Week 29: A proliferation of pastries

Here's a new word for you, one I feel confident few of you will have encountered: pithivier. We assume the origin is from the French Pithiviers, a small town about two hours south of Paris. Pithivier sometimes makes an appearance on menus and is quite likely the chef's pretentious way of saying "pie" - you can charge much more for a pithivier than for a pie. Do not be fooled! A pithivier has specific characteristics which include:

• crust - made of puff pastry
• shape - formed by taking two discs of puff pastry, the top slightly larger than the bottom. The filling is lumped on and the top layer tucked over it and sealed at the edges
• filling: traditionally frangipane - make by creaming butter and sugar, adding eggs and then almond meal
• finishing and appearance - traditionally decorated with spiral lines drawn from the top outwards, and with scalloped edges. Glazed by caramelising icing sugar at the end of baking.

 

We use the puff pastry to make the Pithivier, obviously, and also a divine Apple Tart. In a blast from the past we also make Cream Horns. Now this takes me back to my early childhood when I remember my Mum making these lavish morning and afternoon tea "spreads" for the men when they were haymaking. Often there'd be cream horns along with bacon and egg pie and sandwiches, cakes and slices.  Thinking back, that was certainly the days before ready made so she either made her own puff pastry or used a sweet short crust.

We also make a very, very thin dough for Apple Strudel. This is a weird paste - it is similar to the stretchiness you get in a pizza dough but more delicate as with a filo. You can see how stretchy and thin it is from the photos of chef pulling it out. (And yes, as chef describes pulling it, it is again like being in primary school as this is, of course, a double entendre that must be acknowledged with guffaws and nudges).  The pastry needs stretching on baking paper or a tea towel so you can use that to assist in rolling up the apple filling. When cooked the pastry itself is very brittle and when cut it flakes and breaks.

For preference I would use filo for strudel rather than make this style again.

Wanting to share these vast quantities of pastry, I invite my Tuesday yoga class comprising ex-colleagues and the lady-in-waiting, the dentist and the radiographer, to dinner and force them to eat up all the various products for dessert.  First I reprise the Seafood Tajine (or Tagine as some prefer) from last week, making extra couscous for the dentist.

On Wednesday we turn our attention to choux pastry and I am reminded why I am on the course - learning why the right way to do things and understanding why  when something may have gone wrong.  In the past I have had varying degrees of success with choux pastry: beautiful crisp, dry hollow shells through to miserable flat pancakes.  I now know why the failures have occurred.  A few simple things include ensuring the water doesn't boil before the butter melts, thereby evaporating and reducing the quantity of wet ingredients.  After adding the flour, wait until the temperature of the dough drops to about 60 C before adding the eggs. The protein in the eggs sets at 62 C and you don't want the eggs to cook until they are in the dough in the oven.  Recipes usually give numbers of eggs, but the consistency of the mixture drives how much egg you need. Chef's fail safe tip is that the mixture should just be "dropping consistency" i.e. stretch and drop off the wooden spoon when you hold it up.  So we make profiteroles, éclairs and Paris Brest - a large choux ring. Everything is glazed with chocolate ganache and filled with Chantilly cream.  Don't worry, I keep some empty to bring home for the hunter gatherer. in fact I have just filled and glazed them and, somewhat decadently, we're taking them to fellow grape grower friends for afternoon tea - not quite like haymaking, but near enough!

Next week: meat eaters get excited - BUTCHERY!

Now for words you have most certainly heard before - puff pastry.  Born of a beautiful marriage between flour and fat. A lot of fat. Butter. Fonterra need never fear a slump in the demand for dairy products as long as the world enjoys a pastry. This week we make French Puff Pastry, as opposed to the English method we used in Week 23: How much butter is in that . The only difference seems to be in the initial shaping. The photo in week 23's blog shows a flat roll with the slab of butter.  This time we make a ball and cut a cross in it, fold out the leaves and roll them to a 1/4 the thickness of the centre, place the slab of cold butter in the middle, fold the leaves back over, then start the folding and rolling process. So much butter! Even the pastry looks embarrassed to have to consume so much butter -  it's covering its eyes!

