Post #100. Wow.

Wow. Today we should have been issued pink bakery boxes for our take-home items. Chef Judy wasn't kidding when she said we'd be amazed at our output.

We started the morning with a demonstration, as usual. Chef showed us how to make croissants, plain and filled. With the same dough, she made "pain au chocolat", and she told us, "I see no reason to ever make 'chocolate croissants.' The correct way to use chocolate and croissant dough together is in the 'pain au chocolat.'" She also demo'd "morning rolls," which are filled with cinnamon sugar smear (i.e. butter) and baked in muffin tins. After they're cooled, roll them in more cinnamon sugar. Wow.

Then she made bear claws and butterhorns out of the danish pastry dough. The butterhorns are filled strips, laid next to each other on end, and covered with streusel, making a long pull-apart pastry. She told a funny story about her husband, Chef Robert, who came home raving about "Chef Holly's bear claws." She expressed some professional jealousy until she uncovered the secret, which she passed along to us. In addition to the filling (almond/crumb/cinnamon), there's a strip of jam. Wow.

We got underway, making pastries. Tashana made the plain croissants. Mine were ham and cheese. Our pain au chocolat is picture-perfect. I blew it on the morning rolls, giving her the wrong dimension for cutting them, so we invented a Plan B and then followed it, resulting in a circular pull-apart cinnamon coffee cake topped with cream cheese icing. Wow.

Once the croissant dough products were proofing, we began playing with the danish dough. While Tashana made the bear claws (chocolate/raspberry and vanilla/strawberry), I asked Chef Judy for a recommendation on cheese danish. One of the best things I have ever eaten in my entire life was a cheese danish. It was handed to me, in a white paper bag that also contained an orange, by an usher as I left Winterland following a Grateful Dead concert. Almost nothing has ever tasted as good.

Today's cheese danish were a different beast altogether. I started by spreading half the rolled out dough with cinnamon smear, then folding it in half, rolling it together a bit, and cutting it into 3/4" strips. Then I twisted the strips, then formed them into figure eights. Those went into the proof box to rise. Before baking, we filled the indentations with little dollops of cream cheese filling on one side, and a fruit filling on the other side. Some were strawberry, some lemon curd. Wow. Dava unfortunately smashed three of them when she was moving trays in and out of the oven, but we had more. She apologized about twenty seven times.

We also made savory cheese twists and sweet cheese rolls from purchased puff pastry — so we'd have the opportunity to try our hand at that dough, as well.

There was a bit of post-baking garnishing to administer, in addition to the cream cheese icing. All the danish get brushed with clear glaze (sugar, corn syrup, water), then drizzled with white icing. The pain au chocolat get a drizzle of coating chocolate. The puff pastry cheese rolls were dusted with powdered sugar.

Needless to say, the kitchen smelled wonderful all morning and we had several chefs "drop in" to see what we were up to. We asked Chef Joseph (who is teaching Basic Skills adjacent to our bakery kitchen) if he wanted anything, and he requested three full trays. I remember having a lot of warmed-up pastry in his classroom so I know he'll be putting some of it away for next week. We all took generous amounts home, and still ended up wheeling a cart full of sheet pans down to the student dining room. Chef Judy asked us if we minded if she took home some of our cheese danish, and hey, it's an honor.

[As expected, I got 20 out of 20 on my weights and measures test. And, I'm happy to report, an "A" in Garde Manger. That sound you hear is me, patting myself on the back.]

Wow.