ferrandi | Sugared & Spiced

2012/12/272015/08/05

[Ferrandi] Week 10: Macarons

We took a break from entremets to learn something all of us had been looking forward to for a long time – macarons. The recipes we used are apparently from Pierre Hermé, who has previously taught some classes at Ferrandi. There were a dozen flavors to choose from, and I set my heart on olive oil.

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The first step is to make the macaron batter. Part one is a mixture of almond powder, icing sugar, and egg whites, which is quite tough to stir because the batter is very stiff, but it’s important to whisk until the mixture becomes homogenous. Do not forget to sift the almond powder and icing sugar before mixing, otherwise the result will not be as smooth. Part two is an Italian meringue, which is done by pouring cooked sugar (117°C) to whipped egg whites. Continue to whip the egg whites until it cools to about 50°C, and add food coloring to the meringue if desired.

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Combine part 1 and part 2 delicately, and beat the mixture with a wooden spatula to remove some air from the batter. The result should be slightly liquidy, but not so liquidy that it spreads out too thinly when piped on the baking sheet. It’s a little hard to explain the exact texture – to perfectly judge if a batter is ready, you just need to do this a few times to accumulate experience. To pipe the macarons, we used these boards with pre-drawn circles to make sure that the sizes are correct – this is unnecessary course for those who already can pipe very regularly.

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2012/12/272015/08/05

[Ferrandi] Week 9: Entremets – Part 2

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The week continued with more entremets. Moka, yet another classic entremet, is for the coffee lovers. To start, we made a simple genoise biscuit, sliced it into three layers, and soaked each layer with an abundant amount of coffee syrup.

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Cover with a layer of coffee butter cream (I absolutely dislike this cream…it’s super rich and heavy) and sprinkle with chopped walnuts and rum-soaked raisins.

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Rake the side of the entremet to create a pattern.

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To decorate, use a small ring-shaped mold to mark six rings on top of the entremet.

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2012/12/272015/08/05

[Ferrandi] Week 9: Entremets – Part 1

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Week 9, entremets. “Entremets” literally translates to “between servings”, and in pastries this typically refers to desserts composed of layers of mousse, cream, and biscuit. We first learned Feuillantine Choco Praliné, a layered dessert consisting of chocolate biscuit, feuillantine praliné, and praline chocolate mousse. First step, make the feuillantine praliné by mixing melted milk chocolate, hazelnut paste, house-made praliné, and fueilletine. If you haven’t heard of feuilletine, these are caramelized, praline-flavored crispy flakes that can provide a nice crunch to anything you add it to. I’m totally addicted to just eating these by the spoonful.

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Above the layer of fueillantine praliné, top with praline chocolate mousse, and make desired patterns with a rake tool.

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After letting the entremet set in freezer, spray it with a dark chocolate-cocoa butter mixture for a velvety finishing.

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2012/12/152015/08/05

[Ferrandi] Week 8: Petites Tartelettes

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Petites tartelettes, or mini tarts. Now aren’t these cute! To start, line molds with a thin pâte sucrée (sweet pastry dough).

Cut off excess dough with rolling pin.

Poke holes at the bottom and pipe almond cream.

To make barquettes aux marrons, add red currants and bake.

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2012/12/122015/08/05

[Ferrandi] Week 8: Babas, Savarins, & Marignans

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Really can’t say that I’m a big fan of baba au rhum, but it’s such a classic that one simply cannot skip this in pastry school. What it is: a small yeast cake, rich in eggs and butter, saturated in rum or other hard liquor. Let’s see how it’s done.

The dough is left to rise in a warm place until it doubles in volume, then baked in oven until nicely browed.

Savarins, a variation of baba au rhum, uses a circular ring cake mold and is soaked with different alcoholic syrups.

The baked babas, savarins, and marignans are soaked in hot syrup until soft and well-saturated.

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2012/12/102015/08/05

[Ferrandi] Week 7: Pâte à Choux

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Following viennoiseries, we had a full week of pâte à choux, a light pastry dough for making éclairs, profiteroles, croquembouches, etc. Choux relies on steam trapped inside the dough to make it rise, and the technique used for making pâte à choux is designed to develop elasticity in the dough (to expand) while maximizing moisture (to generate steam when baking).