Roll out, fold, put in the fridge - repeat 4 times or more as time allows. The more folds, the more layers as the butter gets trapped each time - why does this make me think of all those fat people programmes on TV?  In  week 23 I describe the ratio of fat to flour in croissants and Danish pastries, and the magic that occurs as a result of layering butter and producing steam - go on, look back if you can't remember, I'll still be here when you get back. Well, for puff pastry we are talking a ratio of 1:1.  And such a lot of effort and delicacy to make it.  The croissants and danishes had yeast so I am not sure if that is why it is easier. This is a nightmare - the layers are thin and the butter must be trapped fully, or when it bakes the butter oozes out instead of steaming up the layers of dough. For crying our loud, go to the supermarket and buy ready made it is my advice.

Week 23: How much butter is in that?

This is a fun week working with speciality breads and enriched yeast products.  It is no surprise that the enriched part generally means eggs and/or tons of butter, and (all together now) "butter is fat and fat = flavour", the oft repeated mantra of our tutors. 

You will recall my despair in week 16: Sure to rise when I bemoaned my lack of bread making skills, but went on to bake successful products in class.  This week is the same -  I think it is safe to say yeast and I have formed an alliance.  At least we have in the Weltec kitchen: whether it translates to home is another matter.



Monday we start with wholemeal bread rolls and bagels, and it's all a slippery butter slick from there. 



Not much else gets the Heart Foundation tick this week.  We spend a good part of the lesson also making the paste for croissants and Danish pastries, and doing the folding work which makes the layers - lamination in the culinary world - of pastry.  If you have ever wondered just how much butter goes into these products I am now in a position to tell you.  Heaps.  By weight, the recipe for croissants has 450 grams of flour to 225 grams of butter. Danish pastries?  Don't ask.  OK then, I'll tell you.  225 grams of flour and 200 grams of butter. You may as well slap it directly onto your hips!

  

Layer of butter on croissant pastry



In both cases the slab of butter is laid onto the rolled out dough (see picture), and then folded in and rolled again.  Fold and roll three times, giving a half turn of the dough block each time.  This means you are distributing the fat and adding layers.  You can see the process on any number of you tube videos if you want to know the details.  When the dough cooks, the fat melts and creates steam which puffs up the dough.  The dough then cooks in place and the gap that is the flaky layer is created.   Again, cooking as magic!

The pastries for the croissants and danishes we let prove in the fridge overnight and roll out and bake the next day. I really enjoy shaping and making them all and they turn out well. When I show them to some of you the comment is unfailingly "they look like bought ones form the shop!"  I'm not sure if I should be pleased with the comment or affronted by the surprise in your voice! Of course they are just like bought ones - only they taste better!  The hunter gatherer is well pleased this week. Having missed out on the doughnuts (week 16: Sure to rise) he is happy when the cabin crew in from Dubai (son and girlfriend) pause in Wellington and can deliver fresh pastries to Marlborough.

Dough, dough and more dough. Chelsea buns, brioche loaves, cornbread, focaccia, a wholegrain loaf (Heart Foundation tick on that one) and sourdough.  There is no solace for the gluten intolerant in this world. 

Dough performs its own special magic. To wit, brioche.

You start with a relatively straightforward sweetened yeast dough, and then add LOTS of butter. The dough is soooo sticky you are severely tempted to add flour. But you mustn't! You just keep kneading with your fingertips (so as not to overheat the dough), knead, knead, knead and  - nek minnit - (yes, I am in touch with popular culture) it comes together into this smooth,silky and glossy dough. Then shape, prove again and bake into a lovely buttery yummy thing, which, I make into a dessert for hunter gatherer and the aforementioned cabin crew. Make french toast with the brioche (fry in butter - why the hell not?) and serve with poached rhubarb and yoghurt.

Assessment sees us make and present Wholemeal rolls - 3 different shapes, glazed Chelsea buns and a whole Brioche loaf (as opposed to individual rolls).  I gain another Distinction proving I must have shrugged off my yeast product jinx!

