Articles by Karen H

We are one day away from concluding tart and gateaux de voyage week. Another busy day, and another mountain of dishes later…

Pumpkin pie was finished today – sweet potato in this one.

We did a session on chocolate decorations as well, as you can see!

Caramel flan was completed, but didn’t look too pretty so I plan to level it off with a caramel topping to pretty it up. That one used puff pastry to line the pan.

Leftover puff pastry was also used for apple turnovers (below), a gorgeous apple streudel, tarte fine (apple with pastry cream on puff pastry, below), pithivier with almond cream filling, palmiers…. a multitude of things one can do with puff pastry!

We tasted Canelés, a custard like dish with interesting crispy crust baked in special molds lined with beeswax. Yumm.

Carrot cake was baked in several layers, to be sandwiched with cream cheese icing tomorrow (and decorated with chocolate of course). Brownie decorations were also constructed in chocolate. Coffee cake batter was made and refrigerated for baking tomorrow with fruit layers.

Crunchy hazelnut feuilletine, and raspberry cherry confit inserts were made (layers made to the size of baked products and then added to the top or middle during decorating); raspberry ganache, marscapone cream, milk chocolate, pistachio and white chocolate ganache were made for whipping and piping tomorrow during decorating. Raspberry and dark chocolate mousse inserts were constructed, and chocolate chip cookies were baked. Cheesecake was made with leftover sweet pastry which had been grated, baked and compressed with more butter for the crust. All of the re-use tips are music to my Scottish blood as nothing gets wasted.

The poached pear tart was baked and the poached pears sampled (poached in red wine and spices, fabulous! though not everyone liked them…. Blueberry tart was constructed with previously made blueberry filling and Portugese custard tarts (Pastel de Natel) assembled with leftover puff pastry.

And still to come tomorrow Quiche Lorraine, and all that decorating! The buffet tomorrow promises to be spectacular…. My poor partner is lactose intolerant and can’t eat most of what we are making 😞. I am enjoying my morning breads, pulling a different one out of the freezer each day, making some room for this week’s additions; sourdough with raisin and cranberry inclusions disappeared earlier this week, and today chocolate sourdough with citrus peel. There is no room for real food in the freezer anymore! Where are my visitors?

Too much sharing today! We made things in pairs, but frequently only had enough pieces or equipment for one person to work at a time. This resulted in either running out of things (caramel), or the warmth in the room and the person’s hands detrimentally affected the mix by the time it was passed over to the second person (Chantilly cream).

Despite that, as always we learned a lot, our piping is improving, and the St. Honoré that came home was delicious even if not the most pretty (my partner’s below, the Chantilly cream was too warm when it finally got to me to stand up – so mine looked like someone sat on it!).

We used our puff pastry (classic) today – when to dock and not to dock? Tartan fine with sliced apples assembled today and baked tomorrow; caramel flan with puff pastry and fruit flan with almond cream in paté brisée both progressed in their respective stages today. Our team was pretty happy with our puff pastry, hand rolled through 6 folds, although mine rose slightly lopsided (probably due to uneven docking) and had to be trimmed a little to lay flat for the St. Honoré, and my partner’s came out slightly oval (unequal rolling in each direction usually the culprit). The lemon pound cake was baked, dipped in lemon syrup then glazed with lemon icing. Meillefeuille upcoming, baked today – it is baked in a big sheet, and cut afterwards, who knew.

My partner this week is Anna from Missouri, who is in her early 20’s but has had cooking experience working in hotels and a Michelin star restaurant in France during a previous culinary program. Her knife skills are excellent – she tells me she was prepping avocadoes for breakfasts in one hotel every day for months – it showed in the apple slicing for the tartan. I am looking forward to the arrival of my replacement contact lenses, which I inadvertently left at home, as the board at the front of the class is receding and I’m starting to think I should be bringing in reading glasses for finer decorating work. I blame my apple slicing today on that!

