Petit four practical

For our practical last friday, we had to present five petit fours. This is my petit four platter.

top-madeleines. right-fresh fruit tartlets with lemon curd. bottom-macaroons with raspberry filling. left-cats's tongue. middle-mini feulle d' automne

I made a 96%!

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Baking 111 Day 12

Today in class we were told we had to come up with our own petit four and present it in front of the class. Chef said we could make anything we wanted, as long as we could classify it as a petit four. If we chose something that we had made in class, we had to change the flavors. My partner, Holly, chose to make the opera cake. But instead of using the classic coffee and rum flavors, she made a mint opera cake. It was the best one out of everybody's! It was amazing!

I made cherry cheesecake cookie bites. Instead of a regular cracker crumb crust, these little bites have a chocolate chip cookie as a crust. In the original recipe, these are made in regular muffin tins. They make great individual desserts. I just used smaller muffin tins. They came out great! Everyone seemed to like them.

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More pictures from two weeks ago.

We had to temper chocolate to make these petit fours. It took me a couple tries, but I finally got the technique down.

Florentine Cookies

The stick cookies are Baton Marechauxs

Almond Tuiles

I hate making these! You have to work with them right when they come out of the oven because once they cool down, you can't shape them or they will crack. It's so hard! These were the only two out of my whole batch that didn't crack!

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Baking 111. Day 9

We made the cutest little tartletts today. These are so easy to make, and they are very popular!

Today was the first time I got to work with poured fondant. Haha, I wasn't very succesful with it. We made a petit four joconde. (with apricot jam).

As you can see, some people were okay at it, some weren't so lucky.

This picture is a few of everyone's consolidated onto one sheet tray.

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Baking 111. Day 8

Today was a light production day. We worked on three different cookies. All of them petit four size. Very tasty too =)

Left: Samoa. Middle: Earthquake cookie. Right: Jam Jewel (or thumbprint)

Samoa. (homemade girl scout cookies =))

Butter 6 oz

Sugar 4 oz

Salt 1/4 tsp

Egg yolk 2 oz

Cake fl. 8 oz.

Mixing.

Cream together butter, sugar, and salt. Add yolk. Add cake flour.

Roll out dough. (refrigerate if its too soft to handle) Cut out circles of desired size.

Bake until you get a nice color on bottom.

Top with caramel, toasted coconut, and chocolate.

Caramel for Samoa

Butter 3 oz

Sugar 1/2 c

Corn syrup 1/2 c

Condensed milk 1/2 c

Vanilla 1/2 tsp.

Melt butter in a pot with sugar and light corn syrup. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Let cook until you get a nice caramel color. Remove from heat and stir in condensed milk and vanilla.

Earthquake cookies.

Chocolate 4 oz

Butter 2 oz

Brown sugar 4.25 oz

Eggs 1

Vanilla 1 tsp

Cake flour 2 oz

Bread flour 1.375 oz

Cocoa powder 1/4 c

Baking powder 3/4 tsp

Salt 1/8 tsp

Milk 1.375 oz

Mixing.

Melt chocolate and butter over double boiler.

Whip eggs, sugar, and vanilla together. Sift dry ingredients.

Fold melted chocolate/butter into egg mixture. Fold in dry ingredients. Fold in milk.

Chill till firm.

Scoop dough into small balls. Roll in powdered sugar. Bake in 350 degree oven for 5-7 minutes.

Cookies will still look raw when they are done.

Jam Jewel.

Butter 4 oz

Powdered sugar 4 oz

Cream cheese 2.5 oz

Egg yolk 1/2 oz

Vanilla 3/4 tsp

All purpose flour 9 oz

Baking soda 1/4 tsp

Baking powder 1/8 tsp

Salt 1/4 tsp

Mixing.

Cream together butter, p. sugar, and cream cheese.

Add yolk and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients.

Roll dough into 1" balls. Press dent in top with thumb or 1/4 tsp. Fill with jam.

Bake at 325 for 7 minutes. rotate pan. bake for another 4-5 minutes.

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Baking 111. Day 7

Today we made Feuille D' automne. Well, we made mini ones since we are studying petit fours. They are so cute! but the covering them with chocolate is difficult because it melts in your hands! It took all day to make these but I learned alot!

Almond meringue discs.

Egg whites 4 oz

Fine granulated sugar 4 oz

Powdered almonds 4 oz

Mixing.

Beat whites (adding sugar gradually) to medium peaks.

Fold in almond flour.

Pipe discs onto sheet tray. Bake at 325 until firm and dry.

Chocolate Mousse.

Bittersweet chocolate 8 oz

Butter 2 oz

Egg yolks 3 oz (pasteurized)

Egg whites 4 oz

Sugar 1.25 oz

Heavy Cream 4 oz

Mixing.

Melt butter and chocolate over a double boiler.

Whip cream until it is slightly thick.

Whip egg whites (adding sugar gradually) to medium peaks.

Fold egg yolks into melted butter/chocolate.

Fold in meringue.

Fold in cream. Put in cooler to firm.

Pipe onto almond meringue disc. top with another disc.

The finished product. Feuille D' automne (mini! =))

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Pictures from last week. Baking 111 Day 1-4

These pictures are from last week. We are still working on petit fours. These are only a few of the ones we have done. More pictures to come.

Top: pate a choux swans. Middle: Linzer cookies. Bottom: Lemon macaroons with a raspberry cream filling.

Lemon Macaroons.

Almond flour 125 g

10x sugar 225 g

Egg whites 100 g

Sugar 30 g

Cream of tarter 1/2 tsp

Mixing.

Sift almond flour and 10x sugar together. Beat egg whites while slowly adding sugar and cream of tarter. Fold in dry ingredients. Pipe onto sheet tray into quarter size rounds. Let sit out for 20-30 minutes. Bake in 275 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Any kind of jam can be used for the filling. These macaroons are sandwiched with raspberry flavored pastry cream.

Linzer cookies.

Butter 4 oz
Sugar 3 0z

Salt 1/4 tsp

ground hazelnuts 2.5 oz

Eggs .8 oz

Vanilla 1/8 tsp

Pastry flour 5 oz

Cinnamon about 1/2 tsp

Nutmeg pinch

Mixing.

Cream together butter, sugar, and salt until smooth. Add hazelnuts and blend in. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix until just absorbed. Sift in the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix until evenly blended. Chill several hours before using.

Roll out dough. Cut out cookies of desired size. Using a smaller cookie cutter, cut out the middles of half of the cookies. Bake in 350 degree oven until you get a slight color on the cookie.

After cookies have cooled, dust the holey cookies with powdered or doughnut sugar. Spread jam on the bottom cookies and lay holey cookies on top.

*These are great Christmas cookies!!

Pate a choux swans

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