As of today...17 days till Ben gets down here for another weekend visit, 21 days to Final Practical exam and 23 more days till I fly back home! =)
Oh yes, I'm counting down. Striking the dates on the calendar one, by one.
There's so many things I want to do after I get back home! Like, bake cakes (obviously!) maybe even having a mini sale for a few days (I'll see how!) and then meet up with friends and spend quality time with family, as well as, get down to letting go two of my bags in collection - A Kate Spade Darien-Stevie leather handbag and a Miu Miu Deerskin Hobo Cervo Turnlock tote.
Both comes with the original cards and dust bags.
The Kate Spade Bag is in good condition, 9/10 whilst the Miu Miu bag is a little worn out, about 7/10; which is why I'm letting her go at a attractive discount below retail price. Do email me at bakingwithbeurre@gmail.com if you're interested, and I can send you more details and pictures! =)
I do hope they'll find themselves a great loving owner! =)
ANYWAY! Back to me, in Bangkok, in school.
Yesterday, was a simple day in school, learning about simple things, simple steps and process...and Chef Marc produces simple looking confectionaries that blew our taste buds away.
He made Mielina, Confiture De Lait, Pâte à tartiner, Pâte de fruits, Caramel Mou, Confiture de fraise au jus de framboises, Orange sanguine guimauve and Loukoum à la rose.
It's all about the sweets and jam, baby!
First up, we have the Confiture de fraise au jus de framboises a.k.a Strawberry jam with raspberry juice. Seriously, sometimes while sharing the french names of these pastries I've done or Chef have demonstrated in class, it makes me look at things differently; like wow. nice long name. Then, when you look at the English meaning, it's like oh ~
It's like I'm saying blah blah blah in French, and English translated is "Piece of cake with milk jam".
Yep.
Anyhoo! This sweet tangy jam is made with natural ingredients, with strawberries, raspberries, sugar, lemon and with the addition of ground peppercorns, which is optional.
We get to do this during practical, so more on this later in the post.
Next up, we have the Confiture au lait a.k.a Milk Jam and Pâte à Tartiner a.k.a Chocolate Paste.
The Milk jam is extremely easy to make, but takes a really long time to get to the right consistency, and taste somewhat like condensed milk, but slightly less stickier. Whereas the chocolate paste is delicious and reminds me a lot of Nutella.
We get to try the jams on freshly baked baguettes done by Chef Guillaume and it was delicious!
Then, we moved on to sweets.
Here, we have the Caramel Mou a.k.a Soft Caramel. Made with ingredients consisting of sugar, glucose, whipping cream, whole milk, vanilla bean, butter, sea salt and toasted hazelnuts. It's those type of candies with a soft consistency.
Chef Marc advised that for the caramel mou, it is better to cook the liquid using copper pot, instead of stainless steel pot, as it heat better for the mixture and wouldn't burn as easily as compared to using the stainless steel pot.
Pâte de fruits a.k.a fruit jelly, which is made with apricot and passion fruit puree, sugar, glucose, pectin and citric acid. This was one of the recipes we get to do during our practical, so I'll just skip the introduction and you'll get to read more about it in the later part of my post. =)
Orange Sanguine Guimauve a.k.a Blood Orange Marshmallow had me in awe!
Awe because its really easy to make the marshmallow! The method use by Chef was something like the Italian Meringue, heating up a mixture consisting of sugar, blood orange puree, orange zests, trimoline and fresh ginger, before adding it to a whisking bowl with a large amount of trimoline and gelatin leaves; whisking till you get a nice Italian meringue consistency.
Then, you can either spread it on a candy tray or pipe into different sizes/shapes etc, before coating it in icing sugar.
Here, we have the Loukoum à la rose a.k.a Rose Loukoum, which is a sweet from the Middle East, and not from French.
