The day I’ve been waiting for has finally arrived – the first of our chocolate recipes!

There were two recipes demonstrated – soufflé au chocolat (chocolate soufflé)  with crème glacée à la pistache (not ice cream) and chocolate sauce, and moelleux chocolat – a soft-centred chocolate cake with a vanilla crème brûlée filling. I was very excited for these to be finished because really, who wouldn’t be? I only know a couple of (weird) people who don’t like chocolate at all. Like they would never eat chocolate because chocolate is “disgusting”. Question: What’s better than a slice of chocolate cake? Answer: Warm chocolate cake.

 BUT… the soufflés were a failure! They were lopsided and the tops were cooked but everything below was a disaster. It spilled from the sides and made such a big mess. This was the first time that we had an unsuccessful recipe during the demos. I guess the chefs can’t always be perfect too. However, we couldn’t let all that chocolate go to waste, so we ate it anyway and it was still delicious and we wiped out everything. As for the moelleux chocolat, we were expecting something like a lava cake, but when it was cut, there was no flow at all. We all thought it tasted just like a brownie, so it was a little disappointing that we were making “brownies” this far into our course. This was a new recipe for the programme apparently, so I’m sure they will try to improve it.

For practical, we would be plating the moelleux chocolat with a vanilla mascarpone whipped cream quenelle and chocolate sauce. This was a pretty uneventful practical. The team leaders this week had to make the vanilla crème brûlée filling and chocolate sauce for the whole group, so we only had to make the chocolate cake batter. Someone else made the whipped cream too so… Yeah, nothing much to do! At the end, we simply plated our desserts. This was the first time ever making a quenelle, and the first time I did it, it was decent but the whipped cream was too soft and I decided to redo it again. It looked much better after the the cream was cooled a little.

Vanilla crème brûlée filling 

As I mentioned, it tasted more like a brownie. It was still delicious, but it was just that. I brought them home and refrigerated them, and actually, they taste better a couple of days after, and cold! Haha! What was I saying about warm chocolate cake? We didn’t get the molten centres, but Group A did. So jealous!

After this relatively easy-going practical, we had our written exam. I WAS SO PISSED OFF. We had been told that we would be tested on our theory lessons – eggs, milk, cream, butter, flour etc., but we got questions mostly on recipes that no one actually studied for. I only flipped through all the recipes once before the exam. Thankfully, I have quite an extraordinary memory (thanks, SMU). There were some problems with the questions that I wasn’t very happy about. As the paper is written in French and English, obviously I only bothered reading the English part of it. I remember there was a question about choux pastry, but they were referring to chouquettes and if you didn’t read the French version, you would’ve answered wrongly for sure. Fortunately, a caught that at the last moment and I changed my answer. Also, the last section was a little unfair because it was a list of French culinary terms that most non-French speaking students would struggle with. I made some intelligent guesses and I think I got everything right. I think. I hope! Will definitely feedback to the academic department.

Our 7pm lesson was a demo for another cake. Chocolate. Again. At this point, we were all pretty tired as we had started the day at 8am. The Alhambra cake is a chocolate cake named after a place in Spain. It consists of three layers of hazelnut sacher soaked in coffee syrup, and filled with dark chocolate ganache. It is then glazed with chocolate. Very chocolatey, very yum! I’ve had Sachertorte in Austria thrice, and not because it was good, but because I just had to. The first time I had it was when I just got to Graz with my mum and we went to Café Sacher. We both agreed that it was very underwhelming. The second time I had it was with Cindy in Vienna at the original Hotel Sacher. It was even drier than the one we had in Graz. The third time I had it was with DJ in Graz again. Still, we were not impressed. Then Alex sent me an entire Sachertorte via post from Austria and I had it in my freezer for quite some time. I decided to heat it up one day, just for fun, and actually, it’s pretty nice when it’s warm! This is another cake which is just famous because of the story behind it. I don’t think I’ll ever eat it again. I might make my own though.

Ok, so anyhow, this cake was so good! I can say that it is one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve ever had. I loved the hazelnut sacher sponge. It was not dry at all, even without the imbibing syup, it was still moist and tender. I think I was really wowed by it because the quality of chocolate used was excellent. I believe we were using Cacao Barry in class that day. I’m also a big fan of dark chocolate. I’m one of those people who loves to tell anyone who tells me that white chocolate is their favourite that white chocolate isn’t even chocolate. What a snob. I know.

