Making Croissants

Last Friday I made croissant dough to make ham and Swiss croissants today. The first ones took a bit long to bake, but the second batch came out beautiful. I learned that it is a better idea at home to only proof the dough out at room temp for a while then put it in the oven without water and ice cubes to create steam for a little while then take out the pan with the water so that the oven does not have constant moisture in the oven. But I'm learning and having fun.

Day 67 - Practical Test

Today was my practical for the week. Above is a picture of the production I turned in for grading. Going clockwise from the bottom left, Nid Abeille, a tete, croissants, chocolatte croissants. They turned out good. Actually, I had to remake the a tetes, because the first time they didn't have good shape. Fortunately I had time to remake them for turn in.

Day 64 - Croissants

Today we made Croissant Shapes. Looking at the picture above, the top left is a chocolate rectangle croissant. The top right is a classic French Croissant. In the middle is supposed to be a crescent croissant, but I didn't do to good. The bottom left is a ham and cheese croissant. The bottom right an almond croissant.

This is a side view of a Nid Abeille. It has a Mousseline filling with pineapple, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Below is a picture showing the filling without the top on.

Tonight was my second Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1 class. This isn't at my school, but I thought I would take the class, to learn more techniques for decorating cakes. Last week for the first class, I received my material. The second class tonight I had to bring in a cake with icing. I just bake an 8" chocolate cake with icing made with the Wilton decorating butter cream recipe. In the class we learned to make transfers with piping gel and we learned about pressure, consistency using a piping bag. The yellow, purple and green icing was done in class. We also learned about using star tips, writing and the beginning of making a butter cream rose.