It was a tiring day, tons of dishes at the end and no afternoon break. We shelved the pumpkin pie tart for today and will attack it tomorrow. I think Francois, our teacher, was tired as well trying to corral us all along today – I don’t think he realized that having only one set of things (equipment, mixes) means twice as long for each step as two people need to do it one after the other…. He is learning too!

#$!%!@$!#%!

Try and make a pastry tart shell in a hurry, with soft dough…. 4 attempts later, I thoroughly endorse “Haste makes waste”.

Today saw more fillings made; blueberry, cherry, chocolate cream, chocolate ganache, lemon curd, a different lemon cream, chocolate caramel, and chocolate curd. We made a lemon pound cake, lemon syrup and glaze, and all went into the fridge for assembly and baking tomorrow. Chocolate sponge (dacquois) for a future Black Forest Cake was trialled (delicious) and cherry filled blueberry muffins went into the fridge for baking tomorrow. Chocolate caramel tarts were made to be decorated tomorrow. Pecan tarts (pictured below) came home with us.

The Basque travel cake was assembled and put back in the fridge, and we made some cookie dough. Naturally not normal dough, this is rolled and will get a chocolate caramel disc insert to make a sandwich type cookie… Yesterday’s banana bread was baked and was delicious – very moist and nutty.

Throughout the day we worked on the 6 folds needed for classic puff pastry. It was hand-rolled instead of using the dough roller which I think we were all happy about as none of us have dough rollers at our homes or workplaces! It’s resting overnight and will be deployed tomorrow.

More practice with making tart shells tomorrow. Apparently it’s such a basic skill one can’t graduate any pastry chef course in France without making perfect shells. I have a ways to go…. though I did make the one in the picture, I just can’t make them under pressure yet!

Still chilly overnight (9C) but days are pleasantly warm and perfect for sitting out at lunch, and bright and sunny.

It was actually cold enough to require a coat today – down to 10C in the a.m. and the news is complaining it’s unseasonably cold. By lunch though it is very pleasant sitting outside.

We have started tart week, and are learning different techniques to perfect good tart shapes and forms. We had several practice rounds with paté brisée, filling our shells with almond paste and they are currently resting in the freezer waiting for filling tomorrow. Learned how to pipe meringue into cool designs for Pavlova. We made several fillings, banana bread, pecan topping, and getting ready for puff pastry tomorrow – both regular and inverted.

Pictures to come tomorrow….

Nothing much to report for the weekend as plans to go to Valley of Fire for a hike were cancelled due to weather. We had high winds in the valley starting Saturday at 11 a.m. ish and though I tried to beat it on my walk to the Wetlands Preserve, I had to abort the desert walk loop because the dust was already kicking up. I got home at 11 ish and measured my parking spot carefully to be away from the palm tree should it topple – the news had indicated that trees down and power outages were likely with wind gusts predicted up to 65 mph.

The forecast was right on, and by noon the mountains were not visible – by 3 p.m. the airport was barely visible for the dust though the planes continued to fly in and out; with their changed flight path they were audible for the first time. Amazingly the pool down below remained open and the noise from there was the loudest yet until it finally shut down at 4 pm ish as everything was flying around by then. Interestingly the windows let in enough breeze on the 19th floor to move the curtains inside…

Pretty obvious in those conditions how much trash there is discarded in this city – it was whipping around everywhere. Single use bags still abound, no charge at stores for these so between those and plastic bottles and cans that have no deposit, quite a mess…. I packed in the afternoon, counting down the hours until I could get off the strip…

Happily I was advised on Friday that I could move in anytime on Sunday to the apartment – previously the schedule had me doing a late checkout at 1 p.m. and then being orphaned until 3 p.m. checkin so that was great news! I was out of the Marriott after two loads by 8:30 a.m, (all that bread hanging in bags hanging off the luggage rack) and heading over to the new abode where I could finally unpack and call it home. Although the gate wasn’t working properly (storm electronic malfunction?) someone kindly let me into the complex and it was then a process of multiple trips up and down the stairs, the promised workout – unpacking and then shopping for provisons and mopping the floor which was filthy. As I didn’t find cleaning fluid inside I suspect they hadn’t been done properly for awhile, though the owner suggested that it was the dust storm that was the culprit… I’m not so sure, as it took three mops to get the dirt to a tolerable level.

