12/11/18 European Cakes and Tortes Class Final

 12/11/18 European Cakes and Tortes Class Final

It felt like we were on the Great British Baking Show! Our class was tasked to create a cake, torte, or entrement idea to submit for our final grade. We had two class days to complete our final. We Researched and Developed our idea and 12/10 and 12/11 we prepared our final cake and presented to our Chef. Here are the results:
Video: https://animoto.com/play/6FicRBbVXuqAqqjZaMR54A

Ayana's Mixed Berry Cake

Raspberry Entrement

Sheila's Chocolate Peppermint Roulade

Jon's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Ryan's Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Torte

Brittney's Chocolate Coconut Roulade

Nina's Raspberry White Chocolate Pistachio Cake

Spiced Mango Entrement

12/9/18 Candy Cane Cream Cheese Braid

12/9/18 Candy Cane Cream Cheese Braid
For the last Prayer Breakfast of the Year, the group was presented with this candy cane shaped sweet bread. The interior is filled with dried apricots and maraschino cherries over sweetened cream cheese. Having made braids previously, it was simple to just shape the log into a cane shape. Maraschino cherries over the top brightened the exterior.

12/7/18 Chocolate Eclair Finals

12/7/18 Chocolate Eclair Finals

For our Petit Fours and Pastries Class, we must prepare six individual eclairs. They must be uniform in width and length and not measure over 4" long. Each eclair should be filled with pastry cream and the top covered with either melted chocolate, tempered chocolate, or chocolate ganache.
Video of our final day:
https://animoto.com/play/2ZkfgtQufhNs9Hb6S7Gqmw

This is my third effort at making eclairs and definitely needs much practice to perfect.

12/3/18 Couronne

12/3/18 Couronne

From the Bordeaux region of France, a Couronne or crown is a traditional Christmas Bread made in the shape of a crown. This recipe is from The Great British Baking Show's Paul Hollywood. The bread is filled with Orange Juice soaked apricots, raisins, walnuts, butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar. PS: I have to say The Great British Baking Show is my favorite TV show!!

Shaped Couronne

Risen Couronne

Baked and Topped

Ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.

11/30/18 Practicing for Final Chocolate Eclairs

11/30/18 Practicing for Final Chocolate Eclairs
Meeting on an unusual day, but making up missed time for Hurricane Florence. we are practicing Chocolate Eclairs. The prep of scrumptious treat is our final project. There is much technique involved for a good result and practicing several times is the way to go!!

Beating the Choux Pastry

Piped and Resting

Baked

11/29/18 Apple Pan Dowdy

11/29/18 Apple Pan Dowdy
The New England area is noted for fruit desserts with unusual names such as Dowdy, Slump, Grunt, Buckle, and Sonker. Sounds like a fight! Having seen Apple Pan Dowdy in a Cook's Illustrated magazine, I have always wanted to give it a try. And so I did for my Prayer Breakfast Group. A Dowdy is characterized by using an iron skillet and slightly cooking a fruit mixture with the crust on top. The crust in cut in squares and pressed down into the fruit filling. At Prayer Breakfast, Jeanne Owens says this is similar to her Skillet Pie except her version has a caramel layer on the bottom. I think I will try that too!!

11/24/18 Dutch Baby Pancake

11/24/18 Dutch Baby Pancake

A Dutch Baby Pancake can be a nice change up from pancakes. A wet batter is poured into a hot cast iron skillet containing melted butter. Similar to a popover, it rises high in the pan with a crunchy top. Lemon or orange juice is squeezed over the top after baking and final dusting of powdered sugar! We served sliced strawberries as a side.

 

11/23/18 Oyster Roast

11/23/18 Oyster Roast

The day after Thanksgiving we hosted an Oyster Roast at our house for friends and family. A fun time for all!

Cheese Board

Relish Board

Cornucopia Cake 

11/20/18 Pizza Bread for Dinner

11/20/18 Pizza Bread for Dinner
A family and classroom favorite: Pizza Bread! Took home a boule of Pizza Dough from class today and made pizza Bread for my family. A roll of dough encasing browned sausage, mozzarella, and pepperoni!! I want to personally thank the people of Naples, Italy for inventing Pizza!

11/20/18 Thanksgiving Pies

11/20/18 Thanksgiving Pies

The Baking and Pastry Arts Program presents: Thanksgiving Pies for sell!!

Our program took orders from the CCC staff for Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, Apple, and Pecan Pies. Our class spent two days baking approximately 50 pies! Here is a video of our pie prep: https://animoto.com/play/2m7CU4q05sXO5ZE5P80g2A

Pumpkin

Pecan

Apple

Pecan and Sweet Potato

11/19/18 Raspberry Cream Cheese Braid

11/19/18 Raspberry Cream Cheese Braid
 I love shaping a yeast bread braid. When baked it always shines!! This is for Prayer Breakfast!

11/14/18 Apple Strudel Epic Failure

11/14/18 Apple Strudel Epic Failure
Ryan and I were assigned the preparation of an Apple Strudel. Who could guess it would go so wrong. We prepared the dough and prepared our table for stretching the dough. Let's just say there were several factors leading to this colossal failure. We should have floured our surface better and we stretched it with a completely inappropriate technique!!  Here we go:

The dough stretched and covered with bread crumbs

Double divided into two parts and filling added

The roll and the fall apart. UGH!! I need more practice!!!

11/12/18 Cookies for the President's Meet and Greet

11/12/18 Cookies for the President's Meet and Greet
On 11/13, our college President John Hauser met and chatted with students, staff, and the community in the Bryant Center. Our class prepared cookies for the event. We could select a cookie recipe of choice. I chose Coconut Macaroons (not Macarons, what a difference an "o" makes) because I haven't baked these before. Initially, they were not baked enough and after have been taken out of the oven, back in they went to complete the baking process. Saved by Chef Summers!!

Dough Scooped on Sheet Pan

Cookie dough Scooper

Done and Delish!!

11/12/18 Again, Practice

11/12/18 Practice

11/12/18 Cream Cheese Kolaches

11/12/18 Cream Cheese Kolaches
Another favorite bake for Prayer Breakfast is Kolaches. The group has been served, blueberry, apricot, and strawberry Kolaches. This bake I used a cream cheese filling. Topped with a raspberry, this offering was delicious and visually appealing!! Now, that's a double whammy.

After the Final proof the a well is pressed in the dough

Filled, baked, iced, and garnished

11/8/18 Lemon Mousse Bombe

11/8/18 Lemon Mousse Bombe.
The bridge club is coming. I have some Lemon Curd. What can I make? A bombe with a white chocolate shell, lemon curd on the top, lemon mousse and a lemon cake on the bottom. Garnished with lemon butter cream, lemon zest, and a raspberry. The only problem with the dessert was a too thick white chocolate shell. I applied 3 layers. Next time, I will reduce this to two layers. I found little pedestal servers at Tuesday Morning and they were perfect for each serving.

Ingredients Mixed for Lemon Curd

Cooking Process

Prepared and Stored

Chocolate Shell for the Bombe

Ready to Serve

Add caption

Plated