12/10-11/09 - Class - Random Stuff

Not many posts lately. Class was canceled last Saturday cuz people didn't wanna go out in a little bit of snow, totally lame. I haven't had the time or the need to bake anything at home. I was too tired to post Thursday's class so I'm just condensing it with Friday.

On Thursday we did only a couple random things. The only actual production that we made was Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce. I had never had bread pudding before. I am quite surprised how great it really tastes. Looking at the nutrition facts, it is surprisingly unhealthy but something I would gladly make again for others, if I had the ingredients. It was quite easy to make. I guess (though I don't know since I haven't had it before) that it can be either baked to a thin, runny consistency, or thick. Ours was pretty thick and I liked it that way. To the right is our bourbon sauce. It matched pretty well but I think we should have cooked a little bit more alcohol off, it was a tad overpowering.

We also attempted eclairs but they didn't come out, which sucks cuz we're being tested on them in a week.

We also practiced our piping which we'll also be tested on next week. Kinda cheesy that part of our exam is something we're learning a week before it. We need to do four different kinds of borders. The picture is the chef's example. Mine of course don't compare but I was getting the hang of it pretty quickly I think. I'm very dexterous so it's a thing I'm good at I think.

On Thursday we churned our ice cream base that was left over from last Friday-which we couldn't churn cuz Saturday's class was canceled. So we churned that on Thursday and let it freeze overnight. We divvied it up on Friday. It looks really good, it's raspberry vanilla and it looks really creamy so I guess we did it well. I'm very tempted to have it myself but I'll probably defer it-everyone already knows that ice cream is unhealthy but when you make stuff yourself you get to know exactly how unhealthy it is.

Aside from the ice cream, most of Friday's class we spent watching videos. They were of a master pastry artist doing both chocolate and sugar work. They were very interesting videos, but I wish we could have watched them at our leisure and not waste our expensive class time on it.

The only real thing we did on Friday was our Bavarian. We still had our spongecake and ladyfingers from last week. The ladyfingers are generally used to encircle the Bavarian, making a border. Our ladyfingers kinda sucked so we chose to forgo the border. The assembly itself is pretty easy but it has a lot of parts you need ready ahead of time. We had our spongecakes which we cut in half and glazed with raspberry jam. We then had to make the Bavarian Creme. It was pretty simple, all we did was make Creme Anglaise, add gelatin, and once it gets cool, incorporate it into whipped cream. We then poured it into a cake round with the sponge inside, then put the second layer of sponge on the Creme, then filled it with the rest of the Creme. We then garnished it with a few raspberries. It is freezing overnight so I'll get a picture tomorrow. Hopefully it comes out alright. If it does it'll be really pretty.