I show for you my frenz!

ENSP. What an amazing and incredible experience it has been. It honestly feels like it was just yesterday that I was freaking out about packing to come to France - now here I am - back in the good ole u s of a. I can't even believe this! It's so crazy.

I have met SO many amazing people here. We all showed up at the airport on that first day nervous and shy. Luckily it only took one night and a few bottles of wine for everyone to get comfortable with each other! I just can't believe that I had to say good bye to all these people! It was definitely tough - but hopefully it's more of a see you later.

Winter level 2! These are some pretty awesome people. I am so lucky that I got to share this experience with you all! 

GIOVANNA! 

My tiny Brazilian friend. When we first met you were so quiet. Now you don't stop talking! I will miss you saying "Nooo" to everything. Thank you for all the French you tried to teach me. You better come visit me in the states!

Nicholassssss my fren.

 I'm glad you were always the first one there to point out when I was getting all red. You definitely invented the name blastfreezer! Hah Thank you for always being so funny! You laugh too much my fren.

Lisa 

I wish that I could just record your life so I can always catch the sly comments you make 24/7. You're literally the funniest person I have ever met in my life. I'm so glad that we got lost in the airport together! I am forever grateful to you and your hysterical comments.

"My toenails regenerate nail polish."

"Abe lincoln? So does she have to be wearing a hat"

"I know, I'm just fast and loose with my laughs"

I can't wait to come out to Cali and visit! 

Kendall

I know that I said you had bitch face when I first met you - but you're definitely NOT that. Hah I'm so glad to have met you! You're such a great person and I can literally tell you anything.

Caindra 

You sassy, outrageous, hysterical person - you. I will miss you dearly - however I will see you very soon when I come out to Cali. Can't wait!

ROBBIE!

no. no. no.

You finally get a blog post. 

Although you literally embarrass me 24/7 I guess I miss you quite a lot. I enjoyed hearing all your stories of your worldly travels and you inspire me! (I also just really love your mustache and it will be a sad day when you have to shave it. Maybe we should hold a funeral - just an idea)

Je t'aime! 

B!

You're such an amazing person! I'm so glad to have met you. You're an awesome pastry chef and I'm excited to see where you end up! Please record your English conversations daily and send them to me. Hah I will miss you and your voice!!

"A MOUSE?! In the oven?!"

I just can't believe this is my real life. I can't thank everyone enough for this experience. All the Chefs, the staff at the castle, the assistants, and all my fellow classmates - you're amazing. I learned so much from everyone and I will never forget our time there. I will miss everyone deeply.

These past two months have felt like two years - but I squeezed in as much as I could over the past 60 days and I'm truly walking away from this experience as a new person. 

Now that I'm back home it's very weird. I went to a bar the first night back and it was very overwhelming hearing and understanding all the conversations going on around me. Ordering beers in English and paying with USD was a very odd feeling. When I got to the airport I also kept saying 'bonjour' 'merci' and 'pardon'. lol very weird adjustment. Seeing friends and family has been really nice though - and meow mix! 

The time change hasn't bothered me too much, I just get tired around 7/8pm and then wake up super early - but I'm sure I can adjust soon. 

Thank you again to everyone! Everyone at ENSP, my family, and friends. I'm baking lots this week - so let me know if you want anything!!

One tequilla, two tequilla, three tequilla, PETIT FOUR!

For my last week at ENSP we had petit fours and plated desserts with Chef Richard. I learned SO much in this lab - and the days seemed to fly by! For petit fours (which are small, one bite desserts) we made macarons and religiose (which is two pate a choux stacked on top of one another). Then we made five different plated desserts. It was such an awesome class. I got a lot of really good ideas for future desserts from this class!

Macaron chocolate show pieces we did for the final buffet.

Macaron tower with a sign saying 'BLAST FREEZER' 

Which is my nickname here - because I very frequently get easily embarrassed/shy and my face turns bright red. So I need to be stuck into a blast freezer to cool down.

Macarons on macarons. 

