Rolling, Baking and Finishing (You TART you!)

Today we took the doughs we made yesterday and tarted them up. Chef G started with several demos on how to roll dough correctly. With the pate brisée (which has chunks of butter in it for a marbled look), it can only be rolled once to get the correct light and flakiness. With the paté sucrée, it can be messed with and rolled over and over again and it's going to be fine. Chef G showed us the proper way to roll dough -- rhythmically and evenly, constantly turning the dough at 45-degree angles, while occasionally rolling the dough up on to the pin to get some flour on the bottom.

We first rolled out the brisée, cut into small rounds with a cookie cutter, then gently pressed them into small tart pans. Care had to go into this, to get the dough into all the corners. The dough would pull away and shrink a little; so, before trimming, a bit of the overhang was evenly pushed into the pan. The dough was then docked: docking is the practice of poking holes in the bottom to prevent the layered, flaky dough from rising off the pan and making a big mess when it came time to add fillings.

Once the small brisée tarts were refrigerated for about 30 minutes, they were blind-baked: baking beans (beans used solely for their weight) were placed in the little dough tarts, with parchment preventing them from touching the dough. Into the hot oven, out once they looked brown, then remove beans and paper.

Once cooled, a bit of yesterday's pastry cream was inserted on the bottom with a small offset spatula. The cream itself, when it came out of the fridge, looked a bit like ugly pudding, gelatanized and rubbery. It was brought back to life by whisking over a hot water bath, then into a kitchen aide mixer with a paddle attachment for a good creaming. Once the cream was down in the tart, the pan was removed, raw sliced fruit arranged on top (I stuck to strawberry, kiwi, and blueberries), then brushed with an apricot glaze -- simple apricot jelly that was heated up to make liquidy. It was finished with sprinkling some crushed toasted almonds along the edges.

The paté sucré was much easier to work with, its consistency not hardened by chunks of solid butter. They were rolled out to easily cover a 9" tart pan. Once evenly flat all around, it was rolled up on a pin and gently laid across the pan. Slowly, it was pushed into the nooks and crannies, and again a little extra was pushed in along the edges before trimming. Yesterday's walnut frangipane was spread into the shell, filling about half the volume. On top, I dropped and pressed cleaned blueberries. It was baked until the frangipane (due to its high egg content) rose and browned to a nice shade along with the crust.

Due to Dirty Kim, Long Island Lolilta, and I just rolling along well together, we had time to make one more tart, so we rocked out a hazelnut chocolate. I rolled out and panned a cocoa paté sucrée dough, while DK whipped up a delightful filling that was based on semisweet chocolate, eggs, praline paste, some sugar, and a dash of rum. Halfway through baking, we tossed in some crushed hazelnuts. As DK would say, "NUM NUM!!"

Tomorrow, we make nothing, but we prepare puff pastry.

ADDENDA:

When I boxed up enough fresh tarts to feed about 20 to 30 people, I realized this could NOT go home with me. Fortunately, B works around the corner so I dropped off some early afternoon pastry luv for her coworkers.

Starting to enjoy Chef G, she runs a loose kitchen like Chef K, but engages the students much more, casually going around the room over the last few days and asking each of us what we want out of culinary school, what we want to do after. At first I simply said I wanted to cook better, as my mom passed along a very meager skill set and a lack of food culture. Later in the day, I confessed I really loved pizza and somehow want to be involved in it. (Chef G had told us, on our first day, she's passionate about traditional Italian pizza.) We talked about which places we liked, and we both were in agreement of the greatness of DiFara and the over-ratedness of Una Pizzeria Napoletana. I turned her on to Franny's, which she knows by rep alone, and to Isabella's Oven, the gem on my block.

Went to yoga this afternoon, was just a little bit more into it than usual -- almost did 75% of the poses or at least the run-up efforts to the crazier ones. Felt really good.

BREAKFAST: 6:15am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

Good milk and yogurt, banana, blueberries, cherries, grapes, flax, a couple of pinches of salt, ice. This smoothie more than any one before was sweet, but not cloying like Jamba Juice. For a second I asked myself if I added honey or something, but the only thing different this time is that I did a double pinch of salt -- wow, either that made the sweetness sing or one of the fruits was really ripe in a good way.

AM SNACK: 8am, small piece of french bread, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM TASTINGS: 11:30am, bite of kiwi-blueberry tart, small piece of banana coffee tart, small piece of chocolate almond berry tart, bite of a random tart, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, falafel with yellow rice, salad, a few fries, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Man can not live on pastry alone. Bought some street falafel in front of the school, was not very good or fresh.

PM SNICKLESNACK: 3:45pm, apple fizzy lizzy with 4 glasses of water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
An after-yoga treat in honor of the HVS.

DINNER: 6:45pm, stirfry with chicken, broccoli, carrots, onion, nori/sesame blend, mirin, veal stock, soy sauce, brown rice with a little seaweed, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wokked it up at home for B, it wasn't spot-on because I threw in too much mirin, but took the time to adjust seasoning with soy and this cool nori/sesame seed stuff I got at the Japanese food product showcase. Easily heads and tails above the so-called 'stir fry' I've made at home previous to c-school.

EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, pistachios, walnuts, hazelnuts & semisweet chocolate pistoles, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went swimming with B at the local pool, gave me a new appetite.