The rest of Basic Patisserie

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.

Week One at Le Cordon Bleu - Basic Patisserie

First of all, I get to do this, 3 day a week for the next 9 months. I feel like the luckiest girl alive.

Day One (Plain Scones)

By the time I get there I'm pretty much running on nerves, adrenalin and green tea. It's been an eventful and not always fun last week before the day finally arrives and I haven't been sleeping very well. The two Basic Patisserie classes have some theory first up and we don't have to be in uniform for that.

At the first break, before we go into the demonstration, we have to all get changed. It's chaos in the changeroom, about 20 girls in front of the mirror trying to get our neckties right. No luck for me and I'm a little worried since they seem to drum 'in full uniform' into you from the get go. Luckily, we have the lovely Chef Gert first who gives us a demo on the tie and tells us not to stress, we'll get it soon. Over the next couple of hours we introduce ourselves to Chef and get a demo on how to make scones via the rub-in method (not a drop of lemonade in sight). There are only about 3 of us in the class that have even seen a scone before, let alone eaten one!

At the end of the demo I set my status as class nerd (such a change from the last time I was in school) by helping Chef clean up and asking some questions.

We get another short break and then it's our turn. Chef quietly points out to myself and Wendy (my new friend) the best spot in the kitchen and we grab it. It's the furthest point from the ovens, which may mean more leg work, but it's also about 10 degrees cooler! The next couple of days we were first to the kitchen to make sure we got that spot and I'm pretty sure we've secured it for the rest of the term - if not, I've got an arsenal in my kit to defend it!

So, I'm going to put it down to first day excitement and the scale not cooperating, but I messed up my first batch by not having enough flour. Chef was kind and just told me to chuck them out and start again. Kind of glad I got the messing up out of the way so early, now I know it's not a big deal and it happens to everyone. I nailed my second batch.

We had a lovely chef from France in with us all day just observing and much to my delight he came up to me and asked if he could have one and ate the whole thing.

We also try making paper cornets and piping with some royal icing.

The first day in the kitchen wasn't too scary for us all, was a little chaotic while we found our groove. Wendy and I work well together and we've decided to stick together. I leave beaming with an armful of scones.

My happiness is short lived because after dinner at my mums I manage to turn my uniform grey in the wash. Thankfully they make shit for that and mum and I get the grey back to white. Lucky, cause it's the only uniform I have until we get the rest next week.

Day Two (Fruit Scones, Madeleines & Financiers)

More theory in the morning. Get changed at first break and am somewhat successful with the necktie.

Into our demo with Chef Michael (one of them, there are two Michael's) and then a short break and into the kitchen. I forgot to bring my camera in for this one, which is a shame because I was happy all of the things we did.

Since the day before I've learnt how mise-en-place is my friend and makes everything run much smoother. I'm still weighing up ingredients and preparing tins when some others have just rushed straight in. At the end of the day, probably as a result, Wendy and I are done quite a bit before some of the others and happy with our stuff - my scones could have been a little taller, as I didn't factor in that they won't rise as much as the plain with all the fruit trying to hold them back. Flavourwise, I think the financiers were my favourite that day - made with beurre noisette they have a lovely toasty flavour and are crisp on the outside and soft in the middle.

We all leave with an insane amount of food, half of which I deliver to my mum's and half to Jen's.

Day Three (Genoise Sponge, Gateau Weekend)

No theory today, straight into the demo with Chef Karen and then into the kitchen with Chef Keith.

Today is a little more scary, we're not using any chemical agents to aerate our stuff, we're relying just on air, which is much more unstable!

We make our sponges first, since they need to cool completely before we can fill them. I did knock a little more air than I would have liked out of the batter, but overall I'm pretty happy with them. I think having baked so much before and knowing that some cake batters you want to touch as little as possible made me a little more sure of myself than some others who clearly worked it too much and knocked almost all the air out.

On to Gateau Weekend while our sponges are baking. Did I mention that the chefs like us to do as much by hand at this stage, so we get the feel of things. The day before we creamed a small amount of of butter and sugar by hand with our actual hand. Today we cream much more by hand with a spatula and let me tell you, it isn't easy. There was a lot of whinging (me included!)

Gateau Weekend is pretty much just a pound cake, which we bake in a klugelhopf tin and cover with a lemon glaze - yum. Quite happy with how mine looked, haven't had a taste of it yet (yay, morning tea today with a cup of tea).

We filled our sponges with strawberry jam and cream and dusted with icing sugar.

Mine looked pretty great until the car ride home where the lid and most of the cream slid off. I had a taste when I got home and it was really good - I'm not much of a sponge person and maybe it was because it was so fresh, but it was really light and not too dry. Unfortunately, in terms of structure it was beyond saving, so it went in the bin.

So, that is week one done! I can't believe it's already done - the time in the kitchen flies. I can't wait until next week! I thought I would have baked myself out, but it's Anzac Day today and I'm thinking Anzac bikkies are in order.