His theory is that, I'll blog about day one, day two, day three and then subsequent posts will only appear once every few weeks or so. I'm determined to not let his big bang theory come true. HAHA!
On the other hand, please don't curse or swear at me when there's no new posts for about 2-3 days. HAHA! Now that I've gotten the hang of blogging and school, I realized; writing a post about a full day school (Which means I have baked goods to show) involves taking decent shots of my pastry on the morning after, where there is ample natural sunlight, then compiling the photos together and subsequently sit down and pen my day into words.
I had a great time with my friends during the previous weekend. We hanged out at Terminal 21, a shopping mall at Ashok BTS Station, and watched Iron Men together on Sunday, and went to Chatuchak Market the day before. I don't have photos to share, because I seldom take photos when I'm out. That has to change though, I want to share with you guys the different places I've been to. =D
Coming back to school; as usual, I have a full day class on Tuesday, and for the whole of this week, we are focusing more on pâte à choux, or Choux Pastry. This is a type of light dough used to light puffs and eclairs and other delightful bites.
Chef Marc showed us how to prepare Choux Chantilly, Chouquettes, Preparation du Praline, Salambos and different mignardises (Mini Choux pastry).
Choux Pastry or pâte à choux, involves the process of heating the the slightly liquid ingredients like milk, water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan and let boil. Once boiled, to add in sifted flour all at once and stir vigorously over the heat to create a soft dough. When the dough comes apart from the sides of the pan, continue stirring to form a smooth ball. We transfer the smooth ball dough to a mixing bowl and incoporate eggs one at a time, beating completely before adding the next egg. After the 3rd egg, to check that the dough is soft and elastic, with a smooth drop like consistency before adding the last egg.
Sounds easy??
This, is what the above passage says to me:
Choux Pastry or pâte à choux, involves the process of heating the the slightly liquid ingredients like milk, water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan and let boil. WHISK! Once boiled, to add in sifted flour all at once and stir vigorously over the heat to create a soft dough. WHISK WITH ENERGY! When the dough comes apart from the sides of the pan, continue stirring to form a smooth ball. WHISK LIKE MAD!!! We transfer the smooth ball dough to a mixing bowl and incoporate eggs one at a time, beating completely before adding the next egg. HARDER!! HARDER!! After the 3rd egg, to check that the dough is soft and elastic, with a smooth drop like consistency before adding the last egg. FUCK.THIS.SHIT!
I officially gained muscles and a sore arm after that. Thank you, very much.
Chef Marc showed us how to prepare Choux Chantilly, Chouquettes, Preparation du Praline, Salambos and different mignardises (Mini Choux pastry).
This Praline is really yummy! Made with a food processor, it can be used to coat almonds or other nuts, or, to be used in mouselline cream and further used to pipe choux pastry. This is a little like sweet peanuts paste found in our Chinese desserts; Tang Yuan filing, which is a type of glutinous rice ball wrapped with peanuts. (Sorry about the blurred photo. I forgot to bring my camera along for school today, so I used my Iphone instead)
Salambos is a type of oval shaped choux pastry coated with caramel and filled with pastry cream. There's no origins to this pastry, but it does sound Spanish to me! I found the making of caramel ball more interesting than the Salambos itself. =D
Chouquettes (pronounced as 'Shoe-cat'); is a type of small sized choux pastry piped like esponges, and sprinkled with nib sugar, which is slightly more coarse than coarse sugar. Chef Marc baked a basket full of these babies and passed around during class for us to try. They were really good when freshly baked, like eating melting sugary soft puffs!
We had the chance to bake both the Choux Chantilly and the Chouquettes; making the pâte à choux and the chantilly cream by hand. Imagine beating whipping cream until it doubles up in volume or becomes firmed, and then adding in sugar and vanilla extract. It was a thorough arm workout day today!
And then, there were Cygnes a.k.a swans! Chef Marc created a family of swans and did 'bourbon sugar' for the 'pool'! Super adorable!!! But the sad thing is that, due to the high humidity level in Thailand, these choux pastries don't last very long, the heads of the swan was dropping and falling apart after 15 minutes.
So, did my creation!
Silly me, I completely forgot to take photos after practical class was over, and after a long day outside, I came home to a swimming pool of Choux Chantilly! Soggy and really messy...
All the beautiful lines are all gone! I filled the bottom of the puffs and piped 3 rows high with the cream. Chef Aum said I did well, slightly control more on the sizing and thickness of the pastry during piping will be good. We had made 11 pieces, and only to present the best 8! =D
Cute little chouquettes! Sadly, they didn't really survived the humidity either.
As I've said, this week is Choux Pastry week, which means heavy involvement of whisking, and boy, I hope my arms can take it! I'm looking forward to baking Paris Brest and Chocolate Eclairs these few days!! Chanel, my bestie is visiting this Friday, and she will get to eat Chocolate Eclairs!! YAY!
Till then!
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