That Monday we finished around 8pm, and especially in the beginning it was pretty intense and chef was yelling pushing us to work faster. We had three types of dough to make pâte à croissant, pâte à brioche and pain au lait. All by hand. It was like slap slap roll roll laminate, next dough, bam bam fall down, next dough, cut cut shape egg wash. We left with big bags of fresh pain au lait, but the croissants and brioches were to be baked the next day.
Tuesday we prepared pâte à croissant and pâte à brioche again though this time we mada a huge brioche dough in bulk with a mixing machine phew... (cos it is so s t i c k y!). The brioche dough from Monday had to be shaped and to make the little brioche with a head.... turned out to be super tricky!!!
Actually to cut pain au lait into a navette shape with the little teeth... that was hard as well. It's ok if you can stand them being irregular and homey but I CAN'T! And sadly at the moment, my cuts are looking like a british bulldog's teeth.. different sizes and pointing everywhere. On the other hand my croissants and pain au chocolat were not bad!
Happy with the shape and how they look... when I cut in to check the crumb.. pretty good... so yes overall, happiness! I left most at school and only took a few home, cos you know no need to be greedy so early... Wednesday we made pâte à croissant again... and I think that's all but we each were given a kilo of brioche dough to shape into 5 different classic shapes : Parisienne, Nanterre, two types of brioches tressées, and a brioche feuilletée.
This photo of brioches feuilletées I love!
We baked the croissants from yesterday, this time all were shaped into croissants because they are the hardest one to master and disappointingly they all came out from the oven misshapen and looking all weird. Not just mine, but for most of us in general. My chef said the dough was too strong and so they opened up when baked. Boo... anyway this time I took them all home and gave most to the sisters.
Thursday we made pâte à croissant AGAIN and even though I had never had a perfect batch, by then the process became something almost banal and easy. I think a few in the class were a bit over it by then but I really love it and I think, for those who makes croissants even everyday it's always a quest for perfection... NO??
Croissants baked from Wednesday's dough turned out ok, when I cut them in half when we make them into croissants aux amandes I was quite pleased with the crumb.
Alright! Who burnt my almond croissants?? Sigh, anyway.. gave them all out but one, really good.
We also made a kougelhoph which we mixed in a machine thankfully... baked in a traditional clay mould which I had been wanting to get for years if not for it's bulk and weight. Once they baked, then they get submerged in a syrup flavoured with vanilla, cinnamon, star anise and then a bath in melted butter before finally get showered in cinnamon sugar and lastly icing sugar. It is seriously very very good! A long time ago I had kougelhoph in Alsace and it is no where near this beauty, after I tried this I really want to try Christine Ferber's.
Before we started cleaning, chef told us to make another .... croissant dough yes! So half class had to do croissant dough the rest puff pastry dough ready to be laminated tomorrow. On Friday the last day, let me tell you first what we made : 8 croissants and 8 pain aux raisins, 8 danishes, 6 chaussons italiens and I got the kougeloph from yesterday that I kept in the freezer. Chef swapped our class and so we started at 7, sanitised everything then we started rolling and rolling and laminate, then we shaped the croissants and the pain aux raisins, then the danishes. Lastly the very unassuming but very yummy chaussons italiens made with puff pastry rolled in sugar then filled with a mixture of choux pastry and crème patissière and rhum soaked raisins. I brought everything to Accor to share with some colleagues I know and they also said kougelhoph and the chaussons italiens, THE tastiest. As my chef who is always right would say, NO FAT NO FUN. Oui chef!
Hours and weeks really fly by... this week honestly had been the most tiring and physical but my most favourite so far! Sometimes I still feel that it's crazy after only a month all of us can pull things out like these like little machines... especially when we lay out all the stuff that we had made for the chef to inspect and for us to take photos I can't help to feel a certain kind of pride. And even though I may not seem that I was.... (cos you know.. i'm mature and all that), I sometimes feel that I could burst out with happiness.
Melinda xx
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