Day 7: Classic Pastry

In class on day 7, we piped and baked our Pate A Choux for the St. Honore, made the custard of our Creme Brûlée, finished our St. Honore, and finished the rest of out Choux products.

For the Pate A Choux:

We made 4 different products with the Pate A Choux, Eclairs, Paris-Brest, big cream puffs and mini cream puffs (for the St. Honore. The measurements were the same for the Eclairs, Paris-Brest, and big cream puffs. The mini cream puffs were around .5 to an inch big.

For the custard of the Creme Brûlée:

A Creme Brûlée is a custard and it’s topped with granulated sugar that is caramelized on top of the custard. A Creme Brûlée is made out of heavy cream, milk, vanilla ban, egg yolks and whole, and sugar. To make the Creme Brûlée, combine the heavy cream, milk, vanilla bean (make sure you spilt it open and get the seeds out, put the seeds in the pot), and half of the first part of the sugar. Combine the egg yolk and whole and the second part of the sugar. Make sure you whisk the eggs and sugar together once you add the sugar. Once the dairy mixture comes to a simmer-boil, temper it with the eggs. All of the liquid from the milk should be in the bowl with the eggs. Once all combine, strain ,the custard to get out the whole vanilla bean and the cooked eggs, into a liquid measuring cup. Once completely strained into the measuring cup, pour evenly into ramekins. Then put into a water bath, to control the cooking of the eggs and to keep the moisture inside the custard. Take the ramekins out after, the custards jiggle like jello. Then put in the cooler to chill. We’re going to finish the custards on Monday.

For our St. Honore:

St. Honore is a cake that is named after a Bishop, who brought good things to the bakers after his death. St. Honore is made with Puff Pastry, Cream puffs topped with Caramel, Pastry Cream, and Chantilly Cream.

Step 1: Fill the Cream puffs and dip them in caramel and set aside.

Step 2: Bake the puff pastry and cut 2 6-inch circles out of the dough. Then put a layer of pastry cream on both circles. Make sure you don’t go to the side but like a 1/2 of an inch off the edge.

Step 3: Put the mini cream puff on the out edge. Make one circle Chocolate cream puffs and the other plain cream puffs. Save 2 different cream puffs for the centers of the St. Honore.

Step 4: You’re going to take the St. Honore pastry tip and fill a pastry bag with Chantilly Cream to fill the middles where the pastry cream is.

Step 5: Once both have Chantilly Cream on them, put the extra cream puff in the center of both, because when tipping it gets a little tight in the center.

And now the Saint Honore Cake is done.

To finish the other Pate A Choux products:

For the Eclairs, take tip and poke 3 holes in the bottom. Then fill with Chantilly Cream. Then dip the top in Chocolate Ganche and let it sit, then you can put it into a cupcake liner.

For the Paris-Brest, cut them in half. Pip little rosettes, around the base of the Paris-Brest, of the Praline Diplomat. Then put the top on and shift powder sugar onto. Then put it into a cupcake liner.

For the Big cream puffs, cut 1/3 off. Fill the cream puffs high up with Chantilly Cream. Then put the top on. Sift some powdered sugar on top and then put it into a cupcake liner.

I felt that I could and should have been neater. When working in a kitchen, I have to leave all of what is going on outside the kitchen outside. There is some stuff going on in my life and I feel that was effecting my ability to go over the edge and keep up my standards in my production. I need to be cleaner and well organized for Monday and Tuesday because I will be having my Practical.