Alhambra

Seemed started to get used to everything and suddenly came to the last lesson. This is the last practical lesson I am going to have here.

Sometimes I shouldn’t judge a cake solely by it’s name or it’s outlook. The last Pithiviers remain as my breakfast for the third day and I didn’t even consider to throw it away, it look just fine.

For this last one, got no idea at all with the French name and in English, it’s simply stated chocolate cake
I or some other students might think we can have some background and history of this cake in terms of it’s name, but in this world class culinary school, the chef would reply ‘ history and patient is my weak point.’ Humorous or pathetic? Lucky that Ii can save a little bit of my euro and leave after the basic pastry, or I may hava look for a private tuition in French patisserie here!

Ok, it’s a classic cake specially for chocolate lover, like the last pistachio log cake. Three or four pieces of sponge cake layer with chocolate ganache. Though it looks heavy and ‘sweet dead people’ but both the chocolate ganache and glaze contain no sugar, it’s surprisingly not too sweet.

And as the sponge cake was soak with coffee rum syrup, it remain moist and taste fine after 4,5 days.
So my dear friend, if I can have 5 candidates put up their hands, I would like to give it a try when I am back gaa^o*

For the 2nd time in ganache layering cake, all of us feel more confident, but that didn’t mean all perfect. The critical part again go to the last chocolate glazing. As this one is not log and with a flat surface and 4 corners, it’s far more difficult to cover those 5 faces seamless. The demo cake are indeed nice.

Refer to the classic practice, it should have a white rose on top as decoration. At the beginning, I’m not interested, but as mine glazed like patch work, a rose on top sounds a good idea.

The episode of my course look bad but taste fine, still i would regard as a good one for me^o^

Buche Pistache-chocolat

This is the day before the written exam, we were suddenly busy for the last few lessons. Actually now i should studying the funny ‘exam’, but i think i should update the second last practical lesson.
What so-call written exam is some multiple choice q to be finished in an hour. And one of a six selected recipe will be selected for fill in the blank, with missing item or quantity. The most funny thing is those 6 recipes are so “traditional” French taste, even i can memorize them by heart, for sure I’ll not repeat them in my near future~~ well, just for fun then *o*

And for the one I did today, is totally different. It’s look nice (a bit modern and eatable!) and taste fine. Chocolate pistachio log cake.

Which is a good looking cake with pistachio cake sandwich with ganache. Good to try this one here as all material and tool are so well-prepared in the kitchen( as I get used to the stock system, won’t be frustrated to look for the missing material any more~~ )

Pistachio paste is something I’ve looked for in HK but can’t trace them either for retail or wholesale. It’s tasted nutty and I even feel it’s a bit fake. But any way, good to try as French like to use them for desert sauce and the green color is so outstanding.

That lesson was given by my favorite chef who make the detailed technique clear and easy.( But of course when come to my turn to really cut and paste, I made a lot of mistakes!!)

At last the coating of the outer chocolate glaze almost ruined my whole cake and lucky I got my help form Priska, my classmate, I fixed it like nothing happened*o^

The taste is ok, not too sweet but filled with aroma of kirsch. The outer choco glace make a crispy shell and look clean and modern.
For my own preference, I’d like to put some diced almond or hazelnut in between layers while when i tasted it after 2, 3 hours, the ganache inside is not too moist to hide some diced nut oh~~
see mine not so level but taste ok choco-pistachio log cake..

Other than this delicate cake, the demo another REALLY nice almond cake, which taste wonderful. (all of my Asian classmates said so!) It’s taste like common cupcake in HK w/ nice flavor of egg and almond. So friends, be prepared for this cake soon, I’m quite sure I’ll make my own when I’m back!

Pithiviers

Just checking up the the name, this Pithivier, Three Kings cake, seems not to be a very popular recipe. We never saw one sold in bakery here. Anyway, sometimes school picked recipes that are totally outdated (they said ‘traditional’!) and nobody likes to have a piece after we finished ours.