Very nice to unpack – quite a quiet complex and some bike lanes close by; stumbled into a shopping centre with an REI store within 10 mins, that may be dangerous….

Several of my classmates had glazed eyes this afternoon, and many of us felt we were approaching diabetic coma levels of sugar from the carbs by mid afternoon. We covered a LOT of ground this week, and made a lot of different types of bread as you can see from the bread buffet assembled today to showcase samples of each….. We covered variations of basic breads, Artisan breads, ancient grains, low gluten, fruit breads, flatbreads, croissants and Danish and all forms of laminated dough; sourdough both sweet and savoury and with loose and stiff levain. We did variations of white, brown, and multigrain bread….

Thank you to all the cows that provided the plentiful butter we went through on brioche, croissant and Danish days…..

We baked lovely pizza dough today that was in the works since yesterday, and had that for lunch – then went back into class and were offered samples of flatbread, the gorgeous Danish pastries you will see on the buffet, and baked sourdough, multigrain sourdough, curry buns, and pretzels. All interspersed with salty info on marketing, profit margins, and options for bakery production.

One could have induced diabetes just watching Michel, our main teacher, decorate – after piping chocolate cream into a rich Danish pastry ring, he will decorate with chocolate ganache, chopped pecans, and then snow sugar on half to make it look zippy… it wasn’t enough to bake a double Danish ring with pastry cream, it was filled with diplomat cream, topped with raspberries or blueberries, and then sprinkled with pistachios and powdered sugar… The finished results are divine, but not fare one could sample often without consequences. All three of our teachers are slim and fit, and one reason is that they dance around the kitchen at full speed all day – one day this week we watched in amazement as Michel managed 10 different timers simultaneously, all measuring different stages of different breads (bench resting, proofing, baking, or mixing). Truly impressive, and skills imported from being an executive chef of a large bakery where time management determines production quantities and revenue.

Coming home with me today were curry buns, sourdough bread, and multigrain sourdough. Definitely going for a hike tomorrow to work some of this week’s sampling off! Sunday I am moving to my final accomodation so can finally unpack and put my bicycle together.

I think that was the universal refrain after today, day 4 of bread week. Both sweet and savory breads today and the much anticipated croissants….

Cool new trick – spraying eggwash with a spray gun! I have one of these for chocolate decorating, and if it happened to be out, it sure makes the job easier…

We made two different types of sourdough, chocolate (shown below) and multigrain, from the starter apple peels last week.

In the morning we also shaped and baked the red wine bread, zebra bread, and foccacia (pictured below). I didn’t try the red wine bread as it had Salami but it got very mixed reviews.

A stroll around the interesting neighbourhood at lunch – it is the Arts District and filled with wall murals. Hot in the sun, still 33C at noon. My last weeks’ partner lives in Yuma and says she finds it too warm there when it hits 125F…

The afternoon saw the mixing of pizza dough, “Ingredients” bread (farmer’s market bread with lots of fruit inclusions), Curry bread, Couronne Lyonnaise from SE France, Flatbread, and Oignons de Cérvennes (a local onion spurred the development of this bread, pictured below – we substituted red onions and it was delicious).

And because we were short on calories for the day (not) we made Kouign Amann the easy way (making a caramel first, hardening and then powdering it to spread on instead of sugaring each fold of the Danish dough), sticky buns with macerated raisins and pastry cream, sticky buns with caramel and raisins, and learned how to make bearclaws, windmills, and other shapes with Danish dough. The Kouign Amann were lighter than the traditional Breton version (not a bad thing!) but still loaded with calories and subsequently utterly delicious – apparently calories disappear in the oven during baking, along with caramelization ha ha.

As many of these breads came home as samples, our freezers are groaning. I doubt I’ll need to get bread again during this stay although I have to move everything on Sunday….