Tomorrow, we make our Alhambra. I can’t wait!

We had a scheduled chef meeting on Wednesday which was postponed from last week. The purpose of the meeting was to find out how well we’ve done thus far – we were given our grade out of 5, taking into account six or seven practicals. However, the session also included some time for us to give feedback to the chef regarding our experience in Le Cordon Bleu over the past few weeks. In turned out to be almost an hour of complaints (mostly). Le Cordon Bleu has its flaws. I knew this before I came to Paris and I’m sure it’s quite a well known fact. You just have to speak to a couple of students and you will hear the same things. Small lockers, chefs don’t speak English, chefs don’t give adequate feedback etc. I shall not make public my annoyance with certain aspects of school, because just as no one is perfect, no institute is perfect either. If you want my honest opinion, please feel free to ask me privately 🙂

After the meeting, we had a quick brunch at Starbucks before returning to school for our demo. We were taught quite a few recipes –macarons à la framboise (raspberry macarons), macarons à la pistache (pistachio macarons), moelleux caramel (soft caramel tea cakes), sablés orange amandes (orange and almond shortbreads) and sablés pochés (piped shortbread biscuits). I am pretty firm about my dislike of macarons. In my lifetime, I only remember two instances that I’ve ever liked them – the first time I ate a macaron was a rose-flavoured one in Singapore at the  Grand Hyatt’s Mezza9, and the macarons that I ate at Pierre Hermé. Pierre Hermé has the best macarons in the world, at least to me. When I try a better one, I’ll let the world know! I didn’t fancy the macarons made during demo. I especially hate pistachio-flavoured desserts that use pistachio paste or essence. Guys, let’s agree that pistachios don’t taste like that. It’s just like almond extract; it sucks. I rather eat the raw pistachios and almonds! The caramel tea cakes were so-so, but both sablés were the best.

For practical, we had to make raspberry macarons and the piped shortbread cookies. We use the French method (#becauseFrance) for the macarons, which means whisking egg whites and sugar to a meringue and folding in the dry ingredients until the right consistency is reached – macaronage. The recipe we have is not a “tant pour tant” macaron base recipe (equal parts of ground almonds and icing sugar). We started by preparing our templates first. The chef gave us a few to trace onto baking paper. Then we started on our batter and piped them out onto the sheets, tapped the trays a few times, and allowed the macarons to crust before baking them. We then made our ganache à la framboise (white chocolate raspberry ganache) and our piped shortbread cookies with an chocolate praline filling.

When the macarons were out of the oven, I looked at mine and was extremely disappointed. I thought the colour wasn’t vibrant enough, and that they were flat and some misshapen. Some of my classmates had made their macaron batter too red by accident, but after baking they came out a nice fuchsia. Mine were a like browned pink – picture that. When it was time to fill them, my ganache had not cooled enough and we were running out of time, so I asked the chef for his opinion about the consistency of it. He told me to whisk it more so that it would thicken, but instead, the ganache split and it looked so lumpy and disgusting! What a disaster!

Raspberry macarons

I think you can see how horrible they look. Actually, the photo makes them look better than in reality! I hadn’t realised that I had used a bigger template that we were not supposed to refer to. So although my macaronage was ok (according to the chef), it was only suitable for macarons which were smaller. He didn’t make any comments about my split ganache though. That was surprising.

Fortunately, my piped shortbread cookies were much better.

I love it when we use praline! We combined chocolate and praline for the filling and I really love this cookie. I think it is super simple to make and it isn’t too sweet. The texture is nice and crisp, and the filling just balances out the flavour really well.

Anyway, I went home super depressed about my macarons because the thought of me using the wrong sized template was just so ARGH! You would think that if there was one place where you would learn to make perfect macarons would be in a culinary school in France. HAH. A lot of people didn’t think that the recipe was good too. Disappointing…

I still don’t like macarons. Maybe I’ll go to Pierre Hermé to cheer myself up.

We had six straight hours of practical in the morning. Our brioche and croissant doughs were frozen over the weekend and moved to the refrigerator to ferment on Monday, ready for our practical on Tuesday.

