The Boy Who Played With Fire 2: Blowtorch Boogaloo

And we’re off! The first day after finishing all the sanitation junk is FINALLY upon us, and it was so much more relaxed than before. Today was a big learning day in class, as we began studying about one of the most fundamental parts of French pastry: meringue. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

Our first activity this class was making candied lemon peel. It was fun! We learned how to peel the lemon and remove the pith (the white, bitter part between the peel and the fruit). It was almost like fileting a fish, actually. Then, we learned how to properly julienne the peel into strips, which we then simmered in a simple syrup. The end result was really sweet and, well, candy-like! We used them later in class to decorate our lemon tarts.

Next we began our lesson on meringues. While a meringue is simply egg whites whipped into a foam with sugar, it turns out that there are 3 different types of meringue, each with its own function. In this class, we made both French and Swiss styles. French meringue is just simply cold egg white whipped with sugar. It is something that then gets folded into other things which will then be baked, such as today’s tarte aux noix (nut tart). We also made Swiss meringue, where you whip egg white and sugar over heat to cook the egg white, killing bacteria and making it safe to eat without further cooking.  We used this type of meringue later in class to decorate our lemon tarts.

From there, we went into making out nut tarts. We made a second kind of almond cream, this time with almond flour taking the place of almond paste. The almond flour lends a milder, nuttier flavor than the paste, which is made out of almond extract and sugar. We put a thin layer of jam at the bottom of the tart shell and added our filling, almond and hazelnut flour folded with French meringue to lighten it, and baked it off. It came out almost cake-like, although it was still in the pâte sucrée shell. A dusting of powdered sugar with a stenciled pattern, and voilà!

Not too shabby, eh? I could have been neater with the stencil, but we were rushing to get them done. So, yeah, next time I have to be more careful and take my time. Stop judging me like that!

We then made our lemon tartlets, using the lemon curd made in the previous class. After filling our blind-baked tartlet shells with lemon curd, we made a Swiss meringue and learned to pipe different patterns.

Then came the funnest part…blowtorches. As anyone who has seen a lemon meringue pie knows, it’s not any good unless the meringue is bruléed a bit, so of course, we had to do that to ours. Fun with fire! We took a blowtorch to those suckers and got them good and brown.  Oooh boy!

Well that’s it, I guess. I’m looking forward to next class where we’re making Bavarian cream and chocolate ganache!! I’m sure Adam’s office and/or Todd will get to enjoy most of it.

"Clafoutis" Is A Fun Word To Say

Phew...well, we're finally done with the sanitation lectures! The exam is over, and now we just await the results.

Ok, so, today was a pretty fun day, aside from the test. We rolled our pâte sucrée dough, so that we could chill it for our clafoutis. Clah-Foo-Tee. Yes, I like saying “clafoutis.”

Next up, we made Spritz cookies. These are very traditional cookies that you see in bakeries everywhere. Ours were made with almond paste and a ton of butter. We piped them into rosettes, which was actually pretty difficult. Chef Joseph tried to show me the proper way, but I don’t think I really got it. I guess I better practice, eh? Despite the piping problems, we filled the centers with raspberry jam (blech!) and popped them into the oven. I guess they didn’t look too bad in the end, but they’re far from perfect. They tasted good, though, despite the aforementioned raspberry.

At the same time that we were making our cookies, we made more pâte brisée, but this time we made them in an industrial food processor. Seriously, you guys, it took about 45 seconds. Amazing! Now that I know I can make brisée that easily, I might just keep a few batches in the freezer just to have on hand! Who wants onion tart?! Everyone wants onion tart, that’s who.

Next we moved on to filling our blind-baked tart shells for the clafoutis. A couple things for you, since some of you have told me that you don’t necessarily understand all the terms I’m using.

·         Blind baking is when you bake a tart shell with no filling. You would use this method if you’re making a tart that doesn’t get baked, such as banana cream or fresh fruit tarts. Alternatively, you would blind bake a tart shell if the filling would otherwise cook more quickly than the shell, as in the custard in clafoutis or quiche.

