Bread Workshop

This is one lesson that I have really been looking forward to. I've wanted to make my own bread for so long. I've dabbled in it a bit on my own, but too often had my bread rise too much or made silly mistakes. My biggest obstacle is a Kitchen-Aid that simply doesn't have the strength to work bread. I almost killed the motor on the last batch I tried. I've been longing for some real formal lessons on bread-making. And finally they arrived. The workshop was very similar to our plated desserts one. We arrived in the kitchen (no demo) and the chef did a run-through on how to prepare the various stages of the bread, then we got to work.

The first recipe was a simple white bread, which we turned into 4 different types of loaves:

Traditional Baguette

Fougasse sprinkled with herbs de provence

Fantaisie Baguette

Epi Baguette (shaped like a wheat stalk)

 The next batch of bread is Viennese bread, which is a white bread with milk powder and butter in it to make the bread a bit richer.

Grape-shaped Viennese bread

Daisy-shaped Viennese bread

Turtle bread

 The last batch of bread for the day was rye bread. I added pistachios to mine and soaked them in red wine first, then used all red wine as the liquid in the recipe. The decorations on top were made using "dead dough", called that because there is no yeast in it.

Loaf shaped with a bread tray and croissants decor

Round loaf with wheat-shaped decor

Crown-shaped

Plated Desserts Workshop

Today we had our plated desserts workshop. It was a bit of a change, as there was no demo preceeding it and we got to work in pairs. Chef H gave us a general run-down at the beginning of class on how to make each recipe and away we went. It wasn't too difficult a workshop. I just find that I am completely hopeless with plated desserts. The pressure builds up and I freeze; no ideas come to mind when it's time to plate everything.

We made two types of creme brulee:

Pistachio creme brulee filled with griotte cherries

Caramel creme brulee

Next came the actual plated desserts:

Craquelin with raspberry coulis and kirsch light cream

Macaron with anis cream and raspberries

Douceur Chocolat & Tresor des Iles

Chef J last class with us was the Douceur Chocolat (a truly divine chocolate cake) and the Tresor des Iles. We only had to make the Douceur in practical class, which I unfortunately missed as I wasn't feeling well. I'll include some pictures of what Chef J made, at least.

The Douceur Chocolat is a hazelnut dacquoise with a layer of praline crisp, covered in milk chocolate mousse with a disc of milk chocolate inside. The whole is glazed in dark chocolate and decorated with white chocolate squares. Unfortunately, the demo was running a bit late so Chef J had to glaze the cake when the glaze was still too warm so a lot of it just fell off the sides.

The Tresor des Iles is a nice tropical cake with layers of chiboust cream and strawberry mousse. Reminds me quite a bit of the Pacific cake.

I thought Chef J's plated Tresor was really cool. A very simple design but beautiful.

Triple Chocolate Bavarian

We seem to have driven all the pastry chefs out of town. Chef H has gone on vacation and now Chef F has left for a contract in Singapore. Thankfully, Chef J toughed it out and agreed to teach us again for the week. The first lesson of the week was the Triple Chocolate Bavarian cake, which is really quite difficult.

Three layers of white, milk and dark chocolate cover a thin layer of sponge cake with dark chocolate glaze on the very top. The trick with this one is that the outside of the cake is left uncovered by the glaze, so you have to be very precise in laying down the layers of cream. They have to be exactly the same thickness. We made a ruler guide to help direct us, but even so I botched the job.

Chef J's Triple Chocolate Bavarian - what it's supposed to look like

Chef J seemed poised to stop by at precisely the wrong moment and I was a mass of jitters. My hands were shaking so badly and I was too timid in pouring the bottom layer of mousse that the bottom layer of sponge was peaking out underneath. The layers are not even close to be the same thickness. And the cherry on top of it all? The glaze all stuck to the top of the ring mold and pulled off when I removed it. It's a chunky looking mess.

My sad mess

Opera

Another installment of Chef F's classes and this one was really fun. It's one of Chef F's favourite cakes and he made sure to instill the golden rules of the Opera cake in all of us. The cake was originally made for the grand opening of the opera house in Paris and is to be no more than 2.5 centimetres high. And EVERY single Opera cake needs to have it's name written on the top in dark chocolate. It's a decadent, rich and dense cake. Layers of almond joconde sponge are soaked in coffee syrup and layered with ganache and coffee buttercream.

We trimmed off the sides of the cake with a heated serrated knife to make sure the edges are pristine. The biggest criticism Chef had for all of us is that we didn't soak the joconde enough. It is to be soaked a meutre (to death), so much so that the colour of the sponge should be coffee. 

We made little individual portions with some of the excess cake and decorated the top. I tried to write "Opera" on those, but my writing was way too big. 

