Pastry in one sitting…

Somewhere between playing and practicing rugby (www.brooklynrugby.com), working for the man, and trying to lead a pseudo-normal life, I’ve been making my way to the pastry kitchen for the past week, making linzer tortes and crème brulees. Crème brulees are practically fat and eggs with some sugar on top… but they looked amazing. To be perfectly honest, I violated a major rule of tasting everything before you serve it to your customers, but the crème brulees are in high demand, and there may not be enough to taste. Also, if you follow the recipe of cream, milk, eggs and sugar, it should pretty much be the same every time.

However, the more intricate of the two desserts is the linzer torte. It calls for a lot more work, and more importantly, more measuring out of ingredients. That must be my least favorite part of pastry, measuring out amounts of this and that. But perhaps my favorite part was the fact that it used BOILED egg yolks in the dough, instead of raw egg yolks. It boggled my mind… and perhaps still boggles my mind. But for whatever reason it is, it works (I believe Chef Alain said it didn’t add extra moisture… though I don’t really recall).

Anyhow, there are many steps involved with making this torte, especially when you make EVERYTHING from scratch, which is what we did, and is really impressive. (With the exception of one thing which I will explain)

Let’s start from the bottom up. The shell of the pastry, or the dough, I guess is what normal people call it, is made of sifted flour, almond flour, sugar, some cinnamon, butter and boiled egg yolks. (I may be omitting an ingredient or so, but that’s the bulk of it). It actually took very little time to make once you gathered all of the ingredients. You get the butter going in the mixer with a paddle attachment then get the sugar in there, followed by the egg yolks (which you press through a drum sieve). Then after those are incorporated, you throw in all of the flour, almond flour and cinnamon at once (with the mixer off), turn on the mixer for probably 20-30 seconds and cut it off when everything is incorporated. It was actually very simple, and super delicious.

We usually made this a class ahead of time because it requires a minimum of an hour or two in the fridge. So we could roll this out to about an eighth to a quarter of an inch thick. And fill the tart mold. A nifty little tidbit that I learned about making a round rolled out piece of dough was that rather than giving the dough 90 degree turns every time you needed to turn it, you only gave it about 30 degree turns, and rolled out a bit more. This gives it a rounder, more uniform shape rather than a square shape. Of course if you want a more square shape, you would do 90 degree turns, and it would flatten it to a more square shape (We did this for the lattice strips we placed on top).

Next we need to make the fraaaaangipane. Which is a combination of pastry cream and almond paste. The almond paste was the only component we did not make ourselves because we already had it prepared by a different class (or by the chef, I suppose), but it was made from scratch.

Next we need to make the raspberry preserves, which was super delicious. (We don’t necessarily do these tings in this order, but it is how the torte is layered) This was simply raspberries, sugar, lemon juice, some water, I think, and some pectin after its all said and done.

So you get the ingredients in the torte pan in that order, and top it off with the lattice made from the dough. Pop it in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes; turn it down to 325 for another 10 minutes, and then place it in what I suppose is a stone oven for 7-8 minutes to finish cooking the bottom.

This torte was out of this world, in my opinion. It was so delicious. I think it taste better than the chocolate lava cakes, which were also delicious. Which in fact, we also made these chocolate cakes this past Saturday, because the guy in level 6 who is supposed to do it was out of class. Chef Alain gave us the option of us doing it, or him doing it, and I was all about taking it on. How hard can it be to follow the recipe?

So between us, mostly Scott and I, we made the crème brulees, chocolate cakes, linzer torte, oh and the crème anglaise (vanilla ice cream) that goes with the linzer torte, and a coffee flavored crème anglaise (not frozen, just the cream), that went with the chocolate cakes. It was a very successful evening, and we did a pretty good job throughout service.

I had just played in a rugby tournament earlier that day and injured my shoulder, mixed with a bit of contempt for my partner, so I was focusing hard on what I was doing, and my attitude may have sent out waves of dissonance, though I was thoroughly enjoying my time in the pastry kitchen despite having no wit or character. Not to mention the scars on my face from the day’s activities (it looked like I got into a head on collision with a Mack truck).

Anyhow, on to the stuff you like to hear about. So I guess I have been more distant from my partner since his verbal lashing on me. The first day I was there, the Chef asked if my partner was “my friend.” I wasn’t sure what he was getting at, but I said, I guess not, he’s just my partner in class (especially after the comments he made to me in the previous class). For the most part, I don’t know him outside of class. So I’m not exactly sure why he was asking this, but he asked me again the next time we were in class. “Are you guys friends?” And I said this time, sure. He put me on the spot. And he also said, that’s not what you said last time. I then said, yeah, he’s my partner. And this comment was a recurring theme in all of our classes. He would ask me if we were friends, and remind me that I didn’t say that the first time. And that friends usually communicate and talk more during class. I pretty much kept to myself, though I tried to chat a little but wasn’t feeling it. Yes, it’s an awkward situation, but it is what it is. I tell you this much, Chef Alain didn’t make it any less awkward.

I guess this is a watered down recount of my 4 days in pastry, thus far, but life has been too busy to really jot down too many details. I must say, I think it is extremely rewarding to make the kind of things that we made in such a short period of time, and the dessert is the last thing you will remember about the restaurant. So it has to look good and taste phenomenal. Come to think of it, when I used to go out to eat with my girlfriend, the dessert was what we discussed most (unless we didn’t eat dessert, and unless another portion of the meal stole the show), and then we would think about what we were having for dessert. In all I think we did a fine job in pastry. I also think Chef Alain’s methods of order, cleanliness and organization are going to help us benefit in any station of any kitchen.