Just like Mom made

Fresh Made Cherry Jam

The older I get, the more I appreciate how I was raised. (Yes, Mom it's true) I was just having lunch with a friend today and telling her about growing up on the farm, raising cows, pigs and goats, and growing our own vegetables. It amazes, and at the same time does not surprise me how unheard of it is these days. I feel lucky to have had such a unique experience growing up.

My classmates were surprised when I told them my parents did not buy me play dough to have as a child, even though I wanted it. Instead I got to make cookies in any shape I wanted and decorate them with homemade frosting. My siblings and I always looked forward to dying eggs to go in our yearly Easter Bread. Pie crust scraps were salvaged and coated in cinnamon and sugar and devoured as soon as they were cool enough from the oven. Yes, I did have toys, but most of them encouraged creativity instead of providing entertainment for short attention spans. The kitchen and the great outdoors took turns as my playground, and many childhood memories are food related.

When applying for school, I had to write a short essay about a food memory. The first thing that came to mind was making Apple Butter with my Mom. My mother canned as much as she could, tomatoes, apple sauce, apple butter, jellies, beans, sauces. It brought back many memories of late summer days in the kitchen; it was canning time. This Monday's class was focused on making jellies and jams, and I could not help but think about those memories again.

My classmates and I made about 15 different jams and spreads all together. Some as basic as Cherry and some more involved like Apple Walnut, or Ginger Pear. I made the cherry. It was always one of my favorites that Mom made. (I even have a jar of her Cherry jelly she gave me at Thanksgiving. I could do a little taste test, see if mine compares to hers.) I also made Quince spread and Apricot with Vanilla and Almond. I haven't tried them yet. I need to make a good batch of bread first.

Jellies and jams are actually pretty easy to make. They take basic ingredients; fruit, sugar, water, some lemon juice, and in some cases extra pectin. The trick is cooking them long enough so that they jell just right. Then you have to make sure you sterilized all the jars and equipment for canning if you want to keep the fruits of your labor for longer than a few weeks in your fridge. I found the process of making the jellies a little monotonous and not as exciting as some of the other classes I've had. As always, I did learn a few things, but I don't see myself becoming a professional jam/jelly maker any time soon. I'll save it for the late summer when I buy a large bag of apples or come across a large quantity of fruit that needs saving. Or maybe I'll go visit Mom.

Tuesday evenings class involved making custards and Bavarian creams. Which meant more delicious tarts and lots of mousse. We made two cakes with Dacquoise we had frozen from last week. One cake called the "Brazilian", was layers of white chocolate mousse and coffee mousse separated by Walnut Dacquoise, topped with a coffee glaze and then I coated the sides with Mille-Feuille flakes and garnished it with Walnut pieces. The second cake was a "Ruche" cake; translated from French: Beehive. This cake contains lemon and honey mousses separated by Almond Dacquoise. We topped it with Meringue Italian and torched it to give the meringue a nice golden color. I tried both cakes tonight. The Ruche was good, but I found the Honey mousse a little over powering. The Brazilian cake was fantastic and much appreciated by my brother and my roommates. I also made Flan, but our Chef instructor for the night ate it before I could get a photo. He said it was perfect, so I guess I forgive him.

The Brazilian

La Ruche

Pastry gets Saucy

Cognac Mousseline Dacquoise

There wasn't much to bring home this week from class. I'm sure my roommates appreciate the calorie break. I however didn't get a break because most of what I made this week was consumed in class. One cake did make it home (in one piece) from my class on meringues on Monday. It was Hazelnut Dacquoise (meringue with hazelnut flour) layered with a coffee and cognac mousse, and topped with thin straws of coffee meringue. I'm really starting to rethink traditional cakes with heavy frostings....the taste is no comparison to the Dacquoise with mousseline, I'm going to be completely ruined. No, not ruined, spoiled.

