Ah week 5. Things are beginning to gel nicely now. The routine is comfortable, the first round of quizzes is behind us and we at least have a better idea of what is expected of us.
Baking this week was all about Danish and Croissants...just in case you hadn't had enough butter in puff and semi-puff over the last two weeks. Just one batch of Danish have 1 and a half CUPS of butter. The croissant weighs in at a scant cup of butter per batch.
Every time someone would wander through our kitchen on their way to another kitchen or to find a display platter they would get all glassy eyed and wistful. They would cock their head like a German Shepherd and say 'Oh...Danish week. I loved Danish week.'
I assure you after making and baking them and testing a bite of one or two that you will be all done with buttery pastry for a good long while.
The instructor told everyone that in the practicums you will only ever get danish as a test and not croissant. Of course this meant everyone wanted to make danish. I opted for croissants and since I'm not a sweet fan, I chose the savory ones. I figure I can make danish this summer up in Maine when we make Strawberry jam one weekend and then hand them out to all of our neighbours so I shan't eat them.
The dough was simple since we had already done puff and it is really just a variation on ingredients. The most fun is crashing (slamming) the dough on the counter to get it to activate the gluten when making the initial dough. Then you just roll it out and plunk a big block of already softened and kneeded butter in the center. chill, roll, turn, chill, roll, turn...
We were on our own for making the filling so I chose two. One was sauteed shallot and spinach with cheddar cheese. The other was sauteed shallot with brocolli and grated cheddar in the batter with a baton of gruyere included when I rolled them.
By the time I hit the ovens they had been going at full tilt and every five minutes someone was opening it up to add a new sheet pan or turn theirs or take one out so the temperature was not as high as it should have been. They could have puffed a bit more. And since I am a cheese hound, dare I say they could have been cheesier?
Everyone took home boatloads of danish and croissant at the end of the day. Some were even bringing some for the parking lot guys across the street and our instructor says she hands them out at the tollbooth on her way home.
Tuesday was moist heat cooking in Basics V. Chef handed our quizzes back, reviewed the answers and dove in to the lecture. Once we got to the recipes I knew I wanted to make the Farsumagru but being short two students and chef having a math glitch in how many recipes to students I backed down and made the salad and dessert. And we all know, dessert is NOT my favourite thing to make.
Chef had me use a technique that would make my baking instructors cry. His thoughts are that flaky is highly overrated. You've never heard anyone dig into a hard tough crust and say, Mmmm a bit tough but it's so flaky. Tender and flaky he says go together. The theory is that pulsing the shit out of the flour and most of the butter in the robot coup causes butter to surround each particle of flour thus making them less likely to congeal or combine and make the dough tough. When you pulse that well, you add the remainder of the butter and pulse twice, then water a little at a time in a few additions just until it sticks together. This was a pate sucre as well so it had 3 TBS of confectioners sugar added.
Then a standard custard is made and some plums are sliced in half and pitted. The crust is laid in the tart pan, the plums arranged around and the custard poured in. It was baked directly on top of a stone in the convection oven. The crust though very tender, was still a bit raw under each plum I think in the future I would have blind baked it a bit before filling it.
We took the plum scraps and some sugar syrup and boiled it down to make it nice and pink. Glazed the plums with this and drizzed some in and on whipped cream to serve with the tart.
The name for this tart was Zwetschkewihe. (gazoontite!)
The custard was splendid, but the probem with making these recipes out of season meant the plums could have been a bit riper. Ah well. I would absolutely make this in late summer.
My other dish was a composed salad of dandelion greens, endive, walnuts, swiss cheese and herbs with a dijon, creme fraiche and walnut oil dressing.
I'm not a huge fan of dandelion greens. A wee bit too tart for me. But here is the visual.
The dishes this week were okay. Nothing I would want to repeat except the Carbonnade du nord which I make at home often already.
I've been a bad, bad girl this weekend and haven't done any practice dishes. I kept meaning to make husband Pots du creme but something else keeps cropping up and stopping me. Maybe tonight, who knows.
[[[glassy eyed]]]] mmmmm dansish week. Never tasted anything so wonderful! And have only made them once again (LOL). But they are simply wonderful. Perhaps that's a project for today...snowy Monday off...
Posted by: sean | February 21, 2005 at 07:54 AM