Jason was the Chef for this week’s production of Savarin and Babas. The students sent Baba au rhum out to the dining room while taking home an assortment of Brioche Tete and Parisiens, Russian Coffee Cake, Kugelhopf and Savarin. The Baba au rhum is a small yeast cake saturated that we saturated in dessert syrup flavored with rum and topped off with crème Chantilly, strawberry fan, kiwi slice, and mint leaf. The trigger ingredients included alcohol, dairy, eggs, gluten, raspberry, and visible fruit garnishes.

It was a simple day with each team having short procedures and plenty of down time waiting for each bread to dry proof. The mise en place were promptly set up for all teams at the beginning of class which made the production flow smoother but the absences of three classmates required myself to dirty my hands and help things along.

Getting the dessert out felt rushed because we wanted perfection with each plate. As we were informed at the last minute that we were only serving students and no guests, the pressure subsided and we managed to design and plate everything within the time frame we set for ourselves.

The night went by smoothly with only two hiccups that involved hot milk. The Steward accidentally curdled the egg yolk as she was making the crème anglaise and the kugelhopf team murdered the yeast when mixing the initial sponge ingredients together.

Overall everyone was focus, professional, and mindful of what needed to be done. Shout out to the bakers who possibly did the most worked preparing vanilla and chocolate sables and making the Brioche Tete and Parisiens.  Kudos to everyone and Prof. Warner for all the guidance she provided!

Michelle and Frank were the Chef this week. This week’s production was layered cakes. The desserts were Opera cake, Gateau Mascotte cake, and Gateau Framboise. Opera cake is made up with layers composed of biscuit jaconde, heavy gnache, sweet chocolate, and mocha buttercream. Gateau Mascotte and Gateau Framboise both has separated egg foam sponge cakes, but Mascotte has praline French buttercream, Kirsch syrup soak, and almonds. Framboise has raspberry French buttercream, apricot jam, and bread crumbs. Samael, the stewart of the day prepared the cherry sauce, Chantilly cream, and mint for tipping garnish at the end. The trigger ingredients included dairy, cherries, nuts (almonds & hazelnuts), Kirsch, raspberries, and framboise.

It was a tough day for our class. The mise en place was piece of cake but the process and the procedures of making all the cakes were lot to take in. Each team had many steps that needed to be taken care of that time went out a bit at the end.

Getting out the desserts out to the dining room was bit rushed due to delay of cake productions and plating ideas. However, with the help of Samael, our stewart, we were able to get it through on time with great team work.

Raspberry couli that the chefs made helped greatly for plating the opera cakes. Professor Warner’s suggestion of raspberry couli was a brilliant idea.

Michelle and Frank helped with dishes during the production due to heavy usage of tools. Later for end cake productions, our whole class was there to help each other out to accomplish the service. Though we had lot to cover that day and we thought that we were going to run out of time, somehow with our teamwork, we made it. Teamwork is key to success.

Opera team pealing the parchment paper from biscuit jaconde.

Opera team layering the Opera cake with mocha buttercream.

Professor showing the class how to make the base of the opera cake with chocolate.

Professor showing the class how to layer the gateau framboise cake.

Finished Gateau Mascotte cake with cherry on top

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.

Yesterday the menu in the Wednesday evening Pastry II class consisted of two desserts:  Banana cream pies and chocolate cream pies.  The components of the banana cream pies were a blind baked pie shell, vanilla pastry cream, diced banana, creme chantilly and thinly sliced bananas glazed with apricot glaze for the garnish.  The components of the chocolate cream pies consisted of a blind baked pie shell, chocolate pastry cream, creme chantilly and for the garnish- dark chocolate decorations made by the steward Cha.

The trigger ingredients for the pies were gluten, eggs, butter, milk and cream.  Both of these desserts would be great to put on a menu because they provide two very different flavor options to give guest choices to choose from. Instead of serving slices of this dessert however,  I would prefer to create individual portions for neater plating.

The bakers for the day, Brady and Lina made puff pastry which is mis en place for next week’s class.  They also produced Portuguese sweet bread which baked beautifully.

During class we went to introduce ourselves to the dining room staff.  I am looking forward to a great semester working with the dining staff to serve the guest visiting the Janet Lefler Dining Room.

Kristen bagging Portuguese bread

Chocolate Cream pie  with chocolate garnishes made by the steward

Alison covering the banana cream pies with creme chantilly

Completed chocolate cream pies