The French Pastry School-Week Eight - Tart

 L'Art de la Pâtisserie  Week 8

Monday

Tart week with Chef Patrice Caillot

Partner-Julia     Table 5   Kitchen 1

6 minute meringue:

• Add a little sucrose to egg white powder.
• Split sugar into three parts.
• Sift 10x.
• In mixer bowl with whisk attachment; egg white powder, ⅓ sucrose, vanilla paste, egg whites and pastry cream powder.
• Whip on high for two minutes.
• Add ⅓ sucrose.
• Whip on high for two minutes.
• Add remaining sucrose.
• Whip on high for two minutes.
• Add sifted 10x.
• Finish incorporating with rubber spatula.
• Fill pastry bag fitted with #16 tip.
• Attach parchment at corners with meringue.
• Piper large teardrops.
• Sprinkle with sucre grande/almond mixture.
• Bake at 200ºf for more than two hours.

Caramelizing sugar does not change the sweetening power but it does change the flavor.  Finished meringue should have a slightly caramelized color.  All meringues should have a 2 to 1 ratio of sugar to egg whites.

Pâte à Foncer:

Pie dough

• Use the paddle.
• Soften butter.
• Creaming method but do not incorporate too much air.
• Butter first, sucrose, salt and pastry cream powder.
• Add 25% of the flour, lightly mix.
• Add water.
• Add rest of flour.
• Do not give strength to the dough by over mixing it.
• Fraiser the dough by putting it on the table, using a flat scraper.
• Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in cooler overnight.

Pie dough should always be made the day ahead so that the starches can absorb the moisture.  If it is used on the first day the dough will be soggy.  Remove the sugar in a pie dough to make it savory.  Pâte à Foncer makes a nice quiche dough.

Pâte à Sablée:

• Soften butter.
• Sift 10x.
• Cream butter without incorporating too much air.
• Add sifted 10x all at once.
• Add vanilla.
• Add almond flour.
• Add a ⅓ room temperature eggs.
• Add ½ the flour.
• Add the rest of the eggs.
• Add the rest of the flour.
• Frasier the dough.
• Wrap in plastic wrap.
• Store in cooler overnight.

Almond Cream:

• Warm the butter.
• Cream the butter.
• Add salt.
• Add Kirsch.
• Do not over whip or once baked, it will fatty after cooling.
• Add eggs.
• Add pastry cream powder.
• Add almond when ready to use.
• Can be stored directly in pastry bag in cooler.

Nougtine Crisp:

• Warm nuts for 10 seconds in microwave.  Over warming will cause oil to separate from nuts.
• Add a little sucrose to the pectin to help release it from its container.
• In a small pot, add cream, butter, glucose.
• Warm cream mixture on low to 40ºc.  
• Add pectin.
• Bring to a boil.
• Add sugar.
• Cook to 106ºc.  Very important!
• Transfer to a plastic bowl.
• Stir to cool down.
• Add cocoa powder and stir until there are no lumps.
• Add nuts.  Can be any nuts.
• Spread with offset spatula between two sheets of parchment paper.
• Roll with a rolling pin until thin.
• Place in freezer until ready to bake.

Nougatine crisp is very sensitive to humidity.  Should be super thin and crispy when baked.  It makes a nice layer for a cake.

Cocoa Barry Callebaut Movie:

The movie explained the process of hand pollinating the cocoa trees, harvesting and production of chocolate.  They are a sponsor of the school.

We got out of class early and everyone cleaned in an efficient manner.

Tuesday

Rolling Pàte à Foncer:

• Lightly butter tart 180mm tart rings.
• Use 2mm thickness rolling strips.
• Bang dough with rolling pin.
• Work dough a little.
• Roll and turn using bars to achieve 2mm thickness.
• Fold rolled out dough in half and position over tart ring.
• Fold dough inward and push corners with thumb.
• Do not stretch the dough.
• Push dough around top edges.
• Use rolling pin to cut off excess around the top.
• Push dough back up the sides of tart ring.  
• Place in cooler.
• Clean top with knife or crimpers.
• Double check bottom corners for good square angle.

