Week 2. More cakes. A little English puff pastry, and choux. First lesson was all about mise en place, preparing the ingredients for the pastries that we were going to make over the next two days. On the second day, we did Gateau Concorde. The components of this cake is similar to Feuille D'Automne. It also consists of meringue discs and chocolate mousse assembled in alternating layers. However, for this cake we use a chocolate meringue instead of almond meringue. For the mousse we just made it with couverture and cream, and whipped cream, unlike Feuille D'Automne where we also added butter, egg whites and sugar.
Then there was puff pastry tranche, which is French for "slice" or "portion". I didn't do this too well and I wasn't pleased with it. We made this with English puff pastry. 1 single turn and 3 book turns. On this day I was reminded that focus in the kitchen is very very important, and that as chefs we have to be professional and not let our surrounding environments affect our work output.
The next day I made sure I stayed focused. And the result was good. I managed to produce a considerably presentable St Honore and Chocolate Tart. St Honore is made up of a puff pastry base and a choux pastry rim and cream choux puffs all around the edges. It is filled with Creme Diplomat (which is pat cream mixed with whipped cream, and a little gelatine added to stabalise the cream) and piped into the pastry ring using a special V-shaped tube. The top is then garnished in extravagant fashion with a spun sugar nest and caramel decorations. It was fun to do the spun sugar nest for the St Honore. A little messy though.