We had our lesson in the boulangerie practical room, St Honoré (the patron saint of bakers). They have a beautiful wooden work top and fancy proofing chambers and ovens. We started by weighing out individual portions of our brioche dough so that we could make brioche à tête and some bigger loafs as well. The brioche dough had risen a lot and looked like it was going to rip through the plastic wrap! I enjoyed shaping them. It is a little tricky because the dough is quite sticky, but after a while, I did get a hang of it. The brioche à tête is really adorable. I think it’s my favourite one. However, because they are quite small, they turn stale by the next day.

Brioche à tête

Brioche parisienne

 Brioche nantaise

For our croissants, we had to complete our turns with butter before we cut and shaped them. We also made pain au chocolat with our croissant dough, and the chef made pain aux raisins.

Croissants

I made a big mistake with my croissant dough. I rolled them out too thin and so they didn’t have the size or grandeur of the others in class. I was super disappointed. The croissants made in class are really big though. We seldom see croissants that big in Singapore. Dough-wise everything was ok. I guess I have to work on the shaping next time.

This was all everything that we made in those six hours. I can’t tell you how much butter we used that day. It’s disgusting. I smelled like butter by the end of the class.

Of course, mine were not perfect, but other than the croissants, I didn’t think that they were that bad. The chef gave me three out of four sad faces for the evaluation, which means he failed me. I just don’t understand why! I thought it was really unfair. Honestly, I feel like he had a problem with me because once in the class, he told me to do something in French and I had no idea what he was saying; I simply smiled and looked around expecting someone to translate what he had said for me. He then said something rude to me and that really surprised me. Anyway, I made a complaint yesterday during our chef’s meeting about that chef. I hope they do something about it. I don’t want to be penalised this harshly because I really don’t think I deserve those marks.

I gave all of my brioche and croissants to a homeless lady who I see almost everyday near my place. I only saved a quarter of a loaf of brioche for myself.

After the six hours of practical, we had another six hours to go. This was the first 8am to 10pm day we had, and it was super tiring! We had a demo for dacquoise right after. I didn’t even have time to eat my lunch. I just ate a little bit of the white chocolate-lime brioche before the demo.

Dacquoise is a cake which is made with ground almonds and a meringue. I don’t really like to call it a cake though. It is pretty sweet on its own, but with a layer of cream it tastes much better. The dacquoise we had to make for practical was to be filled with crème au beurre pralinée (praline buttercream). I like French buttercream more and more. I don’t think I want to make Swiss or Italian meringue buttercream anymore. It is not as sweet, and it is richer due to the egg yolks used instead of just egg whites. For decoration, we would make a marzipan rose and leaves.

Dacquoise

I did not like the dacquoise when I ate it during demo because I found it too sweet. But after refrigeration, it does taste a little better. I think the texture of the dacquoise improves overnight. Or maybe it’s just me? I also prefer when the buttercream is cold and firm.

I have to improve on my marzipan rose. Mine was not as delicate as they should have been. Chef makes really beautiful ones and I hope I can make them as nice someday.

And finally, the end of the most tiring day ever.

We had another theory lesson today. This time it was about dairy products such as milk, cream and butter. These are some of the most important ingredients in French pastry and baking in general. Of course, I feel that the quality of dairy products here in Paris is so much better than what we have in Singapore. I am most upset about butter though. The good ones in Singapore are usually really expensive. For some recipes, the quality of the products is extra important. Take for example, bread. The quality of the flour is an important factor that will impact the quality of the final product. Chef also mentioned chocolate, and how the quality of the chocolate would affect a dessert such as mousse au chocolat. This was quite an interesting lesson. I know to some it may seem a little boring, but I am always interested in learning about how these products are produced, how they affect the taste and texture of food, and what are the options available to us.

After our theory class, we had a demo on Écossais (Scottish log),  brioche and croissant dough. The Scottish log is a cake made with two batters – one vanilla and the other chocolate. The chocolate dacquoise is hidden in the middle of the cake. It was quite yummy. I now appreciate cakes with less sugar 😛

The brioche and croissant dough preparation was quite difficult to understand. I’m not very experienced with viennoiseries. I have made some bread before, but not brioche, and croissant is almost impossible to do back home. The boulangerie chef took us for the demo class and of course, he insisted it isn’t as difficult as we think. But from the little experience that I have, kneading can be quite challenging. For practical on Friday, we have to do the croissant dough by hand, and the brioche in the machine. Brioche dough is very sticky and supple, so the chef doesn’t want us to make a big mess probably. And also because it will take a long time to do it. We will do the Scottish log, and prepare the two doughs which we will then be folding and shaping before baking them off on Tuesday next week. Group A is completing their croissant and brioche on Saturday. I guess it’s because they have a lack of boulangerie chefs in the school at the moment.

