A bit of creative license-gone awry.

Bare with me here.
Normally, I'd like to avoid too much ranting about the less than perfect happenings in school, but then again, that wouldn't be interesting. I suppose "Today we made a lovely pear tart. It was delicious!" doesn't make for very informative posts does it? Though we did make lovely pear tarts (in cages! see below).

Today started out with the solemn announcement that today would be very hard. With the 90+ degree weather, try as we might, our puff pastry dough would be a headache! Oh, was it! Every time we took it out of the fridge, it melted. Working with it was near impossible and extremely frustrating. But we knew that going in. What made this day worse (was that possible) was a deceptive opportunity, granting us creative license. We made apple compote galettes. We've made apple compote before, so this time the chef says, do what you want with it! I was super excited. I grabbed some currants, rum, cardamon, and cinnamon and proceeded to make my compote. I think it turned out wonderfully! Most students (besides a handfull of us) decided to stick with the original recipe, which is fine, but I wasn't about to miss a rare opportunity to try our own method. My partner and I were very satisfied with the results (I even brought my leftover compote home, I don't bring anything home!). While the chef was making his rounds he stops by our station and smells the reducing compote, and asks whats in it. We tell him, and his response was, I can smell all that, but I doubt it tastes like apples anymore. We assured him it tasted very much like apples, we even added very little sugar to ensure it retained the tart flavor of apple, rather than the sweet currant taste. He looked unimpressed and continued down the line without so much as trying ours! Criticism is one thing, but we hadn't justly deserved it (the other chef later reassured us of our success, though she isn't the one grading us). The day continued with snide remarks, such as when my partner having overfilled her conversations (almond tart). He came over and told her, I said not to overfill, it's going to be a mess. She baked it anyway and they ended up being some of the best in the class (better than my "correct" tarts). His response? "You got lucky." How does one "get lucky" in baking? Anytime anyone says anything to contradict his supreme authority he can't take it. Our theory riding on over compensation for having to normally be assistant. Perhaps thats why whenever he lectures it includes name dropping every third sentence. Obnoxious little personality traits normally don't get to me, but on a day when you feel like absolutely nothing is working, it really gets to you. One girl almost cried. BUT, I take solace in the fact that despite all this, my products were good, I stuck to schedule, and didn't totally lose my mind. After all, what good would that have done. Plus, locker-room chatter is significantly more interesting and friendship building with a common enemy, I'm sure we'll think its hilarious in no time.
Tomorrow, we make pithivier, supposedly the hardest item yet. I'm excited though, I love pastry challenges! We'll see what I say tomorrow afternoon of course.

Now for today's makings:

Lovely pear tart, poached pear surrounded by puff pastry cage. AKA we got to use awesome lattice rollers!

Almond tart-super flaky and light (as puff pastry should be), filled with almond cream and baked.

And finally, the famed galette!