Tuesday night we made dessert sauces. Our choices ranged from Simple syrup, Creme Anglaise, fruit sauces, and chocolate. I made a mango sauce from fresh pureed mangos and also made the Creme Anglaise. Funny thing is I have had Creme Anglaise many times, but never realized what it was. My best memory and probably first memorable experience of having it was at the Paulaner Restaurant in Leipzig, Germany. I ordered the heavenly Apple Strudel for dessert. The Struedel arrived flakey and warm, sitting in a shallow pool a lovely tasting light vanilla sauce. After tasting the Creme Anglaise I made at school, I was able to put a name to the lovely sauce that had accompanied my Apple Strudel so many years ago.

Along with making sauces, we had to make some accompaniments to serve the sauces with. My classmates made souffles, molten chocolate cakes and I made crepes. I was eager to make the Crepes Suzette after a friend mentioned it being one of their favorite ways to eat crepes. This was another first for me. I made the caramel sauce and then added the orange and lemon juices, butter, creme fraiche and the Grand Marnier. After folding the crepes into a skillet and covering them with the sauce and a sprinkle of chopped candied orange rind, I tipped the skillet to the flame and attempted to set the dish on fire to burn off the alcohol. It took a few tries and a some additional Grand Marnier, but it finally flamed. My classmates snapped a few pictures and then it was time to eat. Crepes Suzette now out ranks Crepes with Nutella on my list of favorites.

Crepes Suzette

I filled the remainder of the crepes I made with fresh berries and dressed them with Creme Anglaise and Mango sauce. One of my classmates made a Champagne Sabayon and we used it to top sundae glasses full of berries. Other sauces made my by classmates included a apple coulis, a caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, jasmine tea sauce, peppermint sauce, and passion fruit sauce.

Fresh Berry Crepes with Creme Anglaise and Mango Sauce

Fresh Berries with Champagne Sabayon, Chocolate and Raspberry Sauces

Time for me to head to the kitchen and bake some more. I also have an article to write, and a dinner to plan for on Saturday, a quiz and test to study for, and plenty of reading to do. Oh and a little sleep to catch up on too.

I Heart Napoleons

Pear Cream Napoleons with Fresh Berries and Raspberry Sauce

Think back to when you were a child and you received some kind of achievement award. Your parents made you pose with your award and took a gazillion photos of you. You look back on those photos now and think, "why so many?, surely one snapshot of me with my blue ribbon would have been enough". But no, they had to get a photos from every angle. I think I understand now, this is something that happens when you are just so overwhelmingly happy and proud. I thought maybe I wouldn't understand it till I had children.

The unfortunate wreck of my Mogador cake made me realize, these pastries are indeed my children. I oooh and ah when they look great or do something outstanding. (Look at the beautiful crust you developed!) I guide them when they need straightening out, or proping up. I cry when they fail (or collapse in the back seat of my car), and secretly I might have caught myself telling them how beautiful and tasty they are. My latest crime of motherhood? Taking too many pictures. I will try to restrain myself from showing you my entire photo book of just one of my creations, and just show you what I consider the best of my photos here. (but I'll gladly show you more if you want, don't hesistate to ask).

Kahlua Cream Napoleon with Chocolate and Raspberry

Tuesday night's class this week was one of my favorite classes so far. I'm starting to feel comfortable in the kitchen, knowing where things are and falling into a rhythm with my classmates and getting stuff done. It was also a great class because it used basic pastry components; Quick Puff dough and Pate a Choux, but allowed us the most creative license so far. Not that we have been restricted, but it goes along with the feeling comfortable in the kitchen part.

The wheels have been spinning in my mind the past few days, fueled by the culinary stimulus of hours at Sur La Table and a stack of cook books from the library. I've started compiling a list of all the things I want to try, ideas for desserts, and recipes to delve into from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I've got it bad. I wish I was a sponge and could just soak it all in, there is so much to learn. I just wonder when I'm going to have time to do all of this, along with start looking for work opportunities. I need to get my feet wet in a real kitchen and start paying my dues.

St. Honore
(named for the patron saint of pastry chefs)

Tonight's seminar was our first on Serve Safe. I think some students may find this class boring. I was definitely doing the sleepy head-bob, but it was due to lack of sleep and definitely not boredom. A lot of the material covered in this class should be common sense to most people, more of it I have learned from working in various cafes. Now I am learning even more like the internal food temperatures for ensuring meat is fully cooked. What kind of foods are most likely to carry possible contagions and how to best prevent contamination. I find it fascinating, and am already looking at my own home kitchen differently. Most fascinating fact learned tonight: The flu is only an upper respitory ailment. The "24 hour stomach bug" you caught, was due to something you ate. Not necessary e. coli or samonella, but it could have just been a virus transmitted by that sandwich you had for lunch. Hope I haven't ruined anything for anyone.

