Lesson 4 : Tarte aux Fruits and Tarte aux Pommes

Before the class, I was so excited about Tarte aux Fruits (Fruit Tart) and a Tarte aux Pommes (Apple Tart) we would make today. Saw in my favourite LCB alumni blogs; here and here, made me can’t wait to make that tarts. In the class, we were watching Chef Keith demonstration and the tarts looked so perfect! He made it so neat and beautiful..of course he is LCB chef L0L.

Unfortunately, chef told us that today we will make only 1 tart since this semester we got new demo kitchen for Patisserie students, which means we, new Patis students, have less time for practical. (before… the chef demonstration and student baking are in the same kitchen, students just looked chef demo and then go to work at their area). And chef decided for us to make fruit tart.

Chef keith's Tarte aux Fruits

Tarte aux Fruits (Fruit flan with creme patisserie) Crème patisserie is the custart cream made from milk and egg base.

Chef keith's Tarte aux Pommes

Tarte aux Pommes (Apple Tart with frangipane filling, glazed with apricot jam) Frangipane filling is a custart filling made with almond meals.

Honestly, at first I think I definitely prefer Fruit Tart to Apple tart since it has lots of Berries on it, which is my favourite. But after tasted the one chef made for us…OMG ! The Apple tart was so yummy…The crispness from caramelized sugar on the top of neatly arranged apples, the sweetness and sourness from granny smith apples, the moist and rich cake-like texture from frangipane filling, and the fine crumbly, slightly crisp texture of short pastry…wow…especially it has just came out from the oven!

Still, the fruit tart was good. The crème patissiere is rich and very good smell cuz we use a real vanilla pod. I just think that the apricot glaze was too sweet for me.

Ok..Let’s start making the fruit tart. As the Pate Sucree (Sweet short pastry) need about 30 minutes for resting in the fridge, we made it first by using rub-in method.

Rub-in Method: The fat is rubbed into the flour, dry mixture, resembles bread crumbs.. The most important thing when making any dough or pastry, do not work too much after the liquid has been added to the flour and fat. The gluten that is formed will eventually produce a network of long, elastic strands in the dough which will cause the shrinkage and toughness of the pastry.

Then we started making the crème patissiere by WHIPPING by hand. Such a tough job, but was good training. Hehe.. This is first time for me to use a real vanilla pod…so happy cuz I feel like very professional..haha…Then put the crème in the fridge and took the short pastry out to bake by blind baking method.

Blind baking Method: Covering the flan with a disc of greaseproof paper (Cartouche) and filled with dried peas or beans so that it will keep its shape when baking and the flan doesn't become to soggy . And the bean should be removed before the fland is cooked through and the flan returned to the oven for completion of baking.

After flan was cooked, piped chilled crème patissiere and then…time for Decoration!! The good thing about LCB is giving us a great ingredients…this time we got 1 punnet of strawberry, blueberry and raspberry for each students…and a big box of kiwi fruits and oranges for the whole class.

I think my tart is very beautiful…haha…of course everyone did a pretty great jobs for their tarts….But I still like mine the most…;D

And the best things...these classmate are so nice and funny...happy to have them all...(next time i will try to take more photos of other friends ^ ^)

Lesson 3 : Genoise Sponge, Gateau Weekend (Butter or Pound Cake)

Most of us start getting used to the kitchen, generally know what we need to do with out being told repeatedly. Especially the students who previously studied Cuisine and who worked in the industry before do things very well and quick. For the first 2 days, I think I did pretty well in the kitchen. But !! for today, shame on me, I am the slowest one in the kitchen...haha…Let me tell you the story!

Today’s chef is Michael Matar. He is very nice and kind also calls me “Miss Thailand” hehe…He tought us how to make Genoise Sponge and Gateau Weekend.

Chef's Michael's Genoise...beautiful, eh?