Assembling Apricot tart:

• No egg wash with almond cream filling.
• Pipe almond cream into tart shell.  Do not overfill.
• Sprinkle almond on top of cream.
• Place apricots around in circular pattern.  Be generous.
• Bake on Silpain.  This is a silpat made for baking bread.  It crisps.
• Bake at 350ºf for at least 45 minutes.
• Make sure the bottom is baked thoroughly.
• When cool, glaze with 1 to 1 apricot glaze to clear glaze mixture.

Rolling Sablée Tart Shell:

• Butter rings or dough will collapse.
• Bank with rolling pin.
• Work dough a little.
• Roll and turn.
• Roll to 4mm thickness using rolling bars.
• Fold in half and position over tart ring.
• Press corners.
• Place in cooler.

Baking Sablée Tart Shell:

• Par bake in deck oven for 10 - 15 minutes.
• Cool and remove tart shell from ring.
• Egg wash even layer inside and outside.
• Bake in convection oven until golden brown.
• Cool completely. 
• Use a microplane to smooth out the top edge.

Egg washing the inside of tart shell protects it from moisture.  Egg washing the outside of tart shell makes it look nice.  Lemon tart is best made and eaten on the same day.  It can be frozen but not with the meringue decorations.

Lemon Cream:

• Double boiler.
• Have ready a strainer over a bowl, tall deli cup and hand blender.
• Have a paper towel ready to catch condensation from bottom of bowl.
• Whisk sugar into lemon juice.
• Place eggs, extra sugar and sea salt into top of double boiler.
• Zest lemon directly into bowl to preserve flavor oils.
• Whisk lemon juice into eggs.
• Cook to 80ºc.  Do not cook to fast or cream will have eggy taste.
• Whisk while heating.
• Strain lemon cream.
• Cool to 60ºc.
• Pour into tall deli cup.
• Add butter.
• Hand mix until emulsified.
• Cover surface with plastic wrap.
• Place in cooler.

Assembling Lemon Tart:

• Pour lemon cream into tart shell.
• Use an offset spatula to smooth lemon cream.
• Use meringue drops to decorate tart.  Italian Meringue may be used during baking but will not have the same crispiness as Meringue Delight.

Inverted Puff Pastry:

• Mix butter and flour.
• Roll between acetate into 14 x 9" rectangle.
• Place in cooler.
• Dissolve salt into cold water.
• Use paddle to slowly mix flour and water.  Just bring it together.
• There is no butter in detrempe.
• Roll dough between acetate into a 9 x 8" rectangle.  
• Place in cooler for one hour.

Flour gets mixed into the butter and is wrapped around the detrempe.  This method is less fatty when baked and crisper.  The pieces do not shrink as much as the regular puff pastry when the are rerolled.  When adding at least 10% of flour to butter, it makes it stronger and able to hold up during initial folding.  Invert puff pastry can handle turns a little faster.  An hour between turns is acceptable.

Folding the dough for Inverted Puff Pastry:

• Place the butter onto the counter.
• Place détrempe evenly toward the bottom of the butter.
• Fold butter in half and over the dough.  Turn 1.
• Make sure edges are even.
• Keep opening on the right.
• Roll out to length of silpat.
• Fold into thirds.  Turn 2.
• Place in cooler for one hour.
• Roll length of silpat, fold in thirds.  Turn 3.
• Repeat.  Turn 4.

Wednesday

Inverted Puff Pastry:

• Roll out dough 3 times longer than width.
• Complete turns 5 and 6.

Sablée Tart Shells:

• Lightly butter tart rings.
• Work the dough a little.
• Roll out dough with 4mm bars.
• Turn and roll.
• Fold in half and position over tart ring.
• Fold forward and push in corners.
• Cut with rolling pin.
• Pinch sides and edges.
• Pour onto Silpain.

