Sweet Progress

Happy new year everyone! I'm late with that as I am with a few other things I'm going to be mentioning here, but better late than never I suppose. Life's been pretty crazy the last few weeks. I had to do a lot of studying for my final exam, and then attended my graduation. The holidays were a whirlwind with my parents' visit, and then I danced the night away with a friend to welcome in the new year. Not to mention my work life is changing too. I'll leave most of that to other posts, but for now I'll share some of the last pastry photos from my time at school.



Starting from the top, there's a Charlotte aux Poires, a pastry made from ladyfinger biscuit, filled with bavarian cream and pear chunks, and decorated with Chantilly cream and braised pear. The second photo is the Charlotte served with a strawberry coulis. The chocolate decadence below is a Pavé du Roy, chocolate biscuit soaked with rum syrup and layered with a dark chocolate ganache and topped with chocolate decor. Finally, two Saint-Honoré cakes, made with a base of shortcrust and choux paste, filled with Chibouste cream and decorated with caramel. The first was my initial attempt, and I unfortunately failed my Chibouste cream. My second attempt went much better and I was much happier with it.



These last two photos are a before-and-after of an apple tart I baked up in my own kitchen yesterday. The dough was leftover from one of my first ever classes and had been sitting in my freezer ever since and I figured I may as well use it up. I do so love baking. Which makes my other news all the more wonderful. But I'll save that for another day. Cheers!

Two months down

And one more month left before my Basic Pastry course at the Ottawa Cordon Bleu is done. They just posted the list of recipes for the final exam and I'll have to get started studying those ASAP. Most of them were ones I did quite well on but a few do worry me, and hopefully those aren't the ones I wind up having to do. Considering I'm always surprised with how well my dishes turn out, so long as I study properly, things should be alright.



From the top, here is the crème brulée, a gateau basque (filled with pastry cream and cherries) and a crème caramel renversée. I surprised myself with both the crèmes, and somehow actually managed to be done before anybody else in class that day which is unusual for me. The crème caramel is quite small but so rich, with all that sugar and egg in it. I just wanted to roll over and die after eating it and the crème brulée in class haha...

Anyhow, I have errands to run, crickets to acquire, and things to clean. I hope you are having a good Monday and that you had a groovy weekend. Cheers!

A Fresh Start and More Pastries

Today I start my new job. I've been hired on as a Line Cook in a new Italian restaurant that just opened. I've never worked in a legit kitchen before - the closest to that was working in a sketchy pizza shop in high school - so I have a lot to learn, but I'm excited. This is going to be challenging, and exhausting, and stressful. But I am so ready for this. It's what I want, and I'm still amazed this is my life now.

In just a few more weeks, I will have finished - and hopefully graduated with my certificate - from the Basic Pastry course at the Ottawa Cordon Bleu. I'm sad thinking about it being nearly over already, because I'm enjoying it so much. I really think I'm eventually going to go back and at least do the Intermediate Pastry level too, probably in July if I can swing it. Here are some more of the tasty things I've been making in class over the past few weeks.



Above are a tarte soufflée filled with the strawberry coulis that you can see below it. I was surprised with how well my soufflée turned out, considering they're such fragile things and I'd never made one before. Below here you can see a not-quite-perfect gratin aux fruits. I should have cut the berries up a little more, so they wouldn't show through the light pastry cream like they did.



This Christmas Log is pretty self-explanatory. I find it rather gaudy but I suppose most Christmas-themed things will be. It was really tasty, and I've got a half-finished one in my freezer for when my parents come up to visit. The Succès pastry below was a delicious almond overload. Layers of almond buiscuit, with almond buttercream and toasted almonds pressed into the sides.



This miroir aux cassis (a blackcurrant mousse cake) is probably my favourite so far. It was sooo delicious! The only bummer about all this is that I don't have a lot of the required tools to make most of this stuff at home. Looks like I'm going to have to acquire some entremets rings and tarte moulds. I hope you have a really groovy Monday and a good week. Cheers!

Ssssweet Things

What a day I've had! I won't go into details because it's stressed me out enough, but suffice to say I am very unhappy with the Government of Canada, how they run this country, and how they treat their citizens. So on a lighter note... feast your eyes on some of the tasty sweet things I've been baking up in class this past week, and shots of my gorgeous Jewel the female albino checkered garter snake.



The above are a Pithivers and six overstuffed Chaussons aux Pommes (apple turnovers) made with puff pastry dough. The top pastry is filled with an almond cream and I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out. The only hitch was the little "petals" should be round rather than pointy.



