a little background on our exams

i'm not quite sure how it happened, but april is already next week, and my third set of written and practical exams is close on its heels (april 6, to be exact). before another set of exams is behind me, i'd like to share the experiences of the first two with you!

before coming to pastry school, i wasn't quite sure how we would be evaluated. would it be top chef style, where we have little to no time to create, plate, and then watch it get devoured, while we're hoping that the face the instructor just made was because of a sudden and unrelated illness, or that the instructor will say we're too good for school, and it would be an honor if we would teach the class*? or maybe it would just be a series of quizzes on the technical aspects, and in the practical portions, we would have to execute a set of techniques and call it a night?

i was nervous that we would have to have everything memorized, not just for the written exams but also for the practical portion, which had the potential to be disastrous. baking is not about throwing a little of this here, and that there, and magically producing a beautiful/delicious treat, but about understanding your ingredients, the conditions surrounding them, and how to combine them to get the results you want. getting one ratio off will not only result in a wonky product, but could create a series of negative effects that could basically render your product inedible, if not for health reasons, then out of concern for one's palate. the first example i can think of is not entirely related to ingredients per se, but if you changed the temperature at which you baked a pot de crème, you could end up with scrambled eggs in a mess of chocolate, which sounds disgusting. or, for an example related to ingredient ratios, if you let water evaporate when boiling to prepare for pâte à choux, that would change the ratio of wet:dry ingredients, which would change the number of eggs absorbed by the dough, which would change the structure of the finished pastries, going from a beautifully risen choux with a perfect hollow to an eggy, web-filled, collapsed mess.

luckily enough, we were allowed to keep our recipes with us. as chef t pointed out after our second exams, and this was said with all of the love in the world, "[we] are nowhere near the level of being able to improvise and stray from the beaten path. now is not the time to be creative, but to learn the basics from which you can create." i was reading a piece on what makes good food writing, and that piece paired with chef's words of wisdom really resonated with me; if you don't know what a traditional pastry cream is, or what it tastes like, how can you talk about it with any degree of confidence, but more important for the kitchen, how can you tweak and change it when you don't know where you're starting from?

the next two posts will be dedicated to the individual evaluations, but it's helpful to know these points before going into each unit:

1.  we are given a forty five minute written exam before the practical portion. anything and everything can be asked of us in this written exam.
2. immediately following, we have three hours to mise en place, execute, plate, and clean up after our assigned products. for every minute we are late once that three hour period is complete, we lose points. for every mistake we make, we lose points. for meeting expectations, we are given constructive feedback to become better.
3. three hours sounds like a long time, but when you consider that one recipe alone can take three hours, between prep, baking, and cooling time, and we have to execute multiple products at the same time, it's really not that long at all.
4. during class, we can ask any question we have of our chef instructors. during the exam, they basically just make sure we don't burn the place down. and going from an atmosphere of calm and joy to an anxiety filled, over-heated room has an incredible impact on the entire process.

i think that's it for the basics! now head on over to the tarts and cookies post, or to the pâte à choux post, to really sink your teeth into the process.

*and no, neither have happened, and those are pretty extreme reactions, but you get my point.

second exam: pâte à choux unit

back for round two, and only a little over a week later.

this unit was extraordinarily quick, which meant that it was fewer terms and techniques to remember, but also fewer recipes to draw from, which was good...and bad. we knew for sure that we would be making éclairs, but that was it as far as guarantees. were we all going to make the same thing? or would we pick randomly like the first time? i was sort of dreading the idea of making a gâteau st honoré, because of the caramel, and i knew that we wouldn't be making a croquembouche (too time consuming), or profiteroles (no ice cream), or gougères (it was more of a fun demo, than a serious recipe made). so it really came down to the éclairs with either a paris-brest, or the gâteau st honoré.

we walked into class, seemingly prepared for what was to come, and then it happened.

i don't quite know if it was us looking forward to what we were doing after the exam (first group outing, yay pastry 1!) or if it was that sense of preparedness that did us in...but it wasn't as smooth a process as the first final. at least, i know it wasn't for me, but i don't think i'm venturing too far to say it was a similar experience for a number of my classmates. we came in with a plan, pushed hard, worked through dinner, and still most of us finished late. i was all of two minutes late, with a messy station and burnt fondant to show for my rushing.

we ended up all making the same thing, instead of picking at random. we had to prepare:

• five four inch chocolate éclairs
• five four inch coffee éclairs
• one six inch paris-brest

read more after the jump!