Flavors we made - Vanilla, coffee ganache, mint-lime white chocolate ganache (SO GOOD), salted caramel chocolate ganache, chocolate ganache, praline cream, and strawberry jam.

Chocolat et Saveurs Exotique - whipped chocolate ganache, passion fruit/mango sorbet, chocolate cake, chocolate crunch, passion fruit/mango jelly, chocolate sauce, mango sauce, and passion fruit sauce.

Amande Griotte -  almond ice cream, crumble, cherry compote, tonka cream, and sugar decoration

Poire Belle Helene - Poached pear, caramelized pears, almond tuile, vanilla ice cream, candied almonds, and mascarpone cream.

This dessert sells for 33euro (about 25$) 

Religiose - pate a choux baked with crumble on top filled with flavored pastry cream.

Flavors - strawberry/raspberry/red currant, mango/passion fruit, coconut, black currant, lime, and lemon

Pistache Framboise - Raspberry mousse, whipped pistachio ganache, pistachio sponge cake, raspberry sauce, and raspberry sorbet

Tiramisu Revisitie - biscuit with coffee syrup, praline crunch, milk chocolate ganache, mascarpone chantilly, chocolate sauce, and mascarpone ice cream

Last buffet picture! 

After we were done cleaning and organizing the lab yesterday we popped some champagne and celebrated with a few chefs for a while. Chef  Pierre and Jerome joined and brought mojitos! 

Winter level 2 picture with Chef Richard, Chef Pierre, and Chef Jerome!

Clearly we didn't have that much fun in lab.

After lab everyone from ENSP and the JWU students went to a kareoke bar! It was a BLAST. Most of the Chefs were there and they even sang a few songs! A few rounds of tequilla shots were bought in mass quantities and just handed out to people in the group. It was awesome. I have had so much fun with all these people, I'm not sure how I'm going to live without them in the states!

This morning we had to get up early for graduation! (Which was slightly difficult considering how many tequilla shots were taken last night. And with how late we stayed up!) I also had to make a speech today at graduation. I hadn't even finished writing it yet! However, I needed to curl my hair this morning as well - that obviously trumps the speech. I needed to look good if I was going to stand in front of everyone (even if I didn't know what I was saying! Hah) But I made it to graduation on time, hair curled, speech written - I was ready! (...And possibly still slightly drunk from the night before) 

"Everyone here knows how red I can get - so let's just get this over with quick! Blastfreezer.. Although we are all international students we came here for one thing... our love of french wine - oh wait, I mean pastry. French pastry. We all came here to learn about French pastry but we're leaving with so much more than that. No offense to the Chefs but I feel I learned more from my fellow classmates. Except we did learn A LOT from you. You guys are awesome. From accidentally walking into gay bars in Lyon. Taking shopping carts to the bowling alley. Wine nights in the castle with family dinners. Or attempting to carry each other home from Cine Lux. Each and everyday was a learning experience. I can't thank you all enough for this wonderful experience at ENSP. So thank you! Je t'aime!"

After we all received our certificates we had a big buffet from the classes that did savory foods. We also had lots of celebratory champagne (yes.... at 10:30am.) There were lots of pictures taken and a few good-byes. I even did an interview for the ENSP video! Then back to the castle for a quick nap and some recovery time. Hah Afterwards Kendall, Bia, Giovanna, Robbie, Adriana, and I had a nice picnic on the lawn in front of the castle. Today is THE most beautiful day here so far. It's so nice outside and so unbelievably sunny. It makes me want to see this place in the summer!

Tonight we're all drinking in the castle and squeezing in a few more memories before we all part our ways tomorrow! It's hard for me to believe that it's already over. These past two months have seriously been so eye opening and life changing. I'm very anxious to see what I get myself into next. Hah

Individual Cakes and Tarts...

LIKE CUPCAKES??!?!
no. no. no.  I no do more cupcakes.

I did the cupcake game. That was enough for me. Hah When I heard individual cakes all that came to mind was cupcakes and I was slightly discouraged. Until I realized that the French are better than cupcakes! Some of the chefs here have never even heard of cupcakes. Individual cakes are actually personal size entremets - petit entremets if you will.

