Snow Day!

No, no, not the kind NYC just had. The other kind, where you go to the snow.

On Monday, our class headed up north to Gala Yuzawa Resort in Niigata to get our ski/board on. The boys from class couldn’t make it, so Dominique and Stephan, a boulangerie teacher at LCB, were just lovin’ the ladies

And being the fantastic teacher he is, Chef D brought some of our “studies” along.  He made a pain de gênes, week-end citron and nutmeg spice cake that we devoured on the train back to Tokyo.

Thanks to Chef for the following pics!

the kings of boulangerie and pâtisserie and their bright-eyed pupil

Seiko raising the roof to gorgeous weather? It really was.

Seiko and I wiped out. Into each other.

Then she got aggressive. It looks that way, doesn't it? But I think this is when we were thanking our lucky stars for that orange netting.

The whole gang! Back (L-R): Stephan, me, Emiko, Mika, Mayu Front: Chef D, Seiko, Kiichiro (Kazuko's son), Kazuko, Mieko

Day 10

Day 10:

• Palmiers
• Pailles (framboise pépin)
  
• Sacristains
  
• Bichons (crème patissier au citron)
  
• Préparation du Feuilletage

Let me just start this post by saying that I’ve been looking forward to Day 10 since I got the syllabus at orientation back in December (I warned that there’d be gushing today.)

The reason? Palmiers.

Palmiers fall into the category of immaculate foods for me. I’ve loved the heart-shaped pastry since I was a little girl growing up on the wide Texas prairie (in Houston). While the shape was no doubt my initial attraction, after that first bite at a La Madeleine Bakery many years ago, I swore to love and cherish the pastry ’till death do us part. Flaky and crisp, sweet and delicate, they are a delectable mouthful of happiness.

So you see, palmiers have rested on this pedestal for most of my life and when I realized I’d be learning how to make them, I was both nervous and incredibly excited. Maybe it was my fascination with the pastry’s seemingly endless layers or maybe it was the fact that I always had to go to the French bakery to indulge in the treat, but whatever the reason, up until this class, I was convinced that palmiers were impossibly difficult to make. But they’re not.  In fact, aside from making the puff pastry (yes, I know that’s a big “aside”), the secret to palmiers is laughably simple. Doesn’t that make you happy?! Personally, I’m thrilled

The secret to the delicate sweet crisp? Sugar. That’s it. Now most of y’all are probably thinking, “Well, DUH!” but I honestly thought that palmiers required something…more? Heck, I don’t know what I thought, but when Chef D told me that palmiers were simply made from feuilletage sucrée, or puff pastry rolled out in granulated sugar instead of flour, it made perfect sense. By rolling out the feuilletage in granulated sugar, I was lodging countless crystals of sweetness between those buttery layers so that when baked, each feuille received a gentle shellac of sugary love, making the already flaky pastry transcendent. I think a celebratory cry is in order here. Shout it with  me: Sugar, banzai !

As for the cute heart shape: Roll out the feuilletage sucrée into a long rectangle, fold both ends 2x over towards the center leaving a small gap (approximately two fingers width) and then sandwich the folded sides together.  Chill the dough until firm and then cut the sandwich into slices and bake.  By the power invested in butter, the pastry will expand and you will have a gorgeous looking palmier.

I suppose I ought to give the other pastries their due attention, too...Pailles are scrumptious linzer sandwiches with feuilletage sucrée crisps serving as the “bread.” Sacristains are the ever-popular puff pastry twists (the shape/name come from Christian tradition) that are made in an array of sweet and savory flavors. The ones Chef D made during demo called for a chopped almond/sugar/rum topping and were Chef D-licious.  Bichons, made in a similar fashion to Day 9′s Chaussons aux Pommes, are puff pastry pockets filled with a lemon pastry cream and then covered generously with granulated sugar prior to baking.  The result is a delightful sugar-crusted pastry pocket bursting with warm lemon cream. MmMMm.

Yikes—I’ve rambled away again, so I’ll end the post here and leave you with some pics of pratique goodies. I don’t want to brag (too much ), but even Chef D said that my palmiers were kirei, Japanese for “beautiful.” That felt pretty awesome.  I would’ve been content if the course ended then and there (though I’m glad it didn’t). Day 11 continues with adventures in puff pastry…but what we do with it, you’ll just have to wait and see!

<3 Palmiers <3

Pailles

Bichons

Day 9

Day 9:

• Chaussons aux Pommes (apple turnovers)
  
• Bande aux Pommes (apple compote, sliced apples)
  
• Galette des Rois (“King’s Cake,” almond cream filling)
  
• Préparation du Feuilletage
  

Feuilletage. Or Pâte Feuilletée.  I can’t pronounce either properly in French, but I can say “puff pastry” just fine.  And I love puff pastry.

In fact, my application essay for the Culinary Trust scholarship included a mini ode to the buttery, flaky goodness.  I won’t copy/paste the section here because the way I gushed about it makes me blush, but the general idea: puff pastry = bliss.  So you can imagine how excited I was for class this past week.  I mean, I’m still excited.  I feel like one of the secrets of deliciousness has just been divulged to me and I have the power (or at least the knowledge) to create said deliciousness whenever I want.

That power/knowledge can be summed up in one word: butter.

The LCB recipe calls for 240 grams (about 1/2 lb) of the saturated fat goodness to be wrapped, dumpling-style, in the detrempe, or the pastry base made from flour, water, and melted butter (yes, in addition to the aforementioned 240 grams).  In total, our recipe calls for 280 grams of butter to 400 grams of flour.  With a ratio like that, you’ve just got to forget about the calories and your soon-to-be-clogged arteries and enjoy.

