Catch up

The holidays are swiftly coming to an end, which for most people means the return of the daily duties of work or university, but for a lucky few it is a return to the teaching kitchens of pastry school. Monday is the greatly anticipated return to LCB with new recipes, new timetable and a whole set of beatifully cleaned whites just waiting to be covered in fresh chocolate stains. So before school begins, here is a quick catch up blog of things that may, or indeed may not, be of interest.

1. Books.

For Christmas I recieved two wonderful books that have kept me feeling both entertained and hungry. The first is The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit which discusses 99 key flavours, suggesting flavour pairings for each as well as recipe suggestions. The pairings range from very classical suggestions such as chocolate&orange or lamb&mint to the more adventurous like coffee&avocado. For anyone interested in foods, I can't recommend it highly enough. Not only is the book itself rather lovely, its content makes you want to hop up to rummage through your stock cupboards and bring new life to old recipes.

The second is a book from school called The Chocolate Bible. This is a pretty self explanatory cookbook that covers all things chocolate. I've only had chance to make a few of the recipes, some of which are variations of things I learned in the first term, but they have come out a real treat. I particularly enjoyed a recipe for an iced chocolate and apricot crumble. Definately a good addition to my cookbook collection, complete with saliva-inducing pictures. 

2. Two for One Wednesdays

My timetable this term has taken inspiration from Orange Wednesdays it would seem. Last term we followed a fairly regular routine of demos in the morning, baking in the afternoon. This term we have two days of only demos, followed by a double baking session on wednesdays - totting up to a 6 hour session. This results in two problems. Firstly is a purely logistical problem of how to transport my baked goods home. One girl can only handle so much tupperware. Secondly there is the task of giving this glorious day a suitable name. Answers on a postacard. In the mean time it shall be known to one and all as two cake wednesday (I'm sure we can do much better).

3. French

On another sidenote, my new years resolution this year is to not only take on French pâtisserie but also try and brush up on the language itself. Thus far this has meant scouring the internet for suitable evening classes, audiobooks and perhaps even a tandem partner. Ooh-la-la indeed.