I can't believe what a big girl my sweet Jewel is turning into! I remember when she was barely as big 'round as a pencil and now she's such a chunky spunky thing. She just gets prettier the more she grows, with those gorgeous yellows and lavenders in her scales.



Lastly, here's one you all probably recognize. I baked this Black Forest cake on Friday. I even made the chocolate shavings! It was a really fun practical that day and I'm happy with how it came out, even if I wound up not using nearly enough simple syrup to soak the cake layers and it turned out a tad too dry. Live and learn! I won't be making that mistake again. Anyhow, that's that for now. I hope you've had a good Monday and your week goes well. Cheers!

Soggy Saturday

It's raining today, which is a shame, because today is the day of the Zombie Walk! I posted a little about it previous years I attended, and this is my fifth year going now. I'm zombing it up with my friend Tina again this time. I guess we're just going to be a bunch of soggy zombies!

I went out dancing for Ritual Nights last night which was great fun. I was too tired to go the last time around but this made up for missing it. Since money is tight I didn't want to spend any cash on costumes (my zombie outfit is made from clothes I was going throw out/send to the thrift store) I just dressed myself up as a spider lady with a spiderweb shirt and spider ornament.

Yesterday we made brioche and croissants with the dough we'd prepared the previous class. My pastries came out well, but there was a near disaster when someone didn't properly shut the communal oven door, causing the oven temperature to crash by nearly 100'C. Thankfully my baked goods were nearly done so it just took them a little longer to be properly golden brown, but others fared worse. One tray of croissants wound up melting into mushy little piles of gooey dough rather than crisping and rising like they should. Pastry kitchen drama!



The funniest thing was probably just the fact that braiding the brioche was a huge deal for all the men because most of them don't know how to braid anything, much less dough haha. Thank goodness for feminine skills! Anyway, I aught to eat some late breakfast and start getting ready for this Zombie Walk. I hope you're having a good weekend. Cheers!

Lemon Tart

Yay, it's Saturday! Time for rest. I've only been attending the Cordon Bleu for two weeks now but I've already baked up a génoise cake, lady fingers, custard sauce, pastry creams, and yesterday an entire lemon tart. From scratch. By hand. Intense! But so much fun! I really get into the zone and do my thing, but we all work really well together too. If one person is done before another, they usually wind up helping someone else etc. and giving each other tips and pointers or steering the other in the right direction if they appear to be doing something not quite right. I've never really been part of a real team before, one that actually works together and enjoys it and does it well.

Top - Thrifted from Value Village

Skirt - Thrifted from Value Village

Mocassins - Sears, Hush Puppies

Sunglasses - A shop in Cape Breton, NS

It's still very intimidating and a little scary every time I go into a practical class to make something for the first time, but the Chefs are all fantastic teachers and great people. Some of us are having a better time than others - an unfortunate classmate of mine has failed to finish the required recipes during two of our three practicals - but I guess it has to be this intense to weed out the ones who won't make it in the real world.

So far my forty-five minute walks to class have been enjoyable, but I haven't been caught in any heavy rain or blowing snow yet. I have a feeling in a few weeks once the weather gets cooler I won't enjoy it so much. October is usually a nice month though, and if you're lucky you can run around without a jacket like I did the day I took these photos. Thankfully I managed to thrift myself an amazing down winter jacket a short while ago (80% down and 20% duck feathers) and that will keep me toasty come time.



This is the lemon tart I made yesterday! It's a base of sweet dough, with a layer of almond cream, a layer of lemon curd, and is then topped with Italian meringue and sliced almonds. I made this whole thing by hand and didn't use a single appliance except the electric stove in which it was baked. When I finally ate a piece, I was almost surprised at how good it tasted. I don't give myself and my abilities enough credit sometimes, I think.

Some of you have commented that ya miss having me around on your blogs... and I'm so sorry for disappearing like that. I really haven't been reading any blogs at all the last few months - not even my most favourite - so it's not that I dislike you now or anything. I became a bit disillusioned with all the shopping and spending and constant 'need' for new things and distanced myself from the whole fashion blogosphere. I recently read Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline, and it really was the clincher in the whole thing. I read the book in one day, in one sitting, it's fantastic and I recommend it. But anyway, I should probably get around to attacking the giant mound of dishes that's accumulated in my sink before it starts to come to life. I hope you have a great Saturday! Cheers!