dough

ARTISAN BREADS AND VIENNOISERIE

August 13, 2013

Today was the final day of the practical exam.  We were required to make a Challah bread and a Ciabata bread.  My team scored 10 for 10 on the Ciabata Bread. We baked it longer for a darker color and extra flour for a rustic look the way the Chef likes it.  I would normally have taken it out a bit earlier with a little lighter color on it, less crust, and a little less flour.

Ciabata Bread

We were graded separated only the Challah Bread. I scored 9 out of 10 on the Challah Bread.

Challah Bread

My final score between the two days on the practical was 97.25.  Written final on Thursday and next up is American and European Pastry and Baked Goods.  Yum!

ARTISAN BREADS AND VIENNOISERIE

August 12, 2013

This week is our final week of artisan breads.  We have our practical exam today and tomorrow. Today we were required to make a French Baguette, a decorative bread, and bagels. We were scored as a whole on our bagels and decorative bread and some individual points on the French Baguettes.  

The French Baguettes were scored first. Mine is the one on the very left below. I lost several points on the shaping of my baguette.  I knew that I had not done the shaping exactly right and my cuts needs to be longer across the bread.  I told the Chef what I knew was wrong with the bread so I think knowing my errors was taken into consideration.

Next was the decorative bread.  We were scored on factors such as appearance, color, taste, texture, and crumb on all three items.  We scored all points available for this item.

We also scored all points available on the bagels as well. 

A combination of the scores from today and tomorrow will determine my final practical exam score. I received a ninety-one out of one hundred on today's portion of the exam.

ARTISAN BREADS AND VIENNOISERIE

August 8, 2013

Today was completion and assembly of the decorative wheelbarrow.  We started by painting the parts baked yesterday with a caramel coloring and then baking them until dry. 

We then completed the miniature breads and other decorative pieces and baked them.

Miniature Breads

Decorative Wheat

After the parts were completed, we assembled the wheel barrow and other decorative pieces for inside using a hot glue gun. Again the piece is for decoration not eating.

Once assembly was complete, the decorative pieces were placed in the display window.  

ARTISAN BREADS AND VIENNOISERIE

August 7, 2013

Today we made flat breads and started on our decorative breads project.   Each team was assigned a different flat bread to make.  My team had the Lavosh.  

First a sheet pan was turned upside down and then olive oil and salt was spread over the top. 

The dough was flatten on the table a bit and then placed on the sheet pan and pounded and spread out the rest until just a thin layer.

We topped the dough with different toppings like sesame seeds and Parmesan cheese.  It was then placed in the oven to bake.

The bread came out like a thin cracker.  It tasted good but a bit too much salt was used in the making of all the flat breads.  The Focaccia turned out the best.

The flat breads were placed in the display window with the name and region of origin.

For our decorative breads projects, we were tasked with making a wheelbarrow of bread and filling it with miniature breads. 

We started by making a rye syrup dough which was rye flour and simple syrup. This is not really a dough made to be palatable and turns very hard when baked.  After making the dough and rolling it out, we cut out the shapes needed for the wheel barrow from card stock templates.

The parts were then baked in preparation for finishing and assembly tomorrow. 

ARTISAN BREADS AND VIENNOISERIE

August 6, 2013

This week's focus is flat breads, cinnamon rolls, caramel rolls, and decorative breads.  Today we worked on the cinnamon rolls and caramel rolls.  

Both the cinnamon rolls and the caramel rolls were basically made the same way just different dough and toppings.  The process was pretty simply.

First the dough was rolled out.

Then we spread softened butter on top.

Cinnamon and sugar was spread over the butter. 

Additional cinnamon was sprinkled on top.

The dough was then rolled up into a cylinder.

Then it was cut into sections.

And place in the pan for baking.

Once baked, the cinnamon rolls were topped with a cream cheese glaze. 

The cinnamon rolls were sweet but tasted great.

The caramel rolls were made the same except a different dough was used, the rolls were smaller, and before placing in the pan, a brown sugar, honey, butter paste was spread in the bottom of the pan and nuts added.

After baking, the rolls were then turn out of the pan onto parchment. 

The caramel rolls were very sweet and pretty doughy so not a favorite of the class.

ARTISAN BREADS AND VIENNOISERIE

August 1, 2013

Today we completed the remaining two turns of the croissant dough.  Once that was completed the Chef provided a demonstration of the different ways we could make up the croissant dough.  

The first demonstration was a simple square croissant with chocolate filling.  The dough was cut into squares. 

Chocolate chips were then placed in the center of the dough. 

The dough was then folded over and the seam placed at bottom.

The next demonstration, the Chef used a special cutter to cut the dough into triangle shapes. 

He then demonstrated how to roll a croissant properly. 

Fold the end up

Hold the end and stretch the dough

Roll the dough up pushing both hands outward like you are swimming

He always make things look so easy but it definitely takes practice to get them to roll properly and look like the picture above.  It is also became more difficult once we added fillings to the mix, which included almond paste and pizza sauce, pepperoni and cheese. 

Almond Paste Filling

Almond Croissant

Pizza Filling

Pizza Croissant

The next demonstration was a circle cut out topped with cherry filling. 

Then he used a special tool to cut lattice into the dough. 

The lattice cut dough was placed on top of the cherry filling and separated. 

Then the lattice was cut out with the same cutter used as for the base.

The next demonstrations were some specialty cuts into the dough. 

Braid Cut

Blueberry Filling

Braided Croissant

Fold and cut triangle in dough, then open and twist sides and place on top

Apple and Streusel Topping

Cut half circle in center and fold in half

Cream Cheese and Apricot Filling

The last demonstration was cheese sticks.

Roll out dough, top with Parmesan and fold in half

Cut in strips and top with more Parmesan

Twist each strip 

After demonstrations, we finished making up the croissant, proofed and baked them.  The finished products turned out great.

The group favorite was the pizza croissant but I did not get a chances to try that one.  My favorites of the ones I did try of course were the chocolate croissant and the cherry croissant.  

Chocolate Croissant

Cherry Croissant

Almond Filled Croissant

Pizza Croissant

Apple and Steusel Croissant

Cream Cheese & Apricot Croissant

Blueberry Braids

Cheese Sticks

Pretzel Croissant