Today I had my practical for the petis fours secs. We made the madeleines, cigarettes and palets de dames. It was a nice relaxing class because it was fairly easy. Much more relaxing than last class where I got all upset and frustrated because things weren’t working properly. It was the first practical class that I have ever had where my hands weren’t shaky, so that’s a good thing!

Here is what I made to present to Chef

I really need to work on presentation…so ugly!

When I baked my first batch of cigarettes they got a bit too brown, so when I tried to roll them they weren’t very pliable and I just ended up burning my fingers. My thumbs have small blisters on them now. After my first batch failed, I used some of my neighbours leftover cigarette to make more and baked them off. This time they were much easier to roll because I didn’t let them get too brown. But Chef said that I could have browned them a little bit more. I guess I was just afraid that they would get too brown again and I would end up with no cigarettes to present.

In the end, everything was good! My madeleines turned out nicely and so did my palets de dames. Even though I don’t like raisins.

Next class we are making a cake, the succés. I am excited! I think Chef Herve will be back for that lesson. On a side note, two of my housemates in intermediate pastry are making a blood orange mousse cake today. They were talking about how hard it’s going to be, and I am just excited to eat it when they bring it home 😉

Butter used: 350gms
Total: 2210gms