Nougatine:

• Remove parchment.
• Place onto silpat and large pan.  Nougatine spreads a lot while baked.
• Bake in convection at 340ºf for 12-15 minutes.

Darkened almonds are an indicator of doneness.  Nougatine should be crispy, not chewy, when cooled.

Lemon Curd:

• Have paper towel ready to collect condensation from bowl.
• Put whole eggs, sucrose, lemon juice, lemon zest, butter and sea salt into bowl on a double boiler. 
• Whisk.
• Cook slowly to 78ºc.
• Strain.
• Pour into par baked tart shells.
• Bake for 1-2 minutes to set the curd.  Should jiggle like jello.
• Place in freezer to cool.

Vanilla Crème Légère (Pastry Cream with addition of whipped cream):

• Line a half sheet pan with plastic wrap.
• Place all ingredients, but only half the sucrose, into medium sized pot.
• Whisk egg yolks and remaining half of sucrose in plastic bowl.
• Whisk pastry cream powder into yolk mixture.
• Bring cream to a simmer.
• Temper egg yolks with a little hot cream.
• Strain yolk mixture into pot of cream.
• Turn on the heat and whisk.
• Bring to a boil while whisking.
• Cook for at least one minute or a starchy flavor will remain.
• Using a clean spatula, pour pastry cream into a plastic wrapped pan.
• Cover with plastic wrap.
• Place in freezer for five minutes.
• When cool, place in cooler.

Chocolate Custard Tart:

• Place whole eggs, whole milk and  heavy cream in a pot.
• Place chocolate in a bowl with a strainer.  
• Using a rubber spatula, stir and slowly cook cream/egg mixture to 70ºc.
• Pour 70ºc mixture over strainer and into chocolate.
• Whisk the mixture until chocolate is smooth and completely incorporated.
• Pour into par baked tart shell.
• Bake for 3 minutes to set the custard.  Should shake like jello.

Using a spatula incorporates fewer air bubbles.  Using a strainer is a safety measure. 

Italian Meringue for the Lemon Tart:

• Add water to the pot first.
• Add sucrose and glucose.
• Cook to 125ºc.
• Whisk egg whites to soft peak stage.
• When sugar reaches 111ºc, speed up the mixer on the egg whites.
• At 125ºc, slow down the mixer and pour sugar slowly down the side of the bowl and into the egg whites.
• Feel the bowl with hand.  When it starts to get warmer you can pour sugar faster.
• When meringue is strong and glossy it is ready.
• Place meringue in a pastry bag with pastry tip of choice.
• Pipe design onto lemon tart.
• Bake in hot oven, 450ºf, for 1-2 minutes or torch meringue for color.

Over whipping the egg whites can cause the meringue to be grainy.  Cooking the meringue to a higher temperature makes it stiffer and stronger which is better for piping.  Baking meringue has a better flavor than torching it.  The meringue fluffs up, like a marshmallow, and has a toasty flavor from being in the oven.

Thursday

Puff Pastry for St. Honoré:

• Roll and turn dough.
• Cut 20cm circle with cake ring.
• Dock dough.
• Place in freezer.
• When firm, cover with parchment and cooling rack.  The weight keeps it from puffing.
• Bake at 350ºf for 40 minutes.

Sablée Breton:

• Using a food processor.
• Briefly spin butter to soften.
• Put in all other ingredients.
• Run food processor.
• Scrape once.
• Run food processor and check for lumps.
• Wrap in plastic.
• Place in cooler.

Sablée means crispy and Breton is Brittany in England.  Sablée Breton can be used for tart crust or cookies.

