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!


phew. no caramel. this was going to be easy! my itinerary was as follows, again, keeping cooling times for both my crème pâtissière and my baked pâte à choux in mind:

•  MEP
• crème patissière (II)
• make
• divide
• flavor
• chill
• pâte à choux
• make
• divide into piping bags
• paris-brest
• pipe
• bake
• éclairs
• pipe
• bake
• paris-brest
• make mousseline (filling)
• chill, cut & fill baked paris-brest
•  éclairs
• make crème fouettée
• make crème légère
• chill, drill & fill baked éclairs
• melt toppings & dip éclairs
•  pâte à glacer
• fondant (with flavoring)
• paris-brest
• top with confectioner's sugar
• organize for presentation
• clean up 

i'm not quite sure where i went wrong, but by the end of the night i was scrambling to get done. i had to put my éclairs in the freezer to cool them enough so i could handle them. i threw the fondant and the pâte à glacer into a bain marie to melt them, and almost dunked and tossed the filled éclairs in the appropriate toppings as they were ready. it was a mess.

i managed to incorrectly flavor my paris-brest mousseline (using coffee flavored crème pâtissière, instead of the traditional plain crème pâtissière, because i forgot to set aside any for the mousseline) and as i have already mentioned, i burned the fondant and pâte à glacer, leaving me with very ugly looking éclairs, but it all turned out fine. i think i got two 4/5s for taste and presentation, but lost on execution. figures! but i'll take it.

onwards and upwards right?

stay tuned for round three: pâte feuilletée: april 6.