Narguesserie

Pastries in Berlin

Not quite as fancy or delicate looking as the French goodies but still quite tempting.

Lesson #11 - Plaisir

This entremet is named after the city of Plaisir west of Paris and is made up a layer of joconde biscuit, topped with a chocolate mousse, and then a vanilla supreme, then a another layer of joconde and finished with a caramelized layer on top. So far we have learned quite a few mousse recipes and they are all different. Some are more fluffy, others more creamy, some have eggs, others just two ingredients and the techniques are quite different as well. 

Practical #10 - Heavenly Chocolate

Super delicious cake.. totally worth all the whisking, dirty bowls, and freaking out over the finicky mousse recipe and chocolate disks. I did not want to give this one away.. but it had to be done. 

Lesson #10 - Chocolat Douceur (Heavenly Chocolate)

This cake is out of this world and totally deserving of its name; A hazelnut dacquoise, topped with a generous layer of (oh soooo tasty) crispy hazelnut praline, topped with two layers of milk chocolate mousse sandwiched between milk chocolate disks. I mean.. WOW! 

Practical #6 - Opera Cake

There were quite a few steps involved in making this cake.

Make, bake, and cut the joconde. Make the syrup, ganache, and butter cream. Assemble. Then the hardest part starts; Glazing and decorating. Seems easy, but it isn’t. Getting a nice, thin, even, and bubble free slick layer of chocolate glaze in one swift move can be challenging. Once you jump that hurdle, hopefully successfully, you wait for the glaze to set a little, then you cut the edges while praying hard to the Cake Gods that your glaze doesn’t crack. Then after that you can roll your paper cone, fill it with chocolate, and pipe “Opéra”  with a very steady hand and whatever else you like on your cake. 

By the time I was ready to show off my chocolate calligraphy my hands were quite shaky, I blame nerves. Chef Walter said I should take a deep breath and find my inner “Zen”. My inner zen and I came up with what you see here. :) 

Practical #1 - Apricot Streusel Cake & Pave aux Amandes

It was really exciting to be back in the kitchen again at the Cordon Bleu. I set up at my usual spot with Eun Joo to my right and Michael in front of me. Coco’s super positive and fun energy and Olivia’s singing were sadly missing. Chef Walter, by far the sweetest of all our chefs, was supervising our class.

We quickly started with our puff pastry dough then moved on to the almond cake. Prepped the mold, mixed the dough, popped in the oven. Then we made the streusel, baked the puff pastry, assembled the streusel cake, and baked it again. At the very end we decorated the cooled down almond cake with powdered sugar. 

It was really neat to see how the other students chose to decorate their almond cakes. 

Lesson #1 - Cakes

I am finally back in Paris and started my Intermediate Pastry course at the Cordon Bleu. Chef Cotte started off by making a batch of puff pastry, rolling and folding the dough with butter. He showed us how to make an apricot streusel cake, a (gluten free) almond cake, and a log cake called “Ecossais” (Scottish). 

They all tasted good.. yes just good. I am sure there are people who love cakes like these, I could live without them. To me they are in that gray area of baked goods that is between breads and fruit tarts, chocolate cakes, and anything creamy. On the plus side, they travel very well. 

Lesson # 8 - Gâteau Basque & Diplomate

Today Chef Tranchant taught us how to make the Gâteau Basque and Diplomate. The Gâteau Basque is basically a butter cake shell filled with pastry cream with some chopped up cherry preserves. The Diplomate is pretty much a bread pudding made with brioche and drowned in creme anglaise or a fruit coulis (he used apricot and raspberry coulis). Can’t say I will ever crave the Diplomate as I generally don’t like bread pudding. The Gâteau Basque is not so bad but I could live without it. Tomorrow I have to make this cake in class so lets see how it comes out.

Lesson #3 - Cakes

Chef Jordan taught us how to make perfect Madeleines, a tasty fruit cake, and a Week-end cake, which is basically a lemon pound cake. He told us a great deal about the history of these cakes:

• Apparently Napoleon enjoyed eating fruit cakes. 
• There are chunks of candied beets in fruit cake. 
• Madeleines became popular after one of the maids (Madeleine) of the Duke of Lorraine was suddenly put in charge of desert in the absence of the cook and her family’s cake recipe was the only one she knew. She poured the batter in Saint-Jaques shells and baked them. 
• The Weekend is a cake that doesn’t need to be refrigerated, so people could(still can) take it on trips without having to worry about keeping it cool.