For this class we had Chef Kyung-Ran who is actually the only female chef at the school. Which is both surprising and slightly intimidating. Contrary to popular belief, there are more male professional pastry chefs then there are female. There are actually no female pastry MOF's which I just recently learned, and was very surprised by this. (Chef Kyung-Ran is actually going to be competing in a MOF competition later this year.) Most female pastry chefs out there are running their own cutesy little bakery thinking everything is just sprinkles and buttercream. A majority of these women are also self taught and mainly do cupcakes, cakes, and cookies. (Which there is nothing wrong with at all - just not all pastry positions are like that) But it's odd to see that men have taken over and dominated the professional pastry world - however, it does make some sense. The long hours, on your feet all day, early mornings, late nights, heavy lifting, the pressure of customers, the pressure of ourselves.. it's not a job for the faint of heart. You have to really love, appreciate, and understand pastry.

I really enjoyed this week and I learned a lot. Not only about individual cakes and tarts but also about myself. I realized just how much I just love and adore pastry. In class this week we did a lot of individual/pair work which basically means we did the recipes for each entremet component start to finish. (Other weeks each group would do a component of the final product and we'd put it all together as a group effort) It was nice to see the completed products and know that I did all of that. It's so satisfying. I think I have realized that petit entremets is what I am passionate about and I wish to pursue them further. They are so versatile and adorable and I'm eager to see what I can do with them back home.

During the week I made a lot of pate sablee (tart dough), mousse, and cremeux/creme (pastry cream). All these components are such staples in the industry and they're so delightfully simple.
Sablee is mainly just salt, icing sugar, nut flour and flour sifted together in a bowl - then you add chilled, cubed butter and while using your hands you rub the butter into the dry ingredients until they become small incorporated pieces. Then you mix in eggs until it forms a dough ball then chill and roll out.
Mousse is usually a fruit puree or chocolate heated with gelatin, then mixed with a meringue, and folded into whipped cream. The tricky part is having the temperatures of everything correct so you don't split it.
Cremeux or creme is creme anglais or pastry cream. This process consists of heating milk, cream, or fruit puree - mixing with eggs, sugar, and starch - then recooked with butter added in at the end and chilled (served cold).

I know it sounds weird, but these are some of my favorite things in the world to do.

When making sablee the sifted dry ingredients are so soft, and the butter is silky and cold.

Mousse seems so easy, but it's such a delicate balance of temperatures and folding in ever so gently so you don't deflate the meringue or whipped cream.

Cremeux and creme are so easy to burn and over cook but when it's done correctly it's amazing. Pastry cream with fresh fruit in puff pastry is definitely my go to when people ask for dessert from me. It's so simple and beautiful and delicious. (and so easy to eat by the spoonful!)

I just truly love pastry. I feel so fortunate that I found something to be so passionate about at such a young age. ENSP has really opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities. I cannot thank my parents (especially), family, and friends enough for all the support they give me. I'm antsy to be home and share all that I've learned with them. (Be prepared to eat a lot of sweets!)

Chef and I in front of the buffet

Macarons right out of the oven

Ci-frais - tart dough with hazelnut cream and strawberry compote with lime mousse and a chocolate garnish.

Plume - sponge cake base, fromage blanc cream, black currant, blueberry, and red currant compote in the middle, with a glaze garnish.

Fraisier moderne - pistachio biscuit with pastry cream, raspberry mousse, and strawberry compote, glazed and garnished with macarons.

Tarte Sao Paulo - almond tart base with meringue filling, banana - passionfruit pastry cream, and white chocolate decorations.

Tarte Mango - hazelnut tart base filled with almond cream, a layer of fresh raspberry compote, lime pastry cream on top with mango compote and raspberries.

Tarte Pina Colada - hazelnut tart base, sponge cake filling, meringue, pineapple compote, lime pastry cream, and coconut mousse with shredded coconut

Religieuse Mangue coco- pate a choux baked with a crumble on top, filled with mango coconut cream, garnished with fondant and chocolate decorations.

