Only Practice Makes Perfect

Not every week or every day can be full of success stories, and this was one humbling week! In this profession I have been told numerous times that once you gain confidence you will immediately be put back in your place. There is so much that can go wrong in a recipe including natural factors like humidity and weather. It really amazes me that the difference of a few seconds can make something turn out right or wrong. It started with a rather unappetizing creme caramel, shown above. It came out of the oven too soon so it was under baked, also the caramel was too light. The caramel is an example of how a few seconds can make the difference because sugar begins to caramelize very quickly and once it is removed from the oven it continues to darken. If it is removed a few seconds too early, it is too light, but if it is removed too late, it will be a sticky, smelly burned mess!

Although these Classic Nepolians were edible and quite tasty by several accounts (I didn't try it). The main issue with this one was my strategy in assembly--not a good one... The photo collage shows (clockwise) the puff pastry dough before going into the oven, assembling the layers, layers before glazing the top, finished and ready to eat! To make sure that this really was a humbling week I am going to share all of my mistakes! First, I layered the diplomat creme filling on the middle layer of puff pastry before I laminated it to the bottom. This made it impossible to pick up without breaking it into several pieces. Then, after all three layers were laminated together I realized that I hadn't glazed to top, which was supposed to be done first so it had sufficient time to set.

This week I made cheese filled crepes with blueberry coulis as a plated dessert. This was my first experience making crepes and I learned you have to work fast to get them to be thin. Although these were delicious and a good dessert there were not many options for plating. Two crepes were plenty for one serving, although I had originally planned on using three. Also, I had candied lime zest to use as the green garnish in place of the mint, but it lost its color and looked rather putrid! Although I don't like using mint as a generic garnish for color it does work in this instance so I bite my lip!

This is a cinnamon creme brulee with dried fruit compote. Here again I accept defeat--I should have infused the cream with more cinnamon. The flavor was quite bland since I omitted the vanilla bean and hoped that the cinnamon would take its place. Also, the top was not burned off very well and could have been much darker.

There are an amazing variety of things that can be made with pate a choux dough, typically used for eclairs and sometimes called eclair paste. Pictured above are paris breast (round), pate a choux swans and petite eclairs. I filled these all with the same moussaline filling, which is pastry cream with whipped cream folded into it. The fillings vary, but are typically either whipped cream, pastry cream or moussaline.

The word petit four translates to "little oven." I have to admit that that really doesn't make much sense to me, I would have named them little cakes has they asked, but they didn't! The petit fours above were three layers of a dobos sponge, which has almond paste in the recipe giving it a very fine crumb, important in such a small cake. The cake is layered with strawberry jam, the top is a fine layer of marzipan and then the entire cake is coated in boiled fondant, which I poured on. These little cakes are very sweet, but that's okay when it is only two bites!