Tomorrow is Bastille Day, which is France’s national day. I’m sure there will be quite a bit of festivities around the city. Not sure what I will be doing. I wanted to hold a little picnic along the Seine, but that is subject to the weather for now! I’m pretty tired at the moment. Had to do some work for my tea project. Not sure if I should head out now for the Firemen’s Ball!

We had two days off – Sunday and Monday, and I was feeling pretty recharged for the new school week.

On Monday, I went out with a friend to see some of the specialty kitchen stores. In the last two weeks, I have lost quite a few things – paring knife, bench scraper and pastry brush. The paring knife was the most heartbreaking, because it costs 36 Euros. ):

I felt like a kid in a candy store. I really wanted to buy everything there! All the stores are in the same area, but most are on the same street – Rue Montmatre. The list of stores we visited: Deco Relief, Mora, A.Simons, Dehillerin and La Bovida. We got off at the metro stop Etienne Marcel and all are within walking distance.

We walked quite a bit after, and did some shopping along Rue de Rivoli. The stores everywhere are having sales now, so we managed to snag some footwear at half price! We stopped for dinner at Les Deux Palais.

I had the Croque Madame – that awesome “sandwich” with gruyere, ham and a fried egg. Oh man, it was so good! We sat and chatted for almost 3 hours before heading home. It was a good day!

On Tuesday, we had an internship talk in the morning. This was for students who are considering doing an internship at the end of the superior course. I have no idea when I will be able to finish the entire course – hopefully next year. The school assists students with looking for an internship at either a hotel, restaurant, bistro, brasserie, catering company, pâtisserie, ice cream shop, chocolatier or boulangerie. Alternatively, students can also look for their own. I don’t know if I will ever do an internship here. I guess a part of me really wants to because France is, to me, the best place to learn. Of course, there will be some places which only make you peel apples or do some mundane tasks, but if you manage to find the right place – jackpot!

In the afternoon, we were going to make another cake – a Fraisier, which is another French classic, made with two  layers of génoise soaked in kirsch syrup and filled with fresh strawberries and crème mousseline. We then roll out a thin layer of marzipan to top. It is definitely one of the prettiest cakes around! During the demo, Chef made it look pretty easy; easier than the Moka at least.

When it was time for practical, I have no idea whether it was just me, but everyone was moving extra fast and I ended up being one of the slowest. When people were done with their cake, I had only just started assembling mine! I felt super pressured, so I rushed and I don’t think I did the best I could’ve.

Fraisier

Inside the Fraisier

I had a couple of strawberries which were not flat against the side, so now the cream was covering a small part of the berries. However, once I peeled the plastic wrap off, the cream also came off and the cake looked so much better. I wish I pushed the strawberries down a little more; it would make the proportions look better.

The chef who took us for demo was really encouraging. She is the only female chef in school, and I really admire her! She’s very observant, helpful and motivating. Usually, the chefs don’t really bother with us during the practical, letting us do our thing until the end (unless we are endangering our lives or seriously struggling). However, she goes around and takes note of what each of us is doing and she either corrects or praises us for our good work. Really, she’s great! This was the first time we had her for practical. At the end of the lesson, she told us that she was honestly very impressed by our group’s organisation and speed. The chef next door who was in charge of the other group walked into our class and he was so shocked that we had already finished, while the other group was so much slower. I heard from my friend in the other group that he went back to them and told them that there must be something wrong because we were already finished and they were much behind. So maybe, just maybe, my group has more experienced people? So I’m not wrong to feel stressed in this group, right?

For our next lesson, we will be learning how to make brioche and croissant dough! Here come the viennoiseries!

After the success of my Paris-Brest the day before, I was both stoked as well as nervous about making the Moka. The Moka is a traditional French gâteau. It is coffee-flavoured and doesn’t have any chocolate in it. Why is called mocha then? Is the single chocolate-covered coffee bean enough to warrant it’s name? It should just be called gâteau au café, no?

