landing a plane was easier....

Week 1 of petit fours is history. The practical exam products were lemon tarts and madeleines. It required tart crust, lemon filling, Italian meringue, madeleines and tempered chocolate. Throw in measuring, mixing, baking, cooking and cleaning. Yikes.  It is definitely a good feeling when it is done but the actual production time is a little hectic.  I'm going to put a madeleine cooking tin on my Christmas list. They're yummy.

the meringue olympics winner is....

Donald Rumsfeld would love the fact that old Europe has 3 different kinds of meringue. There is a French, Swiss and Italian meringue with Italy winning the gold medal in the meringue olympics. It's a little harder to make but the Italian meringue is more stable and it has a better consistency. Those little canoes are lemon tartlettes with Italian meringue. There's a thin layer of lemon filling under the meringue.  The round petit fours are Linzer cookies with jam in between the layers. The remaining treat is a Whiskey Pecan tartlet. Busy day.

petit fours times the work....

Petit fours are small desserts but they are very labor intensive. The 3" fruit tart required Pate Sucree for the crust, pastry cream for the filling, sliced up fruit for the topping and apricot glaze for the preservative and sheen. The batter for the Spritz cookies was mixed a little too long so they spread in the oven and lost their shape. Ruined.  Nuts.  This block is definitely different than the mix, knead and wait world of bread....

how long do we bake it for? ....

The bread block is history. For my "Design a Bread" project, I went for tomato garlic challah bread.  It turned out quite good.  I think I'll have garlic oozing from my pores for awhile.  The country white loaf also came out good for my Friday practical.

We start petits fours and tarts on Monday.  We switch instructors which reminds me of kindergarten to 1st grade anxiety.  We had Chef Michelle for the 1st 6 weeks and she was a great way to start the program. My favorite Chef Michelle quote came very early in the program.  She was putting something in the oven and someone asks "how long do you bake it for?" She immediately replied with "until it's done".  She was my hero from that point on - just like Ms Platt in kindergarten.

does anybody still use marmalade?....

We made bagels, bread sticks and english muffins today.  Making english muffins is an adventure but they are really good. It was a 2 day process and they are cooked on a hot skillet.  These turned out thicker and fluffier than Thomas' muffins.

Confession - as a youngster, I hated orange marmalade. I thought plain jam was fine.  I always thought marmalade was fancy, expensive jelly so I pretended to like it. 

Whew - I feel better getting that out after all these years.  giggle...

and your delta fraternity name is flounder...

All of our fermenting sourdough loaves were removed from the cooler during the night by accident which destroyed the dough. I skipped lunch in anticipation of Fig Anise bread and Walnut bread.  Nuts!  As a result, there aren't any bread pictures for today. 

After class, I noticed that they were having orientation for the next crop of students. It's only been 6 weeks but I won't be part of the Freshman class after this Friday.  They start on Monday. yeah. 

on your mark, get set, starter....

Three loaves from a sourdough starter came out of the oven yesterday. My favorite was a Country loaf which is the size of a slightly deflated volleyball. Bakers let these "artisan" loaves ferment in baskets (bannetons) which is the source of the pattern on the crust. We also did a chocolate cherry bread which was pretty outrageous. We opted for the small balls (boules) of bread rather than a loaf. Not pictured was a loaf of Rosemary Olive Oil.  I decided to skip dinner last night because of all the bread I ate.