Recap: Advanced Bakeshop, Spring 2011

My life has been pretty busy lately.  Busier than I'd like, but I love my job and my life, so I'm not complaining too much.  The only thing is that I haven't had any time to blog... and that makes me sad!  So, I'd like to show my dwindling readership exactly what has been keeping me busy... Starting with Advanced Bakeshop, which concluded tonight.

 Hazelnut Dacquoise

 Chocolate Macaron Disaster Experiment

Turns out, it does matter in macarons if you're using dutched cocoa powder or natural... 

 Macaron Assembly 

 Lemon Macarons for the Vintners' Dinner

 Grand Marnier Souffles 

 Saucing the Souffles

 Raspberry Fruit Mousse Torte

Petits Fours Week

sorry for the poor quality... used my phone for this one. 

 Tiramisu Ice Cream Sandwiches Assembly

 Tiramisu, classical style 

 Raspberry White Chocolate Passion Fruit Torte 

Pate Sucree, Raspberry Jam, Raspberry Sponge, White Chocolate Mousse, 

Passion Fruit Gelee, Jaconde with red decor paste, Raspberry Gelee

 Marjolaine Gateau 

 Marjolaine Gateau, the following day, plated for 181 Palmer Restaurant 

(best lunch deal in Charleston!) 

 Making-meringue-surprise-bonus-quiz 

  Making-meringue-surprise-bonus-quiz 

Carol, pictured on the right, writes a blog called "Live Well, Eat Often, Snack Much"

about her adventures in culinary school.  

 Tempering chocolate & practicing chocolate cigarettes

 The William

Almond Dacquoise, Nougatine, White Wine Poached Pears, Creme Chiboust 

 Open Skills: French Macarons 

 Practical Final: Giant Strawberry Macaron Entremet

Macaron shell, Chocolate Mousse, Creme Diplomat, Fresh Strawberries, 

Chocolate Cigarettes, Confectioners' Sugar & Mint

 

  Practical Final: Giant Strawberry Macaron Entremet

Macaron shell, Chocolate Mousse, Creme Diplomat, Fresh Strawberries, 

Chocolate Cigarettes, Confectioners' Sugar & Mint

And so you have now seen a pictorial representation of how I've spent the past 16 Tuesdays from 3pm to 9:10pm.   This class has been great and very dedicated to their learning, even throughout hardships and unexpected circumstances that always come with culinary school.  Many did back-to-back classes, meaning they had two 6.5 hour classes with very little break!  Talk about exhaustion at the end of the day?  Yes.

Stay tuned for more re-caps as classes conclude for the semester!