The Fall of Mogador or, My Personal Cake Wreck

Mogador Cake

Tonight's class covered fillings and Mousse, and we made several pies and one wonderful cake: The Mogador Cake. Yes, the name sounds more like a character or far off land in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the actual cake resembles nothing of a hobbit or wizard. The cake is made of delicous and elegant layers. The first layer is a chocolate Almond Genoise. This is the first time we have made Genoise, a European style of cake that is slightly drier and contains less fat than it's American counterparts.

Once it is done baking and cooling, the Genoise is soaked in a raspberry simple syrup. Then a layer of raspberry filling is piped onto the cake and covered by a layer of rich chocolate mousse. The cake is then chilled to allow the mousse to set. After the cake is chilled, a raspberry glaze is spread over the top and then the cake can be decorated with designs in chocolate glaze and garnished with fresh raspberries.

Soaking the Genoise in the syrup

Adding the raspberry filling

Glazed and ready for chocolate and fresh raspberries

As usual we made enough cakes to each take one home and we had an extra smaller Mogador, which we cut into to tonight during clean up. Everyone made beautiful designs of chocolate glaze on the top of their cakes. I decided I wanted to bring mine home to take better photos of it......
As soon as I got home and opened the passenger door of my car and spied the tilted cake box, I felt that horrible feeling of having your scoop of icecream fall out of your cone at the carnival. I opened and the box and found my worst fears confirmed.

The Wrecked Cake

My roommate attempted consoling me with, "well at least it will still taste good". It does still taste good, but I'm still a little sad. I hope none of my classmates cakes met the same fate as mine.

The good news from tonight is: everything else turned out lovely and delicious, and I still feel like the luckiest person in the world. I made mini apple pie/tarts tonight. In the past when making apple pie, I've always mounded the apples as high as possible into the bottom crust before covering with the top crust and baking; knowing that the pie will shrink to half it's size once done baking. Tonight however, my little tarts swelled in the oven, the filling almost doubling in size. They oozed sticky, sugary apple juice over the sides of the tart rings and the apple slices looked like they were going to pop out of the tarts all together. I was worried I had overfilled them. No fear, I took the out of the oven and as they cooled they returned to their pre-baked level, but now with browned edges rounding out the translucent slices in the sticky syrup.

Mini Apple Tarts

It's well past time I should be in bed. Tomorrow's class is on commercial baking. Looks like we will be learning about Puff Pastry and Nougatine. Also another announcement coming soon. I'll give you a hint: I'm going somewhere.

Cream puffs, Tarts and a Special New Coat

Making the Tart Beausejour

I'm completely exhausted. My legs, knees, and feet ache from long hours of standing at work and school. My shoulders and arms ache from lifting, mixing and kneading. I haven't been to the gym in over a week. My bedtime fluctuates almost as much as the New England weather. It feels very much like when I was in college, except I'm no longer able to keep up like a 20 year old.

When I was still working the 9-5 daily corporate grind not so long ago, I always felt tired, no matter how much or how little I did. I struggled to get out of bed in the morning, and "I don't want to go to work", became my mantra. At work I couldn't stay focused. Let's just say, I was not happy.

My point is, I'm probably more physically exhausted and more sleep deprived from working part time and going to school, then I was just 6 weeks ago working 40 hours a week, but I'm happier than ever. This is what happens when you are doing what you love. Exhaustion becomes nothing (and coffee and red bull become your new best friends). Whereas I would have been irritable after only having 5 hours of sleep and going into the office, I just feel tired and slightly fuzzy until I have my coffee these days. Maybe all the sugar consumption has something to do with it. I'm feeling pretty content.

This week at school we delved into Pate a choux. I won't go into too much detail since I've posted on this in the past when I took the recreational class. It was interesting however to learn there are different methods to how/when to mix the flour and at what temperature to mix the eggs. My classmates and I had fun piping the puffs and eclairs onto the baking sheets and mixing the pastry cream.

