The Weight of a Yolk

Chef Judy said she likes today's lesson, because it's all completed by the end of the period, with no carry-over to another day.

We made pâte à choux, unusual among doughs in that it's cooked. It's essentially a roux with a lot of eggs added in (greatly simplified by the use of a mixer). We formed "buffet" (small) eclairs, and then whatever else we wanted to make. About half of the class made churros, deep-frying the dough, then rolling the crunchy strips in cinnamon sugar. We also had an abundance of cream puffs, filled with sweetened whipped cream. And a couple of us made gougères. I added grated cheddar and parmesan to my dough, along with chopped fresh thyme and a pinch of cayenne, then piped the mixture into little rosettes. Yummy.



We also each made a batch of pastry cream (crème patisserie), a cooked custard flavored with vanilla (and rum, in mine), to fill the eclairs. And we saved half the pastry cream to use in tarts that we'll be making later this week.

Today we used a new tool: the induction burner, a nifty table top burner (our kitchen has "only" two six-burner stoves, so lining us all up at once is impossible). Chef Judy encourages us to use the stove, and the balance beam scale, but I like using the techie toys.

We dipped the eclairs in melted chocolate, and sprinkled powdered sugar on the cream puffs. The gougères need no topping. They'll be better with cocktails.

Along the same lines, Derrick ate an eclair, then opened the refrigerator and removed a half gallon of milk. He filled a plastic pint container about half full, then began drinking. "Don't have a cup. Need milk," he said. "Don't let the sous chef see you," Andrew advised. "Oh, who's sous today?" Derrick asked. "That would be me," replied Andrew, laughing. Needless to say, eating (or drinking) out of the school's refrigerators is not included in the tuition.

And furthermore. We're starting three days of cake tomorrow: baking Wednesday, frosting Thursday, decorating Friday. Chef Judy told us that we're welcome to take home our cakes on Friday, "all but the little slice I cut in order to grade you." She said, "You can buy a cake box in the chef's office for eight dollars — highway robbery — or you can plan ahead and bring your own container."

And an egg yolk weighs about .67 ounce (2/3 ounce), and a white is about one ounce. A whole egg is about two ounces, including the shell. And it's "housewifey" to separate your eggs by shuffling them from shell to shell. There's that word again. Use your hands.