Week two puffed like I never puffed before

Week two was going to be dangerous for me... I love the things that we were going to make, and having them so accessible and available was not going to be good for my waistline. Our pastry lab would be in the afternoons which means that we can sleep in woohoo!! French, techno and wine class do not start until 9-10am so it's not bad! But as usual I still manage to stress myself. I live less than 10 minutes walk from the school and you can see me running the streets like a mad woman to arrive just in time. I'm in group Pastry FA (F for February) with chef Stévy and I sure don't want to come in late for his lab and class.

So, on Monday I learnt how to do pâte feuilletée CORRECTLY without battling against the butter and having a minor breakdown when butter starts to seep out everywhere and it was GREAT!! The air con was blasting cold air and the pastry lab was like a walk in fridge but woo I never enjoyed making puff pastry as much. We made my ever favourite Chaussons aux Pommes and a bande de pommes. I made chaussons before but Argh! this time they look quite presentable!! and the pastry, light and flaky... and the bande looked a bit rustic to me but also tasted great.

Tuesday we repeated the pâte feuilletée and we were to make a pithiviers, a dartois and a jalousie. In the past few years, I made galette des rois on several occasions and although they always tasted great, lookwise they were all rustic and homey. I made effort to score it the best I could and waited with bated breath to see how it turned out as it came out from the oven. And well well.... it baked quite nicely and the scoring, not bad at all.

Wednesday and Thursday we made different things based on pâte à choux, a Paris Brest, some individual Saint Honorés, some religieuses and éclairs... and did I make some frustrating minor stupidities like I forgot to stuff in the second pastry wheel into my Paris Brest!!! and my little choux for the Saint Honorés were too small!!!

This photo I took after I realised that the wheel on the left was to go in before I did the piping... my chef said it's not a big mistake but it's just the cost of my Paris Brest would be more, but I was more disappointed that it looked a bit smaller and less generous than it should had been. *Sigh*

Come to think of it, those were my only complaints, so not too bad over all... and on the other hand I was well pleased about my glaçage for my éclairs because it came out shiny, and the heads of my religieuse I thought, look quite proportional and so when I piped the colerette, they ended up quite a beauty. YAY!

On Friday the pace was a bit relax... we were only to make one thing and one thing only, a Millefeuille... which was something that I had always been wanting to make but never did.

The pâte feuilletée we made was the inversed one with butter envelopping the détrempe, which had been my go to when I make pâte feuilletée at home. It's amazing how much I had learnt already in these two weeks.... I realised that at home, I was doing too many unnecessary turns. My mindset is that I would forget what I had ever done at home as if I had been reset to zero and learn the correct techniques for everything... I am such a stickler for correct techniques and no shortcuts so I am so born for this :)

Honestly I am loving my life right now and I have no remorse whatsoever leaving Sydney... except that I miss you my friends!

Melinda xx