Puffs cooling from the oven

I did make a new item with Pate a choux, and that was the Paris-Brest. Intended to represent a bicycle wheel, the Pate a Choux paste is piped into a circle and then sprinkled with slivered almonds. Once it is baked and cooled, it is filled with a generous serving of a praline pastry cream mousseline.

Paris-Brest

One thing I learned this week was the importance of tempering liquid ingredients before mixing them if they are not the same temperature. I poured melted chocolate, still warm from the stove, into a mixing bowl of mixing pastry cream. Immediately tiny bits of chocolate confetti spread through the cream. Ooops! Nothing a kitchen torch won't fix thankfully, and not something I'm likely to forget anytime soon.

Tuesday night's class was focused on tarts. We made 4 different tarts, using two different pastry crusts and lots of fruit and almond cream filling. With 4 different tarts to complete and multiple components to make for each, my classmates and myself dove in and worked together on most of the items. I decided I wanted to work on the Tart Beausejour, a tart with a Pate Sucree crust. The rich, sweet crust was the base for a filling of caramelized apples tucked into a almond cream.

Chef Delphin asked me what tart I thought was going to be my favorite. I said the Tart Beausejour. know I say I love a lot of things, but I do love apple desserts. Often if faced with a choice of a chocolate dessert and a simple apple crisp, the apple crisp will when, hands down. That is saying a lot, cause I love chocolate too.

The apples in this tart are cooked in a buttery caramel sauce, till softened and coated, and then doused with a healthy dose of Calvados. Then they are drained and the syrup is reserved for glazing the tarts once they are baked. The baked tart smells of apples and buttery caramel with a hint of lingering Calvados. The soft apples, almond cream and tender Pate Sucree render a melt-in-your-mouth pastry.

Apples cooking in Caramel Sauce
Ready for the oven

Tart Beausejour

Our seminar was canceled this evening due to wonderful New England winter weather. I hoped to update my blog, do some reading and get to bed a little early for once. Now this post has turned into a short novel and it is past midnight. So just one last note.

Our class was interrupted by an announcement that our chef coats were ready for us to pick up. My class hurried down the maze of stairs to the basement to collect our bright white coats, and quickly tore them from the plastic wrappings and put them on. We were like 5 year olds on Christmas morning; all giddy and excited over our presents. I was very pleased to see that Ted held to his promise and correctly spelled my name. I've never been a fan of wearing uniforms myself, but there is something special about putting this coat on and setting to work about the kitchen. Maybe I'm just young and naive in the cooking world, but I hope this feeling never goes away.

Learning and Tasting

Rum Savarin with Apricot Passion Fruit Glaze

It's been another busy week of working at the store and going to school. I made a lot of bread this week, and learned a lot. The Rum Savarin was from Tuesday's class. The Savarin is an enriched bread. It starts out like many breads with water, flour and yeast, but then eggs, sugar and butter are added to the mix to make a sticky glossy dough/batter that has to be pipped into the tiny savarin molds for baking. Once it has been baked and cooled, the Savarin gets dunked into a tub of Rum simple syrup (Kirsch and other liquers can be used also). Not just dunked, but dunked and held under till every crumb is saturated with the intoxicating syrup. Then it gets brushed in glaze and decorated with bilious mounds of fresh Chantilly creme and garnished with fruit. We were out of stawberries, and I thought some fresh orange segments would pair well with the rum flavor.

Monday we also baked bread. I made an Olive loaf. The recipe was originally olive and red pepper bread, but I omitted the red peppers from my loaf because they do not agree with me. I also made a cinnamon raisin Benoiton. Both breads turned our with breatiful colored, tender crust, and nice soft crumb. The Olive bread played a great role in the tomato, fresh mozzeralla and pesto sandwich I made for lunch yesterday. The Benoiton is great toasted with some butter. I'm think of using some of it to make french toast this weekend. Sometime soon, I need to eat some vegetables.