first exam: tarts & cookies unit

on march seventh, i had my first ever pastry school exam, finally completing the seemingly never-ending tarts and cookies unit. the objective was straightforward: take a forty-five minute written test, and execute three recipes from our unit. sounds simple enough, right?

the recipes we had to execute were randomly assigned to us on exam day, but some of us had heard through the grapevine/listened closely in lectures to deduce the following:

• no linzer torte
• no tarte tatin
• no fig newtons

and so on. really, the list just meant that we wouldn't be asked to produce a recipe that took forever, which makes sense when you think about it. we only had three hours to execute three recipes, so we couldn't possibly be asked to do something that was so time consuming.

i drew the following recipes:

• two four inch clafoutis
• one eight inch tarte aux pommes
• five spritskakor cookies

read more after the jump!

cake school is serious stuff.

in the midst of all of this exam talk, i realized i haven't mentioned something that is just as important!

in this PSA for kitchen safety, i present to you the following:

1. imagine a blob-like shape, of three inches in length, and one and a half inches at its widest points.
2. for those who cannot imagine the shape with any specific idea of how big or small that is (like me), here is an online ruler, for you to actually see that size.
3. and for yet another reference point, think about the size of an ipod touch, or an iphone, but just a bit smaller (these were the first things i could think of that were a similar size, and i heart apple products).
4. now that you can imagine that shape, translate that to my left forearm, in the form of a burn.

i am only just now recovering from a second (yes, that's second of three) degree burn that was three inches long and one and a half inches wide. in case you thought pastry school was all rainbows and lollipops, think again.

be careful of hot items folks, especially when you set them on your work surfaces.

battle wound? achieved.

kiss me, i'm irish! (no really, i am.)

i have for you a delightful recipe in honor of today's momentous occasion, which to some means the chasing of snakes out of ireland, and to others, another reason to ask for a pint of guinness, and if the bartender isn't quick enough, the right to shout "póg mo thóin" (or for us non-gaelic reading folk, "pogue mahone"). it is generally not nice however, to tell someone bringing you something, especially something you will then ingest, to kiss your ass, but i don't think st. patty's day has ever been about table manners, now has it.

speaking of that pint of guinness, which i hope will come to you without any ass-kissing of any sort, at my newest job i was asked to make a guinness cake, whose recipe i have written down in order to share with you, my darling followers. i am sure that this is available on the internet, in many forms, so just suffice it to say that this is not of my own invention, many thanks to the person who transcribed this version.

it is supposed to be a bit sunken in the middle-not so much a gaping crater in the center, but it is alright for the center to have fallen a bit. and when applying the topping, keep in mind, that it is just that- a TOPping. not an icing or a covering, just a topping. it is meant to only go on top so that it looks like a freshly pulled, you guessed it!, pint of guinness.

recipe after the jump!

crunch time!

so here i am, already studying for another series of written and practical exams. yes, last (not this past) monday was my first set of exams and only five classes later am i back in hardcore study mode. this crunch time post is not about studying though!

recently, i've noticed a sudden media spamming effort by a variety of nut groups. and no, i don't mean crazy left or right wing people, i actually mean nuts! peanuts, almonds, pistachios, etc. and not only have i been seeing/reading about them more, but because most of the tarts and cookies from the last unit were nut-based, i've been eating them a lot more.

all i have to say is why wasn't i doing this before?

there are an incredible amount of health benefits from eating them, not to mention that they are a delicious, portable, and non-perishable snack! which means that they are perfect for me, because i have been known to forget to eat, or get frustrated with waiting to eat, and by that point i'm so hungry but i've given up on getting food (i never said i was a model eater, don't be like me!). with a handful of these in my bag though (of course, in a container, not just dropped in the bottom of a purse or something) i will never be without sustenance again. hooray!

all food epiphanies aside, sadly, that's all i have time for. i just wanted to share my small revelation before i put my nose back to the grindstone. i am sure that there will be more nut-lover posts in the future, but for now, i have a date with pâte à choux and, of course, some almonds.

a slice of humble pie.

so...i have a bit of a confession to make.

a month ago, i started this blog, all bright-eyed and bushy tailed with an ungodly amount of time on my hands, and thought wow! this is a great idea! there is NO way i could miss a post because i have set up this nice schedule and i will have things to write about once school starts and i will be happy go lucky hooray!

