Week 5 (Intermediate Patisserie)

This week marked not only the halfway point through the term, but also the whole course as well. Where on Earth has the time gone!

Monday was a long day, we had three sessions back to back. We started at 8am with the demo for our final potential exam dish, the gateau Alhambra. It’s essentially a play on the Sachertorte (which I have been fortunate enough to sample from where it originates in Vienna!). It was a fairly dense hazelnut and chocolate sponge filled and covered with a chocolate ganache, and glazed with another ganache, made runnier with the addition of butter – not the dieters option! It was then decorated with crushed pistachios, a marzipan rose and had the word “Alhambra” piped elaborately on top. The chef made two so there was enough to go around, which was lucky because it didn’t last long! It was obvious there was going to be a crush when it was time to taste when the chef got the sponge out of the oven and cut it, through the middle, in two. He flipped the top half over and the middle of the cake looked nice and rice, dense and chocolatey. There were moans of pleasure from the class when the two were separated, and then with chocolate ganache then piped on the top, who could say no to that!

Straight from the demo we went into the practical. It was quite quick paced, we had to cream the butter, sugar and eggs first. Then sieve all the dry ingredients together, and then make a French meringue. The meringue and dry ingredients then had to be folded into the creamed butter/eggs in alternate inclusions. While that was baking we had to make a ganache, the marzipan rose and temper some chocolate. This was used to pipe leaves, to accompany the rose, which were left to set on acetate. Tempering the chocolate proved my nemesis yet again, I really want to get this right, but its tough! I think I let it get too cold before heating it up again, but we’re working on that more in the coming weeks, so hopefully by the exam it’ll be ok…fingers crossed! We also made a soaking syrup, flavoured with a little coffee and rum, to keep the sponge nice and moist.

Once the cake was baked it was in and out of the blast chiller so we could cool it down as quickly as possible to assemble it. It assembled ok fortunately, the room was warm so the ganache took a while to set and there was a risk of everything melting. I masked it and let it set in the chiller a bit more while I got the second ganache ready for the glaze. The glazing wasn’t as much of a chore as I thought it’d be, it went over nice and evenly. A bit of a messy job to then pick it up to apply chopped pistachios around the bottom but I just about managed it ok. Then it was a case of putting the rose on top, removing the leaves from the acetate and placing them next to it – 2 of the 3 I’d made broke, so only one actually made it onto the cake! It looked ok though. I need to be a bit more heavy handed with the chocolate piping to strengthen them next time. Then I piped the word “Alhambra” on top. In hindsight I should have let the glaze set a little before piping as the chocolate didn’t quite sit as proud on top as it should have. You live and learn!

I’m not quite sure what happened during the lesson but I managed to walk in with my chefs whites nice and white, and left looking like I’d been stood next to a vat of molten chocolate after it exploded! Don’t ask me how I did it, but I found chocolate in places I didn’t realise it was even possible to reach. Needless to say I’ve got quite the challenge on my hands to get the uniform gleaming white again! Still, it could have been worse, it could have been blackcurrant puree!

The blasted marzipan rose is proving to be more of a chore than it needs to be, after practicing it at the weekend I thought I’d got better until the chef made a throwaway comment that I could store the piped chocolate leaves and “cauliflower” on the shelf behind me to save a bit of space on my workstation. It took a minute or two to register that he’d described my rose like a cauliflower but when I did, I asked him about it, at which point he laughed and confirmed that was what he had said – we laughed! I then got a fit of the giggles every time I thought about it after that as well!! On the plus side, after I trimmed down the bottom it looked much more like a rose, and the chef even said it looked good then! Got good feedback overall, some really useful advice as well, so I finished the lesson happy. Especially as I’d have just finished it on time, and it would have passed the exam – we’re on the right track!

