Practice Makes Perfect...

Monday, the teacher had us make covered pies like we made the first day, because in moving the frozen stuff from the butchers' freezer downstairs to ours upstairs, some of the fruit got left in the fridge and thawed out, so it needed to be used up. So, this was nothing new, but a good practice for the exam next week. There wasn't a ton of variety for fruit, it was mostly strawberries and blueberries, but I did manage to snag enough raspberries for 1 pie. For my other two pies I made strawberry and strawberry-blueberry. Aside from the raspberry filling, they all turned out so well! I didn't get my cornstarch runny enough before adding it to the mix so there were some lumps... :( I brought it home, I'm sure we'll enjoy it anyway. The other fillings went great, my pie crusts turned out beautiful, and only one of them ran over, and it happened just at the end of the baking. We also mixed up some different doughs to be used Tuesday.

Tuesday we had kind of a fun extra-curricular project, to make quiche! We could bring in extra ingredients if we wanted, but there were lots of fillings provided. This was also a practice for the exam - filling those frilly tart pans. They turned out great, but there was an error in our recipe, it asked for way too much salt, which I suppose we should have caught, but most of us were just following directions! They ended up way, way too salty, but good nonetheless. A recipe I'll be using at home, for sure. After the quiche, we made lintzer tarts. Monday we had mixed up this spicy cinnamon dough, that was the base of the linzter, with raspberry jam in the middle, and strips of dough on top. After baking we glazed with apricot. I tried the demo, and it was good, but not amazing, so I left it there. ;) Then we made a no-bake cheesecake, which they called a cheese pie - that had me completely confused! The graham crumb base has orange zest in it, which really complements the lemon in the cheese mixture! And the cheese mixture... oh my. It has whipped cream in it, so it's super velvety and smooth. Then we were supposed to cover the top with fresh strawberries, but there weren't enough to go around, so I only have a few in the middle, and then pie filling covering the rest. Then we glazed the strawberries, piped chantilly cream around the outside, and finished with graham crumbs around the outside of the cream. Some people put crushed pistachios on top, but I decided not to.

Quiche

Strawberry cheesecake

Rasberry lintzer tart

Today (Wednesday) we made an apple pie with flaky pastry. So, so, so good. A bit different from how we normally make apple pie. In this recipe you cut your apples into the bottom shell (either chunks or slices, however you like), piled up really high. Then you sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the apples, and cover with the top shell, then brush with egg-wash and cover the whole top with sugar, and let rest. After baking, you pour heavy cream into the hole on top, which makes a creamy sauce with the apple juices and cinnamon... Mmmmm! We also made a curious little confection called tarte choco-praliné croquant, literally, crunchy choco-praline tart. This had a pastry form, with a crunchy layer (mostly hazelnut-praline butter and pailleté feuilletine), then a chocolate cream layer, with chocolate ganache on top, and then some little pieces of hazelnut in sugar for decoration. I'm not a fan of hazelnut, and neither is the rest of my family, so this one also stayed at school.

Crunchy chocolate-hazelnut tart