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Apple Pie (Lattice)

This second apple pie was made differently than the first one. The similarity is the pie dough but other than that it had a different filling and a different top. The bottom piece of rolled out dough was placed in the tin shell and the ends hanging over were cut off. The bottom was egg washed and docked then put in the walk in while the filling was being made. The filling was made with apple juice instead of water, sugar,  the apples in the pot, and a slurry to make the liquid into more of a jelly. Once that was all set, the apple filling was placed on a sheet pan to cool in the walk in. While it cooled we rolled out a piece of dough and cut out our lattice strips then assembled the pie and placed the lattice on top. After, egg wash is added and the Pie gets baked off in the oven. Chef said my spacing on my lattice was great! Also, the pie was not watery or runny like our first apple pie. 

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Cherry Pie

Today in class my partner and I made and baked off cherry pie. Like I stated in my first blog post about pies, I've never made pies so I'm glad everything worked out well throughout the process. Our cherry pie crust was a basic pie dough. The filling was frozen cherries, with a sort of jelly made from some cherry juice and a slurry. Once the pie shell was docked, egg washed, and filled it was topped with a streusel topping and baked off. Sadly I did not get to taste the pie but it looked very appetizing. 

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Apple Pie (Double Crusted)

I’m currently in Pies and Tarts and my next few posts will be about the pies and tarts that we have made in the class. This post will be about the first pie we made, an Apple Pie! In this class we made two different Apple Pies. One was double crusted and another had lattice detail. Now to talk about the double crusted apple pie, well first off I have never made a pie. So, jumping into Pies and Tarts was a whole new experience for me that I was more than happy to jump into. So far this class has been my favorite out of the three I've taken so far. Besides my new found love for making pies and tarts, this pie was a pretty basic pie. It was made with a basic pie dough, cut apples, and various spices. I took step by step pictures on how the pie was made which I will post along with this, but for my first pie things went well. At the end of the day when we cut open chefs pie to taste the pie was very water on the inside due to the moisture of the apples but overall the taste was great. 

Method of Prep:

1.) Make pie dough, Let it chill, Cut in half, and roll out both pieces.

2.) Place one half on the bottom, dock and egg wash.

3.) Fill pie tin.

4.) Place the other rolled dough on top.

5.) Cut holes in the top to release air. Egg wash.  Add detail.

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Croquembouche

 The Croquembouche is a French delicacy that dates back to the 1500's and was displayed on royal tables. It is a tower of profiteroles, most of the time topped with spun sugar. The name translates to “crunch in the mouth”. The Croquembouche started off as a  French wedding cake only. Then over time has been turned into an  occasion based decoration. Meaning that the top decoration would change depending on the occasion. It became very popular as a wedding cake in the 1700′s. The Croquembouche appeared on Masterchef and it blew up internationally. When assembling the Croquembouche it is usually in the shape of a pyramid. The main ingredient in the desert is the caramel since it holds it all together. while the rest of the ingredients are: water,butter,salt,sugar,flour, and plenty of eggs, (Pate a Choux) ,a filling and caramel.  You can find a number of variations coming from bakers all around the world. For example some add fruits or flowers in order to enhance the appearance. Also some chefs make the different sizes. Depending on an event or if they are just experimenting. The price of a Croquembouche vary depending on the number of profiteroles, where it's being ordered from or who is the chef making it. The average serving size is 3 profiteroles per person. The Croquembouche was inspired from the sweet bun pile. The French pastry chef witnessed it and thus created the Croquembouche in England.  Careme was the chef who was inspired  by the sweet bun pile to make the Croquembouche. He also is known for making Gothic towers, Persian pavilions,Turkish mosques and a number of other pieces. While the other shapes were just as stunning. The conical structure was the one that stuck as the traditional shape of the Croquembouche

( https://delicioushistoryblog.wordpress.com/tag/croquembouche/  &  https://ganachepatisserie.com.au/history-of-the-croquembouche/  & https://www.aol.com/food/what-croquembouche/ )

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Day 7

On day 7 my class made: More Cream Puffs, Paris Brests and Eclairs. We also finished the Creme Caramel and made a modern St. Honore.

