Fundamentals...a wrap up.

I created this blog, with the intention of daily entries about class. However, with fundamentals....there was not much to blog about.

Lets just say fundamentals was kind of..."low production".

We spent several days just practicing piping butter cream and chocolate as well as our knife skills and anything else we felt necessary for our practical.

Some of my piping

Day 8, Thursday (the day after ST. Patty's Day)....terrible day in South Hall.

Some JERK (to be kind) decided it would be a splendid idea to play with the fire extinguisher at 4:40 am....setting off the alarm and leaving all 500 of us residents outside, on the green for an hour and then we spent ANOTHER hour inside the gymnasium. No one was happy. And then just when i got back to sleep and had about another hour or two, the alarm went off AGAIN. It was like a sick joke.

So with four hours of sleep, I went to my SIX hour lab, to take an exam he told us nothing about and a very vague practical. Not my best day, curdled my first creme anglaise...ohhh well. Raced around frantically the whole day, it was ridiculous, 6 burners for 18 students making 2 different items on the stove. Not to mention, about 8 mixers for the room, each of us had to make an item in that as well.

For Day 1 of our practical, we had to make creme anglaise, pastry cream (both of which we had to monitor and record cooling temps) as well as butter cookies and roasted pineapple. By the end of the day, I just wanted to sleep and nothing more. I kind of, lost my steam. Not to mention, the class also curbed my enthusiasm about labs.

For Day 2 of the practical (last day of class) less stressful and less hectic. First, I cut apples into the four different cuts we were being tested on, once my chef inspected them (did well on most cuts) I went back to the stove and sauteed the apples with a little bit of brown sugar and clarified butter (yumm!).

Sauteed Apples

These apples were to be used in our diplomat cups. But in order to make the cups you had to make the cream. Which was just pastry cream folded into whipped cream, good stuff! So first you put down a play of diplomat cream, then the cooled sauteed apples followed by more cream and is topped off with a rosette of whipped cream and a chocolate filegree.

Diplomat Cream (not entirely incorporated yet!)

Finished Diplomat Cups

After this, I had to temper chocolate using the vaccination method. And with the tempered chocolate I had to pipe about 60 filegrees and then finish my butter cookies. When it was all said and done it all had to be presented to our chef one person at a time.

Finished Butter Cookies

Overall, i'm quite glad this class is over. The practical went well, I think and I won't know for sure until about thursday or friday. Wish me luck!

Fundamentals Skills and Techniques, First Days in Review

My first segment of the spring trimester is Fundamental Skills and Techniques.

Day 1- Knife Skills


Our Chef demoed how to correctly sharpen a knife as well as some "knife skills" including several versions of the dice and a few other cuts. For over TWO hours, we all hacked away at our apples, carrots and potatoes. And that was it. Exciting, I know...


Day 2-Chocolate Piping

We had no demos this day, instead we tempered chocolate, using the vaccination method, which for those of you who do not know, is you melt untempered chocolate to the correct temperature (for dark 120 F ish) and then cool the melted chocolate with tempered chocolate pieces (for dark 90 F). And we practiced not only our chocolate tempering skills, but also our parchment bags, which I find myself having a knack for. But most importantly we practiced our piping.

Now piping chocolate may seem easy peasy, but if you have ever attempted it, you know what a pain it can be. Many problems can arise, the line isn't thin enough, the chocolate hardens too quickly, the line isn't straight, so on and so on. ALL class long we piped chocolate.
Needless to day, it was very tedious.

Day 3- Finally Baking!

A more eventful day, the kind most of us pastry students are used to. Chef demoed how to clarify butter, which if you have ever mass produced Stollen (a holiday bread that gets a generous coating of clarified butter and then sugar after baking) like I have, you know how to clarify butter and LOTS of it. And then he showed us how to saute apples, yawn...

As far as production goes, My partner and I made Apple Cupcakes (that weren't so "spiced").


The finished apple cakes were tender, slightly sweet, with little to no "spice" flavor (the recipe called for a pinch...) and tender slightly tart pieces of diced granny smith apples. And a caramelized top. Great with cream cheese frosting ( I must admit!).


And of course, the classic standby Butter Cookies. Piped out in various shapes, some dotted with raspberry jam, delicious! Tender and buttery little cookies.