Plating? YES PLEASE!

Greetings! 

 Today was a wonderfully fun day! First thing we did this morning was put our ice cream bases in the machine. Chef said "you girls know what you need to do first thing, so go do it." I looked at him. Looked at the machine. Back at him. Back at the machine. I didn't remember how to use it. Oops. Luckily he knew exactly what my shifty eyes meant and showed me again. Not that complicated. 

 First thing we need to do is clean out the funnel at the top of the machine (that's where you pour your base in) and we have to run hot water then cold water through it to rinse it out. When I put the first bucket of water in it started to leak everywhere. Just running out the front of the machine. Great. "Chef!!!! It's leaking! help!" The people who used it last didn't put the rubber seal back on properly. So, always check the seal before starting. Thank goodness it was just water and not the ice cream that was leaking out. 

 Also, did you know that if you don't use the timer thats on the machine it will not start freezing even if you switch the button to freeze? I also learned that today. I used my timer that was attached to my apron, I thought it was a good idea so I could hear the timer when it went off. Chef said "..did you turn on the timer?" "yeah I did *points to timer on belt*" "..well that's great but the machine won't work unless you turn this timer on." "ohhh...well shit." - I won't forget that lesson. 

 The ice cream was sooooooooo good! If I ever get my own ice cream maker we will not be buying ice cream..again...ever. Sorry DQ. The coconut ice cream was so smooth, ugh so good. Chef tasted it and did his little happy dance, always a good sign. We cleaned out the machine and then put in the cream cheese ice cream. Not confidant this would be any good. I LOVED it! Probably more than the coconut, and I love coconut. Chef said that he likes to make a raspberry jelly and fold it in to the cream cheese ice cream when its coming out of the machine..that would be amazing! Like i said, I need my own ice cream maker! Very exciting stuff. 

Coconut ice cream!

 Next we used the Savarin we made yesterday. They are a yeast dough that is very similar to brioche. I tasted them yesterday and really didn't like them. Dry, plain..no good. We transformed them today and they were amazing! 

 We made a simple syrup with lemon zest, we strained it (to get the zest out) added a little rum and then we soaked them in the syrup. They puff right up and are just full of moisture, but they don't fall apart like a normal piece of bread does when it gets wet. 

We let them sit for a few minutes on each side then hold them under until that last bubble goes *bloop*..mmm..moistness. Take them out and set them aside. Chef made us one and he poured more rum over the top of it - at this point I was jumping for joy. RUM! RUM! RUM! So freeking good. We sent a bunch down to the cafeteria (without extra rum) with some cream and strawberries.

Then I cut up a bunch of fruit and added it to a different syrup that we also made yesterday. It looked like sangria! mm booze. April made a chantilly cream, she also made puff pastry triangles. Chef was going to show us how to put a plate together that we would of used for the restaurant. Yay! plating! 

 I told him "See now that I've done some plating I will stop complaining...as much.." :) 

OH!! I almost forgot the most exciting part! (for me anyways) We made angel hair! Caramel that we whip in to the air over a bar and then roll it in to a ball. Throwing sugar around the kitchen is so much fun!! I love doing anything with sugar, but this was just to much excitement. My group was giggling because I was giddy while doing this. 

Making angel hair! 

SO EXCITING! hahaha

angel hair balls

Now I can talk about the plating. Chef showed us how to put a plate together. 

Chefs plate

Then we got to do it! We had so many of these to do we just started handing plates to random people in the hall ways. I gave one to the security guard "would you like some desert?" "...seriously? yeah! totally!" He was so excited :) We gave a lot of them to the cooks, they were pretty happy. They love getting sweets and we love getting actual food. 

 I love putting a plate together. you get to play with it and you get to make it your own. We also got to make some quenelles with the ice cream. The ice cream was quite soft so it was a little bit of a challenge but I also loved doing this too. Spoon over, spoon under, spoon over, spoon under and voila! 

One of my plates!

Do you notice the difference between the angel hair on my plate and the one on chefs plate? See how mine doesn't look as soft and fluffy? That's because the sugar was getting to cold which causes the sugar to become more brittle. I might need to try making them at home! 

 At the beginning of class today Chef was showing us how to use Albumin powder. Sounds fancy, but It's just egg white powder. We are going to be getting in to molecular baking. I've been asking for him to show us how to make fruit caviar. Have you ever been to Cherry Berry? Ever had Bobas? those little fruit balls that explode when you bite them? Those are made with molecular baking. I'm SUPER excited to learn how to make those!! 

 Today he used the Albumin powder to make marshmallows. Passion Fruit Marshmallows. Holy amazing! Using this powder with fruit puree helps to keep things more stable and they are less likely to separate than if you used real egg whites. 

Did you know that way back when Marshmallows were used for medicinal purposes? They use to contain marshmallow root which helped combat many illnesses. Today we don't use the root and they are just a sweet treat. Neat eh? 

 I really like the idea of using puree to add flavour instead of using an artificial flavouring, taste much better.  I have a few in my bag to taste with Davin tonight. 

 We also made vanilla panna cotta. Not sure how I will feel about them. I've never tried a panna cotta before but If they end up having the texture that I think they will I see a gag fest coming my way. I'll let you know how those turn out tomorrow. 

 We also picked our groups for the decadence event coming up. Chocolate and wine! I'm excited to see which wine I am assigned and to do some "homework". How can eating chocolate and trying to pair it with wine be homework. seriously? Bring it on! 

 So many exciting things! 

See you all tomorrow! :)