Although I have always loved to cook and bake, I have never had any formal training. But as my mind turns more toward pastries and farther from sports bras, I felt it was time to remedy that. I signed myself up for "Introduction to International Pastries" at King Arthur Flour in Norwich. After a week of intensive instruction and tasting, I feel a little more "professional".
We made dough: puff pastry, blitz puff pastry, pate brisee and pate sucree, pate a choux.
From the dough, we made napoleans, lemon meringue pie, sacristans and palmiers, galettes.
We made pastry cream, buttercream, almond cream, ganache, parisian cream.
We made tuiles, meringues, hazelnut cookies, almond horns, zaleti, amaretti, pecan icebox cookies, and rugelach.
We made tarts( one of the only lessons where I actually felt like I had some experience)- fresh fruit tarts, chocolate tarts, s'more tarts, linzer tortes.
We made a genoise and filled it with raspberry mousse, a hazelnut torte with layers of the ganache and buttercream previously made, an Italian citrus cake with lemon curd filling and swiss meringue frosting, and a flourless chocolate cake.
I tasted everything, a big step for me as I have a slight eating disorder which allows me to enjoy the way things look rather than the way they taste, but I'm working on that. I brought the "leftovers" to my overnight hosts and home to my family. I got lost on my way to my hosts' home due to an incredible sugar high- I very rarely eat so much sugar myself.
It was a wonderful week with a very patient and knowledgable teacher, Jeffrey Hamelman, and a very diverse group of women. I admire them all for having found what they love to do in life, and making it happen for themselves. Am I still searching? I am waiting for the sign.