and then this past month happened. in the past month, i've started school, taken two jobs, turned down a third (for my sanity's sake!), and applied to countless more. i've been to three of the five boroughs, and have mastered the art of both the metrocard swipe and the balancing act that is being on the subway without having anything to hold onto. in the same week i've had to bundle up in my winter coat and have taken advantage of t-shirt weather (hello odd climate patterns). i've made twenty four individual tarts (and/or tartlets), and a few hundred cookies--thank goodness i didn't have to eat them all (sharing is caring after all), or else i would add to this tally that i gained at least a metric ton as well. i've learned an enormous amount about the world of baking and how it works and i'm only more convinced that this was the right step, even with a few mis-steps, or full-on, face-down splats on the pavement.

but you wouldn't know any of that based on what i've written here.

the past month of classes have been incredible: incredibly difficult, but also incredibly rewarding. with these classes, there is a definite, tangible output with which i can gauge my progress. all of my effort and running around the kitchen actually means something that i can not only show to others, but share with them (seriously, anyone in the new york area i need to get more food off my hands, let's chat and i will share). we're reaching the end of our first unit, tarts and cookies, and studying for my exams on monday has given me time to reflect on the past month and what it means. as thrilling as all of that is though, to me or to you, it would undoubtedly get boring to see: hey, class was great! we made a tart. it was so fun! yay! day after day. it got boring just thinking about it like that! the problem with that whole structure is that of course, we did more than just crank out tarts, but i only made notes of it as it applied to what i would need to know, not what i'd like to write about here. now that i'm in the middle of it, instead of projecting about what might happen, i think i have some solutions to better address the gap between what i promised and what i provide.

in the mean time, here is a series of highlights from the past month:

• i now know the recipes for pâte sucrée (sweet tart dough) and pâte brisée (flaky tart dough) like the back of my hand. those two are the doughs we most frequently used for all of the tarts and tartlets that we made, and of the two, for a variety of reasons, i prefer the pâte brisée. i like being able to actually make the dough by hand, instead of by mixer (although, let's be honest, i wouldn't give up the mixer entirely) and i love the finished product. pâte sucrée hits only one note for me, but the brisée has a nice quality to it that i feel better meshes with a wider variety of fillings.

• as previously noted here, i have learned how to flambé. other fun tricks? making suprêmes ("fancy" orange wedges) and other fun knife skills, making whipped cream by hand, piping onto tarts. the piping that we did two classes ago was actually the most fun: we piped with chocolate onto a ganache tart, and i had a bunch left over after my design was done, so i got to play on my work surface. i drew a heart, i wrote my name, i played around with other designs-it was all of the fun of kindergarten without being told "Don't draw on the table!"

• oddly enough i may have actually retained how to convert my units! we had a whole lecture on this, and it was so wonderfully easy. we put the conversions into practice by adapting a recipe for "chocolate heaven cookies"--i didn't actually have any of them, but i did hear that they were quite delicious.

• this is sort of a generalized highlight, and an obvious one at that, but it is admittedly nice to have a greater understanding of what each item in a recipe actually DOES for the finished product. i really appreciate the lectures we get during technique demos, because i can come out of them saying that i actually KNOW something about baking and food, instead of saying yeah i can follow a recipe, sure.

• and finally, the lowlights. or rather, the lowlight that is, in my opinion, just as important as any of these highlights. while i could dedicate a number of posts on the importance of failure to success, suffice it to say that on wednesday, i bit it. hard. i struggled with my mise en place (the set-up for each recipe), i was behind on nearly every project, i almost burned my fingers twice, my hand once, and somehow managed to not destroy my face when boiling water/caramel? sputtered on my skin. i burned my caramel twice in a row, worked straight through dinner, and in general, was off my game. but in that class, i feel like i truly gained a mentor out of my chef-instructor, a partner out of my station-mate, and some important lessons for myself. not everything i make will be perfect, and even with that in mind, i may not even enjoy the finished product just because i made it. i'm still learning, very much so, and while i aim to be a do-it-yourself-er, there will be times that i simply can't do it on my own. and that's ok. in fact, that's great-because to do everything alone is too isolationist for my taste, to be honest. now, of course, these are lessons that extend into the rest of life, and that will take some time to adjust to, but i am happy to be making these steps. i'll be happier once i make them without the trainwreck, but we're taking baby steps, right?

now, all of this talk of how i'm going to post from now on does not, in the slightest, mean that the other fun stuff is going to end. i'm just going to do my best to strike a better balance between the two, that's all. additionally, i think that i'm going to adopt a more regular posting frequency, so that anything beyond those posts will simply be extra and fun, instead of an overwhelming majority of fluff.

and now mes chers, it is time for me to return to studying. tomorrow i'm going to post about those oscar-inspired treats, but right now, i need to focus so that i can get to bed. i wish you safe and happy eating, bon appetit until next time.