After reading other blog posts by former students and watching the demo, I knew this was going to be a right pain to make. Chef H was moving throughout the entire demo and only barely finished within the 2 1/2 hour deadline. What hope did novices like us have of finishing on time?
We entered the practical kitchen on THE hottest day of the summer. +40 C degrees, but I think I would have been sweating just from the stress of this cake. It doesn't look that fancy but it really is quite a process to make everything.
The number one difficult thing to make is the puff pastry. We started off by making our dough from scratch and then exchanged it for a detrempe made by the chef earlier, which had rested for the necessary amount of time. Then you layer it with a massive square of butter, rolling and turning. Then let it rest. Then turn it again. Then let it rest again. And so on until you've turned it at least 5 times; more if you're REALLY good. I wasn't. I had a hard enough time just getting in the minimum 5 turns during the time period. See, you're supposed to let it rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes between turns otherwise it becomes too soft and elastic and the perfect layers that make it puff pastry are ruined.
To keep you really on your toes, you need to complete a recipe or task in between each turn of your puff pastry. The praline crisp, whipped cream and pastry cream were a cinch - the only battle was squeezing in to the ingredient area, where all the other 10 students were on top of one another. And of all days, I tempered my chocolate without a hitch! Perfect on the first try.
What really put the wrinkle in my day was the caramelized hazelnuts. The caramel started off beautifully. I got it done right on schedule and it was exactly like the chef had made. Then I made a HUGE error in judgment when I picked my spatula. Rookie mistake. I used a spatula that wasn't heat-proof in over 160 degree sugar. It melted right into my caramel. I felt so ridiculous telling Chef H what had happened. Luckily Jess had some leftover and I just reheated and used that, but lost valuable time in the process.
It was a rush to make the final turn of my dough and in the end I had to sacrifice the last few minutes of baking time to finish assembling the cake. Not quite GBD (Golden Brown Delicious)* but passable. The assembly wasn't too arduous, but I still finished a good 5-7 minutes late. Major points deducted if this were the exam. Chef H was rather easy on his critique, but this is definitely going to be my open lab recipe. I just need to pick up a good spatula beforehand!
*On a minor aside, I had thought that this little saying was something that only Chef H says. But I heard the term used by a Cordon Bleu teacher in the States on an episode of Eat Street this morning. Made me giggle and feel like part of the hip GBD crowd. Finally, a clique I can relate to!
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