Pomme d'Amour - sponge cake bottom, thinly sliced cooked apples, with caramel flavored whipped cream and chocolate garnish.

Sensation - tart dough with pistachio sponge cake, red currant compote, peach mousse, glazed and garnished with pistachio flour and a marshmellow.

Religieuse caramel chocolat - pate a choux baked with a crumble on top, filled with salted caramel and chocolate, with fondant and dark chocolate decorations.

Tarte citron vert - chocolate praline coconut crumble  base, with lime pastry cream, and coconut garnish.

Amazon - coconut sponge cake base and coconut mousse, filled with passion fruit pastry cream with chunks of mango. Glazed and garnished with a dark chocolate feather and lines of passion fruit jelly.

I've been frosting A LOT

I have been slacking... and I apologize. Time has been getting away from me lately! Birthday weekend was exhausting and I spent all free time relaxing (and recovering...) so I apologize for the VERY late blog post.

Week 5 was confectionery, which consisted of marshmellows, candied almonds, lollipops, fruit jellies, soft caramels, and nougatine. We also made a pastillage (sugar dough) show piece with sesame nougatine as accent pieces.  However, due to private matters my chef had to leave class early Wednesday morning and we lost a day of the lab. The other two days we had to work harder and cut a few recipes out of the schedule to fit them all in. Even though we had one less day, I still feel like I learned a lot about confectionery and lots of different candy techniques.

Chef Pierre and I in front of my completed Olympics themed showpiece

Completed show piece with sesame nougatine, pastillage, pulled and poured sugar

Candy buffet with sugar coated almonds and marshmellows

Lollipops! (In a homemade chocolate holder)

Soft caramels flavored with fruit purees and some poured sugar hearts

Week 6 was entremets which are fancy layered French cakes. I was obsessed with entremets class at JWU so I was even more excited about his lab. Plus we had Chef Richard again who I really enjoyed as a Chef during our chocolates lab!

Monday morning rolls around and I wake up for AM lab feeling like absolute garbage. I was SO sick. My vision was clouded, my throat was on fire, my nose was stuffed, my ears were congested, I had a head ache.. all the works. But I pushed through the desire to crawl back into bed and I trudge off to class. About an hour in I realize how much of a fog I was in and decided to go back to the castle for a quick snack, some tea, and to lay down for a little. Next thing I know I'm upstairs in bed and it's 8pm... at least at that point I was feeling better and VERY well rested. Missing a day of lab was pretty difficult though, there's always so much you can miss out on. Luckily, the class is designed in a way where missing that one day wasn't as terrible as I thought.

Entremets are a layered cake consisting of a cake component, a crunch component, a cream insert, a mousse, typically glazed, and a garnish. Monday we did all the cake and crunch components. Tuesday we did most of the creams and finished a few cake components. Wednesday we did all the mousses, constructed the cakes, and made the glazes. Thursday we made all the garnishes, glazed our cakes, finished the cakes, did a buffet presentation, then tasted them all.

Although I had missed a day, my Chef and everyone in class was helpful with quickly filling me in on what I had missed and I jumped back in the second day right on track with everyone else. I really enjoy entremets class and I am excited as ever to take this information home with me and see how I can remake some of these cakes in the states!

Our final entremets were;

Zeste d'Ete - crumble base, lime cake, strawberry jam filling, and basil mousse

Exotique - coconut biscuit, a mango passionfruit cream filling, coconut mousse, and marshmellow garnish

Pomme 'n' Nuts - hazelnut biscuit, chocolate crispy crepe with parline, apple compote, milk chocolate mousse, and apple chip garnish 

Tete de Linotte - Pistachio and pecan chocolate brownie base, creamy caramel, milk chocolate mousse, and biscuit cracker garnish 

Carburer au Cafe - Chocolate crumble biscuit base, coffee pastry cream, chocolate pudding, and tempered chocolate garnishes.

Entremets class was amazing and they all tasted SOO good. The tete de linotte is literally the best thing I've had here to date. I can't wait to make it for the next family get together!

