Baking - éponges, Moelleux Pistache & Moelleux Chocolat

At this very moment, I'm counting my blessings.

It's been two wonderful weeks of school, and within this two weeks, I have learned a few key techniques to successful baking for a few simple recipes. It's exactly what I am here for, to get better at doing what I love.

I'm blessed in many ways, like how my parents, Mummy N & Daddy Lim will call to check on me...my Daddy Teh & Mummy J will send short encouraging messages...my relatives & sis in Korat, Thailand will call me occasionally to check on me as well. My friends back in Singapore have also been messaging me now and then, just to keep in touch (thank you, thank you!!) . I have also made some really good friends here in School, and we've been hanging out together ever since. Most importantly, I have my dearest hubby, who sends me messages throughout the day, assuring me in a thousand ways and calling me at night before he heads to sleep.

I feel so loved and very blessed. The trust and faith that they have placed in me is my encouragement to do well. So yeah, I'll keep striving and work hard!

*Fighting! a.k.a Susu!! (Fighting in Thai, haha!)*

Moving on, I would like to share with you the things I've learned during the demonstration class on Thursday!

Today's focus is on Petit Fours Moelleux (pronounced as mole-le), which is also known as Soft Petit Fours. Previously we touched on a few hard petit fours secs, this time, it's on a various of soft small pastry bites like...

éponges; Small meringues-like cookies decorated with almond flakes, sprinkled with icing sugar and filled with raspberry jam. It's like biting into air pockets of sweetness, crunchy from the almonds and a little sourish from the raspberry.

Then, there is the super delicious, gone-in-one-bite Moelleux Chocolat; soft cake filled with dark chocolate ganache and Moelleux Orange; soft cake filled with orange curd. These are baked using silicon molds; something which I am beginning to appreciate using, as they are easier to pipe the batter onto. These soft cakes can be decorated with gold flakes (see below pic) and candied orange zest respectively.

Next, Chef Marc also demonstrated on how to bake Financiers & Moelleux Pistache.

Financiers are relatively easy to bake, and can be topped with many different kinds of toppings! But it somehow taste like madeleines. HAHA!

I find Moelleux Pistache very interesting, in fact, I like this petit four the best. One of the ingredients added, is beurre nosiette, which is also known as brown butter or nut brown butter.

It involves melting unsalted butter over low heat, till it is separated into the liquid and some solids. The solids will sink to the bottom of the saucepan, and the remaining liquid will turn brown, once it's slightly dark brown, we can remove from heat and sieve it with a Chinois or a Ekamine, a cone shaped sieve. This is to remove the solids and we use only the liquid. Chef Marc commented that it is called nut brown butter because it has a hazelnut-like taste. 

I like the fact that Chef Marc shares stories about the origins of some pastry or some produce like this butter for instance. He also highlights some faults performed by students during practical classes, and I personally take note of things he would not like to see.

So, I was in for a surprise to find that he was the Chef in charge for practical class today. I think I sort of shook like a leaf when he is walking or standing near me. Nonetheless, he is very directive and gave very clear instructions on the responsibilities of the checkers - checkers are assigned students to help prepare/set/distribute ingredients or equipments required for that lesson.

I've had the 'fortune' to be checkers for 6 practical straight. So today, as he kept shouting instructions for checkers to follow, I was trying my best to perform well - I think I must have said a hundreds of 'YES CHEF!' during class today. HAHA!

Anyway!! Proud to present my own baked petit fours...

We only baked 3 different types of petit fours in practical class - that's enough to have your hands full for 3 whole hours!

éponges - creating this pastry made me feel so apologetic towards my Kitchen Aid Mixer! I've never known how much 'pain' and 'stress' I've made it go through when I happily made batches and batches of Swiss Meringue. Remember when I said that I'm here to learn basics? That, included making meringue with egg whites, sugar & cream of tartar. Manually.

Whisking with a balloon whisk continuously till soft peaks and then firm peaks of meringue is formed, is no easy task! I think I gained muscles after that. HAHA! But I'm happy, because my meringues was at the right stage and I was able to pipe properly, my control is getting better and I managed to pipe similar sized cookies for sandwiching.

Chef Marc reminded me to use both hands to keep my cookies (during sandwiching & packing), and I subconciously pack only the cookies with my right hand...my left hand was just clutching ONE cookie throughout. *face palm*.

Ooh! My favorite petite four! The garnishes for this soft cake consists of chopped pistachios and sour cherries. I love that the cake itself is soft and bouncy, crunchy from the pistachios and then a hint of sourish from the cherries. I find that most petit fours is about the tantalizing flavors; sweet, crunchy and then sour.

This is pretty easy to make, but the batter is hard to pipe, it's relatively more liquid as compared to the rest.

Moelleux Chocolat - which we did the Misc En Place on Tuesday, and to be shared among two students. My partner in baking is Sonya, and we did a great job, I would say! Beautiful shapes, only comment Chef Marc has, is that the Ganache has to be slightly more warmed up, so that during the filling, the ganache is smooth, and will not have any lines which shows where the piping ends.

Little mouthful of chocolate heaven!

 That pretty much marks the end of week 2! I think I'll spend the weekend sourcing for patisserie presentation-related books to study and brush up on my presentation skills during class!

& now, like the rest of you guys right now...It's FRIDAY NIGHT!! I have a long weekend (No school on Mondays! YAY!) and of course, I've made plans to spend time wisely! Plans like working out, visiting Chatuchak Market, Floating market and catching Iron Man 3 is all set! I would love to also share with you some of my favorite eats as well in due time!

Till then!