Got up early this morning so Jordan could take the early DIA bus to his meeting. So I got to school before 7:30am. Time to pull everything for service, then sit for a cup of coffee. We took all our stocks out of the walk-in and set about re-heating them to a boil. This makes the stocks last longer. We froze some of the Fond De Veau (veal stock) so it would keep a couple of months. We took the duck legs we put in the walk-in to dry, rinsed them off and then put them in duck fat to cook in the oven. OMG!!!! The flavor of the duck was better than anything I have yet to taste! You essentially poach the duck in the oven by covering it in melted duck fat that has been reduced down and is very clear. Wow!
Then we spent the rest of the day with Chef Lexie learning about pastry dough.
We learned about Blind Baking-which means to fully or partially bake a crust without the filling in it so that it stays dry and crisp.
We learned about Docking which means to perforate or stipple raw crust before baking to prevent air bubbles. This is not really necessary but something she wanted us to know about.
Then we learned about the basic pastry doughs: Pate Brisee (pat bree-say), which literally means "Broken Paste". The ingredients are flour, salt, cold butter and cold water. This is the most basic dough and can be used for either savory or sweet pastries. The difference between between flakey dough and tender dough is the temperature of the butter you use. Although you can use a Kitchenaid or mixer, it is best to make this by hand so the butter does not get too incorporated into the flour and your crust become tough. To get flakey dough, you need to leave larger pieces of butter between flour layers so they melt and leave pockets of air when baked.
Pate Sucre (pat sue-cray) is literally "sweet paste". It's ingredients are flour, salt, sugar, cold butter and cold eggs. This is a crisper dough, more like a cookie and is more tender than the Pate Brisee. Pate sucre is also known as the universal sweet dough. You could also use cream cheese instead of butter. (This dough is tastey all bby itself, lol).
Next is Pate Sablee (pat sa-blee) or "Sand Paste". It's ingredients are flour, sugar, salt, room temperature butter, room temperature eggs and nut flour. Nut flour is made from nuts that get milled until they are the consistency of flour. These are better to buy than to make yourself as most times you end up with nut butter instead of nut flour. This dough is much wetter and sticker than the other doughs because everything is room temperature. The dough will stiffen up as you refrigerate it.
We got to mix up all three doughs and were able to bring home enough Pate Brisee to make two individual tarts at home!
Then we moved on to fillings. We covered Royale, which we had covered before if you remember. 3 eggs to 1 cup of liquid. For a sweet filling, just add sugar to your desired sweetness. Next is Frangipane, which is an almond filling that bakes into somewhat of a cakey consistency. Next was Almond Cream-which, your guessed it, is cream made with an almond flavor profile. Last but not least we made Pastry Cream-essentially stove top custard and probably the most versitile of all. You take whole milk, egg yolks, sugar, cornstartch, butter and sugar to make this. Once you have finished it, strain it, in case there is any "sugar burn" (sugar dessicates eggs which can cause some clumping or lumps so this will remove them).
Chef Lexie made Frangipane and then pastry cream and mixed them together, essentially making almond cream. How smart is that? And easier. Chef Lexie is great! She tells us that baking and pastry is not hard and says don't over think it. She definitely is enthusiastic about pastry and teaching!
Before we got ready for lunch, we rolled out our pastry dough, put it in an individual tart pan, spread it with a little raspberry jam, put in the Frangipane and Pastry Cream mix, then topped them with sliced apples, melted butter and cinnamon sugar. We were able to make our own design of the apples on top of the tart. Chef Lexie baked them and then we got to take THOSE home. Yum!!
Lunch was Le Grand Aioli, which was poached potatoes, green beans, and cauliflower, small tomato halves, roasted baby red beets, shrimp, hard boiled eggs served with an aioli sauce (in the mayo family but with garlic). We also had roasted marinated tri tip over salad greens dressed with a mild vinegrette. There was also bread, of course, lol. Yum, yum, yum!! Jordan would have loved this meal (minus the shrimp!)!
Dessert was a full size apple tart served with caramel sauce and chantilly cream. Lord have mercy! We eat really well--although I have to tell you Chef Lexie told us the food only gets better! I can't imagine!
Then it was time to clean up, although we started more veal stock by putting veal bones in brine. We will roast these bones though instead of poaching them. We will start tomorrow morning by getting ready to make more stock.
Even though it is hot here, I came home from school and baked Cranberry Buttermilk Scones for Carl to use tomorrow for breakfast. He says he makes the best scones and no one has been able to match his, so I guess I'll find out tomorrow if he likes them!
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