pastry class

there is a kitchen store around the corner from us called “coin cuisine” (kitchen corner) which has upscale kitchenwares as well as a working kitchen in the back where they teach classes. in the summer we thought jj would need 6 months before she was up to speed with her french to be able to take a class. funny that in fact, we find now that her problem is not getting enough french because all her friends speak english. so we decided that taking a class in french would be good practice. it’s october school break for a week and a half and i signed us both up for a class for kids and adults in sweet pastries.

there were 5 other kids and one woman. the teacher started out telling us how with normal cooking you could be loose about quantities, but with pastry making it had to be precise. we would start with making batter for “choux” (empty cream puffs with sugar sprinkled on top), “religieux” (one chocolate pastry cream stuffed puff stacked on a vanilla filled puff topped with sugar glaze) and “eclairs” elongated cream puffs filled with vanilla pastry cream, topped with chocolate sauce. he told the kids to measure out water and milk on a scale – the french do much of their cooking by weight rather than volume. he told one boy to measure out 25 cl of water into a container on the scale. first you put the container on the scale and then zero it out. then the boy poured enough water into the container to get a 25 on the digital read out but it was a minuscule amount. there was a long tirade from the teacher that i couldn’t totally understand – something about you wouldn’t be happy if that’s the amount of coca cola you got in a bottle. then he started quizzing him about how many centiliters were in a liter and how much did water weigh... jj was terrified he’d ask her to do something too. turns out the scale measured “grams” and we had to know the relationship of water weight to volume. 1 liter water is 1 kilogram (1000 grams) of weight. so 25 cl would be 250 grams (not 25). so we measured out milk and water and butter and went to boil them. then we measured out flour and sugar. then having said earlier that everything had to be measured precisely, he pours salt from the container into the bowls. i asked how much salt he was putting in. he answered me that precisely 1 pinch, and continues on to define 1 pinch. it is the “precise” amount of salt you can grab with 2 fingers and your thumb. hmmm. that doesn’t sound too precise to me. everybody has different size hands... then after stirring and stirring the eggs into the batter, he stirs the batter and says it needs another egg yolk. so – again it comes to something vague. though, the recipe did say 3-4 eggs and after stirring, add another egg yolk and some white if needed. (little trick to baking puffs – when they are done, open the oven door and keep cooking for 15 mins. this will allow the humidity to escape the oven and dry out the puffs so they will stay firm)

 after the puffs, we were making batter for “financiers” which are little cakes similar to madeleines but with ground almonds in them. “financier” means banker and they are in the shape of gold bullion bars. these are one of my favorite pastries. they have a wonderful slight chewiness. you have to put all the dried ingredients in, then stir in a PRECISE amount of egg whites. so you have to weigh them. he was showing us the trick of how to pour egg whites and stop the flow. you put your index finger over the pouring spout and “cut it like a guillotine”. i laughed and repeated “guillotine” because i assumed it was a joke. but he looked at me and said seriously, “you have to do it that way, to cut the flow of egg whites and get a precise amount”. (otherwise the egg whites, with their gooeyness, will drag more out with them). i whispered to jj that the guillotine was so much part of french history, that it had become part of the language. he didn’t see anything funny about using the term. meanwhile, i was getting a slight glimpse into how teachers speak to students. he was quite abrupt, yelling at them when they didn’t do things right. “i showed you how to do this already, hold it like this, do this and flick it this way”.

 then we made “tartes fines aux pommes” and “palmiers”. he rolled out store bought flaky pastry, cut 6” rounds and put them on a baking sheet. then we got to use the really cool apple peeler/corer/slicer which looks similar to an old fashioned pencil sharpener. the apple is lanced onto the rotating cylinder and the handle is turned, which moves the apple towards the coring cylinder and peeling /slicing blades. the kids loved that. arrange apple slices fanned out on each pastry circle, painted with egg, sprinkled with sugar and put a couple of pats of butter on top. they turned out very light and delicious. take leftover pastry, layer them together (not smushing them – keeping them layered) and roll them out into rectangle. then brush on egg and sprinkle sugar and fold sides toward center twice. then slice crosswise to get little double spirals, and lay out on baking pan. when everything was baked they were placed on platters – big piles of pastries – and laid on the table. everyone sat down around them and then (6:00 – just before dinner time) everyone piled into them eating whatever they wanted. we each got a bag to take as many as we wanted home. it was like kid heaven! plus the adults got to have a glass of kirsch – a very sweet cherry liqueur, while the other parents waited on the sidelines and watched.
we signed up immediately for the macaroon class. Print this post