A Génoise Cake is a sponge cake that does not use any chemical leavening and instead uses air suspended in the batter during mixing to give volume to the cake. It is a whole-egg cake ; the eggs, and sometimes extra yolks, are beaten with sugar and heated at the same time using "bain marie". Génoise is generally a fairly lean cake, getting most of its fat from egg yolks, but some recipes, like LCB, also add in melted butter before baking. The cake is notable for its somewhat dry texture, noticeably different from most cakes made in the Anglophone world; as a result, it is very commonly soaked in flavored syrups or liqueurs and often served with a whipped cream frosting.

About the Gateau Weekend; turns out the name originates from the fact that people usually eat this cake on the weekends in France. Basically, a Gateau Weekend would be equivalent to a Pound Cake in America. Of couse we are in Le Cordon Bleu then we made French style. Pound cake (named "quatre-quarts", which means four-quarters) is a traditional and popular cake of the French region of Brittany and as its name implies use the same quantity of the 4 ingredients, but no added fruit of any kind. Some variants however are made by adding chocolate, or a bit of lemon juice for flavor. Today we baked Gateau Weekend in the Gugelhupf tin, looked so beautiful.

We started with the genoise. I had to whisk the eggs on the bain marie. The stove is already a bit high, then also got a bowl on the top of another pot containing water that is at the simmering point. It means I had to work with 3 levels of the things which were too high for me…make my life was soooo difficult..really ! I need a box or something to stand on.. lol..

My Genoise !!! and behind was Soo jin's.

By the way, my genoise turned out so lovely. Chef Michael was keep saying “It is the perfect sponge!” *grin* This made me so happy…We made 2 genoise and cut it each into 2 layers. We spread the first layer with strawberry jam and piped the whipped cream, then put another layer of genoise on top…Actually I can make 4-tiered cake but it will be too high for my container. Then I just made it 3-tiered cake. (as you can see the photo above)

Pound cake after rebake

Then I moved to make the pound cake…everything seemed to be doing well. Unfortunately, since I was so afraid about too burn cake, I took my pound cake out too early…At first chef saw it, he said “Are you sure it is cook?” He said it was a bit pale..But I insisted cuz I already put the skewer to taste the doness. When chef and I tried to take it out from the tin…..OMG !!! It has not cooked yet..hahaha…..then chef quickly put it into the tin and bake again…This made my work slower *sigh*.

Anyway, today I have developed my own habits; keep my work space nice and clean. And a problem I just found out about LCB kitchen today is we don’t have enough stoves and sinks. I can see when we were working on a bain marie. Some students had to wait for stoves and also had to wait for the sink to clean our own equipments. That was not good at all.

When I came home, I tasted my genoise. It looked really good but I don’t like the taste (even when I tasted the one chef made) It was so dry and hard. I prefer Japanese or Thai style of genoise, which is softer and lighter. The genoise was sitting in my fridge for 1 days and then I just thrown it away…T_T

Lesson 2 : Variety of Scones, Madeleines, Financiers/friands

Today we made more scones (sultanas and cheese scones), Madeleines, Financiers/friands (I still dunno how to pronouce Financiers correctly). Our chef for today was Chef Karin, little pretty lady from Switzerland)

Chef Karen did a nice presentation of her goodies !

Since we had many things to do today, Chef Karin let us work with partner. One made Fruit scones and one made cheese scones..You may think that why don’t we just make scone dough in 1 time and half put sultana, half put cheese...Because they try to teach us that there are many recipe for scones. For fruit scones, we use milk powder and use milk for cheese scones.

Fruit Scones from chef Karen

Cheese Scones from chef Karin

Madeleines from chef Karin

Financiers from chef Karin

My partner was Soo jin, a nice korean girl, she did the fruit scones perfectly. And also my cheese scones were a lot better from yesterday, fluffy and moist. Lots of cheese on top…ahhh…so yummy..It will be surely much better if we can put ham or bacon in it.

My cheese scones in Batching which means arranging them in rows on trays. Put the scones close together on thrays so that they all rise toghter and do not dry out after baking. Batching of scones saves room on the trays and makes the scones easier to handle.

Soo jin's fruit scones baked by individual makes scones look nicer.

