Hail to the King!!

Well, we spent most of the day assembling the Gateau George V.   This is a French cake named after an English Monarch.  It is made up of layers of Swiss chocolate sponge cake and milk chocolate butter cream.  These layers are then sliced and turned vertically and sandwiched between two layers of Devil's Food chocolate cake.  the whole thing is coasted in a thin layer of buttercream and topped with a small amount of chocolate caramel and white chocolate.  The cake sides are coated with toasted cake crumbs.  It is a pretty involved and amazing cake to make.  When we got all done, my teacher told me that it was probably the most difficult cake I would ever make.  It is very pretty and sits in beautiful triangles.  We actually made four large logs which produced about 50-55 pieces of cake.  Here is a side-view......which shows the vertical layers quite well.  Assembling these four cakes took much of the day.

We also were able to package and slice the lemon chiffon cake.  This is an airy delight and with great lemon curd (pudding) topping.

If those were not enough, then we had time to slip chocolate melt-aways which have yet to be covered with powdered sugar.  These are made with powdered sugar and are like a chocolate butter cookie with mini chocolate chips.

It was a full day of baking and assembling.  Now a few days off and time for laundry, reading and walking.  Have to study some medical books while I am here as well.

Layers upon Layers

It may have seemed at first that I was not really working hard in class this week from the lack of blog entries...but reader beware.  I have learned just how complicated and orderly cake-baking is.  The first two days we spent making bare cakes and freezing them as well as the Mont Blanc cookies.  These cakes are later pulled out, sliced up and made up into beautiful layers of tasty perfection.  Of course before you can make them up, one must make all of the cremes, icings, curds, mousses, and caramels that make up the layers.  It is quite a delicious armamentarium.  Cakes can provide a wide arrange of taste experiences depending on your mood, and the layers upon layers of ingredients are reflective of what your palate is craving at the time.  We started with a very dense and rich chocolate torte that is layered with truffle filling scented with rum and Amaretto.  We then moved on to this luscious beauty, which is then frozen enough to get the slices made up.

This is a lemon chiffon cake with Bavarian lemon mousse filling.  The cake is made up of yellow chiffon (cake made with a little bit of oil and separated eggs so that you can fold the whites in later and get an incredibly light and fluffy crumb).  The cake is then very lightly smeared with lemon curd (which I also made) and then topped with Bavarian lemon mousse filling.  This filling is basically a lemon pudding mixture that is folded  into whipped cream.  It sets up beautifully and can hold its shape once it is chilled.  This layering process is repeated and then topped with cake.  The whole cake is then refrigerated until solid and the outside is covered with vanilla bean butter cream and topped with lemon curd.  It will be sliced into 1.25 inch slices and packaged individually.  Its components are extremely light and airy and are a sharp contrast to the deep and rich taste experience of the chocolate caramel truffle torte.  It is very exciting to apply food chemistry in such different ways.  Cakes such as this are an extension of Pastry art and are a true testament to the understanding needed of chemistry to enact such a fantastic assemblage of layers.  I am learning all day long and am excited to come back and be able to introduce some of these fantastic creations in the bakery.  I love lemon and chocolate, so these were great places to begin. 

Oh, by the way, while waiting for things to set up and chill, etc...we had time to make a whole batch of long flake pastry and peach filling and make peach cobblers.  This peach filling is divine with lemon notes in it and nutmeg and cinnamon.  This was a surprise addition, but will be a fantastic offering at the bakery.  So....the amazement never ceases.  Marda has more tricks up her sleeve than David Copperfield.

Peach cobbler

On to another day of fun baking.  I think that milk chocolate and hazelnut are coming up on the menu soon.

Chocolate Caramel Truffle Cake....a lesson in preparation and execution.

I have started again at the International School of Baking with a three week course that largely focuses on cakes.  This was our third day of class, but we finally cut and plated our first cake.  I started this week with a beautiful early morning walk along the Deschutes river.  It is a little lower in April, but is still very beautiful.

This week has been an excellent example of the need for advance preparation in a bakery.  The cake that we produced today has five separate components and all must be prepared before the cake can be assembled.  This is also a clear reason why desserts like this are a delicacy and why they make an occasion special.  This cake is made of two cake layers that are split and filled with two separate truffle fillings, one flavored with rum and one flavored with Amaretto.  The cake layers are also gently coated with apricot glaze which lends a subtle yet distinct fruity note to the cake.  It is positively decadent and is therefore topped with a single spot of gold leaf.  But first the entire cake is enrobed in a caramel chocolate glaze that gives it the beautiful shine.  It really is simply elegant, and straightforward to make, but the lesson lies in the execution of each part.  The texture of the truffle filling and its flavors are important.  The choices of which type of chocolate cake to use as the base, but also be considered.  I am very pleased with the final result.

This chocolate torte is really a Polish dessert called a Rigo Torte, but a current name would be Chocolate Caramel Truffle Torte.  This will likely appear in the bakery in some fashion.  During the last three days, we also make a beautiful shortbread cookie with caramel and almonds and dipped in white chocolate.  Its traditional triangular shape has earned it the name Mont Blanc and can also be made with really any nut and dipped in other chocolate varieties as well.

Other preparation for baking later in the next few week has also led to the following creation in the freezer.

This is chiffon cake with lemon curd and lemon cream mousse filling.  It will be topped with buttercream tomorrow and then some lemon curd and sliced.  Look forward to a finished photo afterwards.  Very delicious cake.  We have also made long flake pastry for peach cobblers, house made peach filling, lemon curd, chocolate chiffon cakes, devil's food cake, and worked on finalizing equipment purchases for the new bakery as it progresses through the remodel.  Look forward to more photos as we are finally able to assemble everything we have been baking.  Each cake is like a little gem with its own family of flavors and components that make it unique.  I am already so grateful for what I am learning.