·         Clafoutis is a traditional dessert from the Limousin region of France. It is traditionally made with cherries with the pits still intact. Wacky Frenchies and their choking hazards...amirite?

Anyway, we made our custard, poured them over the cherries (we used pitted cherries, of course), and popped them in the oven.  Mine came out ok, but the crust came out a little uneven. I do demand perfection, you know. We had some of Chef Cynthia’s, and it was delicious. I haven’t tried mine yet, but it seems like it has to be good.

Our final project of the evening, before our clean-up, was to make our first stirred custard, Lemon Curd. Basically, you combine milk, cream, butter, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, lemon zest, and of course, eggs, and put it over a double boiler to thicken. As with pastry cream, you have to whisk like a madman to ensure that everything incorporates evenly. It is very delicate, as it can overcook very easily, which is gross. Ours came out pretty well, I think. We’ll see the final product on Saturday, though, when we make our lemon tartlets.

Clafoutis. That is all.

It's Not A Cookie, It's A Fruit Newton

So today was a pretty good day! After having been behind since day 1, we finally caught ourselves up to the curriculum, thanks in part to a substitute chefessor named Chef Jae.

After a final review of Sanitation with Chef Tim, we worked in teams to make our tarte à l’oignon and our fig newtons. I worked on the tart, slicing the onions, and then cooking them very slowly over low heat to caramelize them. It took forever, but I think they came out really well! In the meantime, my teammate Sara worked on the filling for the newtons. She cooked them until they were tender over low heat with some sugar, water, and a splash of brandy. What could be bad, right?

After dinner (really good roasted chicken with spinach and pasta), we worked on assembling our fig newtons and our onion tarts. The fig newtons were definitely tricky, as the dough was a bit sticky and prone to breaking, but in the end we all had pretty even rectangles to work with. After filling them with the fig mixture, we  gently rolled them into logs. A quick stint in the oven, and voilà!

These are definitely better than the Nabisco newtons! The filling is so flavorful, and the crust just melts in your mouth. Yum!

Next, we put our tarts together. These were being made to look very rustic, so we didn’t use tart rings. Instead, after filling the center with onion, we carefully folded the ends of the dough over the tart to create a little package. A few slices of tomato, some crumbled bleu cheese and walnuts, and we were done!

The tart was so good. The onions were caramelized really well, and the cheese added just a little bite.

All in all, a good class! I felt good that we’ve caught up with where we’re supposed to be, so that we don’t have to rush, and as usual, I can’t wait for next class!

The Boy Who Played With Fire

Ok, everyone, so I'm just going to cut to the chase. We got to flambé apples tonight, and it was awesome! I mean, sure, my apples got a little burnt, but come on! Fun with fire! And I still have my eyebrows!

Ok, ok, I've calmed down a bit. On to last night’s lesson. I guess what I can say is that we played a little catch up. We didn’t necessarily learn that much that was new, but we did get to reinforce some of the skills we’ve learned, such as making dough, pastry cream, and the like. It felt pretty good to accomplish all that!

Anyway, as soon as we got into class, we baked off our tartes bourdaloues. It’s a tart made with poached pears and almond cream. What do you think?

Second, and most important, we had to make another batch of my nemesis, pâte brisée, and I have to say, it came together pretty well! Only two weeks into my program, and I’m already starting to see some improvement. Huzzah!

After that, we quickly put together our Viennese Vanilla Crescents, a very simple cookie made with hazelnut flour. We baked them, as well as the gingersnap dough we made last week, and we portioned the cookies out into similarly sized pieces, which we then quickly baked.

However, before we broke for dinner, we put together our second tart of the evening, a baked fruit and custard tart. We made ours with apricots, and it was delicious! It looks a little burnt in this picture for some reason, but I swear it's not.

