A Not-So-Spectacular, Egg-Whipping Day
Formulas: Roulade Lemon Italian Buttercream Lemon Crémeux Berry Compote Ladyfinger Sponge for Week 3 | Small Wares Needed: Mixer, mixing bowl, whip Scale Rubber Spatula, Offset Spatula Chinois Sheet pans Silpats |
My Objectives:
Make and bake the Roulade. We will assemble it in next week's class.
Make, pipe out, and bake Ladyfinger Sponge. Next week's class we will make Tiramisu.
Keep station clean and organized, dishes to a minimum.
Make and bake the Roulade. We will assemble it in next week's class.
Make, pipe out, and bake Ladyfinger Sponge. Next week's class we will make Tiramisu.
Keep station clean and organized, dishes to a minimum.
Timeline: 12:00-1:00 Chef lecture on Egg Foam methods, different types of cakes and their mixing methods. MEP Food & Equipment. 1:00-2:00 Chef demo Roulade. Then, made Roulade. Clean table. 2:00-3:00 Short break. Chef demo LadyFinger Sponge. Started whipping egg whites unsuccessfully. 3:00-4:00 Re-did egg whites. And then again. Finished mixing Ladyfingers, "piped" them out, baked. 4:00-5:00 Did dishes and took out trash. | Prep List: Flours: Pastry Sugars: Granulated, Powdered Eggs: whole, whites, yolks Egg Whites Powder Potato Starch What I prepared: Roulade [attempted] Ladyfingers |
Summary & Personal Observations:
So, have you ever had a day where you just kind of screw up mostly everything somehow, despite your very best intentions at the start? That's how this day was for me. The first mess up was over-whipping my egg whites for the Roulade. Just a tad. But enough to make folding them in difficult, and showing a bit in the finished product. At least the Roulade came out okay; the Ladyfinger sponge was a much different story.
I'm not really sure what happened. I somehow could not do one of the easiest things: whip egg whites. I mean, I was using a machine, so how hard could it have been? Anyways, whatever happened, it happened three times, and I finally had to use my third time for the sponge, as I was running out of time in the class. It turned out really loose, like pancake batter. I thought I could fix it by adding equal parts flour and potato starch (like the recipe said), but to no avail. When I tried to load my pastry bag, it ran right out the end, so I had to bend it sideways to prevent that, and let it go over the sheet pan when I was ready. It was a mess, and very frustrating, as this isn't a normal occurrence for me. So that sucked.
But I did learn about Invert Sugar, or Trimoline, and how it is a disaccharide, sweeter than sugar and retains moisture well. This will be useful in future cake-baking adventures. I'm looking forward to next week, when I can start afresh. TGIF!
So, have you ever had a day where you just kind of screw up mostly everything somehow, despite your very best intentions at the start? That's how this day was for me. The first mess up was over-whipping my egg whites for the Roulade. Just a tad. But enough to make folding them in difficult, and showing a bit in the finished product. At least the Roulade came out okay; the Ladyfinger sponge was a much different story.
I'm not really sure what happened. I somehow could not do one of the easiest things: whip egg whites. I mean, I was using a machine, so how hard could it have been? Anyways, whatever happened, it happened three times, and I finally had to use my third time for the sponge, as I was running out of time in the class. It turned out really loose, like pancake batter. I thought I could fix it by adding equal parts flour and potato starch (like the recipe said), but to no avail. When I tried to load my pastry bag, it ran right out the end, so I had to bend it sideways to prevent that, and let it go over the sheet pan when I was ready. It was a mess, and very frustrating, as this isn't a normal occurrence for me. So that sucked.
But I did learn about Invert Sugar, or Trimoline, and how it is a disaccharide, sweeter than sugar and retains moisture well. This will be useful in future cake-baking adventures. I'm looking forward to next week, when I can start afresh. TGIF!