Return of the Puff

First week back, no longer feeling like the babies of the school, it was time to begin Intermediate Patisserie (IP). Monday and Tuesday were spend in demos on more puff pastry recipes. Somehow the dreaded pastry we first tackled way back in week seven didnt seem quite so scary second time round. The first recipe of the term was for a gateau St Honore. This is a fairly technical dish as the recipe includes not only puff pastry, but our good old friend choux, as well as sugar work, creme diplomate and, of course, piping. Charmingly, this cake is named after the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs. In demo, the chef finished the cake of with the classic spun sugar decoration and a bit of crystalised lavender.

On Tuesday we covered two more classic puff pastry dishes: pithiviers & mille-feuille. A pithivier is an enclosed puff pastry dish, filled with an almond creme. It is egg washed for shine and marked with a knife for general prettiness. There is an old french tradition (I am told) of baking this with a bean inside, and whoever gets the lucky slice au bean gets to be king for the day. To avoid the consequences of a demanding IP king, ours was baked beanless.

All pithiviers, great and small.

The final dish of demos was the mille-feuille; thin layers of puff pastry sandwiched with jam, cream and strawberries, traditionally finished with a layer of fondant icing with feathered chocolate. Im salvating just writing about it. Again, the chef made both a larger 'cake' and smaller individual sized slices. 

Really rather lovely looking

Moving on to wednesday and our first bake-a-thon of the term. Between the hours of 3 and 9 we were in the kitchen rolling, whisking, piping and slightly sweating to create the dishes above. The first half of the lesson was spend making the puff pastry and the St Honore. I was pleased to find my basic skills hadn't disappeared along with the snow in the winter holidays. Being back in the boulangie was great, although my spec right by the oven wasn't the best of calls. Nonetheless, here is cake #1 minus the spun sugar.

We then had a 15 minute break, during which I ate a pastrami sandwhich in all of three bites and downed half a litre of water. Fed and watered, I was ready for the next two treats. I was a bit apprehensive that the puff pastry might not have had enough time to rest, but everything went according to plan and overall I was pleased.

King for the day

Good enough to eat

I'm not going to lie, after six hours of baking I was well and truly ready for bed and didnt enjoy my mission across London laden with cake tins. Having said that it is definately a better reflection of real working life and it shoundn't be long till I'm hardened up to it. The dilemma of fitting the cakes into the fridge was solved by my hungry housemates who made sure they all slotted onto one plate nicely

In other news, I have a French speaking test tomorrow for evening classes so perhaps I'll be learning the lingo in no time. 

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.