I have been in school for 4 whole weeks now! : ) I can't even believe i have been here that long already. time is passing so quickly! anyway, i am loving school! here's what we've made in the past two weeks:
(note: do not look at on an empty stomach)
MUFFINS!
these ones are raspberry which i made with my group in class. guess what? they tasted NASTY! want to know why? the recipe in our booklet was wrong and called for too much salt and baking powder. ha ha ha. we get wrong recipes a lot in this class.......remember those blue macaroons from my last post? yeah. did you also wonder why they had holes all over them? the recipe was wrong. don't worry, i redid them and have pictures below.
these are chocolate chip muffins that i redid with some fellow classmates in the practice kitchen after the ones in class failed. yeah, see how some of them don't have many chocolate chips on top? well, one chef walked in while we were sprinkling chips on the top of our muffins and he grabbed handfuls of large chips and started piling them on!...so they sunk in. nothing irritates me more than when people interfere with projects i am working on. um, but that's ok, they tasted good anyway : )
this is a blueberry muffin loaf i made for my second practical.
MACAROONS!...again.
i know these look like hamburgers but they aren't. they are macaroons. they are what macaroons are supposed to look like when you add the right amount of sugar. : )
oh and these are orange flavored with chocolate ganache filling. delicious!
APPLE STREUSEL
i made two of these apple pies in the practice kitchen one day last week. some lucky girl got a whole pie to take home! anyway, the practice kitchen is awesome and i go in there usually about 3 times per week. it is fun to bake in a kitchen that isn't crowded and do whatever i want! : )
i redid this apple pie because the one my group did in class didn't turn out because we were finishing right as class was ending and we ran out of struesel...so we piled cinnamon and sugar on the top...it wasn't very pretty...
FRUIT TARTS!
aren't these the cutest? they were so fun to make! and they just look so pretty! oh and i just had a thought, you should know what we make every element of every recipe ourselves. so, our group made these shells and the pastry cream inside. we did not, however, grow the fruit. : } but we did slice them and i decorated these four!
we also made a big one, but i don't have a picture of it quite yet. i will include it on another post when i get the pic from my teammate!
CHEESECAKE!
(heather, you would have died if you ate this. so good.)
this cheesecake involved lemon juice and lemon zest, but our group used orange instead. holy cow. orange cheesecake is the best cheesecake!
PATE A CHOUX!
(what's pate a choux you ask?...)
swans filled with whipped cream and pastry cream!
eclairs! my absolute favorite (next to croissants. once i learn them both i can drop out of culinary school because i will have no need for it anymore...just kidding of course.)
cream puffs!
pari brest. no this is not a giant doughnut, it is much much better. anyway, it was created and named for a bicycle race in paris in 1891. it is meant to represent a bike wheel.
don't even try to tell me that these aren't the cutest eclairs and creams puffs you have ever seen! i actually made all of these delicious pastries in the practice kitchen on my own because the ones my group made were not picture worthy...not our fault though!...the oven temperature for the oven our pan was in in class was too low so ours didn't puff up. they didn't look as cute but they still tasted good. anyway, so i went in to the practice kitchen and remade these and the chef in there told me to make mini's...so we piped a few out and guess what? there is actually filling in them! SO CUTE! ahhh
APPLE STRUDEL!
mmmmmmm...
oh and i just thought of one thing...you know how i said earlier we make everything ourselves? well, we did not make the dough we use to wrap these babies up with. it is called filo dough and is actually impossible to make by hand! it has to be made by machinese because it is so thin!...seriously, when we pick it up to layer it it looks just like tissue paper. so weird.
ok folks, that's that! my 3rd and 4th week. on friday we made creme brule but we still need to finish them off by burning the sugar on the top! i will add pictures up in my next post.
also i started a job this week! i now work at a place called Panificio's! it is fun so far, my boss lets me bake whatever i want to sale!...and i get paid to do that. i feel so lucky lately. i go to the funnest school and have the coolest job!
alright! shabbat shalom! if anyone wants to try any of my goodies come visit me in boston! : ) ...it will be worth it i swear.
