B&P Practical 2

Phase 4, Week 4, Days 16 & 17

Again a two day practical. We needed to produce 6 eclairs, pastry cream (for the filling), and a blueberry pie with a lattice top, and take a written test. The strategy was to make the pie doughs, pastry cream and pate a choux, and bake off the choux on day one and take the test, fill the elcairs, top them, and make the blueberry pie on day two.

Day 1- Had a few issues on day one. My milk got too hot for my pastry cream because I walked away to ask Chef a question as the milk was heating. When I returned it was boiling. I didn't think it was too big of a deal at first, until it began to thicken very rapidly. I knew it was not right, but I continued figuring the taste was ok and I didn't want to loose an entire point for starting over. My second major issue was that my pie dough was a bit dry. Not knowing I could simply add more water to it (remember I missed that day), I was afraid to alter the recipe after what just happened to my creme. So I left it like it was.

No issues with making the elcairs.

Day 2- Took the written test and got an 88%. Day two was a bit rocky as well. Got started on the pie first. The dough was a bit too dry and there was not much I could do but mess with it. My lattice was ok, but kind of on the short side. It was not long enough to wrap around the edges of the crust. But it was kind of falling apart at this point, so I went with it.

When I got the pastry cream out it was like silly putty not like pudding. Crap! I whipped it a bit to get air into it and just went with it too. I filled the eclairs until pastry cream was seeping out of the sides to be sure to get enough in them. When the choux bakes off it creates large air pockets inside (see below), that's why they are perfect to fill. The eclairs looked beautiful. The ganache was applied perfectly, no dribbles or lines down the side.

Result:
Pie- Nice flavor, tart. Crust was tough, result of overworking because it was dry. Lattice needed to be a larger. Score: 9.0

Eclairs- A bit small in girth, which leads to not enough expansion and a hollow inside, which lends to difficulty filling with cream ( which was the issue with 2 or 6 of my eclairs. She of course graded me on one of those). Slightly over baked. Pastry cream was too thick. Score: 8.5

Not my best, maybe Baking and Pastry is not my best?

Not the prettiest, but good

My eclairs, split so you can see the inside cavity.

Jeremy eating leftover cream over the trash can, classy.

B&P Practical 1, Day 2

Phase 4, Week 2, Day 9

Yesterday was agonizing, it seems like we waited around for over half the class time for, proofing, benching or baking. What a change of pace from our last phase. Today we moved a bit more. I completed 12 peanut butter cookies, 12 cheese biscuits, and the written test.

Written test was ok- 86%

Peanut Butter Cookies- I had to start over because I forgot to cream the butter and sugar before adding my other dry ingredients. Just got a little a head of myself. Otherwise fine in production. Chef asked if I had any issues with the method during my grading, and I had to tell her I started over (full point deduction). I also had two that were not exactly the same size as the others, worth .25 points. They did, however, have great taste and good texture. Grade 8.75.

Cheddar Biscuts- For some reason I noticed during baking my dang biscuits looked miniature compared to everyone else's. I used the exact same cutter as Jeremy, and yet mine looked smaller in scale. I couldn't figure it out. But I had to roll with it because I couldn't start over at that point. During grading Chef said they needed to be "tighter in appearance" and could have baked longer for more color. Otherwise very flakey. Score 9.25.

Biscuits

PB Cookies

B&P Practical 1

Phase 4, Week 2, Day 8

Baking and Pastry is so weird. The whole thing is like hurry up and wait. After F3 last phase where the clock started and all you did was move as fast as you could for two hours, this phase is slow as molasses in January during an ice storm. It will take us two class periods to produce 2 loaves of French bread, 12 Peanut Butter Cookies, and 12 Biscuits, and some where in there we will take a written test too.

Our row (Jeremy, Jarod, Rachel, myself and two others) decided to do the bread on day one to completion and the other products and test on day two. The remaining members of the class did the opposite. It should work fine that way keep us out of the fray of the majority.

Now, remember, I didn't get to finish my French bread on Monday so I was flying a bit blind. Being a test of course, we are required to work individually and can't ask any questions of our classmates or instructors at this point.  I just kind of went with the flow of the group. We all needed to go into the oven  together because we had to activate the steam function for the crust. However, no one was sure how long we were supposed to leave the steam in the oven before we opened the flue to let the moisture escape. In a panic we released the flue after only 30 seconds. WRONG! Apparently the bread needs the moisture from the steam to make a crispy crust. We should have left the steam in until the crust began to turn brown (10-15 minutes). Oops! So we spent the remainder of the cooking time worrying about how our bread would turn out. Would it be hard as a rock? Too dry? Not the right color?

Baguettes

Result: Not too shabby! I had nice edges and shape, good color. I could have scored a bit deeper and needed more holes in the bread. A 9 out of 10 over all.

Late for an Important Date

Phase 3, Week 4, Day 14 and Day 15

Looks like I have a little catch up to play here recently. Last Monday, was the half way point of the class, and I attended my regular class time since I had had the long weekend at home. In class we reviewed for our midterm written test and watched a demo on pork carnitas and strip steak. Seems lately the class has had a much more leisurely pace to it. We are only cooking every other day. Lecture and demo days are enjoyable, but tedious at the same time. Three and a half hours is a long time to stand and watch someone cook or discuss the primal cuts of different types of meat. And the cooking days move along pretty well but are much less frantic than they used to be, which is a great feeling to have!

