Culinary School - Q3 Week 5

Week: 5 Day:1
Objective:
Éclair paste
Pastry Cream
Vanilla Sponge Cake
Crème Chantilly
Paris Brest Cream

Specialty Equipment:
Piping Bag for Paris Brest

Mixing methods:
Sponge cake
Additional Information:
When mixing the éclair paste it is important to cook the mixture on top of the stove to help evaporate the extra moisture so that the mixture doesn’t stay too eggy. The éclairs won’t cook properly of they are too moist.

Outcome & Critique:
Our éclairs were a little flat but tasted good. I could eat the Paris Brest Cream out of the mixing bowl with a spoon. It was that delicious. I liked that we tossed our almonds in simple syrup before putting them onto the éclairs. That gave them a little extra je ne sais quoi!

I am not a fan of the sponge cake. To me it visually looks like a sponge making it a little unappealing to me. However the taste was not bad. I think we could have used more strawberries between the layers.

What could I have done different:
I would have tried to resist opening the oven too soon while the éclairs were baking.

Week: 5 Day: 2
Today’s Objective:
Mid Term:
Pastry cream
Sweet tart dough
Crème Brulee
Specialty Equipment:
Tart Pan, Torch

Mixing Methods:
Stirred Custard (pastry cream)

Assembly Instructions:
Roll tart dough to 1/4” thick, line tart pan and poke with fork so dough doesn’t bubble up. Line with parchment paper and fill with beans for blind baking.

Additional Information:
Bake Crème Brulee and let cool. Torch before presentation.

Outcome & Critique:
My Crème Brulee got a little over cooked on the top. I think it was because the over was too hot. It tasted ok though.

I laid out my fruit for the tart and could have given more thought to the layout. There was a lot of pastry cream that was showing. Perhaps I should have started with a ring or two of the kiwi, since the slices were round. It would have covered the cream more and lead into the red of the strawberries and then the red of the raspberries. This is a lesson learned for next time. My tart dough was also a bit thick. It takes some practice to get it to the right thickness since the sweet dough that we used is kind of delicate because it has a lot of butter in it. I will practice rolling it to the correct thickness at home.

What could I have done differently:
Tried to roll the tart dough thinner and really paid more attention to the temp of the oven before I put my crème brulee in to bake.

I wish I had remembered to take photos of my items before we ate them.