Baking - Gâteau au fromage with Compote aux fruits rouges

Hello!!! 

How's your weekend going so far? Mine was terrific! I went to Chinatown and Asiatique with my friends, and explored new places together (More on that on another post). 

For now, I would like to share on the demonstration and practical class which was held on last Thursday and Friday respectively. 

I enjoy classes on Thursday and Fridays because they are both in the evening, starting at 4pm. There's no need to rush through the day, and I can slot in some exercising time or doing-laundry time before meeting my friends for lunch and heading to school together. 

On Thursday, we had a demonstration class by Chef Marc on almost everything cheese. But first, we have the fabrication de la Pâte sucrée, which is also known as the sweet pastry dough, used for baking tarts, which we will be baking for the whole of next week.

There's two methods to making the sweet pastry dough, and for this demonstration, he will be demonstrating the sablage method; which involves a chopping motion, dicing the cold butter with the cold flour, till it resembles sand like texture. Then, we add in the wet and dry remaining ingredients like eggs, ground almond powder and icing sugar and knead to form a dough by hand. Before fraiser the dough to ensure that the ingredients are completely combined together evenly.

I like making dough in misc en place (prepared in advance) because it meant that I can practice the different methods to use, and it is fun! =D 

Next, Chef Marc demonstrated on how to bake a Gâteau au fromage with Compote aux fruits rouges; a cheesecake with red berry compote.

Unlike many other cheesecake which involves baking using bain marie, chef did not bake the cheesecake with a bain marie. It was baked just like that, at 120 degrees, for 25 minutes, before rotating and baking additional 10-15 minutes. 

We made the cracker pastry base and baked it in advance in its tin foil casing. If using entremet (round tin mold), to wrap the sides with sweet pastry trimmings instead of bain marie. 

I love the cheese filing, as it has got lemon zest in it. I find that a little lemon or orange zest add just that little bit more yummy to everything. 

We made the red berries compote from scratch, cooking the raspberry, strawberries and redcurrant with sugar, before adding in cornstarch mixture to thicken the sauce. It was a gooey red mess, but a delicious sourish garnish to the cheesecake. Whipped cream was then piped around the cheesecake as decoration, as well as to create a 'border' to contain the red berries compote.

That wasn't all. Chef Marc shown us how to make a tarte au fromage; Cheese Tart. He lined the entremet using the sweet sough pastry and poured the cheese filing in it. It was baked using the same method as the cheesecake, but as a tart.

Actually, truth to be told, halfway through the demo, I was feeling a little restless and sleepy. Maybe because I had a heavy lunch, or maybe because I am getting used to school (Like every other student out there), sometimes, you know certain things that teachers are saying makes you lose the focus to concentrate or something along that line...I was slightly zoning out after Chef Marc was talking about the cheese tart.

I mean, there you are, sitting in class, listening in to a 3 hour lecture about cheese. And cake. And tart. And what cheese can be made into. Blah Blah Blah. Then all you can think of, is that 'I can't wait to get to the tasting part'. 

Like here, we have Schuss; a cheesecake with a sponge center, decorated with whipped cream and fresh fruits. Delicious? Yes. 

I'm pretty sure Chef Marc shared something, but I wasn't exactly listening because I was zoning out. Oh yes, guilty as charged, but at least I paid attention initially to the cheesecake with the red berries compote, which I have to replicate and bake later during practical. *Sheepish smile*. 

Last but not least, we have the cheese souffle. One of Ben's favourite dessert, souffle in general, not particularly the cheese one. In fact, I have not come across a cheese souffle. 

We had only a few minutes to take the photos off the screen because it will collapse after a while. Which is why souffle is always a made to order kind of order, as it needs to be baked and presented right away to the customer, otherwise the top will collapse - and it ain't a pretty sight!  

Moving on, I hereby present to you...the one and only picture of my Cheesecake! 

There's only one because I managed to take one from the sides during class after the presentation. I couldn't take a top view because the lid got all misty (cheesecake had little time to completely cooled down, hence it was slightly warm). And by the time I got back home, the whipped cream had slightly melted from the sides and into the compote, which was a complete mess by my standards, as like everybody's else. 

We had to present with the lid on, and sadly, my lid had caused a little smudge accident by the side after coming in contact with my perfectly piped whipped cream and that was picked up by the Chef during presentation, who noted for me to pipe a little away from the edge. 

I was slightly disappointed because Chef Marc had said to pipe and ensure that most of the cheesecake is unseen, while if I pipe a little away from the edge, the cheesecake will be seen by at least a 1cm. I should have noticed the distance from the tin foil to the whipped cream piped by Chef Marc during demonstration (see above pictures on cheesecake), and perhaps that could have given me a better review from Chef. 

Oh well! There's always room for improvement - I'll just have to keep learning and improving!! Fighting!! 

I have tarts recipes for the whole of next week, I sure hope everything's good! 

Till then!