Chef Paul worked kitchen jobs in college. He graduated from Purdue (my dad's graduate alma mater) with a degree in electrical engineering. He worked for a few years in an engineering firm before he decided that he missed the restaurant world and went to culinary school. He's worked his way up to executive chef and owned his own bakery/diner.
Chef Paul had made us up a phenomenal breakfast. Scrambled eggs with Parmesan and fresh herbs (and bacon, for the meat-eaters) in a whole wheat pita, pumpkin scones with maple glaze, died fruits and nuts and plain Greek yogurt. I could have easily eaten about 6 of the scones and they are one of my least favorite baked goods. So tender and moist!
The real bummer of this day was that Noelle finally succumb to her head cold and called in sick, so I was partner-less for the day. Gah! So much work to do!
Speaking of partners, here's Jen and Tim getting ready to get down to business on our last day!
Here was how the day played out:
Pie Crust: Yes, we had made an extra pie crust on our first day, but we had cut the butter in by hand (all the food processors were being used by another class) and the dough ended up being very dry. Chef Paul wanted us to start over, this time using a food processor. It came together much better. I actually prefer not to use food processors for much in the kitchen, but this is the task for them. It allows the butter to remain cool, yet still get broken down to the pea-sized state it should be in. Patted that into a disk and threw it in the fridge.
Almond Paste: Chef Paul showed us how to put together a good almond paste to stuff our croissants with. I'm not a huge almond fan, but it was delicious! I wonder if I could make up something similar with hazelnuts. I'd have to find hazelnut extract...
Shaping and Baking Croissants: I thought the roll-out for the final step of shaping and proofing the croissants was going to be a nightmare. Our dough had so many sticking issues on Day Two, I was basically imagining a buttery mess. Thankfully, it had sufficiently cooled overnight in the fridge and rolled out like a charm (unlike my rolling out experiences at home). I learned some great tips for cutting into croissant shapes and was taught how to add paste and chocolate to crescent shaped croissants. Croissants were proofed and then baked and came out looking (and tasting) delicious.
To be honest, I prefer my recipe. The croissants tasted okay, but the layers did not seem to be as crisp and flaky as the Epicurious.com recipe. Interestingly, the good folks at King Arthur Flour blogged a croissant recipe VERY similar to the recipe given to us at the boot camp on our last day of boot camp. I'll probably have to try it again to make my final decision, but it seems like the epicurious.com recipe is more French--the way the layers explode in your mouth when you bite into them--and the recipe we did in the Baking Boot Camp is more what Americans think croissants should taste like--softer and more pliable.
Lemon Lavender Cookies: We got our cookie dough logs out of the fridge, cut them into slices (about 1/3" thick) and tossed them in the oven.
Once they came out, we frosted them with a simple vanilla frosting and topped them with lavender buds and the candied lemon peel.
Creme Brulee: We pulled the ramekins we filled yesterday out of the fridge.
A little sugar sprinkled on top, a propane torch and these puppies were bruleed!
Linzer Cookies: What can I say? It's a Linzer Cookie recipe. Jen helped me with all the cut-outs. It was tough doing it all on my own!
Pie Tart: We rolled out our pie crust and fit it into the tart pan.
I had a few thin spots so I bulked them up with a little of the extra crust. After poking holes in the bottom, we put down a sheet of parchment paper and filled each tart pan with pie crust weights. The crusts went into the oven to bake. Meanwhile, we made the tart filling.
Tart Pan all Baked with the filling ready to be poured in! Once the tart filling was in, we dropped in a few raspberries and those went into the oven to bake.
Italian Buttercream: On our first day, Chef Ethan was going over the different tasks we'd be accomplishing each day. I asked if we were going to be doing an Italian Buttercream, he said no. He was lying. If you're wondering what an Italian Buttercream is, let me preface the process by first saying that what you usually think of as a buttercream frosting is fake. It's not a frosting that a baker would call "buttercream." (This may explain the confused answer from Chef Ethan.) Italian Buttercream is a made in the following manner: 1) Take eggs and whip the living bejeezus out of them until they reach the ribbon stage. That's where, when you pull the beaters out of the egg mixture, the beaters trail a ribbon on the mixture that isn't immediately reabsorbed. 2) Meanwhile, you should be cooking a simple syrup to a softball stage (exactly 240 degrees) on a stove. What's the softball stage? Well, you dip your fingers in boiling syrup to see if you can form a soft ball with it. Sound insane? Pastry chefs are a special kind of crazy. Thankfully, Chef Paul took care of checking this for us. 3) While you're cooking the syrup, you should also be melting the chocolate in a double boiler. This is a chocolate buttercream frosting, by the way. 4) Once your syrup hits the softball stage AND your eggs are whipped to the ribbon stage, you pour the syrup down the side of the bowl (if you pour it directly into the eggs, it will cook them) while you're constantly mixing. 5) Once all of the syrup has been incorporated, you add the butter, a piece at a time. When I started doing this, the mixture lost a ton of volume. Chef Paul came over and pulled my bowl and the butter and threw them into the fridge. He then collected everyone else's bowls and butter and put them in the fridge, too. Apparently, the kitchen was way too hot and had heated the butter too much. He was worried the frosting wasn't going to be salvageable. After 20 minutes or so, we pulled them out and all that worry was for naught. 6) After the butter is all incorporated, I whipped the buttercream for another several minutes to help add more volume. 7) Pour in the melted chocolate while continuing to beat the frosting. And...Bob's your uncle! Italian Chocolate Buttercream frosting. The flavor is the comparable to the fake stuff, BUT the texture! *dies* It's like silk on your tongue!
Frosting the Cake: We cut the two Devil's Food Cake layers we baked on Saturday in half horizontally. Yes, this is a 4 layer cake. Since we didn't have cake stands, we ended up putting the cooled cake layers on upturned cake pans.
Apparently, I'm not the only person who uses those in a pinch. The caramel ganache went between each layer. We did a crumb coat with the buttercream--which is basically just a thin coat of frosting that keeps the cake from showing through.
After a quick trip to the fridge, we pulled the cakes back out and finished with another layer of buttercream. We were then presented with the option of coating the sides in roasted hazelnuts. Hazelnuts are my favorite kind of nut, but I'm generally opposed to nuts in baked goods. When Linda and Diana pulled the nuts out of the bag, the aroma hit me and I was sold! The nuts went on the side of the cake.
Then it hit me: Noelle's not here. I have to take all of this home...on the Metra. Chef Carolyn from Day 2 popped into our room to see how we were doing and I managed to foist off the chocolate raspberry tart and 2 creme brulees onto her. I gave away a tray of plain croissants to Linda and Diana. I gave another creme brulee to Chef Paul. But still, this is what I had to lug home with me. And yes, the backpack is full.
I was so exhausted by the end of the the day, I literally just wanted to fall in a heap. I never really entertained serious ideas of becoming a pastry chef, but these three days showed me in no uncertain terms that this is not a line of work for me. I haven't done manual labor since my days working at a plant nursery summers in high school and I'd forgotten how physically exhausting it can be. The extra calories burned are just NOT worth it when you're so tired, you feel slightly nauseous.
In all, I had a blast and would highly recommend it, but I'd also make sure that I took the next day off of work in order to recover! Thanks for the memories, guys!
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