After dinner, we got down to business and started assembling our tarte alsacienne, a tart made with cuastard and flambéed apples.  We were given instruction on how to sauté the apples, being gentle with them so they held their shape, caramelized some sugar, and added the brandy, which quickly burst into flames. Ah, good times. Apparently, not only does flambé-ing burn off the alcohol, but it also enhances the flavor of it. The more you know (cue shooting star graphic).

Anyway, it was a pretty busy night. We got a lot accomplished, but the highlight is seeing some improvement. Not only did my dough come together pretty well, I also noticed that my tarts are shaped more evenly in the tart rings. My crust on both tarts didn't have a jagged edge; they actually look pretty!

Pâte Brisée: The Dough Of Broken Dreams...and Tarts

Tuesday was an interesting day…we had our first substitute teacher, which was a bit jarring. Having just started, we were just beginning to settle into a routine, so having a new instructor, with her own style and ways of doing things, came as a bit of a surprise to all of us. Such is life, I guess. Anyway, after starting class with delicious, freshly-baked bread and cheese, courtesy of the folks in the Art of International Bread Making course, we got straight to work. It was our first day where we got to bake from start of class to finish, and boy, was it fun, tiring, productive, and a bit frustrating.

We rolled our pâte brisée, my old nemesis, for two tarts—tarte bourdaloue and tarte aux fruits frais. It took a bit of fighting from me, and many of the other students, but I finally got my tart ring lined and ready to go. As they say, you don't get a second chance with brisée. For the bourdaloue, we learned to poach pears, which smelled amazing, and then we made the almond cream base for the tart. After it all cooled, we assembled the tart and put it away to be baked on Thursday. I can’t wait to try it!

Then, we made our first baked custard, a chocolate pot de crème. Pot de crème is fairly easy to make, but the difficult part lies in the baking. Baked custards are very delicate, and must be cooked  on a very low temperature, to ensure that the custard is baked evenly and does not curdle. We’ll get to try them with our dinner on Thursday!

Finally, we assembled our fresh fruit tarts. We had already blind-baked the crust, so all we had to do was make the crème legère, slice the fruits, and arrange them neatly on top. I think mine came out ok, all things considered. The pâte brisée was very brittle and flaky, and while mine survived intact, several of my classmates’ shells shattered. Not fun. Also, given that this was my first try at supreming oranges, I think that came out pretty well. '

All in all, the night was a bit frustrating, but that’s what happens when you’re just beginning to learn something new. This really does all come down to practice, practice, practice, and I can already see that I'll be using these new skills in everything we do.

Whisking Is Fundamental

Well, today was really great! Even the sanitation lecture was halfway interesting! But really, what it comes down to is that we made real progress and got the opportunity to make several fundamental pastry components: crème pâtissière, crème fouettée, crème legère, and crème Chantilly. And the best part is that we finally were able to taste our creations! I came home with both the apple tart and a banana cream tart, which were both delicious.

We started the day by quickly rolling out our pâte sucrée, so that it had time to rest and so we could get started right away after our sanitation lecture.

Oh! Here are two slightly interesting facts about the sanitation lecture that I found interesting. The first is that it’s ok to slightly under cook pork; Trichinosis is so rare these days that eating pork that is slightly pink on the inside is perfectly fine, although you really should cook it all the way through. The second is that eggs only need to be cooked to 145° F, but at that temperature, the egg is still completely liquid. So, it’s perfectly fine to have a runny egg, as any potential salmonella threat has been killed.

Ok, anyway, once that lecture was over, we got down to business. Our chef instructors had already baked our apple tarts and removed them from the oven, so all we had to do to finish them was to brush on an apricot “nappage” to give them the proper glazed look. Here’s a picture of the fully baked tart:

With that taken care of, we were able to get started on learning the crème pâtissière, the basic pastry cream necessary for so many French pastries, such as éclairs and napoleons. Making the pastry cream was the first of many whisking activities for the day, and let me tell you, vigorously whisking a thickening custard for 5+ minutes is no easy task, but our finished product came out smooth and the perfect consistency. It also smelled delicious!

