The end of cookie cookin'

So, cookies & petit fours finally came to an end thursday and i was sort of happy to see it go. For our practical we had two days to complete it. My group was assigned to do our petit fours the first day (the day AFTER we had just done them) and they didn't go so well... the room was exceptionally cold and the vent was blowing right on my work. Then the fondant was too thin and then it was too thick...it just didn't go well. Fondant is not my thing (nor many other of my classmates). I took my time and in the end my partner and i were able to finish our petit fours as well as our madelines.

Day two, I was happy to have finished the most stressful part already and could was free to just bake.

We first created our french macaroons again. Pistachio yet again, finished with raspberry jam. Yummy. They baked better than the first time we made them and had more uniform feet, even though I will admit my piping was less than uniform...

Pistachio French Macaroons

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We also created hazelnut "S"s sandwiched together with apricot jam, harlequins finished with raspberry jam, biscotti, butter cookies and my personal creation chocolate chip pistachio cookies (YUMMMMMY).

With our colored marzipan we had to make a rose spray on top of all the baking.

Pictures of Practical Production

So one more segment left until the summer. Nine more class days until my freshmen year is over, and to be honest i'm ready to go home. I can only guess what kind of blogging the summer will bring, but I know that I am going to make the best out of my last lab for the year. Hot and Cold desserts with one of my already favorite chefs, I am so excited. What a way to end the year, not to mention my birthday :) Did I mention I won't be back to JWU until the winter trimester? more on that later...

Where did the time go? Well, until Monday night Bloggers.

Cookie Tales

So, I know it's been awhile since I've posted but i got sick over the weekend and I've been putting my school work ahead of blogging too ( i know...dedication). Also, I just really can't stand this class!! (but it's over!!!! more on that later)

Honestly, some of it was fun...but some not so much... i'm only going to share the fun stuff.

French Macaroons

The world seems to be obsessed with french macaroons lately and I myself had never had one before but they always peaked my interest. My partner and I chose pistachio which lately I have been mildly obsessed with.

To start, whip the egg whites very slowly with a pinch of cream of tarter towards the beginning. Just gradually and slowly add the sugar to the egg whites, this whole process should be about 10 minutes. This will create a very strong meringue.

Meringue

Next, fold in your sifted nut flour (pistachio) and sifted powdered sugar. The mixture will deflate and is kind of melted marshmallow-y like. Use a small sized round tube and pipe from the side with even pressure. Pipe a small 1 inch round and let go of the pressure and lift off.

Piped Macaroons

Bake until firm and dry but have not cracked on the tops. They should have "feet". Sandwich two together with any desired filling. We tried ganache and raspberry jam ( the jam was better).

Finished Macaroons

Harlequins
These cookies are easy and cute. Cut out little rounds of short dough and on half of them punch out three little dots. Once baked Sandwich together with raspberry jam (dust with powdered sugar,if desired).

Arrachides

These are also the same little sized pieces of short dough. Instead the tops are criss-crossed with a fork like any other peanut butter cookie and then egg white washed. Sandwich these with peanut butter swiss butter cream and dip in chocolate part way.

Hazelnut "S"

Yet another simple, simple cookie. The dough...any nut flour ( this case hazelnut) corn syrup and egg whites. Pipe into one inch "S" shapes. Bake until lightly golden. And sandwich together with apricot jam.

Japonaise

This one, is a meringue like batter, and piped into an oval shape.

Bake until dry and very lightly browned. Sandwich together with mocha butter cream and top with a rosette of butter cream.

Finished Japonaise

Coming next.....Petit Fours and the nightmare that they are....

Oh, to be a cookie monster...

So, my cookies class has started. And to be honest...its a little lackluster.

A lot of the things we have made are sort of everyday or just okay. Not to mention we have yet to have a demo.

I've decided I am only going to blog about the "highlights" of the day, Also I may combine class days (as I am for Monday and Tuesday of this week).

So on Monday we made Pecan Fudge Brownies, finished with ganache. When I say fudge, I mean FUDGE. They were so dense, chewy and buttery like the fudge candy.

Fudgey-Fudge Brownie Batter

Applying the Ganache Fudgey-Fudge Brownies

Finished Fudgey-Fudge Brownies

Hazelnut Biscotti

Biscotti, are a favorite of many to accompany their hot coffee or a cold glass of milk. These hard yet slightly chewy cookies, baked twice, can be made in a variety of flavors. We made hazelnut and dipped them in both dark and white chocolate.

Once the dough is made, it is formed into long thin logs and baked until firm but with little to no color.

1st bake-Biscotti

They are then sliced on a biased and baked again at a lower temp (325 F) until dried and golden brown. The thicker you cut them the less dry and hard they will be come. Once cooled, if desired dip in chocolate.

Dipped Hazelnut Biscotti

We also made short dough (1-2-3 dough), lined a half sheet with it and par-baked it. My group made lemon bars and they were soooo gross,everyone's were the same...SUPER EGGY! And some other groups made pecan (or walnut) diamonds. Those were a lot more appetizing.

We also made linzer dough...again. And made a linzer bar out of it using the same method as with the linzer torte. Dough, raspberry jam, strips of dough. And again...not my favorite. I did like the trimmed edges where it was mostly dough and just a touch of jam. Making thumbprint cookies out of this dough would be good, I think. We also made marzipan to be shaped later on, that i am kinda excited about. I wanna make a pineapple, a penguin, ladybug and maybe hello kitty (we shall see!

My partner and I rapidly made our madelines and had to un-mold them at the very end of class, even after the cleaning (this was because of the lack of ample pans and they were such a pain in the neck to clean!). So needless to say, i didn't take any pictures of them. oh well.

Me, being the fatty that I am, could not let those brownies go without being consumed with some vanilla icecream...so my roommate and our friend had sundaes after class today! Yummmmmmmy :D

Pastry Cream Blissfulness.

Day 4

Friday class....nobody likes those. BLEH and you can almost guarantee a good portion of the class is skipping (here at Jwu we don't believe in Fridays). We also had a "sub" chef today and will also on Monday and Tuesday. Lecture lasted longer than usual on topics we all have heard several times before, and in greater depth during baking science.

Two words, Pastry Cream.
For those of you who have never come across this before (or at least a well made one). It is absolute heaven. It's like the best vanilla pudding you will ever have...buttery and decadent, spotted with vanilla bean. And most pastry students are obsessed with it.
Chef gave us a demo on pastry cream (which we all already knew how to make...)

Pastry Cream Mise en Place

Chef Demo

Then Chef Demoed how to core and prepare a pear for poaching.
Here's mine...

The Poaching liquid was equal parts water and red wine, with sugar, cinnamon sticks and a few cloves. It smelled wonderful.

After they boiled in the liquid for a while, and came out a blush pink, we cooled the pear and the liquid and stored them together in the fridge to marry together further over the weekend.

We also had to make Carrot cookies....which were odd to say the least, and ended up being like little bite size pieces of bland carrot cake.

We also finished our butter cookies by dipping them in tempered chocolate, you should hear the snap on that chocolate!


And on a slightly savory note, our Chef took all the potatoes we spent all that time practicing with on the first day of class, and made us mashed potatoes. They were gooooood.