This morning I got in early so that I could make a start on some brioche, which is a two-day process. Today's stage involved making a dough and slowly beating a large quantity of butter into it, piece by piece, until I was left with a luscious yellow dough. This process took over 20 minutes in an electric mixer... can you imagine making such a thing by hand?!. Tomorrow I will shape and bake the dough and then find a quiet corner somewhere where I can sit and quietly munch through the entire tray*.
* Just kidding... I never do anything quietly.
The butter theme continued as I moved on to make puff pastry. The dough starts life innocently enough - flour, water and a pinch of salt. But then things go a bit bonkers - the dough is rolled out into a large rectangle whereupon an ENTIRE block of butter (that is nearly half a kilogram, people!) is placed in the centre and wrapped up like a present. A cardiac cadeau. I am not showing you a photo because it will ruin your enjoyment of vol-au-vents forever.
In the next recipe I traded butter for my other dear friend, sugar. An almond meringue with strawberries and vanilla cream, to be precise. The meringue was crisp with a slight marshmallowy centre, the toasted almonds provided a crunchy surprise, the strawberries were juicy and the cream was, well, creamy. It wasn't a pavlova (clearly the greatest meringue dessert ever created), but it was special. And it tasted as good as it looked.
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| You could go into a trance staring at a dessert like this ... |
In today's demonstration we learned to cook: Warm poached mackerel with Bretonne sauce, Soused mackerel with tomatoes and dill mayonnaise, Beef with red wine sauce (Delicious!!), Gratin of potatoes and gruyere, Bocca di Lupo's shaved radish salad, Gateau pithiviers**, Palmiers, Cheese straws, Croissants (I have now almost reached 90% butter content - if you push my skin it leaves an indent).
** Oui, this is an intricate, delicate French tart made with puff pastry and filled with almond paste. It took our outrageously talented teacher quite some time to make, so I am slightly nervous about making it tomorrow ... perhaps I shall make a 'rustic' version ...
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