learned things

I am in school for Baking and Pastry Arts as you may know or should know if you are a good blog follower. Do you even pay attention to the things I talk about? Whatever... Anyway, I've baked things and I'm proud and want to share them and you are going to enjoy the things I talk about because they are delicious and beautiful. Also, I made them so they are also awesomer because of that. Behold! My first Lemon Meringue Pie, also my first Basket Weave piped pattern!

It was so delicious. Made using regular pie dough or as the French would say, pate brisee. We only use shortening for the fat in our dough which I was opposed to at first. I have always used lard because that's what my Mom uses and it produces a very flaky crust. Being in class, I have learned that some people may have dietary restrictions and cannot eat lard making it hard to sell lard pies. The pie shells were made the day before, we baked them upside down on another pie shell after pricking the bottom (or docking) to prevent too much puffing. The next day we made the filling, poured it into the pie shells and piped the meringue on top. We used the Swiss method for the meringue. This involves whipping sugar with cream of tartar with egg whites on top of a double boiler until the meringue feels hot. Then the meringue is moved to a machine where it is whipped until cool and holds soft peaks. We were shown some piping techniques to use on the pies but I had my heart set on the basket weave. I had seen it done once before and I figured that I could do it, and I could! If you're interested in learning how, this website has a good explaination: http://www.pastrywiz.com/wedding/wedding6.htm

I also made shortbread cookies that were not very tasty. The fat was a mixture of butter AND shortening (bleh). I guess they wanted to keep the cost down (butter is expensive). It was, however, the first time I ever piped cookie dough. We made shells, rosettes and backwards S's. They did look really nice but they were really hard to pipe. The dough was so thick it gave me a hand cramp. Thinking back, I wonder if the fat was too cold to pipe. It is easier if the dough is a little warmer, around room temperature. I'm going to stick with my Mom's recipe though, it's so good! Last I am posting my brownies!

I've made brownies before lots of times so this wasn't anything new but I did get to use a comb on the icing! They turned out really well and one of my group members cut them into really even pieces. There, done my first school blog post. Lots more to come, and a lot more interesting things too.