Pacific

The Pacific cake was pretty uneventful. We had a little bit of extra time in practical, so Jess made some bubble sugar with isomalt. It comes out different every time and is so much fun!

Personally, I find the colours of this cake a little too much, but it tastes so bright and fruity. It really is delicious! The outer coloured dough is achieved by colouring and marbling together cigarette paste, then adding a layer of joconde sponge on top. Inside are layers of strawberry and lemon mousse with another layer of joconde sponge. It simply melts in your mouth.

Croquembouche

This week we have one big challenge: the Croquembouche. It's a traditional French wedding cake and is composed of nougatine topped by layers of chocolate cream-filled choux held together by loads of crunchy caramel. Croquembouche translates to "crunch in mouth", and does it ever!

We started with a 5-hour demo from Chef C. He made everything seem so easy; the tower of choux almost made itself. For decoration, he created a beautiful pulled sugar flower and added some royal icing flourishes.

When it came our turn, we discovered just how frustrating this cake can be. You have to work the nougatine base when it is still piping hot and malleable. Half of us were yelping with pain as we worked it.

The choux assembly came without too many hick-ups. While baking, the front choux looked pretty cooked so I got nervous and opened the oven to check the rest of them. Half of them were uncooked and Chef C yelled out to close the door. I think all of us are sufficiently fearful of opening the oven door too soon with choux, for risk of collapsing.

Next issue was the caramel. With Chef H we are used to cooking caramel a little darker, but Chef C likes it lighter. My first batch was way too dark, but I fixed it by cooking the second batch a lot light and combining them to make an even caramel.

I have to say that creating the tower is probably the hardest part of this cake, though. Dipping the tiny choux in caramel brings your fingers dangerously close to piping hot sugar and I'm sure everyone suffered minor burns. We were warned not to angle them inwards too much, so both Jess and I started off slowly. Too slowly, according to Chef C. He insisted that we turn them upside down because we were moving outwards and not inwards. The result is a slightly pregnant-looking Croquembouche - I'd say maybe 2-3 months? It's just starting to show.

I didn't put enough caramel on the top choux, so the top spire started to sag and lean. I covered it overnight and left it on the counter, but it was way too humid that night. When I woke up, the tower had collapsed and was just a mountain of choux. Still tasted pretty good, though.

Birthday Cake

This week has been so busy! That Marquise au Chocolat cake resulted in my having 3 orders for this week alone from co-workers. Unfortunately, I got a little distracted and only photographed the one cake - the other two weren't nearly as pretty, though.

The first one was another Fraisier cake for a birthday. I started off quite well, until I realized that the ring mold I have is not deep enough. To improvise, I filled it almost full with the genoise batter. When it came time to fill it with mousseline cream, I lined the mold with acetate to increase the height. It worked out all right, but when it came time to remove it, the mousseline on the side was rather rough and had to be smoothed several times.

When I covered it with the marzipan, I pressed a little too hard and the strawberries along the sides started to pop out a bit. I guess this explains why you keep it in the mold until it has been fully assembled. It was a bit frustrating - I was pushing the strawberries back in like that "Whack a Mole" game, while having to smooth the mousseline back down every time.

My co-worker's family loves berries, so instead of the customary sprinkling of strawberry pieces inside, I added a thick layer of blueberries and strawberries, just barely covered by the genoise and mousseline.

The second order was not a reproduction of a class cake. I was still in the mood for strawberries so decided to make a sort of strawberry shortcake. I used a simple white cake base and made cupcakes with it. Then I filled each cupcake with stewed strawberries.

Trying to get a little practice in for school, I decided to make a meringue buttercream, which proved to be the most difficult item of the evening. I messed up the first batch of sugar, cooking it to hard ball stage and had to start over again. Then I became very impatient and added the butter when the meringue was still too warm. I nearly cried as I watched my beautiful meringue becoming a soupy mess. Luckily, I was able to save it by chilling it a bit so the butter was able to set. It wasn't as airy as it should have been, though. Next, I added pureed strawberries to the buttercream, which made it rather lumpy but it tasted delicious! I probably should have used strawberry jam, but the bright, fresh flavour of strawberries came through wonderfully with the puree.

The last cake was a repeat of the Delice Caramel from earlier this week. I had so much trouble with that cake, I was really dreading having to make it again. What a good exercise, though. My fear has certainly been reduced. I made the coffee ladyfingers a day in advance, then set to work making the bavarian cream and mousse. I was still working with the short ring mold, but the ladyfingers on the side allowed me to work higher without any trouble. I'm still having a lot of difficulty with glazes - everything I use seems to be full of lumps that I can't get rid of. So to make it look a bit prettier, I drizzled the caramel sauce over the top.