use real butter

I’ve been trying to encourage Jeremy to finish off the semifreddo and the chocolate dome so I can make some room for more homework in the freezer. I can’t send anything to Tom and Kellie for several days because Kellie’s dad is visiting and he’s diabetic and she said it’s best not to even let him see sweets during his stay because he lacks self-control. And if I send anything to Marcus, it has to serve at least 5 people because his parents are visiting for the month. This afternoon I acquired 24 petit four molds which I plan to use in the very near future before my pastry cream, buttercream, chocolate mousse, and ganache go south. Jeremy has expressed quite a fondness for the petits fours I packed in his lunch yesterday – and they didn’t have any chocolate!

Last week we spent a lot of time making frozen desserts and then wrapping them in plastic, labeling them, and popping them in the freezer. We all went home empty-handed and I’m sure Jeremy wasn’t the only one looking at the empty tupperware container with sad puppy dog eyes. To make up for that, we had a veritable overload of cakes/desserts to take home tonight. I filled my cooler and then some – racing up the canyon in the hopes that things wouldn’t melt and start running together.

We first unmolded the frozens, decorated them, and returned them to the freezers. Then we began making petits fours. I think my general concept of a petit four was always a small bite-sized layered cake covered in frosting. A petit four is actually any confection that you can eat in one or two bites. Each team would make one filling and roll out their pâte sucrée for the shells. I wasn’t allowed to make the buttercream or mousse because I had done those techniques last week. So I picked pastry cream, which everyone seemed to shy away from because it’s hard to do well.

**Jump for more butter**

I did some homework today for my pastries class. Looking at all of the recipes from the last week, I decided to do the semifreddo again, but this time with dark chocolate because I’m not a big fan of white chocolate. I also didn’t do one giant semifreddo, opting instead for three smaller 6-inch semifreddos.

**Jump for more butter**