Pa-tiv-e-ay

That's how you pronounce: Pithiviers. This puff pastry dessert is from the town Pithiviers, outside Paris. Puff pastry is rolled out and cut into two circles, one a 1/2-inch larger than the other. Almond filling {the same as was used for the Frangipan} is spread into a dome shape in the center of the smaller circle and garnished with apricots. The larger circle is placed over top and the edges are sealed together {after being brushed with egg wash} and trimmed into a scallop shape.

A pinwheel pattern is scored into the pastry with the dull side of a paring knife and a slit is cut into the center to allow steam to escape. This is baked at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. The sides should puff up {um, almost} to create an even surface.

Yet another dessert I've never heard of

Last night was my last pastry class - no more baking school until the end of September! Frangipan is a French Almond Tart made with sweet pastry {butter, sugar, eggs, bread & pastry flour and vanilla} and almond filling consisting of: butter, almond paste, eggs, flour and sugar. Once the pie shell is filled with a thin layer of raspberry jam and the almond mixture, pear slices are fanned on top and the tart is baked at 375 degrees for about an hour.

Once cooled, it is brushed with apricot glaze. Instead of raspberry jam, this could be made with sour cherries or cranberries. I thought this would smell/taste Amaretto-ish {which I hate} but high quality almond paste {at least 60% ground almonds} is good! Not artificial-tasting at all and it barely has a scent.

What's a galette?

It's basically a French free-form pie, traditionally made with an apple filling. Milk pastry {pastry flour, salt, butter, cold milk} is rolled into a square shape and a mixture of apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and lemon juice is laid out flat in the middle. The dough is then folded around the filling until a circle is formed. This is an open-faced version, but it's possible to make this in a closed style as well.

After being baked for about 35 minutes, the galette is glazed {icing sugar & water}. The pastry tasted almost shortbread cookie-like - very buttery - and because the filling didn't contain cornstarch, it tasted more natural than a typical apple pie filling.

Chocolate truffle

Two of my most favourite words. Better yet: Bittersweet Chocolate Truffle Raspberry Flan. Chocolate ganache {bittersweet chocolate and cream} was poured over the raspberries laid out in the bottom of a chocolate tart shell. There's no way this wasn't going to taste good.

As if that wasn't enough, white chocolate was drizzled over the top and garnished with more raspberries.

Chocolate pastry 911

My Chocolate Mousse Tart was not fully set when we left class last night and it snapped right in half when I lifted it onto the cake circle to take home. Very upsetting. Luckily, when this happens you can wrap a rolled-up band of plastic wrap around your tart to hold it together. When I got home I put it back in the fridge and once the filling had set overnight, I removed the wrap and it held together fine. The pastry for this pie is the same that was used in my pie class and the filling was a mixture of whipped cream, couverture chocolate, simple syrup and gelatine. Pretty simple - it's getting it into the box that's hard!

This is it...

The last cake from my decorating class. Some of the royal icing flowers I saved and a bit of marzipan made it onto this vanilla buttercream cake.

Not-so-dynamite Napoleons

Cutting these Napoleons into pieces killed me. To make them, we rolled out some more of our puff dough and baked it with a cookie sheet on top to weigh it down. Once cooled it was cut in half and layered with French pastry cream {milk, eggs, sugar, cornstarch, butter; whipped cream is then folded in} and strawberries. To decorate, melted white fondant is poured on top and chocolate fondant is drizzled across and scored with a paring knife. THEN this perfectly layered and decorated pastry had to be carefully cut into pieces, which caused the fondant to smear all over the place. Sigh. Better luck next time.

Fresh strawberries & mascarpone

I got the best Williams-Sonoma book on sale - The Essentials of Baking. It turns out that some of the recipes were developed by Elinor Klivans, author of another one of my favourites - Cupcakes!.

Ontario strawberries are in season now, so I used them to try this Strawberry and Mascarpone Cream Tart. The filling consisted of mascarpone cheese, heavy cream, icing sugar and vanilla, so that - along with the strawberries - made it really rich and sweet.

Marzipan roses

We've moved on to marzipan from icing - kind of like working with Play Dough, but more annoying. Next week is our final cake!

Apples & puff

My pastry class will be the last one I take this summer - then back to school in the fall. This was my first attempt at making and working with puff pastry. Good god - the fat! I knew there was a reason that danishes taste so good. The fat is "rolled in" and the dough is folded four times (single and double folds are alternated) and then refrigerated for at least an hour before being worked with. We froze ours as we made enough to last a few classes. The dough for apple strudel is rolled in a rectangular shape and diagonal tabs are cut on down the sides. A mixture of bread/cake crumbs, apples, lemon zest, raisins and cinnamon is poured down the centre and the strips are folded over the top to form a crisscross pattern (after being brushed with egg wash). The top is brushed with egg wash and coarse sugar is sprinkled over the top. The strudel is baked for 35-40 minutes for at 350 degrees. Yummy.