Choux Paste Day 1

Last Friday was my first day on the choux paste station. Choux paste is a roux made of flour and water. Since the water and flour are cooked, the starch in the flour begins to gelatinize and allows the batter to absorb 300-400% more water! Using that fact, eggs are added to give the final product structure. The resulting paste is used to make cream puffs, eclairs, paris brest, and a number of other hollow shells for delicious fillings.

Cooking the flour and water

Strawberry and raspberry cream puffs

Unfinished eclairs and one lonely strawberry one!

An extra paris brest shell we filled with chocolate
 mousse and strawberry buttercream for ourselves

Due to some interesting scheduling, we made the cream puffs, eclairs, and paris brest on day 1 rather than on day 2. To use up some extra fillings, we filled the cream puffs with strawberry buttercream and three lovely raspberries and the eclairs were filled with chocolate mousse. As per tradition, the paris brest were filled with a mixture of hazelnut praline paste and pastry cream. A paris brest is actually shaped after a bike tire. It was created in celebration of a bicycle competition that ran between Paris and Brest. If you're wondering how it's pronounced, it does, indeed, sound like paris breast. :P

Paris brest

So what's the best thing to nibble on at this station? Absolutely, without a doubt, the hazelnut praline paste. Imagine a Ferrero Rocher, but as a spread! It's like a taste of heaven! I used to work at a bakery that also used this paste and when a bucket was finished, I would grab a spoon, scrape out every little bit, and savour it down to the last lick!

We also made unbaked cheesecakes. Here's a photo of V piping in the first lemon-flavoured layer of our unbaked cheesecakes.

Piping for even layers

The unbaked cheesecakes consisted of three layers. The base was a mixture of feuilletine and hazelnut praline paste. It was then topped with a citrus layer and then a berry layer. In this case, it was raspberry. For presentation, we spread on a sparkly layer of gel then top it with whipped cream, chocolate cigars, and raspberries. Very cute! (Feuilletine is like broken up pieces of waffle cone, except very thin.)

Finished unbaked cheesecakes

Remember I mentioned some interesting scheduling? For the next three weeks I will be in a theory class for customer relationship management. That means, unfortunately, that I will not be baking and subsequently, there will be a lack of pictures for a while. (Sadly, the dorms I live in have no oven! I only have a microwave, toaster, and stove top at my disposal.) Therefore, tomorrow will begin a series of posts about an experiment of a personal nature. Hopefully you will find it interesting. :)

Ou ou ah ah!