Well well well, hello to you all! First things first I apologise for being so lazy with writing my blog and holding back the many amazing recipes that I have learnt over the last few months, so many exciting things have happened and suddenly it is nearing the end of the year! Crazy stuff. To start off with I made it through the Auckland Regional Culinary Fare Fruit Flan competition, woke up at 3am and worked my butt off which in the end paid off with a gold medal. Not too shabby I thought.
This semester in class we have just finished the foundation breads paper, which lets be honest was incredibly boring. Just yesterday we also finished the shop production paper which was the most fun I have had in class all year. We as a team had a turn at each station producing things like french pastries, gateaux, bakery items and slices/cookies/tarts. Then we sold them through Piko cafe on AUT campus to anyone that wanted to pay for the things we eat for free (while the chef isn't looking). So that was an amazing experience which taught me many skills, mainly patience with grumpy chefs, and it also showed me how much fun it is to be a Pastry Chef. Oh and not to mention, when I was team leader, I had permission to boss people around which was my favourite part and my team members worst nightmare.
On life in Auckland, the hostel is still going great and it's always nice to come home to incredible friends, although I have lost many friends due to me not bringing home as much food as I used to. Who can blame them really.
I'm sure you are all sick of me blabbering on so I decided to do something a bit different this time and upload a video from my last, as my mum calls it, 'masterclass' from the last holidays I was back in Tauranga. I demonstrated how to make and construct a Mary Vetsera Gateau so here is the recipe plus a super low quality video of me trying to be cool. Just for your entertainment...
Mary Vetsera Gateau
Ingredients
Japonaise
5 egg whites
160g sugar
125g ground hazelnuts
30g corn flour
50g icing sugar
Ganache
300g cream
350g couverture (good
quality chocolate)
60g butter (soft)
25g Cointreau
(optional)
Nougatine
150g sugar
150g slivered
almonds, roasted
Method
Japonaise
1.
Whip up egg whites and sugar to
stiff peaks
2.
Fold in dry ingredients
3.
Pipe 4x20cm spiral on baking
paper
4.
Bake at 160C for 20-25mins
Ganache
1.
Boil cream
2.
Pour boiled cream over chopped
up covouture
3.
Let it cool to body temp, then
add softened butter
4.
Pour onto a tray and put in
fridge
Nougatine
1. Cook sugar to a light caramel
2. Stir in almonds, pour onto an oiled tray
and leave to cool
3. When cold, crush coarsely
Assembly
1. Layer with ganache
2. Mask sides and top with ganache
3. Cover whole torte with crushed nougatine
That's all from me for now, have a fabulous week!
B.
