This past week the class made strawberry, raspberry, and mango-passion charlottes.  These desserts were made up of genoise, jelly rolls, Bavarian cream, and garnished with creme chantilly and/or fresh fruit and mint. Our steward, Deven, prepped the coulis, chantilly, and the raspberries and mint for the garnish.  The trigger ingredients for these desserts are gluten, alcohol, eggs, gelatin, cream, raspberries, strawberries, mango and passion fruit

As always, there is room for improvement, but I think everyone worked well together to get the raspberry charlottes out to the dining room, and we were even finished class a few minutes early!

The visions that Karina and I had for the finished product weren’t quite coming to life, so Professor Warner gave us the idea for the design on the final plating with the raspberry coulis and creme  anglaise.  I was happy with how the raspberry charlottes looked going off to the dining room.

Samuel, Karina, Kristen, and I helped to make the focaccia bread and prep the different toppings. I think everyone enjoyed getting to make their own personalized focaccia bread.

Deven prepping the raspberries for our garnish

 Samael with the roasted garlic

Frank adding some Malibu to the mango-passion Bavarian cream

Victoria slicing the genoise

     The final product, raspberry charlottes with creme chantillty and fresh raspberries and mint for garnish, and raspberry coulis with creme anglaise on the plate.

dough for bourdaloues in rings in fridge

adding the frangipane

peach bourdaloue in the making

pear bourdaloue in the making

Professor Warner rolling the jelly roll with apricot jam filling

drying the fruits

Making sure each plate is perfect for the dining room

All ready to go out!

The two different plating designs used

finished visitdantine and peach bourdaloue, glazed with apricot and topped with pistachio and powdered sugar(visitdantine)

apricot bourdaloues right out the oven

Torching for caramelization.

The desserts for week 5 were bourdaloues. Bourdaloues are tarts filled with frangipane (almond paste). We made 4 different types which were apricot, pear, peach and visitdantine (without fruit).The class was initially split up into four teams for production. Lina, Cha and Frank were assigned to pear, Brady Alison and Victoria were assigned to apricot, Samael and Kristen were assigned to peach and Jason and Michelle were assigned to the visitdantines. Our bakers were Karina and Devin and Diana was the steward.

Unfortunately we were a bit short handed as we had about 5/6 absences and a late comer so Professor Warner did some rearranging and we all given a bit extra responsibilities for the night. Although we were all assigned tasks, once completed I noticed that many people were offering their assistance in/to various parts of the kitchen.

The bakers prepared the pate sucree dough while the teams were drying the canned fruits on the drying racks. Each team were assigned three 9 inch rings and five 8 inch rings for their production. The professor demonstrated the size she wanted the fruits to be cut as our teams looked on and then mimicked. We had a bit of an accident with one of the mixers as our bakers were trying to use it, I believe the speed was high when initially turned on. However, ingredients were rescaled and business went on as usual.

I prepared the sheet pans with melted shortening, then a layer of parchment paper, then covered the entire area with shortening and left it on the racks for the teams. With the help of Cha, we were able to measure out the two different size doughs and put it in the blast chiller for the teams which made it easier for them to just start their production once ready. The blast chiller kept the dough at a temperature that made rolling much easier.

When Diana came in we made the raspberry coulis, prepared the mango puree, and made the crème chantilly. She also helped with the entire preparation for the desserts that were to be sent out to the dining room. I must say, designing those plates may look easy once it’s done, but it takes a lot of work and concentration to get all plates to look exactly the same, or as close as possible. After what seemed like a lot of indecisiveness we agreed on a chocolate design for the plates and last minute I had an idea of another design (no chocolate) which I showed the professor and she Okayed.

Desserts went out at 7:05pm, not the time we anticipated but still on time none the less. Also before I forget to mention, we used the torch on the bourdaloues when they came out of the oven. Samael was in charge of the torching, and he took his job very seriously! (as he should, using a torch can be very dangerous)

Jelly rolls were also prepared in class for week 11. It’s a separated egg foam sponge. Some were made stacked while the other set were rolled. Before rolling or stacking it must be covered with powdered sugar on one side and carefully layered with apricot jam on the other.

I think we did well with the cleaning up segment but I believe we can do better. Our end goal is to clean up after ourselves and our team members. If we all chip in things can get done a lot faster and easier.

Due to unforeseen absentees, we worked til the very end of the class and weren’t unable to take the second quiz. But our professor is amazing and made it a take home quiz.

Over all, I think we did a great job considering out circumstances. Hard work and dedication pays off!

Desserts or week 4 were Apple strips and apple galettes. Both desserts were made with Pate Brisee dough that was made on week 3. For each dessert, there were 2 teams assigned. Lee-Anna, Deven, and Karina were one of the team for apple strips, and Alison, Kristen, and Jason were the other. Samael and Michelle were one team for apple galette, Victoria and Frank were the other team. Since teams for apple galette had two team members, Diana and I helped the two teams for today’s production.

Baker of this week was Lina and Loury, and they made Pate Sucre which means sugar dough. Steward Brady prepared caramel sauce, frangipane, and cream chantilly.

Each team started having all the mise en place, such as getting lemon water for sliced apples not to get oxidized, having all the tools, or getting ingredients.

Teams distributed works. Two people worked on peeling, coring, and slicing apple, and one person rolled out and cut the dough. Professor Warner demonstrated slicing apples to show us what was the desirable thickness of the slices. For the dough part, we docked before putting any apples. Frank and Victoria missed to dock the pate brisee and baked. which made apples galette to rise a little during baking process. Steward Brady prepared frangipane in advance for teams so they can start making up the desserts. Brady then started to prepare caramel sauce and cream chantilly  for our garnish.

Diana and I were able to plate the desserts and deliver them to dining room in time. Plate design for apple strip was different from how Diana and I planned, but it came out beautiful.

Cleaning was done in time. However, class tented to continue chatting between tasks. It seemed like the class still needs to work on clean tasks better

Trigger ingredients for apple strips and apple galette were same. They were wheat, dairy, nuts, and cinnamon.

This weeks desserts are Swans; it’s component are made from a puff pastry called Pate a Choux and Creme Chantilly. The Swans were prepared by the Team of Jason and Karina and the Chantilly being made by are Stewart of the day Lee-Ann who also made the Chocolate Sauce and Raspberry Coulis.

The Napoleons were prepared by two teams, Team C which consist of Deven, Kristen and Michelle along with Team D made up of Frank, Allison and Loury, they made the pastry cream filling one of the components in the Napoleon and the fondant that is used as garnish, the last component is the Paton which was baked by our bakers Cha and Diana who also were in charge of making the Brisee.

Samael and Victoria Teamed up to make the Chocolate Buttercream Slice, they used tube shape sponge cake that was made weeks prier and made the chocolate buttercream.

Each dessert has some for of Allergen or Trigger Ingredient:

Swans – Gluten, Dairy, Chocolate and Eggs.

Napoleon – Gluten, Dairy, Eggs, and Rum.

Chocolate Buttercream Slices – Eggs, Dairy, and Rum.