I have run out of puff pastry related puns

Ok, guys, I was too busy to post on Friday, so I’m going to combine two classes into one post. I know you’re just here for the pictures, anyway.

So Thursday night was chocolate puff pastry night. To be honest, I wasn’t crazy about the chocolate puff pastry. To me, it was very dry and brittle, and it tasted a bit bitter to me. That being said, people seemed to love the chocolate napoleons we made.  The filling of the chocolate napoleon, or mille-feuille au chocolat if you prefer, is crème d’or, or “golden cream,” which was whipped cream and dark chocolate…essentially a whipped ganache. Very, very rich. The mille-feuille was topped with ganache and a little melted white chocolate for decoration. This was a very dense, very rich dessert.

The other item we made on Thursday was the Chocolate Banana Tart, which we made individually to plate. We put a layer of ganache on the puff pastry, layered sliced banana on it, and then bruléed sugar over it. Fun stuff. We served homemade peanut butter ice cream on the side. I think my plating needs some work, but the tart was very good.

On Saturday, we worked with classic puff pastry again. We made several items…a Dartois aux Pommes, a classic Napoleon, and “speedy” vol-au-vents, which were not very speedy. The dartois is very similar to the apple tart we made earlier in the unit, although this time we filled it with apple compote, and we covered it with a lattice crust. Keeping the crust cold this time definitely helped me make a nice lattice, as opposed to the pear tart I made which was kind of messy. Anyway, the dartois was good, especially with coffee this morning.

We also made the speedy vol-au-vents, which were almost more complicated than regular vol-au-vents. However, I really like the way these turned out…they look great! While last time, we made a savory filling of spinach and mushrooms, this time we filled them with crème légère and topped with raspberries. Just goes to show you could put just about anything in puff pastry, and it would be great.

Finally, we made the classic napoleon. This is the one everyone thinks of when they think of a napoleon. It is layered with plenty of crème légère and topped with fondant and melted chocolate for decoration. It’s fantastic!

Well, that’s it for puff pastry! Our exam is on Tuesday, so wish me luck. I can’t say I’m sorry to be done with this unit…I think I make it well and all, but it’s really tedious to prepare, and all the stuff we made got a little repetitive. It also doesn’t help that we start Viennoisserie on Thursday, and that’s one of the units I’ve been looking forward to the most. Mmmm, croissants and brioche…drooool.