Petit Four At a Glance

Pate De Fruit

Lemon Curd Barquettes, Macaroons

Palmiers (pistachio), russian tea cakes, flortines, Caramel Mou, checker cookie

Petit Four Glaces (aka, mini cakes)

My exam Tray!
Nougat, Cinnamon-Vanilla Swirl Cookie, Vanilla Brown Butter Financiers

The past week has been very busy! Petit Fours proved challenging, but rewarding. Oddly, I was one of the few people to really enjoy the subject! Above are a sampling of some of the products we made, along with the tray I presented for my exam. This was the first exam where I got only positive reviews. The nougat, which is apparently rarely performed correctly, came out "creamy, with excellent flavor." The swirl cookies, the chef informed me, tasted great, and normally he doesn't like them (I added a bit of cinnamon to the sable dough, and rolled it in vanilla sugar before baking). Last the financiers I decided to make a vanilla brown butter for the batter, to which the chef responded "I don't know what you did to the brown butter, but its working! And the texture is perfect." I was giddy after that exam (normally I want to sleep), while I usually score low to mid A's on exams, I don't particularly care what my final grade is. But on this exam, I was so curious, what would the chef give me with no complaints, I found out ten minutes ago. %100!! A VERY rare score. They tell us they almost never give them out since that suggest that nothing needs to be improved at all. Apparently, I actually can do this pretty well! And good thing I'm in such a happy mood, today we started cakes 2....meh. It's only a week, and then? CHOCOLATE! This time next week, I'll be learning how to temper!