Tuesday morning started off badly! I awoke when I hear my Uncle down stairs (I'm staying with my Aunt and Uncle while I attend school). This was not good! When I opened my eyes I saw light streaming through the window. Also not good! I looked at the clock, it was 6:20 am! NOT GOOD! Class started at 6:00 and we had a test and a practical!!! I shot out of bed, threw on my uniform and rushed out the door. I got to school in 25 minutes, in what was typically a 35 minute commute. I walked in just as the class was beginning the prep for the practical. I had missed the written test.

Ok- I just had to calm down and focus on the task at hand; which was:

Pork Carnitas

Salsa Cruda

Avacado and Sour Cream & Cilantro Quenelles

Grilled NY Steak

Maitre d'hotel Butter

Duchess Potatoes

Butternut Squash Gratin 

Working with Jeremy we got all of the dishes knocked out in record time. I couldn't believe it! It was actually pretty easy. Even the Duchess Potatoes, you'll remember from last phase, were pretty easy. Our only issue was I almost dropped our squash gratin when rearranging all the pots in the oven, but I saved it. Whew!

Result:

Steak- Great job, medium rare (who would have thought I would like mine that way now). Potatoes good color and flavor. Squash could have been dices in larger pieces and had a bit too much liquid in them. Otherwise very tasty.

Carnitas- They loved the presentation (took it's picture, always a good sign). Chef Bruce said it looked like the St.Louis Club was rubbing off on me. Good flavor over all. 

No Grade Yet. Good come back from a crappy start to the day.

I got docked 25% of my daily grade for being late, but Chef let me take my test right after class. Scored and 83%, not great but apparently par for the rest of my classmates. They keep sticking some zingers in there to keep you on your toes. What the hell is a Fourth anyway? I still don't know.

Sexy Carnitas

I'm hooked on the d'hotel butter

The Written Test

Phase 2, Week 6, Day 26

Someone was looking out for me today!!! When I got to class at 6 am. Jeremy lent me his review notes from Monday. I looked over them briefly, cramming in all I could. As luck would have it, Adolf announced that we were to study for the first half hour of class as the F3 students took their written test. Hallelujah! I was saved!!!!! I took advantage of the 30 minutes and went over several additional things for the test that the boys had mentioned and I hadn't studied.

Result: 100% Oh, yeah!!!!!!!

Remainder of class was spent making things we had difficulty doing the first time around. I opted to write out preplists and timelines for the 8 dishes that were to be on our final in the next two days. So no cooking today.

F2 Mid-term Practical

Phase 2, Week 4, Day 18

We had a feeling when Adolf said, "You'll have to wait and see." in response to my question, "What are we doing tomorrow, Chef?". We figured it had to be a practical. It was.

Today we were to make Green Beans w/ Roasted Red Peppers on Rice Pilaf and Eggs Benedict sub english muffin for Roesti Potato. Those two dishes covered everything we'd learned thus far, but pasta. He was kind to us and gave us two hours. That was a huge relief, that would enable us to basically work on one dish at a time. The only thing I was worried about was the Pilaf. In our practice session my Pilaf was horrible and I didn't turn it in for a critique. It was the first time I didn't turn something in. So I wasn't sure what it was really supposed to be like. No use worrying about it. Here we go....

No real issues during the preparation process. I was a bit jittery and kept forgetting simple little things. I guess it was test anxiety kicking in. Additionally, with everyone doing everything on their own our table was very crowded and there were a TON of dishes piling up. That was a source of a bit of frustration. My new, and now permanent, table-mates didn't want to take the time to do dishes or clean during the test so things just piled up and there was very little work space. Yuck!!!

I started with the green beans and rice. I had done the green beans first in the Monday night class, there were some differences between the procedure instructions between the two classes. I did my best to get on board with this class as these were the instructors that were grading me. On the rice, I miss read the white board. I  thought Adolf had written 1/2 of the entire recipe, when he actually meant 1/2 cup of rice (I didn't see the c. after the 1/2), but I caught it in time and added enough liquid before placing it in the oven.

Eggs Benedict procedure was great, my Hollendaise got a bit cool so I changed out my water in the double boiler to warm it back up. Otherwise smooth sailing.

Result:
1) Overall, good presentation.Very nice green beans, bacon not crispy enough (Chef Kim had told me it was too crispy the first time). More seasoning in general. 4/5
Rice, was not done. Good flavor, but some grains were tough. 2.5/5 (ouch!)

2) Eggs Benedict, nice presentation. Roesti could have been a bit larger in diameter in order to be seen a bit better. Nice flavor, perfectly poached egg. 4.5/5

84%, not bad, and on par with my other peeps in the class. So I'm happy with the result. We'll see how the written test goes on Friday.

Green Beans w/ Rice Pilaf

Eggs Benedict w/ Roesti Potatoes