As I was already in the class and I have never make any of those recipes, I am still happy to try those tradition pieces. Sometime a recipe is contain of different technique like meringue piping, sponge cake, short crust pastry… so practice make perfect.

surprisingly, found this cake in a tour guide, which is original from a town call Pithiviers;

This Pithiviers is obviously a good practice of making puff pastry. It’s fun to work puff pastry in a well equipped kitchen(cool, constant temp, good dry butter and real marble) and under some professional guidance. I could handle better this time and as the chef said in the demo, it’s actually a lot of ways of folding. It’s not rigid like if u fold one time more or less, you cannot form the layers.

It’s a boring cake in french patisserie. Doesn’t have beautiful shell, light sweet filling and long lasting aftertaste. Frankly, it’s just filled with almond paste and like a big ‘coconut tart’ we have in Hong Kong. The most important thing is to roll the dough lightly but even.
another use of puff pastry

At last we were back to the pithiviers and it turned out not too bad. As I search it in google, it’s also possible to put dried fruit inside, or even make salty meat pie.

For the next day we were instructed by a green chef who made the Saturday lesson more fun and easy. Mine three kings cake puff in a reasonable height and taste not too bad oh.

But I’m more interested in side dish, the Sacristain, almond twist. We used the leftover pastry dough to make these but it indeed take delicate hand to stretch for every piece.
It seems easy but actually tricky to make the twist spiral light and pretty. At last I got mine a bit chunky but taste still good~~

Mogador

Last Thursday was again another public holiday. Which suddenly attacked my school schedule, lucky that I got a nice classmate who bought me to a day trip at Reims, to visit the home of champagne.

It’s a nice town filled with elegance smell of champagne. The huge underground champagne cellar, Notre -Dame Cathedral, multi-contented Saint-Remi Abbey museum… A very packed and fruitful day.

Being a culinary student, the focus must be food related. We visited a friend’s grandma’s home and had simple nice food with wonderful champagne!! To be an ad-hoc guest, I should bring some gift with me. For the short notice, the most handy yet presentable gift for sure was my fresh made Modagar.

It is a chocolate mousse cake with chocolate sponge cake. Remember the sponge cake we make is without any lever, Again I have to beat in every single air bubble into the cake to make it like “sponge”.
And the most difficult is the chocolate mousse contain no gelatin to fix it. The chef ‘s cakes look nice and small, just perfect to take-away.

Before the day I made it, I still wanna keep it for myself as sometime it’s good to have some nice cake as desert for my last two week Here!! But as i really cannot think of a more appropriate gift, it’s seems this is the only way out.
Thanks for my friend’s ice bag, I brought it safe to Reims and it was still quit firm when we ate it.

Of course it’s not perfect for the first time to handle this recipe. More syrup in the sponge cake was need to keep it moist, and the piped mousse on top was too much for the little cake. Grandma was happy about it and so were my friends, at last the ‘Hard beat’ was just well paid^o*

威尼斯…人

Got the last long weekend at school, and I was detour to Venice with one of my classmates. Previously I was a bit worry about if i can get along with this new friend well and at last we are still fine.

Venice indeed is a touristy spot, also the most expensive city in Italy. Flocks of tourists keep walking from the train station to the centre from 0600 to 2400 seven days a week! Being one of them, I was just comfortable to enjoy the English-possible communication everywhere. (which is once-a-while bonus in Paris!)
We had 2 days to tour around the islands, good enough for those must-see items. The the canal, glass factory, gondola, bridges…




Though travel around was quite expensive, public bus is the only way we can move around with. We either walk hard or on boat and the islands do not provide a lot of free sitting space, we almost had a 2 whole-day exercise from bridges to bridges. When we sat down for real meal we are overwhelm for the price. Being trained in Paris for 2 months, I used to cook or even ‘picnic in a park’. Eating out is almost like prohibited. But even the touristy Venice has much more choices and in far more reasonable price! Plus Italian food are GOOD but never fancy like French, which is my type, even a piece of takeaway pizza is a feast for me ^o^

Ok, i’m going to plan my trip further in Italy.( Hey Lou, I just like your country!)

But the Episode was not happened in Venice.
We were satisfied in both our soul and appetites and head back to Paris. When we landed, we were told to remain in our seat AGAIN?!
And the captain said due to some technical procedure and safety reason, we are landed in Frankfort. That’s the last flight of the day and we were supposed to hop on the last bus back to Paris. And captain at last announced that we can only land on a northern city of Paris, Iile , then transfer us to the airport by BUS?!

