Father's Day Menu

I apologize for being MIA for a while! Life has been crazy busy and the commute to my internship was completely wearing me out. So, a brief update: I finished up my internship at Good Housekeeping yesterday! It was truly an amazing experience and I am so lucky to have been exposed to so many aspects of the industry. Luckily, there were plenty of television shoots while I was there that I was able to be a part of. I prepped shoots for Emeril and Guy Fieri, along with a show called "Food-ogrophy" on the Cooking Channel. I loved every minute of it!

I was extremely sad to leave! Unfortunatley there aren't any positions available at the moment, so I am now on the job search! (Wish me luck!!)

Last Sunday my mom and I organized a casual Father's Day dinner for my family. My uncle was in town from Cali, so he came along with my other uncle and aunt, 3 cousins, and grandparents.

I made sandwiches for lunch to bring on the beach with us. While on the beach, we sipped on some Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling.. so light and refreshing!

I headed back to the condo early to prep dinner and appetizers. Our appetizers were pretty basic and included gourmet cheeses, crackers, hummus, etc. I wanted to make a little something special and prepared Giada's Deviled Eggs with Crab. It was delicious! I made a few minor changes: I added in the yolks of 3 eggs to the filling and ended up filling 8 eggs instead of 6. I also sprinkled the tops with paprika (afterwards I realized old bay seasoning would have been nice!):
We had a nice spread for dinner that was not too gourmet (my family enjoys comfort food!) but still incredible. I made an Asian barbecue chicken from Food and Wine magazine. I made this earlier in the afternoon and heated it up later. I made the mistake of coating it in the toasted sesame seeds too early because when I heated it up, the sesame seeds weren't as crunchy and toasty. Woops...next time I'll make sure to coat them with the seeds a la minute!
Since these had a distinct Asian flavor and were a little spicy, I made a few extra chicken drumsticks with Emeril's barbecue sauce.
We also made a double batch of Giada's Sausage, Peppers, and Onions. We served this with toasted Italian rolls, and pasta tossed with olive oil.
My mom also made a tray of homemade mac & cheese (a healthier version that included whole wheat panko and fresh sliced tomatoes!). I think the adults liked this more than the kids! We also had a tossed salad with toasted pine nuts, craisins, croutons, heirloom cherry tomatoes, and raspberry vinaigrette.

The night ended with my mom's famous Strawberry Roll and my grandpa's favorite cake.

Sunday Night Catch Up!

I've been super busy during the week and haven't had much time to update y'all on some of the latest things I've cooked! Well, I'm back on this Sunday evening to play a little "catch up" and fill you in on some good eats!

I made a couple of meals this week to send off to my grandparents. It's nice to know that they have some healthy home cooked meals that can last them through the week. I started off by making a Good Housekeeping recipe for "Crustless Tomato Ricotta Pie". I had to prep this recipe for a TV shoot earlier in the week and was dying to make it myself. It is so fresh and light--the perfect warm summer lunch.

I was at first unsure whether I could post this recipe-- I always have to be careful because some of the recipes I'm exposed to are not yet published and released to the public. However, I double-checked that this recipe was already posted on the Good Housekeeping website. This is a recipe you all have to try. It is great for entertaining--super easy and very beautiful & impressive to serve!
Ingredients:
1 15-oz container part-skim ricotta
4 large eggs
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 coarse ground pepper
1/4 cup 1% milk (I used skim--what I had on hand)
1 T. cornstarch
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 lb. ripe tomatoes (preferably heirloom or the freshest available), thin sliced

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a non-stick 9 inch skillet with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine ricotta, eggs, pecorino, salt, and pepper.
3. Whisk together cornstarch and milk until combined. Add to the ricotta mixture.
4. Stir in basil and mint. Pour mixture into the skillet and scatter the top with tomato slices.
5. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until set.

As this would be a nice light lunch, I also wanted to make them a hearty dinner. My mom gave me a recipe out of a weightwatcher cook book to make, but I made several changes to make it a bit more tasty, but still healthy.

