Today was our demo and our practical for the entremets aux poires. When the term ‘entremets’ is used it generally refers to something that has whipped cream in it that gives it a mousse-like consistency. In demo Chef Nicolas showed us:
*Charlotte aux Poires
Poirier

The charlotte was what we would be making later on in practical. The poirier is a pear cake made up of a genoise, creme legere (trans. light cream=pastry cream+whipped cream+optional gelatin), pears, and a syrup. You make it by lining a ring on a cakeboard with sliced small pears and then covering those with the creme legere. Then you slice the genoise into 3 layers and start ‘building’ the cake with layers of genoise brushed with syrup, pear slices and creme legere. Then on the top you spread creme legere and cover it with a round disc of almond paste. Then you pipe on it in chocolate. It’s a pretty cake and I really like the taste of it. Although it didn’t taste really pear-y, it was still so good. I liked it way better than the charlotte.

The charlotte was made by piping lady fingers in an arc shape so that they would fit when lining the mold which has angled sides. Then you fill it with a pear bavaroise (creme anglaise+whipped cream+gelatin+pear puree) and some pieces of lady finger and pears that were cubed and small. Then you fill it with more bavaroise. It sets in the freezer/blast chiller and then you flip it out onto a cakeboard. You put a lady finger “daisy” on top as the lid and serve it with a raspberry coulis. It’s cute but is rather plain looking. I didn’t really like the taste of it because of all the alcohol in the bavaroise. The taste sort of reminded me of the smell of nail polish remover…hahaha. Anyways, as always here are pictures:

Chef Nicolas’ poirier and charlotte aux poires, coulis de framboises. I don’t know if I really like his piping. It seems sort of…baroque in style. I don’t know. It looks weird to me.

For practical I was sous chef again, which means I go in 15 minutes early and set all the things up that everyone will need like specific molds or serving dishes. When I was setting up the trays Chef Nicolas told me that I am hard to make smile. Lies! all lies! I smile so easily. I was just in sort of a bad mood this morning. Anyways, the practical went fine I think. I tried really hard to be confident. And I think it sort of worked. Or at least I was faking confidence. Does that work? I don’t know. I think it did a little bit. But I was still doubting myself. I think I did everything fine, minus the fact that my bavaroise was a bit too liquidy so I had to stir it over an ice bath to thicken it a bit before pouring it in my mold. When I was making my raspberry coulis I was a bit scared that I was going to make it too sour. I like it sour. However, I know that Chef Nicolas prefered my last coulis to be sweeter than I did, so then all I did was add a bit more sugar so that it was slightly sweeter than I liked it. When I brought my cake up to present he said that it was good and he had nothing to say. My piping of the cartouchiere (the arc-shaped strip of lady fingers) was good, my bavaroise was good and my coulis was good. I thought he would say that my lady finger things were a tad over-baked or something because it seemed kind of dry, but he didn’t say that at all….The only thing he did have to say about it was that my daisy “lid” wasn’t piped very well. I didn’t “respect the centre”. So all of my petals pointed to different parts of the middle. I think many people had this comment. That obviously means I need to practice the piping, of course! I am happy with how my charlotte turned out. Here are pictures:

My charlotte aux poires and coulis de framboises. Looks alright!

I didn’t have a container to take my coulis home in, so a girl in my class came up with the brilliant idea of eating some of the bavaroise and filling the hole with the coulis. We did it and it worked out really well. The cake is currently sitting on the dining room table half-destroyed and being picked at by everyone. But it’s being overshadowed by the triple chocolate bavaroise cake that the intermediate pastry students brought home, it’s so good!

Next class we are making a cake that is said to be the hardest one in basic. The saint honoré cake. But that’s on monday. This friday I am attending the open lab to practice my pate a choux because I feel that was my worst class so far, my piping was horrible I think. Then on saturday there is a school trip to a maple farm! Yay! I love maple.

No butter used