The Rules of the Game

Somehow, we have reached our final term at school and are now the big kids on Superior that put fear in my heart on day one. The thought of this is both very exciting and terrifying, but there is still a way to go.

This term is a totally different ball game from the last two. We no longer have demonstrations and spend 90% of our time in the kitchen. If we are learning any new techniques the Chef shows us them in class just before we copy. Its good to see things so close up and is much more one-on-one learning than before. Another diffence is that we are now learning in modules, meaning that everyone in the year isnt doing the same thing at the same time. For example, I am now on my chocolate module whilst others are doing sugar work. This means we get a good few solid weeks focused on one thing, trying to perfect specific skills, before moving on.

The other big difference is the exam. The final, final exam. Scary. The exam this term has gone from 2 and a half hours to 6. Although, in light of what we have to produce, six hours seems like a minascule time slot.  During the term we have to build up a portfolio of specific dishes which we have to make in our exam. For our portfolio we have been given a list of what we need to make and a list of ingredients. Writing the recipes, methods and time plans is down to us. So from out list we have to make:

1. Two identical plated desserts.

These must include a filled and encased mousse, a glaze, two sauces, chocolate and tuille decoration.

2. Six idential moulded chocolates

These must contain a ganache, but the flaouring is left to us. They must also be decorated in both white and dark chocolate.

3. Six idential sable biscuits

These must have an identical pattern made up of two flavours

4. A sugar sculpture

This is to present the chocolate and sable. It has to have at least 5 different techniques on it.

5. A brioche

Fortunately this has a standard recipe.

We get marked on all of the dishes individially in different criteria (taste, texture, apperance, method etc) as well as being marked on our portfolio and, importantly, our time plan.

As we go through our modules we get a chance to focus on individual elements of the portfolio so hopefully it will become less scary as time goes on.

Live, Eat, Sleep: Bread

The first week back at school we were in the boulangerie making bread like it was going out of fashion. We made bagettes, ciabattas, sour doughs, brioche, rye doughs and many many more. My kitchen at home looked like the beginings of a small bakery and I have to hand it to my housemates who managed to work their way through a respectable quantity of bread, whilst successfully avoiding a carb induced coma. Kudos indeed.

Bread making is really wonderful. As the Chef highlighted, even if homemade bread isnt quite as perfect or pristine as shop bought, nothing quite beats making it yourself. Not only is it satisfying, but it can be quite theraputic too. Anyone who hasnt tried making bread at home should really give it a go, even if its using one of those handy ready to go bread mixes. Just make sure you knead it well.

The first time we made bread in school the recipes were quite simple, and we did all the work by hand. This time, the recipes are more professional and its been great to learn a bit about some of the science behind them. Bread making really is a precise art and the recipes and methods need to be altered depending on the conditions of the flour, the humidity and temperature. Basically to be a great baker you really need to know your stuff and have years of practise under your belt in order to gain the type of instinct and knowledge you can't teach. For now, we are just honing our shaping techniques and learning as we go.

Here's a few snaps to break up the waffle

The other thing we practised a fair amount last week was brioche. Brioche is one of our portfolio dishes that, ultimately, we have to make in our final exam. I will explain the portfolio in a different post but basically, perfecting the brioche is pretty important. The feedback so far this term has been so much more detailed than before and it is really useful to hear. We have a group feedback session so the Chef can show us the higher scoring products, as well as those that show classic mistakes. I am fairly pleased with my brioche overall, the main thing I need to work on is careful handling post prooving/ during egg wash. 

One of the more exciting loaves we worked on this week is the pain surprise. The basic concept is to take a loaf, remove the middle dough in one piece, cut it into sandwiches and put it back, hidden, inside the crust - hense the surprise. To make ours, we started by shaping our dough into what the chef claimed was a hedgehog. However, when you see the critter I'm sure you will probably take the more popular view that it looks more like turtle. When we had made and baked our doughy monster, we removed the top 'shell', made an incision between his legs, removed the middle (not an easy task), sliced it up, made layers of sandwiches, popped them back in, put the lid on top and viola - pain surprise!

So far, as you can probably tell, superior is great. Its satisfying to see the skills we have learnt over the past 6 months coming together and I'm really enjoying the new schedule. We finished off our bread module by polishing off the chefs sandwiches along with a class of Kir. So dispite our new busy schedules, there is always time for a cheeky 11am cocktail to kickstart the day.

Obsessed

Since working at Artisan my brain has been more than a little pre occupied with chocolate. I have been day dreaming about making chocolate, travelling the cocoa growing regions of the world and (mostly) moving to France to keep on training.

Watch this video of chocolatier Patick Rogers at work and I'm sure you will be left with a glimpse of the excitement chocolate can bring. Who knows, maybe there will be a whole hoard of us uprooting to Paris.

Magical chocolate factory video .Click away.

Une semaine à Artisan du Chocolat

My brief spell at Artisan du Chocolat has come to an end so I thought I'd write a brief post. To be honest the only negative point I can raise is that I had to get up super early every morning (5am) to get there in time, alas, such is the life of pastry chef, so I guess I had better get used to it. And it did mean I saw some rather lovely sunrises on the M25 along the way.  Apart from that I had a truly wonderful time. Firstly, all the staff were so nice to work with and tried to show me as much as possible. Secondly, I got to see basically every stage of the process from chocolate making right the way to packaging, and thirdly, I was quite literally surrounded by incredible chocolate all day long.

