Pro Baking I ~ Class 2 ~

Class 2 was all about the custard.  I love custards, especially because ice creams are technically custards and I think ice cream is my favorite thing in the world.  Yum!

 We learned how to make a creme brulee, chocolate pudding, and a bread pudding.  I would've much preferred making a creme caramel, a flan, or a pots de creme since I like to eat those the most, it was fun using a torch for the first time.  Yeah!

I'm glad I got to practice making a stove top pudding.  My only experience with it has been to make vanilla pastry cream, and even that I'd only done a couple of times before.  This tasted much better than the plastic cups sold by JELL-O, but I'm sure it's also because this one is so much more caloric...

The creme brulee was fine.  But I'm not a good judge of creme brulee because I don't like it much.  it's too heavy for me, and it always has been.  The one made in class was no exception.  Plus, burnt sugar crusts are very take it or leave it for me.  I like cracking them and they're really fun to make (can't go wrong with a blow torch) but I can do without eating them.

But the bread pudding.  OMG.  This was the best bread pudding I've ever had.  It was the solid type that you can cut up into squares and package, not the spooning type.  It's made with Challah bread.  Ever since I discovered Challah a few years ago (late in life I know, but Hawaii doesn't exactly have a large Jewish influence) it has turned into one of my favorite breads.  It's great on it's own, it tastes great with creamy cheeses like Camembert, it makes the best french toast (much better than Brioche, trust me), and now I know that it's the best bread for bread pudding!

It's moist, sweet without being overtly so, and the texture--so yummy!  I used raisins soaked in Grand Marnier and they definitely made a huge difference.  No nuts though.  I don't like it when crunchy textures mix with soft textures so I left them out.  I can't wait to practice making this one.  Although I might eat the whole thing in one sitting...

The most important thing to remember with this is to let the bread soak up all of the egg/milk/sugar mixture before putting it into the oven, and then as hard as it may be, let the pudding rest overnight in the fridge.  All the flavors will really meld together that way.  If you can hold off for two days, that's even better.  Trust me on this.  And while it's good warm, I really like it cold.  Leave it out for about 5-10 minutes after pulling it from the fridge and it becomes nice and soft but still chilled.  It's the best.

Eat me!

I know it doesn't look amazing, but I promise you that it is!  Salivate...

~Happy Birthday to Me~

Hi everyone, Happy New Year!

I realize I'm quite behind on my posting but in effort to catch up, here are some pictures from my birthday party.  I'd been looking at a lot of pictures of dessert tables and wanted to try making one myself.  I didn't pull off a red/yellow/orange color theme as clearly as I would've liked (my excuses mainly consist of a very stringent budget...but I know that's just an excuse) but I'm still pretty happy with how it turned out.  I actually had more dishes than would fit on the table so the quiche and the cheese gougeres didn't make it into the pictures but they were still enjoyed by all.  Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated my birthday with me!

Green Tea Mini Cream Puffs

Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Vanilla Buttercream Frosting & Chocolate Ganache

Caramel 4 layer cake

Mini Orange Cupcakes

Brownies, Pumpkin Seed Brittle, Dulce de Leche filled butter cookies

I also made regular mini cream puffs

Mini Pomegranate Panna Cotta cups

I had to practice macarons too!  Rasberry, Caramel, Pumpkin

I also made mini chiffon tartlets and fresh fruit tartlets.

There were mini triple mousse cups too (caramel, chocolate, and vanilla layers)

It was a bit of work to do all of this but I had fun doing it, and learned a lot too!  Hopefully I'll have another chance to do this but perhaps with sliiiightly fewer dishes.  I wish I had a picture of the quiche and the gougeres but they were devoured before I could snap some.  Next time!