Chef Richard and I in front of the final buffet.

Last weekend they held a MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France) competition at the castle, which is basically a giant pastry competition between prestigious chefs to get the title of MOF. So naturally all the people competing needed a place to stay... and we all got kicked out of our rooms at the castle. Luckily, ENSP was kind enough to put us up in a hotel in Lyon! So Kendall, Lisa, Rob, and I lived it up in Lyon for the weekend. It was so fun. SO much walking! (and equally as much drinking..) My feet are still swollen from it all. I even stupidly wore heels out drinking two nights. Cobble stone walk ways and heels are NOT a good combination.

We found this really fun pirate themed rum bar, a whiskey bar, a lot of clothing shops, a few cute bakeries, an awesome sushi shop, and we had lunch at a Michelin star restaurant on Monday. It was a very fun trip but very exhausting. I'm still tired from it, but it's worth it.

Well, behind every good blog post is an empty bottle of wine. And frankly, I'm exhausted! Hopefully next weeks blog post happens sooner than later. Hah

I also made the decision to opt out of the internship and come home a month early! It was a very involved decision to make, but I feel it's the right one and I am eager as ever to come home and start rebuilding my life in the states. I also plan to travel and explore the states more, as every person here has seen more of the states than I have! 

Choco-latte

Arg maties!

I'm halfway done with labs already. So crazy how time flies. Only 60 more days until I'm back in the states. I hope it doesn't go by too quickly though.

CHOCOLATE!

If you don't know this spongebob episode, please get off my blog and return at a later time after you've googled and watched it.

So, a full lab of just chocolate. How could it get any better than that?? 

This week we had to pick a theme for our chocolate showpieces and this theme is going to be used again later in the program for our final buffet presentation. So we had bounced around a few ideas and then one of my ideas was actually selected - pirates! 

Tuesday in class we tempered chocolate the ENTIRE time. We did table tempering, which was something I learned at JWU (and had done a handful of times) so it was kind of a refresher for me - which was nice because it is slightly difficult, and it was something I wanted to practice. However, once I dumped all the chocolate on the marble table, and with a spatula in one hand and a bench scraper in the other, I knew I was about to make this chocolate my bitch. 

Now time for me to attempt to describe tempering chocolate to you all. 

When dipping bonbons, making chocolate show pieces, and garnishes - you can't just melt down a hersheys and dip away. The chocolate needs to be tempered so it sets properly, and quickly. The chocolate needs to be shiny, fluid, consistent in color, mixed well, and has a nice crack when you break it. Tempered chocolate is beautiful and flawless and can sometimes be very frustrating. 

To temper chocolate, you have to melt the chocolate down to 113F - dark /113F - milk/104F-white. (Each chocolate has different temperatures when tempering - due do their various percentages of dry cocoa mass, cocoa butter, and sugar) This step is done in order to make sure that all the crystals in the chocolate are completely melted. 

Next, you have to bring the chocolate down to 83F/81F/79F. This step is done to create beta crystals in your chocolate which is what you need for it to be tempered. But you need only so many beta crystals because too many will make your chocolate think and untempered and too little will make your chocolate too warm and untempered. 

After cooling your chocolate down, you have to slightly heat it again (88F/86F/84F) so that it's at working temperature and fluid enough to use for the task at hand.

Table tempering consists of; heating your chocolate, pouring about two-thirds of it on a marble table-top, with an off-set spatula and a bench scraper (similar to a spackle spatula from home depot) you spread the chocolate around and scoop it back up into a pile about three or four times. It helps decrease the temperature and create the beta crystals. Once you have it at the appropriate temperature you have to scrape it off the table back into your bowl (which contains the other one-third). Then stir well, take the temperature, and dip a piece of baking paper in as a test strip to see how the chocolate sets up.

As you can imagine, this process could be pretttttty messy. Surprisingly enough, my first go at it was successful and I started the week off on a good note. I successfully tempered chocolate about 20 times that class, and just practiced doing it quickly and neatly.

