Pastry Design & Theory |
In Pastry Design & Theory, we were rotated through stations every three days. For 3 days you were on either cakes, tarts, or cookies/pastries. Everything we produced was for the front cases in La Brioche or special orders. During cake and tart station, you had to come up with a flavor that you presented to your class and would be put on the shelf to be sold in the store. My cake project was an Espresso Maple cake that had maple sponge cake filled espresso mousse and maple buttercream, topped with candied walnuts. My tart was a brown butter filling with raspberries, topped with whipped cream and chocolate stripes.
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Decorative ProductionIn Decorative Production, we had numerous projects over 6 weeks that eventually lead up to our final project which was to design, build, and show a 2-tier wedding cake to the public. Some of the projects we did were color flow with royal icing, watercolor painting, logo plaques with royal icing, embroidery, fondant covered cakes, pastillage birdcages, and the wedding cake.
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Artisan Breads & ViensserieIn Artisan Breads 2, we touched base on what we had learned from the year before, however we also were in charge with making, shaping, and finishing the breakfast pastry items for the bakery storefront. Half of us were on breads for 3 weeks and the other half were on lamination and shaping. On breads, we were split into stations and rotated every few days between mix, bench, or bake. On mix station, you were responsible for getting all of the bread dough scaled out, mixed, and put into tubs to proof or rest. The bench station also had to do some scaling and mixing, but it was usually specialty doughs like sweet dough, pretzels, doughnuts, etc. After we had breakfast, bench had to take the doughs out of the buckets, scale it to the corresponding weights, round it, and proof for a little bit. After that, they shape the bread dough and get it ready for baking. The person on bake was responsible for getting all of the morning pastries baked and finished off for the front of house to sell as well as baking cookies and the breads once they were ready. Before the end of the 3 weeks, we had to bake our own sourdough starters (a mixture of flour, tiny bit of yeast, and a liquid of our choice), design and make a stencil, mix, shape, proof, and bake our own breads. I made mine out of a spelt flour and hard cidar mixture and made a sunflower spelt bread.
On pastry station, we had to mix croissant and danish doughs, made butter beurrages for the lamination process, successfully laminate the doughs without the beurrage "barking" or breaking inside the dough and showing through, rolling, and shaping the doughs to be cut into pastries. A butter beurrage is a packet of butter that can either be plain or mixed with flavors and fillings. For the project at the end of our 3 weeks we had to come up with a breakfast pastry, mix the dough, make a beurrage, laminate, roll, cut and shape our dough and come up with a filling. For mine, i did a lime zest and coconut extract beurrage, a coconut pastry cream with sliced strawberries and kiwi on the top. |
Event PlanningIn Events PLanning, we were incharge of planning and prepping that weeks brunch service hels at NECI On Main each Sunday morning. We had to create decorations for the table, childrens items, cookies, and candies, as well as small desserts that went with that weeks theme. The class was divided into 3 groups; decorations and orders, candies cookies and childrens items, and brunch desserts. One group is responsible for maning the brunch service for two Sundays and then the groups rotate. If you have to work brunch, your responsiblities are to finish the brunch items, set the table, plate and refill items, tear down, and clean up.
Ontop of brunch, my class was responsible for producing items for the graduation ceremony and working the ceremony by plating and refilling platters of desserts and answering questions that people may have about the items, as well as tear down and clean up. |