Time sure has gotten away from me since Friday night. I know it's a couple days past Saturday, but I had a super busy past few days, and just haven't had a moment to sit down and get to writing about last week! But rest assured, here it is! (Albeit a few days late).
On Monday night we had our practical for the tarts and pies unit, which was sad, because that meant no more tarts and pies, but was exciting because we were moving into pate a choux! The exam was a lot longer than our last one, we started at 6:15 (this was after our 15 minute written test), and other than our half hour break for dinner at 8:30, grading didn't start until 10! It was a really hectic night, so I wasn't able to get around to snapping a picture until I was finished (more than half an hour early, though!). I made two mini quiche lorraines and a mixed nut tart. We had to present our completed large tart, cut into 10 equal slices, one of those slices on a plate with two rosettes of chantilly, and then our two mini quiches, like so.
My final presentation for the Tarts & Pies unit
I received really good reviews from Chef Jeanne, which I was happy about. I was pretty nervous for this exam, just because the caliber of this exam versus the last one was so much different, but it all turned out just fine. When I got my grades back, I received either perfect or near perfect scores on each section (there were 3), so I couldn't have been happier! While I was a little bummed that this unit was coming to a close, looking back on all of the things that we accomplished in 10 days was incredible!
All the tarts & pies we made!
On Wednesday, moving into pate a choux, the first thing that we did, other than making the dough itself, was make eclairs! Pate a choux dough is so strange, I think. It's not the same every time you make it. The main difference being the number of eggs you use. The first time my partner and i made it, we used 7 eggs, the second time, 8, when I've made it at home, I've used 6. It really seems sort of random, but you're looking more for a texture rather than an exact number.
You make pate a choux with a combination of stove top and mixer. You first cook the dough on the stove, and then once it gets to the right texture, you plop (literally) it into the bowl of a mixer and just beat it. This is for two things: one, to cool it off, and two, to add the eggs. We piped 4" eclairs, which seemed like a really huge amount of eclairs, but for some reason once they were baked and even bigger, it felt like less. Weird, right? Maybe that's just me.
Piped eclairs
Scored eclairs
After we piped them, we had to egg wash them, then drag a fork through in order to score them. It's the same way that you score bread when you bake it. Since pate a choux is a dough that's meant to expand quite a bit, it is going to crack. By scoring it, were just giving it the opportunity to crack a little bit nicer than it normally would if we didn't score.
While the eclairs were in the oven, we made the three different fillings for our eclairs: vanilla, coffee, and chocolate. Once the fillings were made, and our eclairs were out of the oven and cooled, it was time to assemble them! The first thing that we did was use a really small star piping tip to drill two little holes in the bottom of the eclair.
Yummy eclair fillings 😋
Eclairs are ready to be filled!
After they all had little holes, it was time to start filling them. As expected, you just stick the piping bag of filling into the little holes, and squeeze it until filling comes out the other side. You definitely want to make sure you have full eclairs, because otherwise, you'll just be biting into pate a choux dough, which no one wants. Once they were filled, we had to dip them. The top of the eclairs should be indicative of what's on the inside, so vanilla should be glazed, chocolate should be chocolate, and coffee should be a coffee glaze.These were really pretty after they were done, and man were they tasty! I don't usually like eclairs unless they're filled with straight up whipped cream, but these were delicious!
Vanilla, coffee, and chocolate eclairs!
On Friday night, we made three more types of pate a choux pastries: choquettes, choux aux craquelin, and a Paris-Breast. The choquettes and choux aux craquelin were both pretty easy to make, and at the most basic level, were just cream puffs. The choquettes were rolled in pearlized sugar, then baked, then filled with whipped cream in the same method that the eclairs were. The choux aux craquelin were topped with these little colorful circles that were made of almost a shortbread cookie type dough (which we made on Wednesday), then baked, cut in half, and filled with whipped cream.
Choux aux craquelin & choquettes
Those guys were pretty easy to make, but the choux aux craquelin were a little too heavy after I cut them in half and filled them, so I ran into the issue of them falling over a little bit.
Choquettes & choux aux craquelin, baked!
The other things that we made on Friday night was the Paris-Breast. Chef Jeanne was saying that it came from a bicycle race in Europe from Paris to Breast, and that the thing is supposed to resemble a bicycle wheel. I guess it does, because it's round, but beyond that, I dunno what the resemblance is. The Paris-Breast starts off as a circle of choux, that we egg wash, then top with sliced almonds, then bake.
Paris-Breast is ready to go!
What's funny, is that this starts off as a 6" circle, but after it bakes, turns into a near-perfect 8" circle. Pretty cool how much choux pastry expands. After it was baked, we made a hazelnut mousseline using this stuff that was almost like Nutella, just without the chocolate. It was almost just as delicious, too!
After its baked... time to cut this bad boy in half!
We then cut our circle of choux in half, and piped this hazelnut filling inside. It was a LOT of filling, but it was pretty good. After that was all said and done, we topped it with a very light dusting of powdered sugar, and bam! One completed Paris-Breast.
The Paris-Breast!
This unit is a pretty short one, and is over next Friday, and I'll have another test. Seems like we just started this unit, which is crazy. What is pretty exciting, though, and these first three units make up one level, so after Friday, I'll officially be in level 2! Time just seems to be flying by, I mean, September is almost over!
Stay tuned for my blog next week, and if you want more frequent updates, you can check out my Instagram.
Thanks for reading!