Tomorrow, at 11:30am, I will officially be done! The practical final, which started Friday after the written exam is due no later than 11:30am. We have to present the four items we drew (from the whole semester) on a showpiece. Everyone is more stressed than they have ever been, and for once people may actually not be able to finish (or present items). I'm right on schedule. Not without mishaps, of course. Day 1, I decided to make my grand marnier bon-bons since they can sit around for a while as well as start my showpiece and make some doughs to freeze. Throughout the program I've become excellent at tempering chocolate. I'd say its one of my best talents, and while many students still need to reference temperature charts, I've abandoned my thermometer altogether. I can now tell the state of the chocolate by feel, consistency, and sight. I love chocolate! So I thought bon-bons would be easy! And the chocolate part was. The ganach on the other hand...It's a recipe we hadn't done (there are a bunch of fillings and we chose only a few during the unit). First, we didn't have grand marnier, so I had to use orange liquore (gross), and no stabilizer (usually glucose). I have yet to break an emulsion when making a ganach, and feel confident with my ability. But this recipe was terrible! The high liquid:chocolate ratio resulted in it taking absolutely forever to set up (it never really got that thick...) and when I went to finish my bon-bons the filling kept coming out! Essentially, I had to re-do them. They take a bit of time, and I was worried it would happen again. So (against the rules, shhh) I decided to use a recipe from one of my favorite confections book, ironically, from CIA (Culinary Institute of America). It had a very, very low cream to chocolate ratio, which makes a phenomenal ganach, but is also the most difficult to execute. Plus, magically, the Grand Marnier appeared! It was a beautiful result, smooth, velvety, and THICK. Ideal, and tasted wonderful. I'm SO glad I switched them out! Some of those recipes are pretty bad, trying to employ different techniques, and while the core ones are great, these extended ones could use some work. So, bon-bons done. The rest of Monday/Today went fine generally, got everything done that I wanted to. The only other incident was this afternoon. Let me preface with, the organization required to store 21 student's final pieces is pretty ridiculous. While trying to grab a board from the speed rack one of my fellow students dropped the sheet my pastillage were resting on. Normally, pastillage is super delicate and breaks on you with the slightest touch, and takes several days to dry. But, its easy to cut/color and relatively quick to make. I heard a huge crash, and my heart sunk. There was no way I could re-make these! I would have to completely rethink my showpiece! But by some miracle, they were fine, and the only thing that was ruined I had a duplicate of. Thank goodness. I cannot describe the level of relief I felt at that moment! So, aside from minor details (my crescent cookies are a little large, and my chocolate brandy cake is a bit short), but really...I'm going to finish, which is an accomplishment alone!
And then there's the chocolate show...ALMOST done, its being assembled tomorrow for the show opening! I'm glad I did it, but it didn't help my anxiety and fatigue level for sure (I promise pictures soon!)
Though I have to admit, I'm getting a little sad thinking about leaving. I absolutely love living in New York. It has been amazing, and I've made very close friendships, which will be the hardest to leave! I feel quite fortunate to have made such close friends here, in such a short amount of time. I don't think I got this close to people I spent four years with in College (aside, of course, from Alex). And I will truly miss them! I guess that just means I need to move back eventually :)
So, on to judging!!
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