Next up, we tackled classic puff pastry. One of the most important lessons to learn when making puff pastry is that everything must be kept cool, including yourself! You are trying to create distinct layers of dough and butter and … Continue reading
In lesson 42, we attacked the scary strudel. To make strudel, you make the dough and then stretch it until it is transparent and takes up an entire table! This requires the help of many people and the dough often … Continue reading
The next two lessons were huge baking days! We made biscuits, scones, linzers and Bretons! I had never heard of a linzer before and just assumed we were making linzer cookies – sugar sandwich cookies, filled with jam, and dusted … Continue reading
In lesson 39, we finally got to make one of my favorite desserts, pies! Unfortunately, I also learned a sad lesson. Blueberries are the potato of pastry. … Continue reading
Lesson 36 marked the beginning of a new section of the program, we were moving into tarts and pies. To start the class, we learned about three different mixing methods to creating pie dough. The first method was the flaky … Continue reading
In these next three lessons, we learned to discover the joy of fried desserts, as well as the wonder of brioche. For whatever reason, I always find myself drawn to Brioche in café windows. I think it might be due … Continue reading
These next classes tackled the NYC baking trifecta of pizza, bagels, and pretzels, as well as the other large staples, braided bread and focaccia. I used to attend some challah making classes in college and was always amazed at the … Continue reading
After our quick introduction to yeast, one and two step breads, we jumped right into the French classic Baguettes. And if you’re going to learn how to make bread in NYC, who better to learn from than the classic Amy … Continue reading
Module 2 promised to be quite different from module 1 in that I felt like this was when the program was really starting. Module 1 was created as an introduction to techniques and ingredients, but by module 2 we were … Continue reading
These last couple of lessons in our first module were some of my favorite. We started the class creating Pate a Choux (Cream Puff Pastry) which is the dough used in eclairs and cream puffs. From there we proceeded to … Continue reading