I think people should live to eat, not just eat to live. The world of pastry is Simply Amazing.
We did mise en place for Danish pastries on Thursday, preparing the Danish dough with 3 single turns, and making several fillings. The difference between Danish and puff pastry is that for puff pastry, the fat is calculated based on the weight of the flour, whilst for Danish pastry the fat is calculated based on 35% of the weight of the dough. Danish pastry should not have more than 35% fat otherwise the fat will seep through the layers, giving a soggy and poorly risen pastry. Because Danish pastry is only given 3 single turns, it has less layers than puff pastry, and tends not to rise as high as puff pastry potentially can. As we only had one dough breaker/sheeter, I decided to just roll out the pastry by hand instead of mucking around and waiting in the queue. Of course it doesn't do the job as well as the machine but it's good practice anyway, 'cos a chef must also know how to work without machines. In between waiting for the dough to rest and give it the required turns, we prepared the fillings as a bench. I was in charge of doing streusel topping. Streusel is German for tiny pieces of stones, and it is so called because streusel resembles small stones, similar to a crumble topping. The difference between streusel and crumble is simply the addition of liquid (egg/ water etc) to streusel. I like crumble better as it gives a better crunch.
Anyways, before class we thought we wouldn't have anything to bring home since it was all mise en place, but oh nono...there was a sweet surprise at the end...Baklava! Baklava is a sweet filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and cooated with syrup, originally made in Turkey, then in Greece. There are differences in the way it is made in the various places. For example, the Greek ones are made using only almond, while the Turkish ones are soaked in syrup and can be filled with a variety of nuts such as cashews and pistachios. This is an amazing dessert, so simple to make yet so addictive to eat.
We did mise en place for Danish pastries on Thursday, preparing the Danish dough with 3 single turns, and making several fillings. The difference between Danish and puff pastry is that for puff pastry, the fat is calculated based on the weight of the flour, whilst for Danish pastry the fat is calculated based on 35% of the weight of the dough. Danish pastry should not have more than 35% fat otherwise the fat will seep through the layers, giving a soggy and poorly risen pastry. Because Danish pastry is only given 3 single turns, it has less layers than puff pastry, and tends not to rise as high as puff pastry potentially can. As we only had one dough breaker/sheeter, I decided to just roll out the pastry by hand instead of mucking around and waiting in the queue. Of course it doesn't do the job as well as the machine but it's good practice anyway, 'cos a chef must also know how to work without machines. In between waiting for the dough to rest and give it the required turns, we prepared the fillings as a bench. I was in charge of doing streusel topping. Streusel is German for tiny pieces of stones, and it is so called because streusel resembles small stones, similar to a crumble topping. The difference between streusel and crumble is simply the addition of liquid (egg/ water etc) to streusel. I like crumble better as it gives a better crunch.
Anyways, before class we thought we wouldn't have anything to bring home since it was all mise en place, but oh nono...there was a sweet surprise at the end...Baklava! Baklava is a sweet filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and cooated with syrup, originally made in Turkey, then in Greece. There are differences in the way it is made in the various places. For example, the Greek ones are made using only almond, while the Turkish ones are soaked in syrup and can be filled with a variety of nuts such as cashews and pistachios. This is an amazing dessert, so simple to make yet so addictive to eat.
Class finished ahead of time and I decided to practise writing for our Opera cake next week after looking at Chef Keith's writing as well as some writings off the web.
On day 2 we got the Danishes up and running...Chef showed us so many shapes - windmills, bear's paw, turnovers, crescents, lattices, twists, snails, scrolls, plaits...there are so many more designs but there wasn't enough time to demonstrate.
And we made some Chelsea buns too. I like cinnamon buns better, because cinnamon buns are made using a dough very similar to Danish pastry which is so much more buttery and fragrant, whereas Chelsea buns taste a little like hot cross buns.
And as usual, we always save the best for the last. We made bread on the last day! I love bread. It's my favourite part of the patisserie course, really. We did Foccacia bread, Baguette and Lavosh. Lavosh is a Jewish unleavened bread sprinkled with sesame and poppy seeds. It tastes more like a cracker actually, because it is rolled out to 1mm thick which gets it really crispy after baking.
Baguettes are traditionally displayed vertically (like so in the picture below) so that as it cools the moisture goes out from the side of the bread, leaving the front crust crisp. I need to angle my cuts on the bread more next time.
And how else can I describe the foccacia? Just simply lovely.
Have a great weekend!