To make pâte à choux, melt salt, sugar, and butter in water, bring to a boil, remove from heat and add sifted flour. After mixing, add eggs little by little until dough is smooth and soft. Then, pipe batter using a pastry bag onto a lightly buttered baking sheet. Egg wash and streak with a fork.

Once the choux have reached their full size, slightly open the oven door for steam to escape and allow choux to dry properly.

After cooling, poke 2~3 holes at the bottom of each choux, then fill with pastry cream.

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2012/11/192015/08/05

[Ferrandi] Week 5: Croissant, Pain au Chocolat & Danish

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Croissants and pains au chocolat, I could eat them everyday for breakfast! These buttery flakey delights are especially irresistible when they are fresh out of the oven, so imagine how many of them I downed during our week of viennoiserie classes…oh boy, just think of the calories. Croissants and pains au chocolat are made of a layered yeast-leavened dough, similar to the feuilletage procedure for puff pastry (read: copious amount of butter). To form croissants, start by rolling out and cutting the dough into long triangles as pictured below.

Roll ’em up.

Egg wash and let rise for about two hours at 25C.

Egg wash again and bake!

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2012/11/182015/08/05

[Ferrandi] Week 5: Brioche

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This week we are moving on to viennoiserie, including brioches, croissants, pains au chocolat, escargots, and danishes. The first thing we made was brioche dough, which is composed of T45* flour, yeast, salt, sugar, eggs, and butter. It’s made like a bread, but has the richer aspect of a pastry because of the extra addition of eggs and butter. After the dough is formed, it is left to rise at room temperature until doubling in volume, punched down, and let rise again in the fridge.

*The number after T indicates the ash ratio of the flour, the proportion of minerals remaining after the flour has been burned at 900°C. The higher this number is, the higher the proportion of bran there is in the flour. T45 flour is typically used for making cakes and pastries, while T55 and above are used to make breads.

Brioche can come in many forms, but the most classically recognized one is probably brioche à tête. To achieve this form, start by rolling small balls of dough with the side of your hand (think karate chop) so that dough becomes bowling pin-shaped.

Then, place the dough in a well-buttered mold, resting the fatter ball (body) at the bottom. Dig a ring-shaped hole in the body, working your way around the smaller ball (head), and let the head rest on the body. The head should be attached to, not severed from, the body.

Let rise and egg wash, but avoid egg washing the part where the head attaches to the body, or else the dough will stick together and not rise properly.

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2012/11/172015/08/05

[Ferrandi] Week 5: Mille Feuille

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I was beyond excited when chef told us that we would be making mille feuilles this week, and not just one, but four different versions! The classic one is mille feuille traditionnel, which is simply regular puff pastry sandwiching vanilla pastry cream. To start, bake a sheet of plain puff pastries using regular puff pastry dough, making sure to roll the dough out evenly so all parts are done baking at the same time. Immediately after baking, sprinkle puff pastry with icing sugar and put it back in the oven for a brief moment to form a caramelized surface.

Cut puff pastry into three sheets of equal width, then fill with pastry cream (add rum if desired).

Dust with icing sugar, and slice into individual servings. Simple as that! But of course, the most difficult part was making the puff pastry dough itself.

We also made a few fun variations, such as a mille feuille pistache fraise. To make the pistachio puff pastry dough, incorporate pistachio paste in the feuilletage inversée recipe. The dough will be softer than regular feuilletage inversée, and might need to be refrigerated for a longer period before being worked on.

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2012/11/172015/08/05

[Ferrandi] Week 5: More Puff Pastries

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We continued working with puff pastry dough this week and made a few more variations, starting with these puff pastry tart bands. First, roll and cut out a band of puff pastry (40 by 12 cm), double the two sides, making sure to glue the two layers with egg wash. Use a fork to poke holes in the center to prevent puffing in the oven.

Use knife to create a border design on the sides. Egg wash the borders but not the center.