As practice for the final my class made more Cream Puffs, Paris Brests, and Eclairs. We did not make more of the Pate a Choux since we had plenty left over from the day before. So, it was mostly piping practice. But before we started the Practice, we made small stencils so we could make 24 small cream puffs for the modern St. Honore we were making. As the small cream puffs were baking we finished making our custards and placed them in the bottom ovens while the mini puffs were baking in the top 2 ovens. We practiced until the time chef gave us was up and placed what he had on the parchment in the oven. Once the mini cream puffs were done, they were filled and dipped in Caramel. The circle puff pastry from the day before as piped with pastry cream and had the mini puffs placed on it and then Chantilly piped in the center with a cream puff on top. When the Custards were done they were temped and cooled then placed in the refrigerator. 

Things I can do better: Be more consistent with my piping.

Pictures:

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Day 6

On day 6 my class made: Napoleons, Pate a Choux, Creme Caramel.

We grabbed the puff pastry that was baked off the day before and cut it into 3 even rectangles. Using the pastry cream combined with whipped heavy cream, we piped onto 2 of the 3 rectangles and stacked them onto each other. That was placed away in the fridge. With the Pate a Choux we piped 5 Eclairs, 4 Paris Brests, and 6 Cream Puffs and baked them off. Once baked those were also filled with the pastry cream that contained whipped heavy cream. The Eclairs were finished off by being dipped in chocolate, and the Paris Brests were finished with powdered sugar. Group One started making the Caramel for the Creme Caramel that would be finished the next day. The caramel was made over the stove and poured into tiny foil cups. Once that was made and stored away, we baked off another piece of puff pastry and cut circles into it ( the biggest size cutter in the tool kit) and stored the pieces for the next day.

Things I can do better: My piping can be more consistent and every day i’m gaining a sense of urgency.

Pictures: 

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Day 5

On day 5 my class made: Pâte à Choux, Craquelin, and Pastry Cream.

First, we grabbed our rolled our Blitz dough, docked it, and placed it in the oven with a shear pan over it to prevent it from puffing up too much. Then we started on our Pâte à Choux. We scaled out all of our ingredients and added the milk, water, butter, sugar, and salt into a medium pot then added in the flour off the heat after the first five ingredients were brought to a boil. Once there are no longer any clumps of flour the mixture is placed back on the heat until it gathers into a ball. Then it is transferred into a mixing bowl and is mixed with the paddle attachment till it is cool. And the eggs (mixed with a whisk) are added in very slowly and a little bit at a time. Once the eggs are fully combined into the mixture, it was time to create our templates. We placed the Pâte à Choux in the refrigerator and started on the templates. After the templates are finished, we set them aside and piped the Pâte à Choux onto the parchment template later on. We made our craquelin dough. It consists of softened butter, sugar, bread flour, almond flour, and salt. It was put into the mixer with a paddle attachment and once it gained its dough like structure, it was taken and rolled out very thin. Once the Pâte à Choux was taken out of the fridge we piped it out and made 6 Cream Puffs, 4 Paris Brests, and 5 Eclairs. The Craquelin was cut out using the 3rd smallest cutter and place on top of the cream puffs. The pastry items were put in the oven to bake for about 25 minutes. While the Pâte à Choux was being made the blitz Puff was checked on frequently and eventually taken out of the oven to cool when it was golden brown. While the pastry items were in the oven, we created our pastry cream. The pastry cream was put in a container and put in the fridge to be used the next day. Once the pastry items were complete they were wrapped and placed in the fridge to be completed the next day, and the same thing happened for the Blitz Puff.

Things I can do better:

I think I can do better on working faster and my time management skills.

Pictures: There were no pictures taken.

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Day 4

On day 4 my class made: Jalousie, Bande de Fruit, and Bavarian Cream.

