Adv Pastry: Week 6

 Almond Macaroons with Cocoa Nibs, Chocolate Ganache with Earl Grey

 Petit Four with Chocolate Glaze and Gold Leaf

Mini Dobos Torte, Toasted Almonds, Chocolate Buttercream, Isomalt (sugar) with Cocoa Nibs

Adv Pastry: Week 6

Chocolate

Did I mention I just LOVE chocolate with a capital L. It is as close to painting as I have found. And you will notice I have taken to this new medium with gusto.

Adv Pastry: Week 5

This Toffee covered in semi sweet chocolate and toasted almonds was probably the best I ever tasted.

The Almond Brittle with cinnamon was so good, I'll have to  remember that one.

The Semi Sweet leaf shaped Bon Bon has a warm gold Luster Dust on it that is just so subtle and beautiful. It is also filled with Blackcurrant filling.

The Milk Chocolate Art Deco Bon Bon has an Orange Truffle filling made with orange zest and Grand Marnier.

Chocolate Week was amazing! We learned how to temper chocolate over and over again. I thought I had the hang of it and then I lost it and started ruining chocolate left and right. So I had to use my temperature gauge and then buy a new one once my chewy caramel came out too soft. My temperature gauge was off my 2 or 3 degrees, but it makes a difference when trying to make sugar melt just right. 

Adv Pastry: Week 4

 

This is a poached pear in red wine and spices that gives it that yummy hue. A phyllo crisp made with honey and cinnamon, whipped heavy cream with vanilla bean and a plum from the reduced red wine sauce. It tasted amazing!

Unfortunately, this is what I consider a failed plated dessert. The scale is too similar and the caramel should arc around to the the front of the plate. I wish the red wine sauce from the macerated plum didn't run towards the pear but pooled around the plum as I had originally meant. Earlier we did a lot of group plating which I found frustrating. But I learned a lot. And sometimes in the rush to present, everything can't be worked out in class.

Adv Pastry: Week 3

This is pretty straight out of the camera.

  

This is with Scott's magic in photoshop

 If you can imagine this, we filled little water balloons with air and dipped them into tempered chocolate. Then refrigerated for about 10 minutes and tried not to pop the balloon when releasing the air. It made these lovely little molded cups. I placed a flourless chocolate cake, cut out with a circle cookie cutter, a dollop of chocolate cappuccino mousse, whipped cream and a shard of chocolate. The sauce on the plate is Balsamic Vinegar Blackberry Gastrique. I actually burned mine, but Chef gave me some from his demo.

Adv Pastry: Week 2

Feuille d'Automne: Leaves of Autumn

Week two is a bit of a blur. We made two team plates one with apples another with pineapple. They were okay. I think it's about learning how to make a lot of stuff and plate it in a pleasing way. I did practice some plating at home which gave me the confidence to work with caramel as in my photo above.

We made Dark Chocolate Bavarian and Japonaise Meringue discs and stacked them. Then we tempered some chocolate, cooled it, shaped it and wrapped it around the stack. I made some decorative shapes for the top then sprayed them with warm chocolate for a velvety effect. Not too bad for the first try.

I should mention we taste tested 18 different chocolates from cocoa nibs and mass to Manjari Chocolate from Madagascar to Belgium Milk Chocolate and Italian Hazelnut chocolate. It was an amazing experience!

Adv Pastry: Week 1

Crepes with Pomegranate Mousse, Creme Chantilly, Fresh Strawberries, Tuile Cookie.

Sabayon over mixed berries, lightly torched, powdered sugar.

The first week of Advanced Pastry Techniques was pretty cool. We made ice cream, caramel, Tuile cookies, Isomalt (sugar) blobs, chocolate sauce, macerated berries, mousse, crepes, Creme Chantilly quenelles (egg shape), and discussed plating techniques. Since it's been so visual, it's been my favorite week since starting at Le Cordon Bleu.

Cake: Day 25

Brasilia Cake with Nougatine top

Cake: Day 22

Carrot Cake and Marzipan Carrots

Cake: Day 21

Black Forest Gateau

Cake: Day 19

Dobos Torte with Chocolate French Buttercream.

Cake: Day 18

Genoise Birthday Cake with Italian Buttercream.

Cake: Day 16

Roses for Genoise Birthday Cake. Today I learned how to pipe a rose! It looks like the grocery store variety, but I will get better.

Cake: Day 15

Triple Chocolate Bavarois

Cake: Day 11

Charlotte Royale

Cake: Day Ten

Black Currant Mousse Cake

Cake: Day Nine

We work on so many things at once and I forget the names. But we did bake and freeze our stencil paste and cut them into strips to make Ribbon Sponge Cake.

Cake: Day Eight

On Wednesday we painted in cake paste, or technically stencil paste. We added colors and it was like painting. It was the most creative day so far.

Cake: Day Seven

Aftermath of a presentation. Red Raspberry Sorbet, Panna Cotta, Pot de Creme au Chocolat. Delicious!

Cake: Day Six

Red Raspberry Cassis Frozen Souffle

Cake: Day Five

Paris-Brest

A fancy donut with Praline and Whipped cream.

Cake: Day Four

Gateau St. Honore

Cake: Day Three

Today we rolled out our Pate Brisee and added Pate a Choux to it and baked it. We also baked the Paris-Brest and cream puffs. I finally finished the Crepes Suzette and they came out quite nice. Chef thought the color should have been darker by browning the sugar longer. Oh well, the sauce tasted quite good considering it was reeking of booze before I got to flambe it. Fire can be very, very nice. What a surprise!

Cake: Day Two

A more stressful day with two products to show. Chocolate Souffle: I over baked by two minutes, but considering my recipe didn't thicken as much as my classmates, I was so happy I did not get a zero for the day. I also made crepes but didn't have time to make the Sauce Suzette with the flambe. And Chef had the grace to give us until tomorrow. A satisfying day of sweating and accomplishing new things!

Cake: Day One

Mostly intro to the course and then we mised out for three recipes. And got out early!

Baking: Day 28

Final Exam. Final Gateau Pithivier and Palmiers.

Baking: Day 27

Product idea test. Prep for Final

Baking: Day 26

Strudel Demo. Prep for final.

Baking: Day 25

Napoleon Assembly

Baking: Day 24

Friday we were ahead so we made Apple Tarte Tatin. Some poor silly sister is condemned forever to be not too bright for making an apple pie upside down. But they are still making it.

Baking: Day 23

On Thursday we made Gateau Pithivier and Palmiers. And while they baked Chef made donuts. It was a nosh feast to say the least.