Wednesday we made different fillings for all our bonbons. There were seven different flavors; praline croustillant/yuzu (praline is an almond/hazelnut/caramel paste, crispy crepe pieces and asian citrus), pate sable gianduja noisette lait (almond biscuit with hazelnut chocolate paste), peanut praline (praline with chocolate and peanuts added), fraise vanille (almond paste with vanilla bean and a strawberry jelly), cassis et chocoalt au lait (blackcurrant jelly with milk chocolate ganache), tablette caramel gianduja lactee (hazelnut milk chocolate paste with salted caramel), finger coco passion (coconut praline with passion fruit ganache). 

Thursday we cut the fillings using something called a guitar - which was basically a giant paper cutter with a bunch of cutting strings that would cut the filling in perfect squares/rectangles. We also tempered more chocolate and molded some pieces for our final show pieces.

Friday we finished up our show pieces and dipped all our chocolates. Then presented our buffet. All the chocolates were incredible. Probably some of the best chocolates I've had. It will be difficult for me to eat Lindt or Hersheys when I return home to the states. I feel like such a foodie snob all the time! Hah

Chocolates lab was a lot of fun and the Chef was really awesome. We have him for two more labs and I'm really excited that I get to have him again. He really loves what he does and is VERY good at it. He is also really strict and tells you how it is - which I think is necessary when teaching in this kind of environment. 

Friday was also my 22nd birthday! At lunch they brought the dessert out with candles and sang happy birthday to me. It was really nice. Two girls from the group also got me a bottle of tequilla (which didn't make it past friday...) When I got to lab I got a birthday card and most people from the group and my chef had signed it. It was such an awesome surprise. After lab we all had pizza and drinks. We played apples to apples and other drinking games. I also got another cake and a pint of Ben and Jerrys! Everyone here is awesome. I feel truly blessed to have spent my 22nd birthday celebrating here with these people. It is just so amazing how much has changed in the past year. It blows my mind that I'm actually in France expanding my knowledge in the pastry world, immersing myself in something that I (and all the people I live with) am so passionate about, and really getting a taste for traveling. Which I have to admit I LOVE, but I am rather homesick - I am just grateful to have so much support behind me from back home, my parents especially.

Saturday and Sunday were spent driving around France, going to wine tastings, a chocolate shop, and venturing around cities. It's so beautiful here. Sometimes I can't even stand it. Everywhere corner you turn there is another beautiful, breath-taking view. I wish my camera could capture how amazing it actually is.

yaarggggg! my pirate with a peg leg, hook hand, and eye patch. With a serious beard. He's quite experienced.

array of chocolates

pirate themed group shot in front of the buffet!

This picture should probably be censored.. SO AMAZING! Seriously delicious chocolate bars filled with salted caramel and praline

Bready for more.

Bonjour!

I'm seriously loving France (and breads, apparently...). It's just so incredible here. I wish you were all here to experience it with me, but sadly you are not.. I'm slightly missing home lately, even though it's like freezing cold, I'd still love to be there and complain with you all guys! Hopefully you're all checking in on my blog and can sort of feel like you're here with me. :)

Also, quick shout out to my mom for sending me an AWESOME care package. I got gold fish, kraft mac and cheese, mandarin oranges, beef jerkey, and wasabi and soy sauce almonds. What 'a lady!

Anyways, back to school things....

This week we had bakery lab. Bakery lab consists of breads and viennoiserie (which is classic French breakfast items, mainly made of puff pastry dough). This was one of the top three favorite classes from JWU so I was really excited. Then, when I noticed my Chefs last name was Baccon I knew it was going to be a good lab. I mean, when has bacon ever steered you in the wrong direction?? Hah The only down side was that our two groups had switched time slots so we had afternoon labs which go from 1pm - 8pm instead of 6 - 1, which I really don't like. But, I had to tough it out.