We started off by cutting 3 rectangles out of one of our rolled out puff dough's. 2 of the rectangles were used for Jalousie and one was used for the fruit band. The one for the fruit band was docked and slightly cut to created a slight border. It was placed in the oven while we began to prepare our Jalousie. For the jalousie we washed, peeled, and thinly sliced an apple. On one of the two rectangles, egg wash was applied to the edges and frangipane was spread evenly in the center. Meanwhile, the base for the fruit band was taken out of the oven to press down the center with an offset spatula and place back in the oven. The apples for the jalousie were placed on the frangipane and slits about half an inch away from each other and the border were created on the other rectangle that was cut for the jalousie. Once the Jalousie was fully assembled, we slightly crimped the edges with a spoon and coated the top with heavy cream. The jalousie was put in the oven and the puff pastry for the fruit band was set to the side to cool. While the Jalousie baked, we cut fruits for our fruit band. Once the fruits were cut we placed them on the puff band after the center was spread with pastry cream. Our left over fruit was placed into small cups and had pastry cream piped on top. When the Jalousie was ready, it was brushed with simple syrup and the fruit band was sprayed with its own glaze. 

Pictures:

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Day 3

On day 2 my class made: Pithivier, Apple Tarte Tatin, and created our final folds in our blitz puff pastry.

For the blitz puff pastry, we had to create fold number 3 and let the dough rest in the refrigerator. While the dough rested we set up our MEP for the Pithivier and the Apple Tarte Tatin. At some point between scaling out the ingredients for our products, we create the 4th fold in the blitz puff. Once all the ingredients were scaled out, we rolled out both our blitz puff and our puff pastry and cut 9 inch circles out of both (One 9 inch circle in the Puff Pastry and two 9 inch circles in the blitz puff). To start our Apple Tarte Tatin we made dry caramel in a pan and then added the butter and vanilla beans once it was ready, Once those ingredients were well combined, we added our apple wedges and into the pan and placed the crust on top afterwards. Once the crust is placed on top, the saucepan is placed in the oven at 375 until the crust is golden brown. While the Apple Tarte Tatin was baking, we all got started on our Pithivier. For the Pithivier we have the two 9 inch discs of blitz puff and to one disc we add egg wash around the edge and add jam to the center, being careful not to get it on top of the egg wash. after the jam is evened out, the frangipane combined with pastry cream is added to the center as well. Once the filling is even, the top layer of blitz puff is added and brushed with egg wash and the whole pastry item and put in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes. While that happened we checked up on ou Apple Tarte Tatin and watched Chef’s demo on how to trim the border and score the Pithivier. Once her demo was complete we had to heat up our pan to melt the caramel and release the Apple Tarte Tatin. After the ten minutes are up we trimmed and scored the Pithivier and placed it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 25 min. Once both of the Pastry items are baked off we got them graded and were able to take pictures of them. Pictures of the Pithivier were taken after it was brushed with simple syrup.

Pictures: 

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Day 2

On day 2 my class made: Blitz Puff Pastry, Pastry Cream, Frangipane, and created the final fold in our Puff Pastry.

The Blitz Puff Pastry worked out fairly well for my first time ever hearing about it and making it. Next was the Pastry Cream, and even though I've made pastry cream a few times in the lab before the one I'm currently in, things don't always go perfectly everytime. As soon as the milk started boil I gave my egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch one more stir and a few seconds later I witnessed my milk start to boil over. I called chef over after taking it off the heat and she just asked me to see how much we had lost and just add more milk. We only lost about 100 grams out of the whole 900 we had. However, I didn't stress the fact that it boiled over and just continued because there was more to be done. After the pastry cream was complete my partner Kellie began to work on the Frangipane. Last but not least, we created our final fold in our Puff Pastry. For the puff pastry our final fold was a book fold, also known as a four fold.

Things I can do better: Well, chef always says we can all work faster so myself and the whole rest of my classmates need to work on gaining a "Sense of Urgency". But as for myself and my own personal goal... it would be to ask more questions if I have any because other people might have the same question and are too scared to ask or it can just help in the long run to know the answer.

Pictures: There are no pictures for Day 2.

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Welcome 💛

My name is Nicole Morales and I am currently a freshman at Johnson and Wales. I'm 18 years old and I'm a baking and pastry major. I will be posting about my experiences and the things I've made. I'm currently in my second lab, which just happens to be classic pastry. So, I will be posting about what I have learned and what I think I can work on and do better. Enjoy!