As we let the custard cool in the refrigerator, we then got to making gingersnap cookie dough. As far as the class goes, making the cookie dough was kind of a throwaway; it was pretty straight forward and almost seemed like a time-killer until our pastry creams had cooled.

So, after lunch (oh yes, the culinary students cook a “family meal” for everyone each day), we began assembling our tartes aux bananes et crème. We hand whipped heavy cream to a stiff peak (yes, this class provides easy fodder for double entendres), gently folded it into the crème pâtissière to lighten it, making a crème legère, and then folded fresh bananas, to make the banana cream. We then spread it into our blind-baked pâte sucrée, and spread another layer of hand-whipped crème Chantilly (just whipped cream, sweetened with powdered sugar and vanilla extract). Finally, and this was definitely the highlight of everyone’s day, Chef Cynthia instructed us on the proper way to pipe crème Chantilly rosettes onto our tarts. So yes, by our third day of class, we are already making custards and learning proper techniques for whisking, tempering eggs, and using a pastry bag to pipe decorations.

And here’s the finished result, topped with shaved gianduja (milk chocolate mixed with hazelnut cream)!

Not bad for a first time, right? I’m sure that after a few hundred of these, I’ll be a pro!

All in all, I think that was a productive and fun class. I can’t believe how much I’m already learning, and I can’t wait to continue learning these basic building blocks of classic French pastry.

Day 2: Movin' Right Along

So last night was a bit slow, at first. We've begun the first of three lectures regarding proper food handling, leading up to our first test to get our food handlers license. What can I say about it except that we should remember to wash our hands often and that you probably shouldn't eat raw oysters the night before a big vacation (there was much anecdotal information given by the chef instructor). Fortunately, we only have two more classes that involve sanitation, so hopefully the pace of class will pick up after that.

Unfortunately, because of the sanitation lectures, we seem to be a bit behind schedule. We still haven't finished our apple tarts, and we didn't get to make pastry cream, either. Chef Cynthia is unconcerned and assures us that we will easily cover everything by the end of the tarts and cookies unit.

On to the fun stuff! I actually made pâte brisée last night! I've had so much trouble with it in the past, but last night, we made it the traditional, French way. It was a bit time consuming, yes, but it was also a great learning experience. For those of you who don't know, pâte brisée is a traditional tart dough, but you'd probably recognize it best as that tender, flaky crust that we associate with most American pies. It is an extremely temperamental dough. You can't work it too much or add too much water, or your dough will form too much gluten and become tough. If you add too little water, however, your dough will be too dry and brittle to roll out properly. Well, I think mine came out pretty well, although we'll see when we finally roll it out. A little lesson: all pastry doughs should be made at least a day ahead of time and put into the refrigerator, to give it time for the gluten to relax. Also, cold dough is MUCH easier to roll out than warm dough.

So that's what we did in our second class. In our next class, we'll be having another lesson on sanitation, finally putting our tarte aux pommes into the oven, and making a banana cream tart! I can't wait.

Oh, just to whet your appetite, here's a picture of my apple tart, just waiting to be baked to a perfect golden brown.

First Day of School: Don't Be Tart-y For The Party

Well ok...THAT just happened! I just finished my first full night of class, and I'm feeling so many things right now--excited, overwhelmed, nervous...but mostly just plain tired!! We did so much in class, from going over more rules, to getting our supplies, to actual baking, and time just flew by in a whirlwind of activity.
Ok, first things first. I got to meet Ferran Adrià, aka "the world's greatest chef," who was signing copies of his book in the school's library. The mood at the school was palpable; all the culinary students were dorking out over his being there, and I'm honored to have been able to be there. All in all, not a bad opening to my culinary school experience, eh? I was even able to get a copy of his book signed for my friend, Diane! Hope she likes it.
Now on to the main event. After gathering in the lobby with the rest of my class, we were shown to our lockers to change. Because the chef's uniform is meant to convey a sense of cleanliness, it is considered unprofessional and unsanitary to wear the uniform outside of the kitchen environment, let alone on a disease-ridden subway, and so we will have to change into our clothes before class starts. Anyway, we made our way to the Pastry 1 kitchen, which will be our home for the first half of the course, where we were greeted by our new chef instructors (or as I call them, chef-essors, but I think I'm the only one who thinks that's clever), Chef Cynthia and Chef Joseph. After introductions, we get down to business, and go over the many rules and regulations that guarantee a safe and orderly kitchen environment. Sheesh, it's almost like there are dangerous stuff in the classroom, like knives and open flames!
But then! THEN!!! One of the moments we've all been waiting for! They start passing out our textbooks and our tool kits (hehe...tool kits)! A little back story on the textbook...ever since I started looking at the French Culinary Institute, I have been raving and drooling over their award-winning textbook. It's just amazing, and the pictures in it are total food porn. I mean, this is the cover!

