Let them eat cake!

Aaah pastry. Pastry as in all things sweet, not just Danishes and apple turnovers. But perhaps I’m the only one who thinks of these when I hear the word.  In the one semester culinary program pastry is split into two nights, a rather ambitious  undertaking considering there is so much you can do with butter, sugar, flour and eggs.

On the menu:  Gateau de Savoie with mocha butter cream frosting
                          Pate sucree – tartlet with wild blueberries
                          Pastry cream
                          Chocolate souffle

Gateau de Savoie

Gateau de Savoie is a classic, light sponge cake you can have plain or frosted.  The recipe is necessary for any of it to make sense.

Ingredients:
7 oz. flour
2.5 oz. corn starch
8 whole eggs (room temperature)
zest of lime
1 tsp. grated ginger (or more, I like more)
11 1/2 oz. sugar
2 oz. melted butter
2 oz. soft butter for your mold
pinch of salt
pinch of cream of tartar

Traditionally Gateau de Savoie is made with potato starch but since it’s impossible to get away from corn in this country, corn starch makes sense. Whisk egg whites on a low setting with a pinch of salt and cream of tartar.  Cream of tartar is an acid and is a sediment produced when making wine, did you know that? I didn’t, but fascinating nonetheless.  It’s important that the whites are whisked slowly in order to form little bubbles that will hold the cake together. Big bubbles will cause the cake to collapse in the oven. This little piece of information is very important when making a souffle.  Moving on.  Seperately whisk yolks with the 7 oz. of sugar.  Add lime zest and ginger.  Start adding 4.5 oz. of sugar to your whites, slowly.  Mix flour and corn starch together, then add half to your yolks and mix (sifted please!).  Add melted butter. Add half of your whites and mix some more, then add your remaining flour and corn starch and finish by folding in the rest of your whites. Careful not to over fold.  Butter your mold with the soft butter and coat with sugar. (Aha! Thought you were going to have to add 11 1/2 oz. of sugar to the whites, didn’t you?) Pour your batter in a mold, filling about 3/4 of the way.  Bake for about 45-60 minutes at 375 degrees and when it’s done, cool. You can dust some powdered sugar on top and eat plain, or with butter cream frosting!! (ok, I’m not really a fan of butter cream but I try, I try to love it)

Butter + cream = butter cream, right?

Ingriedents:
1 # sugar
water
6 oz. egg whites (keep the yolks for pate scree)
20 oz. butter
flavoring
pinch of salt
pinch of cream of tartar

Add enough water to the sugar to make a slurry. Cover so the steam automatically cleans the side of your pot or you can wipe the sides with a wet hand. A clean pot is important.  The sugar has to cook to a softball stage, about 240 degrees.  Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt and cream of tartar on low.  With a bowl of ice water nearby, dip you your hand in the ice first, then in the hot, boiling sugar, grab a little and dip your hand back in the ice.  Try to form a little soft ball. You have softballed sugar! If you are too much of a wuss to do this (ahem) you can do this with a spoon. Add your softballed sugar to your whites slowly, in between the whisk and the side of the bowl so it doesn’t go crazy or splatter you in the face.  Let mix until cool, then start adding butter that is cool but starting to soften a little at a time. Flavor with whatever you want, in our case it was coffee flavoring. Plan to use right away because it needs some love and attention if you have to bring it back from the dead. (if it’s cold) 

It’s time to frost your cake and it’s best if you let it rest for a day first.  Slice however many layers you want, brush the layers with a syrup so it stays nice and moist. We used a mixture of sugar, water and vanilla I think.  Frost, layer, frost, decorate.  Taste. Close your eyes. Imagine you’re at a little cafe in Paris, because that is what it will taste like, a light, flavorful European pastry. Love.

Lauren and le Gateau

Pate sucree

Pate sucree is dough used for a sweet tart. 

12 oz. flour
8 oz. soft butter
4 oz. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. lemon zest (I always like more)
pinch of salt

In the mixer (with a paddle) goes your butter, sugar and zest.  Add vanilla and pinch of salt.  Add your egg and flour and mix for only a few seconds more, until it gets nice and crumbly.  As soon as it comes together you can finish by hand. Knead a few times then form into a disc shape, wrap and let it rest in the fridge for a few minutes but not too long or else the butter will come apart.  Divide dough into small balls and roll thinly, then gently lay into molds. Bake with beans/pie weights at 315 degrees until the crust is fully cooked and has a nice color.  It’s important that the bottom is cooked. Nothing worse than soggy undercooked bottoms according to Chef Patrice. Let cool.

Creme patissiere

Creme patissiere or pastry cream is very similar to creme Anglaise but with flour.  1 3/4 cup of milk, 3 yolks, 2.6 oz. of sugar, 1.3 oz. of AP flour, vanilla. (I strongly suggest you invest in a scale by the way)  Bring milk to a boil.  Whisk your yolks with the sugar and vanilla, then add your sifted flour.   When the milk is hot, start adding to egg/flour mixture slowly.  Put back on the stove, stirring continiously while the flour thickens and cooks. When you’re done decide what you’re going to do with it – if you’re making a tart you’ll need some cooled, if you’re making a souffle it’s ok if it’s warm. 

Tartlet with wild blueberries

Unless you plan to eat your tartlet right away, brush the inside with melted white chocolate and then add a little pastry cream. To get that nice shiny glaze on fruit you see at bakeries heat some apricot perserves (making sure to remove the apricots) and toss the blueberries with the glaze. If you’re using strawberries or less delicate fruit, you can brush it on.  Admire, take a picture, devour. Best dessert I have ever made. 

Beauties

Chocolate Souffle

The amount of egg whites you need depends on how much souffle you want to make. We used about 4 egg whites for 3 medium sized souffle molds. Whisk your eggs slowly with a pinch of salt and cream of tartar.  Into your pastry cream (can’t make souffle without pastry cream, not the sweet kind anyways) whisk in chocolate powder. You want it a little dark because once you add the whites it will lighten a bit.  Mix and set aside.  Now, the souffle mold is quite important. It has to have some texture on the outside to help radiate heat inside the dish.  Butter and sugar your molds and refrigerate. Back to your whites. They should be nice and fluffy. Throw in some sugar, I don’t know how much just grab a handful and throw into the mixer.  Fold egg whites into pastry cream/chocolate mixture.  Pour into molds and with your thumb go around the edges to make sure everything is nice and clean.  Pop into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes and for God’s sake, DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR. Hopefully your oven has a light so you can take a peek and see how they’re doing.  If your souffle has a hat, meaning one side is rising but the other is not, cut into the side that is not rising – it will thank you! You have freed it from whatever was holding it back and it will now rise nice and high just like the other side. When done, sprinkle powdered sugar on top and enjoy.  So so good, and not too terribly difficult to make. 

Chef Patrice with our masterpieces

Well?

Pastry class was amazing, and worth the 4 hours of ingesting butter and sugar and the stomach ache that came later.  Although I love desserts, I am really intimidated when it comes to baking because there are so many things that can go wrong that you can’t fix by adjusting the seasoning or adding more stock.  Last night helped me overcome some of this fear because I realized that if you follow all the rules when baking/preparing desserts, you can be successful.

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