Olive bread

The highlight of my week was Wednesday night: our weekly seminar. This week was Chocolate. The class was taught by a great History PhD candidate from Boston University. I learned a lot about the history of chocolate. However my first question and concern when starting class that evening was: "Are we going to get to taste some chocolate tonight". I love hands on learning. We did get to taste chocolate and it was amazing the things I discovered.

Our first tasting was of 4 different chocolate bars all produced by E. Guittard. They all contained 65% cacao, but each bar was produced from beans that grew in different parts of the world. One from Madagascar, one from Columbia, one from Ecuador, and the fourth from Venezuela. As we tasted one piece to the next, I was surprised by the noticable flavor nuances of each bar. Columbia and Ecuador were my favorite.

The next part of the tasting was tasting bars with different amounts of cacao. First taste was of a 99% cacao bar. It was interesting. Kind of chalky at first in your mouth, almost a little bitter because of the expectation of seeing the chocolate and thinking it be sweet. The aftertaste it left in the mouth though, was very pleasant and intensely chocolate. Then we tried 85%, 72%, 65% and 58%. From this test, I discovered that 72% cacao was my preference. Just intensely chocolate enough without an overwhelming sweetness.

Finally, we tasted some more exoctic boutique chocolate bars. I have seen the Vosges brand bars before (actually paid a ridiculous price for the Gianduja bar at Whole Foods last week, hoping I could use it to recreate one of the quick bread recipes from Day 1 at school) and was intrigued by the flavor combinations. These are combinations you don't usually associate with chocolate, like Wasabi, ginger and black sesame. Its flavor is amazing and reminiscent of sushi, which sounds odd, but I love them both; chocolate and sushi. We also tried the Naga bar, which contains coconut flakes and curry powder. It had a smokey sweetness to it and was also wonderful.

I've always loved chocolate, but after this class I have a new appreciation for it. I'll definitely be trying more of it soon and really thinking about the flavors. Later in my school program there will be more learning about chocolate, but this is when we will get our hands dirty and start to make wonderful things out of it. I can't wait.

This week's breads:

Kindness of Strangers

I made it through my two days of work followed directly by 8 hours of school. Today was tough, especially since I was running behind this morning and had to leave my apartment without having my morning coffee. Work was good. I had a great conversation with a customer about my culinary goals.

I got to school a little early as usual. The morning class was finishing and packing up their goods. As I was going to get changed into my school uniform, one of the school staff members approached me with a folded paper in her hand. She said to me, "this is definitely a first for one of our students", and handed me the folded paper.

It was a letter from a gentleman in New Jersey. He had seen my interview on Good Morning America. He shared with me that his brother had once owned a restaurant in MA, and his sister baked the pies for the restaurant. He said he makes really good popovers too. He was moved by my story and wanted to make a donation to help me out. As I unfolded the rest of the letter, I realized enclosed was a personal check written to me for $50. I was astounded and completely touched by this gesture.

It was a beautiful reminder of how blessed am I, and how kind people really are. Thank you, thank you so much to this kind man, and to all my friends, family, and those of you I may not even know. Thank you for believing in me, supporting me, (and for reading my blog). It's one thing to have finally found your calling in life. It's another thing to have so many people backing you in your decision to answer that call.

I'm off to bed now. Check back tomorrow afternoon for class updates and photos.

Day 2: Bread

French Baguette

I was very much looking forward to my second day of school. Maybe even more than my first day. I was ready to really jump into the lesson and not worry about having a camera crew following my every move. Day 2 was our first day of yeast breads. I grew up making a lot of bread with my mother. She will tell you the story of when I was very young, my grandmother asked me what the first step to making bread was, and I replied, "you wash you hands". So naturally my fist step last night after putting my apron and student cap on, was to wash my hands. And good thing too, once you see how I was instructed to mix the dough. No electronics were used in the production of the bread last night.

Yeast breads have always been a challenge to me. The require a lot of patience.... but the reward is great. We had several recipes to choose from. I took on the French bread and the Baguettes. We also made pizza dough so we would have some dinner to eat while we worked through the bread making process. Last night's class was rather laid back due to the hurry up and wait nature of making bread. Our instructor informed us that there are not likely to be many classes like this going forward, so we took advantage of it and enjoyed some food and wine while working with our bread.

