Choux pastry as final exam!

Hey there!

Guess what? I'm a little too happy today! Why? Because today was my final exam of Culinary Technics. First it was my oral exam, where I had to take a paper from a bag and start talking about that topic. That paper also included the recipe I had to make the next day, and as you can see in the title, the topic was CHOUX.

Do you know choux? (Say it out loud, who?) I hope you have eaten at least once some custard filled choux pastry. It’s a very tasty treat, sweet but not so much.

The story for today goes like this:

When I first arrived I realized I didn't have partner to cook with. I asked my supervisor and no one told me anything, until I was about to enter the lab, chef Cris told me -I don't know if you have noticed, but you are going to cook by yourself today-

I was in shock, I wanted to cry, laugh, scream or do everything at the same time. I wanted to know what I was going to do after working with someone during all this term. Everyone had partner but me. This was a real challenge, but I told myself I could do it. I had to.

Really determined I started cleaning my unit, preparing my mise-en-place and talking to myself.

I started preparing choux pastry and everything was awesome until the time to add the last eggs arrived, as some of you may or may not know, you have to be careful to get the right amount of egg in your pastry so you can reach the appropriate point. After 3, almost 4 eggs I couldn't get to the point and my time to get them to the oven had arrived. Geez!

Some more mixing, some more beaten eggs and it was done. As fast as I could I managed to get my pastry in a piping bag, made choux and went for the oven.

While my choux were in the oven I had to do the custard filling, so I started that task. I thought I was good with time, but uh-oh it was like… chasing me, real fast! So I couldn't wait until the consistency was filling-like, it was time to put it in the blast chiller and get choux out of the oven.

I couldn't take a picture of my plated dessert, but here's what went home with me

I went for them, opened some, filled them with custard and added some strawberries inside and a fan shaped strawberry, everything in a rectangular white plate. I was happy. I had completed my recipe and my unit was just a tad dirty.

Lucky me, some friends came to help me with the cleaning stuff. I’m still very grateful with them for their support!

Finally, the time of hearing our feedback and grades came. I was super-duper nervous! As we all heard each other's grades we became more and more tense. Soon Amanda got to me and she started the feedback by saying: -Congratulations, you worked alone and did an amazing job, finished on time with everything clean. The only thing is: I would’ve liked more consistency in your custard, but overall, congratulations, you scored 98/100-

I wanted to cry when she told me that, I was like – I can’t believe it, I did it! I really did it!

When the assessment was over, I went with chef Cris and Amanda, they both congratulated me, and I started crying. (You knew I was gonna cry sooner or later). All the other girls in the lab also said nice things to me and I was just… astonished with everything that had happened.

After all I shared choux with my friends and I’m still happy about today.

One word for today: SURREAL.

I hope you didn’t find this story boring, as this is on my top 5 of best & proudest moments. Don’t know which are the other 4, but…meeeh.

Lots o’ love ♥

ps. i won´t leave you just with the story, i'll share both, the custard and choux pastry recipes with you.

New year & my first amigurumi friends

I'm starting this New Year with lots of projects in mind, after a very hard end of year I'm here with a renewed energy, excited about all the things that are to come. Since I've been absent for a long time now I wanted to start with something cute.

I don't know if you've ever heard the word amigurumi [Japanese], it is the name given to the art of crocheting little "friends" (may be dogs, monsters, cakes, birds, whatever). It may seem hard but it's really fun and quite easy once you know the basics about crochet.
Today I want to show you the first little friend I did with this technique. It’s a pastel color birdie; he/she is really cute. If you're interested in learning about this I’ll post the pattern later so you can have a friend like mine.

Since these birds are really easy, they are a fun beginner project. They take no time to make so easy + fun + the cute factor equals a great gift for children and even for some grown-ups. Another amigurumi was an also pastel colored piggy.

Lately I've discovered that from the things that seem really simple you can learn a lot. For me crocheting and amigurumi are ways to take stress out of my mind. They fill me with energy about trying something new, not being afraid of making mistakes, because later, as you go on, as you work, you learn from previous mistakes and make everything a lot better next time.

I'm sure 2012 means changes and learning. I'm eager to learn a lot more about everything; you name it, amigurumi, cooking, food science, energy, or anything that comes my way. I'm determined to take all the opportunities I can, I’ll smile every day, there's no reason for me not to. So, I encourage you to smile too. Seize the day, the opportunities. Live to the fullest & don't ever regret being yourself.



Much light & love♥