week 12 - puff pastry and cookies

Week 12 – Cookies and Swans…Oh My!



Today we learned the basics on classic cookies. There are 1000’s of good cookie recipes out there for everyone to enjoy. A general rule of thumb to remember is that 90% are started with the creaming method of a fat (butter) and sugar. Chef also demo’d - Pate a Choux: this is the stuff you make the beautiful swans and delicious chocolate éclairs out of (Eclair paste).

Formula -Pate a Choux
½ cup water
2 oz butter
2 oz Bread flour
3-4 eggs

Pipe out desired shapes and bake at 380 degrees until golden brown. Do not under bake or éclair mix will collapse. The following dessert pastries can be made with this formula:
Paris Brest, Eclairs, cream puffs, Swans, Croqueembouche, soup garnish, petit fours, appetizers, Garnish for desserts, potatoes, and croutons for salad.

Team France decided to bake the all American classic chocolate chip cookie and then the sinfully good sugar cookie. Again, looking at the formula I would have started the sugar cookies first then the chocolate chip cookies because you have to chill the sugar cookie dough for an hour, then cut cookies prior to baking. Time management and formula review first prior to working was our biggest challenge today.

After completing the two batches of cookies Team France whipped up, and waiting for our sugar cookies to chill. I worked on assembling my éclairs and swans. So I cut each baked Past a Choux in half then piped crème patisserie and dipped Ganache on top.

Pastry cream ( Creme Patisserie) formula:

1 pt. Milk
2 oz sugar stage 1 - dissolve almost to boil
2 eggs
1 ¼ oz corn starch
2 oz sugar stage 2 - whisk together until smooth paste then temper with some hot milk. Then bring the rest of the milk to boil, add the remaining egg mixture until mixture thickens, Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla:
1 oz butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Refrigerate until needed. This pastry cream can be used as is or changed by adding chocolate Ganache to desired flavor.

Ganache:
10 oz semi- sweet chocolate chips
2 oz unsalted butter
8 oz whipping cream

This was a very rewarding class from a skills level and production standpoint, both productive and fun. I love working with doughs and pastries a little more than cakes. However, I’m always open to them all. Pastries so far really seem to work for me.

Honorable mention to my good friends and colleagues Deede and Brian for their baked Esse Cookies that looked and tasted absolutely beautiful. Bravo guys and thanks for sharing. After the cookies cooled down, they put raspberry filling and stuck two cookies together. Excellent choice.


Formula:
¼ lb Powder sugar, ½ lb butter, ½ AP shortening, 2 egg whites 1 at a time, 1 ¼ lb flour
Pipe onto baking sheet

Next week on the menu: Review – Solo Mission for Team France.