After this we had our midterm review. I managed to switch the flaps on the front of my jacket so I didn’t go in looking a complete mess. It was the same chef as the practical though, so as least he knew what had happened! I’ll double check when I’m leaning over something next time! I got my marks so far for the term and was surprised to see I was doing really well, the chef also told me I was in the top 3 of the class! I’ve struggled this term (or at least felt like I’ve been struggling), so hearing this really gave me a confidence boost. We’re marked out of 5 for everything and my marks are averaging at 3.9, which in percentage terms is 78% - only 2% off a merit again! So I’m really really happy with that. Chef also told me that I’d had a really strong start to Intermediate, and to keep it up. Encouragingly he also said our group was a strong group, which was really nice to hear.  I finished the day exhausted from the early start and pressure of the exam dish, but elated and full of enthusiasm for the remainder of the course.

Tuesday was another back to back demo/practical, this time it was bread. I LOVE bread. If it were possible to exist on bread alone I’d give it a damned good try! So I was very excited for this lesson. And it didn’t disappoint. The chef made a nice rye loaf, baked in a ring so it looked like a crown, a sweet dough, which was split into 4 strands and then plaited, and finally a focaccia. A giant focaccia slab, filled with fresh herbs, roast garlic, herb infused oil and olives. There was a bigger rush for this than there was for the Alhambra. The smell was amazing and the taste was beyond compare, especially the focaccia. I’m not ashamed to say I’d knock over a line of doddery old pensioners to get to the front of the queue for a piece of it fresh out the oven, it was divine!

In the practical we started off with the rye loaf, we then paired up so one could get on with the sweet dough (my partner) and the other could do the focaccia (me!). It was all made in the kitchen aid machines, to my slight disappointment, I really like working the dough by hand, but it was necessary for speed. One dough was set aside to prove while we worked on the other two, each. Then it was back to shaping the first one, while the other two were proving. The rye loaf was split into rolls and put in a ring, and the offcuts formed into a turtle-ish thing! Once these were set aside to prove again it was back to the other two doughs. The focaccia had roast garlic and fresh herbs added to the dough, and had been allowed to sit proving in a bowl with lots of olive oil. Needless to say it already smelled amazing. Some people put gloves on to take it out the bowl, but part of the reason I love this job is getting messy hands! So I plunged them straight into the bowl and got the dough straight out onto a tray, this wasn’t knocked back at all, it was just patted out lightly to make a nice sized slab. This was then set aside to prove also. Next, the sweet dough was divided into four strips and plaited together. This seemed to flummox some people, and I have to confess to having got it a bit wrong at the start, so I had to undo it and carry on from where I’d gone wrong. I managed to rectify it though and was proud of the plait I managed to form. These were all baked, after the focaccia was studded with olives and sundried tomatoes, and all came out smelling lovely. I couldn’t wait to dig in to the focaccia so had a cheeky slice after I’d had it marked! Got good feedback from the chef, the plait was slightly bigger one end than the other and the rye bread was a little over-proved, but apart from that it was good. The coach ride home was filled with the occasional waft of freshly baked bread – heaven!  

Thursday was the final lesson of the week, unfortunately it also coincided with a tube strike in London, which meant I was at the mercy of the roads and the hoards of tourists clogging up the paths down Oxford Street. Fortunately I made it in on time, after a morning at work. The lesson was on savoury petit fours. Five were made with puff pastry, and one with a brioche dough. The brioche dough was used to make tiny pizzas, with tomato, olives, cheese and capers on top – no bigger than a 50p coin. They were really tasty. The puff pastry was used to make; ham croissants, chicken and mushroom vol-au-vents, spiced cheese twists, sausage rolls and smoked salmon swirls. They all tasted lovely and were really nice ideas for canapés, well worth battling through London for!

And that was that for the week. One half of the course done…now the tough half starts! 

The Gateau Alhambra (just in case the name on top didn't give it away!. The leaf wasn't tempered properly but the rest tasted really nice. A bucket load of chocolate and cream - how could you go wrong with that!

The three loaves of bread, and the turtle-ish thing! The plait was really nice smothered in Nutella, the focaccia just needed chunks torn off and devoured greedily, and the rye bread was lovely with Marmite (I'm in the love camp, can't understand why/how people hate it!). My favourite was the focaccia, it had an intensely savoury taste and will be my go to recipe for focaccia from now on.