On Thursday, we were making Choux Paste! This is what is used to make cream puffs and eclairs. I was pretty excited to make these seeing as I've tried before, and they didn't quite work out. The day's baking was fairly uneventful, however it was a bit of a mad dash by the end of class. Everyone was rushing like crazy to get everything done, as the recipes included other recipes within. We not only had to bake the choux paste, which was very delicate and the oven couldn't be opened too early (I also burnt my arm badly because the oven door closed on me) but we also had to make a custard, whipped cream, and melt chocolate. Once the baked choux pastry had cooled, we needed to whip the cream and add it carefully to the already cooled custard. Then we divided this into two bowls, and added a little coffee paste to half and a nutella-like chocolate to the other. Then, we cut the eclairs in half and dipped the tops in the melted chocolate, and we also piped some chocolate to look like swan heads. This needed to be chilled as well. While this was cooling, we filled the cream puffs with the coffee custard. Of course there wasn't enough custard to fill all of the puffs, so I had to make more whipped cream to fill the rest. I then filled the eclairs with the chocolate hazelnut custard (and some with whipped cream for Margot) and placed the chocolate tops back on. As an added touch, we needed to make swans out of the cream puffs. So I cut six puffs in half (like the eclairs) and topped the bottom with whipped cream. We then cut the tops in half to look like wings and dusted with icing sugar. The wings were placed in the cream and the swan's head we piped earlier was put between. However, seeing as the room was one thousand degrees, the swan heads began to droop and break! I was a little disappointed about this, but my instructor understood. My finished products were graded and he seemed to think they turned out well! He said that everything could've been a little more even in size, but that they were baked properly and filled well. So I was pleased! They also tasted really good! For the next two weeks, I don't have any labs. This week is a short week (because of the Thanksgiving holiday) and this cancels all culinary labs, and next week is our Mid-Term Break. No more baked goods for us! We may go through pastry withdrawal...

Voila!

The eclairs

The cream puffs

The swan cream puffs