Lesson 17 was dough and custards. I was a little worried about this lesson because Chef Bruno has been a pastry chef for many years, so I know that he would expect perfection from us (even more than normal).
The cream puffs and eclairs are made using pate a choux, which is a pastry dough that is cooked twice; once on the stove top and then baked. Choux is french for cabbage and refers to the hollow cabbage shaped balls that the dough makes when cooked.
Chef Bruno made these swan heads from the dough that we created:
These were the eclairs and cream puffs before they were baked:
Chef Bruno's eclairs - some with chocolate topping and some with caramel topping:
Chef Bruno's final plate with the eclairs, cream puff, and cream puff swan:
This is creme caramel custard, which is a lot like creme brûlée. They were very good!
This is my swan (may I just say that nothing compares to hand made whipped cream):
My cream puffs with my swan:
My eclairs (eclairs are filled with pastry cream and topped with chocolate fondant):
We also made pots de creme, which is made with the same custard recipe as the creme caramel, but vanilla bean is added. Even though it wasn't called for in the recipe, we added coffee flavoring. The result was pretty tasty!
For dinner, Chef Bruno made us savory puffs with ham and cheese in them:
He also made us a fantastic salad with a mustard vinaigrette dressing:
This is Amy Lee, my table mate. We had so much fun together!
The serious amateur pastry chef would come into our class from time to time to beg for food. I called him 'the yelling chef' because he would come in and speak boisterously (i.e., very loudly and with many hand gestures) to Chef Bruno in French. Chef Bruno said that the reason he was so loud is because he is from Southern France (unlike Chef Bruno, who is from Northern France). He offered to pose for this picture:
He brought in this sugar sculpture that he made:
He insisted on posing for another picture (this guy cracks me up!):
Here is another picture of the sugar sculpture:
This is my classmate Coba Cao, a total sweetie who was always there to get ice and do the heavy lifting:
Classmate Sheryl Andersen, who is a total riot. We laughed so hard together!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment