The Halfway Point

This week we got to to move on to different types of bread with poolishes, levains, and sponges. We started this last week, but it was more french bread and country bread.

Beer Bread
This bread is one of my favorites! The dough itself does not have beer in it, although it could. However, there is a beer mixture on top and dusted with a lot of rye flour. As the dough proofs and the rye flour is absorbed into the beer mixture, it makes that design on top! No scoring needed!

Country Bread
This bread is shaped into Baguette Pointue(Pointy Baguette). I am getting much better at shaping these! 

French Bread

 Pavé au Levain

Rye Bread

Pain de Lodeve

 Cheese Bread
My favorite bread so far! This bread has Asiago and Parmesan cheese! 

 Rustic Bread

   Ciabatta

Pointage Bac

 Multigrain

 Sourdough

I cannot believe that the Bread Program is halfway over. I am excited to be home, but sad that I will be leaving FPS. I have learned so much and I owe everything to the chefs that have taught we what I know. One in particular, Chef Jonathan; he has helped me with so much over the past year!

Beautiful buffet made by Chef Jonathan of all the bread we have made over the past three weeks!

Poolish, Levain, and Sponge

 

Since this was the second week in the kitchen and we were somewhat used to shaping the bread, we were able to learn more shapes. A lot of these shapes are the same as what I learned in the pastry program. I definitely still need practice on the shaping end of things, but they are starting to get better!

Along with learning different shapes, we worked with different breads with poolishes, levains, and sponges.  A poolish is a liquid pre-fermentation made with water, flour, and yeast- depending on how long you leave the poolish ferment, you can add salt. Salt regulates fermenation so that it does not happen too fast. A levain is also a liquid per-fementation. However, it is only made with flour and water. It used natural yeast and bacteria to ferment. A sponge has a stiff consistency- it is made with flour, water, and yeast. The difference bewteen a sponge and a poolish is the percentage of flour.

Pain Brié(Pan Bri-a)

A traditional bread from Normandy also  known as Sailor's Bread. When they first made the bread, they did not add salt to it, but instead dipped it in Sea Salt after it was baked. 

Whole Wheat Bread

Shaped into Courrones(crowns)

Country Bread with Poolish

Shaped into Baguette Pointue(point-to) (Pointy Baguette)

Pain Tabatierie(Tab-a-t-ere)

French Bread with Sponge

Tricorne

Pain Auvergnat

Courrone Bordelaise

Pan Bread

Very good for sandwiches 

Batards

Country Bread with Levain

L'Art de la Boulangerie

Well, I have been back in Chicago for five weeks now. Three of which I was an intern for the school. Even though it was a short internship I learned a lot and got to work more with Chef Patrice and Chef Jonathan. I was very happy to work alongside Chef Patrice because I only had him for two weeks in the Pastry Program and did not have him in the Cake Program. I even got to be involved with the interns last project, which was a chocolate showpiece. 

This was my showpiece.

The Bread Program (L'Art de la Boulangerie) started two weeks ago, but this past week was the first week we were in the kitchen. This week was mostly about shaping. We made Baguettes for the majority of the week then moved into a couple different shapes! We even mixed two doughs by hand!

Two Down, One to Go

My final Wedding Cake

We had to make a sweet sixteen cake with a partner, along with our own wedding cake. For those of you who do not know what this is from, it is a Harry Potter cake. I was amazed by how many people have not seen Harry Potter!!

 Chef Sunny Lee: She is an amazing chef with an amzing sense of humor! Although, you can hardly tell when she is being serious. One minute you will be looking down, working on a project, then you look up and she is giving you a look that you are not sure of whether she is joking around or something is actually wrong with your product. She has helped me a lot with focusing on detail!

Chef Nicholas Lodge: It was so amazing to learn under such an incredible chef. He was on the decorating team that made Princess Diana's wedding cake!

Chef Joel Reno: I have learned so much from him and I am so glad that I got to know him more and learn even more from him than I did in the pastry program! He has definitely become a mentor for me and I am so grateful that I can go to him for advice on anything!

A Little Update

I cannot believe that I graduate in two weeks from the Cake Program. I knew it was going to go by quickly, because the Pastry Program went by so fast. I cannot wait to see my friends and family when I get back home! On June 15th I start my next program at FPS, but I was asked to be an intern from May 26th to June 12th. Even though it is only a couple weeks, I am very excited to help out the Chefs, students, and other interns. I cannot wait to be an intern, but I really cannot wait to have a month off! It will be a nice break for me to relax and start to figure out some places to work when I graduate in August. Plus, I get to visit Alyssa in Florida!!

Sculpted Cakes

 The past two weeks we have learned how to scuplt cakes! It takes a lot of practice to get the shape right.

Mommy Turtle and Baby Turtle

Old Voltzwagen Beetle
To me it looks more like a PT Cruiser than a Bug, but this is what I was talking about getting the shape right.

Topsy Turvy

We were allowed to decorate is any wat that we wanted. This was to help us practice any techinques we are using in the next two weeks for our final cakes! 

Mini Pastries

Mixed Fruit Tartlets

Lemon Cream Tartlet

Chocolate Diamants

Diamants means diamonds in French. The turbinado sugar on the outside represents diamonds.

Viennese Vanilla Sable Cookies

The one of the lefts has a turbinado-sugared almond and the one of the right has raspberry jam.

Orange and Cocoa Nib Tuile

Coconut Tuile

Chocolate Mousse Cups

The chocolate cups are filled with coffee hazelnut filling and topped with dark chocolate hazelnut mousse

 Chocolate Fondant Cake
From the name you would probably think that there is fodant in the cake, but there is not! It is a take on a molten lava cake. You are suppose to eat it a few minutes after it comes out of the oven. It is topped with a chocolate ganache.

Green Tea Chocolate Cupcake

Chocolate Cupcake filled and topped with green tea mousseline. Mousseline is pastry cream mixed with whipped cream.

Mini Exotic Cake

What makes this cake exotic is that it has passion fruit puree and lime in it. It is topped with a white chocolate passion fruit whipped ganache, which it DELICIOUS! I had extra left over and ate it with strawberries!

 Almond Cupcakes
These cupcakes are filled with lemom cream and fresh berries. The above is topped with Swiss Meringue and the picture to the right is topped with Italian Buttercream.

White Chocolate Cups

These chocolate cups are filled with bananas, strawberry coulis and topped with green tea mousseline.