Chef Olivier brought us through the demo class. He made three cakes in the three hours. The Moka is made of three layers of génoise imbibed in coffee syrup, and frosted with coffee-flavoured French buttercream. The sides are then covered with caramelised almonds. This was the first time we would be using our thermometers for practical. I use thermometers at home for making buttercream, so this was not new to me. However, we were using it for the syrup, for the final temperature of the “sabayon” and the buttercream. This was the most technical recipe thus far. Anything and everything could go wrong. From the whipping of the batter for the genoise, to the buttercream, to the almonds, to the piping.

We had to whip the genoise batter sufficiently, otherwise we wouldn’t have tall enough a cake to cut three layers from. Mine barely made it, but I know there were some others who hardly had a third layer. The next component I was worried about was the buttercream. I was a little slower than the majority (as usual), so almost everyone around me didn’t have sufficient buttercream to fill and frost their cakes. We all had the same recipe, so once again it came down to how much volume we were able to incorporate while whipping. This was challenging because we had to whisk vigorously for an extended amount of time. My arms were so tired. I blame my height. If only I were taller, or had a stool!

Fortunately, I had enough buttercream to both fill and frost my cake. Chef had to make extra buttercream for the rest, but because he didn’t have the time to make it the same way as ours, it came out really pale, unlike our buttercream which was a darker brown. I was able to pipe my shell border rather decently. Glad all that frosting cake back home helped again. The thing I did struggle with was making the pattern on the top of the cake with the serrated knife. It didn’t come out like how Chef Olivier showed us. Mine had larger chevrons and definitely wasn’t regular like his.

Moka

A pretty ok job I believe. When Chef was evaluating our cakes, he made us cut out a slice to see the interior. He told me that I hadn’t imbibed the genoise enough with syrup; that I should brush both sides of the sponge with coffee syrup. However, this was not how we were taught in demo, so once again, the chefs weren’t on the same page. However, someone told him at the end that the demo chef didn’t do that, and even showed him a photo of the cake from demo. So he understood why everyone’s cake was not well imbibed. I didn’t particularly like this cake very much because it’s a little too sweet. Maybe less syrup was a good thing. Or maybe don’t caramelised the almonds. French buttercream is also very rich because it is made out of egg yolks, unlike Swiss or Italian meringue buttercream, which are made out of egg whites.

The course is definitely getting more interesting and challenging. I can’t imagine we started with diamants and in a span of less than two weeks, we are already making such elaborate things. In the next couple of weeks, we will be making super fancy stuff like charlottes which I’ve never made before. I really can’t wait. I’m not as tired as I was last week too. I think I’ve gotten used to the hours and the intensity of it.

In the past week, the weather has really become much warmer. It is finally summer in Paris and I am both loving and hating it. Mornings are cool, and I can walk to school comfortably but once it’s the afternoon, I am literally perspiring after a minute or two of walking in the sun. The week before, I was cold and miserable at night, especially the two days the water heater wasn’t working and I was dying in the shower. I didn’t have warm enough clothes for sleeping and my feet were cold and clammy. Now, all I want to do is wear a tank top, shorts and slippers when I go out!

Today is Sunday and I met Léa, whom I met in Graz while on exchange. We had really delicious French galettes (not the pie but crêpe) at La Crêperie de Josselin. I forgot to take photos but it didn’t look very appetising anyway. I ordered the original and it was such a generous portion that I think I only finished slightly over half of it. The original is filled with ham, cheese, eggs and mushroom. It was très délicieux! It was great catching up. Exchange is really a wonderful thing. You get to meet such amazing people and you still meet up whenever you’re in their homeland.

I’m going to enjoy my Sunday alone. I did my laundry, vacuumed the floor and for the first time in my life, I cleaned the toilet. I know, I’ve been pampered. Tonight is the Euro finals and I’m pretty sure the whole city will be going crazy. I already saw lots of people in their jerseys and flags on the streets. Will try to go for a run along the Seine later too and see what’s happening around here!

This morning, we had to recreate the Paris-Brest from demo. The Paris-Brest is a very beautiful looking dessert. Two rings of pâte à choux (choux pastry) are piped, with one sprinkled with flaked almonds. They are baked, then the bigger ring is sliced in half and filled with noisettes caramelisées (caramelised hazelnuts), the smaller ring and crème mousseline pralinée (praline mousseline cream).

