Wednesday we had a lecture in the afternoon, that should have been very exciting - chocolate. It could have been right up there with the cheese lecture, unfortunately though I think I set my expectations a little too high! We were first shown a strange video on how chocolate is made, it was the weirdest video I've ever seen. We were privy to a letter a french woman was sending to her friend on what she'd discovered on chocolate production, it interviewed the French chocolatier she'd spent her time with as well. Very strange, very hard to follow and far too French to understand it fully! Needless to say a few in the class lost interest and caught up on some sleep! Now, given the success of the cheese lecture and how much of the stuff we were given to try, we were quite hopeful for some samples of nice chocolate to taste...set the expectations a tad high on that score though, the closest we got was a cocoa pod submerged in oil in a kilner jar, to look at. Not the best lecture!
Thursday saw an early start and a demo lesson on the Gateau St Honoré. Lots of different methods with this one, shortcrust pastry, choux pastry, pastry cream & chantilly cream (mixed together to form a Creme Diplomat), and dipping choux buns in caramel and hoping not to burn the fingertips! This was a useful one to do because it gave us a good practice at some of the methods we'd need for the exam. The choux buns, once dipped in caramel, were then placed on top of neatly arranged almond flakes and crushed candied violets. The chefs looked really nice, but overall it tasted quite dry because it was a lot of pastry and not much creme diplomat in the middle. Personally, if I was making it at home I think I'd fill the choux buns with some of the creme diplomat as well. They were nice with the caramel and nuts/candied violets, but sucked all the moisture from your mouth as you ate them! I had another giggling fit in class this week as well. The chef started dipping the choux buns in caramel and then took them over to the mat where the almonds had been arranged and promptly declared - "just let it drizzle down onto your nuts a little first" - its the child in me, I can't help it!!
In the afternoon we went into the practical. Started with the shortcrust pastry, which had to be prepared, chilled and cut into a disc, which would form the base. We then had to make 10p sized choux buns, and pipe the remaining choux on the top of the shortcrust pastry to create a base for the choux buns to sit on later. All of this was then baked. While it was cooling we made the pastry cream and got the cream ready to whip for the chantilly cream. We also got the sugar on for the caramel and prepared the almonds and violets ready for the assembly. I'll admit to being a bit nervous at dipping the choux in caramel - I'd watched it get to 170 degrees C, so the last thing I wanted to do was dip too far and get boiling hot sugar on my fingertips...I didn't! But I did drop a couple of choux buns in when nerves overcame confidence, fortunately they were retrievable. Once they were setting with their nuts/violets on top we assembled the creme diplomat. Then we had to use the St Honore piping style to pipe it in the middle of the shortcrust/choux disc (good practice for the lemon tart). Finally the choux buns had to be dipped in caramel again to stick them on the outside. It's at this point I hoped that I'd counted properly to make sure there were alternate almond and violet covered choux buns, I had luckily! I was happy with how this one turned out, it looked really nice when finished and I can really see the improvements from the first few weeks.
Friday we were in early again, it was two demo lessons today. First demo was a charlotte aux cassis (blackcurrant mousse cake), which involved a genoise sponge sheet cake, jam, blackcurrant mousse and a blackcurrant glaze on top. Then we had to decorate with white chocolate piping and fresh fruit. It looked and tasted amazing. The only bad thing was having to wait a whole day to get back in the kitchen to make it! Then the second demo, which we won't be doing the practical for until next week, was petit fours. Little almond meringue biscuits brushed with chocolate and proper biscuit biscuits, which merged plain and chocolate dough into a checkerboard pattern. Quite looking forward to next week to make these! The chef also showed us some orange tuille biscuits, which tasted lovely (I had 4!), we'll not be making these in the practical though. It was a hot day, the heat in the school was almost suffocating, didn't stop us flocking to the front to get a taste at the end of the lesson though!
Saturday - my 28th birthday! When I got handed the schedule at the beginning of term I was miffed that I'd be spending some of my birthday in school, AND missing the annual Dyson family gathering down in Newbury. However, after meeting the people on the course and getting to know them, and enjoying the course so much, I could not be happier that I got to spend some of it with Group D, and in the kitchen. And the lesson certainly did not disappoint! We had to make a genoise sheet sponge first. That went without any mishaps. Mine was a tad crisp around the edge, very slight, so nothing to worry too much about. We then had to trim it and layer it up with a thin spreading of jam, one sheet suddenly stood about 8 layers tall! This then had to be chilled down and then trimmed into 1cm strips to line the edge of a cake ring, with an extra two bits cut out for the base and an insert near the top. Then it was on to the blackcurrant mousse - the blackcurrant puree is a demon, it stains the chef whites to buggery and theres no chance of cleaning it out easily, you're pretty much stuck with it all the way through to Superior term! I think I managed to stay splatter free though. The blackcurrant mousse required the puree, syrup, gelatine and whipped cream, it came together ok but felt a bit loose. The sponge was then soaked with a cassis laced imbibage, then the mousse added, it then had to be chilled for a good 30 minutes for the gelatine in the mousse to set. Then the puree came out again to make a glaze on the top, again set with gelatine. Once the cake was set we had to pour the glaze in the middle and gently ease it around the cake so the whole top was covered. It looked much easier when the chef did it in the demo! Back into the blast chiller to fully set then came the challenge - blowtorching the outside just enough to release the mousse from the ring, but not too much so as to melt the jam onto the ring. I was too gentle with it at first, the second go had it released fortunately! It was then decorated with piped white chocolate and some fruit. I got good comments from the chef...still need to work on my chocolate piping, but everything else was good. Really really happy with this one, and one of the nicest birthday cakes I've ever had!
I didn't quite managed to escape to the changing rooms in time though, whilst in the corridor a loud chorus of happy birthday erupted into song. Yes I was embarrassed, but it made the day that extra bit special and I'm thoroughly chuffed I got to spend part of it with them, good friends.
The Gateau St Honoré, overall I was really pleased with how this turned out. The St Honoré piping pattern on top could use some more practice, and I need to get more confident handling the sugar, but I'm happy with how this turned out.
The Charlotte aux Cassis, yes the chocolate piping needs work, but everything else was pretty spot on (in my eyes at least!) so I'm very happy with this. Its probably just taken the top spot of the dish I'm most proud of so far!
Can't spend too much of sunday celebrating, got to cram in some revision and exam dish practice! It's the first exam on Tuesday morning next week. The written theory one (still another week until the final exam dish though, so no need to enter full panic mode just yet!). Its multiple choice and there are only 30 questions, so the right answer will be on the page somewhere, its a case of picking the right one! Spending as many waking moments as possible cramming in as much information on flour and the composition of eggs etc. to make sure I'm fully prepared. Fingers crossed!
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