It's essentially a coffee table book, and we won't be using it in class, as we've also been giving a photocopied version to make notes on, but I'm so excited to have a real copy.
Then, we moved on to the toolkit. Now, I knew the Culinary Arts students got a knife kit, full of all the different knives they might need in their kitchen, but I really had no idea what to expect in the Pastry kit. Well, turns out it's got everything you could imagine: knives, spatulas and scrapers, whisks, thermometers, a silpat, you name it! It was like Christmas, but instead of celebrating the birth of a deity, we were celebrating something cool!

Once we had our tools in place, there was only one thing to do...start baking! We actually got to start on our first dessert, a traditional tarte aux pommes, or apple tart. We started by learning the theory behind making tart dough...about gluten production, leavening, what the sugar does when introduced to the fat, etc, and it was all really interesting. Then, we got to make our own pâte sucrée, or sweet dough. Once the raw dough was assembled and put in the refrigerator to rest, we began making the apple compote. We learned a few knife skills, like the proper way to hold a knife and the proper way to dice an apple, and then we were set to work. I have to say, considering how flustered we all were being in a new kitchen and embarking on a whole new adventure, I think we all did really well! We'll see just how well it was on Thursday, when we finish the tart (that's what she said?).
All in all, it was a great night. It was so exciting to begin this new chapter of my life, and even though I'm absolutely exhausted, I can't wait to go back on Thursday to finish my tart and begin making pâte brisée and crème pâtissière.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go admire my toolkit (giggle, giggle).

**Don't forget to check out my friend Summer's blog, detailing her adventures as a "curd nerd," interning at the cheese mecca, Artisanal!

More Disoriented Than Oriented

Well hello! Welcome to my blog. Do you like it? It's very dramatic. For those of you just tuning in, I'm Brett. In May 2010, my banking job was relocated to Jacksonville, FL, and while I was scared at the prospect of being unemployed, something in the back of my mind told me that this situation was going to turn out for the best, and that my dream job was just around the corner. Overly positive? Perhaps, but since negative thinking would probably have led to a complete emotional meltdown, I went with it. After several months of unenthusiastically looking for other banking jobs, however, it became clear that:

a) banking jobs in New York that are also interesting are hard to come by these days and

b) I really just didn't want to go back to an industry where I never felt at home.

So, after much hemming and hawing and many sleepless nights, I gave a hearty "damn the Man" and enrolled in culinary school for pastry. I figured that if other people can do it, why can't I?! Damn skippy!

So here I sit, having just returned from my orientation session (classes start Tuesday!), and my head is spinning...in a good way! There's not a whole lot to report--mostly rules and regulations, paperwork, ID photo-taking, etc, but there was a TON of information to absorb, and it was great to get to meet many of my new classmates over wine and delicious pastries. Also, not only did we receive our textbooks and uniforms (check out my picture...ain't it fancy?!), but we've already been assigned several chapters to read for homework, including studying up on recipes for our first creation--a traditional tarte aux pommes with apple compote.

I cannot freaking wait!

So that's about it. I'm hoping to keep up with this little journal throughout the duration of the 9 month course. It seems that a lot of people are interested in hearing about it, and I'll try to be as detailed as possible and post as many pictures as I can.

Hope you enjoy it!