Lesson 3: International Flavour

Lesson 3 was interesting as we explored pastries that came from different countries and finally I am seeing something that is pretty common and that I am familiar with - Chocolates! During demo class, Chef Geraldine made Chocolate cookies, Chocolate Muffins, Brownies (Yums!), Baklava (Supposedly from Greece) and strudel. Finally, she also made the dough for a Pate Sucre, which will be used for our fruit tart later. I would say the highlight for me was the strudel. Chef said that the strudel was like a 'Giant Roti Canai' as they use pretty much the same kind of dough. But it was hard to make as you need to really make the pastry very very thin (needed four people to just stretch the dough). But the result was just delicious! Not only the pastry was thin and crunchy, but the apple filling as well. Smells so good and not too sweet, just nice!

For practical, we had to make the brownie first, followed by the muffin and the Pate Sucre dough. Today's chef was Chef Marc. I was a bit nervous before going into the class when I knew it was Chef Marc as he is one of the chefs coming from LCB France. True enough, he was very very strict! Tables must be neat and clean at ALL times, and he also helped us 'rearrange' our table if it is not up to standard. I did learn a thing or two though from Chef Marc, especially on how to minimize wastage when in the kitchen. The scraper (I am not sure if that is what it is called) or the dough cutter is our best friend so that we can scrape off whatever is left in the mixing bowl. However, on the second practical, I lost the scraper that came with the toolkit though, sighs. Good thing my classmate Yu Min had one extra so I am using his now. And yes, Chef Marc noticed that I was using a different scraper too!

This is the brownie and muffins that I made today. Chef's comment about my brownie was that the butter was slightly emulsified. This means that I will need the butter a bit lesser with the whisk. Muffins was ok. I tried the muffins after class and I thought it was not bad! Not too sweet and can taste the chocolate chips! As Panya is my most loyal food tester, he agreed that he will give me a rating every time he try my pastry. I will just start with this one then. For the muffin, he gave a rating of 8.5 for the muffin and 8 for the brownie. So far the best tasting out of the stuff that I made since Day 1 in LCB. Well everyone loves chocolate don't they!

My Brownie!

Chef's Demo Brownie

My Muffins

Chef's Muffins

I will be heading back for Chinese New Year today and back on Monday night! Short Chinese New Year holidays this time as I have classes on Tuesdays! Happy Chinese New Year!