Confections and regional desserts

With two weeks off of school, I have easily forgotten how difficult it is to wake up at the crack of dawn (or rather 6 am) to run off to school. It has become a lot more difficult with the cold weather and snow.

This week we worked on confections and traditional desserts. Though I really like caramels and nougat is okay, I really cant stand marshmallows. Mind you, I love the marshmallows we get back home. I'm talking about French 'guimauves' that we flavored with rose, mint, and violet. Kind of gross if you ask me. I can't seem to handle anything that has a flower essence, except for maybe lavender.







We also worked on pastillage (sugar paste) and made some pastillage discs that we painted. I'm not exactly sure how useful this is, but according to our chef, some people actually request pieces like this mounted on cakes. Mine was an attempt to recreate Monet's water lilies.



The regional desserts are a lot more rustic and less refined than the entremets and cakes we're used to making. They were generally simple and I can imagine people at home curling up with a cup of coffee or tea and enjoying the desserts with family.

We made another Kouign Amann, aka butter death cake. The folding method to incorporate the sugar/butter was a little different than the first one I made in boulangerie, and I actually prefer the first one, though this one was a lot prettier.



This is a gateau basque from the southern basque region of France. It's a tart full of cream and cherries.



Here are some caneles. The large ones were covered with beeswax, which is kind of gross in my opinon, though I've probably ingested enough Burt's Bees lipbalm to cover 20 caneles. I still dont like the texture of these cakes; they're a bit spongy and chewy and slightly reminiscent of vietnamese steamed sponge cake.





We also made a far breton, which is kind of like a French flan, filled with prunes (though chef says traditionally its filled with raisins).



On Friday we baked off a Galette des Rois, which is kings cake, to celebrate the epiphany.. or arrival of the three kings? Well I'm not religious at all, so all it is to me is puff pastry with frangipane. Traditionally, it contains a feve, which was a broad bean... but now replaced by a plastic or ceramic piece. The youngest person is supposed to sit under the table and choose the recipients of each slice of cake. The person who finds the feve, is crowned king of the day. Its a good thing I've been educated on this cake, otherwise I'd likely end up swallowing the feve!