Cookie Explosion!

We did our charlotte Royal yesterday along with our first plated dessert of banded chocolate mousse cake (i took pics they'll be up soon..). I'll explain them once i get the pics up.
Today we made 6 different types of cookies! like biscotti, sable (french cookies that look like checkerboards), earthquake cookie, and some others that just slipped my mind ( i just got home, bare with me i feel like collapsing). I promise to get the pics up soon and talk about the plated desserts!

From Chef, to Actor!

Well friday we put together a charlotte russe (aka a "jelly roll"" which is supposed to be this sponge cake with rasberry jelly rolled in it, sliced, and then lined on a bottom of a bowl and then filled with bavarian cream and then frozen. Since i promised you i am not a baker, of course my sponge cake was overdone so it didnt roll nicely so my charlotte (hee hee, charlotte, if your reading this, know i thought about you when our instructor told us, "ok, so today were are going work on your charlotte!") is a bit deformed. Then we took that left over devils food cake and cut out litte circles to make a "band of chocolate" which is a peice of the devils food layered with chocolate mousse three times. we froze those too because on monday, we'll learn how to creat a chocolate "band" to wrap them. They are a small dessert or what we call in culinary school "plated dessert". This upcoming week will be all about plated dessert. A plated dessert is like a dish, it need to have five components (texture, cruch, flavor, creaminess, and chocolate) and be well balanced. Its neat because this is part of the class that does not involve a recipe, we make the sauces ourselves. Most start the same, some boil fruit with a little simple syrup, blended in a blend with an added acid like citrus of vinegar. Some chefs are ballsy and add salt, but our chef instructor told us you should be VERY experienced if you want to add salt because if you add to much, theres no taking back and you have to make a whole new batch. After the sauce is blended, you strain (cause the "crunch" factor should come from raspberry seeds), and then heat or cool it until it thickens up to a nice consistency. I am so excited because i cant wait to finally use my creativity and really wow someones taste buds. I am think maybe doing a ginger organe sauce of maybe fig and honey? Usually there are 2 sauces on a plate that should balance each other (like sweet and tart). See the difference between this baking class and the other one. Anyhow, besides that, sunday morning is my UCLA theater audition and I am nervous as hell. I've been so focused on cooking that i am afraif i am out of shape for my other passion for the stage. they are very cut throught there, not a lot of spots. I am doing a contemporary monologue and a classical one. I like the contemporary one, its from the vagina monologues, lots of cussing, totally me. the other i am nervous about, its chekov and i never liked russian theater all that much when i studied it in college. Anyhow, i got a haircut today (so i look at least a little like my head shot) so hopefully my confidence will be up and i'll be able to put my apron down and be an actor, well at least for tomorrow...

Dobos Torte!

So this is my pathetic eight layered Dobos Torte. Itsa hungarian dessert with eight sponge layers, choclate butter cream with brandy simple syrup washed on it and carmel encased sponge waffers on top. I am sorry for the slice missing but the chef needs a piece to try in this class when we present them. I will go over more in detail about the disaster that happended from the Balck Forest Cake later today...but for now heres the latest pic.

Welcome to Baking II!

so baking II began and heres a first, our instructor is....a girl! She seems nice, looks a lot like aa younger verision of Oprah. She seems super serious though, i tried to crack a few jokes here and there, i am usually good at getting even the most serious of people to loosen up and crack a smile, but she just barely did. O well, my baking I chef (who's actually teaching next door!) told me she's sweet. We made Devils food cake and a dobo eleven layer cake. We didn't assemble them because we'll make a black forrest cake tomorrow with the devils food and this hungarian eleven layer cake with a carmel wafer on thursday. So i will take pics of my cake tomorrow for all of you to marvel at my baking inempt-ness. This class is ALL desserts, we'll be doing cookies, hot souffles, truffles, petit fours, sorbets, and all these of intricate sugar pieces. Defiently no waitning around waiting for breads to proof and bake like in baking I. Azelma, dont be so jealous, but you know theres tha same class i take that here at school that goes from 6-11 am! good lord i'd have to get up at four am! i could never do that schedule, me and the morning dont mix!

Baking II !

I start baking II today. I hope i will have time to write about it after class but that is if i get out early (because its supposed to end, as always, at 11 pm and i am usually dead if they make us stay till then). I just want to say a big ass thank you to everyone who's been reading and commenting. I really appreciate it! I wonder how big my class will be this term. last term it was only 16 (down from about 23 in my Intro II class, and i remember when i first began, it was about 30!). As you can see its intensive. people drop out because its very time consuming, costs A LOT (like a year at harvard without a scholorship), and lets face it, its boot camp for culinary students. Although not to say that you cant handel these things, if you reall want to be there, that is. There are lots of loan and financial aid options and plenty of grants and scholorship, its just extra work but it can save you a lot of money. In a sense its good the class is small but i must say i still feel a bit of a social outcast. Its weird i also seem to be the most knowledgable about food we haven't learned yet because i've been interested in cooking all my life and julia child's books were staple in my home. Like for example, about two people raised their hands when the chef asked if they new what carpaccio was. not to sound like a snob, but i expect them to know that. anyhow, i will try to write about tonight. wish me luck!

The "Final" showdown!

Before i begin my Baking I final lowdown, i must apologize for not posting as frequently as i would have wanted recently. This past few weeks have not only been tough at school, but I've had so many personal issues to deal with. But i am back, i do hope people still read this, please someone, comment just to let me know i am not blabbering about culinary escapades to a monitor. Anyhow, so my finals went horribly! gah lets begin with this past monday, we had to take the written test (that actaully was a bit easy), and do an egg/holladnaise practical test. We were given four eggs to produce two poached eggs and holldanise on top. So that gives you an extra egg incase you mess up. I mess up, but i still needed more eggs! I started making the holladiase when i noticed it was not comming together, than i realized my butter wasn't clarified enough. so i simply put it back on the burner and cranked up the heat, hoping this would speed up the process because i only had a bout ten min left! Silly me of course took the screaming hot butter and into my egg yolk to start my hollandaise when it hit me, "the butter must be below 110 degrees!". So incase you haven't guessed already, this turned my yolk into scrambled eggs. So theres two yolks gone. and i still needed to produce two poaches eggs. so i handed in two eggs, no sauce. I felt pathetic. Then lets proceed to the rest of the week. Tuesday we were allowed to prep whatever we wanted for the rest of the week. On wensday we needed to turn in two items (everyone had a different item). Mine were fairly simple, 6 eclaires and a 24 oz sourdough. I thought i could for sure nail this, but even here i messed up. First of all, our recipe given to us when the class first began a few weeks ago was for a 1 lb loaf so i thought, "hmm all just had half to make 24oz". Then when i baked it, although i must say beautiful as it was, it was huge! and he weighed all the breads! i forgot to weight it BEFORE baking, and it turned out to weigh a whopping 34 oz! And the eclaires? beautiful, really perfect, but the filling! i didn't read my menu carefully enough because i realized i had to fill them with pastry cream NOT whipped cream (they are very different, pastry cream is yellow). Thursday i had to turn in a cheescake and 6 bearclaw danishes. thank god those turned out good, but i topped the cheesecake with cherrys and he said he want it plain. O well, i still got an A in the class because i do my homework and do fairly well on quizes. So tuedsday i start baking II! its way more intricate and i hear we have a mystery box for the final where we must make a dessert out of the ingredients inside. sounds neat, please check frequently, i promise to post!