Financiers (also known as Friands) are small desserts made from almond meal, sugar, egg whites, beurre noisette (brown butter), and flour. You can add it with small fruits like blueberries, or even oranges.

My Financiers turned out well too. Crispy outside, moist inside and can taste the almond meal. I think it is a bit similar as cookies..(maybe I baked it too long? *giggle*) l was satisfied my Financiers though.

Madeleines are very small and moisted cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Their flavour is similar to, but somewhat lighter than, pound cake, with a pronounced butter-and-lemon taste. They also go well with coffee or tea.

For madeleines, I like the one chef made..golden brown and have a lemon smell since we added some lemon peels..Mine was also lovely but I don’t really like it, just think that it was like normal Thai Kanom Kai...

The most important thing Chef Karin tough us today was about how politeness to your kitchen hands really pays off when you're working in the kitchen. Never be forget to be polite and respect them.

Anyway, I was thinking to have my own flour sifter cause school’s one is too big which is not convenient. One more thing as my friend, Ann who have just finished superior class, told me to buy is my own digital scale…we all were a bit annoying about waiting to get our ingredients measured out.

This time I forgot to bring my camera, too bad. I will try to get some photos from my friends

Lesson 1 : Plain Scones and Royal Icing

Since at 2 first weeks of being in Sydney, I stayed at Hyde Park Tower on Elizabeth Street. Then to arrive school at 7 am, I have to catch the bus 501 on George St. at World Square at 6.12 am…my gosh..so early, rite?

When I arrived at the bus stop, I saw some LCB students (as you can see they was carrying a big knife bag same as mine :D) and I was thinking these students might be my classmate..coz only Basic Patisserie in group 3 got this school time table. (some might be cuisine or whatever)

Ok…let’s start another new journey…

After changed uniform, we went to the demonstration class at K2 on Level 6 building A. We got chef Keith for first day…He is quite nice and mentally calm..

At first, we all who commenced Basic Patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu today seemed to be nervous and excited. Chef Keith did ice breaking by letting us introduce ourselves. There were 15 of us (some previous cuisine students, some who got the experiences in industry, with the majority of us being fresh-faced, dessert eating - love baking students which are 5 Koreans, 3 Thais, 3 Singaporeans, 1 Philippine, 1 Venezuelan , 1 Brazilian, 1 Indonesian) Looks like Asian international school..hehehe…

Chef Keith showed us how to make plain scone and some royal icing piping. It looked quite easy though. After that, we got time to take photos and taste products. Chef was very kind by making Chantilly cream (whipped cream with a bit of sugar and vanilla essence). It was good for today breakfast..haha…

Scones are English biscuits made from flour, sugar, butter, milk or cream. They usually use baking powder as a leavening agent. There are lots lots lots of variety of scones that you can make. sweet or salty. Tomorrow we will make 2 more kinds of scones : fruits scones with sultanas and Cheese Scones. Plain scones are best served with strawberry jam and cream. But I prefer butter and jam ^ ^

In kitchen, we learned about safety and hygiene, not only for ourselves but other colleages too. I found out that most of my classmates are quite good in baking. Since I saw most of scones came out very pretty. Just about 2-3 students who seemed like have never done scone before..(I did it only once before at home and not so successful). I made about 16 scones today…It was good to eat when just came out from the oven..But I think my scone can be better..maybe because I was afraid that I will work too much for the dough then what I did was too little mix the dough :P

I also have heard about one joke that chef said to students “When you buy the uniform, did they tell you to buy a bigger size? Cuz you will definitely grow up’’ hahahahaha...

After finished baking scones, we also made royal icing and practiced piping. It is made from white eggs, pure icing sugar and acid-cream of tartar or lemon juice. Mine was very ugly...^ ^''

We got about 1 hour break. Our late lunch were scone, scone and scone…haha..Then the last class was some theory about hygiene which I have learned before at William Angliss, Melbourne. (of course, already forgot most of them). Personally, I think we all did pretty good jobs on our first day in LCB.

And one more thing !!!, we have a kitchenhand to help us clean up!