OK, so I was kidding myself if I thought I'd come home every night after school and type up a blog about what I did that day. On Thursday and Friday nights I go and see people for dinner on my way home and by Saturday night I'm pooped, Sunday is my only day off - something had to give.
Anyway, I'm on holidays now - I've finished Basic Patisserie and am looking forward to Intermediate. What better time to catch up on the blog.
I think I got through week one, so that just leaves weeks 2 - 9.
Week 2
* Finally being able to tie my tie and it looking semi-normal.
* My gorgeous tarte aux fruits - we will make this again later for our final basic exam.
* My first cut in the kitchen, not while chopping anything, but whilst cleaning the knife.
* Biscuits galore (checkerboard cookies, viennese, diamantes).
* Floretines (our first time tempering chocolate - messy uniforms and tables that day).
Week 3
* Choux pastry, choux pastry and choux pastry - we make eclairs for the final exam as well, so we have to nail it.
* We make puffs, eclairs and paris brest.
* Tempering the stupid fondant proves to be much more difficult than tempering the chocolate the week before (trust me, the chocolate should be the hard one!)
* Learning what happens when you don't cook out your pastry cream (first hand).
* Being constantly amazed by how the French manage to sneak that little bit of extra butter in to everything.
* Fun with spun sugar (again, very messy work bench that day).
Week 4
* Puff pastry week. We learn French, English and Scotch (rough) methods. We do a 3/4 puff (1 measure flour:3/4 measure butter) for all three. We learn single and double turns and have very sore forearms from all the rolling.
* We make several savoury things - boeuf bourguignon, vol-au-vent de poulet, salmon en croute.
* Of course, we can't forget the sweet - pithivier and palmiers.
Week 5
* Baked cheesecake, bread and sandwiches.
* Fire alarms + bread making = fun and chaos.
* Knife skills!!! Lots of chopping for the sandwiches and finally I know how to use a knife properly. It has changed my life.
Week 6
* AWESOME WEEK. It's breakfast pastry week and I can barely hide my excitement.
* Croissant and brioche doughs.
* We make many shapes out of the broiche dough (some of the heads pop off my parisiennes, giggles all around and Chef Michael thinking 'the Headless Brioche' is a great name for a patisserie.
* Brioche doughnuts - for those moments when you can't possibly get any more butter into a product, just go ahead and deep fry it.
* Croissants, almond croissants and pain au chocolat - very happy with my final products and had a great family breakfast on the Sunday.
Week 7
* Poached fruits, cointreau jelly, crostoli, red wine poached pear tart, creme brulee, tarte tatin, baked apples.
* Cointreau makes an appearance in one our recipes, since LCB is owned by the Cointreau family, it is to be expected. Cointreau is yum.
* My pear tart rocked - Chef Karen asked for a picture of it to show future students.
* Creme brulee = playing with the blow torch = fun.
* Tarte tatin - one of my very favourite desserts. Caramelised apples and puff pastry. Doesn't get much better.
* Very excited that I still fit into my regular clothing by this point.
Week 8,
* Frangipane pear tart, light fruit cake, steamed puddings, sauce anglaise (that I took home and turned into ice cream), tuille paste, gateau japonaise and more chocolate tempering.
Week 9 - Assessment Week!
* Making ganache and hand made truffles
* Basic Patisserie assessment. 6 hours in the kitchen to produce 10 coffee eclairs and 1 tarte aux fruits. Very happy with my final products.