Monday we made; pate levee feuilletee (puff pastry dough) which ended up making croissants and chocolate filled croissants, pain de tradition sur pate fermentee (baguettes), pain aux figues (fig bread), le tranchoir (sour dough bread), and creme patissiere (pastry cream). The class went by pretty quickly, even though it's slightly hectic because we had so many breads in so many places and you have to do a lot with each bread. Each dough we would mix, rest, scale, preshape, rest, or fold and rest, then do the final shape, proof, score, and bake. (phew!) So as a result, in class we'd have fifty different timers going off and if you didn't have them labeled properly or knew what step you were on it could become a wild goose chase. Luckily, Chef has a sixth sense when it comes to bread and could tell you without even looking at any dough what needed to be done. It's amazing! He would even make a comment about needing to fold or take a dough out and you'd look at your timer and it would have 30 seconds left. Such a talent, and he is TRULY passionate about what he does. It's such a great feeling to be learning something so technical, so easily from someone who is absolutely and completely in love with what they're doing. It makes you love it even more!

Tuesday we baked our tranchoir (sour dough) because it had to proof over night, we made creme patissiere et garniture puor pains aux raisins (rum raisin roll), pain viennois (similar to white bread), pain au lait (milk bread), and pain au graines (seeded baguette). We also mise en placed (prepared ahead of time) ingredients for the other breads we were doing wednesday and thursday). The tranchoir was AMAZING. I love-love-LOVE sourdough breads, so it was one I was really looking forward too and boy - I was not disappointed. The smell alone is just incredible. The seeded baguette was also really delicious. I usually don't like seeded breads because of the texture of the seeds and chewy bread but this was delightful. It had sunflower, toasted sesame, poppy, and quiona seeds.

Wednesday we made brioche (sweet, buttery egg based bread), pains aux ingredients (ingredient bread), pain aux noix-settes (bread with walnuts and hazlenuts), pain de campagne fantaisie (bread with some whole wheat flour, mainly used for learning shaping techniques), and brioche royale (brioche dough mixed with candied fruit peels, nuts, and rum). In class we got to shape the brioche which is always fun, and the ingredient bread was really interesting. Each group had a different bread to make and they were all so delicious. There was comter lardons (cheese and bacon), miel raisins et noisettes (honey, raisin, and hazelnut), chocolat blanc (white chocolate), abricot et noisettes (apricot and hazelnut), pommes camenbert (apple and cheese). Each ingredient bread was shaped differently which helped create a variety for our final product buffet.

Thursday we finished up all our products and deep cleaned the kitchen. Lots of nooks and crannies to get flour out of! (I'm still trying to get it all out of my phone..) We also made brochettes (three different flavors of bread on skewers, cheese, bacon, and olive), focaccia (flavored bread), pain de meteil (whole wheat bread with a unique design), epis bacon (small baguettes filled with mustard and ham, shaped), cheese buns, tomato roll, olive roll, and cheesy volcano bread. The final buffet was spectacular. I've never seen anything so amazing in my whole life. There was such an array of breads. And it was just amazing to see what we had created and accomplished in such a short amount of time. It was all possible because bread is so versatile. You can start with one dough, split it up, and create a bunch of entirely different final products. It's just a delicious blank canvas you can mold into what ever your heart desires.

There was so much bread.

Sadly, I don't think I will ever be able to eat Big Y "french" or "artisan" breads again in my entire life. This class (and just being in France, in general) has really turned me into quite the bread snob. Hah even the "worst" bakeries in Yssingeaux have incredibly fresh and delicious baguettes available daily.

This class was truly amazing though. I really learned a lot about breads and got a lot of practice with shaping the dough. I also got a lot of practice with eating the bread...

Viennoiseries

Array of breads

Chef and some girls from class

Cheese and bacon bread hanging over the buffet

Chef and I

I seriously wish I could appropriately capture just how large this buffet was.

We used five work benches to achieve this, I'm pretty sure it was close to 20 feet long.

Well now that I've overloaded on carbs for the past four days..I'm looking forward to a week long cleanse. Just fruits, veggies, and light proteins for this girl! This class definitely helped me pack on the pounds, so I have some ground to make up. Hah 

Just now realizing it's like 12:30am here... this has been a long blog post. 

Well, thank for making it this far! (IF you even did. hmmmm) 

Au revoir for now. :)