Dance of the umbrellas

Its raining today in London, it rained yesterday, and its suppose to rain tomorrow...big shocker. I unfortunately had to join the not so elegant dance of raising, lowering, and tilting my umbrella and I must admit that I am getting quite good. The real test was today when I was getting on and off the tube and had two bags, my binder, and a cake box with my St. Honore in-side.

I woke up before the crack of dawn this morning, and off into the dark hours of the morning I headed to class. The doors open at 7:30 and there is always a mass of anxious cooking students outside the door just waiting for the click of the door to unlock. There is so much to get done in those 30min...change into chef whites (in a room full of lockers and is about the size of my dorm room...add 30 frazzled ladies and you have chaos), climb at least 3 flights of stairs, prepare your station, get out the tools you need, frantically look over the recipe, deep breath...8:00 ALLEZ-Y! This morning was particularly stressful for me, because I was already quite nervous about meeting my class and getting back into the swing of things. We walked into class, there were no introductions, just instructions and a timer with 3 hours set.  "Alright" my chef said "let's go". In my head all I could think was 'oh my gosh what do I do first, my head is completely blank, what do I do, what do I do!?. Bowls and butter! Just grab the bowls and butter!' I knew I would need them at some point. Then in the short time it took me to grab bowls from the sink and butter from the kitchen cart, I 'got my groove back'. Before I knew it, I had my pate choux finished and in a piping bag, my puff pastry had been cut out, and I was ready to make my puff pastry for tomorrow. Leaps ahead of half of my class, my pate choux was piped onto trays and ready to be put in the oven and I was feeling good. Everything turned out beautifully. Now it was time to boil some sugar. Caramel, gosh that stuff gets hot! To the sugar and water you must add pure glucose to the mixture. In case anyone was wondering, yes it is a clear sticky mess, yes it comes out of a big tub, and yes I did get it all over myself. Minus a few burns on my hands from the hot caramel, no major medical disasters in the kitchen today. I guess the heavens were on my side. 

My puff pastry turned out great and the block of butter incorporated into the dough without a hitch. I got very good marks today, but my piping was a little 'sloppy'...Ill take it considering that is the first time I have ever piped with that saintly pastry tip. 

My roommates are amazing and I have gotten great feedback from my two French roommates, so I feel like that should say something right?! We all were off to a slow start this morning due to the fact that the nightclub next door to us was having an event last night. Hundreds of people were lined up under our window and around the corner until about 2am. 

On the menu tomorrow: pithiviers and mille-feuille aux fraises

Ahhh the pithiviers....almond cream baked into fresh buttery puff pastry that looks like a sunflower before you bake it. Ummm, delicious? Is that the word you are looking for? The pithiviers are traditionally served around the holidays and a little plastic crown is hidden inside. Whomever gets the piece with the crown gets to be king for the day. Sounds like a pretty fun tradition to me. 

The mille-feuille is a stacked dessert with layers of puff pastry, creme mousseline, strawberry jam, and topped with icing and chocolate in a herringbone design. Nothing wrong with that! 

Dont let the simplicity of these desserts fool you, they have many technical components. I can only hope that time will be on my side again tomorrow morning.