Pasta with chicken sausage, bell pepper, and swiss chard:

Ingredients:
1/2 lb pasta
1 T. olive oil
3/4 lb Italian poultry sausage, removed from casings
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch swiss chard, cut in bite-sized peices
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/3 cup vegetable stock
salt & pepper
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning blend
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
pecorino romano cheese, for serving

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the olive oil.
2. Add the onions, peppers, and sausage, breaking up the sausage with a wooden spoon. Cook until browned. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add swiss chard slowly, adding more when it begins to wilt. Add the stock and tomatoes. Cover and simmer until the chard is fully cooked (about 10 minutes). Sesason with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.
4. In the meantime, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling, SALTED water until al dente (I cooked it a bit longer because my grandpa likes pasta well-done). Add the cooked pasta to the sausage and swiss chard mixture.
5. Finish with torn basil leaves and freshly grated cheese. Mangia!

Off to another week at the externship! It's going to be another crazy week of T.V. shoots and final recipe testing for the October issue!

Millet Muffins

My mom experimented with these muffins last week..and they were a success! She baked them on Mother's day so that we could all sample them. Well, even my picky grandparents and grain-hater father loved them. They are super moist, slightly sweet, and have a satisfying crunch to them from the millet. Not to mention, they are VERY healthy! My mom was so pleased that everyone liked them, that she went a little overboard and made many many more batches on Monday. I've been eating my way through my personal batch, enjoying them as an easy breakfast-to-go during the week.

(Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
2 cups sprouted flour (or whole wheat flour)
1/4 cup ground flax
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup agave
1/4 cup applesauce
wheat germ for sprinkling

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 16 muffin cups. (Or 8 extra-large muffin cups-- I like my muffins larger so they hold me over until lunch!!)
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, flax, millet, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the buttermilk, egg, coconut oil, agave, apple sauce, and vanilla. Stir the liquid mix into the flour mix just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the muffin cups and sprinkle the tops with wheat germ.
3. Bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Sour-Cream Pear Coffee Cake

It's about time I give an update on my internship, right?!! Well, it's AWESOME! Totally my dream job. I walked into the Hearst building on Monday completely in awe that I would be working in such a beautiful building for the next 6 weeks. I really didn't know what to expect on my first day, so I was a little bit nervous.

Everyone in the test kitchen is SO nice and my job is everything and more than I expected. Every morning we start out with some coffee and breakfast. Throughout the day I do various things, such as making sure the test kitchen is clean at all times, running various errands, testing recipes, baking for events, attending photo shoots/TV shoots, and grocery shopping. I LOVE that I get to go to Whole Foods every day. I hate shopping, EXCEPT food shopping..and Whole Foods happens to be my favorite store ever! I'm such a foodie ;)

I didn't get to test any recipes this week, but I definitely will get the chance to next week. I have my own kitchen set-up and desk & computer station. On Wednesday, I helped out with a promotional TV shoot for a new Good Housekeeping brownie cookbook. Yesterday I was able to attend a photo shoot for the recipes in the September issue.

Today there were public tours going around the institute so I had to make a Good Housekeeping recipe for coffee cake. This was an AMAZING coffee cake!! I ate a ton of scraps (since I had to trim the edges when I cut it into squares). Since this recipe is available online, I see no issue in sharing the recipe with all of you. I am definitely making this cake again soon.. maybe even tomorrow?! As soon as I do, I'll post a picture!
Streusal:

2/3 cup packed light
brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons margarine or
butter, softened
2/3 cup walnuts, toasted and
chopped

CAKE:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
6 tablespoons margarine or
butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups sour cream
3 firm but ripe Bosc pears
(about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled,
cored, and cut into
1-inch pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 [degrees] F. Grease 13" by 9" metal baking pan; dust with flour. **(A cool trick is to grease the pan, line with foil, and then grease and flour the foil.. that way you can lift the cake right out of the pan and slice!)

2. Prepare Streusel: In medium bowl, with fork, mix brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon until well blended. With fingertips, work in margarine or butter until evenly distributed. Add walnuts and toss to mix; set aside.

3. Prepare Cake: In another medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

4. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat sugar with margarine or butter until blended, scraping bowl often with rubber spatula. Increase speed to high; beat until creamy, about 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl. Reduce speed to low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

5. With mixer at low speed, alternately add flour mixture and sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture, until batter is smooth, occasionally scraping bowl. With rubber spatula, fold in pears.

6. Spoon batter into pan; spread evenly. Sprinkle top with streusel mixture. Bake coffee cake 40 to 45 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool …

My mom also made an incredible millet muffin last week, so I'll be posting that recipe tomorrow!

Lesson 91: Pastry Plating II

I seriously debated taking the day off today and relaxing by the beach. I had an early doctor's appointment and was tempted to just head to my beach house right after. Instead, I was a responsible adult and made my usual 10:22 train to NY. After all, today was technically our last day of pastry!

Today's production list was less intimidating than the past couple of days. Nora and I started off by making upside down pineapple cakes while the other Allison and Vadim unmolded the mascarpone cheesecakes from yesterday. Here are our cakes next to another group's raspberry cakes:
We continued prepping other components for plating, including more sauces, whipped creams, and these caramel decorations:
Just like yesterday, we set up stations with desserts, pastry creams, sauces, ice creams/sorbets, and garnishes for plating.

My first plate that I made was the least impressive. I think that the line of sauce was not necessary (should have just left the few dots) and the sugared mint leaves should be more visible. I was excited to incorporate this fork-shaped cookie as a garnish!
(Pineapple upside-down cake, passion-fruit sorbet, mango sauce, candied mint, and fork-shaped tuille)

My second plate was my favorite! Chef loved it and told me to get a picture for my blog (duhhhh I already did!)

(Mascarpone cheesecake, fresh raspberries, fresh mint, raspberry sauce, chocolate tuille cookie, caramel decoration, and a light sprinkle of confectioner's sugar)

This was my final plate. I don't even think I showed chef this one because the ice cream was melting to quickly and the liquid from the berries was spreading...

(Milk chocolate panna cotta, mascerated raspberries and blueberries, chocolate and raspberry sauces, vanilla icecream, chocolate tuille cookie, and a small caramel decoration)

Tomorrow is our written and practical exam! I'm actually not nervous at all! Chef really prepared us for what we have to do tomorrow and clearly explained what he expects of us. Here's what we have to do for our practical:
-Pipe "Happy Birthday, name!" onto 3 10-inch circle cardboards
-Prepare 5 cornets
-Roll out pate sacree in a 12-inch cirlce and mold it into a 10-inch tart pan
-Prepare creme anglaise

Wish me luck!

Easter Meat Pie

Every Easter my family enjoys an Easter meat pie that we usually buy at a really good Italian bakery. These pies are filled with Italian meat and cheeses and are usually very expensive. This year I thought it would make more sense to just make it myself.

I was planning on using the recipe for Chef Chad's Pizza Rustica from his recreational Easter class. The recipe calls for the same dough as the ricotta pie that I made earlier this week. I froze the dough on Monday and took it out today to defrost for my pie.

As I went to roll out the dough it started falling apart and didn't have a great texture. I got frustrated and threw it out and decided to make a different dough. This other dough is from an old cookbook we had laying around. I think this one will be more similar to the pie we usually get from the bakery.

-2 cups all purpose flour
-1 tsp. baking powder
-3 large eggs (I used 2 jumbo--all I had)
-2 T. canola oil
-2 T. water

1. Combine the flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Form a well in the middle.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, oil and water. Gradually pour into the well. Mix to incorporate until the dough forms a ball.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 10 minutes.
4. Knead the dough until smooth and refrigerate until ready to use.

I still used Chef Chad's filling for his Pizza Rustica:
-2 cups fresh ricotta
-8 oz. fresh mozzarella
-1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
-1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
-1/2 cup parmesan
-3 large eggs (I used 2 jumbo again..)
-Assorted Italian meats, chopped (I used hot & sweet soppresata, prosciuto, salami, and capicola)

1. Combine all ingredients except for the meat.
2. Roll out half of the dough to fit a 9-inch (deep) pie dish. Press into the pie dish and poke holes in the bottom with a fork.
3. Layer in about 1/3 of the cheese mixture and spread evenly. Top with half of the chopped meats. Continue with another layer of cheese and meat, ending with the last 1/3 of the cheese.
4. Roll out the other dough and place on top. Press and crimp the edges. Brush the top with egg was and cut some slits to let out steam while baking.
5. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until golden.

Layer one of the pie:

The last layer added in:

Ready to go in the oven!

The pie turned out wonderful! I can't wait to cut into it on Easter!

Lesson 87: Profiteroles & Ice Cream

Today I got to play with fire (torching yesterday's creme brulee) and make ice cream!!! Such a fun day!

Since there was only 1 ice cream machine, each group had to take turns churning their ice cream. In the mean time, we worked in teams to make pate a choux. This is the pastry shell for profiteroles, or as most of you know them, CREAM PUFFS! Yum were these good! The pate a choux was a bit of a tricky process since we had to cook the dough until it was dry, yet didn't scorch the pan. Then we had to beat in as many eggs as possible to make the dough shiny, but not too liquidy. We were all successful and continued to pipe and bake the pate a choux.

Once they were golden and puffed up, we took them out of the oven and filled them with flavored pastry creams. Allison H. and I made a delicious chocolate sauce to glaze the tops (made with dark chocolate, butter, and corn syrup). We had fun using different techniques that Chef showed us to fill and decorate our pastrys. He even showed us how to make a profiterole SWAN (even though he begged me not to mention it on the blog... sorry, chef!) Hahaha.. he actually only made it for us because we asked him to. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it, but he threw it in his mouth immediately to destroy the evidence!

Anyways, back to the fun part.. ICE CREAM! It was finally my group's turn to churn ice cream in this industrial ice cream machine:

Allison and I wanted a picture while making our ice cream and chef told us to stop acting like we were on vacation! But, he got in the picture with us anyways :)

Our ginger-flavored ice cream turned out AMAZING. I have never enjoyed ice cream so much..not to mention it was soft-serve (my favorite!). The ginger flavor was not too overpowering, but added a nice kick to the ice cream.

Towards the end of class we took out our creme brulees that we made yesterday and froze. We coated the tops of the custards with sugar and torched them. The heat from the torch de-frosted them and formed a nice crusty glaze on top.

I had fun playing with fire!

Here's one of my finished creme brulees. We had to throw out a ridiculous amount of creme brulee, which totally broke my heart because it's so delicious. We made so much of it and weren't allowed to bring them home in the ramekins ..boo.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend. I'll be sharing some more Easter recipes this weekend (Lemon cake with fresh strawberries and vanilla buttercream, Easter meat pie, my great-grandmother's dumplings, leg of lamb, etc)

Lesson 86: Custards

This week feels really weird. Only 2 days of classes and then it's the weekend again?! Today was a bit of a reality check as we realized we were already in lesson 86! Next week we will be completing module 4 and getting ready to move into our final module in culinary school!

Since our practical exam is next Friday, we began today's class with some skill drills. I got a little better at writing "Happy Birthday Allie!" I still need more practice before the exam though. I'm becoming a pro at making cornets. I practiced making some yesterday at home, so I breezed through making them today.

After we cleaned up all of our melted chocolate scribbles, we got started on today's recipes. All of our recipes were focused on custards, both stirred and baked variations.

I worked with the other Allison to start our creme brulees. These started out with a mixture of cream, sugar, egg yolks, and a split vanilla bean. We had to simmer the cream, sugar, and vanilla and then temper in the yolks. We filled up ramekins to the brim and baked them in a water bath until they were set, but had no color. (2 of ours in the back of the oven did get some color..)

Once these were done, we wrapped them with plastic and put them in the freezer for tomorrow. We will be TORCHING them and EATING them in tomorrow's class!

Next, we completed our bread pudding. We had the choice of making individual ramekins or one large casserole. Allison and I decided to make the individual versions. Desserts are always cuter and somehow less sinful when you get your own small serving :)

The custard in this baked dessert was very similar to the creme brulee (with the addition of some whole eggs). We added a touch of rum to the custard at the end (but not too much.. I hate boozy desserts!) For some of the ramekins, we used cubed French baguette. I brought in some of my mom's homemade Easter bread for the class to try and there were a few slices leftover. I decided to cube those up and use it for some of the puddings. It turned out great--really soaked up all of the flavors of the custard!

I never was a fan of bread pudding, but I LOVED these puddings! I brought some home for my parents to try and my mom went crazy over it (and she isn't a huge dessert person). She said it was the best dessert she ever had and now wants me to make some for Easter!

Later on in class we made creme anglaise, which is a slightly thick cream sauce for desserts. We served our bread puddings with it and a sprinkle of powdered sugar...... amazing.

We also made a batch of ice cream in each group (that we will complete tomorrow). The custard for the icecream was much like the other custards except it was cooked a bit longer to cook out the eggs (because it's not baked). We were able to choose a flavoring for our icecream. I'm really excited about the one we chose: Ginger! We made the flavoring sauce by simmering water with some grated fresh ginger, vanilla, cinnamon stick, and lemon zest. After straining the liquid, we added it right to the ice cream custard. I loved the slight kick the ginger brought to the ice cream. I'm so excited to try the final product tomorrow! Here's Allison trying some of our un-finished ice cream:

Ricotta Pie & Walnut Lentil Loaf

Today was a rainy, boring day off from school. I decided to make the most of my time and do some baking/cooking. I had so much fun spending the day in the kitchen!

I started out by making a recipe from Chef Chad's recreational class that I helped out with on Saturday. It's his grandmother's recipe for ricotta pie. This sounded like a nice Italian Easter pie that my grandparents would love. My mom is bringing it over to their house tomorrow so they can have it for lunch or dinner this week. I make one exception for baking/cooking for family and friends.. I have to try it!! I will have to make them promise to save me a slice :)

I started out by making the crust, which is sweet and sturdy (kind of like a pate sucree, if I had to compare it to the doughs I've made in school).

-Place 2 cups of sugar, 4 egg yolks, and the zest of one lemon in a bowl of a kitchen aid mixer. Mix until well blended. Add 1 pound of butter gradually while the mixer is on. Slowly add in 4 cups of all-purpose flour. When the dough pulls together, pour out on a floured surface and mold into 2 disks. Wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

While that chilled, I made the filling:

-Melt about 3 T butter in a saute pan. Saute 1 large onion (chopped) until tender. Mix in 2 packages of thawed spinach (strained of excess liquid), salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste (I also added in some golden raisins). Saute for a minute and remove from heat.
-Combine 15 oz ricotta, 8 oz grated fresh mozzerella, and 1 cup grated parmesan. Mix in 3 large eggs and add in the spinach mixture.
-Cut one of the disks in half (reserve the other disk for another use--I froze it for a pie I'm making later on in the week). Roll out each portion to fit a 9-inch pie pan. Line the oiled pie pan with one piece of dough. Spoon in the cheese/spinach mixture. I used a fancy cutter to make strips for a lattice top out of the second piece of dough.
-Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 min- 1 hr.

Here is the pie before I baked it:
After it came out of the oven it looked like this:

It's a beautiful pie that I know my grandparents will love!

After this was done, I got started on dinner. I've been wanting to make this recipe for Walnut Lentil Loaf from my mom's Clean Food Cookbook. I've read articles in other blogs about this recipe and it sounds soo healthy. I was really curious about how all of these ingredients would pull together to make this vegetarian loaf. Here's the recipe that I followed almost exactly:

1 cup dried lentils (I used red lentils)
3 cups vegetable stock
1 thumb-size piece kombu (I've used this ingredient to make miso soup on Japanese soup day in school!)
3 T. ground golden flax seed
1/2 c. water
3 T. extra virgin olive oil (I used 2 T. coconut oil)
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 carrot, grated
1 stalk celery, minced
2 T. mirin
1 apple, peeled, grated with 1 T. lemon juice
1/4 c. raisins
3/4 c. toasted walnuts, chopped
1 tsp. dried thyme
6-7 dashes ume plum vinegar
fresh ground pepper
1 cup breadcrumbs (I used whole wheat panko)

1. Prepare lentils-- Rinse and place in a pot with stock and kombu. Bring to a boil and simmer until liquid is absorbed and lentils are tender. Remove from heat and discard kombu.
2. Prepare loaf-- In a small bowl combine flax seed and water. Reserve.
3. In a large skillet, saute onion, carrot, and celery in oil over medium heat. Add mirin and saute until the vegetables are soft. Add apple, raisins, and walnuts. Add the vinegar and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and fold in lentils, breadcrumbs, and soaked flax seed. Press mixture into a lightly oiled loaf pan.

For the glaze: (I heard the glaze was AWESOME so I made this recipe times 1.5..so glad I did!)
2 T. ketchup
1 T. balsamic vinegar
1 T. maple syrup
1 T. apple butter (I used pumpkin butter)
1 T. arrowroot

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and heat over medium heat while stirring constantly. cook until thick, about 2-3 minutes. Spread over the loaf (I saved some extra for dipping on the side). Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Slice and serve!

Here's my loaf before I put it in the oven:

I made my favorite vegetable to have on the side : Kabocha Squash! It's not winter squash season anymore, but a specialty food store by my school (Garden of Eden) has great produce so I figured I'd give this squash a try.. It tasted really sweet and fresh! I also eat the skin because it has a ton of nutrients and crisps up really nicely in the oven:

I was glad I made this walnut lentil loaf ahead of time so that I could enjoy a glass of wine with my mom before dinner! Plus I had to celebrate some very exciting new I got today-- I will be interning with Good Housekeeping Magazine after my graduation in May! I am very excited to be given this opportunity!

Here was my plate with some of the lentil loaf and squash.

The loaf cut very nicely.. I was afraid it would be too mushy and wouldn't come out in nice slices, but it was perfect! I also loved the sweetness of the raisins and apples and the crunch from the walnuts. Not to mention, all of the nutrients in this meal! The glaze was so syrupy and sweet on top! I'm so glad I made extra!

Lesson 85: Cake Decorating

It has been a crazy couple of days!! Yesterday I went into the city early for an interview with Good Housekeeping Magazine for my externship. I must say the Good Housekeeping Institute is very impressive! I had a few hours to kill before class, so I spent some time in Starbucks studying for the first Module 4 exam and grabbed some lunch at Whole Foods.

Yesterday's class began with the exam (I think I did well!) and continued with some cake baking. In groups of 2 we made three different types of cakes..and multiple of each type. We made a lemon-scented cake, "pan di spagna" (a sponge cake), and a chocolate cake. Here are our lemon-scented cakes right out of the oven:
We ended the class by making a batch of buttercream to reserve for the next day of cake decorating. Buttercream..is...amazing. I will never make another frosting other than buttercream because it is seriously the best!

Class ran a bit late yesterday, but I ran out to meet my date for the night :) .. For dinner we went to Blue Ribbon Restaurant (you can find my review here). Obviously, we ordered the bone marrow to start. It was amazing, just like last time!

I have to be honest, I was not looking forward to class today knowing that we had to decorate our cakes. I have never had the patience or creativity to decorate cakes. Not to mention, the lack of sleep from the past couple nights really caught up to me this morning so I was EXHAUSTED. However, I stayed focused during class, tried my best, and got it done!

It was sort of fun because we were able to experiment with different flavor ganaches, fillings, and decorations. We were basically given complete freedom with the types of cake we wanted to make, as long as we kept it neat and simple. I started out by choosing the chocolate cake to decorate. When I went to split the layers of the cake, it completely fell apart. The cake was so moist that it was extremely difficult to work with. I decided to ditch that idea and went for the pan di spagna.

I started out by splitting the cake into 3 layers. Next, it was time to layer up the cake. I laid down the first layer and brushed it with a simple syrup and hazlenut liquor mixture (to add moisture to the cake). Then, I spread on a layer of rich chocolate ganach and praline flavored buttercream. To make this flavored buttercream, I simple whipped in some praline paste into the prepared buttercream. Yummmmm.. this tasted soo good! Anyways, I continued to layer up the next 2 layers in the same fashion. After the top layer of cake went on, I brushed it with the simple syrup/liquor and then started frosting the sides of the cake with the praline buttercream.

