Today's class involved a different teacher. He, too, is terribly personable and gives a genuine impression of passion for his work as Christine, our regular teacher, does. Today was far more interesting to me in that it is French pastry. Last week's class on muffins and scones was valuable but for me, it was the least interesting class in the curriculum.
I had an advantage; I've made macarons often in the past.
 |
| Ten choux pastries (five with crackle on them) and four éclairs, (two with crackle). Ready for baking. |
 |
| The light pink is Italian meringue that is about to be folded into the darker almond paste mix that is darker in colour. |
 |
| This is lavender flavoured dough. Again, the lighter mix is Italian meringue and the darker mix is the almond paste. |
 |
| The éclairs and choux, just out of the oven. |
 |
| Our teacher made this Paris/Brest to show us how. We did not make one in class, but I will be making one soon. |
 |
| I did all these freehand - no guide at all (although I have some great guides here at home). In the past, I did not use Italian meringue. It is far, far better to use it but it is scary to make. |
 |
| The choux, stuffed with pastry cream and crème chantilly. |
 |
| I'm happy with everything and a proud baker. |
 |
| I have friends coming over Sunday afternoon to help me devour as many of these as possible and I have promised some to a neighbour. We'll be having champagne with them tomorrow afternoon. I am seriously looking forward to happy hour tomorrow. Care to drop by? |
No comments:
Post a Comment