And while we are on the subject of Distinction, I also receive my results from the Certificate exam I did in week 18. Yes, I passed with Distinction which, while they don't tell you your mark, I am informed that means over 90%. All in all, a good week to break up for the holidays.

Back at school the week commencing January 16th.  So until then, compliments of the season to you and yours and I look forward to blogging in 2012.

Week 16: Sure to rise

While I am a pretty good baker overall - and modest(!) with it - bread has never been my strength. It just never seems to do what it should.  Indeed, nearly 40 years ago I became permanently traumatised by the mirth of my sister-in-law-to-be as she scorned my feeble efforts.  Unless I use a breadmaker (which is obviously cheating) my loaves tend to have the appearance of small windowless buildings, so this week I look forward to mastering the mysteries of yeast products.  Following the long weekend, we commence our school week on Tuesday with basic bread rolls, basic sweet buns, doughnuts and cream buns and Hot Cross Buns - more on those later.  We use fresh yeast, which I haven't used before as I just buy the dried stuff from the supermarket.  Fresh yeast is easy to use but doesn't keep long so probably only good if you are going to make yeast products very regularly.

The basic bread dough and bread roll shaping passes without incident.  We scale the dough to ensure the even size and weight of each roll.  Using the basic sweet bun dough we make doughnuts and cream buns.  The hunter gatherer is gutted that we make these early in the week and that they will be given away rather than carried home on Friday - my ex work colleagues are the happy recipients.  To make the doughnuts we mould the dough around a spoonful of  raspberry jam.  Into the deep fryer they go, then - contain yourselves..... we roll them in in cinnamon sugar.  Yum - deep fried dough and sugar.
 

To make the cream buns we roll them out and shape them, and give them a little sugar wash when they come out of the oven.  When they are cool, we cut a slit in the top and plop in a dollop of raspberry jam and pipe in Chantilly cream (this is just whipped cream with a little icing sugar added).  Just like the ones Billy Bunter eats.  Yum - baked dough, sugar AND fat!

The Hot Cross Buns expose a cultural rift.  This day I am sharing the bench with our lovely overseas student from Kenya, and he makes the dough.  I don't take a lot of notice as I am busy making another mix, but when I look at his dough which he has set aside to prove, it looks rather anaemic. When I ask if he thinks it looks a bit pale for Hot Cross Buns he says he doesn't know what they are, and has never seen one, never mind eaten one! It transpires he hasn't put enough spice in.  We decide to rename ours Kenyan Cross Buns. I couldn't resist taking a photo of him "taste-testing" the cream buns.

Wednesday is no day for weaklings - I thought beating up that gnocchi last week tested my arms!  Today we make Genoese sponge, a double recipe, without mechanical intervention.  This requires hand whisking 8 egg yolks with sugar in a bowl over a warm water bath - the bowl that is, not me - until it is thick and pale reaches "ribbon" stage.  That is when you can lift the whisk and make a figure 8 with the mix and it will hold a little before melting back.  THIS TAKES AGES.  Use a freaking mixer!  However, our tutor is a sadist and wants us to know the "feel" of the mixture.  By the time we have made the sponges and hand mixed Semolina Syrup Cake and Chocolate Cup Cakes I am ready for a full body cast - or at the very least a shoulder massage.

And the next day we get on to yeast baked desserts: Savarin and Rum Babas.  The process here is a bit different as the yeast ferments in the flour.  It will be of interest  - at least to my family who grew up with our Polish grandmother's expression 'stare babka' (old woman or grandmother) - that baba is a diminutive form of the Polish babka. And I have no idea why or where a rum old grandmother may have given the genesis to a rum soaked yeast dessert, so don't ask!

However, the original Baba was introduced into France in the 18th century by Stanislas, the exiled king of Poland. In 1844, the Julien brothers, Parisian pâtissiers, invented the "Savarin" which is strongly inspired by the "Baba au Rhum" but uses a circular ring cake mould instead of the cylinder usually used for Rum Baba (thank you wikipedia).

