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