All Things Must Come To An End...

The first thing I am going to address in my last post is: "Wow, did this semester ever end with a BANG!"

This last month has been a frenzy of creating all kinds of fun and awesome things. From 'Crème anglais' to 'Gluten-free Chickpea Cookies'. 
I learned to make : 

• Swiss 
• Italian
• Japonaise         Meringue!

I perfected pastry cream, and one or two yeast products. I made several unusual cookies, and disappointed myself with my pies. I created a beyond beautiful fruit tart and thoroughly enjoyed wowing my family with it. 

That's just to list a tiny list of this months production! Most days I was in the kitchen for an extra hour, and finished up to four things in full bakeshop day*.

* A full bakeshop day consists of coming into the kitchen at 9:35, working till 12:30. Then taking a one hour lunch break, where food is provided, and reentering the Kitchen. We continue production until 2:00, at which point clean up ensues. At 2:30 we are dismissed. 

I can honestly say that I have enjoyed this past month utterly.


Now to the exam!!
   In preparation for the theoretical part of the exam, Mrs. Nikkel made a Baking Jeopardy. How cool of a teacher do we have? Due to some of us being extremely competitive, 'cough' Kat "cough', it got rather intense!! We had a total blast. Who knew studying could be so fun? It definitely stuck.

For the practical part we had to make four things.

1. A tart 
2. Six non-dropped cookies
3. Six Eclairs
4. A braided loaf or Six Knotted rolls

For my tart I made a 4 inch Linzertortre.

For the cookies I piped shortbread cookies.

For my knotted rolls I used a Soft Roll Dough.

I started by measuring out my yeast product ingredients. Once that was being kneaded into intensive mix by the tabletop mixer, I measured out the ingredients for choux paste. When my dough was in the proofer for bulk fermentation, I began cooking the pastry cream  for the eclairs.  

That is when I took time for the written test. I found it relatively easy and hopefully my mark reflects that. When I was back in the classroom I made the Eclair shells. I checked on my dough and formed the knots, brushed them with milk and sprinkled them with poppy seeds. I covered them and let them proof. Then I rolled out my tart dough and blind baked that. At this point my knots were ready to bake. They turned out beautifully! Next I made the shortbread cookies. These also were a success. Now I filled my tart, and put the lattice crust on top. It was baked for a short time again. My Eclair shells were a disaster, so i hurriedly started again. As that was baking, I allowed myself some time to eat soup and a sandwich. Both were delicious! I finished filling, topping, and cooling the Eclairs with barely a minute to spare!

 I'm afraid and exited to see my grade at the end of this. Fingers crossed!!