Let Them Eat Bread.....and they did!

Well I just had the largest bread sale of my career this last week.  I titled the sale "Let Them Eat Bread" and I was overjoyed to have orders for 96 Sourdough loaves and 74 Jalapeno Corn Bread loaves.  It was a great experience to use my equipment to the maximum and I was able to bake 32 loaves at once and had both ovens going.  It was non-stop baking for several hours and I learned a great deal about managing batches of dough that were that size.  I was pleased with the flavor and texture of the breads and am looking forward to more challenges as I continue to expand what I am able to offer our community.  I was also very pleased to see the reaction of my patrons as they seemed excited about the bread and were truly gracious.  I am now planning on 2-3 sales in October and will be posting that information soon on Facebook and on my website.  I did realize that a large cooling rack is imperative and will have to be part of the bakery soon.  I had bread everywhere and cooling all over the place.  Each time the timer went off....32 loaves came out of the oven.  That was amazing and fun and scary all at the same time.  My teacher had helped me work out a time frame for mixing the dough so that the processes could overlap well for the two different breads I was making.  Here are a few photos of the process this week.  I am even contemplating doing it again!



Jalapeno Corn Bread

Sourdough awaiting packaging

Sourdough right out of the oven cooling down

Both ovens full and baking

Sourdough loaves springing up from the heat of the oven

The house was full of the aroma of baked bread and it was a wonderful sight to see all of the bread packaged at the end and ready to go.  I will keep posting as the adventure progresses.  I  am grateful to be doing something that I love and is useful for my family and the community.  Happy Baking!

Homeward Bound

Well, I spent the last two days travelling home to Torrington and I got to drive by the beautiful Teton Mountains north of Jackson.  They are always inspiring.

 

 

I got to visit my mother and sister in Thayne, Wyoming and shared some chocolates and pastries with them.  We had a lovely visit and they said good things about the items we had worked on in school these last two weeks.  I am grateful for all of the things that my teacher has taught and shared with me, and I hope to incorporate them into the product line of the bakery.  Now, we move on to the work of planning and carrying out the remodel of the building and working out the schedule for the bakery as it opens next spring.  These are exciting times and I will continue to post as there is progress.

Christmas in September

This was the last day of class, and what a day.  We were in full swing for Christmas already putting the final touches on our Gingerbread houses.  The trees and windows are made of melted sugar and we had many fun decorating techniques. 

We then moved on to Buche de Noel which is a very traditional French Christmas cake that is rolled with chocolate filling and decorated to look like a yule log.  The decorations are white chocolate and marzipan...all edible.  This is quite delicious.  We made several and I am sure that these will be at the bakery some day.

During all of this baking and decorating, we had a short lunch of the Chinese barbecue buns that we made---Char-Siu Bau.  They are steamed and served plain or with dipping sauce.  They were heaven.  Here they are in the steamer getting ready and we gobbled them up.

And just like Santa's Workshop, we were baking to the last minute and were tending a batch of whole wheat sourdough bread today, which came out of the oven just before I had to leave.  We were in such a hurry that I did not take photos, but I am bringing some back to Wyoming.

This has been a great couple of weeks and today has given me pause to reflect upon the gifts I have been given.  Christmas in September is a cute phrase, but it has real meaning for me as I have been given many gifts: the gift of patience from my wife and famil as I explore this new career, Marda's gift of sharing her vast experience and talent with me, the gift of the Sauter's friendship as I enjoyed their company here and wild Oregon Chinook salmon smoked for dinner tonight, and the wonderful gift of hospitality form Bill and Donna Pfeiffer who let me stay with them while I was in Bend.  I am truly blessed, and tomorrow I move on to another chapter in this adventure.  So much has changed in the last year, and I am excited to see how the next year unfolds.  Stay tuned, and I will continue to update about how things are going with the bakery and the business and building remodel plans.

Merry Christmas!

Let the Bread Rise

In addition to the lessons I learned in handling the gluten this morning at the bakery, I was able to practice those lessons when we made pan au levain.  This is a very French type of sourdough bread that is leavened completely with sourdough starter and no added yeast.  It has no fat in it, but is delicious and it turned out great today.  It takes a long time and a lot of patience to make sure that this bread is doing well and it rises well.   Factors are involved like barometric pressure, humidity, activity of the starter on that particular day.  It can be capricious.  I have been dreaming of making this type of bread for many years.  This is why I have a sourdough starter in the first place and sparked  the first interest I had in baking bread.  My teacher was pleased with the loaves and I was excited with the results.  It has a chewy crisp crust and a great interior with nice bubbles and delicious flavor.

Pan au levain

We also made semolina bread from durum flour and it is an Italian bread covered with sesame seeds.  It was cooling as I left, and I have not tasted it yet.  Will do that tomorrow.

Today, for lunch we got to try the Pierogis and Sausage Rolls, which were delicious and the pastry that we had made had turned out well and baked up nicely.

The raspberry gelee was finally ready to package and took longer to set up than the lemon..will need to work on that next time, but the flavor is pure raspberry.

We worked on Gingerbread Houses including candy windows and trees...still in progress, but there are a few photos.

Bottles holding the walls up until the icing dries and sets.
We just got the roof on before the end of the day today,

And lastly, I put away all the frozen savory pastries in the freezer, the star of which is likely the Chinese barbecue pork bun, or Char-siu-bau.  Delicious and worth every moment of preparation.  These are usually steamed and sometimes baked. 

Today is also my mother's and my daughters birthday, and so happy B-day to them.  I have one more fun-filled day at the bakery and then I pack up and leave.  It has been a great experience, and I will be a better baker as a result.