We first start with our pâte à choux, and while that is in the oven, we start on our crème pâtissière (pastry cream). Basically, crème mousseline is pastry cream that is enriched with butter. Some call it German buttercream. Someone please enlighten me how buttercreams such as Swiss, Italian and German got their names! Anyhow, this is a very delicious buttercream. Mmm… all that butter.

We also had to caramelise hazelnuts. This was, to me, the most delicious part of the Paris-Brest. Because it is hidden underneath the crème mousseline, it is quite a pleasant surprise and gives a good contrast in textures. I was snacking on the leftover caramelised  hazelnut after class!

Somehow, I managed to produce a very nice looking Paris-Brest. I’ve always loved decorating cakes with buttercream, so all that practice definitely worked in my favour today as Chef complimented my Paris-Brest. He even measured its dimensions and took photos for reference. Of course, I felt very proud and happy inside, but I didn’t want to show it in case people thought I was damn haolian or something! Haha. I had classmates tell me that my Paris-Brest was the most beautiful today. I seem to have had some luck with pâte à choux over the past two days.

Cross section of Paris-Brest

I will need to whip the crème mousseline over ice for longer next time because it wasn’t as stiff as it should’ve been. The piping would’ve been much neater and more defined if my crème mousseline was colder. Some people ran out of cream because they did not whip it long enough to give it more volume. As usual, we had to whip my hand and my arms were already sore from exercising the day before. I swear my arms are getting bigger.

As you can see, there is an extra layer of choux pastry in the middle. This is to give a better ratio of pastry to cream. Otherwise, it would be cream overkill! I wouldn’t complain though. I love the cream a lot! The caramelised hazelnuts also give a good crunch. There is a generous amount sprinkled at the bottom.

I ate half of it myself. Oops 😛

I met WZ this afternoon for an Asian lunch followed by a drink at Starbucks. It’s really amazing how well we click though it’s really just the first time we’ve met. Thoroughly enjoyed speaking in Singlish and talking a whole lot of shit for almost three hours. Hehe! Nice to have company now 🙂

I had to go back to school for a theory class which ended earlier than we expected. We learnt about different kinds of flour and how wheat is milled, parts of the grain etc. Quite interesting, and definitely got me even more interested in boulangerie. I think it is really amazing how the French are so particular about their flours and have all these types which are so formally named Type 45, 55, 65 etc. To think we only have flours like all-purpose, cake, self-raising, bread and Hong Kong flour in Singapore. We are getting all the inferior stuff!

I’ll be attending a 6 hour bread-making course later this month so I can make legit bread for my grandpa. I will only be making croissants, pain au chocolat and brioche in the basic patisserie course.

Tomorrow, we will be making Moka (mocha cake). It will definitely be the most complex thing we have made. Can’t wait!

 

We started our day early, much to my dismay. I had to drag myself out of bed today because it was so cold, and I knew the heater was not working. I even considered not taking a shower. I braced myself, counted to three and poured cold water all over myself.

Today, we worked on a different kind of puff. Pâte à choux, or choux pastry, is the pastry dough used to make some of our favourite French desserts – chouquettes, éclairs, choux à la crème, Paris Brest and religieuses just to name a few. We would be learning how to make chouquettes, éclairs au chocolat, religieuses au café and choux craquants chantilly vanille for our first demo. The religieuses are really interesting. They translate to “religious nuns” in French. Google “religieuse” and maybe, just maybe, you will see it.

For practical, we would be making the chouquettes (small choux pastry buns sprinkled with nib sugar) and choux craquants chantilly vanille (cream puffs topped with craquelin and whipped cream). We all thought that it would’ve made more sense for us to make éclairs instead of the chouquettes because éclairs are so much more popular and sellable.

Choux pastry can be a little tricky. Chef showed us how to dry out the dough over the stove and then how much eggs to add. The thing about recipes is that when they give you a certain weight of a particular ingredient, you tend to add all of it. However, for choux pastry, you really have to eyeball it. Adding a little of the eggs at a go will ensure you do not add too much liquid. If the dough is too runny, you have to start all over again. And that’s exactly what happened to some in practical. Chef made really beautiful choux pastry. The choux craquants are really exceptional. The contrast between the crispy shell and the soft whipped cream is to die for!

For our practical, we started with our choux craquants, making the craquelin first, then the pâte à choux. I was a little concerned initially that I had piped the dough out too small, because the craquelin that sat on top almost completely covered the dough. However, it came out pretty ok. I decided to fill the choux craquants with the extra crème chantilly because I found it odd eating such a big choux pastry without any filling in it.

