ThePurpleSpatula

After two days of making choux pastry and pastry cream I think my arms might fall off. Yes there is a great deal of mixing involved and no machines allowed. It would have been three days if not for the blackout on thursday. (woot!)

Anyway, we also learned to temper fondant. While its significantly less involved than tempering chocolate, I was having a bitch of a day. No breakfast + double the workload with not much extra time + massive amounts of elbow grease = one very light headed Neela. Basically I really was not seeing straight (let alone thinking) through most of my practical. So as a result my fondant was crap. I decided against photographing it, but I do have pictures of those the chef made. We made eclairs, cream puffs and paris brest.

We were pretty focused on chocolate this week. Mainly on getting as much practice at tempering as possible. Thats pretty much all we did on the first day. We also practiced piping with chocolate. My attempt at a showpiece, while not perfect, was destroyed by my klutziness. Yes that’s right, I broke it. But I’ve got pics of the ones the chef made. We made moulded chocolates on the second day. mine are milk chocolate with a hazelnut filling. Yummy! I also photographed my friend’s, which were dark chocolate with a rum ganache filling. On the third day we made florentine’s, which are a thin almond and honey cookie, coated with tempered chocolate on one side. Our chef said he thought mine were very impressive, but I think he was just trying to be encouraging. My chocolate tempering skills leave a lot to be desired. I’m getting the hang of it slowly, but most people are ahead of me in this department. It’s annoying but I’m getting there and starting to enjoy it more. Pity we won’t get back to chocolates till next semester. Anyway, pics!

Just a quick one this time, much like our practical session today. I still can’t believe how fast we all finished.

Anyway, we made wholemeal loaves (blech!!!) and Pepita and sunflower seed rolls. Didn’t photograph the wholemeal loaves but here are the seeded rolls I made. Also the loaves and rolls and bread alligator that our Chef made. It was terribly amusing.

More bread today. One batch turned out good, the other…um….not so good. My crusty bread rolls were good. My soft bread rolls, well lets just say I brought 16 sesame and poppy seed crusted mini weapons home with me today.

Top: Crusty Rolls

Bottom: “Soft” Rolls