Happy Thanksgiving Canucks!

Lemon meringue pie

I made this back in the animation citation at CapU in 2008 and finally decided to paint it

Crostate with peach

Thanksgiving apple pie :)

The last few begins...

The past few weeks have been busy and I'm not sure how I have managed to squeeze in time for myself.

Last week I was stationed in the breads making all sorts of interesting new things I have never seen or tasted before; from kamut bread to cracked wheat, I managed to learn a lot about different flours and how fragile some breads can be. The artisan breads are very nice and with your choice of flavours, making them can be creative and fun.

This week I am stationed at the ovens and although it is very busy it's not as bad as level 1 and 2 since we are now very used to the high volume. I managed to make some biscotti and my parents childhood favourite morning snack, sfogliatelle. :)

Pithivier torte

Horseshoes

Louvres

Conversations

sprouted rye

Vancouver sour

Baguette

Gluten free banana bread

Cornmeal raisin

Pumpernickle

Focaccia

Walnt raisin sour

Sfogliatelle

Oh and if you haven't been to Bella Gelateria on Cordova and Burrard in Vancouver, I advise you to do so :)

Re-cap

Reversed puff pastry

Banana cream pie

The last level of our 4A programme stream has begun and so far it has been a recap of level one yet a little more intricate in a sense that a lot of theory from the past three levels have fallen play in our product make-ups.
We made puff pastry again except the method is reversed where the butter is enclosing the dough instead of the dough enclosing the butter. when beginning making the mise en place you completely doubt it but by the 3rd folding you really see the dough start to take shape and becomes a lot easier to handle than the other method. As you can see above with the horseshoe, you get a major lift and the product is much more tender and flakier.
We made some cream pies and savoury ones as well as various quick breads. This week we are working on artisan breads and buns.

The end is near

Dososh Slices

Paris brest

Eclair

This week was the third practical of the programme.

We had to make dobosh slices, ecliars and Paris brests, mousse slices, a birthday cake, fruit tarts and carrot cakes.

 On paper it all seems doable but when you are working against the clock it is actually difficult to produce everything in the amount of time given. It was the hardest test yet but it was the least repetitive because of the variety of items to make. I finished everything with only three minutes to spare and by then I was physically done :)

My results ended up coming really nice: choice of kiwi and peppermint for the mousse slices was well balanced, the choux paste had a great bake and volume, dobosh slices were at perfect hight and even layering, birthday cake had required height. Overall I am happy with my items and time management.
 On to artisan breads!

Kiwi peppermint mousse

Chocolate and cake!

Last week of working with cakes and pastries before the practical on Wednesday and Thursday. This level hasn't been as bad as I thought and once I put my creativity and artistic eye to use it has become a little enjoyable.
Our teacher, Nancy, has been the best part of this level. her passion and humour has really made our learning experience that much more enjoyable.

Our class-mate Robyn joked (or is serious) about calling herself a pastry wizard. I like the idea.

Marziparama

Dummy wedding cake, fruit cakes decorated with marzipan and a birthday cake.

I came up with the design for the wedding cake on paper and the completed product turned out pretty close. There was supposed to be a large flower on the top but our idea of using marzipan failed so we just piled on the royal icing and topped it with larger flowers. I only enjoyed making the sketch and when it was done and over with :)
The Birthday cake is a simple layered cake iced with Italian butter cream. The fruit cakes taste like a well aged refuse and decorating them, aside from the pig, was tedious and boring. I made sure to get a kick out of it by imagining this pig frolicking in a field of flowers; it really made for a good laugh.