It's a lychee and rose essence flavored jelly coated with a mix of icing sugar and starch. The method and ingredients required is exactly the same as the fruit jelly, just replacing the passion and apricot puree with lychee puree and rose essence.
The taste is very, very refreshing, and the fragrance of the rose is very aromatic. =)
Last but not least, we have the Mielina; a Honey candy, which taste so much like a Nougat, only much more softer. Also, we got to do this as well during practical! =)
Lo & behold! Presenting to you my limited variation of sweets!
Check out my strawberry & raspberry jam!
It was really easy making this jam, but the only thing we have to look out for, is to ensure that the temperatures required at each stage is being met, and also check that the mixture is being reduced to a nice sticky texture, allowing the excess water from the fruits to evaporate properly. Which, will gives you a better result of a sticky, good jam.
My jar was actually really full, right up to the brim but it turned out that it was because I didn't boil enough for the water present in the fruits to be reduced. I got back home and re-boil it a little longer using my multi cooker, and this was the amount I was left with.
All we had to do, was to macerate the strawberries and raspberries with sugar, lemon juice overnight, before straining the juice and bringing it to a boil at 125℃, before adding the strained fruits back into the mixture and let boil while whisking carefully, but thoroughly (to keep the strawberries whole) to a 105-106℃ - however, this is not accurate.
The main important thing, is to ensure that your mixture is not liquid, but rather, let boil till the mixture is thicken enough. Another important thing, is to remove the foam found during the stages of boiling, as the foam contains bacteria, and hinders conservation.
Yep. I managed to keep most of my strawberries whole, however, due to the long boiling process, the raspberry has unfortunately disintegrate.
Last but not least, we also did the Pâte de fruits and Mielina!
These recipes are for two, so Mew did the Mielina while I made the fruit jelly.
The Mielina is prepared by boiling sugar, honey, trimoline and whipping cream in a large saucepan till 118℃ and adding soften salted butter and chopped nuts like almond, hazelnut, pistachio, walnuts and pine nuts at the very end, before spreading on a candy tray and let cool before cutting.
These cubes of honey candies gets soft really easily, so it is best to be wrapped separately in candy wrappers and kept refrigerated.
Mine came back home melted back into a bar, despite being chopped into smaller cubes earlier during class.
Then, I made the fruit jelly.
In a large saucepan, I added the apricot and passion fruit puree in and warm till above 60℃, before adding in a mixture of pectin and sugar in 2-3 batches, whisking each time completely to ensure that there are no lumps. Then, I let boil till 105℃ and added sugar and glucose after the second boiling period, before adding the citric mix.
The jelly sets really fast, so I had to pour them right away into candy tray and flexible molds, chilling them in the blast freezer before cutting into cubes and coating with sugar.
It was a simple demonstration and practical class, but it's back to entrêmets and layers tomorrow!
As I was saying...21 more days to the final exam! *Fighting!!* Leaving you with the recipe for strawberry jam! Till next time!
***
STRAWBERRY JAM WITH RASPBERRY SAUCE (Makes ½ltrs)
INGREDIENTS
400g strawberries, cut & hulled
250g raspberries
300-450g sugar (adjust accordingly to sweetness liking)
Juice of 1 small lemon
2 ground peppercorns (Optional)
* Make sure that the mason jars have been sanitatised by boiling jars and rubber.
STEPS
1. Macerate strawberries, raspberry, sugar, lemon juice overnight in a bowl.
2. Strain syrup from the fruits into big sauce pan and whisk on medium heat till 125℃. Set aside the fruits.
3. Once boiled till 125℃, add the fruits back into the saucepan and stir slowly in order not to break the fruits, and let boil again till it's 105-106℃ or until the liquid thickens, whisking continuously.Add peppercorns if preferred.
4. Remove any foam present.
5. Pour into jar and let cool with cap open, after which, keep refrigerated.
Keep refrigerated. Shelf life is about 2-3 weeks.
***
Would it be possible to get the Mielina recipe? Thanks!
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