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grand fours

May 28th, 2007

I wanted to try my new petit four molds. These are larger than the ones we used in class, but I liked the symmetrical shape and I also wanted to be able to use them for savory appetizers. Call them grands fours then. The pâte sucrée came out flaky and delicate this time. Jeremy said the ones I brought home from class were more crumb-like… That’s because my partner overworked the dough. She also let them sit at room temp too long before baking.


chocolate mousse petit four

pastry cream petit four – this is fabulous with semi-sweet chocolate



Yeah, if I had to make more than a few dozen of these pastries, I would find myself in quite the foul mood. It’s a lot of work for something so tiny.

little things

May 26th, 2007

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!


the chocolate dome ages nicely

2 dozen cute and little petit four molds


bonanza

May 25th, 2007

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.


unmolding the petits fours shells

**Jump for more butter**