The week's upper body exercise regime is complete when we also make Sauce Anglaise - egg custard but without any custard powder or thickener  - just egg yolks.  This is not as easy as it sounds - first you have to whisk up the eggs and sugar until pale and frothy, and then pour in your hot milk before putting it all back in a clean pan and gradually cooking - stirring all the time - until it thickens slightly i.e. coats the back of a spoon. If it goes too far you get scrambled or curdled eggs.  Not good. But the Anglaise is particularly good with the warmed chocolate cup cakes (which, going against the grain, I do not ice).

Assessment this week is the Fruit Flan (first made a couple of weeks ago, vol au vents - fortunately this time I remember to dock the bases, and Sauce Anglaise. It is a busy session and I don't think one of my finest efforts, but I come out of it with a Merit again - reinforcing my view that Merits are not hard to come by. That said, several fail the assessment.

And back at home we commit vege infanticide to enjoy lunch on a sunny Marlborough spring Saturday: baby broad beans, baby spinach, baby carrots with smoked salmon and  homemade bread rolls. Now that really is yum - and no sugar or fat in sight.

Yes, I know it is upside down but I loaded the image twice and that's the way it wants to stay!

Weeks 13 & 14: Wake up and smell the baking

Picture this: 8.00am on a Monday morning - two half days of costing theory ahead of us. About two thirds of the class are there and a few more dribble in over the next half to three quarters of an hour. Some of those already there, and most of those who dribble in, have cans of V or Coke or Mother or some other noxious crap in a can. They sit down, fold their arms on their desks and put their heads down. Excellent. 

"I've got such a hangover" groans Jiggly.

"Then go home" - I'm all sympathy.

"But we have to be here."

"But you're not here, are you. You're asleep on your desk."

"Ohh, sorry, sorry eh."

"Don't apologise to me, apologise to the tutor, and effing wake up."

Thus starts the week.

Once again, two half days of theory could easily be compressed into a shorter session or self-paced tutorial. It isn't complicated but at the end of the second day some people are still struggling with costing recipes. The formula is simple: price per purchase unit of the commodity, divided by unit size by the quantity used in the recipe.

For example, you buy 500grams of butter (of course you do!) for $4.55. The recipe uses 50 grams. 4.55/500 x 50 = .45 cents. Do that for all your recipe components, divide by the yield (how many portions does the recipe serve?) and you have cost price per portion. Divide the cost price by the food cost percentage the business works to, multiply by 100 and you have the selling price per portion. Easy. And fun. We work though a couple of examples then take some recipes, food costing sheets and ingredients prices away for homework.

Last week, and I do apologise for the lateness of the blog, but this way you get two for one! Bargain. Last week we baked. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here's a few thousand words.

Fruit flan, involving sweet pastry, creme patisserie, shingling fruit and glazing. FYI, the Risk Consultant and the GM come for lunch, and after a Thai Fish Curry help dispose of the flan, which they pronounce  "really good". We also make Apple Pies, Palmiers - the curly things - Baklava, Meringues, Apple and  

Cinnamon Turnovers, Vol-au-vents, Fruit coulis, Vacherins - meringue nests - Lemon curd, Lemon Meringue Pie, Blueberry Muffins, Cheese Scones, Anzac Biscuits, Florentines, Sablé Biscuits - kind of shortbread, and the first time I have piped biscuits. The mixture is quite stiff so the shapes are a bit odd at first, but once the mixture softens and I get the hang of it they go well.

I also now know what happens if you forget to dock puff pastry! (remember docking? pricking the pastry base before blind baking).
I forget to dock the base of my vol-au-vent cases before baking them. They rise beautifully, but the leaning tower of Pisa has nothing on these babies! I wish I had taken a photo as they did look funny - not a bit like a pastry case should. Interesting aside, more than half the class do not know what a vol-au-vent is before they make them.

Starting to have mild panic attacks about next week now. We are in the Production Kitchen that serves the Bistro -paying customers. Our tutor has divided our group into two so there will be 6 or 7 of us in the kitchen rather than the whole class, which varies in numbers depending on any given day. He has divided the four competent ones - yes, that does include me - so two of us are in each group. We also have our share of challenges - tongue stud and one half of Dumb and Dumber included. We are doing lunch service on Monday and Tuesday, so stand by for tales of these exciting adventures.....