I’m still alive, and I’m in pastry school!
So, I know that I haven’t blogged for a very long time, and my deepest apologies. I’ve been busy, and I’ve also been lazy as well. I have still been baking and cooking in my life away from my blog, I just haven’t been letting the world know it. I know I should have at least started blogging about 3 or 4 weeks ago to let you all know that I’m in pastry school! I’ve been learning awesome things, meeting great people, and baking my life away. Week one was going over the basics, such as piping, making pastry cream and pate a choux, sweet dough, meringues, and buttercreams. Week 2 and 3 was when it got exciting — the Breads section of my course. I never really made breads at home because I’m sure I mentioned before, that I have (or had) a weird fear of yeast. Yeast scared me. I would get nervous, and unsure that my product would proof, but now I feel confident! I made pain de mie (toast bread), whole wheat bread, pain a la biere (beer bread), french bread, baguettes, farmer’s bread with walnuts, pain brie (sailor’s bread, which i have to say was one of my favorites, super tasty) sourdough, and more. Along with the breads, we also did breakfast pastries such as croissants, pain au chocolat, almond croissants (um, new favorite thing ever!), danishes, brioche, and more! We cover a lot in class everyday, it’s pretty intense, and it has to be in order for us to finish in December this year. It’s only a 6 month program, and I’m kind of sad that it is! I honestly was not 100% sure I would love it, only because whenever I would get involved with new things in my life, I would get overly excited, then end up hating it. This is definitely not the case this time around. Even though I’m only a month into the program, I know that I chose the right program for me. Going to pastry school has confirmed that I really do enjoy baking and the art of pastry.
This week we have moved onto Petits Fours. Today was only day 2, and so far i’m not a HUGE fan. Of course, I still enjoy learning about them, but it feels like a huge process because of all the prep work done ahead of time. Everyday is a little process — a little process for little desserts. We made pate a choux once again yesterday, and sadly there was an accident at my table, so we had to remake them today. Well, something went wrong, and we must have scaled something wrong, because our pate a choux didn’t turn out right. So, tomorrow my partner and I have to them again. I’m hoping it works out this time, well, because it has to. We’re making eclaires and salambos tomorrow, so we kind of have to have our pate a choux done! It was a hectic day in class today, and as much as I love baking and being in the kitchen, I was not feeling it today. I know there will be days where I feel off, but I know I just have to keep truckin’ along. Something that helped me get through today — Dacquoise. We made dacquoise, and i have never actually heard of them before today, and it saddens me, because they are delicious little treats. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to snap a picture of them today because our day was going by so quickly, and they kind of got smashed on my commute home. Luckily, they were still perfectly tasty! They are tasty tiny meringue type cakes topped with confectionery sugar, filled with a dacquoise cream, a combination of pastry cream, butter, toasted walnut powder (although other nut powders can be subbed), and a little port wine for flavor. I honestly could not believe how delicious these delicate babies were. But other than the dacquoise, my day was not going so well. I didn’t have time to finish everything, the kitchen was too warm for me to roll out my mini tart dough, and so I’m hoping tomorrow will be a better day. This week has already seemed too long, and it’s only Tuesday, which scares me. I’m hoping things will look up! At the end of the week, on Sunday, I am participating in a stage (short for stagiare in french), which means to volunteer at a bakery, restaurant, hotel, etc. Working for free! Who wouldn’t want to take someone in for free work, right? My stage will take place at a local bakery/sweet shoppe in my neighborhood, and it was a great set up, because the owner is a regular customer at the Starbucks I work at. I spoke with her, and we was extremely kind, and it went on from there. I will hopefully blog about it, and let you all know how it went. I’m really hoping I can remember to update my blog, because I almost felt as if the life of my blog was over.
Well, I hope this entry has brought you all up to date with where I’ve been. Now for some food porn on what you’ve all been missing:
Bostock Brioche
Almond Croissants
Basket full of sourdough, multigrain sourdough, country bread.
Danishes with frangipan and apricot.
Super tasty Farmer’s bread w/walnuts
The croissant that changed my life
Beautiful loaves of french bread in the oven
Brioche
The Hungry Panda 
YAY! I’m glad you updated :) Now I got to see all the deliciousness you’ve been baking and what I’m missing out on :p . Your bread looks amaazzziiing! I’m so proud of you! Good Luck on your stage and keep blogging :)
OMG!!!!!!!! Everything looks AMAZING!!!!!! You definitely picked the right school and career!!!:)))) You’re so talented!