The irresistible flakiness of puff pastry is the product of many many alternating layers of butter and detrempe. To achieve this, you take your butter dumpling and roll it out into a nice long rectangle and fold it into thirds.  Then you roll it out into a nice long rectangle and fold it into thirds again.  Then you roll it out into a nice long…you get the picture.

Chef D said that most puff pastry is used after its 5th or 6th roll out/fold, meaning there are between 243 (3^5) and 729 (3^6) layers of butter in a ready-to-use feuilletage.  However, because the butter needs to remain cool throughout the rolling/folding process, it is generally recommended to chill the pastry every two folds. This also gives the developed gluten an opportunity to relax making for easier rolling. I told you deliciousness was time-consuming.

Ok. I’ve gushed enough about puff pastry for one day. I’ll save the rest for Day 10—believe me, there’ll be plenty—and leave y’all with photos from class and of my pratique loot. Got some hot tipz from my brother Eric (he gifted me the D40 ) on how to take more dynamic, food-porn worthy shots, so I’m giving it a try.  I really enjoy photography but never took the time to learn about it. Now I have good reason to do so.  I mean, if I’m going to be taking food pics, I should be aiming for saliva-inducing. Ganbarimasu (the every-situation Japanese word meaning “I’ll do my best.”)

treats from morning demo (L-R): Galette des Rois, Bande aux Pommes, Chaussons aux Pommes

Mika-chan got the trinket!

Chaussons aux Pommes

Do you think the Mandarin Oriental will let me be their Chausson aux Pommes carver?

Bande aux Pommes (feat. Piggy-san, courtesy of my friend Eiji)

the best part of waking up

is leftovers in your…cup?

but really. pratique leftovers = best breakfast

Thursday’s (Day 9) Bande aux Pommes:

puff pastry, apple compote, sliced apples, almonds

The beginnings of puff pastry galore—Day 9 & 10—posting soon.

A typical school day

where i am

how i get there

where i keep my sweet wusthoff knife case (and other stuff)

who i hang with

and, of course, who i learn from: Chef D and his asst. Mieko

Day 7 & 8

Hi all! Sorry for the delay in getting this post up.  My dear mother was here this past weekend and we enjoyed some great QT and ate some lip-smackingly delicious desserts.  It was really truly a super weekend.

Day 7:

• Fruit Cake (assorted dried fruit, rum, sliced almonds)
  
• Madeleines
• Quatre Quart (pound cake)
• Gateaux au Marbre

After two weeks of pâte friable (the crumbly dough category that brisée and sablée fall under), Day 7 began our studies of pâtes battues, or cake batters.  And I was relieved.  Whether starting from scratch or breaking open a box of my favorite Funfetti, I’ve made my fair share of cakes and felt confident (at least not nervous) going into pratique.  Unfortunately, I think this confidence will be short-lived…

In pratique we made the fruit cake, pound cake and madeleines.  The  lesson of the day was learning the consequences of over-buttering and flouring a madeleine mold, or any mold for that matter. In the case of madeleines, it is super important to apply a thin, even layer of butter to the mold and then lightly flour.  If the butter and flour layers are thick and uneven, the madeleines will not brown evenly, resulting in a not-so-pretty result. Below, I’ve attached a picture comparing one of my madeleines to one that Chef D made in the morning session.  Mine’s pretty ugly in comparison. But that’s only when it’s presented shell-side up.  I’m all about shell-side down.

I know it's a tough call, but can you guess which is mine? Left? You're right!!!

packed with fruit and drenched in rum. mMMMm

the loot (minus some madeleines that mysteriously found their way into my stomach)

Day 8:

• Week-End Citron
  
• Biscuits à la cuillère (ladyfingers)
  
• Pain de Gênes (aka “Genoa Bread,” almond cake)
  
• Préparation du feuilletage (puff pastry)

We continued pâtes battues on Friday with a Week-End Citron, ladyfingers, and a rich almond cake known as Pain de Génes. A Week-End is basically a pound cake that has been double-glazed, helping the cake stay moist over—you guessed it—the weekend.  Ladyfingers are small génoise (Italian sponge) cakes that are probably most famous for being the syrup-soaked biscuits in tiramisu.  Génoise is fundamental in French pâtisserie and is often the foundation for some of the most intricate cake concotions. Pain de Génes, or Genoa Bread (They purposely made this difficult, didn’t they?) is a dense almond cake made from raw marzipan.  A lot of it.  In fact, our recipe called for 300 grams of the sugar-almond paste.  I was pretty much in almond heaven.

Day 8 also marked the beginning of our studies in one of my favorite pastry doughs—puff pastry.  I actually don’t think I know anybody who doesn’t like puff pastry. I mean, who could deny something so flaky and buttery? But like many delicious things, puff pastry is a pain to make and requires a great deal of time and patience.

In pratique we made the Week-End Citron, ladyfingers and began prepping puff pastry for the following week.  While the puff pastry wasn’t as difficult as I feared, piping the ladyfingers turned out to be quite challenging. You have to maintain constant pressure so that the fingers are not laden with ripples and you also have to be swift enough so that they’re not too fat. Mine were fat. And had ripples.  I renamed them “bearfingers.”

"Bearfingers" & Week-End Citron

One of the perks of being a student at Le Cordon Bleu is that somebody is always practicing a recipe and giving it away for taste tests. Clockwise from top: chopped almond "chip," Grand Marnier truffle, hazelnut praliné milk chocolate, slivered almond rocher

The one, the only…

Chef Dominique!

Here are a couple pics of him hamming it with his gâteau marbré (Day 7):

Honestly, he’s awesome.  He’s always smiling and laughing, making class more fun and putting us—certainly me—at ease.

We’re actually planning to go skiing/snowboarding in Niigata as a class in early February—Chef D’s idea. He’s da bomb.

Will post Day 7 & 8 soon…just wanted to share these gems first.