I’m behind on my lesson updates! There’s been a bit of internet drama during the past two weeks, but the important thing is that I have a connection now and will (hopefully) continue to have one. Luckily, classes have been pretty slow averaging one to two demos/practicals per week. After this mini-massive update, everyone will be almost up to speed.
These past four lessons are actually quite intertwined and related to each other. We’ve been combining different techniques to create a range of desserts and pastries. In Lesson 6 we learned how to make pâte à choux or choux pastry, an important base for many French pastries such as chouquettes, éclairs, choux chantilly, as well as the St. Honoré and Paris-Brest in Lesson 8. The dacquoise, a meringue based almond sponge cake, from Lesson 7 is also featured in the tarte meringuée aux poires caramelisées in Lesson 9, while the praline buttercream used to frost the daquoise is similar to the filling of the Paris-Brest. Furthermore, the pear tart from Lesson 9 is essentially the same as the tarte aux pommes but with pears, a partially almond pâte sucrée (also used as the base of the St. Honoré but without almond meal), and a meringue top. Confused yet? To summarize: pâte sucrée, pâte à choux, and meringue have been the main areas of focus and are important to master. During the various practicals, we made chouquettes, chocolate eclairs, a dacquoise, St. Honoré, and a meringue topped pear tart.
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