matt-hoskins-blog

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Napoleons

I have never made Napoleons this way, I prefer baking the puff pastry and splitting the layers to get a very light and flaky pastry. The Napoleons we made in class were the opposite, they were very heavy and had way to much sugar on them with no other flavor to cut through the sugary mound. I probably won’t make Napoleons this way again, for the amount of time and stress hoping you glaze is still warm or you chocolate lines are not too big or small just to see that when you feather the fondant the top sheet of sugar is flaking from already setting. In my opinion, it’s not worth it to use that much time to make a product I don’t enjoy.

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Custards

Crème Brûlée is one of if not my favorite dessert. I’ve made 100’s of Crème Brûlée, I just love how simple it’s flavors are but they are portrayed strongly. Very similar to the Crème Brûlée, Crème Caramel uses just about the same custard as a base but offers a twist with the caramel that creates a great sauce once you unmold the Crème Caramel. My problem with Crème Caramel is that it is so easy to overcook the caramel for the bottom of the mold and that is what happened in class to most all of the Crème Caramel. We also tried a Chocolate Pot de Crème which was very rich and reminded me of a whipped ganache. Overall the Chocolate Pot de Crème was very good and I don’t have anything I think should be changed about it.

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Apple Tarte Tatin

I was not crazy about this pastry when I tried it, probably because it should be eaten fresh out of the pan it was made in. I think I ate it about 2 hours after it was made and the puff was soaked in sugar and butter. The apples were not caramelized in the pan long enough but were a very nice tender bite. It would have been much better fresh; the crisp puff pastry cap would have helped me at least because I need that differing texture it offers. When making a dessert to order, I still would choose to make Bananas Foster over Apple Tarte Tatin.

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Chausson de Pommes

Better known as apple turnover, the Chaussons were fun to make and rather tasty. The biggest problem I had with the Chaussons was that there was too much liquid in the apples we used so when we baked them they split open. This could be avoided by drying out the apples over night or using a drier apple in the beginning. I also don’t like the leaf carved in to the pastry, it just does not make sense to me. I like doing the carving, though I’m not very good at it, but I think it should be a different design. That’s my only tweak to this pastry otherwise It has the perfect apples and cinnamon flavor complimented by a light, crisp, buttery crust.

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Puff Pastry Dough

I’ve never made puff pastry but I’ve understood how to make it, these things don’t translate. Making the puff pastry was a bit of a struggle but, in the end, was worth the time it took to make the dough for the amazing pastries we made with them. The only puff pastry that I had used before was store bought, comparing them now the commercial puff pastry is a good product and works well but is nowhere near the block method of making puff pastry.

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Jalousie de Pomme & Band de Fruit

The Jalousie, modeled after shutters on a window, was a new pastry to me. I had never heard of but I have seen it in a local bakery but it never peaked my interest, that being said, after making it and trying a good portion it still does not really compel me to seek it out or make it for myself. Band de Fruit I have had without even knowing its name. I was at my favorite local bakery and saw that they were out of my favorite fruit tart, instead there was this pastry strip with the same fruit that sits atop my regular tart. So, I got one, it was the exact same thing as the tart I get, except the shell was layered brittle puff pastry as opposed to the normal sturdy buttery tart shell that carried the pastry cream so well. I will gladly seek out a good Band de Fruit but it is way too much presentation for me to make it for myself.

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Pâte à Choux

I’ve made cream puffs a few times before, but never eclairs nor paris-brests. Cream puffs are my mother’s favorite dessert, it’s been a staple in our house since I was young. I really like the use of crème Chantilly to fill the cream puffs, creating a textured, blank background that amplified the color of the micro greens. For the Eclairs, we garnished them with a chocolate ganache as well as choco nibs offering bitterness and a crunch factor to an otherwise smooth morsel. Unfortunately, the Paris-Brests were not all that exiting, they were rather bland, I would have preferred to fill them with pastry cream. I think the vanilla in the pastry cream would have been a nice complement to the sliced almonds that were baked on top of the pastry.

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Pithivier

I personally liked this pastry the most out of the pastries we made in class. Made to resemble the sun, I liked our use of bright notes in the orange marmalade which we used to thinly cover the bottom round of the pastry before assembly. It was a very foolish idea of me to eat all of it at once… though I would do it again.