This part..not so easy... We had to hold the cake in the air with one hand while we frosted the sides of the cake. Clearly, in this picture I was concentrating VERY hard:
Haha.. I seriously worked so hard today to not mess up this cake. After I frosted the sides, I frosted the top and then evened out the frosting so that it was smooth all around the cake.

Next, was the part I really hate.. piping. I made a twisted border around the cake. It wasn't perfect, but turned out okay. I definitely need practice with piping. I decorated the cake with chocolate shavings in the center with a few hazlenuts, candied lavendar for color, and crushed toasted hazlenuts around the sides. Drum roll please................

Ready?


For my cake?





And the side view:

Very basic, but I thought it was neat and pretty (besides a few piping mistakes..).

Who's the lucky recipient of this cake you ask? One lucky guy ;) ..as long as he gives me a slice to try!!!

I skipped wine class tonight because I needed SLEEP tonight and I had to get this cake in the fridge. Plus I'm heading back to school early tomorrow to help Chef Chad with an Italian Easter recreational class (should be fun!).

Intro to Petit Fours

Today's class was all about little desserts that can be eaten in one or two bits (aka petit fours). We were put into new teams today to complete a full menu of 5 different desserts. The class was turned a little competitive today, since we were told that there would be a winning group who will get extra points on their practical. We had fun with it and accused other groups of "sabatoging" our desserts.

Matt, Henri, Mi, and I got started right away mis en placing our recipes for biscotti, marshmallows, macaroons, spritz cookies, and buttercrunch. I got to work on the buttercrunch by melting 1/2 pound of butter. I added in some sugar, water, and light corn syrup and brought the mixture up to a temperature of 300 degrees. I added in some toasted almonds and spread the mixture out on a sheet pan to cool and harden. Tomorrow we will be coating this candy mixture with tempered chocolate and more toasted almonds. Then, we'll break it apart into small peices like "candy bark".

After that was done I helped Matt pipe the spritz cookies onto sheet pans. These baked in the oven for a brief amount of time, until they hardened but had little-no color.

We're putting the finishing touches on all of our petit fours tomorrow and will be preparing a final presentation for judging time!

On another note, I brought a Kombucha beverage with me to class today and coincidentally Chef Chad told me about the Kombucha that he is currently making. Kombucha is a powerful probiotic that is made out of a colony of bacteria and yeast, along with fermented tea and sugar. He showed me his Kombucha and it looked a bit funky, but I'm soo curioius to try it! (I like weird healthy things!) The kombucha will be ready to drink tomorrow so he's going to let me try a bit :)

We ended the class with some skill drills, which involved making more cornets and piping "Happy Birthday, name" with melted chocolate. Here's my practice sheet.. I definitely need some practice!
I got home from school and guess what I had to eat? Leftover PIZZA from yesterday! Yup, 4th day in a row that I had pizza... not sick of it yet..

Lesson 81: Pizza Party!

Today was definitely quite the pizza party! Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE pizza (both making it and eating it)?! Well, let's just say today's lessons was one of my favorites!

Remember the pizza dough we made on Friday? Chef Chris helped us out and punched it down for us over the weekend. Here is my group's batch after fermenting for the weekend:

We divided this massive blob of dough into 1 pound rounds and refrigerated them while we made our focaccia dough. The focaccia was fairly simple and took us no time at all to whip it up. We set our doughs aside to rise while we started on our PIZZAS.

Allison and I worked together to make our first pie: Pizza Margherita. Gotta love the simplicity of this pizza. Chef Chris was also kind enough to leave us some tomato sauce that he made (which is unbelievable) so we used this as a base to our pie. Next, we layered on fresh mozzerella and sliced tomatoes. We drizzled the top with a bit of basil/chili pepper olive oil and popped it into the piping hot oven (I'm talking 500 + degrees).