Pâte a Choux:

• Temper eggs.
• Sift flour.
• Put cream, milk, salt and butter into pot.
• Heat milk cream mixture and bring to a light boil.
• Turn off heat.
• Add flour all at once.
• Stir using a rubber spatula.
• When dough is crackling and dry, put it on the paddle mixer.  
• Add eggs slowly to incorporate.
• Batter should make a V shape flowing slowly from the paddle when it is done.  If batter is too dry, add warm milk to achieve proper constancy.
• May freeze raw dough.

Adding too many eggs makes the finished product eggy and tough.

Piping Choux onto Puff for St. Honoré:

• #11 tip.
• Fill pastry bag.
• Piper ring around docked puff pastry dough circle.
• Piper non connecting circular ring on inside of circle.
• Egg wash.
• Place in freezer.
• Pipe rest of dough into puffs.
• Freeze if not baking right away.

Poured Fondant:

• Should not be warmed over 40ºc.
• Add simple syrup to soften.
• Use at 35 - 36ºc.
• May flavor with vanilla, coffee, caramel or chocolate (only use cocoa paste as fondant is already very sweet).

Finishing the Mille-Feulle:

• Sprinkle 10x on large puff.  
• Bake at 450ºf until sugar is melted and caramelized.
• Flip puff over and repeat on other side.
• Cut into thirds while still warm.
• Allow to cool completely.
• Trim edges with a serrated knife.
• Build on overturned sheet pan lined with parchment.
• Refresh pastry cream in mixer with whisk attachment.
• #14 tip, fill pastry bag with vanilla pastry cream.
• Pipe pastry cream onto first puff rectangle.
• Place second puff rectangle on top and pipe more pastry cream
• Place last puff rectangle on top and cover with parchment paper.
• Press evenly down with half sheet pan.
• Pour 35-36ºc poured fondant on top and smooth with offset spatula.
• Place chocolate fondant in paper cone and pipe long, thin lines long ways on the top of poured fondant.
• Drag clean pairing knife vertically every 2 inches.
• Drag clean pairing knife vertically, in the other direction between first lines.
• Trim messy sides with serrated knife after glazing. 

Using confectioners sugar that does not have cornstarch is better but difficult to find.  Overheating poured fondant causes it to loose its shine.  Poured fondant is best commercially purchased.  It is not worth the time involved to make it from scratch and does not result in a superior product.

Friday

Sixth Stage:

Floriol - 1220 W. Webster Ave, Chicago, Illinois

7:00am - 12:00pm  Owner: Sandra Holl    Baking Manager: Betsy Grzywa

I started the day by cutting aged white cheddar batons for the savory croissant.  Floriol uses fresh flowers from their rooftop garden.  We picked nasturtium leaves and violets.  Just a few on a platter looks really nice.  I buttered cannele molds using a soft paintbrush.  Some bakeries use a combination of butter and beeswax.  I generously buttered muffin pans and covered them with saran for later.  

Sandra Holl's friend Zoe Nathan just wrote a book, Huckleberry, and it had arrived in the mail.  Sandra was very excited and the book looks beautiful.  It is still on pre-order and becomes available on September 9th.  Sandra was making meringue bowls for a lemon cream.  I asked her if they were Italian Meringue and she said she likes the ease and speed  of the Suisse Meringue.  She also recommend Harold McGee's book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen and said it should be a cook's bible.  Bien Cuit means cooked well and many people ask about the dark bake on all the croissants, cannele, breads, etc.  This is also called, "French Dark" and many Americans think that things have been burnt.  A good dark color on baked goods brings out more flavor.  Some French bakers say that good color is 30 seconds from being burnt.

I was able to make a fruit crumble on my own today.  The cooler was full of ripe fruit and I chose peaches, plums and raspberries.  6 quarts of large dice fruit, 1 knob of fresh grated ginger, zest and juice of 1 lemon,  ½ a cup of flour and 1 cup of sugar.  I mixed the fruit, put them in jam jars, pushed them down to fill them tight (fruit shrinks a lot during baking) and topped with a sweet, oatmeal crumble topping.  When it was bubbling and oozing over the sides, Sandra took it out of the oven.  I should have taken a photo of the finished product.

