Puff Pastry Day 4, We Totally Got It

We totally got it. Like, we had this groove thing going on where everyone knew what was happening and when to do what. We were on the ball. And you know what awesome thing happened as a result? We finished our tasks first before any other station! Boom!

Our second attempt at puff pastry was a lot better. Look at all those layers! Not only did our products puff up more, but they also tasted better.

Look! Layers!!

Since we're making whole products, we generally don't get to eat an assembled dessert (unless it's a chef demo). But oh man, the trimmings on these napoleon slices are heaven! Seriously, the best part of the day. The best part of being on the puff pastry station, really! The chef could disappear to do paperwork and will magically reappear right beside us, sneaking some of our trimmings. I guess that's why those ends are called chef's treat. ;)

My beautiful and delish napoleon. It's not so crooked!

A picture of our finished cream horns that I didn't get a chance to include in my previous post. Buttery flakey pastry encasing light and airy sweet raspberry mousse, all tempered by dark chocolate. You want one don't you? I don't blame you. My group may or may not have shared one of the less than stellar looking cream horns. Can't sell the bad ones to customers, right?

Here's a photo of the lemon meringue tarts from the tart station. When I first saw them I  thought they were Asian egg tarts! I was so excited until I noticed how translucent the filling was. Too bad.

Too bad, we're not egg tarts.

 And finally, the bee sting. Oh, the bee sting. If you have yet to try it, I suggest you run as fast as you can to the nearest bakery that makes them. If you're in Edmonton, Vienna Bakery makes killer bee sting. If you're here in Calgary, you can snag one at the downtown culinary campus! Bee sting, originating from Germany, is a brioche bun filled with pastry cream and glazed with honey and almonds. The story goes that the honey attracted bees and as a result, the baker got stung. However the story goes, these are ah-may-zing! Unfortunately, I won't be making these until next semester in the Yeast Fundamentals class. A friend of mine is in that class currently and taunts me with photos.

Tomorrow's exam day. Time to pull up my big girl pants and make everything look impeccable.