Class II Day 6: Confections

LOTS of stuff. Pretty easy to make too... minus the burning sugar, use of a candy thermometer, and lots of sticky. Sadly, this is the last class for the Pro Bake II. (There is no III.) Oh, sadface. I really haven't had time to practice anything this session. So, I'll be sure to keep on honing those skills!

Chewy Butter Caramels

with a chocolate drizzel (I didn't do.)

With Fleur de Sel (I didn't do, either.)

Pecan Pralines

 

 Peanut Brittle

Caramel Corn

Marshmallows

Chocolate Truffles

Class II Day 5: Genoise Cakes and Mousse

Second to last class! Time has just flown by!!! So this class we made sponge/genoise cake.

MMMMMMMmmmmmm.

Vanilla Genoise with Strawberry Mousse

Cocoa Genoise with Chocolate Mousse

Unfortunately, this class day was SUPER HOT out in LA. So, I was only able to drive it 15 min to one of the few (maybe only?) friend that lives in LA. I wish I could have shared it with more... but mousse certainly would not have made it the 1 hr drive back to the OC.

Class II Day 4: Butter Cakes

Yellow Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream

Caramel - from scratch!

the incredible Salted Caramel Buttercream - it is a really pretty light taupe-y color.

(Sorry for the "list of pictures" - I really should get to collage-ing them again)


Petit Fours

the almond cake part

spread with raspberry jam

Layered. Cubed. Dipped in liquid fondant = fail.

So, the cake and jam were good. The dipping was not. And I predicted it would not go well. Me and dipping things do not end well.

Class II Day 3: Butter

Yeah, that's right. Butter. Plenty of butter. (Ok, well not as much that went into croissant/danish/puffpastry.)

Viennesse Tart with Almond Filling and Poached Pears

Blind baked Viennesse tart shell, filled with Frangipane, topped with poached pears

Out of the oven - Done!

I do like almond filling. Poached pear - blah.

What another student did with the pears. Pretty huh? I just couldn't be bothered with slicing pears so PLOP - in they went!

 

 

Next up, Linzer Torte.
No actual torte though.

The teacher demo'd the dough, and made linzer cookies for us to snack on.

Raspberry filled linzer cookies. Delish!

Rich Roll Cookies
Very much a butter cookie. Decorated with royal icing. I should have rolled the dough out thicker.

Bite-sized cookies.

Why I don't do detailed decorations.

Class II Day 1: Baguettes and Sourdough

Yay! Class! The short break between sessions just flew by!

And first day back was just like we never left. We dove into preparing danish dough to bake off the following class. (Needless to say, with all the rolling and folding, there was little time to take pictures.)

So, we completed baguettes in class, and took home our prepared sourdough dough to bake the next day in our own kitchens.

Sourdough made from rye starter.

oops. forgot to slash the top.