The breads turned out beautiful and delicious. I left class with my arms full of warm, yeasty scented loaves of bread. I made a stop on my way home, and when getting back into my car, I was greated with the heavenly smell of the fresh baked bread. Probably the best my car has ever smelled. I'm going out today to get some brie and maybe some ham, and I'll be all set for lunch.

Tonight is the 3 hour seminar class. We are covering knife skills. Lets hope no one looses a finger. Then it's back to work at Sur La Table for the weekend and maybe practicing some of the recipes I learned this week before returning to school again next Monday. Have I mentioned I'm really enjoying myself?

Here are the photos from last night:

Good Morning America

In case you missed it, here is my debut on national television: A Blessing in Disguise. I'll be posting my photos from last nights class soon.

First Day of School

Sweet Barley Scones

Hazelnut Tea Cake

Blueberry Muffins with Lemon Zest

Think back to your first day of school. It's such and important day, you must have the right outfit, the right shoes, the right back pack, hair must be flawless and by all means make sure you have a cool lunch box if you carry your lunch to school. Then there is the worry of who will be your teacher, what other kids will be in your class and what time is recess? Starting culinary school solves most of those nerve-racking problems for you. You have a uniform: black shoes, black and white chefs pants, chefs coat. The hair, it doesn't matter because you wear your student cap. Lunch: you'll be eating the tasty fruits of your classroom labors. Instead of a cool lunch box, you get something much more fierce: a knife bag and student kit to transport the new tools of your trade. The teachers and the other students are there because they are interested in teaching/learning the same things you are. And who needs recess when you get to play in a kitchen all day?

I arrived for my first day with all the above mentioned items and a tv camera crew. What a way to make an impression on your first day. Let me back up here. My friend Kate, who I worked with at my previous job, has been sending me job postings from Craigslist since the day I got laid off. Most are culinary related, some are just odd ball ways of earning a little extra money. I greatly appreciate her concerns for my financial well being. The latest posting from Craigslist was posted by an associate at ABC looking for people to who had been laid off and were changing their lives for the better, to interview for Good Morning America. I responded to the post, figuring, hey why not?, and received a fast response. They liked my story and wanted to interview me and follow me to school. Be sure to watch Good Morning America tomorrow morning at 8am to hear what I had to say about being laid off from work and starting culinary school.

Back to school:
Our first lesson was on quick breads, biscuits and muffins. I chose 4 recipes to tackle for the 6 hour lab. I sadly only got through 3 by the end of the night. Between answering questions for my interview and repeating tasks for the camera crew, I got a little flustered and slowed down. It's great to be in a big kitchen with access to such a range of equipment and ingredients, but overwhelming learning where everything is. This is where my desire for perfectionism gets the best of me. I had to remind myself that it is my first day, there are going to be mistakes and that it will get better as I become more familiar with my new kitchen.

The 3 recipes that I completed turned out good. I'm sitting here in my bathrobe enjoying a sweet barley scone. The texture is nice, crumbly but soft, not too dry as scone can often be. Not overly barley flavored, and just a hint of sweetness from the small portion of sugar the recipe called for. The muffins were also very tender and light. The Hazelnut Tea Cake however has to be my favorite, even though it was the one recipe I had the most trouble with. Ingredients include almond paste, almond flour and Gianduja. Once the cake was done baking and cooled, I dressed it with an apricot glaze.

I had never heard of Gianduja before, but once it was defined for me I knew I liked it before I even tried it. Gianduja is chocolate with about 50% hazelnut paste. It comes in a bar form but is soft and easily broken into pieces. It's flavor is very similar to Nutella, but I almost think I prefer it to Nutella now. This might be a good excuse to buy some of both and have a taste test.

After a very busy day of interviewing, taking notes, baking and washing dishes, I left the school at about 12:45 AM. I was exhausted. I think it may take a while for my body to adjust to this schedule. I struggled up the stairs to my apartment with my student kit, knife bag and three boxes of pastries from my class. My roommate was very excited to see the food, I was very excited to see my bed. Culinary school is not going to be a piece of cake, but its rewards are going to be very sweet. Day 2 commences in 3 hours.....