Practice  is important in rolling out croissants and many people have different techniques.  I rolled a few trays and egg washed several croissants.  My final job was to scale and make a sweet bun topping by mixing the zest of 16 oranges with brown sugar, sucrose and cinnamon in the mixer.

The savory team made me a sandwich to go.  Thinly sliced, marinated zucchini, fresh buffalo mozzarella, pesto on house made focaccia.  I chose the green bean, corn and potato side salad.  It had a slight kick to it and was very good.

Sablée Breton:

• Bang cold dough with rolling pin.
• Do not overwork dough.
• Roll, turn, roll, turn.
• Roll dough 8mm thick.
• Cut desired size with round cake ring.
• Bake in lightly buttered tart ring.

Vanilla Crème Légère:

• In a pot; vanilla bean, milk, half of the sucrose, butter.
• In plastic bowl; whisk other half of sucrose into egg yolks.
• Whisk pastry cream into yolk mixture.
• Bring milk mixture to light boil briefly.
• Temper yolks with hot milk mixture.
• Pour yolk mixture through a strainer into pot.
• Whisk.
• Boil for at least one minute while whisking vigorously.  
• Mixture should be shiny and elastic.
• Place in freezer until cold to touch.
• Place in cooler when cool to touch.

Pastry cream + whipped cream = Crème Légère

Pastry cream + whipped cream + gelatin = diplomat

Pastry cream + Italian Meringue = Chiboust 

Tahitian vanilla does not take the heat well and should be added at the end of cooking or upon cooling.  Pastry cream powder must be cooked completely or the finished flavor will be starchy and when reworked, the water will separate from the pastry cream.

Saigon cinnamon is very strong.  Ceylon is milder.  French people do not love, or use, cinnamon the way Americans do.

Rustic Apple Tart:

• Peel apples.
• Use melon baller to core ends.
• Cut into slices and use melon baller to clean core.
• Flambé apples in Calvados or lightly sauté in butter and cinnamon sugar mixture.
• Allow to cool on parchment lined pan.
• Place lightly buttered cake ring on larger puff circle.
• Egg wash puff on the outside of cake ring.
• Sprinkle hazelnut flour on inside crust of the cake ring.
• Build apples up on inside of cake ring.  
• Sprinkle to of apples with more hazelnut flour or cinnamon sugar mixture.
• Remove cake ring from puff.  Apples will remain in the middle.
• Bake at 350ºf until bubbly. 
• Outside edges of puff will rise and the inside will remain flat.

May substitute hazelnut flour with almond flour.  Apricots may be substituted for apples.

Assembling St. Honoré:

• Bake puffs and puff/choux base.
• Cool.
• Count how many puffs are needed to go around circumference of base.
• Make a hole in the back of the puffs with a star tip.
• Whip cream to soft peak.
• Soften vanilla pastry cream in mixer bowl with whisk attachment.
• Whisk/fold whip cream into vanilla pastry cream in three stages.
• Finish incorporating whipped cream with a rubber spatula.
• Fill puffs with crème légère.
• Make a dry caramel.
• Dip puffs into caramel.  
• Cool.
• Dip bottoms of caramel puffs into caramel and attach to the outer puff ring on base.
• Fill inside of base with vanilla créme légère.  Top with more créme légère in a decorative pattern.
• Place one caramel puff on top, center of St. Honoré.

St. Honoré is a famous place in Paris and  is made to order in France.  It is very sensitive to humidity.  Color on the caramel is up to the individual.  Dropping, not pressing, just caramel dipped puffs into rounded, silicone molds, makes the caramel very smooth and uniform.

Final Thoughts:

"The power of sweet." Chef Jacquay Pfeiffer

Fraiser is to crush dough with flat table scraper to ensure a smooth texture and even mixing.

Détrempe is the first step in making a puff pastry and means, "water dough."