An interesting discussion of equipment options – mouth watering but not in my horizon – interesting tips to reduce costs for those establishing a commercial bakery. Apparently croissants are supposed to be a narrow margin item designed to lure people in order to sell other things – not so much in North America. I thought that Vancouver’s croissants were costly but it’s not unusual to be charged $5 US according to the American students – a “luxe” item rather than a lure.

Lots more baking tomorrow, and picture day – a bread buffet. Pizza for lunch!

And of course others.

But it’s hard to beat the traditional baguette, fresh from the oven….

And pretty simple, really.

Then of course we made multiple different variants of baguette – contrasting the use of liquid levain, vs soft dough, finishing off with multigrain (pictured below), and different inclusions including a spread of grain mustard 1:1 with sour cream, caramelized onions and cheese (yumm).

On the bread side we made Kamut bread (ancient Persian grain), Peruvian corn bread covered with corn spread (below), Red Wine Bread with salami, raisins and pistachios (will be giving that one a miss, currently in the fridge fermenting for baking tomorrow), started Pizza dough with Poolish, and learned the whys and wheretofores of Foccacia from Northern vs. Southern Italy. We made a basic northern foccaccia for baking tomorrow.

Next was Farmer’s Bread – Pain Paysan – with cranberries and walnuts – I have my eye on this recipe for ginger and macademia nuts when I get home.

The afternoon was largely a croissant lesson, rolling the dough (sheet roller, as suspected – so easy compared to hand rolling but this dough is a bit easier to handle than that in the recipe I currently have so fingers crossed it will translate). And of course not content with plain croissants we made bicolour ones with chocolate sheeting, Pain au chocolat (the trick of the two baton chocolate insertion revealed), cheese, marzipan, and hazelnut chocolate inclusions (these were very crumbly and they were set to throw all the remaining bits out – sacrilege! I collected them in a container and absconded with them….sooo good….)

Danish dough was next, inevitably to be turned into multiple variants tomorrow including Kouign-Amann, one of my favourites. I am sure we will be introducing inclusions, and decorating them to the nines.

The day concluded with croissant dough spread with pastry cream, macerated raisin and chocolate coins, then rolled up and cut into slices like cinnamon buns. All the croissants are fermenting overnight in the fridge – we will bake them tomorrow and have the plain ones for breakfast. Yummm.

The buffet on Friday, where we assemble a sample of each bread we’ve made, promises to be spectacular!

And happily, I found a good coffee roaster literally across the street from the school. Their coffee options look decent as well, good to note as the coffeeshop underneath us isn’t impressive.

Coffee, chocolate, and pastries – what more does one need?

I slept in this a.m., which for those who know me will understand is as common winning the lottery.. which it is for me, really, in one sense except for the panic when I realized at 6:55 a.m. that it was an hour later than I had thought. My leisurely stroll through the word games was ditched, things were thrown into bags, coffee was guzzled, breakfast downed and out the door I catapulted.

Oh yes, the lights were long and the roadwork on Las Vegas Boulevard was in full swing. Many thanks to the tandem truck that went through an orange light and completely blocked the intersection for an entire cycle so nobody could turn right (only one lane out of four functional thanks to the roadwork). I wasn’t alone in slow traffic this a.m. as there was a fatality early in the a.m going south at my highway entrance and the lineups going in rush hour direction were epic as it was still closed from early a.m. Happily once I got onto the freeway the coast was clear and I made it with 10 mins to spare, although yet again I had to make a trip back to the car to retrieve my locker key (a daily experience). Other classmates were arriving having spent at least twice the usual time enroute due to the accident.

The main theme of today was Brioche, which we made in dizzying varieties – after constructing a large batch of basic dough it was divided to make a variety of sweet pastries which we worked through in various phases of bench resting, chilling, blast freezing, shaping, decorating, proofing, baking and decorating again. It was hard to keep up with the options! Apparently on Friday we put together a buffet with all that we made, so more pictures to come. There were some outstanding results today, with Brioche Saint Nicolas (orange and chocolate brioche dough twisted together), Cramique (hazelnut, cranberry, white chocolate and rock sugar) and the fruit inserts (raspberry, pictured below, and strawberry rhubarb) being my favourites – oh, along with Kougelhoff, lemon brioche, and plain braided Brioche (pictured below). Shaping ranged from figures to bicoloured loaves to crowns to muffin shapes, loaves and not a traditional Brioche shape in sight. Who knew you could do so much with brioche???