I just felt like I’m in the ‘Lost’. Some people become angry and some became the temporary leader of a group. It was no longer a matter if you can speak French or not, it’s about survival skill. We ran like crazy and tried to move to front in an onward surge in an angry mob.

At last we arrived at the airport we suppose to land, but that’s 0440. Airport are closed and we are left outside. Everyone was so used to the burning sun in Venice, while suddenly we were abandoned out of an airport at like 6-7C! I put on all of my clothes and at last we hide in a phone booth for 1.5 hr until the airport opened.

At last I was home at 10am which i was supposed to be sleeping peacefully 10 hrs before. No compliant at last as that’s a cheap airline and I’d certainly treasure every second to be in a warm room in every chilling night.

charlotte aux poire

Suddenly I was in the 15th lesson(we have 20 total in the basic course). Though we have a lot of comment on the recipes, we finished one after one. For the super sweet type, we try to avoid too much sugar and share with other students right after the class. But there are some I indeed want to make. This one is quite interesting among all.

I’m always not good in making cake. While those need difficult assemble, complicated procedure, long waiting to set in fridge… I just don’t have the patient (actually didn’t success in making even one before~~ ) This charlotte recipe may not be very complicated, but it need to pipe sponge cake batter, beat pear mousse, deal with gelatin, cook syrup…

Piping is not difficult, but to pipe them in right size need a bit of experience.

need to burn/caramelize the edge of pear, woo, fun~~

haaa. haa I definitely will not pick this recipe, but good to be here to make this up step by step. To build a cake in front of the chef is never easy.
As this is one of the selling point of this pastry school, they must have a proper formula to introduce us. First, the bottom, the side and the top is sponge cake, the middle fill with pear mousse and canned pear, top with another piece of sponge cake and beautiful sliced pear. It is a good looking cake indeed, especially in a slightly warm day like today.


And it contain not even a splash of butter!!
I seriously revised on my note before I made it this early morning and make a nice one in lesson.

Though it tasted a bit sweet for me, I successfully exchange half of the cake for a box of pork-chop with potatoes with my cuisine friend!

Pastry shop visit

After the brioche lesson, we were brought to a pastry shop visit. I have no idea how’s like and excited to check out a real pastry shop in PARIS.

It’s a famous tea house, Angelina. Famous for it’s ‘mont-blanc’. Which contain soft cream and crispy meringue inside, with chestnut paste outside.

We have a tour in the kitchen. And mostly visited different machines for different task. If you want to work in there as internship, better apply from the school as a Le Cordon Bleu student. But as I can tell, everyone who can operate a machine is well qualify for the post.
Anyway, I am happy to see the reality and taste their best-selling item.
In this up-market tea salon, they have adjusted the sweetness carefully so that the real chocolate and chestnut taste will not be covered. And that proof my taste in the sweetness is right.
the Mont-Blanc is really good with reasonable sugar and the chocolate tart indeed worth a try.

Ha, I even tried their famous hot Chocolate. Woww, I wish that was a cold snowing day so that I can burn those hot chocolate right after. Umm, my soul was so satisfied with the cocoa.

brioche

Back to school from the long break, Ur.. take some time to find my place again. The brioche dough was prepared a week before and we have to turn it into different shape this week.

Never judge this bread by it’s simple outlook.

We have been working so hard to form the dough. Built the elasticity by dropping hard to the marble and gathered the mass again and again. A whole block of butter is in it while we ‘inject’ every single fat molecule into the yeast dough!
As the hard time gone, It’s not difficult to form into differn shape.

But somehow there’s mistake. The chef’s brioche head was just a little bit heavy, like mine~~

Though they look quite burn but they taste very sponge and fine in the middle. It can be well-keep for a whole week in a dry towel. I’d say it’s really like the bread in HK, Garden HONEY & EGG LIFE BREAD~~ Even the chef’s bread taste good, I still don’t know why it take so much effort to make this bread with a so so taste*o^

Here you can see mine, they are not well rose. They are not perfect but as I don’t think I’m going to make it in the future, that’s fine ~~