Although I was aware of a lot of the products Artisan make before arriving, I was shocked to see quite how much variety they were producing and also didn't realise that Fortnum and Mason chocolate was also made there. It was nice to be in the factory during the Easter buzz and see all the easter collection getting made, the place was rife with eggs and bunnies. It also made me think more about the importance of packaging. Although the chocolate made there is really very delicious, all the packaging itself is so nice and well considered that it truly is the cherry on top.

Here are some of my Easter picks:

1. Creme de la Creme Eggs

These bite sized treats are a bit of a take on the classic cream egg. My favourite is the milk chocolate shell filled with a white chocolate ganache and passion fruit filling. Absolutely brilliant.  Having said that, these may be a bit more that marmite than your classic Easter treat. Whilst two of my housemates gobbled these down with glee, the third handed it back after one bite. I, however, would strongly recommend them and at £1.50 its definatley worth the gamble. The other flavour is dark chocolate apricot and mandarin. yum yum.

2. Pastel Plush Bunny

 

These are milk chocolate, sprayed with cocoa butter and incredibly cute. What more could  girl want at Easter?

3. The Artichoke Egg

I spent a day and a half making these and, even though a bit pricier than the rest, they really are a labour of love. So much so that I didn't even make half a dozen on day one. I managed to speed up significantly on day two, but even so one of these bad boys needs a good 40 minutes of TLC before it is ready to be sprayed. This egg really packs in the chocolate with a dark chocolate shell and base, covered in chocolate squares and filled with chocolate pearls. Its just a bit special.

Anyway, that's enough Artisan love. As you can probably tell, I had a rather nice time and my fascination with chocolate seems to be growing by the day.

Back to school tomorrow and I really can't wait. La vie est belle.

Choc-a-bloc chocalate.

We start back for the grand final of our course in April and so have a short holiday break inbetween before the maddness begins. I've managaed to get myself a bit of work experience with the wonderful Artisan du Chocolat to learn a bit more about chocolates from a slightly more industrial point of view. The company makes luxury and innovative chocolates with lots of exciting flavours and textures ranging from basil and lime to liquid salted caramels. I've only been there a few days but so far its been great to see a whole new world, literally full of chocolates. I've been making lots of moulded eggs and rabbits in the build up for Easter as well as seeing some of the exciting industry equipment. The rabbits are sprayed with coloured cocoa butter to give them an adorable furry effect. Being shown the in's and out's of a steam pressured heater might not be everyones cup of tea but watching that cream cook away truly makes my day. Another week to go so hopefully I'll get to see (and eat) lots more.

A bear and a bee

As Spring and Easter rapidly approached, my second term at school can to an end. We finished off Intermediate with a few classes on cake decorating, finishing off our fruit cakes that we made at the begining of term to create some glorious celebration cakes. There is big business in cake decorating and if your good at it, it can be quite a lucrative skill. However, although my training has helped iron out alot of my previously cack-handed ways, I don't think I'll be called upon for any wedding cakes anytime in the near future. Fortunately for me, I'm not too fussed with cake decorating, its all a bit too fiddly for my liking.

In light of it being Spring, and needing quite a simple design, I opted for a teddy bear's picnic theme. Grass green cake, gingham rug and a pot of honey to enjoy in the sunshine.

I think it worked out okay and was quite fitting to my personality next to some of the beautiful flowers created by my peers. The teddy did look particularly cute poking out of the box on the way home and made me feel like I was on the way to a childrens party. Shame the cake was heavily laced with rum.

Mixed Bag

This post is going to be a bit of a mixed bag of various subjects to swiftly get us all back up to date. Since last posting there has been souffles, sugar, exams and a bit of light craft on the side.

Firstly: Souffles.
In order to sum up our plated dessert module for the term we took on the ultimate sink or swim pud - the souffle. The challenge is to create a light fluffy souffle that is plated up and won't collapse before reaching its eater. We made two souffles: one that is served in the ramekin (hot souffle) and another which is turned out onto a beautifully designed plate (pudding souffle). Despite having distant fears of a collapsed heap of lemony scrambled eggs, all our souffles turned out a real treat. The chef even finished off the class by showing us an exciting way of serving the hot souffle, flambé included. Here is a photo of my plated pudding souffle courtesy of Iphone.

Next is a brief word on sugar because we have been dedicating a fair amount of time towards it the last week or so. Firstly we had a techinchal class showing us some of the sugar skills we will be utilising next term making sculptures and what not. Secondly we have been learning how to make sugar paste cake decorations. We are in the midst of making a decorated celebration cake so watch this space. I'm thinking ladybirds and bees. 

Thirdly: EXAMS!

I have had both of my Intermediate exams, written and practical. The written one was harder than last term and asked a few questions that I found a bit dubious so we will see how I get on. For the practical I got the Opera cake which I think went alright. I was quite pleased to of got the Opera because it has buttercream in it. Those of you who can remember the last exam will recall that I made a fatal buttercream related error so I was pleased to have the chance to make it again and show it who was boss. (Me). Overall I left the exam feeling a lot more elated than last time so lets hope thats a good sign. Results to come next week.

Finally, some of the more mouthwatering pictures I have posted on here have earned me the nickname "Cake tease" from a friend ("Oh Claire, your such a cake tease"). In light of this, I took to a bit of light craftsmenship and made myself a little slogan jumper to wear with pride:

Thats all for now, fingers crossed for results!