While the choux craquants were baking, we piped our little chouquettes and sprinkled them with nib sugar. The chouquettes were trickier to pipe because Chef wanted them really small. All of mine were too big, although I personally thought they were small enough. Chef said that my smallest chouquette is the biggest a chouquette should ever be. Haha!

My final work:

Choux craquants chantilly vanille

Filled with crème chantilly

Although I didn’t feel like my choux craquants were all that great, Chef actually said that they were almost perfect. I just needed to ensure all of them were the same size. He used my piping as an example to the class as well. Me and piping! It’s really something I enjoy doing. Anyway, that was enough to make my day.

Chouquettes

My chouqettes, as mentioned, were a little too big. I think I will use a small piping tip the next time round because the PF16 is too big and difficult to work with. I don’t think my chouquettes were baked all the way through either. But I couldn’t do anything, because it is the chefs that control the oven. I threw all of them away after taking this photo! What a waste.

We had a second demo at 3.30pm, where Chef taught us how to make Paris Brest and Saint Honoré. For practical tomorrow morning, we will be making just the Paris Brest. I kind of wish that we had the opportunity to make the Saint Honoré too. I think it is quite complex, especially the aesthetics. I guess that is one recipe I must try out when I’m back in Singapore!

Till tomorrow!

Last night I had a terrible ordeal with moths in my apartment. The previous night, there was a moth that flew right into a lamp and it burnt in the heat. There was even smoke. Yesterday, while I was blogging, a huge ass moth flew right in front of me and then towards the toilet. I panicked. Do not laugh at me, please. I have a phobia of butterflies and moths. I was born with it. I told my friend and she couldn’t stop laughing at me! Anyway, I quickly shut the door because I didn’t want it flying back into the bedroom area. Unfortunately, that meant that the moth couldn’t get out of the apartment because there is no window in that part of the apartment. It flew into my wardrobe. I opened the door quickly and hit the wardrobe to scare it out. It flew out and I quickly shut the wardrobe door, as well as the door dividing that corner of the apartment from the bedroom. Then I spotted another moth, but it was quite tiny so I grabbed the broom and chased after it. I managed to kill it. Phew, or so I thought. When I went to take a look at the bigger moth, it had disappeared. Like WTF?! Where did it go? It must have gone into the toilet, right? After about five minutes, I finally mustered enough courage to open the door and went into the toilet. But nope, it wasn’t there. I still have no idea where it is! I slept with my hoodie over my head and my blanket up to my eyes last night. I was so afraid that it would fly into my face in the middle of the night. This morning, after doing some research, I went to the mall and bought some cedar incense. Apparently, moths hate the smell of cedar. Sigh. So upset about it.

Ok. Back to school. We had demo on Pithiviers, Galette des Rois (Three King’s cake) and Sacristains (puff pastry twists). Once again, we were working with puff pastry. Pithiviers are filled with crème d’amande (almond cream), Galette des Rois with frangipane, which is a mixture of crème d’amande and crème pâtissière (pastry cream), and the puff pastry twists are made with the trimmings of the pithiviers and Galette des Rois. Chef remade a new batch of palmiers for us too because of yesterday’s mishap with the salt. They were so delicious. Palmiers are seriously addictive. I had to give mine away this morning because it was a hazard to my waistline.

Practical was right after demo class, and we were to make a pithivier and the puff pastry twists. The pithiviers were relatively easy to make. The only tricky part is scoring it decoratively and making the petals around. I like the look of smaller petals, so I made mine smaller. For the puff pastry twists, we sprinkled nibbed sugar and chopped almonds with some ground cinnamon before twisting.

Pithivier

Pithivier – Crème d’amande filling

Sacristains

I was not too happy with both my pithivier and the puff pastry twists. The scoring was not well done and the petals were not regular. Chef said the number of petals was good, but they just need to be of equal size. I also used a little too much egg wash, so the definition was not great. For the puff pastry twists, I should have used less sugar when I did the fifth turn. When they came out of the oven, there was quite a bit of melted sugar on the baking sheet. Well, now I know what I should do in future!

This is the last of puff pastry for now and we are moving on to pâte à choux for next lesson! Can’t wait to make some chouquettes and choux craquants!