Pastry School Diary: Week 22

I cannot believe how fast the second half of the pastry portion of pastry school is going! Ever since our return after Christmas the time has been flying by. It’s going to be weird not to see these ladies so much every week (although a couple of them are part of the second half of my course, thankfully!).

Tuesday: Chocolate & Raspberry Bavarois

On Tuesday we made chocolate and raspberry Bavarois. A bavarois is a similar to a pastry cream or a mousse, but is thickened with gelatin. For the base of our bavarois, we used a genoese sponge. We then piped the custard on top into the mold to set. Once they were set, we topped them off with a raspberry mirror glaze. We worked on our first plating efforts. I was busy working on prepping my Mississippi Mud Fudge Pie for recipe development, so my first attempt at plating efforts were a bit subpar due to that and the fact that I need a lot of visual examples before coming up with ideas. I will need to research and sketch out some before our exam next week.

In the afternoon, I met up with the Culinary group to continue with our recipe development for our menu planning project. I made (with some slight modifications due to resources) this Mississippi Mud Fudge Pie with a meringue topping v.  marshmallows. After our lesson on marshmallows on Friday, I’d change this back to marshmallows, but homemade and more sticky and less set.

Wednesday: Soufflé Glace & Apple Soufflé

On Wednesday, we made two different soufflés – soufflé glace and apple soufflé. Soufflé is the past particle of the French verb souffler, which means to puff up. That is exactly what happens in a soufflé (in theory) when you combine egg custard and egg whites. There are sweet and savory soufflés, as well as both hot and cold soufflés. Hot soufflés puffs up because of the bubbles of hot air trapped in the batter and as the soufflé cools, the bubbles retract causing the soufflé to fall; hence the reason why hot soufflés need to be served immediately. My makeshift molds for the soufflé glace weren’t the best so some of the mixture leaked out.

Guster, who I didn’t know still played until a few months ago when I found out about their show in London, was a band I thoroughly enjoyed in high school. They played in London on Wednesday and since our class is late, I had to leave a little early to meet my friend and make it to the show. It was a fun show, despite them not playing as many songs off the albums I own. 😉

Thursday: Raspberry Delice

Thursday we partnered up to make all the necessary elements for a raspberry delice. The delice is made up of a rich chocolate sponge, flourless chocolate sponge, raspberry ganache, raspberry compote, chocolate mousse and finished off with a raspberry jelly glaze. It’s all assembled, similar to the Opera, in specific layers. We don’t have the proper molds to make the delice in, so we had to assemble freehand, set it in the freezer/fridge, wrap with acetate, set again and then pour on the glaze. Not quite as even if made in a mold, but equally as tasty!

Friday: Costing Theory & Marshmallows

On Friday we started the day learning about costing. We went through the basic costing formulas and then moved on to costing which takes wastage into account. We practiced with a lot of math formulas. Felt kind of nice to start the morning with some math*.

In the afternoon, we made homemade marshmallows. We made a vanilla and black current. They were gooey and delicious. The vanilla would be the topping I would use as a marshmallow fluff on the Mississippi Mud Fudge Pie from Tuesday. While we were waiting for the marshmallows to set a bit, we had a little bit of bubbly to celebrate Yousub and my birthdays (I’m the 7th and she’s the 8th). A lovely little way to kickoff the birthday weekend. 🙂