Sometimes....your frangipane just falls on the floor.

So today, was day 9 of Pies & Tarts. Practical Day.

Our mission:
One Lemon Meringue Pie finished with a meringue

One Chocolate Cream Pie finished with chantilly cream

6 Ganache Tartlets finished with chantilly

6 Frangipane Tartlets finished with powdered sugar

6 Chocolate Cream Tartlets finished with chantilly cream

All finished with appropriate garnishes. All while fighting over ovens, bowls, and ingredients.

While this practical was FAR more relaxed than almost any other one I have done. It was still stressful and on top of it all, I was chef of the day (which means basically I have to take care of all the log and sanitation crap that has to be done hourly).

So after running around doing my duties, I rolled out my blind crusts and had to wait to put them in our assigned oven because it was occupied by others' smaller items (that could have waited!). Not only do the blind shells take longer but they have to cool before you use them and you can't start your fillings before hand really, its best (for presentation) to dump the filling in right away. So, I was stressing about that...and did little jobs while I was waiting for the shells to bake. AND THEN....my poor little frangipane tartlets (that looked very nice) were sitting on a half sheet on a rolling rack when my friend accidentally took a full sheet pan tried to put it where my pan was and knocked them off....onto the floor. And when everyone was shouting "whose are these"...I knew...they were mine. And sure enough they were...

And I am somewhat ashamed to say this, but my classmates backed me up on this...I cried. I cried like two year old whose painting got accidentally smashed my her older brother. And then even when I knew it was silly and pointless for me to get upset, I kept on crying. Then crying and laughing. (I felt bad because my friend felt really guilty too) In the end, I wasn't penalized and she had to remake them for me, with dough and someones left over filling. So once that was all over, I got back into the swing of things, our time limit was extended and all went well.

Yet, while we were all working ANOTHER half sheet of tartlets DOWN...ON THE GROUND (that definitely made my friend feel better about dumping mine). And then later, another girl kinda accidentally smashed another girls pretty piping on her cream pie.

Lesson learned: Never use a half sheet on your practical day.

My Practical Results!

But all's well that ends well. I think I did very well, and handled it all quite well (even though I am a little embarrassed I cried for the first time during a practical, though I have been close before!). I am very sad to see this class go, my chef was AWESOME! And making pies was tons of fun. It really rejuvenated my enthusiasm in the kitchen as well as being at this school. I was doubting it all, until I started Pies & Tarts.

So, tomorrow starts Cookies & Petit Fours. However, I will not be going until Monday because I have to travel home for some family stuff.

So until Monday bloggers!

Pie overload...is NOT a bad thing...

It seems to me, that all I did in class on Thursday was finish pies and then eat them...

And much to YOUR dismay...that was basically true. We finished our lemon meringue pies with you guessed it...meringue and our cream pies with chantilly cream. We also made linzer dough (to be used for a linzer torte) and baked off some tartlet shells.

Linzer dough is a very strange dough. It has cake crumbs, lemon zest, glucose and ground toasted hazelnuts. We will use this dough next class. (Pictures another day.)

Finishing our Pies

To finish the lemon pie made the previous day, we created a common meringue with a one to one ratio (one part sugar to one part pasteurized egg whites). First we covered the whole pie with a heap of meringue and then piped up any design to peak in the middle. Sprinkle with sugar and torch to a deep golden brown. (It should smell like a campfire!)

Finishing the Lemon Meringue

My finished Lemon Meringue Pie

Finishing the Cream Pies

Spread an even layer of chantilly cream to cover the custard filling. And pipe any desired design using any desired garnishes (usually they match the filling).

My finished "Mounds" cream pie

(chocolate and coconut)

Panning Tartlets

Yes, tartlets are little baby tarts. SO CUTTTTTE, hows a girl not to love them? We used our Pate Sablee (or cookie dough), rolled it out to an eighth of an inch and cut a piece slightly larger than the tartlet pan. Using a balled up piece of dough, press the dough into every crevice of the lightly greased pan. Turn the pan over and press to cut the excess dough.Dock the dough and bake until barely golden on the edges. Cool before filling.

Panning the Tartlets

When I talk about pie overload, I MEAN it... we cut up at least FOUR pies on Thursday. I ate three (sorta small...) pieces. One was chocolate peanut butter cream,one was chocolate/vanilla cream and another was coconut. They also had out the lemon one but I was a little reluctant with all of that meringue and jello like texture.

Our pie buffet...(jealous?)