So, naturally I tried to toss my pizza dough in the air.... mmm.... not so good at it (but at least I didn't throw it on the floor... or on my head). I did get a couple of good throws in!

HOWEVER, I was not as good as Miss Emily! This girl should open up a pizzeria with her pizza tossing skills.. I was amazed!

After only 10 minutes, our first pizza was ready to slide out of the oven! I loved how fresh this pizza tasted with the simple ingredients and the crispy crust..yum!

After each group made an assigned classical pizza, we all worked on creating our own pizzas. Naturally, I immediately sauteed some veggies (mushrooms, spinach and onions) and made myself a delicious vegetarian pizza. I used Chef Chris's tomato sauce ...(I want to ask him what he put in this.. we'll see if I work up the guts to actually talk to him! He intimidates me..) I topped the pizza with goat cheese and a light sprinkle of parmesan. Now that's my kind of pizza!

Al made this massive calzone! How crazy good does that look?!

While we were finishing up our pizzas, we put together our focaccias. We also were given some freedom to do what we wanted with these focaccias. I love a simple focaccia with fresh herbs, so we just embedded some rosemary and topped it with a few sundried tomatoes and a sprinkle of salt. This focaccia was SO good! I've had focaccia that gets really dried out, but this one was so moist and flavorful. Here is ours before we put it in the oven:

Today was a great start to the week!!

Brioche & Croissants

I especially appreciated my quiet ride into the city today after yesterday's craziness! Wasn't the weather BEAUTIFUL?! I would have loved to go to the beach and go for a nice long run, but that'll have to wait until Saturday because today was all about baking brioche and croissants.

My partner wasn't there today so I had to do everything on my own. I noticed I was a bit sloppier than normal because I was trying to keep pace with the other groups, but overall I did pretty well! We started out by finishing our croissant dough that we started yesterday. When I looked at the recipe yesterday, I was under the impression we had to go through a similar laminating procedure as the puff pastry (not a fun thing). However, the croissants were A LOT easier since we took a shortcut by using the glorious Kitchen Aid mixer to cream our butter and flour. This was a billion times easier than pounding it out by hand. Also, the dough was so much easier to roll out.. so easy that we didn't even need a rolling pin for some of it.

After I laminated the butter into my dough (and doing some folding and rolling to create the layers), we let our doughs sit in the fridge while we worked on our brioche. Later on, we took our croissant dough out and formed classic croissants and petits pains au chocolat, which were just rolled with bittersweet chocolate batons. Here were just some of my regular and chocolate croissants.. they were so flaky!! I LOVED the chocolate ones!

For the brioche, we took out the dough that we completed yesterday and formed 3 different types of brioche. First, I made a classic brioche a tete. "Tete" means "head" in French, so this tiny roll has a small ball on top that acts as the head to the roll. This is the best part, since you can pull it apart from the rest of the roll. I formed the dough into a mold and Chef showed us how to strategically place the head on top. We proofed these in the proofer (which is temperature controlled with moist heat) before baking them. We also proofed the croissants and other brioche doughs before baking them so they could have a final rise before the baking process.

The other two brioche were completely up to us. I decided to grate up some gruyere cheese and make a ham & cheese brioche. I rolled out some brioche dough into a rectangle and lightly spread on dijon. Next, I layered on the ham, cheese, and a sprinkle of herbs de provence and carefully rolled it up. After freezing it for about 10-15 minutes, I sliced it up, proofed it and baked it. I actually almost burnt these because I completely forgot about them (the downside to not having a partner--you sometimes forget about items in the oven). Thankfully, chef caught them in time. They are a little darker than I would've liked them, but they were still really good.


The last brioche was a simple brioche loaf. I formed the dough into several small balls that I tightly placed inside the loaf pan. After proofing and baking, they rose together and formed this beautiful loaf:

It turned out wonderfully brown on top and golden in the middle. I remembered once I got home to get a picture of the inside of this loaf:

Brioche is a wonderful wonderful thing. It is such a rich, buttery, flavorful bread that can be used in so many ways. It reminds me a lot of my mother's special Easter bread (ahem, I believe it's almost Easter, mom.. time to start baking!)