Pastry Pro I: Week 9: Cakes

Pound cake We had a surprise drill when we came into class. Make a 2 egg omelet--no utensils of course.I was not afraid because I had practiced several times at home and I had actually watched Julia Child's original TV recording of the omelet show. She demonstrates over and over how to make an omelet with nothing but the pan and the movement you create. I mixed my 2 eggs with a little kosher salt and water, added clarified butter to the pan and heated it. It looked hot enough so I poured in the eggs and they immediately stuck to the pan! Chef Sively took the spatula and lifted the edges for me (thanks!) and then I recovered and made the omelet...

Read more »

Pastry Pro I: Week 8: Fillings and Sauces

I really enjoyed this class. Chef Loy lectured briefly about fillings, going over the differences between high and low pectic fruits, encouraging us to use a minimum amount of sugar so the fruit can be tasted. Fruit fillings need to have some starch so the rule is to use 1 1/2 tsp of starch per cup of fruit. Nutmeg goes with berries, cinnamon for apples, and cloves for peaches and apricots. Ginger goes with anything (but don't use too much). One thing he mentioned that I never really thought about was mixing 2 fruits to keep from being boring/ordinary. Mix 1 apple into a peach pie, or use 3 types of berries instead of 1.My cooking partner Kristin and I had the following assignments:Kristin:tart glazecaramel saucelime chiffonbaked fruit fillingI had:dark chocolate syrupfrangipanefruit coulisblueberry...

Read more »