Braided brioche

If the calories in the variations weren’t enough, we did laminated brioche in the afternoon – !!!! as an intro to croissants, which we will laminate tomorrow and bake for breakfast on Thursday (with multiple options of course). The precious croissant dough is made and fermenting away in the fridge – quite a different consistency to mine.

We managed to also sandwich in a few bread varieties as well – Tiger Bread, a bread with a beer topping added – pictured below and I’ll attest it goes down very well warm from the oven with brie or Port Salut cheese and tomato.

We made multigrain baguette bread (awesome), and a regional Rye bread Tourte Auvergnate, from central France- excellent, but needs to dry overnight, one of the few not best fresh. The dough was mixed for Peruvian bread made with creamed corn – many of the recipes ferment overnight in the fridge and almost all use either Levain or fermented dough (leftovers from previous recipes) as well as yeast to produce the complex flavours. Bread making at a different level, and I’m looking forward to trying the recipes with a puny home mixer vs. the industrial sized mixers we are currently using. Chatting with fellow students, it seems few have the equipment in their working kitchens such as the dough rollers, proofing ovens, deck ovens….though a couple do have the industrial mixers.

Tomorrow shows promise for ancient grain bread (Kamut), red wine bread, foccacia, and Danish to come, as well as finishing the other breads fermenting overnight.

I’ll never look at bread the same again…

The weekend reports from classmates varied from resting (most, it appears!), to visiting Zion National Park in Utah, about 3 1/2 hours away….

Bread day #1 – Of course, a lesson on all the different flours and systems used to grade flour in different countries, different leavening systems (levains, yeast types etc) and the whys and wherefores of when to use each. Then we launched into making one of each type of leavening agents – lots of standing around today as we used the big bread mixers to mix up a huge batch and then divided it into parcels for each pair.

A note on my partner for this week – she hails from Paris, now living in New York with her family but she is only 19 years old and recently finished high school! Lovely girl, but oh so young…fortunately her international experience makes her older than her years.

We made a large batch of boulangerie bread and divided it to be made regional breads – Fougasse with olives (pictured below, from Provence region), Courrone Bourdelaise (from Bourdeaux) – a large family/special occasion bread; Auvergnat bread (with a nice crispy hat, from central France); Tabatiere style bread (pictured below, I’m going to call it dolphin bread from hereon – from southeast France). The dolphin bread was great with cheese and tomato at lunch, still warm from the oven.

We made and learned about Brioche in the afternoon, and from the big batch divided it into bits to make chocolate brioche, orange brioche, orange chocolate brioche (Brioche Saint Nicholas), “cramique” (belgian version) with cranberries, hazelnuts, white chocolate and rock sugar), and lemon. They are all in the fridge developing overnight.

We started Tiger Bread, and it too is maturing overnight in the fridge.

Then came the intricacies of baking – when to steam and not steam, when to remove steam, proper proofing, shelf life issues.

Finally, we started Kougelhopf, a traditional Brioche from the NorthEast of France/German border (Alsace region) – which everyone else seemed to know but I had never heard of – and that started us off on inclusions. Kougelhopf has sultanas and kirsch, which are currently soaking, and so, why not, we made crunchy almond spread, strawberry rhubarb insert, and raspberry and chocolate pastry cream (apparently for croissants on Wednesday).

Our team is on special equipment detail this week so we are going to become good friends with the inside of the large mixers and sheet rollers, I anticipate. As we efficiently cleaned up we did an extra bread, corn bread from South America which is also developing overnight.

And I see why the interns nodded when we were told to clear out our freezers…. TG I can ditch that awful bread from Trader Joe’s. It resembles cardboard.